South Carolina Basketball: Will Bailey Hired as Assistant Coach

The South Carolina basketball team saw longtime coach Perry Clark retire earlier this month.  Frank Martin has chosen his replacement.

Will Bailey has been hired by the South Carolina basketball program to be a new assistant coach for the Gamecocks. The announcement comes following the retirement of former assistant Perry Clark, who brought his 30-year coaching career to an end a couple of weeks ago.

Bailey has spent the last four seasons as an assistant with Saint Louis, a storied program and member of the Atlantic 10 conference.  The Billikens have won 23 games in each of the past two seasons, winning the A10 conference tournament championship and making an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018-19.

Bailey has over 15 years of coaching experience at the Division I level, with stops at La Salle, East Tennessee State, Maine, and Chicago State, in addition to Saint Louis.

Here’s what coach Martin had to say about the addition.

“I’m excited to add Will Bailey to our staff, he is a perfect fit.  We have known each other since our America East days when I was at Northeastern and he was at Maine. He has a relentless work ethic that he uses in recruiting and player development. It is no surprise that everywhere he goes the program starts to win.”

Bailey seems to possess the defensive traits that coach Martin looks for in his coaches and players.  In 2019, Billiken guard Javon Bess was named A10 defensive player of the year under Bailey’s tutelage.

In his time at La Salle, the Explorers reached the NIT in 2012, before receiving an invite to the Big Dance the following season, where they’d reach the Sweet 16.  One of the players he coached was former Gamecock Ramon Galloway.

Prior, he coached at East Tennessee State for seven seasons, helping ETSU to six conference titles, three NCAA Tournament berths, an NIT invite, and four 20-win seasons.  He coached two of the Buccaneers’ top three all-time scorers.

He also spent one season each at Maine and Chicago State.

In his playing days, Bailey spent his first two seasons at Parkland College, where he led the junior college to a No. 1 overall ranking and NJCAA Tournament appearance in his first season, and led the nation in steals the following year.  He was a first-team all-conference selection.

He then went on to play his final two seasons at Alabama-Birmingham, leading UAB to an NIT berth as a senior.  He was a team captain and was named the squad’s defensive player of year in his final season.