Former KU assistant coach Joe Dooley returning to Kansas as Jayhawks’ recruiting coordinator for 2022-23 basketball season

By Matt Tait Aug 19, 2022

Nick Krug

Kansas assistant coach Joe Dooley looks to pump up Morris twins, Marcus, center, and Markieff during the second half Sunday March 22, 2009 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

Five months after being let go as the head coach East Carolina, Joe Dooley is returning to a familiar place.

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self confirmed to the Journal-World on Friday night that Dooley is coming back to Lawrence to serve as KU’s recruiting coordinator for the 2022-23 season.

Self told the Journal-World that Dooley will be filling a new position. KU has not had a true recruiting coordinator in recent years.

A native or East Orange, New Jersey, Dooley also has held assistant coaching jobs at South Carolina, New Mexico and Wyoming. He’ll join a Kansas staff that features two assistants he coached with at KU, in Norm Roberts and Kurtis Townsend, and another he coached as a player at KU in second-year assistant Jeremy Case.

All three of Self’s assistants from last season’s national title team will be back on the Kansas bench this season.

The return will mark Dooley’s second stint at Kansas. He served as one of Self’s top assistants from 2003-13 before leaving to be the head coach at Florida Gulf Coast from 2013-18 and then at East Carolina for four seasons.

At FGCU, Dooley was a two-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year while guiding the Eagles to regular season titles in 2014, 2017 and 2018 and tournament titles in 2016 and 2017.

Counting his first head coaching stint at ECU from 1995-99, Dooley, 57, owns an all-time record of 215-176. During his time at Kansas, the Jayhawks were 300-59, with a national title and two trips to the Final Four.

Dooley’s hiring is expected to be officially announced sometime next week. The Jayhawks are also slated to begin preseason workouts on Monday, the first day of the fall semester.

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83443Former KU assistant coach Joe Dooley returning to Kansas as Jayhawks’ recruiting coordinator for 2022-23 basketball season

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.