UTEP Basketball: Ken DeWeese hired as an assistant at Northern Colorado

The University of Northern Colorado officially announced the hiring of UTEP assistant coach Ken DeWeese, and the addition of UTEP graduate assistant Vincent McGhee which filled vacancies on the UNC coaching staff.

"These two hires tell me that Coach Linder has done his research and understands what moves a program," Tim Floyd said of his former assistants. "Ken is excited about the opportunity to have a bigger voice on the floor as he continues his pursuit to become a Division I head coach one day. We have enjoyed watching him grow over the last six years. He has done a terrific job for us and we wish he and his wife Natalie the very best in the years to come. I was so impressed with Vinnie's work ethic, his huge smile and personality, and I have no doubt that he's going to be a star in this business at some point. Players love him, and I think he understands what a player is and where to go get them."

DeWeese was UTEP's main Texas recruiter over the past six seasons, and his father was an assistant under Don Haskins from 1976-1980.

"Ken and Vinnie are coming from a winning program that was being coached by a Hall of Fame type coach in Tim Floyd," UNC Men's basketball head coach, Jeff Linder said. "Over the years, Ken seemed to be in every obscure gym that I would be in and did a tremendous job recruiting really good players to UTEP.  To get someone of his caliber and experience to the University of Northern Colorado is really exciting."

DeWeese came to El Paso from Utah Valley University, where he worked as an assistant coach during the 2009-10 season. He spent the previous four years (2005-09) as an assistant coach at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, working for his father Ken DeWeese, Sr. The Cru were 18-9 in 2005-06, 22-6 in 2006-07, 26-4 in 2007-08 and 19-8 in 2008-09 for a four-year mark of 85-27.  He was also a three-year letterman at Mary Hardin-Baylor.

McGhee joined UTEP's staff last summer handling player development, player academics, travel, scouting reports and video editing for the Miners as a graduate assistant while working on his Master's degree at UTEP.

He scored over 1,000 points for Sacramento State as a player in the Big Sky Conference, and played a season of pro ball with the ABA's San Francisco Rumble.

UTEP officially announced that Floyd has promoted Bobby Braswell from Director of Basketball Operations to assistant coach. No word on a replacement for the Director of Basketball Operations position.

"Coach Braswell is one of the men in this business who I have the utmost respect for," Floyd said. "Our players love him. He understands the importance of an assistant coach not only recruiting, which he has done very successfully, but also coaching and mentoring players."