3 Allen Edwards

Allen Edwards was born Allen Eugene Edwards in Miami, Florida, on December 16, 1975, to Laura Mae and John B. Edwards.  

Edwards was part of two national championship teams in 1998 and 1996 and helped the Wildcats to a runner-up finish in 1997 and an Elite Eight appearance in 1995. 

A native of Miami, Edwards played his prep career at Miami Senior High School where he and his two brothers collected five prep state titles.  He started three years for Miami Senior playing point guard, two guard, and small forward.  Edwards led team in scoring and assists as a senior.  He finished second on the Miami Senior all-time assists list with 488.  Edwards tallied a career-high 34 points and 14 assists.  He was named first-team All-Dade County and first-team All-State; he was also named to the All-Florida Team by USA Today.  Edwards has two brothers who play basketball —Doug, who played for Florida State against UK in the 1993 Southeast Regional Final, and Steve, who was a
guard for the University of Miami.

On October 18, 1993, Edwards announced that he would play his college ball for Kentucky, choosing the Wildcats over the University of Miami, Missouri, Florida, and Boston College.  Edwards said, “Kentucky led all the way. When I found out they were interested in me last year, I jumped for joy.  I always thought I would go big-time, but not this much big-time.”  

Edwards enjoyed a tremendous playing career at Kentucky from 1995-98 that included three seasons under Rick Pitino and one under Smith. The Wildcats advanced to three straight Final Fours during Edwards’ sophomore, junior and senior seasons, including winning national titles in 1996 and 1998. During his freshman campaign, Kentucky made the Elite Eight. With Edwards, the Wildcats compiled a 132-16 overall record and won three SEC regular-season crowns and three tournament titles. He averaged 9.2 points, 3.3 assists, and 3.3 rebounds as a senior. 

Edwards played a reserve role for the Wildcats on their 1995–96 national title team, averaging 3.3 points per game. With the departure of Tony Delk, Edwards then moved into the starting lineup as a junior, averaging 8.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. Kentucky again reached the NCAA championship game but was upset by Arizona. As a senior in 1997–98, Edwards averaged 9.2 points per game and led the Wildcats to their third straight NCAA title game appearance. This time, Kentucky beat Utah to win their second title in three years.

After the conclusion of his college career, Edwards went undrafted in the 1998 NBA draft. He instead went to the Continental Basketball Association, where he played for the Rockford Lightning.  He split the 1998–99 season between the Lightning and the Dakota Wizards of the International Basketball Association. He played the next two seasons with the Cincinnati Stuff of the International Basketball League, until the league ceased operations in 2001.

Edwards returned to Kentucky in 2002 to both complete his degree and to serve as an unofficial assistant/manager to his former coach Tubby Smith with the 2002–03 Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team.  He then joined the staff of former Wildcat Kyle Macy at Morehead State as a full-time assistant coach in 2003 and remained for three seasons. From 2006 to 2009, Edwards was an assistant at VCU under Anthony Grant.  Edwards then was an assistant at Towson in 2009–10 under Pat Kennedy and Western Kentucky in 2010–11 under Ken McDonald, Edwards was hired to coach Larry Shyatt’s staff at Wyoming in 2011.  He was announced as the 21st head coach at the University of Wyoming on March 21, 2016. In his first year as head coach, Wyoming went 23–15 and took home the 2017 CBI championship. On March 9, 2020, it was announced that Edwards had been let go as the head basketball coach of the Wyoming Cowboys. Edwards coached the team for four years posting an overall record of 60–76 and a conference record of 24–49.  On April 8, 2020, Edwards was announced as a part of Stan Johnson’s first coaching staff at Loyola Marymount.

Edwards is married to the former LaTanya Webb, a two-time All-SEC volleyball player at Kentucky. They have two daughters, Mai’a and Landree, and a son, Jaxson.

Coaching History
2016-20 – Wyoming Head Coach – 60 Wins
2011-16 — Wyoming as an Assistant Coach
2010-11 — Western Kentucky as an Assistant Coach
2009-10 — Towson University as an Assistant Coach
2006-09 — VCU as an Assistant Coach
2003-06 — Morehead State as an Assistant Coach
2002-03 – Kentucky as an Assistant Coach

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