There was a wave of coaching hires at Portland State this week with the men’s and women’s basketball teams filling out their new staffs and football adding a local legend to the sidelines. The hires all add something different but, more importantly, they offer a peek at what could be expected in the fall.
The hires were kicked off by a slow rollout from the men’s basketball program. New head coach Jase Coburn has been coy about his playing style entering the offseason, seeking to keep the element of surprise in the early season. He’s emphasized position-less basketball and has talked about maintaining the tenacity the Vikings showed on defense in the shortened 2021 season but hasn’t tipped his hand as to whether that includes as much full-court press as PSU played under Barret Peery.
What Coburn has stressed is recruiting and that shows in how he filled out his staff.
All three hires have either built their careers on recruiting or share the same high-energy, high-intensity persona as the head coach. That type of profile should help in Coburn’s goal of making Portland State a destination for the city’s top talent, with his new assistants also bringing in relationships at high-talent markets like Seattle and Phoenix.
The most familiar name on the list is Scott Sommer, who is returning for his fourth season with the program. He played a big role in the transition and keeps a bit of staff continuity, something Coburn himself is used to having transitioned through a two coaching staffs as an assistant.
“Over the last two months, it has just been Scott and myself running the program,” Coburn said in a press release. “He has worked really hard and had to wear many hats for me and his role and duties have really increased. Scott stepped up when I needed him most. I am super excited to have him back, and I think he has an unbelievable future ahead of him in coaching.”
Coburn also brought in former NAU assistant Matt Dunn, who has spent the last three seasons working with frontcourt players at IUPUI in the Horizon League. A former recruiting coordinator at Memphis, Dunn’s experience coaching in the Big Sky should add stability to a relatively young coaching staff and his connections mining the Southwest for talent should keep one of Coburn’s preferred pipelines active.
Speaking of preferred pipelines, the final add to the staff could be the most impactful. Jamaal Williams, the former University of Washington standout, has spent the last few years on former Portland Trail Blazers star Brandon Roy’s staff on the Seattle prep scene, helping guide Garfield and Nathan Hale to five state titles and a national championship. Williams’ AAU team, Seattle Rotary, has also been successful and pulled some of the region’s top talent, including Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels.
During his time in coaching, Williams has worked with 23 players who have competed at the Division I level, four McDonald's All-Americans and four current NBA players.
That type of pedigree and his connections could mean Williams could bounce to a bigger program in a few years should the opportunity arise but any time PSU is able to have him on staff seems like a win, especially if he can provide a link to the region’s high-level AAU talent.
Those recruiting skills will be put to the test shortly, with yet another player hitting the transfer portal. John Hall, who played in all 22 games and played the fifth-most minutes for the Vikings last season, made the announcement on Monday. The one-time Evansville transfer averaged 3.9 points per game in the spring and has just one year of eligibility remaining.
Like the hires on the men’s side, Chelsey Gregg’s women’s hoops staff taps into a holdover from the previous staff and up-and-coming coaches with experience on talented staffs.
The holdover was expected, Gregg’s husband Keithan has been promoted to associate head coach. Keithan led the defense that has been dominant in helping the Vikings reach the Big Sky Tournament three times in five seasons and win the conference title in 2019. An obvious choice — and all things considered probably the most important hire — the other Gregg should keep continuity in the program’s philosophy, which should look very similar to the last six seasons with Lynn Kennedy.
The other two hires are very young, though they have impressive resumes.
Beth Mounier, who was a video coordinator at UC San Diego as it moved from Division II to the Big West the last few seasons after starring for the Tritons from 2014-17. Mounier, who interned at Stanford in between, is very early in her coaching career but has worked under Hall of Fame coach Tara Vanderveer and been a part of a staff that won a conference title.
“While it was great to have Beth at Stanford, I am happy for her as she moves forward in the coaching profession,” Vanderveer said after Mounier took the job in San Diego.
“Beth understands that coaching goes far beyond the X’s and O’s. I’m excited about the way she will have an immediate impact on our program with her recruiting and player development experience and how she will empower these young women to reach their potential on and off the court,” Chelsey Gregg said in a press release.
The final addition, TJ Harris, coached high school and community college ball in Arizona and like both Greggs spent time at the University of Providence in Great Falls, Montana.
The new staffs will be back on campus to begin summer workouts in a little more than a week, starting June 18.
FOOTBALL ADDS PREP GIANT
While the basketball coaching hires were significant, with two new staffs being finalized, the most shocking hire of the weekend came late Sunday, when it was announced that the Vikings had pried away longtime area prep coach Jon Eagle to join the staff.
Eagle, who has spent the last 13 seasons across the river at Camas High School in the Portland suburbs of southwest Washington, turned the Papermakers into a juggernaut, leaving with a 127-22 record and two state titles in the last five seasons in the state’s largest class. A master at developing talent, Eagle sent 16 players to Division I since 2012, including 10 in the last three seasons. In 29 seasons as a head coach at three schools, his record is 229-70.
“Not very often a guy gets to be 61 and gets the opportunity to do this,” Eagle told Clark County Today.
Bruce Barnum, who also lives in Vancouver, had reportedly targeted Eagle a year ago before snagging him this spring after PSU’s hiring freeze was lifted. Eagle doesn’t have an official role yet though it’s easy to imagine he’ll continue the offensive role he held as a high school coach.
“Coaching football is coaching football, but I wanted to look at a new challenge,” Eagle said. “I wanted to help Bruce. If he thought I could help, I’m in.”
BLAZERS LOOKING FOR NEW COACH, FAMILIAR NAME GETS BUMP
The Portland Trail Blazers flamed out of the NBA Playoffs last week and with that loss came a change of guard at the top. The Blazers let go longtime coach Terry Stotts and will be among the most intriguing teams to have an opening this summer, with Big Sky Conference alum and all-NBA guard Damian Lillard serving as a strong motivator for any coach to take over a franchise.
Former Blazer LaMarcus Aldridge has a suggestion for Stotts’ replacement — Portland State legend Ime Udoka.
Udoka, currently an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets, is unlikely to interview for any openings before the end of the playoffs, though his resume is strong. An NBA champion as an assistant for the San Antonio Spurs, Udoka has never coached a team that won fewer than 43 games, spending last season on staff at the Philadelphia 76ers.
OREGON NEARS NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS LAW
The State of Oregon is close to joining five other states in instituting a law that would clear the way for student-athletes in the state to make money starting this summer for using their name, image and likeness in advertising. The bill, which passed the state Senate on Thursday, went through its first reading on the House floor and is currently on the Speaker’s desk awaiting referral.
We’ll do a deeper dive into what this means later this month, but the law could be a game-changer for PSU, with Oregon as the first state in the Big Sky footprint to enact such a law. Arizona has passed a law that would go into effect immediately, but only with NCAA approval and California, Colorado and Montana all have passed laws that wouldn’t take effect until 2023. Washington has had trouble getting its version of an NIL bill off the floor and Idaho and Utah haven’t proposed any legislation on the matter.
YADA MISSES CUT AT U.S. OPEN
Portland State alum Britney Yada missed the cut at the U.S. Open last weekend at Olympic Club in San Francisco, scoring a 13-over-par 155 to miss the cut by seven strokes.
Yada, who won the Big Sky title in 2011, struggled with two rough stretches of play, making six bogeys in the back nine on Day 1 and four in five holes on the front nine on Day 2.
ONE MORE RACE
A trio of Vikings runners hit the track last week to keep the season alive, marking personal bests in the process:
AROUND THE BIG SKY
— Former Weber State football assistant and head coach of the NY Giants Jim Fassel died this week.
— Not a rosy outlook from Reddit for the Vikings football season:
— Montana State women’s hoops filled its coaching vacancy left by an assistant joining the staff at Northern Colorado.
— MSU men’s hoops is keeping a trio of star players.
— Eastern adds a hoops assistant.
— Big Sky track athletes are competing at NCAA nationals this weekend in Eugene:
— Northern Colorado golf coach retires.
— Montana took the interim tag off its track coach.
Thanks for reading another Big Sky Valhalla. Go get vaccinated.