Melvin Lenzo Watkins (born November 15, 1954) is an American college basketball coach and former player. He has also been the associate head coach at the University of Missouri. He served as interim head coach during the end of the 2006 season, but returned to his former position when new coach Mike Anderson was hired. Early years Born in Reidsville, North Carolina, Melvin Watkins attended Reidsville High School. Watkins started for the Reidsville High basketball team for from 1970 to 1973. As a senior, he was named team captain and, after helping the team earn the state championship, was named a 1973 high school All-American. Playing career Watkins played college basketball at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he was the point guard and team captain of the Charlotte 49ers' 1977 Final Four team. While at Charlotte, Watkins made a point to complete his education, earning a B.A. in Economics in 1977. Watkins was drafted in the fourth round of the 1977 NBA draft by the Buffalo Braves, but never played in the NBA. Coaching career Charlotte In 1978, Watkins became an assistant coach for Charlotte's head coach Mike Pratt, and would continue as an assistant with Charlotte through eighteen seasons and three coaches: Pratt, Hal Wissel, and Jeff Mullins. When Mullins retired in 1996, Watkins was promoted and became the seventh head coach in school history and the first Charlotte alumnus to hold the position. In his first season as head coach Watkins was named the Conference USA Ray Meyer Coach of the Year. He compiled an overall 42-20 record in his two seasons as head coach, bringing the 49ers to the NCAA tournament twice, reaching the second round each year. Texas A&M At the end of the 1998 season, Watkins accepted an offer to become the head coach at Texas A&M University, a school which had enjoyed only one winning season in the previous eight years. During the next six years, Watkins failed to live up to the success he enjoyed at Charlotte, achieving an unimpressive 60-112 record. In one of the team's more controversial games of Watkins's A&M career, A&M beat Texas Tech 78-76 by sinking a basket at the buzzer. As soon as the basket was declared good and A&M given the victory, Watkins shepherded his team off of the court and onto the team bus, without allowing them time to change. After watching a