Current trends suggest Gophers could take alternate route in coaching search

The Gophers became the seventh power conference program to have a head coaching vacancy this offseason when they fired Ben Johnson late Wednesday night. Three of the jobs have already been filled by assistants. Could Minnesota take a similar approach?

Miami (FL) has hired lead Duke assistant Jai Lucas, but Florida State and Utah have followed a unique trend of hiring a former player who became an assistant head coach in the NBA. BYU hired Suns assistant Kevin Young last off-season, and it has been a home run hire so far. Their rival, the Utes, have attempted to follow suit with Alex Jensen, and the Seminoles did the same with Luke Loucks.

Minnesota hired Johnson as an assistant from the college ranks, so it would be surprising if they took the same strategy again, but there are three notable candidates if they go the route of hiring a former player-turned-NBA assistant.

Ryan Saunders, Denver Nuggets

Minnesota sports fans remember Saunders' run as the Timberwolves' head coach from 2019 to 2021, but he has since carved out a role as a top assistant in Denver since 2022. Before his NBA coaching career, he played at the University of Minnesota from 2004 to 2008 as a walk-on. He then moved into a graduate manager role with the team in 2009. He is only 38 years old.

Bobby Jackson, Philadelphia 76ers

Jackson is one of the greatest players in Gophers history. He averaged 15.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game on Minnesota's 1997 Final Four team. After a 12-year career in the NBA as a player, he transitioned into a coaching role with the Sacramento Kings from 2011-13 and then worked as a player development coach for the Wolves the following year. After taking some time off, he returned to coach Sacramento's G-League team, the Stockton Kings, for two seasons from 2021 to 2023, which earned him a top assistant role with the 76ers on Nick Nurse's staff this season. Jackson is 52 years old.

Kevin Burleson, Detroit Pistons

Burleson played for the Gophers from 1999 to 2003. He averaged 7.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. After an overseas playing career, his coaching career began as an assistant with the Timberwolves' G-League affiliate in Iowa. He then became an NBA assistant with Memphis and Minnesota before becoming the head coach for the Rockets' G-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers from 2022 to 2024. This season, he is a top assistant to former Gophers player and Detroit Pistons head coach J. B. Bickerstaff. He is 45 years old.

Positives:

BYU saw a massive increase in Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) funding when they brought in Young, and the same is expected to happen with Utah and Florida State. Jackson was Minnesota's star player during their most impressive years. Bringing him in as a head coach will reignite some energy into the program and maybe some financial backing. College players want to go to the NBA, and having a coach who knows how to get them there could help recruiting.

The NIL and transfer portal era has shown that it might be best to operate a college basketball program like an NBA team. Some teams have hired a traditional GM, and if the Gophers take this approach, Saunders, Jackson and Burleson have dozens of connections, much like Young, so maybe they can get ahead of the curve as the sport shifts rapidly.

Negatives:

Minnesota hired a head coach with zero experience being a head coach at the college level, and it failed miserably. If they opt to take the route of hiring an NBA assistant, there will need to be an infrastructure to support a complete overhaul of how the program is run. I have doubts that would happen, so this would be a very risky approach for Mark Coyle and the administration to take.

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