Coach Casey Stitzel- Millersville University

Written by: Dell Jackson on September 7, 2023

Ed Note: Coach Casey Stitzel, Millersville University, joins Llhoops for a zoom interview. The link to the interview is included. His bio is at the bottom of the page.

Coach Stitzel interview via LLhoops Youtube- Link

Coach Stitzel Bio (MU SID)

Casey Stitzel, the 2022 PSAC East Coach of the Year, took over the Millersville men’s basketball program in 2016, and in six seasons, he has returned Millersville to the top of the PSAC East and perennial postseason fixtures.

Since his arrival, Stitzel has led the Marauders to five-straight PSAC Tournament appearances, and in 2022, his team won the program’s first PSAC East title in 16 years while reaching the tournament championship game and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.

From 2019-2023, 11 of Stitzel’s players earned All-PSAC East recognition–the most in a four-year span in 17 years. The four honorees in 2022 tied a program record. That same season, Caden Najdawi became the second Marauder to win the PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Year award.

Stitzel’s impact was immediate as he generated a five-win improvement from the previous season in year one and reached the PSAC Tournament for the first time in three years in his second season. Those seasons included back-to-back wins over nationally-ranked Shippensburg. In year three, Millersville won 16 games and hosted a PSAC Tournament game for the first time since 2015 despite having more minutes played by freshmen than any other team in the PSAC. That season, Jaden Faulkner became the first Marauder freshman in 15 years to be named All-PSAC East. In 2019-20, the Marauders were maligned with injuries but they still managed to finish fourth in the PSAC East and win a playoff game. The Marauders were the only team in the PSAC with three players named all-division. In 2022, his first recruiting class won 25 games and made a memorable run to the PSAC title game. He has also coached Millersville to back-to-back seasons with 18 or more wins for the first time in 15 years.

Not only did he improve the Marauders on the court, he also did so in the classroom. In his first semester on the job, the program posted its best GPA in more than a decade. Among his academic standouts was James Sullivan, who was twice named CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 and earned a prestigious PSAC Top 10 Award.

A two-time MAC Freedom Coach of the Year, Stitzel spent the previous eight seasons as the head coach at Delaware Valley University. The winningest coach in Delaware Valley history, Stitzel inherited a program that had reached its conference tournament just once in the previous 41 seasons and had only two winning records in the 36 seasons prior to his arrival. Stitzel’s impact on the program was remarkable and immediate. A 13-13 record in 2008-09 was the program’s first .500 mark in more than a decade. In year three, Stitzel guided his team to a 17-11 record and the school’s first-ever MAC Freedom Championship. DelVal had never before won a postseason game.

Stitzel won a second MAC Freedom Tournament in 2013 with a 19-9 record. His third league crown in eight seasons came in 2016 while posting a program record 20 wins. Along with those three conference championships came three NCAA Tournament appearances.