Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray taps his past for staff

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray has used his connections from his three seasons as the head coach at Mississippi State to compile his staff so far.

Former Mississippi State men's basketball director of operations Adam Gordon will join Ray at Southeast as an assistant, the athletic department announced Tuesday. Nick Lagroone, who was a graduate assistant for two years under Ray, was announced as Southeast's director of operations last week.

Gordon, a Los Angeles native and 2006 graduate of the University of Tampa was an assistant at Central Florida Community College from 2006 to 2008 before becoming a graduate assistant at Clemson, where Ray was an assistant coach.

Gordon also worked at Northern Colorado and was a founder of Rising Coaches Elite, which is "an organization that assists young coaches, operations directors and managers with networking and clinics," according to a press release from the athletic department.

"Adam will be a valuable addition to our team," Ray said in the release. "It is important to have someone on any staff that knows the system and more importantly me, so that he can convey that knowledge to the players and the rest of the staff. Adam is so well connected in our business due to his innovative work with the Rising Coaches organization. He is excited to take the next step in his career by transitioning to being a recruiting assistant and on the floor coach. I am just as excited to provide that opportunity for him that he has earned through his hard work and dedication."

Lagroone coached at Greenforest Christian Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, last year and led the Eagles to a 27-2 record as they advanced to the state championship.

He played at Southern Wesleyan University from 2007 to 2011 where he was a two-time NAIA All-American guard. He was a Southern States Athletic Conference honoree three times during his career.

"Nick did a terrific job for me as a graduate assistant and I always knew that I would hire him in the future," Ray said in a release. "He spends a lot of time in the office burning the midnight oil and he had a great rapport with the players. Nick is a selfless person who will do a great job of taking care of the daily operations of our basketball program."