Western Carolina men’s basketball head coach Mark Prosser today announced the addition of Tony Rack to his coaching staff as an assistant coach. Rack comes to WCU from his alma mater at Northern Kentucky University where he most recently served as the Director of Basketball Operations.
Rack has previous working experience with Prosser during his time at Winthrop in the same capacity. He joins Brigham Waginger as an assistant on staff in Cullowhee.
“Tony is a great, young basketball mind that will continue the tradition of recruiting and developing student-athletes that will make all of WCU very proud,” said Prosser on the addition of Rack.
Rack has spent the past three seasons on the bench at Northern Kentucky in Highland Heights, Ky., overseeing all the basketball operations for the Norse program including team travel, camps, and budgetary responsibilities. He helped contribute to one of the nation’s largest turnarounds between the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons as NKU went from nine wins to a NCAA Division I era record 24 victories the following year. The Norse earned their first-ever berth into the NCAA tournament by winning the Horizon League tournament in 2016-17.
Last season, he contributed in helping NKU capture its first Horizon League regular season championship, garnering the automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) with a second-consecutive, 20-win season.
Following his graduation from NKU, Rack got his first position on a collegiate basketball coaching staff as he moved south to join head coach Pat Kelsey’s staff at Winthrop as a graduate assistant and later in basketball operations. He was later assigned the duty of recruiting coordinator on the Winthrop staff. Rack was in Rock Hill, S.C., for three seasons with the men’s basketball program where he was a part of 53 victories and the Eagles twice reaching the Big South Conference championship game.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Rack is a 2012 graduate of Northern Kentucky where he was a four-year member of the men’s basketball team. As a player, Rack was known for his accuracy behind the 3-point arc at NKU as he led the team in 3-point field goal percentage for three-consecutive seasons. As a senior, he finished the year with a 46.1 shooting percentage.
Rack was a team captain as a senior and was also an Academic All-American Nominee, voted to the Capital One Academic All-District IV First Team as well as the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court. He also served as a representative on the NKU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for all four years as an undergraduate.
All told, Rack graduated from NKU as one of the program’s most-prolific shooters, ranking third all-time in 3-point field goal percent (.443) and ninth in three’s made (160).
A 6-0 guard, Rack also had an impressive prep career at Moeller High School in Cincinnati. Over his final two seasons, Rack led the Greater Catholic League in assists and averaged 4.3 assists as a senior. In 2007, he was the starting point guard of the Moeller team that won the Ohio Division I state title. In addition to his basketball skills, Rack was also a member of the varsity football and baseball teams while a prep.
Rack is the son of Jim and Susan Rack and has an older brother, Kevin.
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