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Provo • BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has turned to a former BYU assistant coach and a coach at three other college basketball programs to replace departed assistant coach Terry Nashif.
Rose announced Thursday that he has hired Heath Schroyer, who most recently was been an assistant coach on Mark Gottfried's staff at North Carolina State.
"We are very excited to have a coach of Heath's caliber join our staff," Rose said in a school news release. "He will be a great fit with our coaches and players. Heath has had success everywhere he's been and brings knowledge, experience and a work ethic second to none."
Schroyer was an assistant on coach Steve Cleveland's BYU staff from 1997 to 2001, along with Rose. The Cougars won the Mountain West Conference regular season and tournament championship in 2001.
Schroyer began his coaching career at Fresno Community College. He also has been a coach at Wyoming, Portland State and Tennessee-Martin. He lost his job at NC State in March when Gottfried was forced out.
"I'm very excited to be back at BYU," Schroyer said. "Coach Rose and I have remained great friends since working together 20 years ago, and I have a great fondness for this program. … When this opportunity presented itself, it just felt right. I've heard nothing but great things about the players in the program, and I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and working with those guys."
Nashif was primarily in charge of the offense, but Schroyer's speciality is said to be defense, and there is considerable speculation that the 20-year coaching veteran will be placed in charge of that aspect of the program. He also is known as an outstanding recruiter.
Schroyer joined the Wyoming staff in 2001, then was hired as PSU's coach in 2002. He was 30 years old at the time, the second-youngest coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball.
He was Wyoming's coach from 2007 to 2011 and UT-Martin's coach from 2014 to 2016.
He also has been an assistant coach at Fresno State (2005-07) and UNLV (2011-14) under former BYU assistant Dave Rice.
Schroyer, a native of Walkersville, Md., played high school basketball at DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Md., under legendary coach Morgan Wootten.
Twitter: @drewjay