Furman head coach Bob Richey added to his staff for the 2026-27 season with the hiring of former Southern Conference standout and LSU assistant coach Casey Long.
A native of Leesville, La., Long joins the Furman coaching staff after serving as an assistant coach on Matt McMahon’s staff at LSU the past four seasons. All told, he spent nine seasons working with McMahon after five years together at Murray State prior to their arrival in Baton Rouge, La.
“Casey is someone I’ve known and respected for a long time, both personally and professionally,” said Richey. “He brings tremendous basketball knowledge, strong relationships throughout the game, and a work ethic that fits perfectly with the culture we’ve built at Furman. More importantly, he’s a great person who genuinely cares about developing young men on and off the court. We’re excited to welcome Casey and his family to our program, and I’m looking forward to working alongside him.”
While at LSU, Long helped the Tigers bring in a strong transfer portal class which was ranked 16th by 247sports.com and a solid four-member freshman class that was ranked in the top 25 in 2025. In 2023-24, LSU improved seven games in conference play, one of the biggest jumps among the Power 5 conferences, to finish 9-9 in the SEC and advance to postseason play in the NIT.
Long was part of one of the greatest periods in Murray State program history that included four Ohio Valley Conference regular season championships (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22) and three OVC Tournament titles (2018, 2019, 2022).
The Racers won 121 games over his last five seasons there, including 31 in 2021-22, and after an 18-0 record in 2022 were 75-17 in OVC regular season games. Murray State made NCAA Tournament appearances in 2018, 2019 and 2022, advancing to the Round of 32 in both 2019 and 2022.
Long coached KJ Williams, the 2022 OVC Player of the Year and a 2023 All-SEC selection, at both Murray State and at LSU, with Williams scoring over 2,000 points and pulling down 1,000 rebounds during his career. In addition to coaching first-team OVC selections Tevin Brown and Justice Hill, he also coached OVC consensus All-America selection Ja Morant, OVC Player of the Year Jonathan Stark, and league Defensive Player of the Year, Shaq Buchanan.
Prior to his time at Murray State, Long served as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Chattanooga, and later director of operations and assistant coach at VCU. At the end of the 2012-13 season, he served as interim head coach at Chattanooga while the school was selecting a new coach.
As a player at Chattanooga (2003-07), Long started 102-of-125 career contests and was the first player at the school to finish his career with more than 1,000 points, 450 rebounds and 350 assists. He played a vital role for the Mocs as they broke a seven-year drought by winning the 2005 SoCon Championship.
A 2007 Chattanooga graduate with a degree in political science, Long is married to the former Co’chea Rivera and the couple has two daughters – Catalina and Camila.
Long named Assistant Basketball Coach at Furman
