Georgia State Men’s Basketball New Head Coach Rob Lanier was born July 24, 1968. Lanier and his wife, Dr. Dayo Lanier, have a son, Emory, and a daughter, Kai. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Lanier moved on from St. Bonaventure in 1990 with a B.A. degree in psychology. Coach Lanier often states his mother as his number one influencer. His mother raised him and his two older brothers by herself for the most part. Tough decisions that his brothers made growing up led to Lanier learning from their mistakes, so he was able to avoid a lot of situations. Along the way, a lot of people, including his 3rd-grade Physical Education teacher, a teacher named Romeo McKinney, noticed the potential of Lanier when he was about 7 or 8 years old. Lanier’s physical education teacher, Romeo McKinney in elementary school, was also the head coach at the top high school in the city at the time. Coach McKinney took an interest in Lanier at a young age. He would often pull Lanier over to work with him on his jumper while making other kids do different activities. After joining the Boys & Girls Club at the age of ten, Lanier met Joe Brown who had a very dominant personality to a ten-year-old at the time. Who he thought had a wealth of knowledge about the game of basketball and life, so he listened to every word Joe Brown stated. While attending the Boys & Girls club, he came across Curtis Aiken, one of the all-time players to come out of Buffalo. Coach Lanier said, “Chris Aiken was a guy he wanted to emulate, and to this day he’s somebody he still looks up to because Aiken was not only successful in basketball, but he was a McDonalds All-American, a great college player, and a successful businessman.” They have become close friends, and it was not until Lanier was in his 30’s when he told Aiken how big of an influence he had on him. Lanier’s high school coach took him into his home and treated him like his son. The professionals he has worked with worked for, and the great institutions he has worked at influenced him to become the person and leader he is today.

A four-year letterman with the St. Bonaventure Bonnies who scored 868 profession focuses, he was a three-year starter, and during his senior season, he was named a captain. An exceptional collegiate athlete Rob Lanier earned Atlantic 10 Conference All-Freshman Team honors in 1986-87 and was named the group’s Most Improved Player in 1988-89. He proceeded to obtain a master’s degree in educational counseling from Niagara in 1993. He served as assistant coach at Niagara from 1990-1992, St. Bonaventure from 1992-197, Rutgers from 1997-1999, Texas from 1999-2001, Siena from 2001 to 2005, Virginia from 2005 to 2007, Florida from 2007 to 2010, Texas from 2011-2015, Tennessee from 2015-2019, and now he begins his first year this year as head coach at Georgia State University. Coach Rob Lanier’s experience has paved the way for him as a leader today. 

            Lanier said, “I’ve always loved the game since I was young, and I always even when I played felt like it was a responsibility to be a leader when I was on the floor, you know that was the way I approached the game.” When it became apparent that his dreams of becoming a professional weren’t in the future for him. Lanier still wanted to surround himself around the game. It became a constant feeling that he always felt the pull to stay around the game and people that pushed him to start coaching. Also, while working as a graduate assistant at Niagara, Lanier learned from Head Coach Jack Armstrong the organizational aspect of running a program. Armstrong influenced Lanier to be great in life and to work hard in everything he puts his time into even when no one is paying attention to what he is doing. Setting up itineraries for the coaches and players were one of the main things he learned. Being giving so many responsibilities at 21 and 22 years old, it was something he embraced. Lanier didn’t like running When asked, who influenced him to get coaching? It isn’t about anybody influencing him as much as it was something he was drawn towards and given a great opportunity at the time.  

As a coach, Lanier feels like he has a responsibility to young people to bring out the best in them on and off the court. The results take care of themselves if coaches focus is on helping his players improve. Lanier wants to push them out of their comfort zones and get the group of players to become the best version of itself, whatever this group is capable of Lanier wants to reach that. The goal is day-by-day to improve and eventually reach a point where every player is doing his very best as a student and a player. Lanier said, “I tell these guys to come to the office and spend some time with the coaches because he doesn’t want the guys to think all they care about is the result of the game which is something he doesn’t believe in.” He is a leader who takes the time to motivate his players to act towards achieving a common goal. Georgia State’s men’s basketball players Phillip Nelson and Eliel Nsosseme says, “Lanier brings a different style of leadership to the school.” “Coach Lanier presence is unmatched during practices. He doesn’t tell us what we want to hear, but rather what we need to hear, even when we don’t want to hear it,” said Nsosseme. Nelson stated, “Lanier experience, makes me feel like he places me in the best spots to succeed. He often implements that if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it.” The quote is something as humans we all should take into perspective and think about.

The art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal describes leadership so well. This leadership captures the fundamentals of being able to inspire others and being prepared to do so. That’s an aspect that Coach Lanier has worked his entire life to succeed in, and it will continue for years to come. 

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