Kente' Hart enters his third season on the Georgia Southern men's basketball coaching staff and was promoted to associate head coach ahead of the 2025-26 season.
The Eagles improved by eight wins during the 2024-25 season, winning their first-round game in the Sun Belt tournament as the nine seed. The squad once again broke the team record with 313 threes and 912 attempts and finished top five in the following statistics in program history: field goal attempts (3rd, 2063), rebounds (4th, 1234) and held opponents to the sixth-lowest three-point percentage against in team history. Under Hart's watch, Adante' Holiman was named All-Sun Belt Third Team after leading the conference in points per game and Tyson Brown broke the single-season field goal percentage record, minimum 100 attempts. In the team's first season in the new Jack & Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center, the Eagles had an 8-3 record, also closing Hanner Fieldhouse with a perfect 3-0 record.
During his first season at the helm, Hart 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.
A native of Evansville, Indiana, Hart brings 12 years of collegiate coaching experience to the Eagles’ staff. He comes to Statesboro from Indianapolis, where he was an assistant coach at IUPUI last season. Prior to that, he spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida, and seven years as an assistant coach at USC Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
At Florida Southwestern, Hart helped guide the Bucs to multiple conference crowns and consistent appearances in the NJCAA National Tournament, including a fifth-place finish in 2019. That season, FSW earned the program's first No. 1 national ranking and stayed atop the polls for the majority of the season. Hart helped 24 different players advance to the NCAA Division I level, including three who moved on to Power Five institutions.
Hart helped lead USC Upstate to postseason berths in four of six seasons from 2011-2017, including the Spartans’ first postseason win at the Division I level in the 2012 CIT with a victory over Kent State. The 2014-15 season saw USC Upstate rack up 24 wins, including Power Five wins over Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.
During his career, Hart has recruited 16 student-athletes to the junior college level who later earned Division I scholarships. In addition, he helped develop future NBA players Torrey Craig (Phoenix Suns) and Keon Ellis (Sacramento Kings). Craig was the 2012 Atlantic Sun Player of the Year at USC Upstate and played professionally in Australia before signing an NBA contract with the Denver Nuggets in 2017. Ellis played at FSW before transferring to Alabama, where he played for Henry for two seasons.
As a player, Hart was a second-team All-South Atlantic Conference performer and Team MVP as a senior at Carson-Newman after averaging 15.1 points, 6.0 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game while shooting 49 percent from the floor and 46 percent from three-point range. He finished 15th in the country in assists that season. He began his collegiate career at Shawnee Community College where he earned first-team all-conference and Team MVP honors as a sophomore after averaging 18.1 points and 6.1 assists per game.Â
Hart began his coaching career at his alma mater, Carson-Newman, as a student assistant coach in 2007-08 while completing his bachelor’s degree in physical education/health.
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