Jeff Bower had something no other candidate Marist interviewed over the 26 days they searched for a head coach.

It was not only Bower’s track record of experience in the NBA that helped him earn the job, but his familiarity with the college made his hire as the 10th head coach in program history the right choice for athletic director Tim Murray. Bower was an assistant at Marist for a total of nine seasons under head coach Dave Magarity, during which he was a part of Marist’s last NCAA tournament appearance in 1987.

Marist announced the hire on Wednesday and scheduled Bower’s introductory press conference to the community on Monday.

Bower said despite the fact the campus has changed by leaps and bounds since his last visit, he believes having an understanding of the school will help his tenure at Marist.

“I think emotionally the experiences that I had in the past will help me hit the ground running,” Bower said. “I have a built in comfort level with the campus, I have a sense of investment in the program already and a sense of a history that I could look back on and know what it felt like to win a championship on the floor of the McCann Center and know the emotional response that the community had when we went to the NCAA tournament.”

“These are all experiences that I was fortunate to be  a part of in the past and have lived them and felt them and know how those type results will be received. I think that gives me a great comfort level to start with to go about this job with a sense that it can be done and it can be done in a fashion that people are proud of.”

Bower and Murray have been colleagues before. Both were on Magarity’s coaching staff in 1986, Murray was hired as an assistant coach and worked with Bower as the Red Foxes won two straight ECAC Conference titles and made two NCAA tournament appearances.

“I was fortunate enough to be hired here at Marist shortly after Jeff was hired as a young guy right out of graduate school,” Murray said. “I learned an awful lot about the business from Jeff during my time here, about three and a half years with Jeff.”

Murray said that the two of them stayed in touch as Bower left Marist to become an advance scout with the Charlotte Hornets in 1995 and advance all the way to General Manager of the franchise.

“I was appreciative of the fact that Jeff enjoyed his time here and his experiences here,” Murray said. “He’s never forgotten the time that he had and I was thrilled when he expressed to me his interest in the position. I’m excited about having him back. He’s a much different person than when he left Marist and frankly I’m quite a different person myself, but we have stayed in touch. I’m excited about having him here to continue that relationship.”

Bower met with juniors Jay Bowie, Adam Kemp as well as sophomore Chavaughn Lewis for a half hour on his visit to campus last week. Murray said they were scheduled to meet for a half hour and the meeting went over an hour. Murray said the feedback from the three leaders was a positive factor in making the decision to hire Bower.

Murray said some of the players Bower helped recruit during his time as a Marist assistant are still some of the top scorers in school history. Bower was last a special assistant to the president of the Dallas Mavericks and worked in the NBA league office’s referee review program, but he said he felt that timing and opportunity aligned when the Marist head coaching job came open.

“When timing and opportunity present themselves very often they’re not aligned,” Bower said. “Everything was aligned at this time and place. Marist is a challenging basketball situation. It’s a situation that I look at as having the potential and the capabilities of being the type of program that everybody wants.”

“I know it’s a program that the community cares about and want to be deeply involved with because I’ve seen it before have a vital role in the community and something that the whole fan base can rally around.”

Bower’s last job at the college level, before becoming an advance scout with the Hornets, was associate head coach to Dave Magarity at Marist. Bower said part of his experience in the NBA was to maintain contacts with college coaches and scouting and said he feels that all of his executive experience will help his first time as a college head coach.

“I feel that this job at this time allows me to take advantage of all of those experiences that I’ve been able to gather over the course of a basketball odyssey so to speak,” Bower said. “The front office experience, player evaluation, player selection, management of players is a skill set that I’ll rely on deeply in recruiting. The contacts and information gathering that I had to develop over the years not only in recruiting, but in gathering background information on college prospects are all assets that I’ll be able to rely on in this position.”

“The coaching aspect of it is something that I have always cherished. The emotional side of college basketball and the emotional relationship building that takes place in a college program is different than at the NBA level.”

On just day one Bower will begin the process of starting to get to know his players better, build a staff and get to recruiting. Bower said he’s received text messages from former players who have been in the program who are excited for his hire and wish him well.

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.

Marist will hire former New Orleans Hornets GM and  coach Jeff Bower as their new men’s basketball coach, the school has announced.

The 51-year-old Bower reportedly received an offer for the job Friday following his visit to campus.

“I would like to welcome Jeff and his family back to the Marist College community and the Hudson River Valley,” Marist athletic director Tim Murray said in a statement. “I am confident in his ability to evaluate talent and character given his breadth of experience at the collegiate and NBA levels.”

Bower has 12 seasons of college coaching experience, his last college job was as the associate head coach at Marist from 1990-95 after serving as an assistant coach from 1986-90. Murray and Bower worked together on the Dave Magarity’s staff that guided the Red Foxes to their last NCAA tournament berth in 1987 as Northeast Conference tournament champions. Murray served as an assistant coach at Marist from 1986-89 before moving into a career in athletic administration.

He then joined the Hornets organization in 1995 as an advance scout, advancing to General Manager to 2001 for two seasons. Bower would re-claim the General Manager title in 2005 after being an assistant coach and Director of Player Personnel.

Bower stepped in as head coach in the NBA after firing Byron Scott in November 2009. Bower finished with a 34-39 record before returning to the front office. He and the Hornets parted ways in July 2010.

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.

A source said Marist has offered their head coaching position to former New Orleans Hornets general manager Jeff Bower.

Bower, whose last head coaching experience was with the Hornets during the 2009-10 season, visited Marist on Wednesday multiple sources say.

Marist athletic director Tim Murray appears eager to make a head coaching hire this weekend at the Final Four in Atlanta. The 51-year-old Bower appears to have an offer from Marist in hand from Murray, according to a source.

When reached for comment, Marist said they have not offered the position to anyone at this point.

Before joining the Hornets organization in 1995 as an advance scout, Bower was the associate head coach at Marist from 1990-95 after serving as an assistant coach from 1986-90. Murray and Bower worked together on the Dave Magarity’s staff that guided the Red Foxes to their last NCAA tournament berth in 1987. Murray served as an assistant coach at Marist from 1986-89 before moving into a career in athletic administration.

Bower stepped in as head coach in the NBA after firing Byron Scott in November 2009. Bower finished with a 34-39 record before returning to the front office. He and the Hornets parted ways in July 2010.

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.