Tony L. Benford (born March 22, 1964) is an American basketball coach who is an assistant coach of the
TCU Horned Frogs men's basketball team.
Biography
A native of
Hobbs, New Mexico — and 1982 graduate of
Hobbs High School — Benford played under coach
Ralph Tasker
Ralph Edwin Tasker (July 15, 1919 - July 19, 1999) was a high school boys' basketball coach. Born in Moundsville, West Virginia, he coached for over 50 years, including 49 years at Hobbs High School in Hobbs, New Mexico. As head coach at Sulphur S ...
. Benford is married with four children. He attended
Texas Tech University, where he played on the
Red Raiders basketball team for head coach
Gerald Myers. While Benford played for Texas Tech, the
1984–85 Red Raiders team won both the
Southwest Conference (SWC) regular season title and
SWC Classic. The
1985–86 Red Raiders team won the SWC Classic, and Benford was named "Most Outstanding Player" in the conference tournament. Benford was drafted by the
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
in the fourth round of the
1986 NBA draft before playing in the
Dutch Basketball League
The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...
.
Coaching career
Head coaching career
North Texas
On April 24, 2012, Benford was named men's basketball head coach of the
North Texas Mean Green. During his tenure at North Texas, he coached the team to a 62–95 overall record and 30–60 conference record. He was relieved of those duties March 5, 2017.
LSU
On March 8, 2019, Benford was named interim head coach of the
LSU Tigers following the suspension of head coach
Will Wade
Frank William Wade (born November 26, 1982) is an American college basketball coach. He has served as the head coach at three institutions: Chattanooga Mocs men's basketball, Chattanooga from 2013 to 2015, VCU Rams men's basketball, VCU from 20 ...
.
[2019 SEC men's basketball tournament
The 2019 Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Southeastern Conference at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, from March 13–17, 2019. Auburn defeated Tennessee, 84–64, i ...]
. As interim head coach, Benford coached LSU to an overall 3–2 record. He went 1–0 in the regular season, 0–1 in the SEC Tournament and 2–1 in the NCAA Division I Tournament earning a berth in the Sweet Sixteen. On April 14, 2019, Will Wade was re-instated as head coach of LSU.
. Later he served as an assistant with the
. Benford was promoted to associate head coach at Marquette for the 2011–12 season.
In 2017, Benford became an assistant coach under Will Wade at LSU for the 2017–18 season. Benford was named interim head coach at LSU towards the end of the 2018–19 season.
.