Shawn Finney joined the Marshall basketball staff in the spring of 2007 as an assistant coach after most recently serving as the Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Kentucky in 2006-07.

Finney brings over 20 years of basketball coaching experience to Donnie Jones' staff. Finney, a Mullens, W.Va., native, has been an assistant at Tulsa, Georgia, and Kentucky, where he won a national championship in 1998, and was the head coach of fellow C-USA member Tulane from 2000-2005. He also served as an analyst for ESPN 360 during the 2005-06 season.

"Shawn is a West Virginia native who owns a great basketball background," Jones said. "He knows what it takes to build a winner as he was an assistant to Coach Tubby Smith for 10 years, which included a national championship. Being a former head coach at Tulane, Shawn also brings Conference USA experience to our staff."

Finney was an assistant coach for Tubby Smith at Tulsa (1991-95), Georgia (1995-97) and Kentucky (1997-2000) before accepting the head coaching position at Tulane, which he held from 2000-05.

Finney posted a 60-86 record in five seasons as the Green Wave head coach, highlighted by a 16-15 record in 2002-03. He recruited and coached C-USA All-Freshman team member Taylor Rochestie in 2005, and every student athlete that was recruited or played during his tenure with the Green Wave graduated or is on schedule to graduate.

After starting his coaching career at Garrett Community College in Maryland in the 1985-86 season, he served as an assistant coach at Pikeville (Ky.) College in 1986-87. The next three years he worked as an assistant at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., before moving on to Tulsa in 1990 under J.D. Barnett. After Barnett left Tulsa, Finney remained as a member of Tubby Smith's first staff.

A native of Mullens, W.Va., Finney, 45, received his undergraduate degree from Fairmont State in 1985, where he started at guard as a senior, and his master's from Tulsa in 1992.