The University of Pennsylvania’s new John R. Rockwell Head Coach of Men’s Basketball, Fran McCaffery, has announced the hiring of Tristan Spurlock to his staff as an assistant coach.
Spurlock comes to University City following three seasons on McCaffery’s staff at the University of Iowa as the Hawkeyes’ director of player development/assistant coach. In his three seasons on staff, Spurlock helped the Hawkeyes to 55 victories and two postseason appearances (1 NCAA, 1 NIT). He coached one All-America, a Big Ten Freshman and Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, and eight players who totaled 18 All-Big Ten honors.
“Tristan worked for me for three years at Iowa, following a tremendous playing career,” said McCaffery. “He is an incredible human being in terms of the way he forms relationships with the players, and what he showed me at Iowa is that he’s the total package in terms of his ability to do all aspects of the coaching profession—from skill development, to scouting, to recruiting. I think the Penn community is going to love Tristan Spurlock.”
“First off, I want to thank Coach McCaffery for this amazing opportunity,” said Spurlock. “I am excited and honored to be a part of his staff and work for such a prestigious institution. Coach McCaffery and the University of Pennsylvania have set a standard for excellence on and off the court, and I’m ready to keep that standard going. I’m excited to get to work and connect with the amazing young men in our program.”
Spurlock originally joined McCaffery in Iowa City after playing professionally for nine years, mostly overseas in more than 10 different countries. He concluded his playing career by averaging 12 points and six rebounds in Uruguay. Prior to that, Spurlock—who worked out for several NBA teams following graduation—earned a spot on Detroit’s 2015 NBA Summer League roster and averaged 10 points, three rebounds and three assists.
A native of Washington, D.C., Spurlock received college scholarship offers from a number of Power 5 Conference schools. He played one season at the University of Virginia (2010) before transferring and starting for three seasons at the University of Central Florida (2012-14). While with the Knights, Spurlock averaged 9.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 92 games.
Spurlock was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Virginia and earned All-Met accolades after averaging 23 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks as a senior at Word of Life Christian Academy in 2009. Following his senior season, Spurlock participated in the prestigious Capital Classic, an all-star game which pits the top players from the D.C. area against a team comprised of players from around the country.
Spurlock earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from UCF in 2014. He has two children, daughter Alaya and son Tahj.
