Bobby Gonzalez has made two hires to the vacancies on his staff.
Dennis Kazimir will take over as Director of Basketball Operations and Rodrick Rhodes will become Assistant to the Head Coach/Administrative Asst.
Kazimir, 31, takes over for Steve Sauers, now at Iona. A Brick, N.J. native and 2000 Seton Hall graduate, he previously worked at Tiffin University and at Wright State. He also worked as director of AAU tournaments for the Hoop Group, and has experience with a number of camps, including Rbk U and ABCD.
Rhodes (pictured), 35, starred at St. Anthony under Bob Hurley, where he won State titles in 1989 and ’91, and went on to star at Kentucky under Rick Pitino for three seasons before transferring to USC. He was drafted in the first round (24th overall) by the Houston Rockets in 1997 and played three season with the Rockets, Grizzlies and Mavericks.
After leaving the NBA during the 2000 season, Rhodes went overseas and played in professional leagues in Cyprus, Greece, the Philippines, France and Puerto Rico.
After his playing career, he served as an assistant at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas (2005) and at Idaho State (2006).
A Jersey City native, he served on Travis Ford’s staff at UMass last season.
The hiring of Rhodes can only help in terms of recruiting players from St. Anthony, the reigning national high school champs.
shu07grad / September 30, 2008
I’m glad we filled these two spots. Adding a former St. Anthony’s star should really help when it comes to recruiting Hurley’s kids. Adam, do you think this will have a significant impact with local recruiting?
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Adam Zagoria / September 30, 2008
Well, it certainly can’t hurt. I think Dom Cheek is leaving New Jersey for college, so then it would come down to the next significant players out of St. Anthony, ie, Devon Collier and Ashton Pankey. Much will depend on how Seton Hall does in the next year or so, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to add another connection to the Hurleys.
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