(June 18, 2003) ?C Travis Lyons, a former assistant coach at Manhattan College, was named an assistant men??s basketball coach at Fordham University by head coach Dereck Whittenburg. Lyons joins Ray Martin, Ross Burns and Alex Groothius in completing Whittenburg??s staff. ??Travis Lyons has done an excellent job at Manhattan College, and we??re looking forward to having him on our staff,?? said Whittenburg. ??He??s a great person who has done a fantastic job recruiting and working with the big men. He is an up-and-coming college coach who will be a great asset to us.?? Lyons, who was an assistant at Manhattan College the past two years, brings a wealth of basketball experience to Rose Hill. As a member of the Manhattan staff, he helped the Jaspers to a 23-7 record last winter and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championship. The Jaspers received the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament last year where they fell to eventual national champions Syracuse University in Boston. In his first year on the Manhattan coaching staff, Lyons helped the Jaspers to a 20-9 record and a National Invitational Tournament (NIT) bid. Prior to coaching at Manhattan, Lyons spent two years under former Manhattan head coach Fran Fraschilla, who recruited Lyons to Manhattan, at the University of New Mexico. He was responsible for recruiting, player development, on-floor coaching, and scouting for the Lobos. Lyons, a 1998 Manhattan College graduate, played professionally in Europe from 1998-1999 for the Alicante Team in Spain??s professional league and for the Eztella Team in Luxembourg. As a player at Manhattan, Lyons was valuable part of the 1995 squad which received an NCAA at-large bid with a 26-5 record when they defeated Oklahoma in the first round before falling to Arizona State in the second. Lyons also served as a captain his senior year of the 1996 squad which went to the NIT. As a senior, Lyons averaged 16.4 ppg, shot 62.1% from the floor and pulled down 7.6 rebounds.