University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball head coach Mike Davis has solidified his staff for the 2022-23 season as longtime Division I coach Kerry Rupp joined the Titans as an assistant coach.
“I have known coach Rupp for a long time and worked with him in the past and we are getting a great teacher of the game here at Detroit Mercy,” said coach Davis. “Coach Rupp is going to be really impactful for us. He is very technical in working with the mechanics of all players, not just post players, and will do a great job in helping all of our guys with their technique.”
Rupp brings over 20 years of Division I experience as an assistant and head coach and is also very familiar to coach Davis as he was an assistant coach with him at Indiana and UAB. He has also been a part of six NCAA Tournament teams.
“It is an honor to once again join coach Davis and help build this program to a championship level,” said Rupp. “I go back a long way with coach Davis and I know his passion for basketball and for coaching and I am looking forward to a great year here at Detroit Mercy.”
Rupp spent the past eight seasons as an associate head coach at Oregon State. While he was there, Oregon State won the Pac-12 Conference Tournament championship for the first time in program history in 2020-21 and won three games in the NCAA Tournament to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1982. The Beavers also had five wins over Top 25 teams, including the program’s first true road win over a ranked team since 1985 and the first neutral-site win over a ranked team since 1992. OSU finished the season with a 20-13 record, marking just the second time since 1990 the program reached 20 wins and were ranked No. 20 in the final coaches poll, the first time they were ranked in any poll since March 13, 1990.
In 2019-20, he helped Oregon State to wins over two Top 25 teams (82-65 vs. No. 24 Arizona; 63-53 vs. No. 14 Oregon), the program’s first season sweep over Stanford since 2008-09 and a 10-2 start to the season, the school’s best since 1984-85. The Beavers had a three-game winning streak, including a 71-69 win over Utah in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, before the campaign was unexpectedly ended due to COVID-19. In 2018-19, he helped lead the Beavers to their best conference record (10-8) and best conference finish (tie for fourth) since 1990. Oregon State also had its first conference road sweep (at Colorado, at Utah) since 2009, and swept the season series from rival Oregon and USC.
In 2016-17, Oregon State garnered its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1990 after winning 19 games, including nine in the Pac-12 Conference. In 2015-16, he helped lead a team that was picked to finish last in the Pac-12 to a 17-14 record, including a program-record 15 home wins highlighted by an upset over No. 7 Arizona.
He started his collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at Utah from 2000-04, working under legendary head coach Rick Majerus and was part of three NCAA Tournament and one NIT team and a program that went 70-26. He would go on to serve as interim head coach for the last 13 games of the 2003-04 season, leading the Utes to their first-ever Mountain West Conference Tournament title. Rupp was responsible for the recruiting of Andrew Bogut, who would become the Naismith College Player of the Year and the first overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.
“I owe a lot to Kerry Rupp,” said Andrew Bogut, former Utah student-athlete, NCAA Player of the Year and NBA No. 1 pick. “He recruited me, brought me to the states. I Can’t be more grateful to him as a coach and person. He’s one of the people I can always count on and I’ll be forever grateful for how he helped me become a better player, and more importantly, a better man.”
He then teamed with coach Davis as the associate head coach at Indiana from 2004-06 and an assistant coach at UAB in 2006-07. At IU, the Hoosiers made the NIT in 2005 and the NCAA Tournament in 2006.
Rupp was named the head coach at Louisiana Tech in 2007. During his four years there, he led the team to new heights highlighted by a 24-11 record during the 2009-10 season when the team received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in 19 years and advanced to the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Rupp was named the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches and Louisiana Sports Writers Association Coach of the Year in 2010 after leading the Bulldogs to their best record since 1985.
He posted an overall record of 66-77 at Louisiana Tech, including a nine-win improvement between his first and second seasons (6-24 to 15-18) and another nine-win improvement during that historic 2009-10 campaign (24-11).
After that, he was the director of basketball operations at Hawaii in 2011-12 before joining Montana as an assistant coach the following year. At Montana, he helped the Grizzlies set a Big Sky Conference record with 19 league wins and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years and then would go on to coach at Oregon State.
Prior to joining the collegiate ranks, Rupp enjoyed a 24-year career in the high school circuit, beginning at Unitah (1978-79) and Murray (1979-82) high schools as the head boys’ basketball coach. He served as an assistant coach (1986-90) and head coach (1990-2000) at Salt Lake’s City East High School where he led the Leopards to four region titles and two state title game appearances. Rupp also served as the school’s athletic director from 1992-2000. He was named the Coach of the Year by the Utah High School Activities Association in 1999.
Rupp was an All-American in basketball and an all-state performer in football and hoops at Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah where he graduated in 1972. He played basketball for two years at Utah State before transferring to Southern Utah where he was named the Thunderbirds’ MVP and earned all-district and all-conference honors as a senior in 1977.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Utah University in Physical Education in 1977.
Rupp is married to his wife Lori and they have five daughters (Alie, Lindsey, Shelby, Billie and Randie) and seven grandchildren.
