Stephens: CSU basketball a breeding ground for head coaches

CSU isn’t a program known for developing college basketball assistants into head coaches, and in comparison to a Duke, Kentucky or Connecticut, its numbers don’t stack up.

For a place that’s not known historically as being a basketball school, Colorado State University has seen a nice crop of assistants come and go who’ve had their opportunities to shine at the helm of a program. It’s not fair to call it a coaching tree since many sprouted from the branches of various former CSU head coaches, but it’s not hard to figure out why some of the Rams’ strongest eras came to fruition with the names that have walked the sideline of Moby Arena.

CSU doesn’t have a comprehensive list of former assistants, so if there are any names left off that have become head coaches, feel free to point them out.

• Boyd Grant (1961-65, 66-72, 87-91): Grant was an assistant for 10 years under legendary coach Jim Williams before being hired to lead CSU in 1987.

While the coach of the Rams, Grant guided the program to three postseason berths in four years. In his first season, CSU finished as the NIT runner-up before winning back-to-back Western Athletic Conference championships and NCAA tournament appearances.

After his assistant duties at CSU ended in 1972, Grant was an assistant at Kentucky for two seasons before being hired as the coach at Southern Idaho in 1974, then going from CSI to taking over at Fresno State from 1977-86.

• Buzz Williams (At CSU from 2000-2004): Perhaps the most well-known former assistant of the Rams still coaching today, Williams has had plenty of success since leaving CSU following the 2003-2004 season.

He’s made three stops as a head coach, most notably leading Marquette to five NCAA tournaments — including an Elite Eight berth — from 2008-2014. Williams spent the past season at Virginia Tech attempting to rebuild the Hokies’ program.

At CSU, Williams cut his teeth in recruiting, sending daily hand-written letters to prospects to make sure they knew he cared, no matter their caliber. He’s responsible for landing former CSU forward Matt Williams and 7-footer Stuart Creason.

• Niko Medved (2007-2013): Medved joined CSU when Tim Miles took over in 2007 and stuck with the Rams through Larry Eustachy’s first season.

While in Fort Collins, he was the Rams’ recruiting coordinator, helping CSU sign transfers Colton Iverson and Daniel Bejarano while searching for hidden gems with high school prospects who were from areas not thought of as college basketball pipelines.

Medved left CSU following the 2012-13 season to take over as the coach at Furman, leading the Paladins to a 20-43 record in his first two seasons. In March, Furman, despite finishing with an overall record of 11-22, reached the championship game of the Southern Conference tournament, where it fell 67-64 to Wofford.

• Craig Smith (2007-2012): Another pupil of Miles — who followed him to Nebraska following the 2011-12 season — Smith just completed his first season as head coach at South Dakota.

In Year 1 with the Coyotes, Smith’s team went 17-16 and reached the semifinals of the Summit League tournament.

Smith has a reputation of developing quality post players, including former CSU all-conference forward Andy Ogide, who’s playing professionally overseas.

• Tim Duryea (1988-1993): The latest former assistant to earn a head coach job, Duryea was with the Rams during their last regular-season conference championship in 1990.

He coached his first three seasons at CSU under Grant and the next two under Stew Morrill. Duryea left CSU to join the staff at North Texas, but would reunite with Morrill in 2001 at Utah State and stay by his side until being promoted to head coach March 29.

• Randy Rahe (1991-99): Like Duryea, Rahe is a learned a lot from Morrill and had Weber State not suffered through a down season this year, he’d likely been a stronger candidate to get the Utah State job.

He’s built an impressive program in Ogden, Utah, taking Weber State to the postseason in seven of his nine years at the helm with two NCAA tournament and NIT berths.

• Dale Layer (1998-2007): Before he took over the CSU program in 2000, Layer was an assistant under Ritchie McKay for two seasons.

He led the Rams to the NCAA tournament in 2003 thanks to a Cinderella run through the Mountain West championships, upsetting UNLV on its home court in the title game. After he was fired in 2007, Layer spent the next two seasons as an assistant at Marquette under his former assistant Buzz Williams and then again under McKay at Liberty.

Layer was promoted to head coach at Liberty in 2009 and guided the Flames to the NCAA tournament despite a 15-21 record in 2012-13. He was fired at the end of this past season.

• Tim Jankovich (1987-91): Jankovich’s time at CSU was relatively short, working under Grant for four seasons, but making trips to the NIT and NCAA tournament.

He landed his first head coaching job in 1993 at North Texas and brought Duryea with him. After spending four seasons in Denton, Texas, Jankovich coached Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College from 1997-99 and Illinois State from 2007-2012. He’s currently the associate head coach at SMU.

• Mark Graupe (2008-09): Not a name usually thought of when it comes to former CSU assistants, but Graupe qualifies after spending one season with the Rams as their video coordinator under Miles.

Graupe went to Dartmouth to become the an assistant for the Big Green in 2009-10 and served as interim head coach in 2012-13. He was hired was the head women’s coach at NAIA Dickinson State in 2013.

For insight and analysis of athletics around Northern Colorado and the Mountain West, follow sports columnist Matt L. Stephens at twitter.com/mattstephens and facebook.com/stephensreporting.