Tony Rack joined the Winthrop men’s basketball coaching staff in April of 2021. This is Rack’s second stint with the Eagles as he was on staff from 2012-13 to 2014-15.
Rack comes to the Eagles after spending three seasons at Western Carolina as an assistant coach under Mark Prosser. He helped the Catamounts flip the script after one season, going from a seven-win team to a 19-14 mark in 2019-20. The 12-win improvement was the second-best among NCAA D1 programs for that season. Rack assisted in the recruitment and development of two First Team All-SoCon players and first at Western Carolina since the 2014-15 season (Mason Faulkner and Carlos Dotson). In fact, they are the first teammates to be all-league first team at Western Carolina in over 25 years – since the 1994-95 season.
Prior to arriving at WCU, Rack worked at his alma mater Northern Kentucky University where he most recently served as the Director of Basketball Operations. In the spring of 2018, Rack was honored by the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) as he was named a 2017-18 Under Armour 30-under-30 recipient. The 30-under-30 is designed to highlight and recognize up-and-coming basketball coaches across the nation.
Rack spent three seasons on the bench at Northern Kentucky as he helped contribute to one of the nation's largest turnarounds between the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons as NKU went from nine wins to a NCAA Division I era record 24 victories the following year. The Norse earned their first-ever berth into the NCAA tournament by winning the Horizon League tournament in 2016-17.
In 2017-18, Rack contributed in helping NKU capture its first Horizon League regular season championship, garnering the automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) with a second-consecutive, 20-win season.
Rack began his path to coaching when he joined former Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey's staff as a graduate assistant (2012-13) and later in basketball operations. Rack was in Rock Hill, S.C., for three seasons with the men's basketball program where he was a part of 53 victories and the Eagles twice reaching the Big South Conference championship game.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Rack is a 2012 graduate of Northern Kentucky where he was a four-year member of the men's basketball team. As a player, Rack was known for his accuracy behind the 3-point arc at NKU as he led the team in 3-point field goal percentage for three consecutive seasons. As a senior, he finished the year with a 46.1 shooting percentage.
Rack was a team captain as a senior and was also an Academic All-American Nominee, voted to the Capital One Academic All-District IV First Team as well as the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court.He also served as a representative on the NKU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for all four years as an undergraduate.
All told, Rack graduated from NKU as one of the program's most-prolific shooters, ranking third all-time in 3-point field goal percent and ninth in three's made.
A 6-0 guard, Rack also had an impressive prep career at Moeller High School in Cincinnati. Over his final two seasons, Rack led the Greater Catholic League in assists and averaged 4.3 assists as a senior. In 2007, he was the starting point guard of the Moeller team that won the Ohio Division I state title. In addition to his basketball skills, Rack was also a member of the varsity football and baseball teams.
Rack is the son of Jim and Susan Rack and has an older brother, Kevin.
