Logo: Wesleyan Athletics

2011-12 Coaching Staff

Joe Reilly - Head Men's Basketball Coach
(860) 685-2918 - jpreilly@wesleyan.edu
 
Joe Reilly, head coach     Joe Reilly enters his fourth season in charge of Wesleyan men's basketball in 2011-12.  Joe had been faculty head coach of men's basketball at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine for 11 seasons prior to becoming faculty head coach of men's basketball at Wesleyan in 2008-09.  He holds the rank of adjunct professor of physical education.
     Joe returned to his home state of Connecticut after building the Bates program into one of the strongest in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), to which Wesleyan also belongs. After inheriting an 8-16 squad in 1997-98, Joe fashioned eight straight winning seasons with the Bobcats beginning in 2000-01, a team first, including a record 20-6 campaign in 2005-06 which included a school-record 16-game win streak. Joe was recognized as NESCAC Coach of the Year following the 2005-06 season. His 19-8 squad of 2004-05 earned a spot in the NESCAC tournament title game. Over his 11-year head coaching career at Bates, Joe compiled a cumulative mark of 154-121 and was 6-5 vs. Wesleyan. Over his last six seasons at Bates, Joe carried the Bobcats to a .701 winning percentage with a 108-46 record. He was the Maine State Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year three times and the New England Basketball Hall of Fame Division III Coach of the Year in 2003-04.
     Part of a rich basketball coaching family, Joe, a grew up in Connecticut, is the son of legendary high-school mentor Joe Reilly Sr., who won more than 500 games while guiding South Catholic High School. His uncle Gene Reilly had similar success at Portland High School while his brother Luke is well respected for his current efforts at East Catholic High School.
     Joe is a 1991 graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, also a member of the NESCAC, where he was a team captain for two seasons and scored more than 1,000 career points. His first college coaching assignment came at Yale University in 1994, where he served as an assistant for three years before arriving at Bates. Between Trinity and Yale, Joe earned an MBA from the University of Rhode Island. There he worked in the athletics department as a graduate assistant involved primarily with recreational sports.  At Wesleyan, Joe runs a pair of summer camps with the Cardinal Basketball School for elementary through high-school aged students and the Elite Basketball Camp for high-school aged students only.

Tim Lane - Assistant Coach
(860) 685-4162 - tlane@wesleyan.edu
 

Tim Lane, assistant coach      A 2009 graduate of Bowdoin College, Tim Lane came aboard the Wesleyan coaching staff as an intern and assistant men's basketball coach in 2009-10.  He is now in his second season with the Cardinals.  A four-year member of the Polar Bears' hoops squad, Tim was his team's representative to the NESCAC all-Sportsmanship squad in 2008-09.
     Tim began his collegiate coaching career in 2009-10 as an assistant at Dartmouth College.  He also gained coaching experience during the summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009, working at the Hoop Mountain camp in Easton, Mass. while also helping out at the Northern Middlesex Regional High School (his alma mater) Basketball Camp as its director in both 2008 and 2009.

Kevin Papacs - Assistant Coach
 

Kevin Papacs, assistant coach      Joining the Cardinal staff for the first time in 2011-12, Kevin Papacs was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Central Connecticut St. U., under legendary coach Howie Dickenman for the last six seasons after initially serving as a graduate assistant in the basketball program there from 2000-03.  A 2000 graduate, Kevin continued on at Central while earning credits toward his Master's degree.
     Between his stints with the Blue Devils, Kevin spent two years as an assistant coach at the University of Bridgeport (2003-05) while also directing the intramural program there.  In addition, Kevin has basketball camp experience both as co-director of the Howie Dickenman Basketball School at Central Conn. and the Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp in Trenton, N.J.