Former Southern coach interested in UAPB basketball job

By Jeremy Muck/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Former Southern University head coach Michael Grant is reportedly interested in the vacant head coaching position at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Van Holt, who had led the Golden Lions for six seasons, resigned earlier this week. Holt led the Golden Lions to three consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament appearances. UAPB was 13-18 in 2007-2008, finishing sixth in the SWAC.

Grant, 45, was the head coach at Southern for two seasons from 2003-2005. During his two seasons at Southern, Grant was 26-31 and led the Jaguars to two SWAC Tournament appearances. The Jaguars won their first SWAC Tournament game in 2005 after a five-year drought.

Under Grant, Southern had two winning seasons in the SWAC, which had not happened since 2000. Southern was 9-9 in the SWAC in 2004 and 10-8 in 2005.

Grant was fired by Southern in 2005 after he had pursued the head coaching position at Youngstown State. Since he was let go by Southern in 2005, Grant was an assistant coach at Toledo in 2005-2006 and is currently an enrollment manager at the University of Phoenix in Atlanta.

The year after Grant was fired, Southern went to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 and lost to Duke in the first round. Southern knocked off UAPB in the SWAC Championship in Game in 2006.

Grant is familiar with the state of Arkansas, as his parents were born in Little Rock. He also has several cousins in the Pine Bluff area.

UAPB Athletic Director Louis “Skip” Perkins said Tuesday that he is looking for a coach that is familiar with the SWAC and the state of Arkansas. Grant has coached twice against UAPB and had good things to say about H.O. Clemmons Arena, the home of the Golden Lions.

“It was always a tough place to play,” Grant said Wednesday. “It was a small town. People gathered around their team. When you go into there and their style of play, their style of play drew you in. They were a tough team to play. You knew you had to battle to get out of there with a win.”

Grant coached at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio for seven seasons from 1996-2003. He took Central State to the NAIA Sweet Sixteen in 2000. CSU was 24-8 and finished third in the nation among Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in 2000. Grant earned co-coach of the year honors in the Independent Region in 2003, as CSU went 23-11, his final season in Ohio.

In addition to his head coaching duties at Southern and Central State, Grant has also been an assistant at Michigan, Cleveland State, Kentucky State, and Allegheny College.

In nine seasons as a head coach, Grant is 152-125. He is a graduate of Malone College in Canton, Ohio. His brother Gary played at Michigan and spent 13 years in the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, and Portland Trail Blazers.

If Grant is hired at UAPB, he expects his teams to be similar to the ones that he had at Southern.

“My teams are going to be fun to watch,” Grant said. “We’re going to play hard. Even the two years when I was at Southern, when we were first and second in scoring, we were one of the top defensive teams. We’re going to run (on the offensive end) or press (on the defensive end).”

Grant has not been contacted by UAPB as of Wednesday night. Perkins said earlier this week that he hopes to find a new coach within the next two weeks.