Oklahoma State Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Mike Boynton as Head Coach

John Jakus

Some coaching trees are stronger than others, though the tree of Baylor head coach Scott Drew really seems to be blossoming in recent years. Former Baylor assistants like Jerome Tang (Kansas State), Grant McCasland (Texas Tech), and Paul Mills (Wichita State) have all achieved great success in recent years. While Jakus has no head coaching experience, he’s another intriguing member of that lineage.

Jakus was born in Chicago, played college ball at a low-level school, and played and worked mostly at the international level before becoming a graduate assistant at Baylor back in 2012. He would later join Mark Few’s staff at Gonzaga, aiding the Bulldogs in a trip to the national title game in 2017. Jakus returned to the Bears a few weeks later and is in the midst of his seventh season in Waco, now serving as Drew’s associate head coach.

Jakus has learned from two of the best in the coaching business in Drew and Few, though he’s yet to serve as a collegiate head coach at any level. That lack of experience could be a red flag for the Cowboys, though they’ve also seen what Tang quickly accomplished at Kansas State without any prior experience. There’s no guarantee of anything close to a repeat performance, but Jakus is definitely trending towards a head coaching gig someday soon.