Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Wes Long named Associate Head Coach of Blue Raider Basketball
7/7/2022 12:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
MURFREESBORO – Middle Tennessee men's basketball head coach Nick McDevitt has announced the promotion of Wes Long to Associate Head Coach. Long has spent the previous four seasons as an Assistant Coach for the Blue Raiders.
"Wes is an experienced coach who has been part of several championship level teams during his career," McDevitt said. "He continues to play a pivotal role in many areas of our program both on and off the court, and he is someone our players and staff alike know they can rely on. He is very deserving of this promotion."
In 2021-22, Long helped guide the Blue Raiders to a 26-11 record, a 21-win year-over-year improvement from 2020-21, the Conference USA East Division title, and a postseason run that reached that championship game of the CBI. The 21-win improvement marks the largest one-season turnaround in NCAA basketball history.
Long came to Murfreesboro after a year on McDevitt's staff at UNC Asheville. In his lone season at Asheville, Long helped the Bulldogs claim 21 wins, the Big South regular season conference championship, and an automatic berth to the NIT.
Long's 18-year coaching career has included stints at five different schools and a track record of helping to build each program he has served to a championship level. Including the Blue Raiders' C-USA East Division championship this past season, Long has now helped each program at the five institutions he has coached to championships and postseason berths.
Coach Long has served a combined 13 seasons as an assistant coach at five schools: Queens (NC) (2004-2008), UT-Chattanooga (2013-15), VCU (2015-17), UNC-Asheville (2017-18), and Middle Tennessee (2018-present), as well as a successful five year run as the head coach at Queens (2008-13), prior to jumping to the D1 ranks in 2013.
Over the past five years, Long has been recognized by multiple organizations as a reputable assistant coach. Since the summer of 2018, he has been invited as a participant in TopConnect; a networking event for up-and-coming college basketball assistant coaches and athletic directors from around the country to connect and help prepare the assistants to lead their own programs one day. Similarly, Long was chosen as one of 30 assistant coaches to participate in the 2019 College Basketball Consortium networking and development event sponsored by the NABC at the Final Four.
The Mauldin, S.C., native played as an undergraduate at Clemson, joining the Tigers in 2000-01 as a walk-on before later moving into a role as a student assistant.
He earned his bachelor's degree in business management from Clemson in 2004 before adding a M.B.A. from Queens' McColl School of Business in 2007.
Long resides in Murfreesboro with his wife, Martha, a Columbia, Tenn. native. The couple has two daughters, Abbie Grace (5) and Emma Hope (4), and two sons, Canaan (1) and Elijah, born in June 2022.
