Nevada men’s basketball head coach Eric Musselman has promoted Anthony Ruta to fill the Wolf Pack’s final assistant coach spot.

Ruta has served as the director of basketball operations during the last two seasons at Nevada.  In that time, the Wolf Pack has gone from a nine-win team to an NCAA tournament berth. Nevada was crowned the CBI champions in the 2015-16 season, becoming the first Mountain West team to win a national postseason tournament. This past season, the team won both the Mountain West regular season and tournament championship, making it to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 2007.

Ruta and Musselman first connected at Arizona State after Musselman was hired as an assistant coach for the Sun Devils. Ruta was a graduate assistant at the time, a position he served in from 2012-14. Directly before coming to Nevada, Ruta spent a year at the D-League level as an assistant coach for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

“I’m very excited to start the next chapter of my coaching career,” Ruta said. “Coach Musselman has been a great mentor to me in both my coaching profession and my life. Being in Reno since day one with Coach Musselman, it has been amazing to see what we’ve accomplished in such a short time not only on the basketball court, but academically and socially as well.”

The promotion of Ruta rounds out Musselman’s assistant coaches.

“This is a well-deserved promotion,” Musselman said. “Anthony has been here since day one. He’s a great compliment to our other two assistant coaches, Johnny Jones and Ronald Dupree. I am beyond excited about our coaching staff chemistry. Coach Ruta has a tireless work ethic, excellent overall basketball knowledge and a great relationship with our student-athletes.”

During his time with the Mad Ants, Ruta worked with the wings and guards, including current Los Angeles Laker Dahntay Jones and 2015 D-League All-Star game MVP Andre Emmett. In his two years as a graduate assistant with the Sun Devils, the team advanced to the postseason with an appearance in the both the NCAA tournament and the NIT.

Ruta graduated with a bachelor of arts in English literature from Arizona State in 2012, receiving his masters of education in higher education in 2014.

http://www.nevadawolfpack.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/050417aaa.html