Rob Summers has been named associate head coach for the Miami Men’s Basketball program, head coach Travis Steele announced today. Summers comes to Miami after serving the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Cleveland State.
“I am really excited to add Rob Summers to the Miami Basketball family,” said Steele. “He brings head coaching experience to the program and has a track record of developing successful student-athletes on and off the court.”
During Summers’ time with the Vikings, Cleveland State won the 2021 Horizon League tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009. CSU also shared the 2022 conference regular-season championship and qualified for the most recent edition of the NIT.
The Vikings improved from 7-11 in league play during the 2019-20 campaign to post 16-4 and 15-6 conference marks in the past two years. CSU won 20 games this season for the first time since 2013-14, placing a player on the All-League first team, second team and third team in the process.
Summers served as the team’s offensive coordinator, helping Cleveland State improve from 64.2 points per game to 70.9 to 75.4 over his three seasons.
An Ohio native, Summers joined the Vikings after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at James Madison. His previous stops include experience as the head coach at Division II Urbana (Ohio) from 2014-2017, a season as James Madison’s director of operations, and two years at Glenville State as the associate head coach and compliance coordinator.
A graduate of Gahanna Lincoln High School, the seven-foot Summers played 56 games at Penn State from 2002-04 before transferring to West Virginia. As a Mountaineer, Summers sat out due to transfer rules in 2004-05 as WVU reached the NCAA Elite Eight before making 33 appearances in 2005-06 en route to a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16. In his final season, he was a team captain on WVU’s NIT championship squad, starting 36 games and shooting 63.3 percent from the field, a mark that still stands as the second-highest single-season percentage in school history.
Summers was a three-time Big East Academic All-Star at WVU, where he received his bachelor’s degree in sports management in 2007 before earning his master’s in athletic coaching education in 2012. Summers was selected in the 2007 NBA Development League draft, ultimately deciding to compete overseas. He played professionally in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to join Coach Steele and Miami Basketball’s tradition of success,” Summers said. “I look forward to helping this program win on the court, in the classroom and in the community. I am ready to get started and help Coach Steele with his CEO-minded vision for the trajectory of this program.”
Summers named Associate Head Coach at Miami (OH)
Photo Courtesy Miami (OH) Athletics
