Basketball - U of Sask men's coach Jockims retires

News came out last week that Greg Jockims, after taking a year's sabbatical as the head coach of the Saskatchewan Huskies, has officially called it quits. It seems coaching his three kids' variety of amateur squads might be simpler than dealing with a single men's university team.

From the article linked above, in The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix:
“I got offered a teaching job — obviously that was part of the decision-making process — but the lead-up, I can’t begin to tell you how difficult of a decision this was,” [Jockims] said. “Obviously, being away for a year, I knew there might be a decision to make. You’re kind of talking to yourself — what am I going to do, what am I going to do? I hadn’t really made a decision. When you actually get to the precipice or the cliff, and you have to jump off, and then you start to reflect on how long it’s been, how much time you’ve put into this and, really, who I am as a person is a Huskie coach. That’s my identity.
This is obviously concerning for the Huskies, as they enjoyed partiuclar success in the Jockims era. Michael Linklater, Nolan Brudehl, Michael Lieffers all had terrific, championship careers with the Huskies under him, and Saskatchewan scored the Canada West and CIS Championship double two seasons ago (both wins coming against UBC) in what will effectively be Jockims' last season with the Huskies. The Saskatchewan record books are littered with players from Jockims' reign, including career points and rebounds leader Andrew Spagrud, perimeter shooting wiz Kyle Grant, and the numerous single-season accomplishments put up by Showron Glover.

While we wait for the retirement to become official on August 24th, the search for a new coach begins. Barry Rawlyk filled in as interim head-coach last season, and one would have to think that after a CIS tournament appearance for the Huskies and a fourth-place finish, athletic director Basil Hughton may consider keeping Rawlyk on board.

Jockims retires with 198 coaching victories in 12 seasons as head coach with the Huskies.
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3 comments:

  1. I can't thing of any logical reason why Barry Rawlyk shouldn't be named full time coach.
    He stepped in last year and the team had a season that was in many ways actually better than the championship one.
    The only difference is that this time Carleton won the epic Final 8 battle.
    From what I have been told, he was instrumental in landing Barrett.(who, as far as I am concerned, is better than Glover)
    Not too surprised Jockims called it a day.
    A year away from the grind gives one a different perspective on things.
    I guess he realized coaching his kids can be just as fulfilling as coaching CIS ball, sans the ulcers.

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  2. Rawluk was the recruiter for both Barrett and Glover...he has a lot of basketball contacts in California

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  3. It would be a head-scratcher if Rawlyk isn't coaching the Huskies next year. Easy decision for Hughton.

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