Duke hiring Oklahoma's Emanuel Dildy as men's basketball assistant coach, AP source says
Duke is hiring Oklahoma’s Emanuel Dildy as an assistant coach after Amile Jefferson’s departure to the NBA, a person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t officially discussed its search.
The 42-year-old Dildy has spent the past two seasons with the Sooners and has a reputation as a strong recruiter. Before that, he spent three seasons with another power-conference program at Northwestern.
Dildy also had stints at Valparaiso, Missouri, Loyola Chicago — working there under current Sooners coach Porter Moser — and his alma mater Eastern Illinois. He was all-Ohio Valley Conference performer as a senior with the Redbirds and had a brief professional playing career, including two seasons in Germany.
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer had maintained a strong program presence in his first staff with Jefferson joining former Blue Devils player Chris Carrawell. But he also went outside the Duke family to bring in another strong recruiter in Jai Lucas from Kentucky as an assistant, and is doing so again.
The 30-year-old Jefferson had worked as an assistant during Scheyer’s first season facing the daunting task of following retired Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski. The former player was a member of the Blue Devils’ 2015 NCAA title winner. He left earlier this summer to become an assistant coach under Joe Mazzulla with the Boston Celtics.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll
