Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Mark Madsen will become a head men’s basketball coach in Utah County after all.
Just not at BYU.
Madsen, 43, will replace Mark Pope as the head coach at Utah Valley University, The Salt Lake Tribune has confirmed. The hiring was first reported by ESPN.com.
Pope was chosen as BYU’s new head coach last Wednesday, beating out Madsen, Portland State coach Barret Peery and BYU interim head coach Quincy Lewis for the job to replace Dave Rose.
Madsen let it be known during that process that he would be interested in replacing Pope if he didn’t get the BYU job, and that pursuit was surely sped up when head coach Luke Walton and the Lakers parted company on Friday, leaving Madsen without a job.
Madsen grew up in Walnut Creek, Calif., but his parents now live in Utah County, as do his in-laws.
He played college basketball at Stanford from 1996-2000 and was a two-time All-American.
He was selected in the first round of the 2000 NBA draft (No. 29 overall) by the Lakers and spent nine seasons in the NBA. He was part of the Lakers’ NBA championship teams in 2001 and 2002 and played his final six NBA seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He earned an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 2012 and was an assistant coach at Stanford for one year under head coach Johnny Dawkins in 2011-12.
Madsen became a full-fledged Lakers assistant in 2013 and has had that position until Walton was dismissed on Friday.
Sources told The Tribune that Washington assistant Dave Rice was close to being named UVU’s coach on Saturday, but the money wasn’t right for the former BYU assistant and UNLV head coach to leave Seattle for Orem.
Pope’s two top assistants at Utah Valley, Chris Burgess and Cody Fueger, were also interviewed for the UVU job. Both will likely join Pope at BYU, according to sources with knowledge of Pope’s search for his staff.
Former Southern Utah University coach Nick Robinson (2012-2016) could also be in line to join Pope’s staff at BYU, along with his director of basketball operations at UVU, Bobby Horodyski.
Madsen is from a family of 10 children and served a mission to Spain for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He married Orem native Hannah Harkness in September of 2016 and the couple has a son, William.
