Gatens hired as new assistant coach

The first one was an easy move to just a few chairs down when Director of Recruiting Courtney Eldridge replaced assistant coach Billy Taylor after he was named head coach at Elon.

The second one took a bit more time, but in many ways, McCaffery stayed within the family by replacing retiring assistant coach Kirk Speraw with former Hawkeye player and Iowa City native Matt Gatens.

Following a nice playing career overseas with stops in Spain, France, Turkey, and Ukraine, Gatens wrapped up his time on the court at a player with a short stint playing in Des Moines for the Iowa Energy.

Gatens got into coaching as a graduate assistant working for Bruce Pearl at Auburn. He then landed a position on the Drake staff in 2018 as the Director of Basketball Operations until 2020 when he was elevated to a full-time assistant coach role.

As we mentioned when Speraw was hired, Gatens would check several boxes that fit with what McCaffery would look for in an assistant coach. Gatens is an Iowa native and a former Hawkeye player. When McCaffery hired Speraw, the hope was that it would help build a bond with the Iowa fans to see a former player on the bench. Now Gatens will slide into that role and he’s also going to help the Hawkeyes significantly in recruiting in the state of Iowa.

Gatens played his final two years under McCaffery and finished his career with 1,635 career points. That is currently good for 10th on Iowa’s all-time scoring list. The fact that Gatens played for McCaffery is a huge selling point for the head coach. Gatens knows the expectations that McCaffery places on his players and he is also familiar how he expects the scouting reports for the players will be prepared.

Speraw will officially be on staff until June 30th when his contract expires. Gatens will officially take over on July 1st and his first order of business will be to put on the Iowa polo shirts and hit the road for what will be a very busy month of recruiting at various AAU events around the country.