Washington Generals Top Players: Mike McLaughlin

Photo courtesy of The Buzz. Used with permission. 

While the Washington Generals may not be a "winning team", some of their players have managed to use their experience to help coach others to victory. One of the most successful of them is Penn coach, and former Washington General, Mike McLaughlin.

Mike began his college basketball career in 1985 playing for Holy Family University. Mike was a member of the team during the programs first year in 1985 and went on to play with them for four seasons.

While playing for Holy Family, McLaughlin made their record books for the highest career 3-point shooting percentage by connecting on 57.7 percent of his three point shots. It is the school's record to this day.

Mike also holds the top two shooting percentages for a season, with 59.3 percent in 1989 and 58.5-percent in 1988. He is also the fifth all-time in scoring with 1,710 points and third in assist with 755.

Mikes reputation caught him the attention of the Washington Generals scouting staff, and in 1989 McLaughlin donned the Green and Gold to become the Globetrotters latest foil.

McLaughlin played with the Washington Generals for three years, becoming the teams captain for his final two. Ferrari himself has stated in interviews that Mike personified what the Washington Generals are.

In 1992, McLaughling left the Generals and returned to Holy Family, this time as an assistant coach. Two years later Mike became the teams head coach. It was a position which he held for 14 years.

During those 14 years McLaughlin amassed an impressive record of 407-61, a .869 winning percentage. That is currently the highest percentage at any level of NCAA basketball. He ended his stint with Holy Family by becoming the first coach in NCAA women's basketball history to reach 400 career wins.

Photo courtesy of The Buzz. Used with permission. 

In 2009, Mike left Holy Family to become the new coach of the women't basketball program at The University of Pennsylvania.

His time at Penn has been less impressive thus far, with a 16 game losing streak in his first season and a final record of 1-24 over all. In the 2010-11 season the team did show improvement with a record of 11-17 and a  sixth place league finish. Mike seems optimistic that despite a less than stellar start, great things are to come for the Lady Quakers in the future.

Only time will tell what the future holds for Penn. Regardless, no one can take away his impressive career at Holy Family. Which has helped brand Mike as one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history, with 419 wins and counting.

And while he has so far not duplicated the success with Penn that he had at Holy Family, he can still take pride in the fact that he is coaching for a school that houses some of the best and brightest in the country.

Not bad for a man with a professional career record of 0 wins and 550 losses.



RELATED LINKS...

I want to give a special thanks to The Buzz, for allowing me to use the pictures for this post, which originally came from Mike McLaughlin himself. You can see more of these by CLICKING HERE!


Also, check out the Daily Pennsylvanian for more on Mike McLaughlin. CLICK HERE!