SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga men's basketball has hired former player and staff member Stephen Gentry to fill the open assistant coach role on their staff.
“I’m humbled and honored to return to Gonzaga and serve a program that has meant so much to me,” Gentry said in a statement “Gonzaga is a special place and one of the elite programs in all of college basketball. I look forward to rejoining the Zag family."
Gentry was an assistant at Illinois for the last two seasons and helped lead them to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this year.
His Illinois bio also credits him for being "instrumental in schematic changes implemented during the 2020 season that saw the Illini improve 73 spots in defensive efficiency and rise 45 spots in offensive efficiency, as Illinois ended the year ranked in the top 40 in both categories for the first time since 2011."
“It is great to have Stephen back in the program," head coach Mark Few said in a statement. “He knows the program having played and coached here previously, but has also garnered some other tremendous coaching experiences most recently doing a great job helping Illinois back to national prominence.”
Gentry was originally a walk-on at Gonzaga from 2002-2006. He was most recently at Gonzaga from 2017-2019 as the program's Director of Basketball Operations.
Gonzaga had an open role on staff due to Tommy Lloyd leaving for the head coaching job at Arizona. It's expected for assistant Brian Michaelson to now become Few's top assistant.
