Massachusetts basketball head coach Frank Martin announced the hiring of Will Bailey and Brian Steele as assistant coaches on Monday afternoon. Bailey and Steele join Martin in Amherst after spending time on his staff at South Carolina.
Bailey spent two seasons working for Martin as an assistant coach at South Carolina following four seasons in the Atlantic 10 at Saint Louis in the same role. The Chicago, Ill. native has over 15 years of coaching experience at the DI level and spent time as an assistant at East Tennessee State, Maine, Chicago State and La Salle, where he helped the Explorers to the Sweet 16 in 2012-13. As a collegiate player, Bailey played two seasons at UAB from 1995-97 and was a team captain on a squad that made it to the NIT in 1997. Bailey also played two seasons at Parkland College and led his team to a No. 1 NJCAA ranking and to the national tournament while leading the nation in assists.
“Will Bailey started his coaching career in his hometown of Chicago and moved on to the University of Maine where he spent time recruiting New England,” said Martin. “Since then, he has been an unbelievable recruiter in helping La Salle build an NCAA team and then helping Saint Louis build an Atlantic 10 championship team. He is a relentless worker that has a great eye for talent and builds unbelievable relationships with players. Over the past two years, he has been very instrumental with individual player development and assisting our teams with scouting reports.”
Steele was named an assistant coach by Martin at South Carolina in June of 2021 following time as the team’s video coordinator in 2020-21. The Greenville, S.C. native was an assistant coach for two years prior at Queens University in Charlotte, where he helped guide the Royals to a NCAA DII Elite Eight appearance in the 2018-19 season. Steele was a three-year letter winner at South Carolina as a student-athlete and served as a student assistant during the 2015-16 season in addition to the 2016-17 Final Four campaign. Steele was a three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member and earned his degree in sport and entertainment management in 2016.
“Brian Steele is a future star in the coaching profession,” said Martin. “He became a graduate assistant after completing his playing career for me at South Carolina. He then moved on to Queens College, where he was an assistant coach and helped them prepare a team that was worthy of being in the Elite Eight at the DII level. I rehired him to be my video coordinator and decided to promote him to assistant coach after one year. He has an unbelievable enthusiasm to help players improve and for continuing to grow his knowledge while he teaches the game.”
UMass Basketball Staff Update
