Dylan Howard is in his fifth season as the associate head men's basketball coach at Morehead State. It is also his 21st year of coaching at the collegiate level. His time is spent in a variety of areas, including recruiting, scouting, practice/game preparation and academics monitoring.
Howard has worked with eight professional athletes in four seasons at Morehead State.
He helped lead the Eagles to a 23-14 overall record and 11-5 Ohio Valley Conference mark, along with a second place finish in the College Basketball Invitational in 2015-16.
With their trip to the championship series of the CBI, Morehead State won four postseason games, the most in program history. MSU's 20-win season marked the seventh in program history. Five of those 20-win campaigns have come in the last eight years and Howard has helped lead Morehead State to 20-plus wins twice in four years. The 23 wins marked the most victories for the Eagles since they finished the 2010-11 season at 25-10.
He helped the Eagles to a 17-17 overall record and 10-6 Ohio Valley Conference mark in 2014-15, despite over half the team suffering significant injuries.
Howard participated in the NCAA's 2014 Achieving Coaching Excellence (ACE) Forum in Indianapolis. The three-day program honors some of the top minority assistant basketball coaches in the country each summer. Participants interacted with university presidents, directors of athletics, conference commissioners and search firms.
Howard helped MSU to a 20-14 overall record and 10-6 OVC mark in 2013-14, which was another injury-plagued campaign. The Eagles made their ninth straight league tournament appearance and played in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). MSU had the OVC's No. 1 recruiting class, according to Hoop Scoop Online
In his second season, Morehead State reached the 20-win plateau for just the sixth time in school history and postseason play for just the ninth time. The Eagles also managed the league's best road record (9-7).
Howard helped Morehead State to a 15-18 overall record and 8-8 conference mark in 2012-13, despite inheriting a program with just four scholarship players.
Howard was the top assistant under MSU Head Coach Sean Woods at Mississippi Valley State from 2008-11. The duo put together two top-50 recruiting classes in their three seasons together at MVSU.
Howard came to Morehead State after spending one season as the head coach at Division III North Park in Chicago. It was his second stint and eighth year as a collegiate head coach.
Prior to MVSU, Howard had a seven-year run (2001-08) as the head coach at Division III Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas. He was named American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 2005 after guiding the Cowboys to their first-ever league tournament appearance. In 2007, HSU reached the ASC Tournament championship game for the first time in school history.
Howard coached 23 academic all-conference selections at Hardin-Simmons, 16 all-west division honorees and three conference Players of the Year. He graduated 100 percent of his four-year players in those seven seasons at HSU.
Before HSU, Howard served as a Division I assistant coach at Robert Morris (Pa.) in 2000-01. He was in charge of recruiting, post-player development, scheduling and strength & conditioning.
Howard started his coaching career at Saint Francis in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., where he served as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator from 1996-2000. The NAIA Cougars went from eight wins in his first season to 31 victories and a No. 1 national ranking during his final campaign. Howard also coached the NAIA National Player of the Year during his final year there.
As a player, Howard led UAB to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1986 and 1987 and an NIT Final Four berth in 1989. After college, he went on to be a two-time all-league selection in the Asian Professional Basketball Association in Taipei, Taiwan.
Howard earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from UAB in 1992 and master’s degree in sports recreation and management from Hardin-Simmons in 2005.
In 2010, Howard was tabbed to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Silver Anniversary Team. The group of honorees included several Division I college basketball players.
Howard, who was invited to the 1985 McDonald’s Derby Classic, was rated as the nation’s 11th-best player at one point during his high school career.
Howard and his wife, Nicole, have one daughter -- Danielle Blanco. His wife is a program specialist in Morehead State's Educational Opportunity Center. His daughter is a track & field student-athlete at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
NOTE: pronunciation of the first name is “DIE-lin”
