Coach Dan Bell on Epps: "Robert has just grown up here. Every year, he's gotten a little better and better. Robert is very good. Recruiting is his specialty, and he's become so good at it that I'm scared we won't be able to keep him very long at the pace he's working at now. He's great with the players. His knowledge of the game continues to grow. He's getting very comfortable with what we're doing and he's great asset in every way."
The smile.
That's the first thing you tend to notice about fifth-year Demon basketball assistant coach Robert Epps.
It's obvious that the 6-8, 250-poinder played college basketball -- and in some Demon practices, that's been known to happen.
Epps used that size, sans smile, to hold Georgetown All-American Patrick Ewing in check during a game in 1984-85. Epps was a defensive and rebounding specialist, averaging 7 points and 7 rebounds at Marshall from 1983-85.
During his playing career, the Thundering Herd captured a pair of Southern Conference regular season and tournament titles and played in the NCAA Tournament both seasons. He remained as a student assistant coach in 1985-86, earning a bachelor of science in sports marketing and management in 1985, and served as a graduate assistant coach while earning his master's degree in health and physical education in 1987.
In 1987-88, Epps was the assistant coach at Walker (Ala.) Junior College, where he began his college playing career in 1981-82. As a player at Walker, Epps met then Walker interim head coach Dan bell and they helped the squad go 29-4 and reach the NJCAA Tournament semifinals. Bell moved to Marshall as an assistant coach, and a year later, so did Epps.
In his first year as an assistant for the Demons he helped a team that was picked to finish last to a fourth place finish in the SLC. Epps was also on the bench when the Demons beat Kentucky in one of the biggest upsets of the 1988-89 season.
Epps, a 29-year-old native of Moundville, Ala., was two-time all-region selection and an all-state pick as a high school player. He is single.
Aside from working out and watching sports, he loves to rent movies and tends to forget to take them back for weeks..
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