Coaching Staff

Mitch Cole
Associate Head Coach

Coaching veteran Mitch Cole has been hired as the Samford men's basketball program's new associate head coach, Head Coach Bucky McMillan announced Friday.

"We are elated to have Coach Mitch Cole join our staff," McMillan said. "I've known Coach Cole personally for over 25 years. He is a person of tremendous character and will fit the values and mission of our great university."

Cole comes to Samford after serving as the head coach at Berry College for the last three seasons. In his time at Berry, Cole posted a record of 51-17. In the 2020-21 season, Cole led the Vikings to both the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) Regular Season and Tournament titles. For his efforts, Cole was named 2021 SAA Coach of the Year. The 2021 Vikings also broke onto the national scene, finishing the season ranked No. 11 in the last NCAA Division III poll.

"Coach Cole has excelled at every level of coaching," McMillan said. "As a head coach and assistant coach, he is a proven winner and is highly respected in the basketball community. He is one of the best player developers and offensive minds in the game and will make an instant impact on our program."

Cole came to Berry after serving two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He spent the previous five seasons on the staff at Texas A&M and was formerly the head coach at Birmingham-Southern College.

"Our organization demands loyalty, consistency, hard work and unselfishness from all of our personnel," McMillan said. "Coupled with great talent and character, Coach Cole checks and exceeds every box we are looking for in a hire. We are glad to bring Coach Cole back to Birmingham."

In Cole's time at Texas A&M, the Aggies won 49 games over two seasons, including a program-record 28 in 2015-16. The Aggies climbed as high as No. 5 in the AP Top 25 and USA TODAY Coaches Poll, achieving the highest ranking in school history.

Texas A&M went on to win the regular-season Southeastern Conference Championship in 2015-16 to earn its first league title since 1986. The Aggies reached the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament to cap one of the best seasons in program history.

Cole came to A&M after one of the most successful seasons in Birmingham-Southern men's basketball history, leading the Panthers to a 23-4 overall record in 2010-11 and winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship with a 14-2 conference mark. The Panthers ended the season by winning the NCAA Division III Provisional Tournament Championship. Cole earned D3hoops.com South Region Coach of the Year honors at the conclusion of the year.

Taking over as BSC's 12th head men's basketball in 2006, Cole was tasked with rebuilding the program from scratch as a result of BSC's move from NCAA Division I to Division III. He quickly built the Panthers into a contender, achieving a 13-12 record with 15 freshmen in 2007-08. Two years later, the Panthers went 20-5 and won the SCAC East Division title. In his last two seasons at BSC, Cole's teams went 43-9, leading the SCAC in scoring each year.

Cole spent 11 seasons as an assistant coach at BSC under then head coach Duane Reboul, who is currently Samford's special assistant to the head coach, prior to taking over as head coach of the Panthers. He was instrumental in the success of a program that amassed over 300 wins during his tenure at BSC.

A New Orleans, La., native, Cole graduated from Holy Cross High School in 1988. He played collegiately at Montana State University-Billings, where he double majored in history and education and graduated in 1992. Cole went on to earn his master's in education from Auburn while working as a graduate assistant with the basketball team.

Cole and his wife, Amy, have three children: daughter Laura Kate and sons Carson and Joshua.

Danny Young
Assistant Coach

Danny Young begins his first season as an assistant coach on the Samford men's basketball staff.

Young comes to Samford after spending the last 19 seasons as the head coach at the University of Montevallo, following two seasons as the head coach at Salem International University. In his 19 seasons at Montevallo, Young posted a record of 372-209, and he has a mark of 433-220 in 21 seasons as a college head coach. 

In Young’s 21 seasons as a head coach, his teams have advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen 10 times. Four of those teams advanced to the Elite Eight while his 2011-12 squad advanced to the NCAA Division II championship game.

Young was named the Gulf South Conference East Division Coach of the Decade for 2000-2010. He led Montevallo to its first Peach Belt Conference regular season championship and its fourth straight West Division championship while guiding the Falcons to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the 10th time in 12 years during the 2014-15 season. Young led the Falcons to 20 wins for the ninth time in his 12 seasons at the helm. The 2014-15 team reached the program’s second-straight NCAA Division II Sweet 16 appearance.

In 2011-2012, the Falcons advanced to their first NCAA Division II championship game in school history. Montevallo posted a 29-8 record while winning the Peach Belt Conference West Division Championship, the PBC Tournament Championship, the NCAA Southeast Region Championship and advanced to the NCAA Championship game with wins in the Elite Eight and the Final Four. Coach Young had one senior who was named an All-American by three different organizations while another senior was named the PBC Defensive Player of the Year. He also coached the Elite Eight Most Outstanding Player and had two named All-Region. The trip to the NCAA Tournament marked the seventh in his nine seasons at Montevallo and the Elite Eight was the third trip in seven seasons for Young’s squad.

In a four-year span from 2003-07 the Falcons appeared in two Elite Eights, four consecutive NCAA Division II South Regional Tournaments, including back-to-back regional championships in 2006 and 2007, as well as three Gulf South Conference championships (2004, 2005 and 2007).

The sixth head coach in the 45-year history of the program, Young arrived on the Montevallo campus in the summer of 2003. That season, with only one returning player, Young molded his first Falcons squad into a solid competitive unit, winning 19 more games than the previous year's team, and posting the biggest turn-around in UM basketball history, tying a school best 23 wins. The team also went on to win their first-ever Gulf South Conference championship, and to the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

He was named Gulf South Conference East Division Coach of the Year for three consecutive seasons (2005-06-07) and was named South Region Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2007.  He also had the opportunity to coach in the inaugural Collegiate Basketball Invitational, spotlighting the top small college men's basketball players in the country (NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA) in the spring of 2007. He was named the Gulf South Conference East Division Coach of the Decade for 2000-2010.

Prior to UM, Young was Athletic Director and head men's basketball coach at Salem International University in Salem, West Virginia. He was associated with the Top-20 ranked SIU program for seven years and posted a 51-11 (.823) record in two seasons as head coach. He guided the Tigers to a No. 18 NCAA Division II final national ranking in 2003, but SIU made it as high as No. 4 earlier in the season and appeared in the Top Ten both of his seasons as head coach.

Young's team also won the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and went to the NCAA East Regional, finishing with a 25-6 record overall in 2002-03. He also had a 138-21 (.867) record in five seasons as an assistant coach with the Tigers from 1996-2001, which included three WVIAC championships, two NCAA Division II East Region Championships, one NCAA "Sweet 16" appearance and one NCAA Division II "Final Four" appearance.

Prior to SIU, Young served as an assistant at Wheeling Jesuit University from 1994-96, and spent a season as an assistant at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Young's first coaching job came when he returned to his alma mater, Grand Canyon University, for three seasons as an assistant after playing two years professionally. While there, he helped the Antelopes to a 62-28 (.689) record including two appearances in the NCAA Division II West Regional.

In his coaching tenure, Young has coached 11 All-Americans and seven Conference Player of the Year selections. Former UM standout Marcus Kennedy became the first player in Gulf South Conference history to be named Division Player of the Year twice in a four-year career under Young.
A native of Duncan, Arizona, and standout athlete in high school, Young earned Honorable Mention All-American honors and was also nominated to the McDonald's All-American Basketball Team. In college, Young was coached by former NBA player, Paul Westphal. He later earned his bachelor's degree in Physical Education from Grand Canyon University in 1990.

Neb Exantus
Assistant Coach

Nebru Exantus has been elevated to Men’s basketball assistant coach. Nebru, “Neb,” most recently served on the coaching staff in a Graduate Assistant role for the Samford men’s basketball team under Coach Bucky McMillan.

Prior to Samford, Coach Neb Exantus was an assistant coach at Southern New Hampshire University, (Alma Mater, 2017)  where he was able to help produce one of SNHU’s best recruiting classes with the direction of Former Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Jack Perri. Before SNHU, Neb was key in the development of close to 20 Division I players in his tenure at West Oaks Academy including standouts that went on to play in the Big 12 and SEC. Throughout Neb’s career, he’s worked with countless pro athletes including Anfernee Simons and John Mooney through his training company, Nexlevel Basketball based out of New England. Neb also works with the Haitian National Team during the summer.

Exantus is a 2017 graduate of Southern New Hampshire University.