Nevada men’s basketball coach Eric Musselman announced the hiring of Yann Hufnagal and Ronald Dupree as assistant coaches for the Wolf Pack program.
“I’m excited to make these additions to our coaching staff,” Musselman said. “Along with Doug Stewart, we now have three coaches who have strong experience at power-five institutions. That being said, they each have diverse backgrounds and that will provide a great learning environment for our student-athletes.”
Hufnagel spent the past two seasons at Cal with back-to-back winning seasons for the Bears and a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Hufnagal worked one season at Vanderbilt (2013-14), where he was the Commodores’ recruiting coordinator and hauled in a nationally ranked freshman class. Prior to that, Hufnagel was an assistant coach at Harvard, where he helped the Crimson to 20-win seasons each year and a 90-30 mark overall, including a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and the program’s first-ever national ranking (in 2011-12).
CBS Sports recognized Hufnagel as “one of the most relentless and energetic recruiters in the game” in its 2012-13 College Basketball Preview, while naming him one of their nine “Dream Team” assistant coaches in college basketball.
Hufnagel began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma, where he earned a Masters of Education with an emphasis in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
Dupree joins Nevada after two seasons at LSU, serving most recently as the Director of Student-Athlete Development under coach Jonny Jones.
Dupree, who has a Bachelors in Engineering, starred at LSU from 1999-2003 and later played six years in the NBA with Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Seattle and Toronto. He played internationally in Germany, Argentina, Italy and Israel and also played three season in the NBA D-League, including in 2013 with the Reno Bighorns.
In his playing days at LSU, Dupree, twice played in the NCAA Tournament, including an appearance in the Sweet 16 in 2000. In 2001, he led the SEC in scoring at 17.3 points per game was second in rebounding at 8.8 per game.
He is ninth in career scoring (1,726 points) and in rebounding (907) in LSU history and earned All-SEC accolades three times.
“Having spent time around Ronald, he’s a great mentor to student-athletes, both on the floor and academically,” Musselman said. “He provides great energy in practice, specifically with individual instruction. With his professional career, he has a wealth of experience that can translate to our players. Having spent time in Reno previously, he’s excited to get back and he’s a great fit for our program and community.”
Nevada is coming off a 24-14 season in Musselman’s first year, which included a CBI championship, the first men’s basketball postseason title in school or Mountain West Conference history.
