One of the most commonly overlooked elements of a successful college basketball program are the assistant coaches. Often tasked with long hours on the recruiting trail and in the film room, they put in important work without much fanfare or public recognition.
In college football, power conference offensive and defensive coordinators are well-known by their fan bases and commonly rake in salaries exceeding $1 million. By comparison, college basketball assistants can seem like relatively anonymous figures seated on the bench, and a $1 million salary is exceedingly rare. But in this era, their work is increasingly significant.
With the proliferation of the transfer portal, rosters are often overhauled each season. That requires more significantly more labor for a staff. Scouting and recruiting high school and transfer prospects has essentially become a 24/7/365 grind. While the NCAA approved the addition of two additional assistant basketball coaches in January, the new assistants are not permitted to engage in off-campus recruiting, meaning a program’s top three assistants remain their most important.
For this week’s edition of the Dribble Handoff, our writers are weighing in on which program has the best assistant coaches with a heavy emphasis on the top three.
Kansas
I’ll start the list with Kansas, in part because no staff has two assistants who have been as much a part of high-level winning over the past decade. Kurtis Townsend has been at Bill Self’s side since 2004. Norm Roberts has been on the Jayhawks’ bench since 2012. In the past 11 seasons the trio have secured nine Big 12 titles, made two Final Fours and won the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
Townsend and Roberts are among the reasons why.
Beyond that, Self’s staff is filled with familiar faces. The third assistant is Jeremy Case, who was a member of KU’s 2008 national title team. He’s an alum who has been back in Lawrence since 2016. The…
..
