Arizona slapped another item on its long offseason to-do list Friday, when assistant coach Justin Gainey was named the new associate head coach at Marquette, concluding his two-year stint with the Wildcats and returning him to one of his previous career stops.
Already needing to recruit at least four or five more players to fill out their 2020-21 roster, the Wildcats will now also need to find a replacement for Gainey, who is leaving toward the end of a two-year contract that has been paying him $290,000 annually.
UA coach Sean Miller’s staff includes associate head coach Jack Murphy, assistant coach Danny Peters, director of operations Ryan Reynolds and director of on-campus recruiting/analytics David Miller. Sean Miller has spoken highly of David Miller (no relation) as a potential coach-in-waiting, but all of his previous assistant coaches at Arizona have worked as assistants or head coaches elsewhere first.
Gainey replaces Stan Johnson, who left his job at Marquette’s associate head coach last month to become Loyola Marymount’s new head coach. Gainey and Johnson worked together for two seasons when Gainey was Marquette’s director of basketball operations before becoming an assistant coach at Santa Clara and Arizona.
Gainey was a point guard at N.C. State through 1999-2000 under Herb Sendek and Sean Miller, who was then an assistant to Sendek on the Wolfpack staff. He joined Sendek’s staff at Santa Clara in 2017-18 before hooking up with Miller at Arizona in April 2018.
In three seasons as basketball operations director at Marquette, Gainey worked with head coach Steve Wojciechowski, Johnson and then-assistant coach Mark Phelps, who was the UA associate head coach in 2018 when Gainey joined the Wildcats.
A message to Gainey seeking comment was unsuccessful. Gainey said in a Marquette release that he and his family were “humbled and excited” to return to the university and its basketball family.
“Marquette is a special place, with amazing people who make it one of the best universities in the country,” Gainey said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with one of the best college basketball coaches in the country, as well as one of my mentors, Steve Wojciechowski. I’m excited about the future of Marquette basketball and all the great things that lie ahead.”
Gainey’s son, Jordan, is finishing his senior year at Salpointe Catholic High School, where he and Miller’s son, Braden, helped lead the Lancers to the Class 4A title this season.
Both Gainey and Peters were hired as UA assistant coaches in the spring of 2018, after a seven-month period in which Book Richardson was suspended and then fired as a result of the federal investigation into college basketball and former associate head coach Lorenzo Romar left to take over Pepperdine’s program.
Gainey and Peters were both given two-year contracts, with Gainey making $290,000 annually and Peters $275,000.
Assistant coach Justin Gainey, left, head coach Sean Miller and assistant Danny Peters watch the final minutes of the second half against Washington at McKale Arena, Thursday, February 7, 2019, Tucson, Ariz.
“Justin Gainey is an excellent basketball coach and an even better person,” Sean Miller said in a statement posted to Twitter on Friday. “I am thrilled for him and his family to have the opportunity to return to Marquette as an associate head coach. Justin did an excellent job in his two years with our program and we will miss him. We wish the Gainey family well in their transition.”
Wojciechowski said in a statement that he was excited to have Gainey and his family back at Marquette.
“Justin is one of the nation’s top rising coaches,” Wojciechowski said, “and his talents, ability to build meaningful relationships and myriad of experiences alongside some of the game’s best teachers will serve our program, and most importantly our players, incredibly well.”
Gainey’s departure may have an impact on UA’s recruitment of Santa Clara guard Trey Wertz, since Gainey recruited him out of high school.
Wertz previously told 247Sports.com that Arizona “kind of had a jump” in relationship-building because he knew Gainey. On Friday, Wertz told the recruiting-oriented site that he has narrowed his transfer choices to Arizona, Butler, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Virginia.
Rim shots
- Former Arizona center Dusan Ristic is auctioning off one of his red No. 14 Wildcats jerseys to help a fund potentially life-saving medical costs for a Serbian infant. The 10-month-old girl, who needs a procedure estimated to cost $2.4 million, is the daughter of a strength and conditioning coach that Ristic said he’s known for a long time. Ristic posted information at Twitter.com/ristic_dusan and Instagram.com/dusanristic14.
- Arizona is one of several teams reaching out to potential grad transfer guard Terrell Brown, a first-team all-WAC player last season at Seattle University. Brown averaged 20.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists for the Redhawks last season.
