Georgia Tech hires Anthony Wilkins as assistant coach

Tech coach Josh Pastner on new assistant Anthony Wilkins: "Anthony is an outstanding coach on the court and excellent with player development, which is critical in our program ...." (Hyosub Shin/hshin@ajc.com)

Tech coach Josh Pastner on new assistant Anthony Wilkins: "Anthony is an outstanding coach on the court and excellent with player development, which is critical in our program ...." (Hyosub Shin/hshin@ajc.com)

Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner hired Tulane assistant coach Anthony Wilkins as an assistant coach, filling one of two assistant-coach vacancies on the staff. Tech made the announcement Tuesday.

Wilkins was with Tulane for five seasons, the past four as an assistant coach. Notably, he was the only assistant coach retained by coach Mike Dunleavy in 2016 after Ed Conroy, who hired Wilkins, was fired.

Significantly to Tech and Pastner, Wilkins has ties to Atlanta. He is an Atlanta native and lived here for much of his childhood. He played at Kent State and, after a six-year playing career, much of it internationally, he helped found the Stackhouse Elite AAU team in Atlanta in 2011.

Wilkins, 37, will work with the offense and also be tasked with development of the Yellow Jackets and recruiting.

“Anthony is an outstanding coach on the court and excellent with player development, which is critical in our program,” Pastner said in a statement. “He has the ability to evaluate and recruit at a high level and help us continue to build for the future. Anthony has worked for five years at a prestigious academic institution, which should serve him well here, and will be a tremendous representative for Georgia Tech.”

Pastner had two vacancies to fill after Darryl LaBarrie resigned from his position in February in the midst of an NCAA investigation and Tavaras Hardy accepted a head-coaching position at Loyola-Maryland in March. Pastner said recently that he hoped to make the two hires by the end of May. He said that he was "strongly considering" staffer Julian Swartz for one of the two positions. Swartz has been an interim assistant since LaBarrie was put on paid leave in November.