Bryant Moore - Men's Basketball Coach

Bryant Moore

Title:
Special Assistant to the Head Coach

Southern Miss head men's basketball coach Doc Sadler announced the hiring of Bryant Moore as the special assistant to the head coach in October 2018. Moore spent the previous seven seasons at Pepperdine, the first five as an assistant coach and the final two as an associate head coach.

"I'm very grateful for Coach Sadler in giving me the opportunity to join him and his staff," Moore said. "I've known Doc since I was 20 years old, when I was playing for him while he was an assistant at Texas Tech, and we have maintained a great relationship since."

During Moore’s Pepperdine tenure, the Waves reached the top half of the WCC standings for the first time in a decade, posted their first back-to-back winning seasons since 2001-02 and 2002-03, and earned a pair of College Basketball Invitational berths in 2015 and 2016 (the program’s first postseason appearance since 2002).

Moore spent five years with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers in a variety of roles. In the 2009-10 season, he shared the team's player development coordinator with current Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce. In that position, he was in charge of on-court development, film study with the players and game-plan preparation.

Moore spent two seasons as the Cavaliers’ full-time advance scout, where he was responsible for scouting upcoming opponents, charting plays, play calls, identifying opponents’ tendencies and developing personnel reports. From these scouting efforts, he developed a detailed game report for the Cavs’ coaching staff and players.

Moore began his work with the Cavaliers as a video coordinator in 2005, and was promoted to scout/video coach in 2006. He was also an assistant coach for the Cavaliers’ summer league team for four years, and directed the team’s free agent camp in summer 2009.

Led by LeBron James, the Cavaliers made the NBA Playoffs all five of Moore’s seasons there. The Cavs twice had the best record in the Eastern Conference and advanced to the 2007 NBA Finals.

His first college coaching position was as an assistant coach at UC Riverside during the 2004-05 season under the Highlanders’ long-time head coach John Masi. He began his coaching career under Scott Gradin at Sheldon High School in Sacramento, Calif., where he was an assistant coach for four seasons (2001-04). Sheldon had two City Players of the Year during Moore’s time there, including DeMarcus Nelson, who went on to play at Duke and in the NBA.

A native of San Diego, Calif., Moore first attended Mesa (Ariz.) Community College, where he played for Tom Bennett, father of current Saint Mary's College (Calif.) head coach Randy Bennett. He then transferred to Texas Tech, where he was a two-year starter on the basketball team (1990-91 and 1991-92) for coaches Gerald Myers and James Dickey. Despite playing just two seasons, Moore left the school ranked #4 all-time in career assists with 335. He set the school record for assists in a season twice, first recording 156 as a junior and then 179 as a senior, and also set a single-season record for steals with 55 as a senior (both records have since been broken).

He graduated from Texas Tech in 1993 with a degree in communications. He spent nearly 10 years in private business working for Oral-B and Bayer Pharmaceuticals. At the age of 23, Moore took custody of his younger brother, Matthew Thaxton, and raised him from the age of 12. He is married to Nataura Powdrell-Moore.