St. Thomas University men's basketball head coach Patrick Gayle recently won his 100th career game with a 90-61 win at Ave Maria.
Gayle, in his fifth season at the helm of the Bobcats, now holds a 100-49 overall record (.670 winning percentage). He has led St. Thomas to the NAIA National Championship tournament three times along with a Sun Conference regular-season championship in 2013-14.
In his first full season as head coach, Gayle led the Bobcats to an NAIA National Championship Tournament appearance. Gayle's Bobcats finished the 2012-13 season with a 21-12 record and a 10-7 record in the Sun Conference. He followed that with a 26-7 overall record and a 16-2 league mark to win the Sun Conference in 2013-14 resulting in a return trip to the National Championship Tournament.
At the 2013-14 tournament, Gayle led the Bobcats to a 75-72 win over Union (Ky.) in the NAIA tournament. In the 2014-15 season, the Bobcats made their fourth straight trip (third straight under Gayle) to the NAIA Championships.
The 2015-16 season featured wins over highly ranked national opponents Warner (ranked 7th at the time) and Keiser (also ranked 7th) en route to an 18-10 overall record and a 11-5 Sun Conference mark.
This season, Gayle has led the Bobcats to an 18-7 overall record and a 9-4 record in conference play with three games remaining. Earlier this season, STU was ranked a program-best No. 4 in the nation.
Gayle took over as head coach following four seasons as assistant coach with coach Clark Maloney with the Bobcats going 69-49 with Gayle on the staff. Prior to St. Thomas, Gayle was an assistant coach at Tiffin University in Ohio; Creekside High School in Fairburn, Georgia; and Nova High School in Davie, Florida. At Creekside, Gayle coached Kevin Murphy, a 2012 second-round draft pick of the Utah Jazz out of Tennessee Tech.