Head basketball coach Josh Pastner has filled one of his empty assistant coaching positions with Tulane assistant Anthony Wilkins, leaving the Jackets with just one coaching hire to make as the offseason progresses.
A former player at Kent State, Wilkins played professional basketball overseas and in the NBA’s G-League before assuming a coaching position at his alma mater for one year and then taking a job at Tulane for the past four seasons. The Green Wave have struggled over his tenure, failing to finish with a winning percentage above .500 every season, but did improve from 6-25 in 2016 to 14-17 last season.
Anthony Wilkins joins #GTMBB staff at assistant coach. Welcome back to Atlanta! https://t.co/OlApneKcEX
— GT Men's Basketball (@GTMBB) May 15, 2018
Though Josh Pastner’s sample size at Tech is small, his history of hiring quality assistants on the Flats gives us no reason to doubt Anthony Wilkins’ ability as a coach. He was involved with both gameday preparation and recruiting at Tulane and figures to do the same at Tech.
Pastner was faced with the task of filling two assistant coaching positions after two of his original hires, Darryl LaBarrie and Tavaras Hardy, left their positions. LaBarrie was suspended and eventually resigned in the midst of an NCAA rules violation scandal and Hardy left for the head coaching position at Loyola-Maryland at the end of the season. Pastner has been considering keeping on interim assistant Julian Swartz to fill the other position but has not come to a decision yet, per the AJC.