Greg Long enters his fourth season at Central Arkansas, having rejoined head coach Sandra Rushing in 2015 after having worked together previously at Delta State.
Since Long’s arrival at Central Arkansas, the Sugar Bears have won at an unprecedented clip – going 79-19 over his first three seasons with the program’s first two NCAA Tournament berths and Southland Conference Tournament championships, along with a Southland regular-season championship and the program’s first national postseason tournament victories as the Sugar Bears advanced to the championship game of the 2018 WBI.
Following a 54-9 mark with the back-to-back titles in his first two seasons, Long was promoted to Associate Head Coach following the 2016-17 season.
Long’s impact on the program was immediate, as in his first season the team saw an 11-game improvement over the previous season in putting together one of the greatest seasons in program history. In 2017-18, he went 3-0 as interim head coach while filling in for head coach Sandra Rushing – including dealing Southland champion Lamar its only loss of the 18-game conference season.
In his three seasons in Conway, the Sugar Bears have finished each regular season in the national Top 10 in scoring defense – ranking 9th in 2016, 4th in 2017 and finished the year ranked 2nd in 2018 with a Southland Conference record 50.9 points per game allowed.
In his first year at Central Arkansas, he helped guide the Sugar Bears to a historic season as they earned their first D-I NCAA Tournament berth after winning a program-record 28 games, broke the program record for regular-season wins with 26 and Southland Conference wins with 16, going undefeated on the road in conference play for the first time in program history and putting together an impressive 15-1 record away from home, winning 15 straight road and neutral games after an early-season loss at No. 4 Tennessee – the nation's 4th-longest streak in 2015-16 behind only UConn, South Carolina and Colorado State. After winning its first Southland Conference tournament, Central Arkansas received a 14-seed in the NCAA Tournament, the highest for a Southland Conference team since 2007. The 28 wins was also the most for a Southland team since 2000, and was the 4th-highest win total in league history.
Under his tutelage, the Sugar Bears have had 10 all-conference selections, 4 Southland All-Defensive Team selections, and a Southland Tournament MVP.
By coming to Central Arkansas, Long was reunited with Rushing, whose staff he served on at Delta State as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator. During his time at DSU, the Lady Statesmen were ranked No. 1 in the nation, made back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances, won consecutive conference championships, and had an .820 winning percentage. He helped to develop 3 all-americans, 7 all-region players, 7 all-conference players, and the Preseason National Player of the Year in NCAA Division II.
Long put together an extraordinary body of work on the recruiting trail at DSU, signing players who would go on to win back-to-back Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Year honors for the first time in conference history; junior college all-americans, a Southeast Arkansas Player of the Year, and consistently signing some of the top talent from within the state of Mississippi.
Prior to his time at Delta State, Long was a successful high school coach in his hometown of Ocala, Fla. – first as an assistant coach for the boys team at Ocala Forest High, where he helped guide the team to their first winning season in more than a decade; then as a head coach at Trinity Catholic. At Trinity Catholic, his teams improved from 8 to 22 wins from his first to second season, winning a district title en route to a Sweet 16 showing in the state tournament an a Top 15 ranking in state media polls. His teams also excelled in the classroom, recording a 3.4 GPA to rank 4th in the state in Class 3A.
Long returned to Trinity Catholic in 2013 as the head coach of the girls program, immediately guiding the team to a district championship and state playoff appearance as they finished 23-6 in a season in which they became the first girls team in Florida history to be named National Team of the Week by Maxpreps.com.
Long's coaching career began as a student assistant for the women's program during his time at Delta State, where he graduated Cum Laude in 2005 with a bachelor's in Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
He played collegiately at Chowan College under head coach Bob Burke, who retired as the third-winningest coach in North Carolina collegiate history behind Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski and was an associate head coach at Hawaii and an assistant for the NBA's Portland Trailblazers. Long played high school basketball at Vanguard HS under legendary Florida high school coach Jim Haley, who compiled 655 wins and three state championships. In 1997, Long played on Haley's final team to be ranked No. 1 in the state and made a run to the Elite 8 en route to a 21-11 record for the season.
Long is married to the former Jill Trimmer of Marietta, Ga. They have one daughter, Aubree.
