Stephen Mark Merfeld (born September 23, 1961) is an American college basketball coach. He currently is the associate head men's basketball coach at Creighton University and previously served as head coach at

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

and the University of Evansville.

Career

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, Merfeld began his coaching career with a ten-year stint as an assistant under

Jim Larrañaga James Joseph Larrañaga ( ; born October 2, 1949) is the head men's basketball coach for the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He has held this position since 2011. Before joining the University of Miami, he served as the head men ...

at Bowling Green State. He then joined the staff at Hampton, where he was promoted to head coach in 1997 after one season as an assistant coach. Merfeld coached the Hampton Pirates to back-to-back NCAA tournaments, including a first-round upset of second-seeded

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

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 shot of Hampton

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

David Johnson lifting a jubilant Merfeld in the air in celebration after the Pirates' 2001 upset remains a memorable event in March Madness history. After being named Mid-Major Coach of the Year by

CollegeInsider.com Collegeinsider.com is a sports website based in Boston that is noted particularly for its basketball polls, awards and sponsored tournament. The website was founded by Joe Dwyer and Angela Lento and traces it history to 1995 as regional basketball ...

in 2002, Merfeld departed Hampton to become the head coach at Evansville, a position he remained in until 2007. In December 2009, he stepped down as an assistant coach at Bradley University. Merfeld joined Greg McDermott's staff at Creighton prior to the 2010–11 season.

Head coaching record

References

1961 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Wisconsin Bowling Green Falcons men's basketball coaches Bowling Green State University alumni Bradley Braves men's basketball coaches Creighton Bluejays men's basketball coaches Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball coaches Hampton Pirates basketball coaches High school basketball coaches in the United States People from Grant County, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–La Crosse alumni {{US-basketball-coach-stub