BYU Basketball Hires Former Player Nate Austin To Staff
Aug 15, 2023, 5:31 PM
BYU basketball hired former player Nate Austin as Director of Basketball Operations. (Ben Brewer, Deseret News)
(Ben Brewer, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – The BYU basketball “Iron Man” is back in Provo.
Nate Austin, the owner of most games in a BYU basketball career (153), is joining Mark Pope’s staff as the Director of Basketball Operations.
𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 @coachnateaustin !🤙
🔗 https://t.co/GsK8oyePtS pic.twitter.com/AtXFJDGLD2
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) August 15, 2023
Austin replaces Bobby Horodyski, who was in the basketball ops role for the previous four seasons. Horodyski left this summer after accepting an assistant coach position at the recent D1 program at Queens University in Charlotte.
Austin played for the BYU basketball program from 2011-16. He was a player at BYU when Mark Pope was an assistant coach on Dave Rose’s coaching staff. Immediately after his playing days concluded, Austin began his career in coaching.
Austin’s most recent coaching stop was as an assistant coach at Salt Lake Community College.
Nate Austin joins BYU as the Director of Basketball Operations
“We are happy to have Nate, Kim and the kids back at BYU. His knowledge of BYU and its rich history is going to be valuable as we enter our first season in the Big 12,” BYU basketball head coach Mark Pope said. “Nate is one of the toughest players that I have ever had the opportunity to coach and that is going to translate to helping us be successful in every aspect of the program. He excelled here as a graduate assistant and had a terrific run as the head coach at Grantsville High School.”
Before working at SLCC, Austin was the head coach at Grantsville High School for three seasons.
“I’m thrilled to be back at BYU. I love it here,” Austin said in a statement. “I’m humbled, grateful, and excited to be part of Coach Pope’s staff and this era of BYU basketball. I’m eager to serve the student-athletes and build relationships with them.”
BYU Basketball “Iron Man”
Last week during BYU basketball’s open scrimmage to the media, Austin was seen working with the team during drills. So it was expected that Austin would be joining the staff.
As the Director of Basketball Operations, Austin will be in charge of the day-to-day logistics such as travel, equipment, practice, and game day operations.
BYU is set to leave for a foreign tour this week on August 18, when they travel to northern Italy and Croatia to compete in exhibitions.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on Twitter/X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.
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