Things have a way of changing quickly in the sports world. And former Iowa basketball star Matt Gatens is finding that out right now.
With the college basketball season tipping off in less than two months, you don’t expect a drastic change to occur. But that’s exactly what happened to the Auburn men’s basketball team. Longtime head coach Bruce Pearl, who had been the head coach at Auburn for over a decade, announced he was stepping down and moving into a different role in the Tigers‘ athletics department. His son, Steven Pearl, is taking over as head coach.
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This is a sudden shift to have right before the season starts, but it bodes well for former Hawkeye Matt Gatens, who is getting a promotion. He’ll now be an assistant coach to Pearl this season.
Gatens played and started in 128 games as a Hawkeye, averaging 12.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game. He holds the school record for the best free-throw percentage in a career, at 86.3%. He’s third all-time in minutes played (4,444) and fourth all-time in three pointers made (239) at Iowa. Following his playing career at Iowa, Gatens transitioned into a new area of the game: coaching.
Gatens started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Auburn from 2016-18. He then became an assistant coach at Drake from 2019-2022, before rejoining the Iowa basketball program as an assistant coach. In June of this year, Gatens left Iowa to return to Auburn to be the general manager of the men’s basketball program. And now he’s been promoted to assistant coach.
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Gatens is well on his way up the coaching ranks nationally, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get a head coaching gig sometime in the near future.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Former Iowa basketball star named assistant coach at elite SEC program
