Lawson joined the Retriever coaching staff for the 2021-22 season after spending the previous three seasons as the head coach at Emmanuel College.
Lawson has helped lead the Retrievers to back-to-back 18-win seasons and the squad has already hosted three home playoff games at the Peake since his arrival. UMBC reached the 2021-22 America East Championship game after finishing second during the regular-season. The team also knocked off a Power 5 opponent, Pittsburgh (ACC), to highlight the non-conference season. The Retrievers finished fourth this past season and hosted a first-round conference tournament contest. In addition, UMBC won a program-record 10 non-conference contests in 2022-2023.
Keondre Kennedy (2021-22), Darnell Rodgers (2021-22), LJ Owens (2021-22), Colton Lawrence (2022-23), Dion Brown (2023-24) and Marcus Banks (2023-24) have all earned America East All-Conference honors during Lawson's tenure. Additionally, Dion Brown, Ace Valentine, and Franck Emmou all earned All-Rookie Team honors.
This past two years, he was selected to participate in the prestigious TopConnect Basketball Symposium, which took place at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. TopConnect (formerly Villa 7), originated in 2003 by then VCU Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander, identifies the top assistant basketball coaches in the country and connects them with mid-major Athletic Directors providing tremendous networking and leadership development opportunities for both parties.
In his first season as head coach at Emmanuel College, Lawson did a remarkable job leading the Saints to an 18-8 record to show an overall win improvement of 14.5 games from the previous campaign en route to being named the
2019 D3Hoops.com Northeast Region Coach of the Year. The 14.5 win improvement was ranked 2nd among all NCAA Divisions that season. The 18 total wins is the third-highest single-season total in program history and the team earned the right to host a playoff game for the first time in 10 seasons, picking up the win to advance to the conference Semifinals.
He followed up his exceptional Head Coaching debut with a 19-7 mark in 2019-20, posting the program's highest single-season winning percentage at .731 while leading the Saints to a home playoff berth for the second consecutive season.
Prior to Emmanuel, Lawson spent seven years working alongside Jim Ferry at both Duquesne University and Long Island University as an Assistant Coach. At LIU, their team’s achieved back-to-back NEC Championships and NCAA Tournament berths, reaching the second round in 2011 and 2012. During his time at Duquesne, he recruited, coached, and developed two A10 All-League student-athletes and three A10 Rookie Team selections. Lawson also served as a scouting director, coordinated player counseling and mentoring, and played a major role in all other aspects of program decision-making including in-game situations, team management, and development.
Other stops throughout Lawson's basketball career have included Le Moyne College (Assistant Coach), the Boston Celtics (Assistant Video Coordinator), and Bentley University where he graduated in 2007.
With the Boston Celtics, Lawson worked alongside Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers, and Tom Thibodeau during their 2008 NBA World Championship. His responsibilities included game film analysis and preparation of video edits, scouting and personnel reports on all 29 NBA teams, and supporting the coaching staff and the players during individual development workouts, practice, and pre-game routines, and lastly, assisting with all NBA Draft Workouts.
As a Bentley Falcon, Lawson guided the squad as a student-athlete to a four-year record of 101-27, a No. 1 and No. 2 national rankings, a pair of winning streaks that lasted 32 and 22 games, respectively, an NCAA Elite Eight appearance (2007) and an NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance (2005). Individually, Lawson was awarded the Senior Male Athlete of the Year award for his leadership and impact in 2007, while in 2005, Lawson earned the Frances M. Bennett Most Improved Player award.
Lawson is a 2007 graduate of Bentley University with a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Sciences (minor in management) and a 2012 graduate from LIU Brooklyn with a Master's Degree in Social Science.
