NC State men’s basketball coach Will Wade announced that he has added Adam Howard to his staff as an assistant coach.
Howard comes to the Pack after spending the last three seasons at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers went 17-14 overall and 7-13 in the Big Ten under veteran coach Fred Hoiberg.
“Adam is a great coach with a proven record of building programs, Wade said. “He’s everything you want in an assistant coach with his ability to recruit, game plan and develop players. He has an excellent tactical offensive mind and will do a great job on that side of the court for our team. I’m excited to have him in Raleigh and welcome him, his wife Renee and their three children to the Wolfpack family.”
In 2023-24, Nebraska went 23-11, the second-highest win total in school history, and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. The Huskers, who were picked 12th in the preseason, tied for third in the Big Ten, marking the program’s best conference finish in more than 30 years.
Nebraska averaged 77.7 points per game, a total which was the program’s highest average since 1995-96, while leading the Big Ten with 9.5 three-pointers per game. NU’s season was highlighted by a pair of top-10 wins, including an 88-72 win over No. 1 Purdue, which was NU’s first win over a No. 1 team since 1982
The 2022-23 season saw Nebraska make significant steps by winning 16 games and posting a 9-11 mark in Big Ten play. The nine conference wins were NU’s highest total since 2017-18, despite having a pair of starters suffer season-ending injuries in January. Behind All-Big Ten performers Derrick Walker and Keisei Tominaga, the Huskers won six of their last eight regular-season games. NU also posted its second top-10 road win in as many years with a 10-point win at No. 7 Creighton in non-conference action, the first top-10 non-conference road win in school history.
Howard was selected to participate in the 2023 and 2024 TopConnect Basketball Symposiums, an annual event featuring some of the nation’s top assistant coaches.
Before joining the Husker staff, Howard spent four seasons as an assistant at South Alabama, where he was promoted to associate head coach for the Jaguars prior to the 2021-22 season. At USA, he coordinated the Jaguars’ full- and halfcourt defensive sets and worked with the post players, helping three players earn all-conference recognition.
In his four years at the school under coach Richie Riley, South Alabama went 75-51, including a pair of 20-win seasons, after the school had five straight losing seasons. During his tenure at USA, Howard’s defenses ranked in the top-50 nationally in field goal defense in his final two years, while also lowering their opponent field goal and three-point percentage in each of the past three seasons. His defenses have also recorded at least 200 steals per season, averaging nearly seven steals a game in that span.
In 2021-22, the Jaguars went 21-12 and reached the semifinals of The Basketball Classic, while the Jaguars’ 21 wins were the most at the school since the 2007-08 season. South Alabama ranked in the top 40 nationally in scoring defense (64.0 ppg, 34th), field-goal percentage defense (.404, 37th) and blocked shots per game (4.9, 25th). His most recent conference honoree is Javon Franklin, who averaged 12.2 points per game while shooting 66 percent from the field, and he ranked in the top five in the conference in both rebounding (7.8 rpg) and blocked shots (1.3 bpg).
In 2019-20, the Jaguars posted the program’s first 20-win season since the 2008-09 campaign behind the play of forwards Josh Ajayi and Trhae Mitchell, who both earned all-conference recognition on two occasions under Howard’s tutelage. Ajayi averaged 14.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per outing and led the conference in field-goal percentage (.562) on his way to first-team All-Sun Belt recognition. Mitchell averaged 13.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, while leading the team in rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.
In his first season at USA, Ajayi was a second-team all-conference pick after ranking in the league’s top 10 in scoring (16.4 points), rebounding (7.4 rebounds) while leading the conference in field-goal percentage (.560).
Prior to joining the South Alabama staff, Howard was at Troy University for two seasons under coach Phil Cunningham. 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. In Howard’s time at the school, Jordon Varnado and Wesley Person Jr. both earned all-Sun Belt honors in 2016-17 and 2017-18, and Person set a conference record for career 3-pointers. Troy was successful on the court and in the classroom, as the Trojans had the highest team grade-point averaged in the Sun Belt Conference two consecutive years.
Howard spent the 2014 season at Tennessee under coach Donnie Tyndall, 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, and Tariq Owens. 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. Owens eventually helped Texas Tech to a national title game appearance in 2019 and signed a two-way contract with the Phoenix Suns in 2020.
In two seasons at Southern Miss from 2012-14, he helped the Golden Eagles compile a 56-17 record with two postseason appearances under Tyndall. 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 under Tyndall. 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 Kenneth Faried, a two-time Ohio Valley Player of the Year and a first-round pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
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 graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Western Kentucky in 2008. He and his wife, Renee, have two sons, Eli and Easton, and a daughter, Emma.
Howard Coaching Timeline
2022-25 — Assistant Coach at Nebraska
2021-22 — Associate Head Coach at South Alabama
2018-21 — Assistant Coach at South Alabama
2016-18 — Assistant Coach at Troy
2014 — Assistant Coach at Tennessee
2012-14 — Assistant Coach at Southern Miss
2010-12 — Assistant Coach at Morehead State
2009-10 - Graduate Assistant at Morehead State
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