There’s a song that advises, “Do what you love, and call it work.” Vince Walden ’01 seems to have achieved that goal.
A four-year letter winner in men’s basketball at Longwood, he turned that passion into a career as a high-school and college coach. In fall 2024, Walden was promoted to assistant coach of the men’s program at Texas A&M, a member of the Southeastern Conference, where he had been a staff member since 2019.
“Vince has been with us since we arrived in College Station and has been a phenomenal teammate from the start,” said head coach Buzz Williams. “He has had an unofficial role in many components of the program on and off the floor. He has earned this promotion, and we are excited for what the future holds.”
With his promotion, Walden added off-campus recruiting to his responsibilities, while retaining a variety of day-to-day coaching and administrative duties, providing scouting reports on opponents, and analyzing film and advanced metrics. His previous experience in college basketball includes three seasons as an assistant coach at Liberty University and two seasons as assistant coach at Arkansas State.
He also brought his coaching talents to high-school basketball at IMG Academy, a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida. As national team head coach from 2006-12 and 2015-17, he produced winning teams at IMG, scoring a No. 1 ranking in the Max Preps poll in 2016-17 and a combined record of 201-68.
In addition, Walden has coached or developed more than 50 professional players, including 2014 second-round NBA Draft picks Dwight Powell and DeAndre Daniels.
Walden earned a degree in social work at Longwood.
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