Head Boston College women’s basketball coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee added assistant coach John Marcum to the staff.
Marcum joins the Eagles after spending one season at Pitt, where he helped the Panthers improve their win total by four games with an ACC Tournament appearance.
As the defensive coordinator, the Panthers improved their defensive rating by six points from 2023-24.
Marcum spent 2023-24 as the head coach at Chipola College leading the team to a 24-8 record and an FCSAA Region VIII Tournament second-round appearance.
Prior to his stint at Chipola College, he served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Syracuse. Marcum signed two top-ten recruiting classes featuring multiple McDonald’s All-Americans, including WNBA draft pick Kamilla Cardoso, the top-ranked center and No. 5 overall player in the Class of 2020. In the 2020-21 season, Cardoso won multiple Atlantic Coast Conference awards including Freshman of the Year and Co-Defensive Player of the Year. She was also named a member of the All-Freshman Team, All-Defensive Team, and All-ACC First Team. Emily Engstler earned ACC Sixth Player of the Year honors as one of the top players off the bench in the country averaging 10.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and the Orange led the ACC in blocks per game (7.0).
In his second season with the Orange, Marcum worked with Alaysia Styles, Syracuse’s lone post player, a guard who played the entire season out of position due to limited personnel. Under Marcum’s guidance, Styles posted the best numbers of her career averaging 10.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Styles scored in double figures in 18 of Syracuse’s 29 games and recorded a career-high 21 points shooting 5-for-9 from the field and a perfect 10-for-10 at the free throw line in a road win against Pitt on Feb. 13.
From 2017-2020, Marcum was the top assistant for the Butler women’s basketball team. After finishing 6-25 in the season prior to Marcum’s arrival, the Bulldogs improved by nine wins in his first season and posted their first 20-win season since 2010-11 in year two. Overall, the Bulldogs were 57-38 in his three seasons in Indianapolis.
Although he spent just one season (2016-17) at Grand Canyon before moving on to the Big East Conference, Marcum helped the Lopes to a 15-12 record. He also made an immediate impact on the Lopes’ roster by signing and bringing First Team All-Conference selection Mariana Laramie to Phoenix.
Marcum served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Indiana State for one year (2012-13) before taking on the role of associate head coach at East Carolina (2013-2016). The Pirates went 57-39 during that span with the team winning 22 games in each of his first two seasons. He helped bring in the second-best class in the American Conference for the 2014-15 season and signed a top-50 recruiting class in 2015.
Marcum’s first head coaching job was at NCAA Division II school, California Baptist, where he led the Lancers to a 47-12 record in two seasons (2010-12). Cal Baptist won their first conference championship in program history and made their first national tournament appearance since 1982 during Marcum’s tenure.
After beginning his coaching career in 2002 as a men’s basketball assistant coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma Baptist, Marcum transitioned to the women’s basketball game in 2007 and spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma Baptist.
Marcum also served one season as an assistant coach under Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the Oklahoma Storm of the former United States Basketball League, leading the Storm to the 2002 USBL Championship.
Marcum played collegiate baseball and graduated from Oklahoma Baptist in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education. He was a member of OBU’s NAIA World Series team in 1996 and served as the President of OBU’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. He earned his master’s in secondary education with a concentration in physical education in 2003 from East Central University.
https://bceagles.com/news/2025/6/9/womens-basketball-adds-john-marcum-to-staff
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