Little Rock Men’s Basketball head coach Darrell Walker has announced the hiring of Charles Thomas and Evan Eustachy as newest members of his coaching staff.
Charles Thomas comes to Little Rock after spending one season at Saint Louis University. Prior to Saint Louis, Thomas was a member of Keith Dambrot’s staff at Duquesne after serving as an assistant under Dambrot at Akron for seven seasons. In 13 years overall working with Dambrot, Thomas helped the Zips and Dukes to the postseason seven times, including NCAA appearances with Akron in 2011 and 2013.
Prior to his appointment at Akron, Thomas spent two seasons as an assistant head coach at Northwood and one year as an assistant coach at Radford.
Before joining the coaching ranks, Thomas spent 15 years playing professionally in the U.S. and abroad. He started his pro career with the Detroit Pistons as a teammate of Walker (1991-92) before spending six seasons in the CBA with the Grand Rapids Hoops, the Fort Wayne Fury and the Connecticut Pride. From 2000 to 2006, he played internationally in Australia and Sweden.
“I’ve had a long-standing relationship with Charles. It was around my 10th season when he came to the NBA. He was basically my rookie, so I tried to take care of him. When he came back from playing all over the world, he coached at Akron, Duquesne, St. Louis… He’s been a longtime assistant coach at a lot of good places.”
– Darrell Walker on hiring Charles Thomas
Thomas is a 2000 graduate of Eastern Michigan, where he and twin brother Carl played for the Eagles from 1987-91. Thomas helped EMU to its first Mid-American Conference championship in 1988. He added an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance as a senior in 1991. Charles and Carl, one of just nine sets of twins who have played in the NBA, were inducted into the Eastern Michigan Hall of Fame in 2021. Thomas was inducted into the Eastern Michigan Ring of Honor in 2024.
Thomas, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Interpersonal Communication from EMU, and has six children: Ashley, Tré, Caydon, Carter, Chase, and Channing.
Evan Eustachy comes to Little Rock after serving as assistant coach last season at Idaho State University. Prior to that, Eustachy was an assistant coach for three seasons at Odessa College in Odessa, Texas. Eustachy helped the Wranglers compile a 78-14 record with a 44-2 record in conference play, including a 16-0 conference record in the 2021-22 season, the first in school history for the Wranglers.
“With Evan, I talked with Coach Baker, with other colleagues, and did a lot of research on him and he got rave reviews. He’s a pitbull on recruiting and being connected to a lot of people. Coach Baker and I are the old guys, these other two are the young ones now. It’s a good mix.”
– Darrell Walker on his new hires
Prior to moving to Odessa, Eustachy spent one year in Xian, China working for the United States Basketball Academy. In China, he oversaw the player development of professional Chinese athletes, while also coaching USBA travel teams all over China.
Before spending a year with the USBA in China, Eustachy spent four seasons with the University of Texas at El Paso, working as their Director of Basketball Operations from 2016-18. Eustachy served as a basketball operations assistant and video coordinator with the Miners from 2014-16. Eustachy was primarily responsible for coordinating all team travel, player and team scouting, assisting coaches in recruiting efforts and overseeing all UTEP basketball camps.
Eustachy, originally from Ames, Iowa, received his bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts from Colorado State in 2016.
Both Thomas and Eustachy will serve as assistant coaches.
