Jerrance Howard has been named an assistant men’s basketball coach at SMU, Head Coach Larry Brown announced today. Howard spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach at Illinois, his alma mater. There, he quickly earned a reputation as one of the top young assistant coaches in the country and one of the nation’s best recruiters.

Howard was a four-year letterwinner for the Fighting Illini from 2000-04. During his career, Illinois compiled a record of 104-31 overall and 48-16 in the Big Ten. The Illini won three Big Ten championships (2001, 2002, 2004), a Big Ten Tournament title (2003) and appeared in the NCAA Tournament all four years, advancing to the Elite Eight in 2001, and the Sweet 16 in both 2002 and 2004.

Howard played point guard for the Illini, backing up All-Americans Frank Williams, Dee Brown and Deron Williams under coaches Bill Self, Lon Kruger, Bruce Weber and Tim Jankovich. Howard developed a reputation as the program’s inspirational leader and went on to serve as tri-captain as a junior and senior. He also was a two-time winner of the Kenny Battle Award, an accolade voted upon by the players and coaches and given to an Illini who earns the respect of his teammates through hard work and effort in games and practice each day.

Howard rejoined the Illinois program after serving three-plus years under Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M as an administrative assistant and at Kentucky in basketball operations.

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