Veteran collegiate coach Donnie Marsh will join the University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball coaching staff this upcoming season as an assistant announced head coach Mike Davis.

“I am very excited to have coach (Donnie) Marsh join us here at Detroit Mercy and help us build and elevate our program,” said coach Davis. “We have been together at Indiana, UAB and Texas Southern and have had a lot of success. He is one of the best defensive minds in college basketball and he will help this program tremendously.”

Marsh brings over four decades of collegiate coaching to the Motor City – mostly at the Division I level – as an assistant and head coach and has also been a part of coach Davis’ staff at Indiana, UAB and Texas Southern. He has been a part of seven regular-season and tournament championships and 11 postseason teams, including five in the NCAA Tournament. 

“It is a real honor to be back with coach Davis and rejoin his staff here at Detroit Mercy,” said coach Marsh. “We are close in so many different ways and have had some great success together and it is great to rejoin him in his quest to get the Titans back to championship level. I am excited and honored and really looking forward to digging in and getting to work.”

He spent the last three seasons at Florida Gulf Coast as the associate head coach and that was after serving as head coach at Alabama A&M for one season. At FGCU, he helped retool a defense that led the Atlantic Sun in blocks per game the last two years as well as finishing top three in the conference in overall scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, steals per game and turnovers forced per game. 

Prior to that, he was on coach Davis’ staff at Texas Southern for four seasons from 2012-13 and 2014-17, helping the program to four SWAC regular-season championships and a pair of postseason titles with the Tigers earning two trips to the NCAA Tournament as well as an NIT bid. The Tigers went 64-8 in league play in the four seasons he was there and 80-54 overall with two 20-win seasons. 

In between those stops, he was an assistant head coach at South Florida from 2013-14, which came after being on coach Davis’ staff at UAB from 2006-12 and Indiana from 2004-06. In those eight seasons, he helped the programs reach the postseason six times with two NCAA Tournament appearances and two NIT bids. The teams also finished top four in their conferences in six of those campaigns, while his time at UAB saw the Blazers post a 95-41 (.698) record and winning their first outright Conference USA Regular Season Championship in 2011.

Marsh, who is known as one of the top recruiters in the nation as well as one of the best defensive coaches in the country, made an immediate impact on UAB during his first season in 2006-07. He was responsible for bringing in several newcomers who made up the nation’s ninth-ranked class in 2007, according to CollegeHoopsUpdate.com. Additionally, the 2007 class was ranked among the nation’s top 25 of incoming classes by almost every major recruiting service.

Before his arrival, Indiana ranked eighth in the Big 10 in points allowed (67.6) and fifth in field-goal percentage defense (.433). Under Marsh’s tutelage, the Hoosier defense improved considerably, rising to fifth in scoring defense (63.6) and tied for third in field-goal percentage defense (.420). 

Marsh was the head coach at FIU from 2000-2004, where he played a key role in the development of guard Carlos Arroyo, who went on to play in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat and Boston Celtics as well as a member of the Puerto Rico National Team that participated in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games.

Prior to FIU, Marsh served as an assistant (1997-99) and associate head coach (1999-00) at Virginia Tech. Marsh had gone to Virginia Tech after serving as an assistant coach at Florida State from 1995-97, helping the Seminoles to the 1997 NIT Final.

As the head coach at Trenton State (N.J.) College, now named College of New Jersey, from 1989-93, Marsh compiled a four-year record of 64-41. That was highlighted by a 22-6 record and NCAA Tournament berth in 1990.

A 1979 graduate of Franklin & Marshall (Pa.) College with a bachelor’s degree in history and education, Marsh earned All-America honors and helped the Diplomats to a 27-5 record and Division III Final Four. He averaged 15.4 points per game during his career, including 18.9 as a senior, which helped him become the third-round pick of the Atlanta Hawks in the 1979 NBA Draft.

After a brief professional playing stint, Marsh spent six years as assistant basketball coach, head baseball coach and associate director of admissions at Franklin & Marshall from 1980-86. Marsh was inducted into the Franklin & Marshall Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1987-88, Marsh served as the president of Players in Action, Inc., a firm that represented professional athletes.

Marsh, who earned a master’s degree in health and human performance from Texas Southern in May 2017, made his head-coaching debut at Division III Elizabethtown (Pa.) College in 1988-89 before moving on to the College of New Jersey.

A graduate of Atlantic City (N.J.) High School, Marsh and his wife, LaRoyce, have a son, Tyler, and a daughter, Sydnee. Tyler was hired as an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers after serving as a member of the 2019 World Champion Toronto Raptors staff, while Sydnee is a noted fashion stylist in New York.

Marsh takes over for Mark Montgomery, who joined the staff mid-season and is pursuing another coaching opportunity. 

https://detroittitans.com/news/2021/6/1/donnie-marsh-named-mens-basketball-assistant-coach.aspx