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WINSTON-SALEM — Mike Muse, a member of the men's basketball staff at Wake Forest the past three seasons, has resigned as an assistant coach, effective Aug. 3.

"I've resigned to pursue other opportunities in coaching and education," he said.

Muse, 47, said he could return to his roots — teaching and coaching at the high school level — but that he wouldn't rule out coaching in college again.

"It was just something where the time was right for me to do this," said Muse, who moved from director of basketball operations to assistant coach in August 2007, after Dino Gaudio was promoted to head coach following Skip Prosser's death.

"Mike did a terrific job while he was here at Wake Forest," Gaudio said. "When he was the director of basketball operations, he was very organized, and then when he moved to being an assistant on the court, he did a tremendous job. We are certainly going to miss him."

Muse declined to say if a move back to a director of basketball operations job this spring was his reason for leaving.

"Wake Forest has been very gracious to me," Muse said, "and I enjoyed everything about it with the camps, recruiting, going through all the film work, working with the players and just every aspect of it."

Muse was the boys basketball coach at North Forsyth High School for seven seasons before Prosser hired him.

ROAD TRIP: Defending national champion North Carolina is coming to Charleston next season.

The College of Charleston said that the Tar Heels will play the Cougars on Jan. 4 at the Carolina First Arena. Charleston lost at North Carolina last season.

Charleston coach Bobby Cremins said North Carolina coach Roy Williams is a longtime friend and is thrilled to bring the NCAA tournament champions to the Southern Conference venue. North Carolina is 3-2 all time against the Cougars, including a 108-72 victory at Chapel Hill a season ago.