MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama men’s basketball coach Matt Graves completed his coaching staff Thursday with the addition of former Eastern Illinois assistant Dan Matic.
Matic, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., joins Darnell Archey and Ronald Nored, whom Graves hired earlier this month.
Eastern Illinois
Matic spent the 2012-13 season at Eastern Illinois as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. One of his recruits led the Ohio Valley Conference in scoring as a freshman, and the Panthers qualified for the OVC tournament for the first time in three seasons.
Junior College Success
Before Eastern Illinois, Matic spent one season as an assistant at Olney Central College in Olney, Ill. The team won 27 games and captured its first Great Rivers Athletic Conference championship in 14 years.
Trivante Bloodman, who later signed with Mississippi State, was named GRAC Player of the Year under Matic’s instruction. Olney Central finished second in the NJCAA Region 24 tournament, its best finish since 1994, and five players from the team went on to NCAA Division I programs.
National Team and Graduate Work
In 2009, Matic was video coordinator for the USA team at the World University Games in Serbia. The team, coached by Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, won the bronze medal.
He then spent two seasons as a graduate assistant and academic mentor at Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
AAU Roots
Matic began coaching in 2001 with AAU program Team Takeover in New York City. In six seasons as head coach, he led the team to a sixth-place finish at the AAU national tournament, and 16 of his players earned Division I scholarships. Among them were Devin Ebanks, who played at West Virginia, and Ed Davis, who played at North Carolina; both went on to the NBA.
