Arizona State basketball loses top assistant coach

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State basketball is losing their top assistant coach. Jermaine Kimbrough, who’s served as the Associate Head Coach the last two seasons under Bobby Hurley will not be on ASU’s staff next season. Kimbrough has been in Tempe for three total seasons, serving as an assistant coach in 2021-22 before his promotion to Associate Head Coach.

Kimbrough won’t be traveling far for his new job.

Arizona State basketball loses Jermaine Kimbrough

Jermaine Kimbrough is leaving Arizona State basketball and joining Bryce Drew’s coaching staff at GCU, first reported by Jon Rothstein.

Source: Grand Canyon's Bryce Drew has hired Arizona State's Jermaine Kimbrough as an assistant coach.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 12, 2024

Losing Kimbrough is a significant loss, especially to a school down the road from Tempe. Kimbrough has acted like a defensive coordinator since arriving in Tempe, and the Sun Devils have improved drastically on that end of the floor.

Not gonna sugarcoat it, this is a big loss. Hurley was very high of Kimbrough and praised him often. He acted like a defensive coordinator these last three seasons.

ASU’s adjusted defensive efficiency under Kimbrough below:
2021-22: No. 17
2022-23: No. 29
2023-24: No. 65

Even… https://t.co/rmKrWHIET4

— Sun Devil Daily (@SunDevilDaily) April 12, 2024

“… the concepts, and switching, and the peels, and all of this stuff that we do,” Hurley said a few months ago. “Things we do defensively are things that are taught by him (Kimbrough).

Under Kimbrough, ASU has had a top-75 defense every season (Torvik) and peaked with a top-20 defense in 2021-22. The three best defenses of the Bobby Hurley era at ASU were all with Kimbrough on staff.

“He is my right-hand man,” head coach Bobby Hurley explained during the season. “All of the decisions made in the program are made by myself and Coach Kimbrough. It is rare that I would make a decision of any significance without discussing it with him. He’s just had such a fantastic background with coach defense throughout his career. He knows it (defense) like the back of his hand.”

Before coming to Tempe, Kimbrough had coaching stints with Wyoming and Loyola Chicago. This upcoming season will arguably be the most important of Hurley’s ASU tenure with the transition to the Big 12 conference.

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