Michael Giorlando Season 2024-25
(updated 9/8/03)
He was a proven dentist, but LSU fans now know him as a proven basketball coach and a valuable part of the staff of Coach John Brady as Giorlando enters his third season in Baton Rouge.
Giorlando, like the other members of the LSU coaching staff, are all here as part of a special relationship which is spoken quite often in this basketball program. When the time came prior to the 2001-02 season to fill a vacancy on the coaching staff, Brady knew exactly where to turn.
New Orleans native Giorlando joined the basketball staff after his second stint at the University of New Orleans. In his first stint with the Privateers he worked on the staff of coach Tim Floyd, whom Brady also coached under at UNO.
But Giorlando took a different road to the college coaching profession. His first interest in basketball came while playing in high school for the Blue Jays at Jesuit High School in New Orleans for Coach Kevin Trower. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., in 1980, the 45-year-old Giorlando received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the LSU School of Dentistry in New Orleans in 1984 and a Master’s in Education from UNO in 1987. After getting his degree, he served as a dentist for eight years before he decided to take shot at being a basketball coach.
His first stint came during the 1991-92 season under Floyd, a year when the Privateers ranked among NCAA Division I leaders in field goal percentage, blocked shots, rebound margin and scoring defense.
Giorlando has also spent time in the tough high school basketball ranks of New Orleans as boys head coach at St. Martin’s, Archbishop Shaw and Archbishop Hannan high schools from 1992-97. His teams made three playoff appearances. He also coached two seasons as the junior-varsity coach at St. Martin’s from 1989-91.
He returned to UNO in 1997 as the third assistant on the staff, moving up to a full-time assistant coach position in 1999. The 1999-2000 UNO team was in the national rankings for scoring defense (61.7 points) and three-point field goal percentage.
At LSU, Giorlando is involved in scouting reports on future opponents, on floor coaching, academics and overseeing the John Brady summer basketball camps.
“In Mike Giorlando, we have an experienced, talented coach,” said LSU head basketball coach John Brady. “My association with Mike goes back to when I worked with Tim Floyd at UNO. Mike has also worked for coach Floyd and possesses the talent and expertise to fulfill the responsibilities of the position. Since I have been a head coach, I have always pursued talented, loyal, hard working coaches who have the experience and the ability to become head coaches. Our coaching staff continues to be built on that philosophy.”
Giorlando was director of UNO’s Hoops for Education summer high-school basketball camp in 1990 and 1991.
Giorlando and his wife, Judy, have two sons: Andrew, 11, and Michael J. 7.
The Giorlando File
Year at LSU: Third
Birth Date: Sept. 14, 1958
Age: 45
Hometown: New Orleans, La.
Wife: Judy
Children: Andrew (11), Michael J. (7)
College: BS, Biology, Spring Hill College, 1980
DDS, LSU School of Dentistry, 1984
M. Ed., New Orleans, 1987
College Coaching Experience
1991-92 — Graduate Assistant, Univ. of New Orleans
1997-01 — Assistant Coach, Univ. of New Orleans
2001 — Assistant Coach, LSU
NIT Tournament, 2002
NCAA Tournament, 2003