North Texas men’s basketball head coach Grant McCasland has promoted Chris Blakeley to director of scouting and analytics.
For the last two seasons, Blakeley served as a graduate assistant under McCasland, assisting the Mean Green to back-to-back 20-win seasons and the 2018 College Basketball Invitational title.
“Chris exemplifies every characteristic we want to build our program around and has more than earned this promotion,” McCasland said. “He’s got a great basketball mind, has a tremendous work ethic and cares greatly about our team and university. We’re very excited to keep him here with us to continue building a championship program.”
Blakeley, the grandson of North Texas hall of fame coach Bill Blakeley, has been critical in the UNT turnaround from an eight-win season in 2016-17 to 41 wins over the last two seasons. As a graduate assistant, Blakeley was heavily involved with on-court player development, film, scouting and logistics.
Prior to the Mean Green, Blakeley worked with the Dallas Mavericks G League affiliate, the Texas Legends, in player development under head coach Bob MacKinnon. With the Legends, he coached 2005 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Ben Gordan, Pierre Jackson, Quincy Acy, Gary Neal, DeJuan Blair, Manny Harris, Kyle Collinsworth, Andrew Dawkins, Jameel Warney and many more.
“I am grateful and honored to be promoted to coach McCasland’s staff,” Blakeley said. “Coach McCasland has proven himself to be one of college basketball’s best young coaches and the opportunity to continue the process of building North Texas into an elite program under his tutelage is one that I am incredibly appreciative of. I’m proud to be a part of this university and continue the legacy of my grandfather, who I think of often, as I step on the same court that he used to.”
A Dallas native, Blakeley played at Abilene Christian where he graduated with honors in 2016 with a bachelor business administration degree in management leadership. At ACU, he was a three-time Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipient. Blakeley earned his master’s degree from UNT this past spring in recreation event and sports management.
“My wife Landa and I are thrilled to stay in the Denton community,” Blakeley said. “I’m ready to be back with this group of guys and compete for a Conference USA championship. My daily focus will be on continuing to assist coach McCasland, our staff, and our players build a program that the Mean Green community can be proud of.”
https://meangreensports.com/news/2019/6/11/mens-basketball-mean-green-promote-blakeley-to-staff.aspx
