Tech reportedly targeting Wyoming HC Jeff Linder to top assistant role

According to reports, Texas Tech is targetting Wyoming men's basketball head coach Jeff Linder to the top assistant role.

The role on the Tech staff was vacated in late March when former Carleton College head coach Dave Smart accepted the head coaching job at Pacific after one season on the Tech staff.

Linder has been a head coach at the division one level for eight seasons, with the last four at Wyoming, leading the Cowboys to a 63–59 (.516) record with an NCAA First Four appearance in 2021-22.

Prior to taking the job at Wyoming, Linder spent four seasons as the head man at Northern Colorado, leading the Bears to a 80–50 (.615) record and a CIT championship in 2017-18.

The ties to Texas Tech's head coach Grant McCasland make this an understandable, but somewhat jarring hire for McCasland to be able to poach an incumbent Mountain West head coach.

Linder served as an assistant under McCasland at Midland College for three seasons from 2004 to 2006, where McCasland was the head coach until 2009.

After putting together a strong transfer portal class at Wyoming, Linder seems poised to move to the 806 ahead of the 2024-25 season.