Marty Gross came to Missouri State in August 2022 as the program's new director of basketball operations.
Gross came to Springfield after a 10-year stint as men's basketball associate head coach at Texas A&M – Corpus Christi where he was part of the Islanders staff from 2011 to 2021. With Gross on staff, TAMU-CC enjoyed one of its most successful seasons ever in 2015-16, rolling up 25 wins and advancing to the Southland Conference Championship game for the first time and making three straight postseason appearances.
Before coming to the Coastal Bend, Gross spent a four-year stint from 2007 to 2011 as an assistant coach at Wichita State, where he helped lead the Shockers to 29 wins and the NIT title in 2010-11. In each of his four seasons with WSU, the team improved its win total.
Gross served as an assistant at Rice from 1992-2007, helping the Owls to 60 wins from 2002-05, the second-most wins in a three-year span in school history. He began his collegiate coaching career at Birmingham Southern University where the Panthers were 103-27, captured three consecutive Southern States Conference championships, made two NAIA national tournaments runs and were ranked as high as No. 2 nationally. He also coached at his alma mater, Jacksonville University, where he served two assisting coaching stints, including three seasons as the school's associate head coach. In 1985-86, the Dolphins were 21-10, won the Sun Belt Conference Championship and made an appearance in the NCAA tournament.Â
He has also been instrumental in cultivating the careers of 40 professional players, including first-round picks Dee Brown and Morris Almond, as well as notable pros Mike Harris, Mike Wilks, Brent Scott, Toure Murry, Ronnie Murphy and Tim Burroughs.
Gross was a four-year letterman at Jacksonville University where he served as the team's co-captain as a senior in 1977. He also played on the 1974 Jacksonville NIT team, which featured four NBA draft selections. He received a B.S. in management from Jacksonville in 1977 and a Masters in the Art of Teaching from UAB in 1979.
A native of Yankton, S.D., Gross is married to the former Mary Pat Nelson.
