Chris Jans has been promoted from Special Assistant to Associate Head Coach, Wichita State head men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall announced Wednesday.

The move follows the departure of assistant coach Greg Heiar, who will join Will Wade’s staff at LSU next season.

We appreciate the six years that Greg Heiar devoted to this program and wish him the best of luck at LSU,” Marshall said. At the same time, we think this will be a seamless transition. In Chris, we are welcoming a guy who has been with us for nine of the 10 years in Wichita. He knows us intimately and has played an integral part in our rise.”

Regarded as one of the nation’s great basketball minds, the 48-year old Jans enters his 25th season at the collegiate level in 2017-18.

Jans was an assistant coach on Marshall’s first WSU staff in 2007-08 and the pair worked in tandem for seven seasons, laying the foundation for the most successful stretch of basketball in Shocker history.

Following WSU’s 2011 NIT Championship, Jans was elevated to Associate Head Coach and held the title for three seasons, during which WSU won two Missouri Valley Conference titles, played in a Final Four and recorded the first 35-0 start in NCAA history.

After a year as head coach at Bowling Green, Jans put full-time coaching on hold. Over the past two seasons, he’s played a valuable behind-the-scenes role for Marshall and the coaching staff, helping with practice preparation, film breakdown and scouting reports.

Jans took on the formal role of Special Assistant prior to the 2016-17 campaign, during which he helped the Shockers to 31 wins, the MVC’s regular season and tournament titles, and a trip to the NCAA Tournament’s Second Round.

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2017/4/13/mens-basketball-jans-elevated-to-associate-head-coach.aspx