Morgantown Native Zach Spiker Coaches Drexel to First NCAA Tournament in 25 Years

The last time Drexel made the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, the year was 1996 and the No. 12 seed Dragons upset No. 5 seed Memphis in the first round. 25 years later and the Dragons are making their first trip back to the big dance, coached by Morgantown native and former WVU staffer Zach Spiker.

Drexel’s first trip to March Madness in two and a half decades will not be an easy one, as the No. 16 seed Dragons will face No. 1 seed Illinois in the first round on Friday.

Catch the game live on Friday, March 19 at 1:15 p.m. on TBS! pic.twitter.com/4XLHTtTL8x

— Drexel Men's Basketball (@DrexelMBB) March 15, 2021

Spiker is in his fifth year as the coach of the Dragons. After posting a losing record in each of Spiker’s first four seasons, Drexel is 12-7 this year, 4-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Dragons claimed the CAA’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by defeating Elon in the conference championship on March 9.

Spiker graduated from Morgantown High School and played college basketball at Division-III Ithaca before entering the coaching ranks. After two years as a graduate assistant at Winthrop from 2000-02, Spiker returned to his hometown as an administrative assistant under then-WVU coach John Beilein. Spiker was with WVU from 2002-04 and then spent five years as an assistant at Cornell until 2009. His first head coaching job came at Army West Point, where he had a 102-112 record in seven seasons.