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Mike Garland Bio in PDF Format
As he starts his third season as head coach at Cleveland State, Mike Garland is confident that he has the young Viking team poised and ready to continue its quest towards attaining the level of success that he envisioned in the spring of 2003 when he became the 13th head coach in the program's history. The growth has come because of the hard work and dedication that Garland demands of himself and everyone connected with the program. A self-professed blue-collar worker, Garland remains dedicated to bringing championship basketball back to Cleveland State University and he knows that there aren't any shortcuts he can take to get it there. He is convinced that the process of building a championship basketball team is in place and it is only a matter of time and a lot of hard work away from happening. As he points out, you can't build a skyscraper without first putting together a strong foundation. "I have seen a great improvement over the last two years," Garland told the media following a game last February. "It is hard to get to the top of the mountain when you are stuck in the valley. In my first season, we were in the valley but we aren't there anymore. I guess you could say that we are in the foothills." Garland has started the Vikings on the trip up the mountain by assembling a group of athletes that fit into his basketball style that uses all 94 feet on the court. He expects CSU to push the ball up the floor offensively and pressure defensively. In order to appeciate the development that the program has gone through during Garland's tenure, you have to look past the 13-42 record that CSU has compiled during that time. In his short time in Cleveland, Garland has lived up to his advance billing, instilling within the program the pride and unity that goes with a championship-caliber team. A tireless worker, he has used his work ethic and determination to infuse the Viking program with a heavy dose of desire. From his first meeting with the team -- a 7:30 a.m. start designed to show the players the commitment needed to play collegiate basketball -- Garland has shared the vision that he has for the program to his players. He wants to build a team that will help fill the Wolstein Center rafters with Horizon League championships and NCAA Tournament banners. Garland uses terms like commitment, enthusiasm, sacrifice, selflessness and trust when he preaches to his players about the keys to becoming a championship team. He expects his players to perform to the best of their ability in everything they do. "Performance is performance," Garland told the Vikings. "It doesn't matter if it is on the court or in the classroom. I want players who want to reach their potential and win championships." Consequently, when standout forward Omari Westley ran into discipline problems late in the 2004-05 season, Garland wasn't willing to compromise his standards in order to win games. Even though he sat the all-league forward down for the last three games of the year to teach him a valuable life lesson, Garland still remains a mentor to Westley, helping him pursue a professional playing career. That is a perfect example of Garland's drive to put together a championship program in Cleveland, and do it the right way. Garland inherited a tough situation when he came to Cleveland in 2003 but despite playing shorthanded because of a slew of injuries and other problems, the Vikings still competed hard during his rookie campaign. CSU dropped six games by two points or less and a meager 35 points was the combined margin in 11 losses. The Vikings showed dramatic improvement last year, improving the win total from four to nine with the six-win improvement in league play being the fifth-best single season turnaround in league history. Garland knows exactly what it takes to win titles, learning that first hand during his seven-year assistant coaching tenure at Michigan State. While in East Lansing, Garland helped guide the Spartans to a 173-72 record, which included four Big Ten titles, a pair of Big Ten Tournament championships and six straight NCAA Tournament appearances, during which MSU made three straight trips to the NCAA Final Four and won the national title in 2000. Garland's primary duties at Michigan State focused on preparing scouting reports on opponents and game analysis. He was also responsible for helping mentor the Spartan players, monitoring their academic progress. Garland's knowledge of the game proved valuable as he directed MSU's self-scouting program, using his insights as a tactician to evaluate the Spartan's on-court performance to identify and eliminate trends and tendencies that opponents could attempt to exploit. Part of the reason for Michigan State's success proved to be the off-season individual workouts that Garland supervised. His one-on-one tutoring of the Spartans helped players like Mateen Cleaves, Andre Hutson, Morris Peterson, Zach Randolph, Jason Richardson and Marcus Taylor develop into NBA draft choices. An accomplished recruiter, Garland not only helped bring some of the top prep basketball players to East Lansing, but he also had a knack for seeing the potential in some of the less-heralded players, picking those diamonds out of the rough and then developing their skills to keep the Spartans near the top of the collegiate polls. The last four recruiting classes that Garland was involved in at MSU were ranked among the top 10 nationally. An excellent motivator, Garland has prepared well for his first collegiate head coaching opportunity and his coaching peers have taken notice. He was listed among college assistants "Most Ready To Be A Head Coach" in a March, 2002 survey of assistant coaches across the nation. In the summer of 2002, Garland coached an Athletes In Action team of college all-stars to an undefeated record during a tour of Africa. Always the teacher, Garland made the trip a "life-changing" experience. He showed his players what a privilege it is to both play basketball and live in the United States and how they should appreciate those little things that they take for granted every day. A native of Ypsilanti, Mich., Garland was a three-year letterman in basketball at Northern Michigan, graduating in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in physical education and community recreation. It was during his sophomore season (1973-74) when he befriended a young walk-on, Tom Izzo. Although Garland was forced to sit out the season because of injury, he and Izzo became fast friends, starting a relationship that would culminate in a national championship in 2000. Coaching beckoned for Garland as he became an assistant basketball coach at Cody High in Detroit, Mich. in 1977, a position he held for two years. Garland headed to private business for several years but his desire to teach and the longing to help educate young men led him back into coaching as junior varsity coach at his alma mater, Belleville High, in 1982. After five seasons at Belleville, Garland was promoted to head varsity coach, starting a successful nine-year stint that saw him post a 153-49 record (.757) and win six conference titles. Garland coached teams that claimed four district and one regional title, including a trip to the state quarter-finals in 1991. He coached three players that earned first team all-state honors and 10 who went on to play collegiately. Garland has earned numerous accolades for his high school coaching accomplishments. He was selected the 1993-94 Michigan High School Coach of the Year by the Associated Press as well as the 1991 Suburban Coach of the Year by the Detroit Free Press and the 1991 Detroit News All-Metro West Coach of the Year. A two-time conference coach of the year, Garland also earned coach of the year honors from both the Ann Arbor News and the Wayne County Associated newspapers in 1989. Garland, 51, is married to the former Cynthia White and the couple have three children, daughter, Simone (26), and sons Quentin (27) and Michael Ray (20). The Garland family resides in Beachwood.
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