Roman Gentry joined the South Dakota men's basketball staff as an assistant coach in May 2021.
A 2012 graduate of South Dakota, Gentry played for the all-time winningest coach Dave Boots from 2008-10. He averaged 13.5 points during his junior season as a mid-season transfer. As a senior, he was named All-Great West Conference First Team averaging 17.6 points during league play for the Coyotes. Gentry was a part of the 2010 Great West Conference regular season and tournament championship team.
Gentry returns to Vermillion after spending the past seven seasons in the Northern Sun Conference. He’s been on the bench at Concordia St. Paul since 2014-15. While at CSP, Gentry coached four players to all-NSIC honors, including 2018-19 NSIC Newcomer of the Year Isaiah McKay.
In his first season with the Golden Bears, the team went 19-11 and finished fifth overall and third in the south division. The team earned a berth in the conference tournament in all but one of Gentry’s seven seasons with the Golden Bears. In his time in St. Paul, CSP has had 12 student-athletes earn NSIC All-Academic honors including two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree Cole Olstad.
A native of Sioux City, Iowa, Gentry was named the 2006 Iowa 4A Player of the Year and was twice named to the All-State First Team as a prep at East High School. He finished with 1,289 career points and graduated high school as the third leading career scorer among all Sioux City schools at the time. He earned his bachelor’s degree from USD in 2012 and earned a master's degree in sport management at Concordia-St. Paul in 2018.
Gentry got his start in coaching at the high school ranks as an assistant coach at Rapid City High School (S.D.) where the varsity squad reached the South Dakota State Tournament. He then moved to his alma mater, East High, where he taught and was an assistant basketball coach.
