Loyola University Maryland Athletics

A noted recruiter, Hardy served on coaching staffs in the Big Ten, Big East and Atlantic Coast Conferences over the 12 seasons prior to coming to Loyola.

Hardy was an All-Big Ten player at Northwestern University as a collegian, and spent the previous two seasons on the staff at Georgia Tech, where he spearheaded two nationally ranked recruiting classes. In 2016-17, Hardy and the Yellow Jackets reached the championship game of the NIT.

Hardy's Greyhounds showed immediate strides on the court during his first season at Loyola (2018-19) and since the Greyhounds have recorded measurable improvements in their record overall and in Patriot League play with significant gains measured statistically.

The Greyhounds have also raised their profile in the classroom during Hardy's tenure, earning Honors Court & Team Academic Award recognition by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Since he came to Loyola, the team has raised their cumulative grade-point average by nearly 0.3 points to a mark of 3.182.

Loyola's Andrew Kostecka earned All-Patriot League First Team honors – just the second player in program history to do so since the Greyhounds joined the conference in 2013-14 – and one of Hardy's first recruits, Jaylin Andrews, was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team. Kostecka led the Patriot League in points (682), points per game (21.3), steals (85) and steals per game (2.66) and was also named to the All-NABC District 13 Second Team. He was only player in NCAA Division I to have scored more than 625 points and post 80 or more steals this season, and he was one of only four to average 20-plus points and two-plus steals, joining Duke's Zion Williamson, Seton Hall's Myles Powell and Louisiana Monroe's Daishon Smith.

Overall, the Greyhounds shot more than two-percent better from the field than the year prior, jumping from .438 to .459 to rank int he top-90 nationally after finishing 218th in 2017-18. Loyola also moved into the top-125 in NCAA Division I in assists per game (14.0) after coming in 302 the year before.

Loyola's 2019-2020 team again measured more gains in Hardy's second season at Loyola. Kostecka, although slowed by injury late in the season, was again named to the All-Patriot League First Team, and he finished his career No. 4 in school history in scoring.

The COVID-shortened 2020-2021 season saw Loyola make another step in its progress toward the goals Hardy has set for the program. Loyola not only advanced to the Patriot League Semifinals for the first time since joining the conference in 2013-2014, the Greyhounds won a semifinal game at Army West Point (following a quarterfinal win at top-seeded Navy) to advance to the Patriot League Championship Game for the first time.

That season also saw the emergence of Santi Aldama as one of the finest players ever to don a Loyola jersey or play at a Patriot League school. He earned NABC All-District and All-Patriot League First Team and was also named to the five-player Academic All-Patriot League Team. He of two qualified players in NCAA Division I to average more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game after averaging 21.2 points and 10.1 rebounds.

Following the season, Aldama became the first player in school history, and just the third from a Patriot League school, to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. The native of Spain's Canary Islands was selected with the No. 30 pick by the Memphis Grizzlies.

The 2021-22 season saw the Greyhounds have a player who led the Patriot League in points for the fourth season in a row under Hardy as Cam Spencer followed the footsteps of Kostecka (twice) and Aldama to pace the conference in scoring while earning All-Patriot League First Team recognition.

Hardy led a team in 2022-23 with both a mix of veterans and youth, and the Greyhounds flourished over the final part of the Patriot League schedule. Loyola made the turn to the back-nine in conference play with a 2-7 record, but it finished 5-4 in the last nine games. During the last nine games, the Greyhounds increased their 3-point field goal percentage by more than nine points and its overall field-goal percentage by almost four points. Assists went up by 4.2, and turnovers decreased by 3.8 per game. Freshman Deon Perry led the resurgence, averaging 18.7 points in Loyola's last nine Patriot League games to finish the year as a Patriot League All-Rookie Team honoree.

Prior to Hardy's arrival at Loyola, he helped mentor Georgia Tech point guard Jose Alvarado, a native of New York City who averaged 12.1 points per game in his first season in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech was among the ACC’s best defensive teams in 2017-18, holding opponents to 67.8 points per game. The Yellow Jackets also finished 11^th nationally in blocked shots per game and in the top-90 in steals per game.

Prior to joining the Ramblin’ Wreck staff, Hardy was an assistant coach from 2014-16 at Georgetown University. In the nation’s capital, Hardy worked primarily with the Hoyas’ wings and post players, and he helped bring in two recruiting classes that were ranked among the nation’s top-20.

Hardy helped tutor Jessie Govan to Big East All-Freshman honors in 2015-16 and a pair of Hoyas players – Isaac Copeland and L.J. Peak – to the same recognition in 2014-15.

Hardy joined the Georgetown staff after spending seven seasons on the sidelines at his alma mater from 2007-14. He helped the Wildcats earn four-consecutive postseason bids and record consecutive 20-win seasons in 2009-10 and 2010-11, a first-time feat in Northwestern history. Hardy was Northwestern’s associate head coach his last two years.

He was key in the development of Northwestern’s John Shurna during his record-breaking career for the Wildcats. Shurna was a three-time All-Big Ten honoree, earning first-team recognition as a senior in 2011-12 when he led the conference in scoring and became Northwestern’s all-time leader in points.

Additionally, Drew Crawford was the 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a two-time All-Big Ten selection.

Hardy was a head coach for the Illinois Defenders boys basketball program for three years before moving into the college ranks in 2007. Among the Defenders’ accomplishments, Hardy’s under-16 team won the 2005 Las Vegas Main Event Tournament with a 7-0 record. While he coached the Defenders, he worked in wealth management for JPMorgan Chase and Co.

The Joliet, Illinois, native was a standout high school player at Providence Catholic High School where he was inducted to the school’s hall of fame in 2014. Hardy then became a four-year letterwinner and three-time Most Valuable Player at Northwestern from 1998-2002. He was an All-Big Ten honoree as a senior, and he still ranks in the Wildcats’ career top-10 in blocked shots (101), games played (118) and games started (113).

Hardy led the Wildcats in blocked shots and rebounding for three-straight seasons from 2000-02 and field-goal percentage his last two years. After concluding his career at Northwestern, Hardy played professionally for Namika Lahti in Finland.

He graduated from Northwestern in 2002 with a bachelor of arts in political science.

Hardy and his wife, Billée, have four children, Mariah, Jasmine, TJ and Noah.