Wisconsin assistant coach Gary Close is leaving after 13 years with the program, according to a report from Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Close joined the team back in the spring of 2003 as a part of then-head coach Bo Ryan’s staff. He replaced Tony Bennett, who had accepted the head coach position at Washington State, where he succeeded his father and former UW coach Dick Bennett.
Close has been lauded as a guru when it comes to shooting mechanics, and he played a pivotal role in helping junior forward Nigel Hayes develop his 3-point shot after attempting zero threes during his freshman season.
His decision to step down came as a bit of a surprise, as Close, 59, had previously expressed his desire to remain on the staff after Greg Gard was named UW’s permanent head coach earlier in the month, according to the Wisconsin State Journal’s Jim Polzin.
“It was not an easy decision,” Close told Potrykus. “I had been thinking about it toward the end of the year, visiting with my family.”
A native of Moorestown, New Jersey, Close got his start in the collegiate ranks as an assistant coach on Tom Davis’s staff at Stanford from 1983 to 1986. When Davis became the head coach at Iowa in 1986, Close came with him.
After Davis and the Hawkeyes parted ways in 1999, Close took the head coaching position at Regina High School in Iowa City, where he served from 2000 to 2003 before joining Ryan’s staff in Madison.
Gard will now be tasked with finding a replacement for Close to fill out his staff, which currently consists of Lamont Paris and Howard Moore. One name that will surely pop up is former Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter, a former assistant under Bo Ryan.
Jeter served on Ryan’s coaching staff at Wisconsin from 2001 to 2005, before taking over for Bruce Pearl in Milwaukee. In his 11 seasons with the Panthers, Jeter compiled a 184-170 record, including two NCAA Tournament appearances. After serving under six different athletic directors and interim athletic directors during his tenure, Jeter was fired by Milwaukee back on March 17.
Other candidates that could get a look from Gard are former UW player and current South Dakota State assistant Joe Krabbenhoft; Jeff Gard, his brother and current head coach at UW-Platteville; and Lance Randall, the current head coach at Division II Lindenwood University in Missouri.
Another name, albeit a more long-shot option, that may be tossed around is Steve Showalter, father of redshirt junior guard Zak Showalter.
The elder Showalter spent the past year as an assistant at Lindenwood, before resigning this past Sunday in order to be closer to Madison for his son’s senior season.
Prior to that, Showalter spent 15 seasons as head coach at Germantown High School. During his tenure, the Warhawks went 286-81 and won three straight WIAA Division 1 state titles from 2012 to 2014.
Showalter could also be in the running for his old job, as interim head coach Mark Adams resigned after guiding Germantown to a 20-5 record this past season.
UPDATE: The university confirmed Close’s departure Wednesday morning.
“Earlier this week I informed Coach Gard that I have made the difficult decision to resign my position as assistant coach to pursue other opportunities. It was an honor and a privilege to have coached at the University of Wisconsin,” Close said in a statement. “Being an assistant coach at the Division I level is an increasingly demanding position. While I plan to keep basketball a part of my future plans, I do want my next professional stop to provide me with greater flexibility to spend more quality time with my wife and two growing children.”
In the same statement, Gard expressed his well wishes to Close and thanked him for his service.
“On behalf of the team and staff, I want to thank Gary for his dedication to the Wisconsin basketball program,” Gard said. “He has been a consistent piece of our success over the last 13 years and we all wish him well with his next endeavor.”
