Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- esleeck_dg@mercer.edu
- Phone:
- (478) 301-2085
Doug Esleeck was promoted to the role of Associate Head Coach in June of 2014 after spending four years on the sidelines at Mercer in an assistant coaching capacity. Since his arrival in Macon, Esleeck has played an instrumental role in the team’s ascendance as one of the nation’s premier mid-major programs.
With Esleeck on the sidelines, Mercer has racked up 131-81 record in six seasons and made postseason tournament appearances in five consecutive years. The Bears accepted a bit to the CIT in 2015-16 after reaching the second round of the CBI and placed third in the SoCon in 2014-15, despite replacing five starters.
The 2014 campaign saw Esleeck help guide the Bears to a 27-9 overall record, highlighted by the team’s landmark defeat of No. 6 Duke in the NCAA Tournament second round.
Mercer’s downing of Duke sent shockwaves through the college basketball landscape and vaulted the team into the NCAA Round of 32, where the Bears found themselves just 40 minutes shy of a Sweet 16 berth before falling to Tennessee.
The Bears came away from the 2013-14 season with the program’s first Atlantic Sun Tournament Championship in nearly two decades while also finishing atop the A-Sun regular season standings for the second-straight year.
In 2012-13, Esleeck helped lead the Bears to a 14-4 record in conference play and the program’s first outright claim to the Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championship. The Bears’ 24-12 season saw the team capture landmark road wins at Florida State and Alabama before going on to down Tennessee in Knoxville as a part of the team’s first appearance in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
Esleeck’s determined work ethic has seen direct results in on-court success, as Mercer players have collected All-Conference accolades in each of his seasons. Most recently, he’s led implementation of defensive schemes that have resulted in Mercer holding the league’s top spot in field goal percentage defense in each of the last three years and in scoring defense two of the last three years.
During Mercer’s 2012 CIT Championship run, Esleeck teamed with fellow staff members to spearhead scouting efforts that helped the Bears’ hold an upper hand on opponents. Mercer completed that season with five-straight wins en route to the league’s first postseason victory.
As Gardner-Webb’s recruiting coordinator in 2009-10, Esleeck brought in three players ranked among ESPN’s top 150 players at their respective positions. Players signed by the Runnin’ Bulldogs under Esleeck’s tenure included 2007-08 A-Sun “Player of the Year” Thomas Sanders, A-Sun “All-Freshman selection Nate Blank, ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American Aaron Linn and Big South Conference All-Freshman player Joshua Henley (who was also the nation’s top freshman rebounder in 2008-09).
Those recruits, along with other Esleeck-mentored players helped lead Gardner-Webb to a series of unprecedented success, including knocking off then No. 20 ranked Kentucky during the 2007-08 season.
Prior to joining the Gardner-Webb staff, Esleeck was the director of men’s basketball operations at UNC-Greensboro (2005-06) and served as both a strength and conditioning intern (2004-05) and a junior varsity coach (2003-04) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His coaching roots at the high school level and as a camp coach/clinician date back to 2001.
Esleeck’s addition to the Bears’ staff also marked his return to the Atlantic Sun Conference, of which Gardner-Webb was a member until the 2008-09 season when the school moved over to the Big South Conference.
Esleeck earned his bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2005, with a double major in business administration and American history. He also holds an MBA from Gardner-Webb.
Esleeck is married to the former Ashley Neighbors. The couple reside in Macon.
