Mark White - Men's Basketball Coach

Mark White

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
mwhit159@utm.edu

Mark White is in his second season as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee at Martin for the 2025-26 men's basketball campaign.

White owns 36 years of coaching experience, including a dozen years of head coaching experience at the junior college level. That includes four seasons at Tallahassee Community College and eight years at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Miss. – where he hired UT Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman for his first collegiate coaching job as his assistant.

A Russellville, Ky. native, White has coached in nine different states during his distinguished career. He has accounted for 260 career wins across 17 seasons as a head coach at the junior college and high school level, including a 241-99 record (.709 winning percentage) in junior college. He's also spent seven years as a NCAA Division I assistant, including five seasons (2002-07) under head coach Rick Stansbury at Mississippi State – winning the 2003-04 Southeastern Conference regular season championship with two SEC West division titles while coaching eight All-SEC honorees and four eventual NBA Draft picks (Mario Austin, Derrick Zimmerman, Lawrence Roberts, Jarvis Varnado).

Last season, UT Martin featured 16 newcomers, which were tied with California, IU Indy and Louisville for the most in NCAA Division I men’s basketball in 2024-25. The Skyhawks also touted the most international players (12) in the NCAA Division I ranks, which led to national attention when NCAA.com profiled UT Martin in a feature story as part of World Basketball Day on Dec. 21.

Navigating the entire season without a single minute of playing time from a returner, the Skyhawks won their first-round matchup in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship tournament, posting 14 victories against a brutal schedule that included five postseason participants (three of which took part in the NCAA Tournament) and nine games against eventual 20-win teams. UT Martin went 3-1 against the OVC regular season champion (1-1 against Southeast Missouri) and tournament champion (2-0 against SIUE) while also defeating CollegeBasketballInsider.com champion Illinois State. In addition to NCAA Tournament participant SIUE, the Skyhawks also recorded sweeps over OVC rivals Western Illinois, Eastern Illinois and Southern Indiana.

UT Martin wound up ranking in the top-20 in NCAA Division I men's basketball in offensive rebounding per game (13.73, 12^th), bench points per game (29.73, 17^th), rebounds per game (39.42, 19^th) and three-point field goal attempts per game (28.8, 20^th) in 2024-25. The Skyhawks also topped the OVC in three-point field goals made (9.1 per contest) and offensive rebounding (13.1 per outing) in league play.

White went 80-33 as head coach at Tallahassee Community College, engineering a remarkable turnaround for an Eagle program that was coming off five consecutive years without a postseason appearance. He quickly ended that drought with back-to-back postseason berths in his first two seasons in charge, including a state championship game appearance in his debut campaign. By his fourth season, he had TCC ranked as high as No. 4 in the NJCAA poll.

At East Mississippi, White inherited a program that was 36-109 over its previous six seasons with just one division victory in its last two years. He accounted for a complete transformation of the program, generating a 161-66 record – highlighted by a sweep of Region 23 championships, District 15 titles and NJCAA Tournament appearances in four consecutive years from 2008-12. That included a remarkable .845 winning percentage (60-11) in his final six years in division play. He was in charge of a school-record 27 victories (against just seven losses) in 2009-10 and was named district and region Coach of the Year four times each, mentoring five NJCAA All-Americans.

Overall, White produced 48 players who signed NCAA Division I scholarships and graduated 96 percent (52 of 54) of his student-athletes as a junior college head coach.

White was part of the arguably the greatest run in Mississippi State men’s basketball history as the Bulldogs went 106-54 (.663 winning percentage) while claiming three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and a NIT semifinal berth in his five seasons in Starkville. During Mississippi State’s record-setting run in 2003-04, the Bulldogs were 26-4 overall, claimed the No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional of the NCAA Tournament and nabbed a No. 8 final ranking in the Associated Press poll.

White got his first NCAA Division I job at Georgia Southern in 1993-94 as an assistant under head coach Frank Kerns. He has also spent time as an assistant at North Idaho College (1996-2000), Jacksonville College (1995-96), Barton Community College (1994-95), Wabash Valley College (1992-93) and Pikeville College (1990-92).

White helped North Idaho College to a 30-6 record in his first season, working under head coach Hugh Watson. The Cardinals posted a school-best fourth-place finish at the 1997 NJCAA Tournament. He also served as an assistant under head coach Pat Smith in his stops at Jacksonville, Barton and Wabash Valley. White was part of incredible success at all three stops alongside Smith as they led Wabash Valley to a ninth-place team finish at the 1993 NJCAA Tournament before coaching a No. 3 nationally ranked squad at Barton and achieving a No. 7 national ranking at Jacksonville.

White has also served as head coach at four different high schools in his career, receiving his first head coaching opportunity at Central Hardin in Cecilia, Ky. from 2000-02. He then led Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, Tenn. to a TSSAA Elite 8 berth during the 2019-20 season before leading Whitley County (Williamsburg, Ky. in 2020-21) and Hickman County (Clinton, Ky. in 2023-24). He was also an assistant at Bath County High School in Owingsville, Ky. for the 2022-23 campaign.

This will be White’s second run through the OVC as he was a graduate assistant and volunteer assistant at his alma mater, Austin Peay. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1988 and a Master’s degree from the university in 1989, coaching alongside Stansbury during the 1988-89 season where the Governors advanced to the OVC Championship finals.