GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY

Georgia Southern men’s basketball head coach Mark Byington has announced the hiring of Ben Betts and Rob Burke to his staff for the 2015-16 season. Betts joins the Eagles as an assistant coach with more than two decades of experience, and comes to Statesboro after a stop at Indiana-Purdue Fort Waye. Burke, the new director of basketball operations, joins the Eagles after five years at The Citadel under Chuck Drisell. Betts most recent stop, a one-year stint at IPFW, came after three years at Tennessee State where he helped guide the team to the 2013 CIT Postseason Tournament. From 2006-11, he was an assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma, where he worked under Jeff Capel. The Sooners qualified for the 2008 and 2009 NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the “Elite Eight” in 2009, and Betts helped to recruit and coach current NBA All-Star Blake Griffin. – A.J. Henderson, Syracuse. Read more.