When Kevin Nickelberry came aboard as the head men’s basketball coach at Howard University in 2010, he inherited a program that had not seen a winning season in almost a decade. Nickelberry, who served as an assistant coach on the Hilltop from 1994-98 under Mike McLeese, has shown Bison nation why he has earned the reputation as a “program builder”.
Since taking over as head coach, Nickelberry has pushed his program to strive for greatness on and off the court.
During the 2017-18 season, Nickelberry witnessed guards RJ Cole and Charles Williams earned All-MEAC First Team honors. Also, Cole was selected Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Rookie of the Year.
Despite an injury-plagued 2016-17 season, Nickelberry led the Bison to the MEAC Tournament Semifinals, led by MEAC Rookie of the Year Charles Williams.
Not only has he produced some of the most impressive seasons Howard has seen in years, Nickelberry has also shown his ability to recruit great talent, as highlighted by the 2013 recruiting class of James Carlton, James Miller, Damon Collins, Marcel Boyd and James Daniel III.
Nickelberry sharpen the skills of 2015-16 MEAC Player of the Year James Daniel III where hed led the nation in scoring, averaging 27.1 points per game. He was also the 2013-14 MEAC Rookie of the Year and became the first male player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau after stellar freshman and sophomore campaigns. Daniel is the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,899 career points after his three seasons as a Bison.
The 2014-15 season proved to be one of Nickelberry’s best thus far. The Bison tallied 16 wins, the most since the 2001-02 season. Moreover, the squad went 10-6 in the MEAC, which resulted in a No. 4 seed in the conference tournament, the highest in over a decade. The season’s success was buoyed by James Carlton, who was named to the All-MEAC First Team, while Daniel made an appearance on the second team. It marked the first time since the 2001-02 season that the Bison had two players honored on the first and second teams.
When not on the court, the Bison work just as hard in the classroom, having several members of the team named to the MEAC Commissioner’s All-Academic team. Nickelberry provided a jump start for the program’s academic success, pushing his squad to a 1,000 Academic Progress Rate in 2014-15. Howard boasts one of the top basketball academic programs in the conference.
Before coming to Howard, Nickelberry was the head coach at Hampton University from 2006-2009. During his three years with the Pirates, he helped guide his teams to 20 non-conference wins, collecting 49 Division I wins during his tenure, which ranked second among MEAC schools. He has also been responsible for producing 24 All-MEAC selections.
A native of Washington, D.C., Nickelberry spent the 2009-10 year as the head coach of the Libya National Basketball Team.
Nickelberry began his coaching career as the head women’s basketball coach at Columbia Union College in 1991 and moved to Howard University for four seasons, from 1994-1998.
During his time in the coaching ranks, Nickelberry worked in all areas including recruiting, fundraising, marketing and public relations. He has been a major part of every aspect, especially during his three-year tenure at Clemson from 2003-2006 when he recruited nine players on the Tigers’ 2007-08 and 2008-09 NCAA Tournament teams.
Nickelberry, who has paid his dues, served as the assistant coach at UNC Charlotte for two seasons. Over that period in 2001-03, he helped develop Eddie Basden, the second player in Conference USA history to win Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season. He also contributed to successful programs at Holy Cross and at Monmouth. For his efforts, he was rated among the Top 25 “Up-and-Coming” college basketball coaches by The Sporting News and Hoopscooponline.com in 2008.
Nickelberry graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Virginia Wesleyan University. Nickleberry has two sons, Kyan and Kelby.
