San Francisco State hires Cox as head coach

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco State director of athletics Charles Guthrie has announced the hiring of Dennis Cox as its head coach. Cox comes to SF State from Clayton State, where he guided the Lakers to the 2011 NCAA Division II national championship and a 267-57 overall record in his 10 years. Cox is the winningest active coach in NCAA Division II and currently seventh across all three divisions. 

"Our goal is to build a championship-caliber program that contends for CCAA titles and NCAA tournament berths on an annual basis," Guthrie said. "I believe that Dennis brings the experience and vision that will allow the Gators to reach new heights.

"More importantly, Dennis demonstrated a strong desire to develop leaders on the court and in the classroom. I'm excited for each of our student-athletes, who will now have the opportunity to excel athletically and academically under his leadership."

During his tenure at Clayton State, Cox guided the Lakers to 10 consecutive 20-plus win seasons including two 30-win seasons. Cox is a three-time winner of the Whack Hyder Georgia Women's College Coach of the Year award. The Lakers went an incredible 96-6 and were ranked first in the nation during all three seasons. During that span, Clayton State's six losses were the second fewest in all of collegiate basketball only to Baylor's five.

"I am excited to come in and begin building a program that everyone in the college and surrounding community can be proud of and excited about," Cox said. "Everyone that I have met so far has been passionate about athletics at SF State, and I look forward to being a part of it." 

His teams have won seven Peach Belt Conference championships (2005-07, 2012-14), four Peach Belt Conference tournament championships (2005, '07, '10, '13), and four NCAA Division II Regional championships (2007, '09, '11, '13) in addition to 2011 national championship that saw the Lakers dominate throughout the tournament, winning six games by an average of more than 21 points per game.

Along with being the named the Georgia College Coach of the Year three times, he has been Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year four times, NCAA Division II Southeast Region Coach of the Year three times and National Coach of the Year once.

In addition to his success at Clayton State, he also achieved similar success in his 14 years of coaching at the junior college level in Florida. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Florida College System Activities Association Hall of Fame for his coaching success at both Daytona Beach and Valencia.

"I am also very impressed with the commitment to the academic success of student-athletes at SF State," Cox said. "It will be our goal to not only put a great product on the basketball court, but even more importantly, do all we can as coaches to prepare SF State women's basketball student-athletes for graduation and success in careers beyond basketball."