Proven Winner to Head Islanders Men's Basketball Team

Perry Clark, who guided both Tulane’s Green Wave and the Miami Hurricanes to the NCAA Tournament, is the new head basketball coach at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Clark spent the last three years as a television and radio sports commentator for Fox Sports Network and as an analyst for ESPN. He has more than 28 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 15 as a head coach. During that span, Clark posted a 250-199 record that included seven 20-win seasons and nine postseason appearances.
 
“Perry Clark is a proven winner, on and off the basketball floor and we are fortunate at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to have a man of his knowledge, experience and integrity leading our basketball program,” said Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Director of Athletics Brian Teter in making the announcement.  “He is a tremendous ambassador in the community and he always has the betterment of student-athletes first and foremost in his mind.”

In 1990, Clark took over a Tulane team that won just four games the previous season. In a remarkable turnaround he led the Green Wave to a 15-13 record and was named the Metro Conference Coach of the Year. The next year, Tulane went 22-9 and won its first Metro title, beating Big East champion St. John’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Clark took over at Miami in 2000 and the following year the Hurricanes finished 24-8, a school record for wins in a season. In four seasons at Miami his teams compiled a 65-54 record with two postseason appearances.

“It’s exciting to be able to attract someone with the high level of qualifications that Perry brings to the University,” said Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi President Dr. Flavius Killebrew. “His experience will be invaluable as we build on our highly-successful first year in the Southland Conference.”

Clark is just the second Islanders’ head basketball coach since the program was revived in 1997. Last season, the Islanders went 26-7 under Ronnie Arrow to win the Southland Conference championship and make their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Arrow subsequently took the head coaching position at Southern Alabama.