Utah head men’s basketball coach Alex Jensen taps into his vast network and named Martin Schiller as an assistant coach on Friday.
“I’m excited to have Martin join our staff here in Salt Lake City,” said Jensen. “Martin has a great basketball mind having coached at various levels of the game both in the US and internationally. Our players will benefit from his experience and his ability to teach and develop them.”
Schiller will move stateside from Germany, where is currently the head coach for Rasta Vechta out of the German Bundesliga and FIBA Champions League. In total, he has held the position of head coach in four different countries during his career.
“I’m very excited to join Alex and the entire Utes family!” said Schiller. “Working with and for Alex is something that I have been intrigue with since meeting him with the German National Team in 2015. I was able to learn a lot from him during my days in the Jazz organization and am looking forward to reuniting again. My family and I used to enjoy visiting the Huntsman Center as fans of Utah Athletics. Now we are thrilled to be able to be a part of it.”
Prior to that, Schiller served as the head coach for the U20 German National Team at the 2024 FIBA European Championship in Poland. In 2022-23, he was the head coach for Casademont Zaragoza and competed in the top Spanish professional league (Liga ACB).
Before his time in Spain, Schiller was the head coach at Zalgiris Kaunas, one of the most traditional Euroleague teams, and competed in the top basketball league in Lithuania (LKL). He led the team to an LKL Championship for the 2020-21 season and posted the organization’s best winning-percentage in eight seasons. They also captured the LKL King Mindaugas Cup Championship that season.
Schiller got his first head coaching job stateside with a familiar organization for Runnin’ Ute fans with the Salt Lake City Stars (NBA G League) from 2017-20. His was named the NBA G League Coach of Year in his final season with the Stars after guiding the squad to the western conference regular-season title and winter showcase championship. The Stars also posted the second-longest winning-streak in NBA G League history at that point in the league, winning 14-straight contests behind the western conference’s top defensive net rating.
He first joined the German National Team staff in 2015 and served as an assistant for all the major FIBA tournaments. During his four-year tenure with the national team (2015-19), Schiller worked directly with several NBA players like Dirk Nowitzki, Dennis Schröder, Daniel Theis, Maxi Kleber, Paul Zipser and Moritz Wagner.
Schiller cut his teeth in the German Bundesliga, starting out as an assistant with the Artland Dragons (2010-15) before moving onto to the same role with Riesen Ludwigsburg.
Schiller got his coaching start in Austria (2002-10), where he led a trio of squads at the U16 level and led them to two league championships. He also garnered coach of the year honors after leading his squad to two semifinal appearances in the Austrian Championships.
