Former Nevada assistant coach Kory Barnett reportedly hired as Oral Roberts' head coach

Kory Barnett, who spent five seasons as an assistant coach on Steve Alford's staff at Nevada, will reportedly be hired as Oral Roberts' head coach.

The news was first reported by college basketball insider Jon Rothstein.

The 36-year-old Barnett was an assistant at West Virginia this season under head coach Darian DeVries, who was recently hired by Indiana, Barnett's alma mater. Instead of following DeVries to Bloomington, Barnett will get his first chance to be a head coach, taking over a Golden Eagles program that has generally been strong but is coming off two down years.

Barnett was a walk-on player at Indiana who began his coaching career under Alford at UCLA. He spent six seasons on the Bruins' staff, including four as a video coordinator and two as the director of operations. When Alford was hired by Nevada in 2019, Barnett came along as a first-time assistant coach. He was integral in the Wolf Pack's scheduling and recruiting efforts and took over Nevada's defense before the 2022-23 season, helping the team make back-to-back NCAA tournaments.

Last season, Barnett was on a West Virginia staff that led the Mountaineers to a 19-13 overall record and 10-10 mark in the Big 12 (seventh place). West Virginia was the first team on the outside looking in at this year's NCAA Tournament.

While Barnett has never been a head coach, he did hold that role for one game at Nevada, leading the Wolf Pack to a 79-66 win over Pepperdine in 2021 when Alford missed the game due to a COVID-19 infection.

At Oral Roberts, Barnett will replace Russell Springmann, who was fired after going 19-42 in two seasons. That included a 7-23 record last year and last-place finish in the Summit League at 3-13. But the program won 30 games and made the NCAA Tournament just three seasons ago under then-coach Paul Mills, now at Wichita State. In the last 20 seasons, Oral Roberts has played in five NCAA tournaments with seven campaigns of at least 20 victories.

Oral Roberts is located in Tulsa, Okla., and was the first head-coaching stop for Bill Self, the legendary coach now at Kansas. Nevada played Oral Roberts in the 2012 NIT, taking a 68-59 road victory.