Staff Directory

Gregg Polinsky

Title:
Assistant Coach

THE POLINSKY FILE

Personal Information

Full Name: Gregg Irwin Polinsky
Born: March 15, 1958, in St. Louis, Mo.
Hometown: St. Louis, Mo.
High School: LaDue
College: Northern Arizona, 1981
Wife: Cindy
Children: Abby and Brooke

Coaching/Front Office Experience

1981-83:
Howard Junior College, assistant coach
1983-84:
Texas, part-time assistant coach
1984-86:
Texas, assistant coach
1986-94:
Alabama, assistant coach
1994-95:
Alabama, associate head coach
1995-99:
Georgia Southern, head coach
1999-2004:
New Jersey Nets, scout
2004-08:
New Jersey Nets, director of scouting
2008-18:
Brooklyn Nets, director of player personnel
2018-20:
Detroit Pistons, director of player personnel
2020-21:
Detroit Pistons, senior director of player personnel
2021-22:
Tennessee, volunteer analyst
2022-Present:
Tennessee, assistant coach

In March 2022, University of Tennessee head men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes promoted Gregg Polinsky to an assistant coach role after he served one year as a volunteer analyst. The 2025-26 season will be Polinsky’s fifth with the Volunteers, including his fourth as an assistant coach.

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Polinsky was a Division I head coach at Georgia Southern University from 1995-99 before transitioning to a successful 22-year scouting and front office career in the NBA. He has 44 years of experience working at the college or NBA level, including 20 years in Division I.

“GP added so much to our program this season,” Barnes said upon announcing Polinsky’s promotion. “Elevating him into this role was an easy decision after observing the way he’s impacted our players and staff. His knowledge of the game is so extensive and he’s spent a large chunk of his career in the NBA, which is the goal destination for most of today’s players. He understands what it takes to make it there—and, more importantly—have longevity there. GP is a world-class talent evaluator and an outstanding relationship builder. He fits the culture of our program perfectly.”

Over the course of his four seasons at Tennessee, the team is 109-36 (.752) and has reached the NCAA Tournament each year. The Volunteers have three Sweet 16 appearances, two Elite Eight trips and a pair of SEC crowns (2022 tournament, 2024 regular season). They have earned an AP top-25 ranking every week of his four-year tenure, including spending 50 weeks in the top-10, and finished a program-best fifth nationally on three occasions (2022, 2024, 2025).

In 2021-22, as a volunteer analyst, Polinsky helped the Volunteers to 27-8 (14-4 SEC) record and the program’s first SEC Tournament title in 43 years. Tennessee claimed four AP top-10 victories during the year, tying the school record set in 1976-77, and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

With Polinsky serving as a full-time assistant for the first time in 2022-23, the Volunteers went 25-11 (11-7 SEC) and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. Tennessee posted a 5-1 record against AP top-15 opponents, including a memorable win over top-ranked Alabama, for which Polinsky led the scout.

In 2023-24, Polinsky aided Tennessee to a 27-9 (14-4 SEC) mark and the second Elite Eight trip in school history. The Volunteers won the SEC regular season title outright and tied a then-program record with seven AP top-25 wins, matching the ledger set in 2021-22, his first year on Rocky Top. Dalton Knecht, a finalist for the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award, won SEC Player of the Year honors and claimed the Julius Erving Award, as well as collected consensus First Team All-America status.

During the recent 2024-25 season, Tennessee went 30-8 (12-6 SEC) and made the Elite Eight, marking the first time in program history it reached 30 victories and advanced to the Regional Final. The Volunteers were in the AP top 12 the entire year, earned 18 consecutive top-eight positions, spent five weeks at No. 1 and finished fifth to tie the school record. Polinsky helped coach the team to new program highs in AP top-25 (10) and AP top-15 (seven) victories, plus a record-tying mark in AP top-10 triumphs (four). Zakai Zeigler garnered SEC Defensive Player of the Year status for the second year in a row and joined Chaz Lanier to form the country’s lone All-American duo. He was also one of four Naismith Defensive Player of the Year finalists, alongside teammate Jahmai Mashack.

In his Tennessee tenure, Polinsky has coached six Volunteers to nine total All-SEC honors, while two have made the SEC All-Freshman Team and three have combined for six SEC All-Defensive Team plaudits, including Zeigler becoming the league’s first four-time honoree. Five Tennessee players have been selected in the NBA Draft during Polinsky’s tenure, including four in the top 40 and at least one each year.

Polinsky served in various scouting roles with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets for 19 years, including tenures as director of scouting and director of player personnel, from 1999-2018. He was hired by the Detroit Pistons as director of player personnel in 2018 and held that position for two years before being elevated to senior director in his final season.

Polinsky’s first foray into college coaching came as an assistant at Howard Junior College in Big Spring, Texas, from 1981-83. He then ascended to the Division I ranks, initially as a part-time coach and later as a full-time assistant, under Bob Weltlich at the University of Texas, where he worked from 1983-86.

Prior to the 1986-87 season, Polinsky accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of Alabama, a job that opened when Barnes left Tuscaloosa, Ala., for an assistant job at Ohio State University. Polinsky spent nine years on staff at Alabama during the head coaching tenures of Wimp Sanderson and David Hobbs. He was the associate head coach in his final year with the Crimson Tide, 1994-95, before departing for Georgia Southern.

A standout point guard at LaDue High School in St. Louis, Polinsky began his collegiate playing career at New Mexico. He later transferred to Northern Arizona, where he completed his degree in secondary school education in 1981.

Polinsky and his wife, Cindy, have adult twin daughters, Abby and Brooke.

I know the impact Coach Gregg Polinsky has had on me and others , so it’s great knowing he’s such a valuable part of @Vol_Hoops and @RickBarnesUT staff. His knowledge of people , players and what wins is unique and he brings an energy to every situation. He sparks confidence.
— Tom Crean (@TomCrean) October 26, 2022