Longtime Bill Self assistant tapped for particular hoops hall of fame in North Carolina
Kansas Jayhawks assistant men’s basketball coach Kurtis Townsend will be inducted into the “A STEP UP Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame” on May 21 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the organization announced Wednesday.
Townsend, who has been an assistant on Bill Self’s coaching staff at KU for the past 21 seasons, is part of an eight-member class of 2025. The eight will be honored at a ceremony during the 15th annual A STEP UP assistant coaches professional development symposium at Queens University in Charlotte.
Other honorees include Orlando Antigua (Illinois); Fred Applin (UNC Greensboro); Kelly Curry (Alabama); Shannon LeBeauf (UCLA); Ernie Nestor (Wake Forest, posthumously); Jerry Norman (UCLA, retired); and Steve Roccoforte (Texas A&M).
KU assistant coach Norm Roberts was a class of 2023 inductee.
Townsend joined the Kansas coaching staff in summer 2004. Twenty-one seasons later he is the longest-tenured assistant coach in KU men’s basketball history.
In his tenure, KU has won a pair of national titles and reached three NCAA Tournament title games, three Final Fours, seven NCAA Tournament Elite Eights and nine NCAA Sweet 16s.
KU has also during his tenure won an NCAA record-tying 13-consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles (2005-17), 16 overall and eight conference tournament crowns. Also while at Kansas, Townsend has coached 13 NBA Draft lottery selections, more than 30 overall NBA draftees and 70 all-Big 12 Jayhawks.
Townsend was the lead recruiter in the pursuit of incoming McDonald’s All-American Darryn Peterson. He also was lead recruiter for KU NBA draftees Josh Jackson, Andrew Wiggins, Ben McLemore, Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Julian Wright, Josh Selby, Sherron Collins, Frank Mason and Devonté Graham.
Townsend joined the Jayhawks coaching staff after serving as an assistant under Perry Clark at Miami for one season. He also served as an assistant at USC, Michigan, California and Eastern Kentucky.
Townsend played point guard at Western Kentucky for two seasons (1978-80). He spent the 1981 season in the CBA for the Montana Golden Nuggets and earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation from Western Kentucky in 1982.
Prior to transferring to Western Kentucky, Townsend played two seasons at Menlo (California) Junior College, where he earned first-team all-state and All-America honorable mention honors in 1978.
Selection criteria for the “A STEP UP Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame,” according to the organization, includes “respect among colleagues for high moral character and integrity, making significant contributions to the game and/or teams coached. One must be a current college basketball assistant coach or retired as a college basketball assistant coach who has been a part of winning championship caliber programs.”
