Burton joins the Jaguars staff after spending last season at UTEP
IUPUI addressed one of the bigger concerns brought about by Jason Gardner’s unexpected departure on Monday by hiring Brian Burton as its newest assistant coach. Burton joins the IUPUI staff after spending last season as an assistant at UTEP.
Burton followed Rodney Terry to UTEP after spending the 2018 with him as Fresno State’s Director of Basketball Operations. Prior to working with Terry, Burton was an assistant at Lamar University from 2014 to 2017. During his time at Lamar, Burton helped quickly turn around what had been a five-win team the season before he arrived to a 19-win team during his last season with the team. Before that, he was a member of Abilene Christian’s staff as the Wildcats transitioned from Division II. Burton also spent a season on Jim Boylen’s staff at Utah, where he served as an assistant for player development.
Rimm stated that his relationship with Burton dates back nearly 15 years to when both were involved in skill development camps run by current Houston Rockets Head of Player Development John Lucas.
Prior to Buton’s hiring, it looked like Gardner’s departure was going to leave IUPUI’s assistant coaching staff wildly inexperienced, with one of its two assistants being its recently promoted Director of Basketball Operations Isaac Loechle who has no experience as a Division I assistant.
The unusually late hiring could still mean Burton needs time to mesh with IUPUI’s players. While most assistants have had months to get to learn their players before games start, Burton is joining the Jaguars just before the regular season and after IUPUI has already played an exhibition game. IUPUI defeated Tiffin last Wednesday, and begins its regular season on the road against Butler in just nine days. Nonetheless, Burton is a quality addition to the coaching staff at this stage and successfully addresses the issue of an inexperienced staff well.
