Tom Tankelewicz is in his first season as an assistant coach at New Mexico in 2025-26. He joined the Lobo coaching staff after spending the previous three seasons on Eric Olen’s staff at UC San Diego.
During his three seasons as an assistant coach at UC San Diego, Tankelewicz helped lead a Triton offense in 2024-25 that led the Big West and ranked in the top 30 nationally in assist/turnover ratio (4th, 1.80) and effective field goal percentage (29th, .555). Last season, he coached Big West Player of the Year Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones to a Division I school-record 670 points and Tyler McGhie to a school-record 117 three-pointers.
Prior to coming to UCSD, Tankelewicz spent the 2021-22 season at Presbyterian, helping lead the Blue Hose to the best non-conference record in school history. He spent five seasons on the staff at UNC Greensboro from 2017-21, as the Spartans had five consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in program history. UNCG won two SoCon regular season titles, two SoCon Tournament titles, made two NCAA Tournament appearances and two NIT appearances during his time on Wes Miller’s staff.
Tankelewicz played collegiately at Western Carolina, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 2014. He made 179 3-pointers during his career, including leading the SoCon with 80 3-pointers in 2012-13. Following graduation, he played professionally for one season in Kosovo. Tankelewicz earned his master’s degree in 2018 from UNCG.
“Tom will coordinate our offense and is a rising star in the business,” said Olen. “He has a creative mind and an elite work ethic to go along with being a great teacher. His commitment to his craft is something our players will be able to learn from and his selflessness is contagious. We are very lucky to bring Tom to Albuquerque.”