The Brooklyn Nets have had a underwhelming history when it comes to its head coaches and how much time they spend coaching for the team. Recently, Brooklyn had various people coaching the team like Kenny Atkinson and Steve Nash, but one of their more recent head coaches is continuing his coaching career in the college ranks at his alma mater.

Former Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn will be an assistant coach for the Kansas Jayhawks for the 2025-26 college basketball season, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto. Scotto noted that the news came directly from Vaughn himself, interesting given that Vaughn has not worked in the NBA since the 2023-24 season when Brooklyn fired him during the All-Star Break.

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Vaughn first came to Brooklyn heading into the 2016-17 season as a member of Atkinson’s staff and was part of a coaching staff that helped the Nets go from some of the worst teams in the league to one of the more fun teams to root for due to the underdog mentality. After Atkinson was fired during the 2019-20 campaign, Vaughn was named interim head coach before Nash was hired the following season.

Nash was fired seven games into the 2022-23 season and Vaughn was once again named interim head coach before signing a multi-year contract extension due to how well the team was playing with Vaughn coaching Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Brooklyn went on to trade away Durant and Irving prior to the trade deadline that season, giving Vaughn a new challenge of trying to lead the Nets to the playoffs with players like Mikal Bridges and Nic Claxton leading the way.

After heading into the 2023-24 All-Star Break with a 21-33 record, Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks and the front office decided to move on from Vaughn, clearing the way for Kevin Ollie to take over as interim head coach and Jordi Fernandez to become the next head coach heading into the 2024-25 season. Despite Vaughn not being able to lead the Nets to deep runs in the playoffs, he is moving on by trying to make a difference at his alma mater by helping the team go as far as possible with Darryn Peterson leading the team.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Former Nets HC Jacque Vaughn to be assistant coach with Kansas