Tony Dukes - Women's Basketball Coach

Tony Dukes

Title:
Assistant Women's Basketball Coach / Senior Director of Scouting and Analytics
Email:
tdukes@athletics.msstate.edu

Tony Dukes joined the the Mississippi State women's basketball program on May 16, 2023 as the Senior Director of Scouting and Analytics on Coach Purcell's staff.

In Dukes' third season in Starkville, the Bulldogs accomplished victories that few State teams before had done. Mississippi State defeated two top-15 teams in the same season for the first time in the Sam Purcell era. On January 18, State took down then seventh-ranked Kentucky 71-59 inside Humphrey Coliseum, marking the highest-ranked victory in four seasons under Sam Purcell. Just over one week later, the Bulldogs traveled to Knoxville and earned a 15-point victory over Tennessee, marking only the fourth time in 23 attempts that Mississippi State was victorious over the Lady Vols in Knoxville.

Under the staff's tutelage, freshman Madison Francis was able to earn SEC All-Defensive and All-Freshman team honors. Francis set a new freshman program record with 88 total blocks, which were the third-most of any Bulldog in program history. She finished the season with 2.84 blocks per game, which led the nation. The staff also helped Favour Nwaedozi finish as one of four SEC players to average a double-double during the 25-26 season, which was her first season playing basketball in the United States after spending her first two seasons of college in Japan.

The Bulldogs saw success in Dukes' second year on staff. State concluded the season with a 22-12 record, including making their 13th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Dukes was also an instrumental part of seeing Jerkaila Jordan receive Second-Team All-SEC Honors. Alongside the entire staff, Dukes also helped bring in the 11th-ranked recruiting class according to ESPNW, the second-highest ranked class in program history.

In his first season on staff in Starkville, Dukes help guide the Bulldogs to a 20+ win season, finishing with a 23-12 record.

Dukes, a native of Morrow, Ga., comes to Starkville with experience at every level of basketball, including 10 years of coaching experience. He most recently served as the head video coordinator at Overtime Elite, leading a team of two assistants in the video room. While with OTE, he served as a special assistant to head coach Kevin Ollie, primarily working on practice plans and skill development programs.

He spent three seasons working in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs for one season (2018-19) and two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers (2019-21). While working with the Lakers and Spurs, Dukes worked closely with both coaching staffs, assisting with the editing and sorting of video content and coding live games that were then used to produce detailed analytical reports of future opponents. He would also participate in practices and gameday workouts with players. In Los Angeles, Dukes served as a coaching associate and advanced scout; in San Antonio, he served as a video assistant.

Before working in the NBA, Dukes spent one season in the NBA's G-League after working as a graduate assistant with Louisville women's basketball for two seasons. At Louisville, Dukes helped with daily administrative tasks, updated the recruiting databases, and organized all game film while analyzing and breaking down film from UL practices, games, and scouting reports.

Dukes earned his bachelor's degree in communications and media Studies from Clayton State while playing basketball. While there, he averaged 10.3 points as a senior and shot better than 38 percent from 3-point range in his junior and senior campaigns.