Zavier Anderson begins his first season as the defensive coordinator with Bryant men's basketball in 2026-27.
Anderson brings 15 years of Division I coaching experience to Smithfield, including the last eight seasons on staff at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami.
Anderson’s eight seasons at FIU included three seasons as the Assistant Director of Operations/Player Development and the last five as an assistant coach with the Panthers. He oversaw all aspects of the team’s defensive strategy, including game planning, practice implementation and in-game adjustments.
During his first season with the Panthers, FIU went 20-14 overall with a 10-8 Conference USA record. The team’s 20 wins marked just the third time in school history that FIU logged 20-or-more victories and were tied for the second most in a single season, while the 10 C-USA wins was the most since joining the conference. In addition, the Panthers advanced to only their second postseason tournament in program history taking part in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament (CIT) and advancing to the second round. During the first round of the CIT, the Blue and Gold won their first-ever postseason tournament game with an 87-81 victory at Texas State.
In addition to his time at FIU, Anderson also spent four seasons at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), one season at The Citadel and two seasons at VCU. He served as the Director of Operations at UAB and The Citadel and a graduate assistant at VCU.
Anderson was part of a UAB staff that led the Blazers to back-to-back 20-win seasons in 2015 and 2016. At VCU, he was part of a staff that led the Rams to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 2012 and 2013.
In his first year at UAB, Anderson was part of a staff that led the Blazers to the school's first-ever Conference USA Tournament Championship and an impressive, 60-59, win against No. 3 seed Iowa State in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
A walk-on and 2011 graduate of Clemson, Anderson appeared in 56 games, scored 47 points, handed out 44 assists and forced 26 steals during his four-year career. During his senior season in 2010-11, he earned the Most Improved Player Award due in large part to playing the most minutes of any walk-on in Tigers history. He made four starts for former head coach Oliver Purnell and was part of a Clemson team that finished 22-12 en route to winning its first NCAA Tournament game in 14 seasons.
