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David Knox ‏@davideknox
With Sean Woods suspended, Morehead St. will be coached by ex-UAB player Dylan Howard, the associate head coach

Cool. I didn't know what had happened. He was a head coach in D2 and was fired a year or so ago.

His bio

Didn't realize he "led" UAB to NCAA appearances

Quote:Dylan Howard, who played in two NCAA Tournaments and is in his 17th year as a men’s college basketball coach, is in his first season as the associate head coach at Morehead State.

Howard was the top assistant under MSU Head Coach Sean Woods at Mississippi Valley State from 2008-11. The duo put together two top-50 recruiting classes in their three seasons together at MVSU.

Howard came to Morehead State after spending one season as the head coach at Division III North Park in Chicago. It was his second stint and eighth year as a collegiate head coach.

Prior to MVSU, Howard had a seven-year run (2001-08) as the head coach at Division III Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas. He was named American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 2005 after guiding the Cowboys to their first-ever league tournament appearance. In 2007, HSU reached the ASC Tournament championship game for the first time in school history.

Howard coached 23 academic all-conference selections at Hardin-Simmons and 16 all-west division honorees. He graduated 100 percent of his four-year players in those seven seasons at HSU.

Before HSU, Howard served as a Division I assistant coach at Robert Morris (Pa.) in 2000-01. He was in charge of recruiting, post-player development, scheduling and strength & conditioning.

Howard started his coaching career at Saint Francis in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., where he served as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator from 1996-2000. The NAIA Cougars went from eight wins in his first season to 31 victories and a No. 1 national ranking during his final campaign. Howard also coached the NAIA National Player of the Year during his final year there.

As a player, Howard led UAB to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1986 and 1987 and an NIT Final Four berth in 1989. After college, he went on to be a two-time all-league selection in the Asian Professional Basketball Association in Taipei, Taiwan.

Howard earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from UAB in 1992 and a master’s degree in sports recreation and management from Hardin-Simmons in 2005.

In 2010, he was chosen for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Silver Anniversary Team.

Howard, who was invited to the 1985 McDonald’s Derby Classic, was rated as the nation’s 11th-best player at one point during his high school career.

He and his wife, Nicole, have one daughter -- Danielle Blanco. Danielle is a junior psychology major at Samford University (Birmingham, Ala.) and runs track for the Bulldogs.

NOTE: pronunciation of the first name is “DIE-lin”