Featured
Janning was one of the first recruits for Northeastern’s Bill Coen in 2006. Now he’ll work alongside the legendary head coach.
They had stayed in touch over the years as Matt Janning’s playing career led him from Northeastern University to a variety of countries. When Janning’s 13th international season ended in Japan last spring, he was ready for a new job.
He was ready to come home.
“With every coach, especially my coaches in Japan, it was almost a daily thing: ‘You’re a leader of this team, you’d be a great coach someday,’” says Janning, who has returned to Northeastern as a new (but highly familiar) assistant on the staff of men’s basketball coach Bill Coen. “It gets your mind clicking in that direction. And things progressed, Bill had something available and it became real.”
The reunion has been a long time coming. In 2006, Coen was the rookie head coach at Northeastern and Janning was in his first recruiting class.
Janning, a 6-foot-4-inch shooting guard, became Northeastern’s No. 4 all-time scorer while helping to lay the program’s foundation for Coen, who has won a Northeastern record 282 games to go with two NCAA appearances over the past 10 seasons.
“He’s got a world of knowledge in life and he wants to be a coach,” Coen says. “We’re just so grateful he’s back here. Our kids have already benefited from being around him and hearing his take on the game, his perspective and his coaching style.”
Janning was a skinny 160-pounder on the B team of an AAU program in Minnesota when Coen heard of him late in the recruiting season.
“Our trainer thought he was a team manager because he was so thin,” Coen recalls. “But on his first day of practice, I remember [assistant] coach [Tom] Murphy told me, ‘He’s going to score 1,500 points.’ You could tell right away he had that feel.”
Janning left Northeastern in 2010 with 1,836 points (trailing fellow Husky legends Reggie Lewis, J.J. Barea and Pete Harris). He ranks among the program’s top eight in 3-pointers, field goals and assists.
In each of his final three years Janning led the Huskies in scoring while making the All-CAA team and the CAA All-Academic second team. He received the Herbert Gallagher Award as Northeastern’s top senior scholar-athlete.
In November, Janning will be inducted into the Northeastern Athletics Hall of Fame.
“Not only an incredible player but an unbelievable teammate and leader with all the intangibles,” Coen says of Janning. “He was a tremendous student. He has elite emotional IQ — he understands and relates well to people. He’s got tremendous empathy and gratitude. He’s incredibly humble and he had a tremendous impact on our program. To have him in our first recruiting class to set the tone of what the program was going to be was just a miracle experience.”
Janning signed briefly with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns in 2010 and played for multiple teams in the G-League, the developmental league for NBA players. His coach with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers was Chris Finch, who is now head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves — and who provided advice that helped Janning make the transition to coaching.
In 2011, he embarked on an international career with clubs in Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Spain and Japan. There are thousands of job opportunities for American basketball players around the world (as opposed to a few hundred roster spots in the NBA) and Janning took full advantage. He and his wife, Jul, who also graduated from Northeastern, raised their three children abroad before returning home for good this summer.
Twenty-eight of Coen’s Northeastern players have played basketball professionally. Among Janning’s goals now is to apply his recent experiences to lengthen that list.
“I wanted to experience Turkey and Russia and Spain and Italy and play in places like that. It’s pretty cool to look back and say that you were able to do that,” Janning says. “I never chased the biggest contract. I was more looking for the role. I wanted a chance to keep rising, no matter what. How can I keep progressing as a player — and can I possibly get back to the NBA?”
Janning’s career highlights include reaching the Final Four of the Euroleague — which ranks second only to the NBA in world basketball — and winning an Italian championship. He was recruited to the Georgian national team and granted citizenship, which provided him more access to playing opportunities as a European national.
He achieved fluency in Italian, was conversational in Spanish and learned bits of other languages. Janning was also exposed to a variety of coaching cultures as he moved from one country to another. Along the way he stayed in touch with Coen.
“This is where I got my opportunity,” Janning says of his return to Northeastern. “Bill was a huge part of that. All the assistants on that staff were a huge part of it. I don’t think there’s anything I can do to thank them, but coming back here for me is all pride. What can we do to elevate the program even further? What things can I bring to help these young guys and continue to build on the success that Bill’s had over 18 years?”
The arrival of Janning provides Coen with a proud trifecta. Coen is one of the few head coaches with three assistants who all played for him at his current school. Janning’s four-year teammate Brian McDonald has been on Coen’s staff since 2010 and Joel Smith (a Husky player in 2009-13) is entering his fourth season as an assistant.
“I want guys in the program to recognize that this is more than just about basketball — that we try to teach life through basketball,” Coen says. “We do that by trying to establish meaningful and long-lasting relationships. We want them to know that Northeastern is a place that takes care of their own. It’s such a competitive business and the hardest job to get is your first job.
“These coaches essentially are the program: They’ve won the games, they’ve won the championships, they’ve worn the jersey, they’ve lived in the dorms, they’ve eaten in the cafeteria, they’ve been on the co-ops. They know what the Northeastern experience is all about.
“At the end of the day it’s a sense that we’re all connected, the future and the past.”