A familiar name to longtime Beloit College basketball fans is heading back to the Badger state after a successful run as head men’s basketball coach of St. Leo University in Florida.
Buccaneer alum Lance Randall has been hired as an assistant coach on the Wisconsin men’s basketball staff, head coach Greg Gard announced on Wednesday. Randall rounds out a coaching staff that includes Joe Krabbenhoft, Sharif Chambliss and Kirk Penney.
A Montfort, Wis., native, Randall has three decades of coaching experience and has made summer sojourns back to Beloit College to hold camps at Flood Arena. One of his assistant coaches at Saint Leo the past two years was Drew Freitag, another Beloit College as well as Beloit Memorial High School alum.
For Randall, it will be a reunion with Gard. They both attended and played basketball at Iowa-Grant High School.
“We’ve been friends since middle school,” Randall said in a telephone interview. “We were in the same class at Iowa-Grant and both played (basketball) for my dad. I care deeply about Coach Gard on a personal level and that is a powerful motivational tool. I respect the heck out of him.”
Randall has over 400 career wins as a head coach, including over 250 wins at the NCAA Division II and III levels, leading his team to multiple conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances. After playing for head coach Bill Knapton, he began his coaching career as an assistant in Beloit from 1994-97.
Randall said he is grateful to have the opportunity to return to Wisconsin and coach with one of the premier programs in the Big Ten.
“Wisconsin is an amazing program,” Randall said. “It has been at a high level without compromising principles. It’s been consistently one of the best teams in the Big Ten and better teams in the country. You have great guys on the staff with a real sense of community.”
He said he’s also been a Badgers fan all his life.
“I grew up stacking those Badger cups in the Field House after games,” he said. “This has been a lifelong passion. Even my kids are all Badgers fans. This will be a great fit for my family.”
Randall joins the Badgers after becoming Division II Saint Leo’s all-time winningest coach. He also left as the all-time wins leader at NCAA Division II Lindenwood University and NCAA Division III Webster University.
“We are very pleased to welcome Lance Randall and his family to our staff,” Gard stated in a press release. “This search process was extensive and we evaluated a multitude of qualified candidates across many levels for the position. As we continue to evaluate and navigate the ever-changing college basketball landscape, I am confident that Lance will bring a wealth of experience and wide-range versatility to our program. He stood out from the beginning of our search with his winning record, experience coaching at a variety of levels, along with his passion and understanding of our program.”
Gard spoke highly of Randall’s experience.
“Lance brings three decades worth of coaching experience, including standout success as a head coach at the NCAA Division II and III levels,” Gard stated.
Gard said Randall is well-connected to high school coaches in Wisconsin, having won two WIAA state titles (2006 and 2007) while head coach of Oshkosh West. He also has international connections that will aid in recruiting.
Randall said recruiting will be challenging, but he looks forward to it.
“The reality is that it is essentially professional basketball,” he said. “You can leave in the transfer portal every year and with the NIL you can essentially pay players. Putting the right fit together on a team becomes paramount. Relationships always matter in recruiting. You have to build a sense of trust quickly now. I’m looking forward to being a part of something special in a state I love at a program I care deeply about.”
Randall received his bachelor’s degree in government at Beloit College. He earned a master’s degree in teaching at Webster University. After serving as Knapton’s assistant, Randall became head coach at Webster University (1997-2000), Lindenwood (2015-19) and Saint Leo University (2011-15, 2019-24). He also served as head coach and vice president of basketball for Pertemps Birmingham Bullets, a professional team in Birmingham, England. In 2017, he also served as an assistant coach for the Kosovo national men’s team.
During his two stints at Saint Leo, he went 146-100 (.593). He was the only coach in the program’s 60-year history to win NCAA tournament games, including three straight trips to the NCAA tournament.
This past April, Randall was named the head coach of the Great Britain Basketball U20 men’s team, which will compete in events across Europe in July.
“It’s a hectic time,” Randall said. “I leave for England on June 9 and we have to figure out our house in an incredibly short amount of time. A lot of it is going to fall on my wife as it often does. We have to move at warp speed.”
Randall and his wife, Pamela, have four children, Evelyn, River, Ruby and Rocco.
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