Former Gonzaga assistant coach signs multi-year extension at Valpo

Gonzaga's coaching tree continues to produce elite college coaches across the country

Nov 17, 2023; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Valparaiso Beacons head coach Roger Powell Jr. reacts during the first half against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center. | Ron Johnson-Imagn Images

The coaching tree for Gonzaga under Mark Few remains a fruitful one, with yet another former Zag getting a vote of confidence from his new school.

Roger Powell, who served as an assistant at Gonzaga from 2019-2023, received a multi-year contract extension from Valparaiso, where he has been the head coach for the past three seasons.

Powell took over for the Beacons in 2023-24, replacing Matt Lottich, who had gone 11-21 the previous year. Powell did not have early success, going just 7-25 and 3-17 in the Missouri Valley conference in year one, but that improved to 15-19 overall and 6-14 in league play in 2024-25.

Powell then broke through with a stellar 18-15 overall record in 2025-26, which included an 11-9 record and sixth-place finish in MVC play. The 11 conference wins set the Valparaiso record in the Missouri Valley, where they have been members since 2017-18, while the Beacons' 18 regular-season wins represented the program's most since 2019-20.

Multi-Year Contract Extension for Head Coach @RogerPowellJr 🎉🔥

The Beacons posted the highest regular season win total since 2016-17 and the most Missouri Valley wins since joining the league this season under Coach Powell’s Leadership ‼️#BeaconUp #SeeTheLight #EverydayGrit pic.twitter.com/E0KOQWot9q

— Valpo Basketball (@ValpoBasketball) May 18, 2026

Powell came to Gonzaga after three years as the associate head coach at Vanderbilt in the SEC. Prior to that, he got his start at Valparaiso as an assistant from 2011-2016, his first coaching job after wrapping up a six-year professional career that included stops with the Utah Jazz, the Arkansas Rimrockers of the D-League, and overseas in Germany, Spain, France, and Israel.

Gonzaga coaching tree

Powell is hardly the first coach to find success after moving on from an assistant role at Gonzaga. The most notable example is, of course, Tommy Lloyd, who spent 20 years serving under coach Few before leaving after the team's national championship appearance in 2020-21 to take over at Arizona.

Apr 4, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd. | Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

Lloyd has gone a ridiculous 148-36 (80.4%) in five years with the Wildcats, leading the team to the NCAA Tournament all five years and breaking through with a Final Four run this March that ended at the hands of eventual national champion Michigan.

Lloyd is now widely considered one of the best coaches in college basketball and was heavily pursued by the North Carolina Tar Heels this offseason after they let go of head coach Hubert Davis.

Before Lloyd, there was Leon Rice, who spent a decade alongside Lloyd and Few in Spokane before heading to Idaho to take over at Boise State in 2010-11. Rice has been the most successful basketball coach in Broncos history, leading BSU to a 336-189 (64%) record and five NCAA Tournament appearances, including three in a row from 2022-2024.

Rice and Boise State will join Few and Gonzaga in the new look Pac-12 in 2026-27, marking the first matchup between the longtime friends in the 15 years they have been apart.

Mar 8, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; Boise State Broncos head coach Leon Rice. | Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

Although not technically a coach at Gonzaga, current Florida Atlantic head coach John Jakus served as Gonzaga's Director of Basketball Operations from 2014-217, before taking an assistant job at Baylor, getting promoted to associate head coach in 2022, and then taking over at FAU following Dusty May's departure in 2024.

Jakus has gone 36-31 in two years with the Owls, where former Gonzaga guard Eric McClellan serves as an assistant coach.