COLUMBIA - Rob Fulford was hired Monday to fill the final position on the Missouri men's basketball coaching staff.
Fulford comes to Missouri after five seasons in Huntington, W.Va., where he helped build one of the country's elite prep school programs, finishing 138-17 during his tenure. Last season, Huntington Prep finished No. 3 nationally, going 28-4, and qualified for the Dick's Sporting Goods High School National Tournament. His final five teams finished among the Top 25 programs nationally and his 2012-13 club opened the year ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today.
"I couldn't be more excited to welcome Rob to the Mizzou family," Missouri head coach Kim Anderson said. "Rob is obviously an outstanding coach and he won at an incredible level at Huntington Prep. He is well-respected by his peers and will be a great asset to our program.
"One of Rob's biggest strengths is his ability to build relationships with his young men. He gets the most out of his players because of those strong relationships and that's exactly what we were looking for as we went about completing our staff."
A 1997 graduate of Marshall University, Fulford began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Mountain State University (1997-2000) in Beckley, W.Va., where he helped the NAIA school to an 84-16 record. Mountain State led the nation in scoring (97 ppg) each of his three seasons and averaged 28 wins per year.
"I want to thank coach Anderson, Mike Alden and university administration for this incredible opportunity," Fulford said. "I wasn't looking to leave Huntington Prep but after speaking with coach Anderson and seeing his vision for the program, this opportunity was too good to pass up, and I'm excited to be a Missouri Tiger."
Fulford began his head coaching career at Mountain State Academy (2006-09) and went 81-14 over his three seasons. Fulford then started the basketball academy in Huntington, helping the program move into the national rankings in just its second year of existence.
During his five seasons at Huntington, Fulford averaged more than 27 wins per season and ranked among the Top 10 each year since 2011.