University of Charleston Athletics

Charleston native, James Long is in his second season as the head coach of the University of Charleston men's basketball program. In his first season at UC, they brought in a great class to start build the foundation on. With only one transferring (Freshman of the Year, Ja'Corey Lipkins to Fort Wayne), the future is bright for the Golden Eagles. 

Long spent the 2023-2024 season as the Head Boys Basketball Coach at Davidson Day School (Davidson, NC) where he helped lead the team to a 24-7 record. Long was able to drastically improve the squads win percentage from 22% to 77% as well as going on to win the State Championship in the NCISAA 2A Division.
 
Long spent a three-year stint at West Virginia University Tech as the Head Men’s Basketball Coach. During his time at WVU Tech, Long held a career record of 62-21 (75% win percentage). Long took the team to the NAIA National Tournament all three years and was named the River States Conference Coach of the Year in the 2019-2020 season.
 
Long is the former head coach of Best Virginia, a team that competes in The Basketball Tournament. Since taking over in June of 2021, Long posted a 6-3 record along with winning the West Virginia Regional in the team’s last appearance.
 
Long began his career as the video coordinator for West Virginia University men’s basketball from 2017-2019.
 
Long is a WVU graduate and was member of the men’s basketball team where he played under Bob Huggins. Long amassed multiple accolades during his time at WVU including First-Team Academic All-Big 12, the Mountaineer man award, a member of the Dean’s List, the Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll, the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
 
Long earned both his master’s degree in sports management and bachelor’s degree in finance from WVU.