Pete Lappas enters his seventh season at Fairleigh Dickinson and his third as assistant coach for the Knights men's basketball program in the 2020-21 campaign.
Prior to his promotion to the assistant role, Lappas served three seasons as the team's Director of Basketball Operations.
"I am extremely proud and happy to be able to promote Pete Lappas to be my next assistant coach here at Fairleigh Dickinson University," said head coach Greg Herenda. "From day one, Pete has put his entire heart and soul into our program and he truly deserves the opportunity to be on the court and out recruiting as much as anyone. This is a great day for Pete -- but an even better day for our basketball program."
Since joining the program prior to the 2014-15 season, Lappas has been a key contributor to the team's recent success, which includes two NEC Championships and a pair of NCAA Tournament apperances. In 2019, Lappas helped guide the Knights to a historic season, which saw the program win its first ever NCAA Tournament game, defeating Prairie View A&M. The Knights also captured a share of the NEC regular season title in 2019.
Lappas came to Fairleigh Dickinson after serving two years as a graduate assistant manager at Temple. During his first year in Philadelphia, the Owls finished 24-10 (11-5 Atlantic 10) and made the NCAA Tournament, where they defeated NC State, before falling to Indiana by four points in the third round. Lappas graduated from Temple last spring with a master's degree in Sport and Recreation Management.
A 2012 graduate of Boston College, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, Lappas has coached at some prestigious summer camps, including Jim Calhoun's camp at Connecticut, Gary Williams' camp at Maryland, Mike Rice's camp at Rutgers and Jay Wright's camp at Villanova.
An intern with the Philadelphia 76ers during the summer of 2011, Lappas has also worked as an administrative assistant at multiple Hoop Group camps as well as an assistant to camp directors at the Reebok All-American Camp.
Lappas is the son of Steve Lappas, who was the former head coach at Villanova (1992-2001) and Massachusetts (2001-05) and  now current college basketball analyst for CBS Sports Network.
Upon his hire as the director of basketball operations in 2014, Herenda said, "Obviously he has been around college basketball his entire life, and I am very excited for Pete to start his career as part of my staff here at Fairleigh Dickinson University."
