Stanford hires Jerod Haase to be next head coach

Jerod Haase is returning to his native California as the new head men’s basketball coach of the Stanford Cardinal. The 41-year-old Haase spent the last four seasons as the head coach at UAB, leading the Blazers to postseason berths in each of the last two seasons.

Haase is a native of South Lake Tahoe, CA and played his first year of college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley before transferring to Kansas in 1993. In Lawrence, he played three seasons under Roy Williams, for whom he would serve as an assistant coach at both Kansas (1999-2003) and North Carolina (2003-2012). Haase enjoyed great success at UAB from 2012-2016, taking the Blazers from a 16-17 team in 2013 to a 26-7 C-USA regular season champion this past season.

Stanford is looking to re-energize it’s program, which was a perennial NCAA Tournament participant under Mike Montgomery and Trent Johnson in the 1990’s and 2000’s. However, Stanford fired Johnny Dawkins this month after just one NCAA appearance in eight seasons. The Cardinal did win two NIT Championships under Dawkins, but the athletic department is looking to return to the Big Dance with the hiring of up-and-comer Haase.

As a 14-seed in 2015, Haase’s Blazers knocked off 3-seed Iowa State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.