Twitter: MTCoachNick
Nick McDevitt was announced as the 20th head coach of the Middle Tennessee men’s basketball program on March 24, 2018.
Heading into his sixth season in Murfreesboro, McDevitt is fifth in Blue Raider history with 46 home wins and 39 conference wins. His 156 games coached and .667 home winning percentage rank sixth all-time entering the 2023-24 season.
MTSU finished the 2022-23 season 19-14, picking up a win over then-No. 25 and eventual Final Four participant Florida Atlantic at the Murphy Center on Feb. 16. The 2022-23 Blue Raiders also extended their home winning streak to 20 games before falling to Chattanooga on December 15, a streak that wound up as the fourth-longest home win streak in program history.
The '22-23 campaign ended in a three-point loss to Florida Atlantic in the Conference USA semifinals that came down to the final seconds. The Blue Raiders were the last team to defeat the Owls before the NCAA semifinal round.
The 2021-22 Conference USA Coach of the Year, McDevitt led MTSU to a 26-11 record, the Cancun Challenge Maya Division championship, the C-USA East Division title and a runner-up finish in the 2022 CBI. The Blue Raiders also reached the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament, falling in triple overtime to eventual champion UAB.
The Marshall, N.C., native came to Murfreesboro after a five-year stint as the head coach at UNC Asheville where he led the Bulldogs to a 98-66 overall record which includes three consecutive 20-win campaigns in the last three seasons.
McDevitt’s Bulldogs made three consecutive postseason appearances, starting with a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2016 before making the 2017 CollegeInsider.com Tournament and the 2018 National Invitation Tournament.
The Bulldogs went 21-13 his final season in Asheville to lock up the regular season title in the Big South Conference after winning a share of the regular season title with a 23-10 record the season before. The Bulldogs’ remarkable 2017 season earned McDevitt Big South Conference and NABC District 3 Coach of the Year Honors.
McDevitt was also a 2017 finalist for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award. Named after the late Skip Prosser, who passed suddenly in 2007 while the head coach at Wake Forest, the award is presented annually to those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who also display moral integrity off of it as well.
In 2016, McDevitt guided UNC Asheville through the Big South Tournament to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament, his first as a head coach. His postseason history didn’t start in 2016, however.
McDevitt’s run at UNC Asheville first began in 1997 when the guard signed to play for the Bulldogs. Following the end of his playing career in 2001, former head coach Eddie Biedenbach immediately appointed McDevitt to his staff as an assistant coach.
After 10 years as an assistant under Biedenbach, McDevitt was elevated to associate head coach prior to the 2011-12 season and took over the head job in 2013 upon Biedenbach’s resignation.
In 17 seasons on the Bulldog staff McDevitt led his squads to seven postseason trips, including four NCAA Tournaments that featured a pair of wins in play-in games in 2003 and 2011. The Bulldogs have won seven regular season titles in their history, six of which McDevitt has been a part of as either a player or coach.
The Blue Raiders’ head man earned his bachelor’s degree in history from UNC Asheville in 2001. He was twice named to the Big South Conference All-Academic team and was a member of the Dean’s List four different times at UNC Asheville. He was also a member of the Big South Presidential Honor Roll three times and served on the NABC Student Basketball Council his junior and senior years.
McDevitt resides in Murfreesboro with his wife, Lauren, and their two children, Cooper and Kathryn.
*Updated July 2023
Twitter: MT_CoachWesLong
Updated 10/30/2023
The 2023-24 season marks Wes Long’s sixth season on head coach Nick McDevitt’s staff at Middle Tennessee, and second as the program’s Associate Head Coach. Long serves McDevitt’s program as the team’s defensive coordinator. Prior to joining the Blue Raider program in 2018, Long spent one season aiding McDevitt in his final season 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 arrived at Middle Tennessee in 2018 as no stranger to Murphy Center, as he sat on opposing benches and faced the Blue Raiders in past seasons as an assistant at both VCU and Chattanooga.
Preceding the 2017-18 season at UNC-Asheville, Long spent two seasons as an assistant coach at VCU from 2015 to 2017. The Rams compiled a 51-20 record during Long’s tenure on the bench, including back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, a regular season Atlantic 10 championship, two A10 Tournament championship game appearances, and a NCAA Tournament win over Oregon State.
At VCU, Long served as position coach for Rams point guard JeQuan Lewis and helped the Dickson, Tenn. native earn First Team All-Atlantic 10 honors as a senior in 2017. Coach Long served as the position coach for VCU big man Mo Alie-Cox, who finished his career as Virginia Commonwealth’s all-time leader in field goal percentage. Alie-Cox has been a member of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts since 2017, and the VCU star turned NFL tight end recently signed a three-year contract through 2024 with the Colts.
Prior to his two years in Richmond, Long spent two seasons just down Interstate 24 from Murfreesboro as an assistant at Chattanooga. The Mocs totaled 40 wins in Long’s two campaigns in the Scenic City, twice finishing second in the Southern Conference and making a trip to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2014. Long helped recruit and build the Chattanooga team, which in the year following his departure to VCU, won a school record 29 games and both the SoCon regular season and tournament titles.
Before becoming a Division I assistant, Coach Long spent a total of nine seasons at then Division II Queens University of Charlotte, where he served as the Royals’ head coach for the last five campaigns. He first came to Queens as a graduate assistant in 2004, and held that position for two seasons. In addition to cutting his teeth as a young recruiter and floor coach, Long implemented a comprehensive student-athlete academic success plan during those two years. Long was promoted to the full-time assistant position and recruiting coordinator at Queens in 2006, and subsequently helped head coach Brian Good lead the Royals to back-to-back 20-win seasons and two NCAA DII Tournament berths. After helping Good achieve a 72-45 record over four years and earn a new job, Long was promoted to head coach of the Queens program in June 2008.
Coach Long’s five year tenure as head coach at Queens was marked by an incremental rebuilding job which culminated in back-to-back Conference Carolinas regular season titles in 2011 and 2012. His 2011 championship team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament. After an initial 7-21 head coaching debut season, Long’s Queens teams earned a 55-30 record over his final three years in Charlotte. He recruited and coached the top two scorers in program history at Queens, and his student-athletes recorded five of the seven highest cumulative team GPAs in program history.
Long’s 19-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 2021-22 NCAA record 21-game, one-year win total turnaround and CUSA East Division championship at Middle Tennessee, Long has helped to lead each program at all five institutions he has worked to championships and post-season berths. As an assistant to three different head coaches, Long has helped that trio of men earn four separate promotions to new jobs at higher-level programs.
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.
Coach Long resides in Murfreesboro with his wife, Martha, a Columbia, Tenn. native. The couple has two daughters, Abigail (7) and Emma (5), and two sons, Canaan (2) and Elijah (1).
Logan Johnson was promoted to Assistant Coach in 2022 after three seasons as Director of Basketball Operations for Blue Raider hoops.
Johnson spent the 2018-19 season as the Director of Player Development at Campbell University, helping the Camels to a share of the Big South regular season championship and an appearance in the Big South Tournament championship game.
While he was a new face in Murfreesboro he is a familiar one for McDevitt, having spent the four seasons prior to his lone season at Campbell as an assistant coach for the Blue Raiders’ head man at UNC Asheville.
His four years under McDevitt in Asheville saw the Bulldogs win 81 games and three conference championships with three consecutive 20-win seasons in his final three years.
McDevitt first hired Johnson following a three-year stint at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, where he served as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator. Ouachita won the 2013 Great American Conference Tournament in his second season on staff.
Johnson spent the 2010-11 season as a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee and was involved with many aspects of the program including skill development, scouting, and film breakdown.
Prior to his coaching career, Johnson was a four-year starter for at Coastal Carolina and helped the Chanticleers to the 2010 Big South Championship. He was Big South All-Tournament Team selection in 2010 and was twice named to the Big South Academic All-Conference Team.
Johnson was also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Honors Court in 2010 and named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District First Team in 2010.
A Knoxville, Tenn., native, Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Coastal Carolina in 2010 and completed his master’s degree in sport management from Old Dominion in 2015.
Johnson’s brother, Blake, is a fellow member of the college athletics world who currently serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Development at the University of Tennessee.
Eric Wilson joined the Blue Raiders prior to the 2022-23 season. He spent the 2021-22 season as assistant coach at Presbyterian after serving as an assistant coach at the College of Charleston for two years. In his lone season in Clinton, S.C., Wilson helped coach three Blue Hose players to All-Big South honors.
Prior to joining the College of Charleston coaching staff, Wilson spent four seasons at North Carolina Central University where he helped head coach LeVelle Moton lead the Eagles to three-consecutive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
During the 2016-17 season, the Eagles put together one of the best seasons in school history with a 25–9 overall record and a 13-3 mark in conference play. NCCU captured its third MEAC Regular-Season Championship and second MEAC Tournament Championship within a four-year span to make its second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance as an NCAA Division I member school.
Prior to NCCU, Wilson spent six years on the coaching staff of his alma mater, Western Carolina. From 2009 to 2010, he was Director of Basketball Operations for the program, before being elevated to Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator in 2010.
A former four-year point guard and defensive specialist for the Catamounts from 2004 to 2008, he played in 109 career games with 56 starts and averaged 4.2 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. Wilson graduated in 2008 from Western Carolina University's College of Business.
Following his graduation from WCU, he accepted his first coaching position in August of 2008 as an assistant coach (and later interim head coach) at NAIA member Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, Ga. There, Wilson helped lead the Bears to a 20-win season and the conference semifinals. Three players from that squad were named to the Georgia All-State Team.
Wilson and his wife, Kate, are the proud parents of Asher James and Ezekiel "Zeke" Kai.
Brett Carey joined Middle Tennessee men's basketball as Assistant Coach and Director of Player Development in 2023 after two seasons as Associate Head Coach at Austin Peay. Carey rejoins Nick McDevitt after the two coached and played together at UNC Asheville.
Carey joined Nate James’ inaugural men’s basketball coaching staff in May 2021. Carey primarily coached the Govs' big men and was also the acting head coach for two games as James was sidelined due to COVID-19.
Under Carey, the Govs produced 2021 OVC Freshman of the Year Elijah Hutchins-Everett, who became the first freshman in school history to lead the team in points, rebounds and field goal percentage. With Carey coaching the Bigs, APSU ranked fifth in the OVC in rebounding and offensive rebounds per game.
Prior to Austin Peay, Carey spent four seasons at Indiana State under Greg Lansing. In 2020-21, he was one of the architects of one of the MVC's most opportunistic defenses that led the conference and ranked 43rd nationally in turnover margin (plus-2.60) and helped the Sycamores to a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinal appearance and loss to eventual conference champ Loyola-Chicago. Tyreke Key was an All-MVC first-team pick, with Jake LaRavia on the second-team and Tre Williams an All-Defensive Team choice.
During the 2019-20 season, the Sycamores complemented their 18-12 overall record with an 11-7 ledger in MVC play. Key was named First Team All-MVC while Jordan Barnes picked up Third Team All-MVC plaudits; both were named to the NABC Second Team All-District squad. LaRavia was tabbed to the MVC All-Freshman and All-Newcomer teams and Christian Williams picked up a spot on the MVC All-Defense Team. Barnes became the first Sycamore in the history of the program to rank in the ISU Top 10 for career points scored, 3-pointers made, assists and steals.
The Sycamores finished the season ranked 16th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage while Barnes joined Brenton Scott and Michael Menser in the MVC All-Time Top 10 for career 3-pointers made.
In the spring of 2018, the Sycamores had three honorees in the Missouri Valley Conference Postseason Awards. Barnes was named an All-MVC Second Team selection while also appearing on the MVC Most Improved Team and was named the MVC's Most Improved Player of the Year. Scott wrapped a career in which he finished as the program's fourth all-time leading scorer with All-MVC Third Team honors. Key parlayed a successful initial campaign into MVC All-Freshman Team plaudits.
The 2017-18 season opened in historic fashion as the Sycamores recorded a 21-point victory over Indiana inside Assembly Hall. The Sycamores set a record by connecting on 17 3-pointers -- the most ever by a visitor in the iconic venue—and recorded the largest margin of victory for the program against the Hoosiers.
Indiana State later parlayed victories over Colorado and UNLV into a Championship Game appearance against TCU at the 2018 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. It was the first non-conference title game appearance for the Sycamore Basketball program since they won the 1999 Indiana Classic. In the process, the Sycamores downed Colorado for their first win against a member of the PAC-12 since 1946 when they beat Oregon. Additionally, the Sycamores earned their league-best fifth consecutive win over the Mountain West Conference with its win over UNLV.
Carey came to the Sycamore Basketball program after spending nine years coaching first alongside and then under McDevitt at UNC Asheville, including the final two years as the program's Associate Head Coach.
A former standout player for the Bulldogs, Carey played key roles in helping the Bulldogs to back-to-back Big South Conference championships in 2011 and 2012 as an assistant coach. Following his ascension to Associate Head Coach, the Bulldogs had back-to-back 20-win seasons and claimed the 2016 Big South Tournament title and a share of the 2016-17 Big South Conference regular-season championship. The Bulldogs advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and played in the 2017 CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Carey was a two-year letterman for UNC Asheville from 1999-2001 where he started in the backcourt both seasons. He helped guide a young Asheville team to the Big South Conference championship game in 2000 and earned All-Tournament honors for his play. As a senior, he led the Bulldogs in three-pointers made and free throw percentage. Carey earned second-team All-Conference honors for his play and was named UNC Asheville Male Athlete of the Year and was chosen the Bulldog MVP. As a senior, he finished third in the nation in three-point field goal percentage.
Carey, a native of Lincolnton, North Carolina, returned to UNC Asheville in the fall of 2008 after serving as an assistant coach at national prep power Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. The Warriors went 34-4 in the 2007-08 season and had some of the nation's top high school players on their team, including future NBA lottery pick Brandon Jennings. They were ranked third in the nation for high school programs by ESPN. He also worked at Oak Hill during the 2002-03 year where he coached Marcus Williams, who was the 22nd pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Carey was also a member of the Oak Hill Academy basketball team, playing with teammate Stephen Jackson.
Carey worked for Dave Odom at South Carolina as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, where he was a part of the Gamecocks' 2006 NIT championship squad. Carey coached Renaldo Balkman a first-round pick for the New York Knicks, while he was at South Carolina.
Upon graduation from UNC Asheville in 2001, Brett was placed on the NBDL's Asheville Altitude before playing professional basketball in Norway for a year.
A Blue Raider from 2013-17, Upshaw returns to Murfreesboro after a seven-year professional career. He finished his Blue Raider playing career in the top five on MTSU's all-time lists in points scored (fifth – 1,571), rebounds (fourth – 910), field goals made (fifth – 598), steals (fourth – 151), blocks (fifth – 110), games played (tied for first – 140), starts (second – 115) and minutes played (second – 3,965). He led MTSU to 99 wins and a 52-18 Conference USA mark.
Upshaw was a member of the Blue Raider teams that defeated Michigan State in the 2016 NCAA Tournament and Minnesota in the 2017 tournament, leading MTSU in scoring in each win. His dunk with 40 seconds remaining put the exclamation mark on the 2016 victory over the Spartans.
MTSU won the 2016 and 2017 CUSA tournaments and the 2017 CUSA regular season title with Upshaw leading the way. He was named the C-USA Tournament MVP in 2016, averaging 17.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game while adding a total of eight assists, four blocks and five steals across the three games.
Over the past seven years, Upshaw's career has taken him to Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, Ukraine, Germany, New Zealand and Belgium. In the 2022-23 season, he averaged 10.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in 27 games for Telenet Giants Antwerp in Belgium. His highest scoring output came in 2017-18, when he averaged 14.4 points per game on 48.3 percent shooting for Tigers Tubingen in Germany.