Missouri State University Men's Basketball

Marco Harris joined the Missouri State staff in 2024 after most-recently serving under Cuonzo Martin as an assistant coach at Missouri from 2019-22. In fact, Harris spent a decade working alongside Martin in various capacities at the Division I level. His tenure at Mizzou began as director of player development and external relations under Martin, a post he held for two seasons in Columbia from 2017-19. He was elevated to assistant coach prior to the 2019-20 campaign. He was part of NCAA Tournament runs by the Tigers in 2018 and 2021. In 2020-21, Mizzou spent 11 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25, reaching as high as No. 10 nationally, and defeated six conference champions. Harris’ oversight of Missouri’s many initiatives to enhance the student-athlete experience fostered success in the classroom and off the court with several players being named Community Service Award recipients by the Mizzou Athletics Team for exemplary dedication to the community. He also served as director of basketball operations at California during Martin’s tenure in Berkeley from 2014-17 and was part of Cal’s 2016 NCAA Tournament appearance. Harris also served under Martin at Tennessee from 2011-14, serving as the Volunteers’ student-athlete welfare coordinator for two seasons and later as director of basketball operations. He was part of Tennessee’s 2014 NCAA Sweet Sixteen run. Prior to his tenure in the collegiate ranks, Harris enjoyed success as a high school coach and entrepreneur. He served as an assistant coach and later as interim head coach at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School. He helped lead the Hornets to back-to-back OSSAA 5A championships in 2010 and 2011. He also coached AAU teams in Tulsa with his involvement with the Tulsa Titans and Playing with a Purpose clubs. Harris’ partnership with Martin dates back to their time growing up together in East St. Louis, Ill. He began his collegiate journey as a baseball standout at Southern Illinois before transferring to Southwestern Oklahoma State (1992-94) where he ultimately took up basketball and became the squad’s starting point guard spot and team captain. Harris earned his undergraduate degree in Business Management from Southwestern Oklahoma State in 1994. He also holds an Associate’s degree in Business Management from Southwestern Illinois (1992).  He is married to the former Ramona Knight, of Frogville, Okla.

Steve Woodberry made his return to Missouri State men’s basketball in August of 2024 as part of Cuonzo Martin’s coaching staff. Woodberry previously served on the MoState basketball staff from 2006 to 2012 under three head coaches, including Martin, during his first tenure. He was instrumental in helping recruit a Bears lineup that made runs to the CIT championship in 2009-10 and Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship in 2020-11, including MVC Player of the Year Kyle Weems. Woodberry was part of two NIT runs with the Bears, first in 2007 under coach Barry Hinson, and later with Martin in 2011, with five winning campaigns and three 20-win seasons in his six years in Springfield. Before his return to MSU, Woodberry spent the previous three seasons (2021-23) as a scout for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and stayed connected to the college game through his pursuit of potential pro prospects. In that span, he has also served as head coach of the Kansas City-based KC Run GMC AAU program. Prior to that, he spent seven seasons (2014-20) as an assistant coach at Wake Forest University where he helped coach Danny Manning’s Demon Deacons reach the 2017 NCAA Tournament. He also developed John Collins from a three-star recruit into an All-American and first round NBA Draft selection, recorded five ranked wins and produced 14 players who have gone on to play professionally. In 2016-17, Wake Forest ranked in the top 10 nationally in offensive efficiency, setting school records with 268 3-pointers and shooting 77.8 percent from the free throw line. Prior to arriving in Winston-Salem, Woodberry was also on Manning’s staff at Tulsa. He was instrumental in Tulsa winning the 2013-14 Conference USA regular season and tournament championships--the program’s first league title since 2003. The Golden Hurricane went 38-29 overall and 21-11 in CUSA play during Woodberry’s two seasons on staff, which also include a 2013 appearance in the CBI Tournament. Woodberry enjoyed an illustrious collegiate playing career at the University of Kansas from 1990-94, playing alongside Manning and a Jayhawks franchise that produced 110 wins, three Big Eight titles and four NCAA Tournaments in his four seasons in Lawrence. He played in two Final Fours (1991 and 1993) under coach Roy Williams with a national runner-up finish and 27-5 overall record his freshman year. He was a two-time All-Big Eight selection, named team defensive MVP in 1994 and led the team in scoring (15.5 ppg) for an NCAA Sweet 16 team his senior season. Woodberry finished his career at KU with 1,240 points and a bachelor’s degree in Economics (1994). After his collegiate career, he had a brief stint with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers before embarking on an 11-year professional career overseas. He played in Switzerland in 1995 before moving to Australia where he enjoyed a six-year playing career. He was the league’s Most Valuable Player with the Brisbane Bullets in 1999 and was an all-league selection in 1998 and 1999. He also played in Lithuania, Greece, Sweden and Finland before retiring as a player in 2005. A native of Wichita, Kan., Woodberry played on two state title teams at Wichita South High School and was named the 1990 Kansas Naismith Player of the Year. Coach Woodberry and his wife, Bianca, have three children -- sons Shaylen and Sherron and daughter Sanaa’. He also has two other children, Steven and Kaylen.  

Tarrance Crump came to Missouri State for the 2024-25 season after spending the previous three years at DePaul as the director of player development from 2021-24. During his time at DePaul, Crump was the team’s academic liaison and was instrumental in the recruiting and scouting efforts for the Blue Demons. Crump spent the 2020-21 season on Cuonzo Martin’s staff at Missouri, serving as the Tigers’ graduate assistant for one season. That stint came on the heels of five seasons as a Division I assistant coach, first under coach Jon Harris at SIUE (2015-19) and later under Rick Ray at SEMO (2019-20). Crump served as Martin’s assistant director of operations at California during the 2014-15 campaign. While at Cal, Crump was involved in many facets of the Bears’ program, including video breakdown, scouting reports, academic liaison, camps, and community service events. He handled many of those same duties in 2013-14 as an intern on Martin’s staff at Tennessee during the Vols’ NCAA Sweet 16 run that season. The Chicago native was the head boy’s basketball coach at Vine Academy in 2012-2013 after serving one year as the girl’s basketball coach at North Lawndale College Prep in 2011-2012, where his squad won 20 games. Crump’s relationship with head coach Cuonzo Martin goes back to his playing days as a standout guard at Purdue from 2006-08, when Martin was an assistant on Matt Painter’s staff. Crump and the Boilermakers won 47 games during his two seasons and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament each year. Crump, who was also an Academic All-Big Ten honoree at Purdue, earned his degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision in 2008. He is married to the former Tave’ Johnson. The couple has two daughters, Brooklynn and Braelynn.

Carson Cunningham came to Missouri State in 2024-25 after spending the previous season on the coaching staff at Army in 2023-24. He joined the Black Knights after 10 seasons as a collegiate head coach, most recently with five seasons at Incarnate Word from 2018-23. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Carroll College in Montana from 2013-18, where he led them to two NAIA Final Eight appearances.  With an over-arching coaching philosophy of winning, studying and serving, Cunningham’s teams at UIW were consistently among the nation’s top academic programs, earning the NABC Honors Court distinction multiple times, while consistently boasting prolific national rankings in defensive and shooting categories. He took over the UIW program on March 22, 2018 and a year later, guided the Cardinals to the top free throw percentage in Division I (.810). Also, in Cunningham’s second season (2019-20), Keaston Willis earned Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, a first in program history. In year three (2020-21), UIC turned in a 3.37 Fall GPA and qualified six players for Academic All-Conference consideration, while the team won half its conference road games. In 2021-22, UIW boasted the Southland Student-Athlete of the Year in Josh Morgan, compiled a 3.23 team GPA and logged a perfect 1000 APR score with four players on the Southland All-Academic team. Likewise, the Cardinals shot 37.4 percent from 3-point range to lead the Southland and rank 30th nationally. In Cunningham’s final season, UIW set a school-record with 259 steals and boasted three academic all-conference players. He was 42-105 in his tenure at UIW. Prior to his arrival at Carroll College, the program had only two wins the previous season. Five years later, his team was enjoying its third-straight appearance in the NAIA Division I national tournament. In five years with the Saints, Cunningham’s teams were a combined 107-52 (.673) overall, reaching the 100-win plateau in just 150 games. His teams enjoyed four consecutive winning seasons, won two Frontier Conference regular season titles, two conference tournament titles, three NAIA National Tournament berths and a pair of Final Eight trips. The 2015-16 Carroll squad made a Final Eight run and boasted an impressive 3.40 team GPA. The next year, the Saints returned to the Final Eight, produced first-team All-American Zach Taylor and finished No. 3 nationally with a 3.2 team GPA. Finally, in 2017-18, Cunningham’s last season at Carroll, he won conference Coach of the Year, guided Carroll to conference regular-season and tournament championships and to the NAIA DI tournament for the third consecutive year. Likewise, his team led the NAIA DI in field goal and free throw percentage. He also mentored NAIA DI National Player of the Year, Ryan Imhoff. His playing experience includes earning Freshman All-America status at Oregon State in 1997 before leading Purdue to the NCAA Sweet 16 twice and the Elite Eight once from 1998 to 2001. As a freshman, he broke Gary Payton’s OSU freshman scoring record. The next year, he returned to Indiana to play for coach Gene Keady at Purdue. As a three-year starter with the Boilermakers, he logged 1,000 points, distributed just under 400 assists and logged 163 rebounds while earning Academic All-America honors twice. He later played professionally in the CBA and Europe for three seasons in Estonia and Australia. Cunningham earned his degree in History from Purdue in 2001. He served an instructor in the History Department and later the Department of Cinema and Digital Media at DePaul from 2006-13. Concurrently, he coached the varsity boys’ basketball team Andrean Catholic High for five seasons, his alma mater in Merrillville, Ind., where he guided the 59ers to 43 wins over their last 50 games. He earned an MBA from DePaul in 2013, earned a Ph.D. in History from Purdue in 2006 and is the author of five books. Cunningham and his wife, Christy, a former volleyball player at Purdue, have six children: daughters Caroline, Catie Joy, and Mabeline Lucille, and sons Case, Indiana, and Bennet.

Quinn Peterson came to Missouri State in 2024 as the program's director of basketball operations. He spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach under Marty Simmons at Eastern Illinois University from 2021 to 2023.   During his time at EIU, Peterson helped rebuild the Panthers' roster with eight new players in 2022-23, while boasting 10 OVC Freshman of the Week award winners by four different players and collecting the OVC Freshman of the Year and one OVC All-Newcomer Team honoree. He was also instrumental in Eastern Illinois' upset of Iowa in the regular season, which was rated as one of the biggest upsets in college basketball in the past 30 years.   Prior to his time at Eastern Illinois, he served two seasons under Cuonzo Martin as a graduate assistant at Missouri from 2019-21. While there, he was part of a 2021 Tigers' squad that spent 11 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25, reaching as high as No. 10 nationally, and defeated six conference champions.   Peterson began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Oak Park (Ill.) River Forest High (2007-15) and later became head coach at Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago where he served from 2015-19. While at Payton, his teams won more than 60 games with conference championships in 2016 and 2019 and made two IHSA regional appearances.   In addition to his coaching experience, he has worked as director of The Brudas, Inc., a non-profit youth basketball organization founded by former NBA player Iman Shumpert. As a high school and grassroots coach, he helped over two dozen youth go on to play college basketball.   Peterson earned his undergraduate degree in Communications from DePaul in 2011 and later earned master's degrees from Concordia (Ill.) in 2015 and Missouri in 2021.    He is married to the former Veronica Hicks, and has two sons, Jordan and Brendan.