Texas Basketball: 2 ex-Longhorns that could be head coach candidates
Royal Ivey, Brooklyn Nets assistant coach
One of the favorite candidates to replace Beard as the next Texas head coach early in this process is the Brooklyn Nets third-year assistant coach Royal Ivey. The former All-Big 12 honoree has served in various assistant coaching roles between the D-League and the NBA for the last eight years.
Ivey started out his coaching tenure with the Oklahoma City Blue in the D-League in 2014. He served in that role for two years prior to getting his first NBA job with the big-league club as an assistant.
The Oklahoma City Thunder hired Ivey to be an assistant coach under former head coach Billy Donovan ahead of the 2016-17 season. That’s where Ivey and superstar forward Kevin Durant had the first opportunity to develop a player-coach relationship in the NBA.
The two former Longhorns clearly have a special connection, as Ivey has now followed him to another job with the Nets for the last few years.
Moreover, the one coaching role that Ivey held in between the Thunder assistant position and his current assistant role with the Nets came in the same role with the New York Knicks from 2018-2020.
Kevin Durant wants #Texas to consider former teammate and current Brookly Nets assistant Royal Ivey as the next #Longhorns head coach. #HookEm https://t.co/0Ybz6HInbr
— Wescott Eberts (@SBN_Wescott) March 27, 2021
It’s definitely worth noting that Texas considered Ivey as a candidate for the head coaching job before Beard was officially hired in the spring of 2020 to replace Smart. KD was also one of the biggest supporters of Ivey getting the Texas head coaching job a couple of years ago.
Next. 4 early coaching candidates to replace Chris Beard. dark
Ivey clearly has less coaching experience at the collegiate level than the other former Longhorn on this list, Lucas. But it seems like there are more Longhorns fans at the moment that support the idea of Ivey getting the head coaching job over Lucas next offseason.