Ray Martin has been named assistant men’s basketball coach at Grambling State University.
Martin has spent over three decades in the coaching profession and comes to the Tiger’s program after serving as assistant coach at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and a four-year stint as an assistant coach and assistant head coach at North Carolina Central University.
Born and raised in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y., Martin was an All-American on the hardwood at Mater Christi High School (now St. John's Preparatory High School) in Astoria, Queens, N.Y., and was voted as the Best High School Basketball Player in New York City in 1973. Martin went on to play four years of basketball at Notre Dame under head coach Digger Phelps, starting at point guard and earning the honor of team captain as a senior for the Fighting Irish. He was a college teammate of NBA standout Adrian Dantley and a member of the Notre Dame team that ended UCLA's 88-game winning streak on Jan. 19, 1974.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in economics from Notre Dame in 1977, his first coaching job was as the head freshman coach at Harvard University during the 1977-78 campaign. Martin then spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at North Carolina State University under head coach Jim Valvano.
During his tenure at N.C. State from 1980-88, the Wolfpack won two ACC Championships (1983, 1987) and made six trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a National Championship title in 1983. Following N.C. State, Martin held assistant coaching positions at Southern Methodist University (1988-89), the University of Tennessee (1989-93), Shaw University (1994-95, 2002-03, 2004-05), Florida Atlantic University (1995-96), Miami (Ohio) University (1996-98), Fordham University (2003-04), and South Carolina State University (2006-07). Martin spent three seasons as head basketball coach at Long Island University from 1998-2001. He also served as an assistant coach to John Thompson during the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in Colorado Springs. Martin has recruited and coached more than 10 NBA professional athletes, including Allan Houston, Spud Webb, Sidney Lowe, Wally Szczerbiak, Nate McMillian, Vinny Del Negro, Thurl Bailey and Tom Gugliotta.
Martin and his wife Valerie have four children - Nina, Alexis, Ashley and Anthony - and two grandchildren, Bryce Gregory Johnson and Samaya Nicole.
