MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – An assistant basketball coach at Colby College was tapped Friday by Wesleyan University to head its men’s team.

Gerry McDowell, an assistant at Colby in Waterville, Maine, for the past seven years, will start his new job in July, Wesleyan officials said.

He replaces Steve Pikiell, who served as an acting head coach this past year in the place of Herb Kenny, the school’s coach for 27 years. Kenny, whose retirement becomes effective in June, was on sabbatical this past year.

McDowell started his coaching career at Barnstable (Mass.) High School in 1976 and then served as an assistant coach at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., in 1988 before heading to Colby.