Southeast Missouri State University Athletics

DJ Byrd sets to begin his second year as an assistant coach at Southeast Missouri.

Byrd was hired on Sept. 9, 2024 and helped lead SEMO to its first outright Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title in program history during his first year (2024-25) on staff.

He was briefly at Barry University  before coming to Cape Girardeau before the start of the 2024-25 campaign. Prior to that, Byrd was on the men’s basketball staff at Mercer University for five seasons.

An outstanding developer of guard play, Byrd coached several Mercer guards who earned All-Conference, All-Freshman and All-Tournament honors during their campaigns. The Bears also set numerous records in assists and 3-point field shooting during his tenure.

Byrd worked as a graduate assistant from 2017-19 at Purdue University. There, he was with the 2019 NABC National Coach of the Year, Matt Painter. The Boilermakers won the 2019 Big Ten regular-season title and made the program’s first NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearance since 1999-2000.

A former standout player at Purdue, Byrd saw action in 130 career games and scored 890 points along the way. He made 195 three-pointers, ninth-most among Boilermaker career leaders. Byrd was the Big Ten Conference Sixth Man of the Year in 2012 and helped lead Purdue to three NCAA Tournaments (2010, 2011, 2012). In 2010, the Boilermakers won the Big Ten Championship and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen before falling to the eventual NCAA National Champion Duke Blue Devils.

He earned both his undergraduate (organizational leadership & supervision, 2013) and master’s (leadership, 2019) degrees from Purdue.