Guilford College

Tom Palombo in is his 22nd season as Guilford College’s head men’s basketball coach in 2024-25. In 34 years as a head collegiate basketball coach, Palombo has a 636-269 overall record including a 398-163 (.709) mark as Guilford’s head coach. The Quakers have compiled a 228-88 (.722) in ODAC play during Palombo’s tenure. 

Guilford completed the 2023-24 season with an 26-5 mark including a 13-3 record in the ODAC, making the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time under his tutelage, and advancing to the Division-III Final Four for the  third time. 

The 32-year head coaching veteran has made 11 NCAA Tournament appearances including advancing to at least the Elite 8 six times in his career. He was named the Basketball Times National Coach of the Year in 2010 after leading the Quakers to their second Final Four appearance in as many years. The Quakers were ranked as high as number 1 in the D3hoops.com poll and finished the year ranked number 3. The Quakers also appeared in the 2009 Final Four finishing third. The Final Four runs completed an incredible stretch for the Quakers in which they made four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament while compiling a 104-19 overall record. The 104 wins during the stretch were the most in NCAA Division III.

Guilford would return to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 after winning their third ODAC Title. 

The Quakers would win their fourth ODAC Championship in 2019 and make a remarkable run to the Elite 8 before falling 82-79 to the eventual National Champion Wisconsin-Oshkosh. 

Palombo has been named the ODAC Coach of the Year four times and the South Region coach of the year three times. 

Palombo has directed 21 Quakers to a combined 41 All-ODAC commendations, including four players of the year. Ben Strong ’08 and Tyler Sanborn ’10 both won NABC Division III National Player of the Year honors. In 2024 Tyler Dearman became the program’s first Josten’s Trophy winner.  Palombo also coached Guilford’s only ODAC Farm Bureau Scholar Athlete of the Year award winner, Zach Houston, who won the award twice. 

A 1989 Virginia Wesleyan College graduate, Palombo played on Don Forsyth’s basketball teams and played baseball for the Marlins from 1986-89. After earning his bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism from Virginia Wesleyan, Palombo received his master’s degree in education with an emphasis in sport management from Old Dominion University. 

Palombo has served on the NCAA South Region Advisory Committee and past chair of the ODAC Men’s Basketball Coaches Committee. He has also produced three coaching videos for Championship Productions detailing his offensive and defensive strategies. 

Palombo and his wife, Amy, live in Greensboro and have four children: Kylee, Reagan, Davis and Caleb.