Marreese Speights is in his second season on the Georgia Southern men’s basketball coaching staff.
During his first season at the helm, Speights guided the Eagles to an 8-10 record in Sun Belt play and a quarterfinal appearance in the Sun Belt Tournament for the third consecutive season. Under his tutelage, the Eagles set program records in three-pointers (309) and free-throw percentage (.732), finishing the season 27th in the NCAA in three-pointers per game. Also under his watch, guard Tyren Moore made the All-Sun Belt Second Team and led the Sun Belt in points per game during conference play.
Speights is one of 47 players in the history of men’s basketball to win a national title in college and a professional title. He won a national title as a member of the Florida Gators in 2007 and an NBA Championship as a member of the Golden State Warriors in 2015.
Speights played 10 seasons in the NBA from 2008-18 before finishing his career with the Guangzhou Loong Lions in the Chinese Basketball Association from 2018-21. He averaged 7.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in 705 career games in the NBA and 17.2 points and 6.4 boards in 57 contests in China.
Speights founded the Speights Academy in 2021 in St Petersburg, Florida, a post-graduate program created to give high school athletes an opportunity to continue to develop their skills during a gap year between high school and college.
Rated a four-star recruit coming out of Hargrave Military Academy in 2006, Speights played two seasons at Florida before he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 16th pick of the 2008 draft. He was the Warriors’ top scoring option off the bench in 2014-15, earning the nickname “Mo Buckets” and helping Golden State finish with the best record in NBA history at 73-9.
