Staff shake-up leads to Wichita State basketball adding assistant coach from St. John’s
The Wichita State men’s basketball team has had a shake-up on its coaching staff under first-year head coach Paul Mills.
Assistant coach Chris Hollender, who was previously an assistant at Missouri, has resigned from his position due to “personal reasons,” according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Mills has already found his replacement, however, hiring T.J. Cleveland, who was the associate head coach at St. John’s the past four seasons. According to the same source, Cleveland has already begun work in Wichita.
Cleveland has studied for nearly two decades under Mike Anderson, his uncle, spending time on his staffs at UAB, Missouri, Arkansas and St. John’s for the past 17 seasons. He was a video coordinator at UAB, then spent the duration of his time at Missouri, Arkansas and St. John’s as an assistant coach.
He has also earned a reputation as one of college basketball’s best young recruiters, which could come in handy for a WSU team still looking to find two more players to round out its roster for the 2023-24 season. Cleveland also offers deep recruiting ties to the state of Arkansas, being a former standout player for the Razorbacks from 1998-02 and also an assistant at Arkansas from 2011-19.
Cleveland will join associate head coach Kenton Paulino and Quincy Acy on Mills’ first staff with the Shockers.
