David Ragland
Assistant Coach David Ragland comes to Highland Heights, Kentucky, as an assistant coach, following one year at Bowling Green State University and four years on the coaching staff at Indiana State.
In his first year on the Falcons’ coaching staff in 2014-15, the Falcons posted an overall record of 21-12 and a record of 11-7 in MAC play on the year. The 21 wins were a nine-win improvement from the previous year’s wins total of 12 victories in 2013-14 and was the first 20-win season for the Falcons since 2001-02. In fact, the 21 wins were the most wins in a single season for the men’s basketball program since BGSU totaled 24 victories in 2001-02.
Bowling Green also made history in postseason play in 2014-15, as the Falcons earned a first round win over Saint Francis (Pa.) in the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) to pick up the program’s first national postseason tournament win since defeating Tennessee in the National Commissioner’s Invitational in 1975. BGSU also won its 2015 MAC Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament first round game to advance to the Q-Arena in Cleveland, Ohio for the second round of the conference championship tournament for the first time since 2010-11.
As a team, the Falcons led the MAC and ranked 75th nationally in scoring defense, allowing only 62.9 points per game, ranked fourth in the conference and 92nd nationally in field goal percentage defense at 41.3 percent, and fourth in the league and 134th in rebounding margin at 1.4.
In 2013-14, Ragland helped to guide the Sycamores to one of the most successful seasons in the program’s history with a 23-11 overall record and a spot in both the Missouri Valley Conference Championship Game and in the 2014 National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Indiana State also posted a 12-6 record in Missouri Valley Conference play, which placed the Sycamores in second-place overall in the conference standings with the Wichita State Shockers.
Over his four years at Indiana State, the Sycamores posted 79 wins and made four-straight trips to postseason play with an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2010-11, a CollegeInsiders.com Postseason Tournament showing in 2011-12 and two consecutive NIT berths in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
With Ragland on the bench, the Sycamores posted a total of four wins over nationally-ranked top-25 opponents - No. 21 Notre Dame (2013-14), No. 14 Wichita State and No. 13 Creighton (2012-13), and No. 25 Vanderbilt (2011-12).
Before his time at Indiana State, Ragland posted a 44-19 record in two seasons as the head coach at Vincennes University, a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). In 2009-10, the Trailblazers went 22-10 and reached the NJCAA district tournament finals. Their 22 wins garnered the program's 29th consecutive 20-victory season.
Prior to taking over the VU program before the 2008-09 season, Ragland was an assistant at VU for three seasons, helping the Trailblazers to a 79-20 record during that span. Ragland also spent one season at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Texas, helping that program put together a 25-5 record.
Ragland, a native of Evansville, Ind., began his collegiate playing career at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, Missouri. During his freshman season, the Lions posted a 30-3 mark and made it to the NCAA Division II Final Four. Following his sophomore season, Ragland returned home to Evansville to play at the University of Southern Indiana, where the Screaming Eagles went 47-14 in his two seasons there.
A 2003 graduate of Southern Indiana with a degree in Communications, Ragland and his wife, Annie, have two children, seven-year old Ava and five-year old Joshua.
