The ethnic makeup of Nor Cal D1 college basketball coaching staffs

Coaching staff compositions change quite often but here are those for the current northern California D1 programs and the ethnic makeup:

* Cuonzo Martin fields a staff of Tracy Webster, Yanni Hufnagel, Wyking Jones and Marco Harris. Each is African-American except for Hufnagel.

* Up in Davis, Kevin Nosek, Chris Davis, Kyle Vogt and Mark Darnell work with Coach Jim Les. Davis is African-American.

* Pacific's Ron Verlin's crew consists of Calvin Byrd, Dwight Young, Joe Ford and Matt Sperisen. Ford was promoted when Adam Jacobsen joined Ganot at Hawaii. Verlin and Sperisen are Caucasian.

* Sacramento State's Brian Katz supervises Brandon Laird, Ajay Riding, Chris Walker and Nate Smith. Riding and Walker are African-American.

* San Jose State University (although two appointments have yet to be officially announced) has Tyler Ojanen, Mike Lepore, Chuck Driesell and Joe Wallace on Coach Dave Wojcik's staff. There are currently no minorities on the Spartan coaching staff.

* At Santa Clara, Coach Kerry Keating has Steve Snell, Jesse Pruitt and Brandon Rosenthal on board. Snell and Pruitt are African-American.

* Johnny Dawkins' staff consists of Tim O'Toole, Charles Payne, Mike Schrage and Jeff LaMere. Dawkins is African American as is Payne.

* St. Mary's Coach Randy Bennett has Marty Clarke and Marcus Schroeder on board after Eran Ganot departed for the job at Hawaii. There are currently no minorities on the Gael coaching staff.

* With USF, it's Luke Wicks, Brent Crews, Dwayne Polee and John Montgomery supporting Coach Rex Walters. Crews and Polee are African-American.

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Straight off, it's striking that the majority of D1 college basketball players are African-American (57.6%) yet the makeup of the college hoops coaching staffs in northern California swing to and fro in this particular demographic.

There are a multitude of reasons why but it obviously starts with who the Athletic Director has running the men's basketball program and the connections that individual has made during his basketball tenure. Loyalty is mandatory quality #1 so who a head coach knows and trusts and who comes recommended from someone he knows and trusts constitute the pool of assistant coach candidates when hiring. Positive familiarity is the key to getting a foothold in the D1 college basketball coaching fraternity.