College coaching is a competitive business, and Chris Millette just caught a big break. The Brandeis assistant men's basketball coach beat out approximately 100 other candidates and was hired to be the Endicott College men's basketball head coach, taking the reigns of a program that has made the NCAA tournament two years in a row."I didn't think I had a shot at an interview when I applied," Millette said. "When I got the phone call it was incredible."

Brandeis head coach Brian Meehan has mentored Millette over the past two seasons, and he is confident that the rookie coach will be successful.

"He's a good coach and I think he's ready," Brandeis head coach Brian Meehan said. "It's a tremendous first job."

The job became available when former Gulls coach Mike Plansky was hired as athletic director at Marblehead High School. Millette was one of seven candidates brought in for committee interviews and was one of only three selected for all-day interviews. Endicott Athletic Director Larry Hiser announced Millette's hiring on April 14.

"We liked his background," Hiser told the Justice. "He made a commitment to being a coach and prepared himself. The thing that really sold us in the end was his enthusiasm to just go after it."

"Once you get an interview you can kind of sell yourself," Millette said. "It was a huge break. They say you need breaks in this business and I definitely got one."

Millette's tenure as head coach begins June 1, and, at 28 years old, he will be one of the youngest college head coaches in the country. He says he is looking forward to the task of keeping an Endicott team that has had back-to-back 20-win seasons on track.

"I think I definitely can [maintain that success] and my goal is to take it to the next level," Millette said. "But there will be a thousand challenges and a thousand sleepless nights."

Millette played high school basketball at Winnacunnet, Mass., and helped lead the Warriors to the Class-L championship his freshman year in 1992. Millette garnered attention from recruiters and Division II and III schools, but instead attended Boston College and graduated in 1999 with a B.A. in communications without playing varsity basketball. He went on to receive a masters in education from Tufts in 2003, one of the three where he served as an assistant coach, first working at the University of California at San Diego and spending his only two years as a full-time assistant at Brandeis.

Millette says he has been well prepared by working under Meehan.

"[Meehan] demands a lot from his players, but at the same time they know he cares about them off the court," Millete said. "I'd like to be similar in his winning percentage (sixth-best among active coaches at .744)."

Millette helped Meehan engineer a resurrection of the men's basketball team, attracting one of the top recruiting classes in the region and coaching them to the program's first winning season in a decade. While there are no basketball games between Endicott and Brandeis currently scheduled, both Millette and Meehan acknowledge the possibility of a future face-off between the two.

"I've heard people say you shouldn't play friends in the early years," Millette said. "But I think that down the road, when I have my program established, I'll definitely play Brandeis."

"It's tough to coach against friends," Meehan said. "That game might be something that develops."

Meehan is enthusiastic and thorough in his praise of Millette's potential, describing him a "great person," a "good recruiter," and "young and energetic," but when considering the prospect of coaching against him, Meehan quickly states that "he wouldn't have a shot."

"I can't say anything yet," Millette responds. "But I know that Brandeis is going to be pretty damn good.