I mentioned this last week as a rumor – it’s now official…
Coastal Carolina Head Men’s Basketball Coach Cliff Ellis has named Stacey Palmore the program’s newest assistant coach. Palmore was most recently an assistant coach on Mark Fox’s staff at the University of Georgia. Palmore brings 21 years of coaching experience to Coastal and has worked at five separate Division I institutions.
“We are very excited to have Stacey join our men’s basketball program,” said Ellis. “He brings a wealth of experience and comes to us, having served in two major conferences, the ACC and the SEC. He has extensive recruiting expertise in our exposure areas of South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina, and is well known and respected in these areas. We welcome Stacey on board as we continue to move forward and build on our recent success.”
“I am honored and grateful to be here at Coastal Carolina University,” said Palmore. “I look forward to working with Coach Ellis and his staff. They have done a tremendous job, and I want to come in and get right to work helping any way I can.”
Palmore was an assistant coach at the University of Georgia from 2009-2014. The Bulldogs compiled an 85-77 record over Palmore’s five seasons and advanced to the 2014 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Palmore coached three future NBA players at Georgia, including 2013 overall number eight pick Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins.
Prior to Georgia, Palmore spent five seasons at Virginia Tech under head coach Seth Greenberg. Palmore built a reputation at Virginia Tech as one of the ACC’s top assistant coaches, both as a recruiter and an on-court teacher. His arrival in Blacksburg coincided with Tech’s joining the ACC. During his time there, the Hokies’ program ranked fourth in the league in total ACC regular-season victories with 38.
He joined the Virginia Tech program in the summer of 2004 after spending the 2003-04 season as an assistant at the College of Charleston. Before coming to Charleston, he spent one season (2003) at the University of Evansville.
Palmore also served two seasons (2001-02) as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Western Carolina. During his time there, he signed Ohio native Kevin Martin, who eventually ranked second nationally in scoring in 2004 and was a first-round draft pick by the Sacramento Kings.
A 1993 graduate of Livingstone College (N.C.), Palmore played basketball and golf at the collegiate level. As a junior and senior, he was in the nation’s top 10 in Division II three-point field-goal percentage and was co-captain in his last two seasons.
Palmore began his coaching career at Warwick High School in Newport News, Va., where he served as an assistant for three years (1993-96) and head coach for his final year. He then spent one year at Lander University in his hometown of Greenwood and two years at Erskine (S.C.) College before joining the staff at Western Carolina.
Every year since 1994, Palmore has returned to Greenwood to host the "Shoot 4 The Stars" basketball camp for local children between grades K-8.
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