Kirk Speraw
FameRank: 3

"Kirk Speraw" is an American basketball coach (sport)/coach and former player. He is currently an assistant basketball coach for the University of Iowa Iowa Hawkeyes/Hawkeyes, under Head Coach Fran McCaffery. Speraw previously served as the head coach for the men's basketball team at the University of Central Florida, from 1993 to 2010. Speraw took the UCF Knights men's basketball/Knights to four NCAA tournament appearances.

Kirk Speraw was named the 2006–07 Conference USA Coach (basketball)/Coach of the Year on March 7, 2007. Speraw's first name was the inspiration for the formation of a UCF Basketball fan support group (Kirk's Jerks). Along with 2009, 2nd round draft pick (34th overall) shooting guard Jermaine Taylor, Andrew DeClercq (Florida '95) and Mark Jones (UCF '98) are the two former NBA players that Speraw has coached, with dozens playing professionally around the globe. Kirk also coached current NBA players Joey Graham and Steven Graham, who played at UCF for two years before transferring to Oklahoma State University.

More Kirk Speraw on Wikipedia.

We knew he was going to have the ball in his hands. If I was Coach Smith, I would have done the same thing.

269

We didn't have a lot of open looks. Marshall was the more active and aggressive team.

262

We came out in the second half with no life and our defense broke down.

214

That was critical. We didn't have (Peppers) in there and ... we were able to keep the game right there, keep it close and not lose any ground.

191

We had some good moments in the game, but that's not playing the game for the full 40 minutes like we needed to. You give up 16 turnovers to their (season-low) five, and that's just too much of a difference in a grind-it-out, possession-type game like this.

177

It's always tough to go on the road and win. East Carolina is a very difficult place to play. They have one of the great environments in college basketball.

173

A big problem that has been with us all year long, really reared its head today. And that is, the last 15 minutes of the game got away from us.

170

That's 11 possessions positive for them. In a tough grind-it-out game, you can't do that.

118

Memphis is athletic and good, but if you can keep them from running you can hang around. If you let them drive into the heart of the defense, they will be hard to beat.

107