WGNO

Pack no more: Ole Miss adds Loyola’s Hollowell

OXFORD, Miss. — Kermit Davis continues to strengthen his Ole Miss basketball staff, adding 2022 NAIA national championship coach Stacy Hollowell to the program. The former Loyola New Orleans head coach will serve as the Rebels’ Associate Athletics Director.

“Stacy has a wealth of winning experience, just coming off the 2022 NAIA national championship,” Davis said. “He’s an outstanding coach and person with excellent international ties and experience overseas. We welcome Stacy and his family to Ole Miss!”

“Nicole and I couldn’t be more excited to join the Ole Miss basketball family,” Hollowell said. “Coach Davis has assembled a dynamic group of transfers and freshmen that will pair well with a really talented group of returning players. It is an honor to work with Coach Davis, his team and his staff.”

Hollowell is coming off an eight-year stint as head coach at Loyola New Orleans that concluded with a national championship for just the second time in school history. The Wolf Pack finished the 2021-22 season with a 37-1 overall record while breaking multiple school records and leading the nation in scoring and steals.

For directing the program to its first national title since 1945, Hollowell was named Southern States Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, NAIA National Coach of the Year, NABC NAIA National Coach of the Year, LABC Louisiana Small College Coach of the Year, HoopDirt.com NAIA National Coach of the Year, and he also received the Don Meyer NAIA Coach of the Year award.

Hollowell amassed a win-loss record of 166-78 at Loyola, just seven wins away from the school record. He also broke a 71-year postseason drought and guided the Wolf Pack to the NAIA National Tournament in five of his final six years at the helm.

Before first joining the Loyola staff as an assistant coach in 2011, Hollowell held head coaching stints with the Qatar Youth National Team, LCC International University in Lithuania, and the Manama Sports Club in Bahrain. Along with running the youth team since 2009, he was an assistant coach for the Qatar National Team from 2003-2006 where the team participated in the 2006 FIBA World Championship and compiled an overall record of 111-56. The team also won four gold medals during his tenure.

At LCC International, Hollowell oversaw the program in its first two years of existence starting in 2007 where he led the team to playoff appearances in both seasons. Before joining LCC, in his only season with the Manama Sports Club, he led his squad to an appearance in the Championship series despite losing their best player. In 2006, he was contracted as an advanced scout for the Chinese National Team who went on to win a gold medal in the Asian Games.

Hollowell graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas in 2001 with a degree in economics. While in college, he served as a student assistant with the men’s basketball team. Following a one-year stint with Western Kentucky as a volunteer assistant coach, he came back to St. Edward’s to serve as an assistant for one season in 2001.

Hollowell and his wife Nicole have three children, Emma, Jett and Jax, and he has a stepson, Aaron Traub.

(Courtesy Loyola Sports Information Department)