May 7, 2025

I'd be down with Jacque!

Per Mike Vernon’s essential The Hearings newsletter, the Jayhawks are in talks to fill their new assistant coach opening with Jayhawk legend Jacque Vaughn.

I’m with that! And I’m also with the attendant speculation that Vaughn may very well be the coach-in-waiting, which I think is the real item they’re talking about here. Jacque has all the relevant experience and a pedigree befitting a 12-year playing stint in the NBA, something that will resonate with the kinds of players KU wants in their program.

“I still remember that game to this day” Listen as Jacque Vaughn breaks down his game-winning three pointer against Indiana ⬇️ | By Kansas Men's Basketball

“I still remember that game to this day” Listen as Jacque Vaughn breaks down his game-winning three pointer against Indiana ⬇️

Vaughn definitely conjures fuzzy feelings for Hawks fans, as evidenced by my natural instinct to refer to him by ‘Jacque’ throughout this post. My first-ever KU game (at least the one I remember as my first, you’ll see why) was Jacque’s buzzer beater against Indiana as a freshman. Jacque represented the platonic ideal of a Roy Williams player — good at his sport, good at school, a good dude overall. While his numbers actually aren’t all-time standards — get. Aaron. in. the. rafters — the Jacque Vaughn experience at Kansas got #11 retired quickly. That’s just how popular Jacque was, and still is.

Jacque has been an effective, if not elite, NBA coach. The best resume item he has was his stewardship of the Nets in the 2020 “bubble” season, where he raised the level of a very understaffed Nets squad substantially. The Nets named Jacque their permanent coach in 2022. He ultimately lost the locker room, and after a 50-point loss to the Celtics, got canned. I don’t read into that all that much — the NBA is a players’ league and is very, very political. Few coaches can survive that. I have faith that Jacque has grown from the experience.

I have a bad habit of tracking trends from the highest league of the sport and projecting them down to college, which now is more-or-less on an established minor league. A popular archetype right now is basketball lifers without much brand recognition — OKC’s Mark Daigneualt, Denver’s David Adelman (son of Rick), new Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, even Boston’s Joe Mazzulla once upon a time. NBA teams are looking down their bench to find young, hungry coaches who already have relationships with the personnel and front office. They’re much more likely to give that person a shot than, say, Bill Self.

KU does not have that person on their bench right now, unless you’re putting a couple bones on a Chase Buford longshot. A component of Jacque taking over will almost certainly be the hiring of a General Manager, a move Self has rejected although it’s going to become a necessity with the NIL market. (Maybe it already has). Jacque has never coached at the college level, which means he has no experience with formal recruitment. That will necessitate a support staff with bonafides in that category. As Jacque (reportedly) sifts through details on a potential contract, this will no doubt be a component of that negotiation.

KU plays things pretty safe, especially right now as they deal with donor fatigue and a big, perhaps poorly-timed football stadium renovation. Through that lens, Jacque is a solid choice, a beloved member of the family with a real track record. As KU navigates the NIL era, I’m not sure they’re as well served hunting for a seasoned college winner as they would have been ten years ago. Get Jacque on the bench, and let’s see if that moves the needle. The Jayhawks have no incentive to rush. Let’s use that time wisely.