Former Penn student, coach named SEC’s Associate Commissioner for Basketball

Dan Leibovitz C'96 is a former player and assistant coach to men's basketball team

By Will Snow 06/22/16 10:21pm

Dan Leibovitz, a member of Penn’s class of 1996 and assistant coach for the men’s basketball team from 2010-2012, has just been named the Southeastern Conference’s Associate Commissioner for Basketball.

The SEC is commonly accepted to be one of the best athletic conferences in the country, along with the likes of the Big Ten, PAC-12, and the American Athletic Conference, where Leibovitz is currently the primary men’s basketball administrator.

“The SEC made a great call hiring Dan Leibovitz,” Jay Bilas of ESPN said. “Dan has extensive basketball experience, from the coaching box on up, and he has studied the game from every vantage point. He is very smart and thoroughly examines every issue before making an informed judgment. Dan is a difference maker.”

The move is a far cry from the humble start to Leibovitz’s career after graduating from Penn. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College in 1996, and then a Master’s in Sports Management from Temple in 1998, where he also began assistant coaching for the Owls under Hall of Fame coach John Chaney.

But when Chaney left the program in 2006, Leibovitz was given trial by fire as the acting manager for Temple in their final games of the season. The Owls lost to Akron in the first round of the NIT in overtime.

The following year, he set out to make his name as a head coach at the University of Hartford. The Hawks never really achieved greatness under his tenure, despite recording their highest ever win total in 2008 since they joined Division I in 1984. After four relatively average years, he left Connecticut to come back to Philadelphia.

At Penn, Leibovitz assisted then-head coach Jerome Allen for the Quakers as they ascended up the Ivy League standings. In 2010-2011, the Red and Blue finished fourth in the Ancient Eight, and in the 2011-2012 season, they finished second, just one game off the conference title.

After departing Penn to be an assistant for the Charlotte Hornets in 2012 and 2013, the NBA team owned by Michael Jordan, Leibovitz then settled into his current job with the AAC. His recent hiring with the SEC seems to be the pinnacle of what has been a long, circuitous journey for the coach-turned-administrator.

On top of his role as a basketball administrator, Leibovitz is also a member of the Men’s College Basketball Officiating (MCBO) Board of Managers, serving on the Competition Committee. The Competition Committee analyzes statistical trends and assesses the impact of current and proposed rules in order to make recommendations to the Rules committee, according to the MCBO’s website.

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