Head coach Phil Cunningham and the Troy men’s basketball program announced that two-year assistant coach Marcus Grant is being elevated to associate head coach on Monday.
Entering his third year with the Trojans, Grant joined the staff after spending eight seasons on staff at Mississippi State, including the last six as an assistant coach alongside current Troy head coach Phil Cunningham from 2006-12.
“I’ve known Coach Grant since he was a 175-pound freshman, and I was a first-year graduate assistant at Mississippi State,” Cunningham said. “He brings a ton of experience to the table at Troy with his vast playing and coaching background. The fact that he was an All-SEC academic selection makes him an even stronger role model for our players at Troy. If I had a son headed to college to play basketball, Coach Grant is the kind of coach I would want him to be around on a daily basis.”
Leading Troy’s post players, Grant coached recent graduate Kevin Thomas from 2013-15. Thomas set Troy’s career field goal percentage record, as he shot 55.3 percent (233-412). He also set Troy’s Division I single-season field goal percentage record in 2014-15, shooting 61.6 percent (122-198) from the floor. Thomas also secured spots in the Trojans’ record books in single-season rebounding average in 2014-15 with 8.1 boards per game, good for fifth, and single-season total rebounds with 227.
Under Grant’s guidance in 2013-14, Troy averaged 35.5 rebounds per contest, including who Thomas averaged 6.9 rebounds per game, which ranked sixth in the Sun Belt. The squad also tallied 78 blocks over the course of the season. Highlighting the season was a 85-81 win over Georgia State in Trojan Arena on ESPN2, which was the Panthers’ lone loss in Sun Belt play.
Grant began his coaching career at Mississippi State in 2004 as a coordinator of operations before being promoted to assistant coach in 2006. In his eight years on staff at MSU, Grant was a part of six postseason appearances, including three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Grant was a part of six 20-win seasons in his eight years on staff at MSU, two SEC Western Division championships and one SEC Tournament championship.
Prior to his coaching days, Grant spent nearly a decade playing professionally in Europe. Gran’ts stint over seas included being named three-times Eurobasket All-Finnish League Import Player of the Year. In his final year, Grant averaged 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in leading the Kouvolan Kouvot club to the 2003-04 Finnish League championship.
As a student-athlete, Grant was a standout player at Mississippi State from 1991-95, where he helped lead the Bulldogs to the 1995 NCAA Sweet 16. During that season he was named third-team All-SEC and scored 23 points in the Bulldogs’ upset win at No. 4 Kentucky, MSU’s first ever victory at Rupp Arena.
A three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, Grant received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Mississippi State in 1995. He and his wife Angie have two kids, Marcus II and Kayla. Marcus also has a daughter, Kendra, a 2014 graduate of Mercer, where she was an all conference performer.
http://www.troytrojans.com/news/2015/8/3/MBB_0803151729.aspx
Photo Courtesy Troy Athletics
