University of Nevada Las Vegas

Now in his second year as an assistant coach for the UNLV men’s basketball program, DeMarlo Slocum joined the Runnin’ Rebel staff in April 2019.

During his first season in Las Vegas in 2019-20, UNLV tied for second place in the Mountain West, marking the program’s best league finish in 12 years. The team also sent shockwaves through the college basketball world with its victory at fourth-ranked and previously undefeated San Diego State, posting the program’s best true road win since 1991 (a span of 29 seasons).

During the summer of 2020, Slocum was named one of the top assistant coaches in the Mountain West by Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, and prior to that he was named one of the 50 impactful mid major assistant coaches by Silver Waves Media.

Achievement in the classroom is just as important to the UNLV men’s basketball coaching staff. The team performed in the classroom at record levels during Slocum’s first season at UNLV. During fall 2019, the Runnin’ Rebels achieved new highs for grade point averages – 3.25 for the semester and 3.1 cumulative. Then, during spring 2020, the team improved on its record cumulative GPA with a 3.13 when 11 Runnin’ Rebel student-athletes turned in at least a 3.0 semester.

With Slocum’s assistance, sophomore guard Bryce Hamilton became UNLV’s first first-team all-conference honoree in seven seasons as he averaged 20 points per game in league play – also a first for a UNLV player in the last 10 seasons. Hamilton’s league scoring average improved by a stunning 17 points per game in just one season, which helped him earn two of the program’s three MW Player of the Week awards during the season.

Slocum, a Las Vegas native, came to UNLV after serving as an assistant coach at Utah for eight years (2011-19), which included multiple NCAA Tournaments and a total of seven postseason appearances. He was also instrumental in the development of three NBA First Round Draft Picks while at the Pac-12 school. 

Slocum is an Eldorado High School graduate and was the head coach of the Las Vegas Prospects AAU team for five years. During his tenure, the Prospects were ranked among the top five AAU teams on the west coast. Slocum has worked at various collegiate basketball development camps across America, as well as the West Coast All-Star Camp and the Adidas Superstar Camp.  

Prior to his time at Utah, Slocum spent four years as an assistant coach at Colorado State and was at Idaho as an assistant coach for one year before that. He previously served as an assistant coach at Dixie State and Director of Basketball Operations at USC. As the Trojans' DOBO, he was in charge of on-campus recruiting, team travel, scouting and camp coordination.

Slocum played at Dixie State for two years before playing his final two seasons at Georgia Southern, where he earned his degree in public recreation/kinesiology in 2001. During his junior season at Georgia Southern, he was the team's second-leading scorer, before finishing fourth in scoring as a senior. 

He went on to earn a master's degree in educational leadership from Grand Canyon in 2016.