Western Carolina hires Tim Craft to be Catamounts’ next head coach

Western Carolina announced on Wednesday the hiring of Tim Craft as its next head men’s basketball coach. Craft spent the last eleven years as the head coach at Gardner-Webb, going 188-166 overall and leading the Runnin’ Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament in 2019.

“We are excited to welcome Tim and Jessica Craft, and their children Lola, Macy, Bennett, and Christian, to Western Carolina University,” said WCU AD Alex Gary said. “Not only has Tim proven to be a great basketball coach with the ‘X’s and O’s,’ he is someone who cares deeply about his players and gets the most out of them. He is ready to get to work and we look forward to him leading the Western Carolina basketball program for years to come. We are grateful to our leadership in Chancellor Kelli R. Brown and the WCU Board of Trustees for their support during this process.”

Craft is a Florida-native who got his start coaching high school in his home state. He first arrived at Gardner-Webb – just a two-hour drive from WCU – in 2004 and spent three years working as an assistant there under Rick Scruggs. After stints working under Jeff Lebo at Auburn and East Carolina, he returned to GW in 2013 to be the new head coach.

He will replace Justin Gray, who was announced on Monday as the new head coach at Coastal Carolina. Gray went 51-47 over three years, building up from 11 wins in year one to 22 wins this past season.

credit to Western Carolina Athletics for the image