I mentioned this one in yesterday’s DAILY DIRT. It’s now official. Akeem Miskdeen has joined the Georgia basketball staff as an assistant. Here’s the official release from UGA:
Akeem Miskdeen has been named as assistant basketball coach for the Georgia Bulldogs, head coach Mike White announced on Friday.
Miskdeen, whose coaching career has been defined by postseason play and player development, arrives in Athens after successful stints at Florida, Florida Atlantic, Kent State and Hampton. Miskdeen sports a combined 13 seasons of coaching experience, and he helped each of the aforementioned schools reach postseason competition. All told, Miskdeen’s teams have earned postseason bids in seven of 12 opportunities to do so, including six of the last eight campaigns.
“Akeem demonstrates all of the values that you look for in someone you want to work with,” White said. “He’s a great human being, relentless worker, good coach and recruiter but most of all a tremendous mentor to young men.”
“My family and I are extremely grateful and excited to join Coach White at the University of Georgia,” Miskdeen said. “I’m looking forward to helping build something special that our student-athletes, student body, alums, fans and the Athens community will be proud of. Go Dawgs!”
Miskdeen spent last season at Florida with White, where the Gators finished 20-14 and reached the second round of the NIT.
Miskdeen was an assistant coach at Florida Atlantic for three seasons from 2018-21 on the staff of head coach Dusty May, one of White’s three former assistants at Florida who are now Division-I head coaches. Miskdeen helped lead the Owls to a combined 47-41 record and three-consecutive winning records, a feat FAU had accomplished just once before in program history (1989-92).
In 2019, the Owls reached the CIT, their first postseason appearance in eight years, and senior guard Anthony Adger earned All-Conference USA honors after increasing his scoring by 9.7 points per game from the previous season. Miskdeen also served as acting head coach for two games during the 2020-21 season while May was sidelined due to health and safety protocols.
Prior to his tenure in Boca Raton, Miskdeen helped coach teams to three straight NCAA Tournament bids while at Hampton (2015 and 2016) and Kent State (2017).
Kent State recorded 39 wins during Miskdeen’s two years with the Golden Flashes. In his initial season, he played a vital role in the breakout campaign of Jaylin Walker, who more than doubled his scoring average to 15.8 points per game and posted a 30-point performance in the 2017 MAC Championship game to earn tourney MVP honors. The following year, Miskdeen worked extensively with Jalen Avery, who led the nation in assist to turnover ratio.
Miskdeen came to Kent State after spending five seasons at Hampton from 2011-16, joining the staff as an assistant coach before being promoted to associate head coach after two campaigns. He was also the Pirates’ recruiting coordinator and played a key role in recruiting first-team All-MEAC guards Quinton Chievous and Reginald Johnson, Jr. from his hometown of Chicago.
Miskdeen helped guide the Pirates to postseason bids in each of his final three seasons, including back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. In 2015, Hampton was the sixth seed in the MEAC Tournament but won four games in six days to secure a “March Madness” bid. The Pirates then upset Manhattan in a “First Four” match-up in Dayton for the program’s second-ever NCAA Tournament victory. In 2016, Hampton finished 21-11, earning its first regular-season MEAC title since 2002 and capturing a second-straight conference tourney title before falling to Virginia in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 64.
In addition, Miskdeen spent the 2008-09 season as Hampton’s director of basketball operations before one-year stops at Mount Olive College and Wingate University, Division-II schools in North Carolina. In 2010, Miskdeen helped guide Mount Olive to a 25-6 finish and an NCAA Tournament bid.
As a student-athlete, Miskdeen spent two years at Laramie County (Wyo.) Community College from 2004-06 before transferring to Queens University in Charlotte, N.C. from 2006-08. Miskdeen served as team captain both years at Laramie, and he is the school’s all-time assists leader. At Queens, Miskdeen was a two-time Defensive MVP and led Queens to back-to-back NCAA Division II Tournament appearances.
Miskdeen is a 2008 graduate of Queens with a bachelor of arts in corporate communication and earned a master’s in sports administration from Hampton in 2016. Miskdeen is married to the former Lasherra Joyner. They are proud parents of a daughter, Skylar.
