Carson Cunningham

Biography

Dr. Carson Cunningham enters his first season as Associate Head Coach with Air Force basketball in 2026-27. Cunningham comes to the Academy from Missouri State. With two decades of coaching experience, including 15 as a head coach, Cunningham spent the previous two seasons, from 2024-26, at Missouri State as an assistant. Prior to his stint at Missouri State, he spent one season on the coaching staff at Army West Point in 2023-24. Cunningham spent 10 seasons as a collegiate head coach, most recently with Incarnate Word from 2018-23. He was the head coach at Carroll College in Montana from 2013-18 and led them to two NAIA Final Eight appearances. With an overarching coaching philosophy of competing hard, studying and serving, Cunningham’s took over at UIW after it had won three Div. I games. His teams at UIW were consistently among the nation’s top academic programs, earning the NABC Honors Court distinction multiple times, while boasting prolific national rankings in shooting categories. In season one, he guided the Cardinals to the top free throw percentage in Div. I (.810). In Cunningham’s second season (2019-20), Keaston Willis earned Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, a first in program history. In year three (2020-21), UIW turned in a 3.37 Fall GPA and qualified six players for Academic All-Conference consideration and qualified for the conference tournament. In Cunningham’s final season, UIW again made the conference tournament and boasted three academic all-con