From Practice player to head coach

Derrick Rowland’s career with the Albany Patroons

By ChuCk Miller

In December 1982, Derrick Rowland was a recent graduate of SUNY-Potsdam, and the All-American basketball star at the Division III school was trying for an opportunity to play for Albany’s newest professional basketball squad, the Albany Patroons. He didn’t make the team. At least not at first.

Derrick Rowland became a practice player with the Patroons in their first season, working with head coach (and former New York Knick) Dean Memminger on several plays and practices. After traveling to Rochester and suiting up for the Rochester Zeniths, Rowland was traded to the CBA to play under the Patroons’ new head coach, Phil Jackson.

Jackson and the Patroons thrived, and Derrick Rowland benefited from the experience. In 1984, Rowland would win a CBA championship with the Patroons, his first of two championships earned as a player with the Pats. And although Phil Jackson traded Derrick Rowland away in 1986, Derrick wasn’t with his new team very long – in fact, Derrick would finish out the 1985-86 season as a member of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

Derrick returned to the Patroons in the 1987-88 season, where he became a key role player with new Patroons head coach Bill Musselman. Musselman’s Patroons (which also included future NBA head coaches Scott Brooks, Rick Carlisle and Sidney Lowe) roared through a 48-6 regular season, on their way to victory in the 1988 CBA Championship finals.

By the 1988-89 season, Derrick Rowland became both a player and a stu- dent, learning under Albany head coaches George Karl, Gerald Oliver, Charley Rosen and Herman Kull. By the time Rowland hit his final playing season – 1991-92 –he became the fifth most prolific scorer in CBA history.

As his playing career wound down, Derrick Rowland learned the fine art of coaching – which, when you have teachers like Phil Jackson, George Karl and Bill Musselman, is extremely beneficial. When the Patroons returned to the CBA in the 2005-06 season, Derrick Rowland became an assistant coach with the Pats, helping head coach Micheal Ray Richardson guide this new franchise.

It was during this time that Derrick Rowland found himself coaching the Patroons in the 2007 CBA finals, against the Yakama Sun Kings. After a suspension took Micheal Ray Richardson off the bench, Derrick coached the squads in Games 2 and 3 of the series, and nearly took victories in both games.

By the 2008-09 season, the Patroons’ last in the CBA, Rowland was again the