Tristan Spurlock joined the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball staff as an assistant coach in April 2025.
Spurlock made the move to University City from Iowa City with Fran McCaffery, as he was on McCaffery's staff at the University of Iowa as the Hawkeyes’ director of player development/assistant coach. In his three seasons at Iowa, Spurlock helped the Hawkeyes to 55 victories and two postseason appearances (1 NCAA, 1 NIT). He coached one All-America, a Big Ten Freshman and Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, and eight players who totaled 18 All-Big Ten honors.
Spurlock originally joined McCaffery in Iowa City after playing professionally for nine years, mostly overseas in more than 10 different countries. He concluded his playing career by averaging 12 points and six rebounds in Uruguay. Prior to that, Spurlock—who worked out for several NBA teams following graduation—earned a spot on Detroit’s 2015 NBA Summer League roster and averaged 10 points, three rebounds and three assists.
A native of Washington, D.C., Spurlock received college scholarship offers from a number of Power 5 Conference schools. He played one season at the University of Virginia (2010) before transferring and starting for three seasons at the University of Central Florida (2012-14). While with the Knights, Spurlock averaged 9.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 92 games.
Spurlock was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Virginia and earned All-Met accolades after averaging 23 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks as a senior at Word of Life Christian Academy in 2009. Following his senior season, Spurlock participated in the prestigious Capital Classic, an all-star game which pits the top players from the D.C. area against a team comprised of players from around the country.
Spurlock earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from UCF in 2014. He has two children, daughter Alaya and son Tahj.
