Caldwell Tech coach Jamison McIver expected to join UNC Asheville staff

Jamison McIver’s expected jump to UNC Asheville has opened a major vacancy at Caldwell Tech, cutting loose the coach who turned the Cobras into one of Region 10’s steadier NJCAA Division I programs. McIver took over in 2018 after six seasons as an assistant at the school, and the move places his name on a Division I staff after years of building in Caldwell, North Carolina.

The timing makes the departure especially important. Caldwell finished the 2025-26 season 21-9 overall and 8-6 in conference play, numbers that reflect a program still operating near the top of the league’s competitive tier. The Cobras also had proof of star power, with Cincere Scott earning NJCAA Division I honorable mention All-American recognition. Those results helped make McIver an attractive candidate beyond the junior college level, where his résumé already included NJCAA Division One Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year honors for the Atlantic District in 2022 after a 25-8 season.

McIver’s rise tracked the kind of NJCAA-to-Division I pipeline that has become increasingly visible across the sport. He arrived at Caldwell with prior stops as an assistant at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne University and Division III Brevard College, then turned that experience into a head coaching run that produced conference success, national recognition and a player in Scott who brought attention back to the program. For a Division I staff, that background offers exactly what smaller programs often value: recruiting connections, developmental credibility and a coach who has already managed the grind of roster building at the junior college level.

The immediate challenge for Caldwell is continuity. The men’s basketball page at Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute still listed McIver as head coach and included his contact information, a sign the transition had not yet been reflected on the school’s official athletics site. UNC Asheville’s coaching directory likewise still showed Mike Morrell as head coach and Andrew Garcia as an assistant, underscoring that the move had not yet appeared on the public staff list there either.

That delay matters in a program where summer workouts, recruiting relationships and player buy-in are all tied tightly to the head coach. With McIver heading toward Asheville, Caldwell now has to protect the roster that finished 21-9, keep its recruiting classes intact and preserve the momentum created by Scott’s award-winning season while the search for the next coach gets underway.