Arizona assistant coach Justin Gainey has been named the new associate head coach at Marquette, concluding his two-year stay with the Wildcats and returning him to one of his previous career stops.
Gainey will replace Stan Johnson, who left his job at Marquette’s associate head coach last month to become Loyola Marymount’s new head coach.
Welcome back @CoachGainey and his family to #mubb and @MarquetteU. Looking forward to having you back on campus! RELEASE: https://t.co/02jkWoY2ST pic.twitter.com/iJwpMWU0M6
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) April 3, 2020
A point guard at N.C. State through 1999-00 under Herb Sendek and UA coach Sean Miller, who was then an assistant to Sendek on the Wolfpack staff, Gainey rejoined Sendek at Santa Clara in 2017-18 before then rejoining Miller with Arizona a year later.
Before arriving at Santa Clara, Gainey spent three seasons as Marquette’s director of basketball operations under head coach Steve Wojciechowski and assistant coach Mark Phelps, who was UA associate head coach in 2018 when Gainey joined the Wildcats.
Gainey worked with Johnson for the last two of those seasons after Johnson left the ASU staff in 2015 to spend five seasons at Marquette.
"My family and I are humbled and excited to return to the Marquette basketball family and this great University," Gainey said in a Marquette statement. "Marquette is a special place, with amazing people who make it one of the best universities in the country.
"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."
Known to post religious and motivational messages on his Twitter account, Gainey congratulated Johnson on Twitter last month when he took the LMU job (where Johnson replaced former UA associate head coach Mike Dunlap).
“Big-time shoutout (to Johnson)!” Gainey tweeted. “So excited for you!”
The Wildcats hired both Gainey and Danny Peters as assistant coaches in the spring of 2018, after a seventh-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 at UA, with Gainey offered a annual salary $290,000 and Peters $275,000.
"Justin Gainey is an excellent basketball coach and an even better person," UA coach Sean Miller said in a statement posted to Twitter. "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 could have an impact on UA’s recruitment of Santa Clara guard Trey Wertz, since Gainey recruited him out of high school for the Broncos. Wertz told 247 that Arizona “kind of had a jump” in relationship-building because he knew Gainey well.
Gainey's son, Jordan, is finishing his senior year at Salpointe High School, where he and Miller's son, Braden, helped lead the Lancers to the Arizona 4A title.
