John Cranford enters into his fourth season with the UCA Men’s Basketball program.
The 2022-23 season will be his second season serving as an Assistant Coach. In his first two
seasons here in Conway, Cranford served as a Graduate Assistant and Director of Basketball
Operations for the Bears before being elevated to assistant coach in June of 2021.
His primary roles as Assistant Coach include opponent scouting, recruiting, director of purchasing,
coordinating team travel, designing and handling team gear, and assisting with day to day
operations.
Cranford, a native of South Hill, Virginia, joined the Bears program in the summer of
2019 after spending 3 seasons as a student manager at current ASUN Conference foe, Liberty
University in Lynchburg, Virginia. While at Liberty, Cranford helped with practice setup, film
breakdown, recording in-game statistics, and assisted with day to day operations.
Cranford was a part of the program during three straight 20 win seasons with the Flames. The Flames won
the conference regular season and tournament titles in their first year as members of the ASUN
conference in 2019. Liberty then went on to the NCAA Tournament to upset #5 seed Mississippi
State in the first round, earning Liberty’s first tournament win in school history.
Cranford has strong family ties here within the Natural State. His parents, Amy and
Bernard Cranford, are originally from Little Rock and Sheridan. John also has family that reside
in Benton and Marshall. Cranford earned a degree in Sport Management from Liberty in the
spring of 2019 and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Sport Management at UCA.
Cranford just recently got engaged to UCA Alumna, Mariana Polk.
