Georgia Southern tabs Byington as men's basketball coach

Statesboro, GA – Georgia Southern has hired Mark Byington to lead the men's basketball team, the school announced on Monday.

Byington spent nine seasons with fellow Southern Conference foe College of Charleston, including seven as the team's top assistant. The former UNC Wilmington 1,000-point scorer also took over as the interim coach for Charleston Southern from 2011-12 after coach Bobby Cremins took a leave of absence.

The Cougars went 7-4 in their final 11 contests of the season with Byington at the helm.

"Mark has the energy, the knowledge, the experience and the work ethic to elevate our men's basketball program to where we want it to be, which is competing for conference championships," director of athletics Tom Kleinlein said. "He rose to the top of a pool of a quality group of candidates as we conducted an exhaustive national search. What we found throughout the process is that Mark is the best fit for Georgia Southern University."

The Eagles finished 14-19 overall and went 7-11 in the SoCon this past season. The school fired former coach Charlton "C.Y." Young after four seasons after he compiled a 48-34 record with the Eagles, including a 26-46 mark in conference play.

Byington graduated from UNC Wilmington in 1998 and began his coaching career at Hargrave Military Academy in 2001-02 as an assistant. He then served as the director of basketball operations at Virginia two years later after holding the role of a graduate student manager with the Cavaliers the two years prior.