Anthony Duvale Grant (born April 15, 1966) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach who is the head men's basketball coach at the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The univ ...

. Prior to that, he was the head coach at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virgini ...

from 2006 to 2009, and at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

from 2009 to 2015. Prior to becoming the VCU head coach, he was an assistant coach at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

from 1996 to 2006.

Biography

Early life

After graduating from

Miami Senior High School Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high school in Miami- ...

, Grant became an All-City first-team selection and Player-of-the-Year. He played at the

from 1983 to 1987 while residing at 3 Evanston (The Gateway) and guiding them to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament before bowing out to eventual national champion Georgetown. As a sophomore, Grant averaged 10.7 points a game and 6.5 rebounds a game and the Flyers again made it to the NCAA Tournament. As a junior, the 6'5" Grant moved from power forward to

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronger t ...

and averaged 7.1 points a game and 4.8 rebounds a contest while the team advanced to the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

. As a senior, Grant was named a team captain, was awarded team MVP, and won the Sharpenter Memorial Rebounding Award after leading the squad in scoring and rebounding, averaging 13.0 and 6.0 respectively. In his 105 appearances, Grant averaged 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds. In 1987, Grant spent a year playing for the

Miami Tropics Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...

of the

United States Basketball League The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...

. In 1987, Grant became an assistant coach and math teacher at Miami Senior High School under Marcos "Shaky" Rodriguez.

Coaching career

Assistant coach

The

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

native served for ten years as an assistant to

Billy Donovan William John Donovan Jr. (born May 30, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. He has served as head coach of the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) since September 2020 after previously coa ...

at the

(UF). The 1999 and 2000 teams made the first back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in school history and the 2000 squad made UF's first appearance in the National Championship game, where they lost to

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

. In the spring of 2002, Grant was elevated to the title of Associate Head Coach after serving as an assistant for his first six seasons. Grant played a key role in helping the Gators to the 2006 NCAA title, the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Southeastern Conference tournament titles, three SEC Eastern Division titles and back-to-back SEC Championships in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. The Gators reached eight straight NCAA Tournaments, capped by the national title in

in which Florida became the first team since the 1968 UCLA Bruins to win both the national semifinal and the final by at least 15 points. The Gators were 226–98 (.698) during Grant's 10-year stint in Gainesville. Prior to the University of Florida, Grant served as an assistant to Donovan for two years at

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

helping them to a 35–20 record. Grant also served as an assistant coach during the 1993–94 season at

Stetson Stetson is a brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company. "Stetson" is also used as a generic trademark to refer to any campaign hat, in particular, in Scouting. John B. Stetson gained inspiration for his most famous hats when he ...

Virginia Commonwealth

Grant led VCU to a 79–77 upset of 6th seeded

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

to reach the 2nd round of the 2007 NCAA tournament. Two of Grant's VCU players were drafted as first round draft picks in the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

(

Eric Maynor Eric Demarqua Maynor (born June 11, 1987) is an American former professional basketball player and current assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for Virginia Commonwealth ...

) and 2010 NBA drafts ( Larry Sanders).

Alabama

On March 27, 2009 Grant agreed in principle to become the twentieth head men's basketball coach at the

. In Grant's first season at Alabama, the Crimson Tide went 17–15 (6–10), winning their last two regular season games to clinch a winning record and the 4th seed in the west in the 2010 SEC men's basketball tournament. They would go on to lose in the quarterfinals to #2 Kentucky. In his second season at the Capstone, Grant's young team struggled early in the season, going 8–6 during non-conference play, but bounced back, going 12–4 in SEC play, to win the SEC Western Division title. Grant also got his first "signature" win, when Alabama defeated #12 Kentucky in

Coleman Coliseum Coleman Coliseum is a 15,383-seat multi-purpose arena in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on the campus of the University of Alabama. It is the current home of the Alabama Crimson Tide men's and women's basketball and women's gymnastics teams, and previous ...

, 68–66.

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster fo ...

has noted Grant as one of his "Coaches on the Rise". He guided Alabama to the NIT Final in Madison Square Garden in only his second year. Grant reached the 2012 NCAA tournament in his third season. That marked Alabama's first appearance since 2006. However, it was short-lived; the Tide lost to Creighton in the opening round of the tournament. In Grant's fourth season at Alabama, the Crimson Tide started strong but struggled in December due to injuries. The Tide finished a surprising 12–6 in SEC play, tied for 2nd place in the league. After winning one game in the SEC Basketball Tournament, the Tide lost to Florida the next day, 61–51. Grant's team lost to Miami in the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals by a score of 58–57. On March 15, 2015, Grant was fired from Alabama.

NBA

On June 29, 2015, Grant was hired by the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team plays i ...

to be an assistant coach under coach Billy Donovan.

Dayton

On March 30, 2017,

the University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The univ ...

announced that Grant would be the program's new head coach after the departure of Archie Miller to

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. For the 2019–20 season, Grant was named the ''

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' National Coach of the Year and

Naismith College Coach of the Year Naismith College Coach of the Year Award is an award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to one men's and one women's NCAA Division I collegiate coach each season since 1987. The award was originally given to the two winning coaches of the NCAA Divis ...

, following the team's 29–2 record and third place finish in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

ranking. The team was unable to compete in the

March Madness The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

tournament due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Head coaching record

*Grant was fired prior to the 2015 NIT and did not coach in the Tide's two NIT games.

References

External links

Dayton profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Anthony 1966 births Living people African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball coaches American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Florida Basketball players from Miami College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Dayton Flyers men's basketball coaches Dayton Flyers men's basketball players Florida Gators men's basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in Florida Marshall Thundering Herd men's basketball coaches Miami Senior High School alumni Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coaches Power forwards (basketball) Small forwards Sports coaches from Miami Stetson Hatters men's basketball coaches VCU Rams men's basketball coaches 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople