New CCU Basketball Coach Gray Experienced with NIL, Portal
Myrtle Beach Sports
CONWAY— Arguably the biggest advantage new Coastal Carolina men’s basketball coach Justin Gray has over other coaches is the NIL and transfer portal era is all he knows. Gray has only been a head coach since the 2021-22 season, so players profiting off of NIL and transferring at will are the norm for him. With CCU recently partnering with Altius Sports to bolster its NIL operation, this is an aspect of college basketball that the Chanticleers can take advantage of.
Portal Knowledge and Advantage
“The portal is something that’s real,” Gray said. “I’ve only coached in the portal era as a head coach, so I feel pretty confident about it … I think the most [important] thing I always tell our staff is yes, it’s talent, but it’s toughness and then character. Those three qualities are what we’re really, really looking for when we’re out and we’re looking in the portal or if it’s high school kids … Let’s be honest, [NIL is] necessary to win. I said, ‘How do you spell fun? W-I-N.’ Well, if you want to win, you’d better have a good NIL package.”
New Beginnings at CCU
Gray was named the new head coach on March 11 after three years at Western Carolina, where Gray led the Catamounts to 51 victories and back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 13 years. He also guided the team to the College Basketball Invitational and the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals in 2023.
Building a Competitive Program
Gray replaces Benny Moss, who served as CCU’s interim head coach after the retirement of Cliff Ellis. Ellis announced his retirement Dec. 6 after more than 49 seasons as a college head coach, with 46 of those (and eight games this season) at the D-I level, including a 1984-94 stint at Clemson. Ellis ran Coastal’s program for 17 seasons.
Gray will inherit a CCU program that has fallen on hard times. CCU went just 9-22 this season and has not won a conference tournament since it did so in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015. However, Gray is looking to change that. He said he recognized Coastal’s “appetite to be good” and that drew him to the program.
Excitement for the Future
“We talk about a new era,” he said. “It’s something that I’m really, really excited about. So I would say [I want] the opportunity to build a really, really good program, and a program that is going to compete night in and night out and try to compete for a championship.”
