One of the most respected coaches in the country and a 36-year veteran in the industry, Greg Young, has been named Troy men’s basketball associate head coach, head coach Scott Cross announced Friday.
Young was on the sideline with Cross as an assistant and associate head coach for nine seasons at UT Arlington, where the Mavericks won 19-plus games five times and 21-plus games on four occasions, including in their final three seasons together. Young continued to serve as UTA’s associate head coach following Cross’ departure before being named the program’s head coach in 2021.
“We are extremely excited about the addition of Coach Greg Young to our basketball staff,” Cross said. “Coach Young and I worked together at my previous institution for nine years, where he helped us win a Sun Belt Championship in 2017 & go 72-33 over our last three years together. He will instantly make our program better as he has an amazing ability to help players and teams become better defensively.”
Widely respected by his peers, Young was voted as the top assistant in the Sun Belt Conference prior to the 2020-21 season.
“I am so excited to be at Troy and working for Scott again,” Young said. “We worked together for nine years at UT Arlington and had great success. That time was some of the most enjoyable of my career. Scott has done a tremendous job here at Troy, and I look forward to serving him, our staff and student-athletes.”
The Young hire finalizes the coaching staff for the 2023-24 season.
“I feel like we hit home runs this offseason with the additions of Coach Young, Coach (Larry) Cordaro, Coach (Kelvin) Lewis, and with the promotion of Coach (Brandon) Gilbert,” Cross said. “The Troy Trojans are ready to take another step forward towards greatness.”
Prior to joining the staff at UTA, Young served as the head coach at Jacksonville College (Texas) from 2005-2009. He was the head coach at two other junior colleges – Lamar CC (Colorado, 1994-98) and Hill College (Texas, 1998-00) – putting together a strong overall record of 168-139.
In the 2008-2009 season, Young led Jacksonville College to a 21-10 record and one of the best seasons in program history.
Young’s other division one stop prior to UTA was as the recruiting coordinator at Texas State from 2000-05.
He also spent 1991-94 as an assistant coach at Eastern New Mexico, where he helped lead the Greyhounds to the NCAA Division II Sweet Sixteen in the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament.
From 1990-91 Young was an assistant coach at Cleburne High School.
Young is a native of Cleburne, Texas and played basketball at Howard Payne University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1986. He later went on to receive his master’s in education from Texas Wesleyan in 1990.