Coach Andrew Muse shares his journey from growing up in

North Carolina to becoming a Graduate Assistant at Wichita State.

Growing up in a basketball family, Andrew played for his father in high school and then walked on at App State. He played for Coach Dustin Kerns and his twin brother Aaron served as a Student Manager during their four years in Boone.

After graduating from App State he accepted a Graduate Assistant position at Wichita State under Coach Paul Mills.

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Coach Chris Acker shares his journey from growing up in Compton, California to becoming the Head Coach at Long Beach State.

He was a member of the Chaminade team that knocked off Villanova in the 2003 EA Sports Maui Invitational. Chris played professionally in Portugal and Greece before returning to the US to play in the Continental Basketball Association.

After finishing up his playing career, he embarked on his coaching career. He was on staff at Citrus College then led West Los Angeles to great success. Coach Eran Ganot hired Chris to his coaching staff at Hawaii.

Following two seasons on staff at Hawaii, then Boise State he joined Coach Brian Dutcher's coaching staff at San Diego State in 2019.

Coach Acker immediately helped elevate San Diego State, the Aztecs started the season 26-0 and finished the season going 30-2 including 17-1 in league play prior to the NCAA Tournament being cancelled due to COVID.

The Aztecs went 134-34 (69-16 in conference) during Coach Acker's time on staff. They won two regular season

Coach Acker was hired as the Head Coach at Long Beach State on April 2, 2024.

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2024 Southern Conference (SoCon) Men's Basketball Media Day:

Dwight Perry (Wofford)

Ed Conroy (The Citadel)

Bucky McMillan (Samford)

Brooks Savage (East Tennessee State)

Mike Jones (UNC Greensboro)

Andrew Wilson (VMI)

Tim Craft (Western Carolina)

*Chattanooga, Furman, and Mercer were unable to schedule interviews this season

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Coach Maciariello shares his journey from growing up in New York and being the Albany Times Union Player of the Year in 1996, to becoming a the Head Coach at his alma mater [Siena].

He started his college basketball career at New Hampshire before transferring to Siena College where he redshirted under Coach Paul Hewitt and playing for Coach Louis Orr.

After playing professionally in Italy he returned to the United States and became the Director of Basketball Operations at Siena under Coach Fran McCaffery. He then went on to coach with in the AAU ranks prior to joining Coach Ed Cooley's staff at Fairfield. Coach Maciariello initially went to Providence with Cooley before accepting an Assistant Coach position at Boston University with Coach Joe Jones.

From Boston University he moved to our Nation's Capital to coach at Coach Mike Lonergan's staff at George Washington University. He coached at GW for four seasons including the season that they captured the 2016 NIT Championship.

Coach Jamion Christian hired Coach Maciariello to his staff at Siena. After helping to orchestrate one of the nation's most impressive single season turnarounds, Jamion accepted the Head Coach position at George Washington University and Carm Maciariello was named the Head Coach at his alma mater.

Carm Maciariello led Siena to back-to-back MAAC regular season championships including a berth to the NCAA Tournament - which was subsequently cancelled due to COVID. He won 20 games that first season at the helm and was only the second person in the history of the program to lead them to the NCAA Tournament in their first season as Head Coach.

Despite winning 55% of Siena's games in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference competition, and only having one season under with a losing record, Siena parted ways with Coach Maciariello in March of 2024.

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Coach Dylan Rigol shares his journey from growing up in New England to becoming the Director of Video at Oregon State.

Dylan attended High Point University and was a Student Manager under Coach Tubby Smith and then GG Smith after he took over as Head Coach.

Coach Wayne Tinkle hired Dylan to serve as a Graduate Assistant as well as the Director of Video for the Beavers.

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Coach Matt Ridge shares his journey from being a standout basketball player at Ledford High School to playing on the University of North Carolina JV team, to becoming one of the winningest NJCAA basketball coaches in the country.

After sustaining an injury in high school his recruitment was derailed and that led him to UNC and trying out for the JV team. Following two season playing for the JV team, he stayed on as a Student Assistant for the JV team, and soaked up as much knowledge from the staff - including being a fixture behind the bench during the varsity games learning from the late Dean Smith.

Coach Ridge coached high school basketball prior to taking a leap of faith and joining the coaching staff at Guilford College (NCAA DIII) in 2006, and was on staff for their run to the "Elite Eight" featuring players like Ben Strong, Tyler Sanborn, Justin Strickland, and Caleb Kimbrough.

[Then] Davidson County Community College hired him to be the first head basketball coach in program history and he quickly assembled a talented roster than was ranked as high as 9th in the county and finishing the season as co-champions of the Tarheel Conference regular season.

The program moved up to NJCAA Division II and hasn't missed a beat. Coach Ridge has led the Storm to back-to-back National Championship games, followed by a 5th place finish, and a 3rd place finish in the NJCAA DII National Tournament in the last 4 years. His players have gone on to have great success at the four-year level as well.

The Storm has won 466 games in 17 years, against just 83 losses. The 466 wins are the most wins by any National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II or Division III program in the nation over the 17 years. Coach Ridge's Storm have an 84.88% winning percentage - also the highest winning percentage in the country during that time frame - including winning 93% of their home games.

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