MURFREESBORO – He calls his coaching philosophy a combination of Mike Krzyzewski and John Calipari.

Not a bad pedigree.

Brett Vincent was introduced Wednesday as the new men’s head basketball coach at Chowan University.

Vincent comes to Murfreesboro with an extensive coaching and playing background at both the Division-I and Division-II levels. He has over 100 wins as a college head coach with earlier stops as an assistant at Pitt-Johnstown in Pennsylvania as well as head coach of Alderson-Broaddus; both members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Vincent will be the fourth head hoops coach in Chowan’s 19-year history as a four-year institution.

The West Virginia native’s most recent coaching stop was at Fairmont State, where he has been on staff for the past eight seasons: six as an assistant coach, two as associate head coach and this past season as interim head coach.

“I’m excited about being here, me and my family,” said Vincent during his press conference where he was introduced to a small gathering in the Helms Center by Chowan president, Dr. Christopher White, and Hawks athletic director, Dennis Helsel.

“We were ready to make a change and Chowan is a good community with good people,” he added. “I am glad to be here and have the opportunity to play in the CIAA. It’s a great league and it’s very competitive”

Vincent helped Fairmont State to its first 20 win season in nine years back in 2009. One year later, in 2010, the Fighting Falcons made the D-II NCAA Tournament as an at-large team with a record of 22-8.

“I like to play a fast-paced game if we can,” he said. “Of course I’ll have to evaluate our talent as a whole, but I think we’ve got some pieces here and I think we have a chance to be pretty good.”

In light of that, Vincent says he thinks with some of those “pieces” that Chowan can make marked improvement right away.

“You have to have the right personnel,” he added, “and you have to have good team chemistry. This is a good area to recruit from because you’re close to a lot of players and I think (Chowan) has the potential to be a very good program in the CIAA.

“Offensively, we want to share the ball, and if we have the material we’ll play inside-out; at least that’s the way I’d like to play,” he continued. “Defensively, we like to be good in the half-court and then once we get good in the half-court, extend our defense.

“We know where there are a few players right now and there’s other schools involved with them,” he said. “I think we’ve got a very good product to offer here with the university and the community and I think we’ll be able to land some quality student athletes.

Several of the players on Chowan’s current roster attended the press conference, seated in the front row; including CIAA All-Rookie performer, guard Kyree Bethel.

“He seems like he’s going to have a pretty good playing style and he talked about we’re just going to go out there and have fun; and I feel like if we go out there and have fun and put our trust in him we’ll win,” said the Fayetteville freshman.

Vincent said current assistant Kenyon Weeks will be retained with the program.

“I want to be strong in the half-court defensively like Duke,but give your players some freedom offensively on the other end like Calipari,” he said.

Vincent is married to the former Andrea Gum, and they have a two-year-old son, Cole.