MHERST, Mass. -- First-year UMass men's basketball coach Steve Lappas has completed his staff with the selection of Brian Loyd, a 10-year coaching veteran, as the program's Director of Basketball Operations.

Brian Loyd Courtesey: Portland State Univ.

"Brian brings tremendous experience to our program," Lappas said. "He has been a full-time assistant coach in a number of quality programs, and his experience will be an asset to our staff. But, more importantly, he relates very well to young people, which is very important in this position."

At UMass, Loyd will be responsible for coordinating team travel, organizing team purchases and allotments, scheduling opponents and practice times, and budgeting expenditures. He will also be heavily involved in the UMass summer camp program and in coordinating efforts with several of the program's sponsors.

Loyd joins Lappas' staff from Portland State University, where he spent the past two seasons as an assistant basketball coach. Prior to that, he spend four seasons (1995-99) as an assistant at another Division I school, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, and two years (1993-95) as an assistant at Queens College in Charlotte, N.C.

Loyd led Tulsa in 3-point FGs made and 3-point FG percentage in 1988-89 & 1989-90.

A standout collegiate player at the University of Tulsa, Loyd was a four-year letterman (1986-90) for the Golden Hurricane and served as team captain. A member of the Missouri Valley Conference's all-academic team, he was selected as UT's defensive player of the year.

Loyd received his bachelor of arts degree from Tulsa in 1991, as a double-major in sociology/communication with a concentration in broadcasting. Upon graduating, he spent two years as an admissions counselor at Tulsa before beginning his coaching career.