The Southern Miss men’s basketball program added another familiar face as alum and former assistant coach Kyle Roane was hired as the Director of Basketball Operations. He served the last two years on the Southeastern Louisiana bench as an assistant.
“I am excited about the opportunity to join Coach Sadler’s staff,” Roane said. “Southern Miss and the people that make up Hattiesburg and the university community are special. Coach Sadler has instilled major excitement in the basketball program, and I look forward to serving as the Director of Basketball Operations as we move in a very positive direction.”
The news comes on the heels of Southern Miss alumni Clarence Weatherspoon and Chris Croft being named assistant coaches on Aug. 23.
“I’m so excited to bring another Southern Miss coach back to his alma mater,” head coach Doc Sadler said. “He is the finishing piece to the puzzle in getting us going in the right direction.”
His ties to the Pine Belt extend beyond Southern Miss. Roane spent three seasons as the head boys basketball coach at Petal (Miss.) High School. Prior to that, he spent one season as the head coach at his alma mater, Forrest County Agricultural High School, leading it to the first round of the south state tournament.
Before returning to Forrest County Agricultural, Roane was at Jacksonville State University, where the Mississippi native teamed up once again with head coach James Green after the pair enjoyed tremendous success in a seven-year stint together at Southern Miss. Roane came to Jacksonville State after serving the previous two seasons as the head coach at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Miss.
Roane was the first person named to Green’s staff at JSU after he was named the school’s head coach in the spring of 2008, bringing over 16 years of coaching experience at almost every level to the Gamecocks program.
A native of Brooklyn, Miss., and a 1995 graduate of Southern Miss with a degree in coaching and sports administration, Roane got his coaching career started early, when he was named an assistant at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Miss. He would spend the first four years of his career at PRCC, helping the Wildcats to the 1995 Mississippi state title along the way.
In 1996, he joined Green as a member of his first staff at Southern Miss, where he served as an assistant for four seasons before being promoted to the Golden Eagles’ Associate Head Coach in 2000, a position he would hold for three years.
While in Hattiesburg, Roane helped guide the Eagles to a pair of 22-win seasons, the first of which came in 1997-98, when they posted a 22-11 record and advanced to the NIT to face Auburn.
Roane’s transition into the Associate Head Coach’s role was a successful one, as the Golden Eagles posted a 22-9 record and won Conference USA’s regular season title in his first season in the new role. Southern Miss went 11-5 in league play, earning their second NIT berth in four seasons, this time taking on Mississippi State.
After his tenure at his collegiate alma mater Southern Miss, Roane took the reigns at his high school alma mater, Forrest County Agricultural High School in his hometown of Brooklyn. He spent two seasons as the Aggies’ head coach, taking them to back-to-back postseason appearances before going back to where his coaching career began at Pearl River CC.
In his second stint with the Wildcats, Roane helped them to the South State Championship and a runner-up finish in Regional XXIII. He then moved on to Jones County Junior College, where he was named the school’s head coach in 2006, the beginning of a two-year stay.
http://www.southernmiss.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/090116aaa.html
