LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball officially announced the addition of Tony Bland as an assistant coach on Wednesday.
Bland joins the Jayhawks after most recently serving as an assistant coach at Washington. He has also coached in high school and elsewhere in college, including USC and San Diego State. And he joins head coach Bill Self’s staff at KU as the team aims to be a factor both in the Big 12 Conference and nationally this upcoming season.
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“I’m beyond blessed to join the Kansas Jayhawks and work alongside coach Self,” Bland said in a KU release.
“He is one of the greatest to ever do it, and his belief in me means everything. I’m excited to learn from him and work with the entire coaching staff. Kansas has the best fans in college basketball, and I can’t wait to pour my heart into this program and the Lawrence community, while working hard to keep Kansas Basketball at the top of the sport.”
Bland’s arrival comes as a replacement for Chase Buford, who elected to take an assistant coaching job in the NBA with the Denver Nuggets. That makes Bland the latest assistant coach on Self’s staff, following Jacque Vaughn. Vaughn arrived after Norm Roberts retired.
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Bland, Vaughn, and their fellow coaches will look to help a remade Kansas roster that includes freshman guard Darryn Peterson, sophomore forward Flory Bidunga, and more. They’ll all look to help the Jayhawks bounce back after falling short of expectations the past two seasons. Last season, KU finished 21-13 and saw its season end in the round of 64 of the NCAA tournament.
Bland does make his way to Kansas, though, with scrutiny. An Associated Press report from 2024 mentioned Bland as a key person in an FBI investigation that looked into the sport, and detailed him as “one of four Black assistant coaches and 10 total individuals who were arrested as part of the probe.”
It continued to say that “as part of his plea deal with federal prosecutors, Bland acknowledged accepting a $4,100 bribe during a July 2017 meeting with financial advisers and business managers in exchange for directing players to retain their services when they entered the pro ranks,” and that he received two years’ probation.
Kansas’ regular season is scheduled to start on Nov. 3 at home with a game against Green Bay. That follows a pair of exhibition games in late October. Not long after that game against Green Bay, the Jayhawks will be on the road for a Nov. 7 game at North Carolina.
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“Tony is a very, very talented young coach who is a proven winner,” Self said. “He was a very good player at Syracuse and at San Diego State, and he played a big role in the success at San Diego State and USC as an assistant coach. I believe in him wholeheartedly, and our basketball program just got better with his addition.”
Jan. 28, 2025; Lawrence, Kansas; Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self looks on during a game against UCF at Allen Fieldhouse.
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He was the 2022 National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball adds Tony Bland as assistant coach for Bill Self
