Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team completes hiring of staff

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray has officially completed his coaching staff with the addition of assistant coach Chris Moore on Monday.

Moore had spent the past five years as an assistant at Wright State University before he was announced as Ray's assistant Monday. The four years prior to that he was an assistant at Ohio Valley Conference member Morehead State under Donnie Tyndall.

MSU had consecutive 20-win seasons during his stint there as well as won the OVC tournament title in 2009, which led to the Eagles' first win in the NCAA tournament in more than two decades.

He has coached 14 players that have played professionally, including current Denver Nugget Kenneth Faried when he was at MSU. Faried was the OVC's player of the year twice and defensive player of the year three times during his career as an Eagle and is the NCAA's all-time leading rebounder.

"I am excited about adding someone to our staff who is as experienced and accomplished as Chris is," Ray said in a press release. "Chris has a great reputation in our business and has built relationships that will be a tremendous help to our recruiting efforts. He will be a valuable asset to our program and we are lucky to have him."

Moore, a graduate of Kentucky State University, also coached at Bellarmine, Indiana-Southeast and Cincinnati.

Ray retained assistant coach Jamie Rosser from Dickey Nutt's previous coaching staff and also added assistant Adam Gordon and director of operations Nick Lagroone.