Tom Tankelewicz II is in his fifth season on head coach Wes Miller's staff and second as Director of Basketball Operations in 2020-21. Tankelewicz served his first two seasons as a graduate assistant manager working across various areas of the program including operations, video exchange and team/player video scouting before serving duties as Video Coordinator for the 2018-19 season.
During his tenure with UNCG to date, Tankelewicz helped the Spartans achieve unprecedented levels of success as the Spartans have won at least 20 games four-straight years for the first time in school history. The Spartans finished 23-9 (13-5) and reached the Southern Conference tournament quarterfinals during the 2019-20 season. The side led the nation in turnover margin (+6.4), while ranking sixth in turnovers forced per contest (18.03), total steals (299) and steals per game (9.3). UNCG held conference bests in all of those statistical categories, in addition to leading the SoCon in blocked shots per game (4.3), field goal percentage defense (42.2), offensive rebounds per game (12.88) and total blocks (138). The Spartans' 299 steals are the second-most any UNCG squad has had in a single season. The Spartans tallied one of their biggest wins of the past decade in a 65-61 victory at Georgetown (11.30), and came within a buzzer beater of NC State (12.15), reaching as high as the top-50 of the national RPI.
With Tankelewicz’s assistance, UNCG won a program-record 29 games and the No. 1-overall seed in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in the 2018-19 campaign. During the 2017-18 season, UNCG collected team records in overall wins (27), home wins (16) and Southern Conference wins (15) en route to regular season and conference tournament titles. UNCG reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years, narrowly falling to Gonzaga in the first round 68-64.
In the 2016-17 season, Tankelewicz helped the Spartans win the Southern Conference regular season championship. The Spartans won 25 games that season, including a 14-4 mark in league play. UNCG advanced to the postseason for the second-straight year, earning the Southern Conference’s automatic bid into the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
In the summer of 2018, Tankelewicz was selected to serve as an Assistant Coach on the USA College All Stars. The head coach was Larry Brown (the only coach in basketball history to win both an NCAA National Championship with Kansas Jayhawks in 1988 and an NBA title with Detroit Pistons in 2004). The USA College All Star team consisted of Division One college basketball players and traveled overseas to take on competition from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
Tankelewicz returned to the Southern Conference with UNCG after being a three-year letter winner for Western Carolina (2011-14). Tankelewicz finished his career after the 2013-14 season, playing in 93 career games, making 36 starts and averaging 7.2 points per game during time in Cullowhee.
Tankelewicz was known in the Southern Conference coaching circles as a pure shooter. He made 156 three pointers over his three-year stint connecting on 37 percent. In 2012-13, he led the Southern Conference with 80 made 3-pointers, which ranks seventh in a single-season in Western Carolina history. He holds the single season record for most 3-pointers in a game by going 10-of-18 vs. Charleston Southern. Prior to Western Carolina, he played one season for Charleston Southern where he played in 20 games and averaged 5.5 points per game.
After his playing career ended at WCU, he played one season (2014-15) professionally with the KB Bashkimi Prizren Basketball Club. In 23 games during the season, he averaged 13 points per game and made 49 3-pointers. He was named to the All-Kosovo Super League Team following the year.
Tankelewicz earned his Bachelor's Degree from Western Carolina in criminal justice in 2014 and graduated with his Master's Degree in Liberal Studies from UNCG in 2018.
