Steve Lepore, who has spent seven seasons on A.W. Hamilton‘s coaching staff at Eastern Kentucky University, has been promoted to associate head coach.
Lepore joined the EKU men’s basketball staff as an assistant on Hamilton’s first staff as head coach in May of 2018.
In 2023-24, Lepore helped EKU capture the Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship. It was the first regular season conference title for the Colonels in 45 years (1979). In his seven seasons as an assistant coach, the Colonels have broken 103 program records. Lepore has been on the staff for two of the five winningest seasons in program history, in addition to one of only seven regular season conference championships.
In 2024-25, Lepore helped the Colonels win 18 games and stay in the running for a second straight ASUN Championship up until the final week of the season.
EKU beat East Tennessee, led Clemson by four with less than 13 minutes left in the game and nearly beat Louisville during the non-conference portion of the schedule. Once conference season started, the Colonels put together their longest conference winning streak in 59 years. An 8-game ASUN winning streak allowed the team to climb to the top of the league standings, beating eventual champion Lipscomb twice during that run.
After the 2024-25 season, Devontae Blanton earned first team All-ASUN honors and was a candidate for ASUN Player of the Year after putting together a season in which he was the only player in the conference ranked among the top-15 in points, rebounds, assists, steals and field goal percentage. George Kimble III, who joined the program after one season in Division II, became a second team all-conference selection. Mayar Wol was chosen as the ASUN Sixth Man of the Year.
Lepore, who has been a critical part of the program’s recruiting efforts, helped compile EKU’s highest rated class in the internet recruiting era. The 2022 class was ranked 65th in the country by 247Sports, higher than such programs as South Carolina (66th), Kansas State (67th), Connecticut (73rd), Georgia (79th), Mississippi State (86th) and North Carolina State (94th).
The class included the program’s first-ever ESPN four-star freshman recruit, a former 4-star high school prospect, a 3-star freshman point guard, a former 3-star high school forward, a 3-star freshman center, a junior college All-American and Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball, the first to come to EKU as a freshman since 1980.
Multiple national preseason publications, and two preseason polls conducted by the league office, picked the Colonels to win the ASUN in 2023-24. EKU won its first seven conference games, which tied the best start to conference play in program history. No squad had started the league schedule with seven straight wins since 1959-60.
In 2022-23 Lepore helped the team win 23 games, the third most in one season in program history. The Colonels reached the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). Despite being picked to finish 10th in the ASUN in 2022-23, the Colonels placed third. EKU led all NCAA Division I teams in Kentucky in wins.
The Colonels were the eighth highest scoring team in the nation in 2020-21, averaging more than 80 points per game, and the 16th highest scoring team in 2021-22.
Lepore has played a key role in player development. Nick Mayo had the best season of his decorated career in 2018-19, ranking 10th in the country in scoring and becoming the first Colonel since 2002 to drop 40 points in a game. Wendell Green Jr. broke the single game assist record, the freshman record for assists in a season and was selected to the Freshman All-America Team in 2020-21. Isaiah Cozart was chosen as the 2024 ASUN Player of the Year and the ASUN Defensive Player of the Year. He was the first player in conference history to earn player and defensive player of the year recognition in the same season. Following the season, Cozart was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Lou Henson National Mid-Major Player of the Year Award and the 2024 Lefty Driesell National Defensive Player of the Year Award. Blanton is the only player in program history to score 1,600 points, grab more than 800 rebounds and dish out more than 400 assists. He concluded his time as a Colonel ranked second in EKU history in scoring, fourth in assists and seventh in rebounds.
In his first seven seasons as an assistant coach, EKU has had 11 all-conference selections, three all-freshman/newcomer honorees and two conference all-tournament picks.
Lepore came to EKU following three seasons as an assistant coach at Virginia Military Institute. Prior to coaching at VMI, Lepore served as an assistant coach for two seasons at Hargrave Military Academy.
Lepore played collegiately at Wake Forest from 2001 to 2003. He was co-captain of the 2002-03 ACC Regular Season Championship team. Lepore began his collegiate career at Northwestern, playing for the Wildcats from 1998 to 2000 before transferring. He received his bachelor’s of arts degree in communications with a minor in international studies from Wake Forest in 2003.
