Georgia Southern men's basketball coach Charlie Henry announced this week that he has named Kente' Hart an assistant coach for the Eagle program.
A native of Evansville, Indiana, Hart brings 12 years of collegiate coaching experience to the Eagles' staff. He comes to Statesboro from Indianapolis, where he was an assistant coach at IUPUI last season. Prior to that, he spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida, and seven years as an assistant coach at USC Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
"I'm thrilled to welcome Kente' to the Georgia Southern basketball family," said Henry. "I first got to know Kente' during his stint at Florida Southwestern State, where he helped Coach Murphy turn that program into one of the premier junior college programs in the country. He is great on the floor, excelling in the area of player development having played the game at a high level. He has extensive recruiting ties throughout the Southeast. And what was maybe most impactful to me during the process was the way former players he has recruited and coached talked about him, which speaks to the type of relationship-builder he is. It is all these qualities that make him the perfect fit to help us build this program going forward. Hail Southern!"
At Florida Southwestern, Hart helped guide the Bucs to multiple conference crowns and consistent appearances in the NJCAA National Tournament, including a fifth-place finish in 2019. That season, FSW earned the program's first No. 1 national ranking and stayed atop the polls for the majority of the season. Hart helped 13 different players advance to the NCAA Division I level, including three who moved on to Power Five institutions.
Hart helped lead USC Upstate to postseason berths in four of six seasons from 2011-2017, including the Spartans' first postseason win at the Division I level in the 2012 CIT with a victory over Kent State. The 2014-15 season saw USC Upstate rack up 24 wins, including Power Five wins over Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.
During his career, Hart has recruited 16 student-athletes to the junior college level who later earned Division I scholarships. In addition, he helped develop future NBA players Torrey Craig (Phoenix Suns) and Keon Ellis (Sacramento Kings). Craig was the 2012 Atlantic Sun Player of the Year at USC Upstate and played professionally in Australia before signing an NBA contract with the Denver Nuggets in 2017. Ellis played at FSW before transferring to Alabama, where he played for Henry for two seasons.
"I am excited about coming onboard with Coach Henry and the staff!," said Hart. "I am very blessed and humbled to have the opportunity to work alongside Coach Henry to help build this program. I look forward to helping foster the tradition of excellence at Georgia Southern."
As a player, Hart was a second-team All-South Atlantic Conference performer and Team MVP as a senior at Carson-Newman after averaging 15.1 points, 6.0 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game while shooting 49 percent from the floor and 46 percent from three-point range. He finished 15th in the country in assists that season. He began his collegiate career at Shawnee Community College where he earned first-team all-conference and Team MVP honors as a sophomore after averaging 18.1 points and 6.1 assists per game.
Hart began his coaching career at his alma mater, Carson-Newman, as a student assistant coach in 2007-08 while completing his bachelor's degree in physical education/health.