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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfter a decade with the Brooklyn Nets, Vaughn, b\u201997, one of the most beloved players in Kansas history, had been living quietly in Paradise Valley, Arizona, spending his days on the golf course, evenings on dinner dates with his wife, Laura DePaolis Vaughn, c\u201999, and relishing family weekends at the University of Miami with their two sons. He had been an NBA head coach and spent 12 years as a player, and Vaughn had no plans to jump back into the game\u2014at any level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI told my agent, \u2018I\u2019m just going to let time reveal itself. What happens, happens,\u2019\u201d Vaughn told Crimson & Blue<\/em> in an interview in his still-spartan office within team headquarters in Wagnon Student-Athlete Center. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of how my brain works. I always believe you are where your feet are, and I\u2019ve tried to explain that to our kids when we moved a lot. San Antonio, Orlando, New Jersey, Brooklyn, Atlanta … we\u2019re not going to look beyond where our feet are, so we\u2019re going to enjoy and soak it in and enjoy these memories. We\u2019ve always taken that approach, which I think has been beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the unexpected option to, as Vaughn says, return home<\/em>, the family huddled. As promised, Vaughn returned Self\u2019s call in a matter of days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re good,\u201d he told Self. \u201cTell me more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And with that, Kansas basketball gained not just a familiar face but a unique resource: the first former NBA head coach ever to serve as a KU assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is exciting for Kansas,\u201d Self said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think you hire somebody because people like him. I think you hire only because he complements what your talents are, and he brings something to us that\u2019s different than what we\u2019ve ever had before. We now have a college assistant coach who was a three-time NBA head coach, who trained Kevin (Durant) and Kyrie (Irving) and all the different guys, and that brings immediate credibility to guys who want to be pros, knowing they\u2019re going to work with somebody who knows firsthand what it\u2019s supposed to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, Vaughn represents a rare blend of history and expertise. He remains third on KU\u2019s career assists chart with 804, and his No. 11 jersey hangs in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters. He was the 1996 Big 8 Player of the Year and the 1997 Academic All-American of the Year. After a 776-game NBA playing career that included a championship with the San Antonio Spurs, he shifted seamlessly into coaching, spending two seasons as an assistant under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio before leading the Orlando Magic and twice guiding the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a program that thrives on developing NBA talent, Vaughn\u2019s presence is a selling point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe great thing is, when I accepted the job, I had probably 20, 25 calls from assistant GMs, GMs, personnel directors across the league, so the direct feedback for our guys will, I think, be beneficial,\u201d Vaughn says. \u201cAnd then I had the luxury of coaching guys who are top 75 all-time in the NBA, and hopefully I can use that experience to help our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet Vaughn resists reducing his value to r\u00e9sum\u00e9s or networks. \u201cPlayers are players,\u201d he says. \u201cThe talent level could be different, but you still listen with intent, you\u2019re truthful, you still pull for them and want them to get better. That doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vaughn has worked with all-stars and rookies alike, and prides himself on coaching bigs and guards. He points to Nic Claxton, whom he mentored in Brooklyn into a $100 million player, as an example of development done right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of the guys who will come to the University of Kansas want to play in the NBA, want to have a life that is associated with basketball in some way, and the last 25-plus years of my life, I\u2019ve walked those same steps, come across some of the questions they\u2019ll have to answer, whether it\u2019s from parents, siblings, friends, agents, management, coaches. I\u2019ve lived that life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDeep waters, and sometimes those waters can be treacherous. I have no ulterior motives but to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vaughn credits the good fortune of being drafted by the Utah Jazz, where Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan led a perennial contender that featured the likes of John Stockton, Karl Malone, Antoine Carr and even Vaughn\u2019s former KU teammate Greg Ostertag, \u201995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThose guys, they were men<\/em>, who had kids and who had been paying bills for a long time,\u201d Vaughn says. \u201cWithout that veteran leadership, I\u2019m not sure how long I stay in the league. I played for 12 years, and I give a lot of credit to being drafted by Utah and being around a group of veterans who taught me how to prepare myself as a professional every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now Vaughn intends to do the same for the young men wearing his beloved Kansas jersey, and his message packs power in its clarity: \u201cI like to do simple better. There are no shortcuts. I believe in putting in the work, and the results will come from that work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with his enthusiasm to rejoin the KU basketball family and learn college coaching under Self\u2014\u201cThe opportunity to be around a Hall of Famer who has two national championships and is taking our program to a different level really guided my pivot to come back home\u201d\u2014the move to Lawrence is even more rewarding for its impact on the one thing that matters more than basketball: family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you think about it, all the stops we had, the four of us, we always had to get to know the community, how to travel, where to go to eat, where to live,\u201d Vaughn says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to do that here. We just got reacquainted here. We\u2019ve walked these same streets before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The memories flood back: the Los Angeles kid experiencing his first Kansas winter (\u201cAre you kidding me? I thought<\/em> I had a winter jacket. I\u2019ll never forget that\u201d), walking the Hill to class and down the Hill to graduation, his four years living with Scot Pollard, d\u201997, in suite 412C of Jayhawker Towers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI tell people, once you come here, you feel it\u2019s different than any other university. It\u2019s different than any other quote-unquote college town. And for a kid coming from California to say, \u2018I\u2019m here in Lawrence, Kansas, and I love it,\u2019 that means something to me, and it always has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That perspective will shape Kansas basketball as much as his NBA experience. Vaughn knows today\u2019s players face pressures he didn\u2019t\u2014social media, NIL contracts, even taxes, which he recently helped one of his players navigate. But he also knows the fundamentals haven\u2019t changed: preparation, honesty, teamwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe enthusiasm is back,\u201d he says. \u201cI woke up at 4:30 a.m. the other day, like it was training camp. That\u2019s a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Kansas fans, Vaughn\u2019s return reinforces continuity. His jersey hanging high above Naismith Court is a reminder of his playing days, and his new sideline perch next to Self symbolizes the program\u2019s reach\u2014from Allen Fieldhouse to the NBA and back again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are very, very proud and excited about Jacque coming in,\u201d Self said, \u201cand making us better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three decades after his first days on campus, Jacque Vaughn is home again, ready to help lead the program he once helped define.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMe coming back, coaching a group that\u2019s playing on the same floor I played on, being able to talk with guys about what my path has been, hopefully guiding them and being a mentor and a coach and someone who is pulling for them more than they\u2019re pulling for themselves … yeah, I think that\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d Chris Lazzarino, j\u201986, is associate editor of Crimson & Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The NBA veteran\u2019s career comes full circle as the new KU men\u2019s basketball assistant coach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[39,51],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-jayhawks","tag-athletics","tag-mens-basketball"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Jacque-Vaughn-Sports-Illustrated.jpg\")
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\n\n\n\nPhotos by Steve Puppe
Archive images courtesy of Kansas Athletics Archives<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"