Sun Belt Welcomes Four New Men’s Basketball Head Coaches for 2024-25 Campaign

NEW ORLEANS – The Sun Belt Conference’s 2024-25 men’s basketball season will feature multiple new faces leading their teams along the sidelines after Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Marshall and Old Dominion announced the hiring of new head coaches.
 
Coastal Carolina and James Madison tabbed sitting head coaches, as the Chanticleers hired Justin Gray after three seasons at Western Carolina and the Dukes welcomed Preston Spradlin who spent the previous eight seasons leading Morehead State.
 
Meanwhile, Marshall and Old Dominion filled their vacancies with distinguished alumni who will take over as first-time head coaches at their alma maters. The Thundering Herd elevated associate head coach Cornelius “Corny” Jackson (’01) for the program’s top job, and the Monarchs welcomed back Mike Jones (’95) who was an assistant coach at Maryland last season.
 
Justin Gray, Coastal Carolina
Gray takes over for the Chanticleers after rebuilding a Western Carolina program he took over in 2021. He won 51 games in his three seasons, leading the Catamounts to the Southern Conference tournament semifinals and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) in 2023. Western Carolina won 40 games over the last two years, tallying back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 13 years.
 
Gray arrived at Western Carolina after two seasons on Pat Kelsey’s staff at Winthrop. With Gray on the staff, the Eagles won two Big South Tournament championships, posting a combined record of 47-12 and earning a No. 12 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Before joining the staff at Winthrop, Gray worked as the Director of Basketball Development at his alma mater, Wake Forest. 

A three-time All-ACC selection in his playing career at Wake Forest (2002-06), Gray left Winston-Salem as one of the program’s most prolific 3-point shooters. He scored 1,946 career points for the Demon Deacons, finishing his tenure ranked eighth in program history in scoring. In 2003-04, Gray and eventual first-round NBA draft pick Chris Paul teamed up to become one of the best backcourts in the ACC, as Gray averaged 17 points per game on his way to All-ACC First Team honors. In 2002-03, Gray played a role in helping the Demon Deacons to an ACC Regular Season Championship with a 13-3 league mark.

 

A native of Charlotte, N.C., Gray played for various teams in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Ukraine, China, Germany, France, Turkey, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Romania, and Belarus during a 12-year professional career overseas,

 

Preston Spradlin, James Madison

Spradlin arrives at James Madison after guiding Morehead State to its second NCAA Tournament appearance in four seasons in 2023-24. During that stretch, the Eagles posted 22 or more wins in all four seasons, going 94-40 overall and 58-16 in Ohio Valley Conference games.

 

The 94 wins represented the best four-year mark in program history and first time hitting 20 wins in four straight seasons for a program that began competition in 1929-30. The Eagles had only achieved consecutive 20-win seasons once previously in program history, and Spradlin posted four of the 11 total 20-win campaigns all-time in over 90 seasons.

 

Spradlin was named OVC Coach of the Year twice, as Morehead State finished top three in the league in each of the last four years, including regular season championships in his final two campaigns at the helm. As an assistant coach for two seasons prior to his elevation to head coach, Spradlin helped the Eagles to records of 17-17 and 23-14 from 2014-2016. The latter year saw the team go 11-5 in the OVC and a runner-up finish in the CBI.

 

Prior to Morehead State, the Pikeville, Ky., native spent five seasons on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky, including two years as a graduate assistant coach (2009-11) followed by three seasons as director of operations (2011-14).

 

Cornelius “Corny” Jackson, Marshall

Jackson played at Marshall from 1998-2001 and has been a member of the Thundering Herd’s coaching staff as an assistant coach from 2017-2023 before being elevated to associate head coach prior to last season.

 

During his time on the sidelines in Huntington, W.Va., Jackson helped Marshall win the 2018 Conference USA title and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 31 years before upsetting No. 4 Wichita State in the first round. In 2018-19, Jackson helped guide the Thundering Herd to the 2019 CIT Championship, marking just the second postseason tournament championship in program history. He was also a mentor to 2022-23 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Taevion Kinsey who was a four-time all-conference selection and concluded his career as the program’s all-time leading scorer.

 

Jackson got his start as a coach as an assistant at West Virginia State (2003-09), before spending four seasons under the same title at UT-Martin (2009-13). He then served as an assistant coach at Cleveland State (2013-17) before returning to his alma mater.

 

As a player, the Beckley, W.Va., native was a team captain during his three seasons at Marshall, averaging 10.2 points and 6.2 assists per game before finishing his career No. 4 on the program’s all-time assists list. Jackson was drafted to the NBA’s Development League (now G-League) and spent two years playing professionally overseas in Germany and Austria.

 

Mike Jones, Old Dominion

Jones played at Old Dominion from 1991-95 and returns to his alma mater after serving as an assistant coach at Maryland last season and the associate head coach at Virginia Tech from 2021-23. Prior to joining the collegiate coaching ranks, Jones spent 19 years as the head coach at DeMatha High School in Maryland.

 

At DeMatha, Jones won nine regular season conference titles, eight conference tournament crowns, four Maryland Private School Tournament championships and a national championship in 2006. During his tenure, he compiled a 511-119 (.811) overall record, and nine of his players went on to play in the NBA.

 

Additionally, Jones has extensive ties to USA Basketball and was named a co-recipient of the 2019 USA Basketball Developmental Coach of the Year award. He led the 2019 Men’s U16 National Team to a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Brazil and was a coach at two 2019 USA Men’s Junior National Team minicamps in 2019.

 

As a player at Old Dominion, Jones was a two-year starter and earned all-conference honors as a senior. One of the best three-point shooters in Monarch history, he led the team with a 42.6 percent three-point shooting percentage during his senior campaign, a clip that ranks as the sixth best in a single season in program history.  Jones went on to play professionally overseas in Portugal, Hong Kong, Finland and the Dominican Republic.