Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball will be losing another coach in the days preparing for the NCAA Tournament.
Blue Devils assistant coach Evan Bradds accepted the head coaching job at his alma mater, Belmont University, just days after Casey Alexander left the program to become the next head coach at Kansas State, The Athletic’s Brendan Marks reported.
The newly hired coach will finish the rest of the 2025-26 season with the Blue Devils.
Duke Assistant Hires on at New School for Third Season in a Row
This is the third straight season Duke head coach Jon Scheyer will be losing an assistant leading up to the NCAA Tournament. Former coach Amile Jefferson moved on to take a similar role with the Boston Celtics in 2024, and associate head coach Jai Lucas left before the start of Duke’s tournament runs last spring.
Bradds will be staying with Duke until the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament run. Unlike Lucas, who left the program before the start of the postseason in 2025.
Evan Bradds might not be the only coach Duke will be losing this season. Marks mentioned that assistant coach Emanuel Dildy is a prospect for the head coaching spot at Charlotte University of the American Athletic Conference (AAC).
Who is New Belmont Head Coach Evan Bradds?
Evan Bradds, 31, is known to be an up-and-coming leader in men’s college basketball. He’s currently in his first (and final) year as an assistant coach for Duke. During his time in Durham, Bradds has helped coach Scheyer as an offensive coordinator for the Blue Devils. His role included planning scouting reports, offensive game plans, and play calling, which is what Bradds specialized in with the top team in the nation entering the NCAA Tournament.
His work has contributed to working closely with Duke forward Cameron Boozer. Boozer is in the running for the John R. Wooden Award, which is given to the most outstanding college basketball player in the United States.
Before taking on a role in the NCAA, Evan Bradds served five seasons with the NBA’s Boston Celtics as a video analysis coordinator. After this, he would go on to work for the Utah Jazz for three seasons as an assistant coach. He would also be the Jazz’s Summer League head coach in 2023.
Bradds also played for Belmont University from 2013 to 2017, becoming one of the best basketball players the school has developed.
During his time as a player, Evan Bradds led Belmont to four conference championships, three NIT appearances, and the 2015 NCAA Tournament. This was the tournament where the Bruins nearly upset No. 2-seed Virginia in the first round.
He’s the school’s leader in career scoring with 1,921 points and posted 98 double-doubles in his time with the team. Bradds also one back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year Awards, and sixth best career field goal percentage (.667) in NCAA Division I history.
In his final collegiate season, Bradds was named as a finalist for the Julius Erving National Small Forward of the Year Award. Villanova alum and current forward for the New York Knicks, Josh Hart, ended up winning.
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