Chester Frazier celebrates K-State's Big 12 Championship



Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber just had more added to his plate, as he will now be hitting the road for a new assistant coach.

Chester Frazier, a long-time assistant under Weber and even a former player under him at Illinois, has accepted a job at Virginia Tech under new head coach Mike Young, who was recently hired from Wofford, GoPowercat.com and 247Sports have learned. Frazier becomes the first coach that Young has hired.

Weber had recently said he planned to extend Frazier and keep him in Manhattan, but it looks like that won't be happening.

“The decision to leave K-State has been one of most of difficult in my professional life,” Frazier said in a press release. “I have learned so much from Coach Weber about coaching and helping develop young people with integrity. He is one of the best in the business and our relationship extends beyond basketball. I also want to thank all current and past players for their dedication, effort and trust in me. I hope they continue to make themselves, their families and school proud. Ultimately, this was a great opportunity to advance in the profession and also get closer to my family on the East Coast.

“Our family will be forever grateful to Coach Weber, the players and the entire K-State Family for making our seven years in Manhattan so special. It was a place we called home. We accomplished many great things, including two Big 12 titles and a run to the Elite Eight. I will forever be a Wildcat at heart.”

Frazier has been at K-State since the start of the Weber era at K-State, which began in the 2012-13 season after he finished his professional playing career in Germany. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Frazier has been responsible for recruiting multiple players to Manhattan but was crucial in the recruitment of Kamau Stokes, a senior this past season that helped the Wildcats win their first Big 12 Championship since 2013. This season, Frazier helped in many recruitments but was especially relevant to the recruitment of four-star shooting guard and Chicago Player of the Year, DaJuan Gordon.

Past recruits from around Frazier’s specialized region of recruiting include: four-star Malek Harris in the 2014 class, current point guard Cartier Diarra in the class of 2016 and current guard Mike McGuirl in the 2017 class, among many others that he helped court to Manhattan. His main ties belong on the east coast, but he has been known to also assist in the recruitment of players from various regions.

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In his time with the Wildcats, Frazier helped guide 11 players to All-Big 12 teams, including Rodney McGruder (2013), Dean Wade (2018, 2019) and Barry Brown (2019) to First Team All-Big 12 honors. He also helped mentor three players to the All-Defensive Team in the Big 12 including Angel Rodriguez (2013), Iwundu (2016) and Brown (2018, 2019). Brown was also named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year this past season.

Following the 2015-16 season, Frazier was one of just six Power 5 assistant coaches selected to the 2016 Under Armour 30-under-30 Team presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) at the Final Four in Houston. The list honors both head coaches and assistant coaches under the age of 30 across all levels of college basketball.

Frazier has been a part of a 150-89 record in Manhattan that included two Big 12 Championships and five appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including a berth in the Elite Eight in 2018.

“Obviously, I have a long history with Chester from our time at Illinois and now as my assistant coach these past seven years at K-State,” Weber said in the release. “He has had previous opportunities to leave the staff and I know that the proximity of (Virginia Tech) to his family in Baltimore played a major role in his decision. He has played an important role in our success and has helped build a solid foundation for this program. We will miss Chester, Sarah and their kids, Chandler and Cameron, and wish them great success in the future.”

With Frazier gone to Virginia Tech, Weber will likely hope to land a replacement that would attack the same region of recruiting that Frazier did while at K-State, but it is unknown at this time who that could be.

Stay locked in at GoPowercat.com for the latest in Weber’s search for Frazier’s replacement, as we'll bring you the most honest and accurate coverage of the search.