Adam Howard is in his fourth season with the South Alabama men’s basketball program.
During his first four seasons with the program, the Jaguars have gone 54-39 overall highlighted by a 20-11 record in 2019-20 that was the program’s first 20-win season since 2008-09. Last year, USA went 17-11, its third straight season with 17 or more wins. South has also had a pair of individuals named all-Sun Belt Conference each of those years, the first time that has happened since 2008 and ’09.
Howard coordinates the Jaguars’ full- and half-court defensive sets, which has resulted in over 900 turnovers forced and 200 steals recorded the last two seasons.
His work with the post players led to all-Sun Belt recognition for Josh Ajayi both years as well. He was a second-team selection after ranking in the league’s top 10 in scoring (16.4 ppg), rebounding (7.4 rpg) while leading the conference in field-goal percentage (.560) during the 2018-19 campaign, with Ajayi’s 10 double-doubles that winter second in the Sun Belt and the most by a USA player since 2013-14. The forward was then named first-team all-SBC as a senior after once again ranking in the top 10 in the league with 14.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per outing, a Sun Belt-best 56.2 field-goal percentage and team-leading eight double-doubles.
Howard comes to Mobile after spending two seasons on the Troy men’s basketball staff. In 2016-17, Howard played a role in getting the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament, while winning the most games by a Troy team since 2003-04 and recording the largest win improvement in school history.
Troy was successful on the court and in the classroom, as the Trojans had the highest team GPA in the Sun Belt Conference two consecutive years.
In Howard’s time, Jordon Varnado and Wesley Person both earned all-Sun Belt honors in 2016-17 and 2017-18, and Person set a conference record for career 3-pointers.
He spent the prior season at Tennessee, where he worked with Josh Richardson, a First-Team all-SEC pick and the 40th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.
The Ashland, Ky. native was also responsible for signing Kevin Punter, who was a junior college all-American. Punter averaged 22 points per game as a senior – 12th best in Division I – and his 905 points are the most in UT history by a two-year player.
In two seasons at Southern Miss, he helped the Golden Eagles compile a 56-17 record with two postseason appearances. USM tallied a school-record 29 wins in 2013-14, won a share of the Conference USA title and reached the quarterfinals of the NIT for the second straight season. That followed a 27-10 campaign in 2012-13 where Southern Miss recorded its first postseason win since 1988.
Howard started his coaching career in 2009 as a graduate assistant at Morehead State before moving into a full-time role a year later. In his second year on the staff, the Eagles went 25-10 overall and 13-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference, won the OVC Tournament, and upset No. 4 seed Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Two of MSU’s players that season went on to play professionally, including two-time Ohio Valley Player of the Year and 22nd overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Kenneth Faried.
As a player, Howard earned four varsity letters at Western Kentucky from 2004-08 and played on three teams that advanced to postseason play.
The Hilltoppers went to the NIT in 2005 and 2006, and the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament 2008. The 2008 team defeated Drake and San Diego in the first two rounds before falling to eventual Final Four participant UCLA. WKU won 96 games during his career, during which he received the Danny Rumph Most Outstanding Teammate award three times.
Howard is a graduate of Paul G. Blazer High School in Ashland, Ky. and has a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Western Kentucky.
He and his wife, Renee, have a son, Eli, and a daughter, Emma.
