Dylan Howard enters his third season at the helm of the Alabama A&M men’s basketball staff. The Fort Wayne, Indiana native served as the interim head coach in 2018-19 before being officially named the head coach of the Bulldog program on March 3, 2019.
This past season, Howard helped the Bulldogs to their most regular season wins since 2015-16, with freshman responsible for over 70 percent of the scoring on the year. Their home wins over Troy, Jacksonville State and North Alabama were the first time the program had won three straight non-conference games since the 2010-11 season.
Howard was elevated to interim head coach of the program for the 2018-19 season, after spending the previous year as the associate head coach on the staff. During the interim season, Howard helped forward Andre Kennedy to his 12.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, while making a team-best 163 field goals which garnered All-SWAC Second Team honors.
Dylan Howard was elevated to interim head coach of the Alabama A&M men’s basketball program for the 2018-19 season on May 17, 2018.
Howard spent the 2017-18 season as the associate head coach on the Bulldogs men’s basketball staff. He has been integral in the recruitment for the Bulldogs and the developing of the big man for the program.
Prior to AAMU, Howard spent five seasons as the associate head men's basketball coach at Morehead State. The team finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 10-6 conference mark. In Coach Howard's five seasons at Morehead State, the Eagles won 89 games..
He helped lead the Eagles to a 23-14 overall record and 11-5 Ohio Valley Conference mark in 2015-16, along with a second-place finish in the 2016 College Basketball Invitational.
With their trip to the championship series of the CBI, Morehead State won four postseason games, the most in program history and its 20-win season was the seventh in program history. Five of those 20-win campaigns have come in the last eight years and Howard has helped lead Morehead State to 20-plus wins twice in four years. The 23 wins marked the most victories for the Eagles since they finished the 2010-11 season at 25-10.
Howard participated in the NCAA's 2014 Achieving Coaching Excellence (ACE) Forum in Indianapolis. The three-day program honors some of the top minority assistant basketball coaches in the country each summer. Participants interacted with university presidents, directors of athletics, conference commissioners and search firms..
Howard was the top assistant at Mississippi Valley State from 2008-11. He assisted in putting together two top-50 recruiting classes in three seasons at MVSU. Coach Howard recruited five All-SWAC players, including 2012 MVP Paul Crosby and SWAC Tournament MVP Cor J Cox.
Howard came to Morehead State after spending one season as the head coach at Division III North Park in Chicago. It was his second stint and eighth year as a collegiate head coach.
Prior to MVSU, Howard had a seven-year run (2001-08) as the head coach at Division III Hardin-Simmons in Abilene, Texas. He was named American Southwest Conference Coach of the Year in 2005 after guiding the Cowboys to their first-ever league tournament appearance. In 2007, HSU reached the ASC Tournament championship game for the first time in school history.
Howard coached 23 academic all-conference selections at Hardin-Simmons, 16 all-west division honorees and three conference Players of the Year, and two D3 All Americans. He graduated 100 percent of his four-year players in those seven seasons at HSU.
Before Hardin-Simmons, Howard served as a Division I assistant coach at Robert Morris (Pa.) in 2000-01. He was in charge of recruiting, post-player development, scheduling and strength & conditioning.
Howard started his coaching career at Saint Francis in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., where he served as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator from 1996-2000.
The NAIA Cougars went from eight wins in his first season to 31 victories and a No. 1 national ranking during his final campaign. Howard also coached the NAIA National Player of the Year during his final year there.
As a player, Howard played at UAB and led them to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1986 and 1987 and an NIT Final Four berth in 1989. After college, he went on to be a two-time all-league selection in the Asian Professional Basketball Association in Taipei, Taiwan.
Howard earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from UAB in 1992 and master’s degree in sports recreation and management from Hardin-Simmons in 2005.
In 2010, Howard was named to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s Silver Anniversary Team.
Howard, a McDonald’s All-American Nominee, was invited to the 1985 McDonald’s Derby Classic, was rated as high as the nation’s 11th-best player in the nation in high school.
Howard and his wife, Nicole, have one daughter -- Danielle Blanco. His wife is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa. His daughter was on the track team and received her bachelor's degree at Samford University in Birmingham and received her master’s degree in 2017 at Morehead State.
