D.J. Byrd - Men's Basketball Coach - Mercer University Athletics

Photo by: Mitch Robinson

D.J. Byrd

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
byrd_dj@mercer.edu

The 2023-24 season is D.J. Byrd’s fifth season as part of the Mercer Bears men’s basketball program and fourth as an assistant coach. Byrd was elevated to assistant coach from Director of Basketball Operations in late July 2020.

In 2022-23, the Bears logged 14 wins, including season sweeps of ETSU, The Citadel, and VMI. The Bears added another win against The Citadel in the first round of the Southern Conference Championships to advance to face Furman in the Quarterfinals. Byrd was instrumental in the development of guard Jah Quinones and helped him earn All-Freshman Team honors. Quinones played in all but one game during the season, starting eight contests. He scored in double figures seven times, and he posted seven games leading the team in rebounds, 10 games with the team-lead in steals, and six games leading the team in assists. The 2022-23 squad etched its name in program history, draining the most field goals in a single game against Milligan with 46. The 851 field goals made in the season entered at 10th in the record book. The Bears started the season with incredible assist numbers, breaking the single game assist record against Milligan with 31 and tying it less than a month later against Middle Georgia State. 118 points scored against Milligan set a new program record, previously unbroken since 2014.

During the 2021-22 season, Byrd helped Mercer to a quarterfinal appearance at the Southern Conference Championships in a 16-win season under Gary. The Bears posted a five-game winning streak early in non-conference play and recorded a three-game win streak once league play began. Working with the guards, Byrd helped Jordan Jones earn a spot on the All-Freshman Team. Jones started 10 games in 21 appearances, shooting 43.1% from the field, 40% from distance, and 66.7% from the free throw line. The 2,325 points scored during the season landed ninth in Mercer's record book for single season scoring total. The 2021-22 squad also set a new Mercer program record with a 77% free throw percentage. Jalen Johnson led this charge, shooting 89.5% from the charity stripe which ranks third in Mercer history. More history was cemented as the Bears made a program-high 17 three-pointers against VMI. Johnson made eight of these, adding to his season total of 76 which placed him eighth in the records for most triples made in a season. The 268 made by the team ranks fourth in program history.

In his first season as an assistant coach, Byrd helped Mercer make its first trip to the Southern Conference title game. The Bears finished 18-11 overall after jumping out to a 6-0 start for the first time since 1966-67, and in the former Purdue standout’s second game as an assistant coach, Mercer topped Georgia Tech, 83-73, on the road. Byrd mentored Mercer’s guards and helped Neftali Alvarez lead the team in both points (13.3) and assists (4.2) per game. Alvarez’s 113 assists ranked second in the SoCon and 69th nationally, and as a team, the Bears finished the season 11th overall with 479 assists. Guard Ross Cummings also reached a pair of milestones, surpassing 1,000 points and 200 made three-pointers. He finished the season with 1,244 points, the 16th-highest total in program history, and 246 three-pointers. Cummings ended his time with the Bears only 11 treys away from surpassing Langston Hall’s school record. Both Alvarez and Cummings were All-SoCon selections, while Alvarez and another guard that Byrd guided, Leon Ayers III, landed a spot on the conference's all-tournament team.

The Crawfordsville, Ind. native spent the 2019-20 as DOBO and was in charge of all logistical aspects of the program including but not limited to travel arrangements, practice schedules, overseeing all undergraduate and graduate managers and ensuring that team needs were met.

Byrd spent the 2017-19 seasons as a graduate assistant for the 2019 NABC National Coach of the Year, Matt Painter, at Purdue University. The Boilermakers won the 2019 regular season Big Ten Championship and had the school’s first NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearance since the 1999-2000 season.

Before joining Purdue as a graduate assistant, Byrd was the JV basketball coach and varsity assistant at Franklin Community High School from 2015-2017. He aided coach Brad Dickey and staff to back-to-back (2016, 2017) Mid-State Conference Championships and helped the team win the conference title outright (2017) for the first time since the 1986-1987 season.

During that same time at Franklin, he owned & operated RIMROC Basketball, an organization that provides Indiana youth with training opportunities, league games, tournaments and team camps. He also was the Director of Operations of Robbie Hummel Basketball Camps (2017, 2018) as well as Dakota Mathias Basketball Camps (2018).

Byrd returned to his alma-mater, North Montgomery High School, as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2014-2015 season. There he helped coach Joel Grindle and staff to a Montgomery County Championship and Sugar Creek Classic Championship. Byrd was able to coach his cousin, Grant Gayler, who earned a scholarship to play at Bethel College.

As a player, Byrd played the 2013-2014 season professionally in Germany with the Kirchheim Knights in the Pro A League.

A former standout on the hardwood at Purdue, Byrd played in 130 career games, scoring 890 points and making 195 three-pointers, the ninth-most in a career in school history. Byrd was the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2012 and helped lead Purdue to three NCAA Tournaments as a player (2010, 2011, 2012). In 2010, Purdue won the regular season Big Ten Championship and went to the Sweet Sixteen before falling to the eventual NCAA National Champion Duke Blue Devils.

THE D.J. BYRD FILE
Hometown: Crawfordsville, Ind.
High School: North Montgomery, 2009
College: Bachelor of Science, Purdue 2013; Master of Science Purdue, 2019
Wife: Ashley