Announced today on Twitter, UW and Coach Romar have hired Western Washington head coach Brad Jackson as an assistant coach. Fresh off a Division II title last season, Jackson has spent his last 27 years at WWU and has finally made the move south.
Romar seems very excited about the move from this article of on GoHuskies.com…
"I have tried to hire him before and it just didn’t work out. He is successful, very accomplished and knows the Northwest. He has been here forever. He is definitely going to help our program."
There will be a press conference on Monday where Romar will discuss the new hire and the upcoming trip to Europe and Africa. With only a certain amount of assistant coaching positions available, there needs to be a corresponding move made which is probably also going to be announced on Monday.
I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that rumors also began earlier this week that current Husky assistant Raphael Chillious was in contact with Villanova under coach Jay Wright. That move makes sense as Coach Chill has northeast ties who is highly regarded for his recruiting abilities and connections to Nike.
CBS’s Jeff Goodman had this to say in regard to the Chillous rumors..
Villanova expected to hire Washington assistant Raphael Chillious, per source. Should be official early next week. Important hire for 'Nova.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) August 17, 2012
I don’t know a lot about Coach Jackson other than he is highly respected in terms of his basketball knowledge and teaching ability, but there’s no doubt that his recruiting prowess won’t be as high as Coach Chill’s.
From what I’ve read, (not a lot) Coach Chillious has not been the “point man” on the 2013 recruits like Jabari Bird and Aaron Gordon. Those have been long standing Romar relationships so I wouldn’t expect the potential of the 2013 class to take a nose dive.
We’ll have more Monday (or sooner) when more details are released.