Jackie Manuel Named UNCG Assistant Coach

According to this article on the UNCG athletics web page, former UNC-Chapel Hill defensive standout Jackie Manuel has been name to Wes Miller's staff at UNCG. Manuel spent this past season as the Strength & Conditioning coach at UNC. He spent 5 years before his time at Carolina playing basketball professionally. Manuel played one season in Japan and four seasons in the NBA Development League.

As a player at North Carolina, Manuel excelled on the defensive end of the court. He was a two time member of the ACC All-Defensive team. Manuel was also one of the three captains of the UNC national championship team in 2005.

The Fayetville Observer posted an article about Manuel's hiring.

"He is positive and energetic, and I am confident he will relate extremely well to our players and prospects," Miller said in a statement. "As one of his teammates in college, I know firsthand that Jackie Manuel is hard-working, team-orientated and a fiercely competitive winner. As he makes this transition to coaching, I expect him to impact our program immediately in the same way he has impacted all of the teams he played on."

Manuel had this to say about working with former teammate and UNCG Head Coach Wes Miller ...

"It's a great honor, and I'm very thankful for Wes to think of me that highly," Manuel said in a statement. "I'm very appreciative and just blessed. It brings back old memories. It doesn't happen often, whether it's playing, coaching, whatever it is, that you get to be with a teammate again. It's going to be good. We know each other very well, so the transition should be real easy."

Duane Simpkins New UNCG Assistant Coach

According to Towson University Head Coach Pat Skerry, Duane Simpkins has taken an assistant coaching position at UNCG. Multiple sources on Twitter are also confirming this hire.

Simpkins (Maryland `96) spent this past season as the Tigers' Coordinator of Basketball Operations. Before going to Towson, Simpkins spent 4 seasons as the coach of the Washington, DC area private school St. Albans. Before that he coached another area private school, Sidwell Friends School.

At Maryland, Duane was a three time All-ACC honorable mention selection at PG. He helped take Maryland to consecutive NCAA "Sweet Sixteen" births. From his Towson bio ...

At College Park he scored 1,123 points for a 9.4 average over a 119-game career that included 90 starts. His 483 career assists rank him fifth on Maryland's all-time list. He's among the Terps top 20 with 120 career steals. A solid free throw shooter, his .812 (311-383) percentage ranks him sixth in program history at the charity stripe.

Simpkins also spent many years playing professional basketball overseas. He retired in 2004.

Before going to the University of Maryland, he was a two time Parade All-America PG at famed DeMatha HS. In 1992, he was named a McDonald's All-American.

Mike Roberts is New Associate Head Coach

According to this Rice University press release, Mike Roberts is the new Associate Head Coach at UNCG. Roberts (Indiana '05) has spent the last 6 years working for Ben Braun. He has been with Braun the past 4 years at Rice as an assistant coach. Before that he was an assistant coach and video coordinator at the University of California-Berkley. Mike spent 2006 as a graduate assistant at Texas Tech. Roberts helped Indiana to a national runner up finish in 2002. He was a two time member of the Academic All-Big Ten team.

(Rice Coach Ben) Braun said, "Mike has been a very valuable addition to our basketball program over the past four years. He will have a great opportunity as the associate head coach at UNCG. I believe Mike has a very bright future in college coaching. Our staff and players have appreciated his dedication and wish him nothing but success."

Here is his bio from the Rice athletics page.

At Rice, Roberts has played a role in the Owls building a foundation for the future. As a member of the coaching staff, he helped the Owls sign an initial recruiting class that both ESPN.com and Rivals.com recognized as one of the Top 10 among mid-major universities. That recruiting success has continued during his tenure.

Tanner New Spartan Director of Basketball Operations

Former UNC walk-on and VCU graduate assistant J.B. Tanner is the newest Spartan coach. Tanner will take over the Director of Basketball Operations duties from Brian Judski for the 2011-2012 season. Here is some of Tanner's bio from the UNCG Athletics website.

With the Spartans Tanner is responsible for many administrative duties including team travel, film, administrative recruiting and summer camps.

Tanner comes to UNCG after spending the previous two seasons as a graduate assistant on Shaka Smart’s staff at VCU, helping the Rams to a remarkable run through the 2011 NCAA Tournament which culminated with an appearance at the Final Four in Houston. Overall, the Rams won 55 games during Tanner’s two seasons in Richmond.

Tanner spent two seasons as a walk-on at North Carolina (2007-09), helping the Tar Heels to the 2009 National Championship. Tanner appeared in 39 games in two seasons as UNC won a pair of ACC championships under Roy Williams. Tanner spent his first two years at UNC as a member of the UNC Junior Varsity squad.

Goodman on SoCon

Fox's John Goodman had a short review of the SoCon offseason and a bit of a season preview. Here's the UNCG portion ...

UNC Greensboro: Kevin Easley (High Point) and Ben Thompson (St. Leo) both left and were replaced by Corey Gipson (Virginia State) and director of basketball operations Kevin Oleskiak. The Spartans have a brutal non-conference schedule that includes road games at Duke (Nov. 13), Virginia Tech (Nov. 17) and Richmond (Dec. 22) and contests in Greensboro against Clemson (Nov. 20), Wake Forest (Dec. 28), N.C. State (Dec. 31) and Maryland (Jan. 3). Three players left the program: Landon Clement (NC Central), Daniel Oliver (St. Leo) and Damien Eargle (Youngstown State).

Notice that Daniel Oliver is now at St. Leo University. I want to wish him luck and hope he has a great finish to his career.

Judski Promoted, Gipson Hired

According to this article on the UNCG Athletics website, Brian Judski has been promoted to the No. 2 assistant spot and Corey Gipson has been hired. All of this shuffling took place because Kevin Easley left to join the staff at High Point University.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!