Date Posted: 9/21/2007

A long way from one win

Cliff Warren always had been all about winning. As a point guard in the late 1980s, he helped Mount Saint Mary's to its first winning record as a Division I school. In 11 years as an assistant coach at the Mount, Siena and Georgia Tech, his teams collected five NCAA bids (including GT's trek to the national title game in 2004), as well as three NIT nods.

So when he first took the reins of his own program two summers ago in Jacksonville, Warren wasn't prepared for what was about to happen.

The Jacksonville Dolphins won their first Atlantic Sun game of 2005-06, handily beating Division I hatchling North Florida 88-71 in a Dec. 2 city game. At the time, nobody had any idea that the Dolphins would have to wait more than 11 months for their next victory. Warren's squad absorbed 24 straight defeats to finish the season with an abysmal 1-26 mark.

"Never in my history with any sporting event had I only won a single game," Warren said with a pained exhale. "Pickup basketball, rec-league basketball, kickball, softball … nothing. At no time in my life had I ever gone through anything like that."

By Kyle Whelliston
Special to ESPN.com

Related Links:
 • Full Article at ESPN.com
 • Jacksonville Men's Basketball