Cole Pittis - Men's Basketball Coach - University of Akron Athletics

Cole Pittis

Title:
Director of Basketball Operations
Email:
cpittis@uakron.edu
Phone:
(330) 972-7781

Cole Pittis returned for his third stint with the Zips in 2017-18, and is now in his fourth year on Groce's staff.

He returned to the Zips basketball program following a one-year hiatus to Eastern Florida State College. In 2016-17, Pittis helped lead the Titans to the NJCAA National Championship game and a 31-6 overall record.

Prior to his time at EFSC, Pittis was an assistant to the head coach at Akron (2015-16) under former head coach Keith Dambrot. In addition, Pittis spent three years on Akron's staff, serving as a graduate assistant coach (2008-10), as well as the video coordinator and assistant director of operations (2010-11). During Pittis' time with the Zips, Akron won two MAC Tournament titles (2009 and 2011) and a regular-season championship (2016). Akron advanced to postseason play in all four seasons, including two NCAA Tournament berths (2009 and 2011) and appearances to the NIT (2016) and CBI (2010).

Between the first two stretches with the Zips, Pittis joined his former college coach Geno Ford's staff at Bradley for three seasons. Pittis acted as director of operations for two seasons (2012-13 and 2013-14) and was promoted to an assistant coach for the 2014-15 season.

Furthermore, Pittis played for and coached with Ford at Muskingum, earning first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors and OAC All-Tournament Team as a senior. Upon graduation, Pittis immediately began his coaching career by joining Ford's Muskingum staff as an assistant coach for the 2006-07 campaign. After Ford left Muskingum for Kent State, Pittis joined the Mount Union staff as an assistant coach for the 2007-08 season.

"Cole's familiarity with the University, the City and Akron Basketball has been a real asset in our seamless transition, as this will be his third stint with the program," Groce said. "His knowledge of the University processes and our returning players has been a real blessing. Cole is a well-rounded individual and has a great understanding of the inner workings of a college basketball program. He has done everything from being a Division I and junior college assistant coach to being a DOBO. He brings enormous benefit to the staff and knows how to get things done with scheduling, academics, camps, recruiting, campus visits, coaching, etc. Cole also has strong Ohio ties having played high school and college basketball in the state followed up by coaching stops at Muskingum, Mount Union and Akron."