PEMBROKE — UNC Pembroke men’s basketball head coach Drew Richards announced the addition of David Strother to his coaching staff, along with a trio of promotions, on Monday afternoon.

Strother, a former player in the Braves program, is no stranger to the coaching world as he treks back to UNCP following a stint as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Prior to his time at UTSA, Strother served as the director of player development for one season at USC Aiken where he finished his playing career.

The Lumberton native played three seasons at UNCP where he won a pair of Peach Belt Conference championships and finished with over 1,000 points and 300 assists in his career for the Black and Gold.

“I am thrilled to officially announce our coaching staff for the upcoming season,” Richards said. “Bringing back a familiar face like David, an extremely successful player at UNCP and now an up-and-coming coach, helps us keep our culture in place for the foreseeable future.

Noah Katz will enter his second season with the Black & Gold as an assistant coach, while Faison Brock will begin his third season on staff as a graduate assistant coach. Former student manager Layth Allan, who has worked with the program for four seasons, will transition into a graduate manager role for the 2024-25 season.

“Moving hard workers like Coach Katz and Coach Fai into more demanding roles helps both of them grow as coaches and gives them more stock in our program. I am also glad we were able to keep Layth Allan around our program in a graduate capacity.”

Katz enters his second season on staff after serving as graduate assistant coach at Wingate for two seasons. He began his coaching career at Florida Atlantic as a student assistant coach throughout his time as an undergraduate. Katz played an integral role in helping the Black & Gold secure its first Conference Carolinas Tournament championship last season and will have increased responsibilities moving into this next year.

A native of Raleigh, Brock was a four-year letterwinner at USC Aiken where he finished as just one of three players in the history of the USC Aiken basketball program to amass 1,400 or more points. Brock still ranks among the program’s top-10 leaders in 13 statistical categories. He also still owns one of the PBC’s top-5 single-game scoring performances as well – a 43-point outburst in a win over Young Harris on Jan. 18, 2020.