During his senior year, Long was scored 35 points in one game, which is the 10th-highest single game point total in Siena history. Coaching career at Siena and St. Rose Long served in the Army during Vietnam and upon return obtained the JV coaching job in 1972 at his alma mater, Siena College. He led his team to a 10–10 record in his only season at the school. At the start of the 1973 season, Long was named head men's basketball coach at The College of Saint Rose, taking control of the reigns for the Saints' (former St. Rose Mascot) inaugural season. . His first team there went 5-15 and the next year there weren't enough players to have a season. It took Long only three years to get his team to over .500 (they went 6–15 in 1975/76 and 11–13 in 1976/77), when the team went 14–10 in 1977/78, winning its first NAC title. The next three years were very successful (22–5, 23–6, 16–12), bringing the school three additional Northern Athletic Conference championships. During his 12 seasons as head coach at St. Rose, he amassed a 166-155 record and 5 NAC championships, including two undefeated seasons in conference play. Long was inducted into The College of Saint Rose Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. He is affectionately nicknamed "The Father of Saint Rose Basketball" and on November 15, 2008, the court at the college was named in his honor. At Sage-JCA From 1986-1990, Long served as assistant at Sage Junior College of Albany to Bill Toomey. Toomey left JCA after the 1989/1990 season, and Long took over as head coach. Over his first three years at JCA, the team went 42–37. The two years that followed were highly successful. His team would go 23–7 in 1993/94 and 19–9 in 1994/95, led by Chad Thomas, who would later go on to start at the University of Rhode Island. Thomas still holds many season and career records at JCA, including career points with 1,229, single season points with 638, career steals with 230, single season steals with 121, and highest scoring average with 23.6 points per contest. After the 1998/99 season, the school made the jump down from NJCAA Division I to NJCAA Division II. The decision to switch was a good one as the team finished as the #1 seed for the Region 3 tournament in 1999/00 and went 19–9