Story: Adam Nelson (@HD_DirtKing)
A few things to wrap-up the first week of August…
I have heard that Northern Kentucky has hired Isaac Wodajo – most likely as the Special Assistant to the Head Coach. Wodajo spent last season as the head coach at Wabash Valley College. He also served as a graduate assistant at Texas when NKU head coach Darrin Horn was an assistant there. It also sounds like Horn has bumped up TJ Kaufmann from Graduate Assistant to Director of Basketball Operations. More on these moves once they are announced officially.
Safet Kastrat has been elevated to Director of Recruiting at La Salle after spending last season as the Explorers Video Coordinator. Prior to his time at La Salle, Kastrat worked as the Director of Player Development at Radford, and also spent time as the Special Assistant to the Head Coach at Rider.
Damar Ali has been hired as the Director of Basketball Operations at LIU. He spent last season as a graduate assistant at Florida State. He replaces Sasha Brown who departed to become the Director of Operations and Player Development at Cal. Before his time at LIU, Brown worked at Vanderbilt as the General Manager and Director of Basketball Operations. Pretty interesting stat for Brown – he has now worked for 3 former NBA Players: Mark Madsen (Cal), Rod Strickland (LIU), and Jerry Stackhouse (Vanderbilt).
D3 Emerson College associate head coach Jack Barrett is on the move, and will land as the top assistant at Johns Hopkins. Barrett had been at Emerson since 2011, where he worked under former BC and Ohio State head coach Jim O’Brien, and more recently former NBA player (and BC standout) Bill Curley. Barrett began his coaching career back in 2010 at Suffolk University where he worked for The DirtKing 😎.
Zach Stevens has departed the staff at D3 Regis College, and has landed as an assistant at D3 Gordon College. Stevens spent the past two seasons at Regis after a four year stint at his alma mater Plymouth State. He replaces Steve Haladyna, who left Gordon for nearby Endicott College.
Former USC Salkehatchie head coach Glen Mayo has been hired as an assistant at NJCAA D1 South Plains College. Mayo started the women’s program at USC Salk back in 2018, and took over as the men’s head coach in 2020.
HoopDirt.com’s up-to-date list of college basketball coaching changes at the D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO levels can be found HERE.
