A familiar face to Frank Martin will round out his first UMass coaching staff. Allen Edwards is joining the program as an associate head coach, the team announced Thursday.
He has 16 years of coaching experience, including four as Wyoming’s head coach from 2016-20. The Cowboys won 20 games twice in his tenure. He spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Loyola Marymount.
“Super excited to once again line up with Allen Edwards on my side,” Martin said in a release. “I was fortunate enough to coach him in high school and watched him grow as a coach after completing his unbelievably successful playing career. He brings unbelievable experience as a former head coach and as a lead assistant coach for tremendous coaches in his background. Allen and his family will be a tremendous addition to UMass and the Amherst communities.”
Edwards played for Martin at Miami Senior High School before a college career at Kentucky in the late 1990s. He was on two national championship teams for the Wildcats (1996 & 98), played in a third national championship game (1997) and reached the Elite Eight as a freshman in 1995. He faced UMass multiple times in that tenure, and logged four minutes for the ’Cats in the 1996 Final Four matchup between the two programs.
After his playing career, Edwards was a coach at Morehead State, VCU, Western Kentucky and Towson.
He’ll join a staff that includes two former South Carolina assistants that followed Martin to Amherst: Will Bailey and Brian Steele.