University of South Carolina Upstate

Andrew Garcia is in his fifth season as an assistant coach with the USC Upstate men’s basketball program.

Garcia has helped mold the Spartans program toward steady success and 2021-22 saw the Spartans achieve one of the best seasons in the Spartans Division I era.  The Spartans earned the number two seed in the Big South basketball tournament and set a program record for conference victories as a Big South member with 10 while also reaching the tournament semifinals for the first time as a Big South member (2018-19). 

Garcia comes to the Spartans after spending the last three seasons as the head coach at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Hired as the program’s first-ever men’s basketball coach, he guided the Cougars to their first berth in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament in 2016. The Cougars captured their first PAC Tournament victory that season with a 74-64 win over Geneva. Garcia coached one All-PAC performer during his tenure as Alex Schoppen was named Honorable Mention in 2017-18.

Prior to being hired at Chatham, Garcia spent three years as an assistant coach at Carnegie Mellon. He served as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Garcia consistently brought in top academic players on a national level including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington, D.C., California, North Carolina, New Jersey and Maryland. In addition, he oversaw all opponent scouting for the majority of the regular season games and organized all aspects of team video instruction. He orchestrated the team’s defensive scheme and philosophy for the 2012-13 season.

Garcia was an assistant coach for two seasons at Flagler College. His duties included all preseason, postseason and individual workouts with the team. He was also in charge of implementing a recruiting plan for high school and JUCO players in the state of Florida.

He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant for two seasons at Marshall. During his time with the Thundering Herd, Garcia had the opportunity to work with ten players that continued their career in the professional ranks.

Garcia played for head coach Dave Dickerson at Tulane for three seasons and led the team in assists twice. As a senior, he was the team’s captain, a member of the Conference USA All-Academic Team and scored a career-high 23 points against Southern Miss.

Before attending Tulane, Garcia was a walk-on for the football team at the University of Pittsburgh in 2003.

The Pittsburgh, Pa. native is a 2002 graduate of Central Catholic High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Tulane in 2006 and completed his master’s in adult and technical education at Marshall in 2009.