UC San Diego

Tom Tankelewicz completed his third season as an assistant coach at UC San Diego. He helped lead a Triton offense which averaged better than 79 points per game in 2024-25, led by Big West Player of the Year Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and sharpshooter Tyler McGhie. Tait-Jones set a new UC San Diego Division I scoring record with 670 points that season, while McGhie established a new program record (all divisions) with 117 made three-point field goals. 

Before joining the Tritons' staff, he coached at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC during the 2021-2022 season, a campaign in which the Blue Hose achieved their best non-conference record in school history. Prior to Presbyterian, Tankelewicz spent five seasons as a member of the coaching staff at UNC Greensboro.  
At UNCG, Tankelewicz helped the Spartans achieve unprecedented levels of success as they won at least 20 games five straight seasons for the first time in school history. The Spartans finished 23-9 (13-5) and reached the Southern Conference tournament quarterfinals during the 2019-20 season. UNCG won a school record 29 games and was awarded the No. 1-overall seed in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2018-19. The Spartans also won the regular season and conference tournament titles and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years during the 2017-18 season. In the 2016-17 season, Tankelewicz helped the Spartans win the Southern Conference regular season championship. The Spartans won 25 games that season and advanced to the postseason for the second-straight year, earning the Southern Conference’s automatic bid into the NIT.

In the summer of 2018, Tankelewicz was selected to serve as an Assistant Coach on the USA College All Stars. The head coach was Larry Brown and the team consisted of Division I college basketball players who traveled overseas to take on competition from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. 

During his coaching career he has seen 18 players play professionally.

Tankelewicz was a three-year letter winner playing for NCAA coaching legend Larry Hunter (702 wins), at Western Carolina (2011-14). He finished his career playing in 93 career games and averaging 7.2 points per game. During his career he made 179 three pointers. In 2012-13, he led the Southern Conference with 80 made 3-pointers, which ranks seventh in a single-season in Western Carolina history. He holds the single game record for most 3-pointers by going 10-of-18 vs. Charleston Southern. Prior to Western Carolina, he played one season for Charleston Southern.

After his playing career ended at WCU, he played one season (2014-15) professionally with the KB Bashkimi Prizren Basketball Club. He was named to the All-Kosovo Super League Team following the year.

Tankelewicz earned his undergraduate degree from Western Carolina in 2014 and his master's degree from UNCG in 2018. A native of North Carolina and 2009 graduate of Middle Creek High School (NC), Tankelewicz is married to the former Nicole Chabot, and they have a son, Tripp.