Mark_Prosser
Mark Prosser
American basketball player and coach
Mark Prosser is an American college basketball coach and current head coach of the Winthrop Eagles men's basketball team.
| Current position | |
|---|---|
| Title | Head coach |
| Team | Winthrop |
| Conference | Big South |
| Record | 55–41 (.573) |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Marist ('02) |
| Playing career | |
| 1998–1999 | Marist |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1999–2002 | Marist (student assistant) |
| 2002–2003 | Wofford (assistant) |
| 2003–2008 | Bucknell (assistant) |
| 2008–2011 | Wofford (assistant) |
| 2011–2012 | Brevard |
| 2012–2018 | Winthrop (assistant) |
| 2018–2021 | Western Carolina |
| 2021–present | Winthrop |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 97–117 (.453) |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| |
| Awards | |
| |
Prosser played one season of basketball at Marist before injuries stopped a playing career.[1] He continued on with the Red Foxes as a student assistant coach until his graduation in 2002.[2]
Coaching beginnings
After graduation, Prosser landed his first assistant coaching position at Wofford under Mike Young, where he stayed for one season before heading to Bucknell for a five-year stint as an assistant for Pat Flannery, where he was part of the Bison staff when the team upset Kansas during the 2005 NCAA tournament.[3] Prosser returned to Wofford in 2008 where he stayed until 2011 when he accepted the head coaching job at Division II Brevard College.[4] In one season at Brevard, Prosser recorded a 5-23 record, and subsequently resigned his position to accept a coaching position under Pat Kelsey at Winthrop.[5]
Western Carolina
On March 27, 2018, Prosser became the 18th head coach in Western Carolina history, replacing Larry Hunter.[6]
2018-19: First season
Prosser led the Catamounts to a 7–25 record (4–14 in the Southern Conference) in his first season.
2019-20: 12 win improvement
In his second season at Western Carolina, Prosser guided the Catamounts to a 19-12 record as WCU finished with the second-most improved mark across NCAA Division I men's basketball. The Catamounts reached the SoCon Tournament semifinals for the first time since the 2015–16 season, and had a pair of First Team All-Southern Conference and NABC All-District players in senior forward Carlos Dotson and redshirt junior guard Mason Faulkner. College Insider recognized Prosser's achievement as he was honored with the Skip Prosser 'Man of the Year' Award, named after his father.[7]
2020-21: COVID struggles
Coming into 2020–21 looking to continue off last season's success, Prosser led the team to an 11–16 record (4–13 in Southern Conference). After a 7–2 start, the Catamounts struggled in conference play, winning just 4 of their next 17 games and losing in the first round of the Southern Conference tournament.
Winthrop
On April 2, 2021, Prosser's return to Winthrop was made official, as he replaced Pat Kelsey as head coach. Prosser previously served as Associate Head Coach for the team from 2013–2018.[8] Six games into his first season, the Eagles beat the University of Washington to notch Prosser's first win as head coach at WU against a Power 5 conference and Winthrop's first win ever against a PAC-12 team.[9] The 2021–22 team went undefeated at home (13-0), which hadn't been done since the nationally ranked 2006–07 team,[10] and finished the regular season first in the South Division and second overall in the Big South. Prosser's 14 regular season league wins are tied for the most all time in the history of the Big South for a first year Head Coach in the league alongside Terry Truax who won 14 games in 1992–93.[10] Additionally, Prosser's 23 wins on the season are the most in Winthrop and Big South history for a coach in his first year.[11][12]
Prosser is the son of the late Skip Prosser, the former head coach at Xavier and Wake Forest.[13]
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard Tornados (South Atlantic Conference) (2011–2012) | |||||||||
| 2011–12 | Brevard | 5–23 | 4–14 | 8th | |||||
| Brevard: | 5–23 (.179) | 4–14 (.222) | |||||||
| Western Carolina Catamounts (Southern Conference) (2018–2021) | |||||||||
| 2018–19 | Western Carolina | 7–25 | 4–14 | T–8th | |||||
| 2019–20 | Western Carolina | 19–12 | 10–8 | T–5th | |||||
| 2020–21 | Western Carolina | 11–16 | 4–13 | 9th | |||||
| Western Carolina: | 37–53 (.411) | 18–35 (.340) | |||||||
| Winthrop (Big South Conference) (2021–present) | |||||||||
| 2021–22 | Winthrop | 23–9 | 14–2 | 1st (South) | |||||
| 2022–23 | Winthrop | 15–17 | 10–8 | T–4th | |||||
| 2023–24 | Winthrop | 17–15 | 8–8 | 4th | |||||
| Winthrop: | 55–41 (.573) | 32–18 (.640) | |||||||
| Total: | 97–117 (.453) | ||||||||
|
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
| |||||||||
- "Mark Prosser College Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Mark Prosser - Men's Basketball Coach". WinthropEagles.com. Winthrop University. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Mark Prosser Profile". BucknellBison.com. Bucknell University. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Mark Prosser Named Head Coach At Brevard College". WoffordTerriers.com. Wofford College. September 14, 2011. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Prosser resigns as Men?s Basketball Coach". BCTornados.com. Brevard College. 12 April 2012. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Western Carolina Names Mark Prosser Head Men's Basketball Coach". CatamountSports.com. Western Carolina University. March 27, 2018. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- Grandy, Steven (March 23, 2020). "Mark Prosser Receives Skip Prosser 'Man of the Year' Award". CatamountSports.com. Western Carolina University. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Prosser Tabbed As 7th Head Coach To Lead Men's Basketball Program". WinthropEagles.com. Winthrop University. April 2, 2021. Archived from the original on March 2, 2022. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- Zietlow, Alex (November 28, 2021). "Winthrop makes history! What win over Washington means to record books, Eagles future". The Herald. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
- "Burns Jr. Double-Double Leads Eagles In Win Over Charleston Southern". WinthropEagles.com. Winthrop University. February 26, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
- "Winthrop Eagles Index". Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
- "Eagles Fall In Big South Title Game". WinthropEagles.com. Winthrop University. March 6, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
- "Skip Prosser's son named head coach at Western Carolina". USA Today. Associated Press. March 27, 2018. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2022.