Riley Welch joined the Miami basketball staff as Special Assistant to the Head Coach in April 2025.
Most recently, Welch was on staff for the Grand Rapids Gold, the NBA G League affiliate of the Denver Nuggets, first as a video coordinator (2023-24) and, in 2024-25, as an assistant coach.
While with the Gold, Welch spearheaded the team’s defensive strategy, while also leading player develop workouts and assisting in opponent scouting.
Welch’s first foray into coaching came at the University of Kentucky, where he served as a graduate assistant coach on John Calipari’s staff from 2021-23.
As a graduate assistant coach, Welch coordinated and facilitated individual workouts, assisted in the planning of official visits and created play call sheets for the coaching staff.
Welch played for Calipari for two seasons at Kentucky, graduating with a Bachelor of Liberal Studies in May 2021. The guard appeared in seven games as a Wildcat and was an integral part of the opponent scouting and game preparation for Kentucky.
Welch played at UC Irvine (2017-18) during his freshman season before spending his sophomore year at College of the Desert (2018-19).
Basketball runs in Welch’s family as his father, John was a basketball letterwinner at UNLV and coached in the NBA for 15 years. John Welch is currently the associate head coach at Fresno State.
