Northwest Florida adds Scott Moses to boost recruiting and development

Northwest Florida State College made its staff move with a clear purpose: add Scott Moses before the 2026-27 season and give Steve DeMeo another proven builder on the bench. In junior college basketball, that kind of hire can shape more than scouting. It can affect who signs, who stays ready, and how quickly a roster turns into a contender.

DeMeo’s operation already has the résumé to sell. Northwest Florida said on March 17 that the Raiders earned an at-large berth to the NJCAA Tournament for the 15th time in program history and were chasing their fourth national title. DeMeo entered the 2025-26 season in his 10th overall year and fourth since returning for his second stint, after he was reintroduced as head coach on April 4, 2022 following his first run from 2013 to 2019. Moses now joins that continuity push with a background built around recruiting reach, player development, and relationships across prep basketball, the NJCAA, and Division I.

What makes Moses stand out is the shape of his recent work. Southern Miss brought him in for the 2025-26 season, and the Golden Eagles finished 19-16 before reaching the Sun Belt Conference Tournament semifinals. That run included three straight postseason wins before a 78-70 loss to Troy on March 8, 2026. Moses had already shown he could help drive guard production in a pressure setting: Tylik Weeks, who Moses also coached at Southwest Mississippi Community College, scored a program-record 106 points during the tournament and averaged 19.7 points per game on the season, including 20.1 in league play. Weeks was named a Howell Trophy finalist on March 31.

That track record matters for Northwest Florida because the Raiders live in the same space where quick development is currency. Moses spent the previous two seasons at Southwest Mississippi Community College, where he helped the Bears go 17-13 in 2023-24. Southern Miss’s staff bio also ties him to Southwest Mississippi’s 34-26 stretch and back-to-back NJCAA Region 23 Tournament trips, while his earlier stops included head coaching at Scotland Campus in Pennsylvania, an assistant role at Adelphi, and prep-school work at Woodstock Academy and Springfield Commonwealth Academy.

For DeMeo, this is not just another name on the staff sheet. It is a coach who has already helped shape high-usage guards, knows the junior college lane, and has worked inside winning environments in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and beyond. At a program that expects to play deep into March, that kind of assistant hire can tilt roster construction as much as any signing day headline.