Utah State head women’s basketball coach Kayla Ard announced Monday morning the addition of Marc Wilson as an assistant coach.
Wilson brings 21 years of Division-I coaching experience. He joins the Aggies after spending the 2019-20 season in the same role at Cleveland State, where he helped the Vikings to a 21-11 record, marking just their third 20-win season in program history.
“I feel very blessed to have Marc joining our staff. He is a home-run hire with a ton of experience at multiple levels,” Ard said. “I really enjoyed working with him at Clemson years ago and I know how hard he works. He has a great defensive mind and has a knack for developing post players. I’m excited to have him and his family on board.”
Prior to his time at Cleveland State, Wilson spent the 2017-18 season as the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Southeast Missouri State, where he coached the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Adrianna Murphy, and helped develop the Redhawks into one of the top defensive teams in the conference. He also helped transform a defense which finished 12th in the league the previous season into one of the OVC’s top-5 defenses.
Wilson spent three seasons at Clemson (2013-16) as the team’s defensive coordinator and assistant coach, including two years alongside Ard, an assistant coach at the time. He held the same role for the four years prior at UAB (2009-13), where he headed a defense which led Conference USA in scoring defense for three-straight seasons. In 2011-12, the Blazers allowed just 49.1 points per game, the third-best mark in the country. They also ranked top 50 nationally in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, 3-point field goal percentage defense, steals per game and turnovers forced per game. UAB earned a bid to the WNIT in 2013, and was the Women’s Basketball Invitational champion in 2011.
Wilson’s resume also includes stops as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Indiana (2006-09), Kent State (2004-06) and Rhode Island (2001-04). While at Indiana, he helped the Hoosiers to three-straight WNIT appearances. Kent State went 42-18 during Wilson’s tenure and appeared in the MAC championship game each season. His three seasons at Rhode Island included an Atlantic 10 championship game appearance in 2003, the team’s first since 1984. His collegiate coaching career began at his alma mater, spending four years as an assistant coach at Minnesota (1997-2001).
“Utah State has great facilities, great administration and great location, and we can definitely use those resources to compete at the highest level in the Mountain West and move the program to the top-tier of the conference,” Wilson said. “We want to win some Mountain West championships, and ultimately I believe we can do that sooner than later.”
Known for his ability to bring in some of the country’s top student-athletes, Wilson has recruited three WNBA draft picks in Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota, 2004, No. 4 overall to the Connecticut Sun), Janel McCarville (Minnesota, 2005, No. 1 overall to Charlotte Sting) and Jori Davis (Indiana, 2011, No. 33 overall to Indiana Fever).
As a player, Wilson finished his career at Minnesota as a member of the school’s top-10 all-time scoring, assists and steals lists. He was a team co-captain and MVP in 1986, and earned all-Big Ten honorable mention honors in 1983 and 1986. He graduated with a degree in sociology with an emphasis in criminology, law and behavior.
“I’m very blessed and appreciative of this opportunity to reconnect with Coach Ard. She and I have a relationship from working together at Clemson, and we like each other’s style of play and work ethic, and we have the same ideas about basketball,” Wilson said. “It will be great to work with her again. She knows what she wants and she has a great vision for where the program is going and that attracted me because I feel like I can assist in that development and growth.”
