Orr articles

[JoeFalcon]

Here's a couple articles from when Orr was hired at Siena. I think they provide a great perspective on the type of coach we've been fortunate enough to get. (They're from 2000 and straight from the source, so that's why there's no links or url's of a tiny or gigantic variety. The articles are long but contain some great quotes from/about our new coach)

AT SIENA, THE BALL'S NOW IN ORR'S HANDS. (MAIN). Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) (April 25, 2000): pA1.

By Tim Reynolds, Staff Writer

Even before he took his first step toward the podium, the tears were welling in his eyes. The realization of the moment had arrived. For the first time in his basketball life, Louis Orr was on his own. He is his own man now -- the head coach at Siena College. The hiring was made official at a news conference Monday.

There is no unsuccessful chapter in Orr's basketball diary. He starred as a college player at Syracuse University, helping lead teams that won 100 games and lost only 18. He played eight seasons in the National Basketball Association. He was a Division I assistant coach for nine seasons, all of which have been winning years and eight of which resulted in postseason appearances.

And now he is a head coach for the first time at any level, sans a four-game all-star stint with college players in the Ukraine last summer. Now he will lead an entire program, not just a portion of one. Saying goodbye to Syracuse, where he spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach, was sad. But this was a day he had waited years for, and the tears belied his joy.

``I have very mixed emotions,'' said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who encouraged Orr to leave the Orangemen and go to Loudonville to replace Paul Hewitt, now the coach at Georgia Tech. ``I'm happy when someone who was the first player we recruited in 1976 was able to be part of our success as a player and then as a coach. And then I'm sad to see someone like Louis leave, but he's the right person for the job and he will do it well.''

If Orr, 41, has an enemy in this world, no one knows who that person may be. Almost as if programmed to say so, the people who have known Orr as a coach or as a person all say the same thing about the quiet, emotional, religious man who looks at basketball as his God-given gift, his ministry, his vehicle for reaching out to young people and steering them on a path toward something better.

They say he's giving. They say he's kind. They say he's humble. They say he's smart. And they say that if finding a coach is like shopping, then Siena just found the deal of the century in the 6-foot-8 coach to whom the college awarded a five-year contract.

``Louis is the warmest, kindest person I think I know,'' said Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez, who worked with Orr for three seasons at Xavier University and Providence College. ``He's phenomenal with kids because he's genuine and sincere. He has a great way about him. He was a superstar as a player -- people forget that -- but if you talked to him, you would never know he played in the NBA.''

If you saw him on Monday, you definitely wouldn't know that.
Orr is a person who has played at the highest level and has been at the top of the game. He was overjoyed by the prospect of coming to tiny Siena of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, where the bus trips are long, fame is fleeting and lunches are more baloney-on-white than Tavern on the Green.

``Louis knows who he is,'' said Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins, who was at Orr's news conference Monday. ``He's the most genuine guy that you could be around. He has this way of making you feel like you're the most important person in the room if he talks to you. That's what I love about him.''

Orr left the NBA in 1988 after playing two seasons for the Indiana Pacers and six for the New York Knicks, and he then spent two years away from basketball. He briefly sold insurance and worked at his mother's cafe in his hometown of Cincinnati before joining Xavier as an assistant coach in 1990.
Orr left Xavier in 1994, moved to Providence until 1996, and was at Syracuse until he took the Siena job.

``He's one of the best assistants I've seen,'' said Pete Gillen, who was Orr's boss at Xavier and then Providence. ``People know who he was and who he is. When he goes into someone's living room and tries to convince a recruit to go to school, parents will remember who he is and say, `That's the person I want my son to be with.' ''

And Boeheim said that when Orr deemed himself ready to be a head coach, he knew Siena would be the right fit.
``We started talking about this two years ago, when Paul seemed like he would be moving on pretty quickly,'' Boeheim said. ``Louis and I have always thought that Siena would be a good job for him.''

At Syracuse, Orr helped several players develop spiritually as well as athletically. He was especially close with Syracuse's outgoing senior class, which included Etan Thomas, Jason Hart and Ryan Blackwell, all of whom told Orr to accept Siena's offer. ``When those guys told me to go for it,'' Orr said, ``it made things a lot easier.''

It wasn't just the players inside the Syracuse men's program that Orr reached out to, either. Nichole Oliver is a senior at Syracuse, and until this past season was a member of the women's basketball team. She stopped playing because she suffered severe injuries to her left knee in each of her first three seasons at Syracuse.

``I call him my dad away from home,'' said Oliver, who is Thomas' girlfriend -- a pairing set up by Orr during their freshman year. ``He's a wonderful guy. It's hard to explain, but Coach Orr is the reason I stayed at Syracuse.'' Oliver, who spoke with Orr Monday night and wished him luck, said she looked at Orr as a spiritual adviser, someone she could rely on and trust. To Oliver, Orr's wife, Yvette, is ``Mom Orr,'' a label that helps, since Oliver's family lives in California.

``He's a wonderful recruiter, has great organizational skills and relates to the players, specifically African-American players, but all players as well,'' Oliver said. ``There's an aura about him. The way he carries himself demands respect, and he does it in a way that doesn't make you feel belittled at all.'' Orr's news conference lasted for more than an hour Monday, and he stayed composed for most of it, after the early bout of emotion. Boeheim wasn't surprised to hear that Orr cried.

``He's a very emotional person,'' Boeheim said. ``He's very sensitive. But he has a tough side, too. He's not a soft guy. Don't let the tears fool you.''
The last tear, for now, was dried. He got back into his blue minivan and drove back to Syracuse with his wife. Today, the next challenge begins.
``It's his time,'' Oliver said. ``He deserves it.''

SAINT LOUIS ORR TAKES OVER AT SIENA WITH A SENSE OF HIGHER PURPOSE.(SPORTS). Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) (Nov 17, 2000): pCC1

By Tim Reynolds, Staff writer

He has been on many stages in his basketball life, but until now, Siena coach Louis Orr never has been the star of the show.

When he was at Syracuse University as a player, he shared the spotlight with Roosevelt Bouie, forming the ``Louie and Bouie show.'' During his eight-year NBA career, Orr was a blue-collar sort, someone who excelled in the areas that boxscores couldn't describe. And as a coach, he always was someone else's assistant, toiling in someone else's shadow.

Truth is, that's the way Orr likes it. He has no desire to be the man in the crosshairs of fame, no burning urge to be the talk of the town.
``I don't consider it my show,'' Orr said. ``We all need other people. There's always other people who have an affect on your success. I have very good assistant coaches, a very supportive administration, and players who do everything we ask. And then I have my family and the Lord, and it's not all in that order.''

Last Monday night, inside the Siena locker room at Pepsi Arena, Orr was giving the Saints last-minute instructions before the team's first exhibition game of the year, the first time they would face an opponent under his leadership. That's when it hit him.

After playing and coaching basketball for more than three decades, he finally was standing at the helm of his own ship. ``I was writing my little notes on the board, and I heard the board shaking a little and I could smell the ink pen,'' Orr said. ``And I said, `Yeah, this is kind of what head coaches do.' It was a good feeling.''

Although he would never say so, it was a feeling that was a long time coming. As a player, he was part of a basketball machine at Withrow High in Cincinnati, part of a great college program at Syracuse, a key ingredient on four NBA playoff teams (three with the New York Knicks, one with the Indiana Pacers).

He then spent nine years as an assistant coach at Xavier, Providence and Syracuse, programs that were 186-95 and missing the postseason once during that time. ``I remember the first thing I told him when he got the Siena job,'' said Ed Orr, one of Orr's two older brothers. ``You the man now. It's your team. You the man.''

There are many qualities that define Orr, a giant of a man at 6-foot-8 whose stature is surpassed by his soft-spoken modesty. He is a dedicated husband and father to daughter Monica, a 17-year-old Fordham-bound senior at Bishop Maginn, and Chauncey, his 7-year-old son. He's also a devout Christian who incorporates his religious beliefs into his basketball teachings and has the gift of getting respect without demanding it.

``The thing that impresses me the most is his passion for what he does, whether it's coaching basketball or just mentoring his players,'' Siena athletic director John D'Argenio said. ``It's not necessarily something you see right away when you meet him, but it's something you see when you're around him.''

The people who know him best say he always has been the modest, unassuming type who managed to avoid the egotistical pratfalls that often swallow professional athletes. Lindsay Orr Jr., Louis' older brother: ``He's been low-key his whole career, even when he was getting a lot of positive press. He's never let what people think of him be part of who he is.''
Ed Orr: ``Fame and success never changed Louis, never. His compassion is what sets him apart. He truly cares about people.''

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who coached Orr from 1976-80 and hired him as an assistant in 1996: ``There's nothing bad that anyone can say about Louis. He was a great player for us and a tremendous assistant for me, and he's going to do a wonderful job at Siena because he's ready to be the head man.''

Orr graduated from Withrow High, a Cincinnati basketball factory where both of his older brothers played, in 1976. He starred at Syracuse for four years, leading the Orangemen to a 100-18 record over that span, but college was not all happy memories.

Orr's father, Lindsay, died unexpectedly eight days after practice started in Orr's sophomore season. The family had a very difficult time telling Orr that his father was gone and he had to come home. He needed some coaxing to return to school that year, but when he did, he averaged 12.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, both numbers higher than what he posted in his freshman year. ``That was my toughest season at Syracuse,'' Orr said. ``I say that for a lot of reasons. I wasn't around when my father passed, and I wish I had a chance to say goodbye.''

Perhaps that partially explains why Orr goes out of his way to be a father figure to his players. He wants to share in his players' lives, and invites them to share in his. When it came time for his daughter, Monica, to attend her first prom, two Syracuse players, Allen Griffin and Damone Brown, came to the family home to see her in her dress and share in the excitement.

``That kind of stuff, it just doesn't happen,'' Ed Orr said. ``But that's the kind of coach he wants to be and the kind of team he wants to have.'' ``I would call him an inspiration to be around,'' said former Syracuse star Ryan Blackwell, who worked with Orr extensively during Blackwell's four seasons with the Orangemen. ``He's the kind of man that you want to play for. (With) his experience, he has a lot of knowledge and wisdom, and not just about basketball.''

That's the kind of closeness that has been part of Orr's coaching lore, and what he wants to build here. ``To me, if you don't enjoy your players, you're missing the whole thing,'' Orr said. ``You're missing the whole joy of coaching. Laughing and joking and crying, that's the joy of it.''
After his college career ended, Orr was the 29th pick in the 1980 NBA Draft, the first choice of the Indiana Pacers.

``We couldn't believe it finally happened,'' said Lindsay Orr, who also was a standout player. ``He was always in the right place at the right time, and him getting drafted was something special for all of us.'' Both of his brothers were there to see the family dream realized, as was his mother, who was mildly bothered by the whole process. ``It reminded me of a slave auction,'' said Mildred Orr, still tack-sharp at 80. ``I didn't think I was showing it, but he saw that something was bothering me.''

Mildred Orr was not kidding when she said that. She is a proud of simple tastes who somehow managed to keep three sons from finding the trouble that engulfed other youths in the 1960s and 1970s. Her kids were going to be different. They were not going to mind that their clothes were patched, that they had to be respectful at all times, that they had to work in the family business -- a bar/restaurant called ``The Hut'' which was in the Orr family from 1953-1993.

Mrs. Orr and the other mothers in the Madisonville section of Cincinnati pretty much invented the concept of neighborhood watch, her sons say. Even when you were at Stewart Park, the place where street-ball legends were made, you couldn't get into a scrap without one of the other moms knowing it immediately. ``The edge we had was basketball,'' Lindsay Orr said. ``It kept us out of trouble.'' Added Ed Orr: ``That, and the fact we had a praying Mama.''

Orr still calls his mother several times a week, and she will arrive in the Capital Region today to stay with the family for a few weeks. As much as fame and fortune has enhanced -- but not changed -- her son's life, Mrs. Orr still has a very modest lifestyle, even though any of her sons would give her the world if she asked. ``Basketball did not make Louis special,'' Mildred Orr said. ``He's just my young'un. That's it.'' Orr played in the NBA for eight seasons, the last six with the Knicks. Eventually, he found his way into coaching, and has climbed the ladder to Siena's rung.

It is God's will, he says. This never was part of any master plan that Orr laid out for himself. Here's what he told a reporter from the Providence Journal in 1995 about his coaching trajectory: ``If I never became a head coach, I'd be fulfilled. I really don't have dreams or aspirations of being the head guy, chewing towels on national TV. I never dreamed of the NBA either, so you never know what will happen. I think I have a purpose and the Lord gave me the ability to communicate and help young people.''

Even though his focus has shifted professionally, coaching remains his ministry. He considered becoming an ordained minister, but decided that, through basketball, he could reach out to young people more effectively than he could in any other way.

``I want to be able to use basketball to affect other people's lives,'' Orr said. ``I want to be able to have a positive influence, literally, as a ministry. I want to win. I want to get the most out of the student-athletes that I coach. If that leads to championships, that's fine. But in the big scheme of things, there's a lot more to it than just that.''

[Falconboy]

Sounds like a very good get to me. I like him allready. So me thinks we AD Christopher did okay on this one , he had to especially after the "football schedule".