Maryland men’s basketball filled the assistant coaching vacancy left by Mike Jones’ departure with UCF assistant coach Kevin Norris, the team announced Monday. 247Sports first reported the news on Thursday.
Norris has spent almost two decades as an assistant coach at the Division I level at five different schools and was on staff at UCF since 2016. He was a finalist for a Maryland assistant coach job in 2021, but then-coach Mark Turgeon opted to hire Bruce Shingler, according to 247Sports.
Norris, a Baltimore native, helped oversee the Knights defensive efforts during his time in Orlando, according to UCF’s website.
He becomes the sixth assistant coach under coach Kevin Willard in just three seasons after Tony Skinn, Grant Billmeier and Jones all left for their first Division I head coaching opportunities. Former director of player personnel Tevon Saddler also left for Nicholls State’s head coaching job in 2023.
“[Norris] is a veteran coach who understands how to develop players and is a tenacious recruiter,” Willard said in a release.
Despite turnover over the last two years, Willard’s staff still has plenty of local ties.
[Jahmir Young didn’t get the Maryland ending he deserved]
Maryland associate head coach David Cox grew up in Washington, D.C., coached high school and AAU basketball locally and has local recruiting connections. Greg Manning Jr. played at Loyola and has been on staff in the state for more than a decade.
Norris became an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2008 and moved to UNC Wilmington in 2010, before joining current USC coach Andy Enfield at Florida Gulf Coast the next season.
He was a part of the staff that led FGCU to its first NCAA tournament appearance and a “Cinderella” run to the Sweet 16 in 2013. The Eagles, nicknamed “Dunk City,” took down No. 2 seed Georgetown and No. 7 seed San Diego State to become the first No. 15 seed to make the Sweet 16.
Norris followed Enfield to USC in 2013 and served as an assistant coach there for three years before joining UCF in 2016 under coach Johnny Dawkins. The Knights earned their first at-large berth to the NCAA tournament and first national tournament win in 2019 with Norris on staff.
