Radford University is hiring Zach Chu as its new men’s basketball coach, according to tweets Saturday from Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68 website.
Chu, a former University of Richmond walk-on, has spent this season on Andy Enfield’s staff as the chief men’s basketball strategist at ACC newcomer SMU.
This is a surprising hire for Radford because Chu has never been a college head coach or a college assistant coach.
He spent the 2021-22 through 2023-24 seasons on Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle’s staff as the manager of game strategy and analytics.
Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweeted that Carlisle announced during his pregame press conference Sunday that Chu would be working for Radford, with Carlisle then offering his congratulations.
Chu spent three seasons as an assistant coach in the NBA G League with the Texas Legends, who are the G League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks.
After his NBA G League stint, Chu spent two seasons working for the Dallas Mavericks as the analytics liaison to Carlisle, who was the Dallas coach at the time.
Chu began his pro basketball career as a player development intern with the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Dallas native was a little-used backup at the University of Richmond for four seasons.
He played in three games as a senior in the 2014-15 season.
Radford was looking for a replacement to Darris Nichols, who stepped down Tuesday to become the coach at Atlantic 10 member La Salle. Nichols was 68-63 in four seasons at the helm of the Highlanders.
Senior point guard Ashton Walker of Catholic High School in Virginia Beach, who had signed with Radford last fall, tweeted Sunday (prior to the Chu news) that he has flipped to La Salle.