DWANE CASEY
Assistant Coach
Former University of Kentucky basketball player Dwane Casey is now in his second season on the Wildcat staff. Casey returned to UK April 18, 1986 after serving five seasons as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky University.
Casey, a native of Morganfield, Ky., and a 1979 graduate of UK, filled the vacancy on the UK staff left by Leonard Hamilton, who became head coach at Oklahoma State. Casey made an immediate impact on the Wildcat program, joining with head coach Eddie Sutton and assistant coach James Dickey in landing what most publications regard the best recruiting crop in the country this last year.
Casey works with all phases of coaching, including recruiting, practice and game preparation.
During his career at Kentucky, Casey was known primarily as a playmaker and an outstanding defensive player. As a Wildcat guard, he played on the 1976 NIT championship team and the 1978 NCAA championship squad. Casey served as a co-captain of the 1979 Wildcat team.
Following his graduation in 1979, Casey served as a graduate assistant under Coach Joe B. Hall at UK for one season before joining Clem Haskins' staff at Western in 1980. After two seasons there, Casey left coaching for one season to join the sales staff at WKYT-TV in Lexington. However, he discovered his heart was in coaching, so he returned to Western for the 1983-84 season and continued there through the 85-86 campaign.
While at Western, Casey gained valuable foreign experience, spending six summers conducting coaching clinics in Japan for the Japan Amateur Basketball Association.
During the summer of 1987, Casey received one of the most prestigious awards an athlete can receive in the Commonwealth, when he was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.
The 30-year-old Casey is single.
Casey admires 1978 NCAA Championship trophy after Cats beat Duke in title game.
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