Xavier Holland was elevated to an assistant coach in 2024 after joining head coach Paul Mills' staff as a special assistant.
“X is a player’s dream," Mills said when announcing the hire. "There are no office hours in his world. He makes their daily improvement his top priority and is available around the clock to teach and assist. X is strategic about the time that he puts in with each individual player and caters their daily development toward a long-term blueprint. Every drill is another building block in place that will eventually take their games to new heights. Past players have cherished their time with X because of his expertise and teaching ability. He is one of the bright young coaches in college basketball.”
Holland has spent the past year in Nashville, Tenn. as Lipscomb’s Director of Operations under head coach Lennie Accuff. He helped the Bisons to a 20-win season and a berth in the 2023 ASUN tournament semifinals.
Prior to that, Holland assisted the ORU staff as a graduate manager from 2020-22 and was part of the Golden Eagles’ 2021 run to the Sweet 16.
His resume also includes a year as assistant coach at Beckley Prep in West Virginia (2020-21) and two years at Northwestern Ohio (2017-19). In between he interned for the men’s basketball program at Michigan (2019-20).
The Fluvanna County, Va. native started his collegiate playing career at Mt. Vernon Nazarene in Ohio before transferring to NAIA Truett McConnell University near Atlanta. He was an all-conference point guard for the Bears averaging 4.8 assists with a better-than 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio over his two seasons (2014-16).
Holland earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Truett McConnell in 2016 while serving as a student assistant and added a master’s degree from ORU in 2022.
