UTEP Coach Tim Floyd announced on Thursday that Bobby Braswell has been promoted to assistant coach with the Miners. Braswell has served as the Miners’ Director of Basketball Operations for the last three years.
Braswell succeeds Ken Deweese, who served in the assistant coach role for the previous five years before accepting a position at the University of Northern Colorado.
“Coach Braswell is one of the men in this business who I have the utmost respect for,” Floyd said. “Our players love him. He understands the importance of an assistant coach not only recruiting, which he has done very successfully, but also coaching and mentoring players.
“As the head coach at Cal State Northridge — one of the more challenging jobs in the country — he led two teams to the NCAA Tournament and four others into the conference tournament finals. He had previous stops at Long Beach State and Oregon as an assistant. Prior to his collegiate coaching career, he was the head coach at Cleveland High School in the Los Angeles area, where he coached numerous players on to the Division I level.”
Braswell compiled 251 victories at Cal State Northridge with NCAA Tournament trips in 2001 and 2009. The Matadors were the Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament champion in 2001, the Big West Conference regular season champ in 2008, and the Big West Conference regular season and tournament champion in 2009.
He was chosen the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year in 2001, and the Big West Conference Coach of the Year in 2008 and 2009.
He engineered a trio of 20-win campaigns at Northridge. His squad posted a historic victory during the 2000-01 campaign, upsetting no. 15 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion 78-74. It was the team’s first victory over a nationally ranked squad. He coached a total of 12 players who earned first team All-Conference honors, including the school’s no. 1 scorer and no. 2 rebounder Brian Heinle.
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As an assistant coach, Braswell was a part of an NCAA Tournament team at Oregon (1994-95) and two NIT squads at Long Beach State. He recruited the players that formed the 49ers’ 1993 NCAA Tournament qualifier.
Braswell’s Cleveland High School teams won two Valley League titles and he was twice chosen Coach of the Year. Among the players he coached at Cleveland High School were Lucious Harris (Long Beach State), Eddie Hill (Washington State), Adonis Jordan (Kansas) and Trevor Wilson (UCLA). Harris and Wilson played in the NBA. Harris was with Dallas, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Cleveland and Wilson was with Atlanta, the Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento and Philadelphia.
Braswell and his wife, Penny, have three children, two of which attend UTEP.
Deweese joins Miner graduate assistant Vinnie McGhee on Jeff Linder’s staff at Northern Colorado. Deweese has been with the UTEP program for six years, five as an assistant.
Deweese was a part of 122 victories while at UTEP, including 63 in Conference USA play, and three postseason tournaments including the 2015 NIT. His father was an assistant coach at UTEP from 1976-80 under the legendary Don Haskins.
“These two hires tell me that Coach Linder has done his research and understands what moves a program,” Floyd said. “Ken is excited about the opportunity to have a bigger voice on the floor as he continues his pursuit to become a Division I head coach one day. We have enjoyed watching him grow over the last six years. He has done a terrific job for us and we wish he and his wife Natalie the very best in the years to come. I was so impressed with Vinnie’s work ethic, his huge smile and personality, and I have no doubt that he’s going to be a star in this business at some point. Players love him, and I think he understands what a player is and where to go get them.”
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