(This is a guest post by Aaron, one of the applicants for the recently open positions on the MotSaG staff.)
Like Steve Wojciechowski, Chris Collins, Tommy Amaker, Jeff Caple and several others before him, Greg Paulus is among the list of former Duke players turned college basketball coach as an assistant. On June 28th, 2013 Ohio State officially hired Paulus as a full time assistant coach. Paulus started his coaching career on the hardwood in August of 2010 an assistant coach for Navy before moving on to a video coordinator position under Thad Matta in May of 2011.
Paulus, an Ohio native of Medina, played his college basketball career at Duke from 2005-09. Some of his career highlights include tallying 187 assists in his freshman year placing him 3rd behind only Bobby Hurley(288) and Jay Williams(220) on the all-time total for a freshman as well as making the 2nd team All-American freshman team. After Duke he moved on to be the starting quarterback for the Syracuse Orange during his lone season in 2009.
Paulus takes over for Chris Jent who has left Ohio State to make a return to the NBA as an assistant for the Sacramento Kings. Matta is counting on Paulus to bring the intelligence that so many others from the Mike Krzyzewski coaching tree have displayed over the years.
The basketball Buckeyes begin their season on Nov. 9th at the Value City Arena against Morgan State.
Even better news is that Jon Diebler’s brother Jake was hired to replace Coach Paulus as the Video Coordinator…
The only thing that bothers me about Paulus is that it doesn’t seem like Ohio State is a final destination for him. I’m not saying he’s going to be the next Matta or Coach K, but it seems like if he does develop into a top tier coach, Ohio State would be hard pressed to keep him around.