Tony Bland will soon join the Kansas men’s basketball team as an assistant coach, a source confirmed to the Journal-World on Tuesday afternoon.
Bland comes to KU after most recently serving for one season as an assistant coach on Danny Sprinkle’s staff at Washington. ESPN first reported the news of his move to KU. He replaces Chase Buford, after head coach Bill Self said on Friday that Buford had accepted an assistant coaching job with the Denver Nuggets.
Bland’s entire collegiate coaching career has taken place on the West Coast. A native of Los Angeles, Bland played at Syracuse and San Diego State and later served as an assistant for the Aztecs until 2013. He then served as the associate head coach to Andy Enfield at USC for four years.
In September 2017, Bland became one of several assistant coaches arrested as part of the FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball. Bland eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, and was given two years’ probation and 100 hours of community service; he also received a three-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA as part of its penalties against USC.
Until joining the Washington staff, he served as the head coach at St. Bernard High School in Los Angeles. Bland is originally from Los Angeles and attended Westchester High School.
He becomes the third major hire of the offseason for Self, after he replaced the retired Norm Roberts with Jacque Vaughn and the departed Fred Quartlebaum with Lexi Price. Former player KJ Adams also joined the staff as a video coordinator.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File
