Mercer football adds two assistant coaches

The college football coaching career of former Warner Robins standout Justin Brown will continue close to home.

Mercer head football coach Bobby Lamb added Brown and Grant Cain to the Bears’ coaching staff Wednesday.

Brown played noseguard for Lamb at Furman, earning Sports Network honorable mention All-America honors in 2007 and All-Southern Conference honors in 2006 and 2007.

He spent the 2011 season coaching defensive tackles at Presbyterian after coaching at Hillcrest High in Greenville, S.C.

Brown graduated from Furman in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in religion and communication studies.

“Justin played for me at Furman after I recruited him out of Warner Robins High School where he was a standout,” Lamb said in a statement. “With him having local ties here in the Middle Georgia area and playing for a prominent program like Warner Robins, I’ve had my eye on him as an up-and-coming coach who will work well in our system.”

Cain spent seven years at Coastal Carolina, where he had a variety of duties in that span: graduate assistant, outside linebackers, defensive ends and outside linebackers. He also worked with special teams and inside linebackers.

Cain, who played at Catawba, was also a defensive assistant for Colorado in the Arena Football League.

He played at Harrison, located near Kennesaw, and recruited north Georgia for Coastal Carolina.

Around Mercer/A-Sun

CollegeRPI.com had Belmont’s men’s basketball team projectted Wednesday as a 14th seed in the NCAA tournament, playing Marquette in the Midwest Region in Columbus, Ohio.

The Bruins have an RPI of 61, followed in the conference by No. 133 Mercer and No. 142, USC Upstate. Florida Gulf Coast, which made a nice run to the conference tournament championship game and gave Belmont plenty of trouble, is No. 207, behind No. 180 East Tennessee State and No. 181 North Florida.

Belmont is 61st in the latest NCAA RPI while Mercer is 130, dropping eight spots.

Florida Gulf Coast’s women are No. 58 in the NCAA’s RPI.

Around Georgia College/Peach Belt

Montevallo, USC Aiken and Columbus State will play on in the NCAA Division II men’s tournament while USC Aiken, Clayton State and Lander advanced on the women’s side.

Montevallo will host as the top seed in the Southeast Region, which includes second seed USC Aiken and sixth seed Columbus State.

Montevallo (24-7) knocked off tournament host Columbus State (18-11) 70-57 on Sunday for its first title and the automatic bid.

USC Aiken (26-3) beat Clayton State (28-3) in the women’s tournament championship, 52-47 on Sunday.

USC Aiken will host the Southeast Region, welcoming defending national champ Clayton State (a 2 seed) and Lander (a 4).

Lander is located in Greenwood, S.C., but has only one player not from Georgia.

Ryan Aquino’s senior season ended earlier than he’d hoped, but the Georgia College senior forward did go out in style.

He earned first-team all-conference honors as the only player in the Peach Belt to average a double-double.

The Blessed Trinity grad averaged 17.7 points and 10.6 rebounds to help the Bobcats to a 17-10 record.

Aquino was fifth in scoring and first in rebounding, eighth nationally in the latter entering the PBC tournament.

This story was originally published March 8, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Mercer football adds two assistant coaches."