Newberry College Athletics

Veteran assistant coach Marcus Kirkland was named head coach at Newberry College May 28, 2024.

In his first season he led the Wolves to a 13-15 overall record and a 10-14 mark in the South Atlantic Conference, an improvement of  five wins overall and three victories in conference play from the previous season.

That improvement came despite dropping seven games by five points or less with three of those coming by two points or fewer.

Five Newberry College men's basketball student-athletes were named to the National Basketball Coach Association Honors Court.
 
Andrew Robinson, James Lovorn, Kobe Adams, Malakhi Stremlow and Malik Joseph earned the honor.

Stremlow and Lovorn were also named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team.
 
The NABC Honors Court includes junior, senior and graduate student men's basketball players who finished the 2024-25 year with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.

The Newberry College Athletics Department announced that Marcus Kirkland is its new men's basketball coach.
Kirkland joins the Newberry College community after serving as Associate Men's Basketball Coach and Athletic Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Wingate University.

Before joining the Wolves, Kirkland served 13 years as a member of the Wingate University men's basketball staff, the last nine years serving as Associate Head Coach.

During those 13 seasons he was part of a Bulldog program that posted a combined overall record of 229-151 (.602) and a record in South Atlantic Conference play of 158-99 (.615).

Wingate won a share of the 2023-24 SAC regular season title, the program's first since 2007-08, two SAC Tournament titles and made five NCAA Division 2 Tournament appearances, including this season and advanced to the regional semifinals three times.

His career at Wingate was bookended by a pair of SAC tournament or regular season titles and NCAA Tournament appearance. 
The 2011-12 squad was 21-12 and 13-5 in the SAC, winning the league tournament title, Wingate's first conference tournament title since 2007, while rebounding from a 3-7 start. 

This season's team posted a 22-9 overall record and earned a share of the SAC title with a 16-4 conference record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

In between the Bulldogs won the 2013 SAC Tournament title, earning an NCAA Tournament berth and doing the same in 2016 and 2017.
 
Kirkland was been selected as one of 50 individuals to attend the prestigious 2024 NCAA Basketball Coaches Academy in July.
Kirkland has specialized in working with post players from the NBA to high school.

He spent seven years as the head coach for the Hoop Nation AAU team, was a volunteer assistant coach for one year at Livingstone College and served two years as an assistant coach at Reading College.


Kirkland and his wife Renee have a daughter (Captain Kerri Renee Kirkland, US Army 28) and a son (Marcus Kirkland Jr., 24). Kirkland's dad (Wilbur) was a two-time college All-American and an NBA draft pick. A 10-year Italian professional league veteran, Wilbur Kirkland played one season each for the Philadelphia 76ers and the ABA's Pittsburgh Pipers. His mom (Elaine) was a high school principal and educator for 30 years. She holds a Doctor of Education degree.