Bryan Bender is the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Southwest Mississippi Community College.  Bender has been the head coach since July of 2018 after spending the previous season as an assistant at SMCC. Bender built the culture and foundation of a program centered around academics, constant improvement, dedication and being grateful by celebrating value-driven behaviors such as hard work, toughness and unselfishness. 

In his first year at the helm, the program was named NJCAA Men’s Basketball Academic Team of the Year in 2018-19 after compiling a 3.43 team GPA.  The team has a 100% graduation rate under Bender since taking over the program. 

In his four years coaching at the NJCAA level; Bender has coached/signed 30 players that have signed with Division I schools and has had ten top 100 ranked players in the country, four of which were ranked in the top 50.  

Prior to Southwest, Bender spent three seasons as Director of Basketball Operations at Appalachian State University, a NCAA Division I school in the Sun Belt Conference and in 2013-14, Bender was an assistant at Missouri State University-West Plains.  

Bender began his career at the University of Minnesota.  He served as video coordinator under Hall of Fame coach Tubby Smith and spent his eight years overseeing scouts, student managers, and all video duties.

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Have a pen and paper in hand so you can take down some notes as you listen to this episode with Bryan Bender, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Southwest Mississippi Community College.

Website - https://southwestbearathletics.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

Email - bbender@smcc.edu

Twitter - @BryanBender