Cody Anderson returns to Longwood basketball as assistant coach

Former Longwood men’s basketball assistant coach and director of operations Cody Anderson has returned to the Lancer coaching staff as an assistant coach, head coach Griff Aldrich announced.

In returning to the Longwood bench, Anderson resumes an impactful tenure with the program that saw him serve in a number of roles from 2015-16 through the Lancers’ milestone-filled first year under Aldrich in 2018-19.

A tireless and effective worker who recruited or mentored some Longwood’s top players in the Division I era, Anderson will be involved with all facets of the program, including recruiting, scouting, on-court instruction, statistical analysis, practice logistics, development of the Longwood guards, and program development and oversight.

“I am beyond thrilled to have Coach Anderson join our staff and basketball family,” Aldrich said. “An extremely well-rounded coach with a passion to serve the players and program, Cody is exceptional in so many different areas of the coaching professions.  From recruiting to scouting to – and most importantly, effectively connecting and investing in the lives of our players – Cody embodies so much of who we want to be as a program and staff. I am grateful to have him return and excited to see the impact he will have on our program, athletic department and university community.”

Since his 2015 graduation from the University of Georgia – where he served as a men’s basketball student manager for four years under Mark Fox – Anderson has spent four of his six professional seasons on the sidelines at Longwood. He joined the Lancer program in the fall of 2015 as director of operations under former head coach Jayson Gee, was promoted to assistant coach in his second season, and continued to hold that role in Longwood’s first season under Aldrich in 2018-19.

In the final season of his prior four-year stint in Farmville, Anderson helped Aldrich develop a Longwood team that made history by earning a bid to the College Basketball Invitational, which was the program’s first-ever bid to a Division I postseason tournament.

Following the 2018-19 season, Anderson returned to his high school alma mater, Habersham Central in Mount Airy, Ga., as the boys’ basketball head coach. There, he oversaw the entire Habersham County Basketball program for all age levels and led the Raiders’ varsity team to the program’s most wins in nearly a decade and the third-highest winning percentage in Habersham history. In his two years as head coach, he developed three all-region selections and capped his tenure with a first-round win in the region tournament.

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to return to Longwood University and reunite with Coach Aldrich,” Anderson said. “This University and community have played an integral part in my professional life, and I am excited to once again call it home. I believe in Coach Aldrich’s vision for Longwood basketball, and I consider myself blessed to work for someone that I consider a great friend.  I look forward to partnering with coach and our staff as we work to build a championship basketball program and change the lives of our student-athletes.”

A native of Alto, Ga., Anderson graduated from Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics Teacher Education.

Now heading into the Lancers’ fourth season under Aldrich in 2021-22, Anderson will help lead a Lancer program that returns three starters and eight letterwinners from a record-breaking 2020-21 team that won 10 Big South games, reached the Big South semifinals, and earned an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational for the second time in the past three years.