UNC Asheville men’s basketball head coach Nick McDevitt recently announced the hiring of Wes Long as an assistant coach.

Long comes to UNC Asheville after spending the past couple of seasons at VCU. He also spent two seasons working at Chattanooga before joining the staff at VCU.

“I am very excited to have Wes Long join our basketball staff here at UNC Asheville,” McDevitt said. “He has been a very successful coach, at many different levels and in varying capacities, including being the head coach at Queens University for five seasons.”

During his time at VCU, Long was part of a staff that helped guide the Rams to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and the Atlantic 10 regular-season crown in the 2015-16 season.

Before joining the staff at Chattanooga, Long spent a total of nine years at Queens University of Charlotte with him serving as head coach of the top-level NCAA Division II program during his last five years with the Royals. Long had a record 75-66 as head coach at Queens.

Long led the Royals to back-to-back regular-season Conference Carolinas titles in 2010-11 and 2011-12. The 2010-11 championship was the first conference regular-season title for Queens since 2003. The 2010-11 team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

Off the court, Long’s student-athletes had five of the seven highest GPA’s in program history during his tenure at Queens.

“Wes is a talented basketball coach that has a great deal of knowledge about the game, but he is an even better family man and someone our players will be able to look to for guidance as they grow on and off the floor,” McDevitt said. “I have had the pleasure of knowing him for about a decade now and have always admired how he approaches both his professional and personal life with integrity and in a first-class manner. He is a great addition to UNC Asheville.”

A native of Mauldin, S.C., Long played and coached as an undergraduate at Clemson. He was a walk-on for the 2000-01 season before spending his final three seasons as a student assistant. He was a member of the Clemson team that defeated then No. 1 North Carolina, 75-66, in 2001.

Long graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Clemson in 2004. He added a master’s degree in Business Administration from Queens in 2007. Married to the former Martha Wahlman, the couple welcomed a daughter, Abbie Grace, in August of 2016.

“Martha and I are thrilled to join the Bulldog family,” Long said. “It isn’t often you find the combination of a wonderful community, highly-successful program and high-quality people that UNC Asheville offers. Coach McDevitt is one of the finest leaders I know, and the opportunity to work with him at such a terrific place is a blessing. We are humbled to be here and look forward to working with the staff to continue the program’s great tradition.”

Long joins a UNC Asheville men’s basketball program that picked up their sixth Big South Conference regular-season title in the 2016-17 season (1996-97, 1997-98, 2001-02, 2007-08, 2011-12 and 2016-17).

The Bulldogs will commence the 2017-18 season having collected back-to-back 20-win seasons and having made two straight postseason appearances with the Bulldogs playing in the 2016 NCAA Tournament and the 2017 CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

The 2016-17 Bulldogs earned the second-most wins in program history in a season with 23. Asheville reached 20 wins faster than any other team in program history in 27 games.

http://www.uncabulldogs.com/news/2017/7/5/mcdevitt-adds-long-to-unc-asheville-mens-basketball-coaching-staff.aspx