A veteran of 21 years as a college basketball coach, including 10 in the highly-competitive Atlantic 10 and Conference USA, Dino Presley signed on as an assistant coach with the Highlanders in the summer of 2014.
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Presley came to NJIT from Marshall University in Huntington, WVA, where he was an assistant coach from 2010 until earlier in 2014 with the Conference USA program. Included in his time with the Thundering Herd were back-to-back 21-win seasons and Marshall’s first postseason tournament appearance in 24 years, a spot in the 2012 National Invitation Tournament.
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A graduate of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, Presley was a student assistant at the Division II school before landing a spot on the staff of Division I Hampton for the 1994-95 season.
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The Philadelphia product then went home to coach at Parkway High School in the city and also in the renowned Sonny Hill League in the mid and late 1990s.
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Staying in Philly, he returned to the Division I ranks, coaching at Drexel University for four years before heading south to Towson University in Maryland.
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By then, Presley had forged a reputation as a strong recruiter, with Drexel’s recruiting classes named best in the America East (Drexel’s conference home at the time) his last two years with the Dragons.
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He was recruiting coordinator at Towson and held the same title at his next stop, East Carolina, where he coached for two seasons before returning to Maryland in the same role at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
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Moving to upstate New York and St. Bonaventure of the Atlantic 10 Conference, Coach Presley had a hand in the recruitment of Andrew Nicholson, the star player on the Bonnies’ 2011-12 Atlantic 10 champions and NCAA Tournament qualifiers. Nicholson, who was A10 Freshman of the Year and later conference Player of the Year, was taken 18th overall by the Orlando Magic in the 2012 NBA draft.
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After four years in Olean, NY, with the Bonnies, Presley went to Marshall in West Virginia, where he worked from 2010 to 2014.
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