9 August 2023
LAWRENCE (KSNT) – Great athletes only come with great coaches, and KU knows that.
The NCAA approved an additional full-time assistant coach for a handful of sports, including baseball and women’s basketball, beginning July 1. Neither program had to look far to fill the spot.
Dan Fitzgerald brought Tyler Hancock from volunteer assistant to full time. Hancock helped the 2022-23 team tie the program record for home runs in a season. He also helped lead the Jayhawks to the most doubles, RBI and runs since 2010.
“Super thankful for the opportunity, but I never really looked at it as being a volunteer,” Hancock said. “Always just tried to put my head down and go, ‘Hey, this is my job.’ So, nothing has really changed in that lense.”
Brandon Schneider had to look a little further than his current staff, but not far beyond that. KU women’s basketball added Patrick Schrater to its staff. Schrater graduated from Emporia State, where he was a student assistant for Coach Brandon for a short period of time. Then, Schrater was a graduate assistant at KU for Coach Brandon.
“I like to think I’m a pretty positive person most of the time,” Schrater said. “Attention to detail on a lot of different things. Being in a similar system to what Brandon has run the last eight of my 10 years in college basketball, I think, having that similarity and understanding what he wants is going to be very beneficial.”
KU men’s basketball brought Doc Sadler back as an analyst.