photo by: Journal-World file

KU assistant coach Jeremy Case is pictured in this file photo from 2021.

Jeremy Case has received a promotion to associate head coach of the Kansas men’s basketball team, KU coach Bill Self announced on Tuesday.

Case, a former walk-on player in the early years of Self’s tenure, has been serving on the KU staff since 2016 and as an assistant coach since 2021. He becomes the only assistant on staff with the associate head coach title.

“Jeremy has done a tremendous job as an assistant coach since 2021,” Self said in a press release. “He has played a big role both on the court and in the new world of college basketball recruiting.”

Self said that the promotion had long been in the works but that he waited to announce it as a result of recent changes to KU’s coaching staff.

Indeed, over the course of the 2025 offseason Self has made several new additions. Norm Roberts retired and in came onetime Jayhawk and former NBA head coach Jacque Vaughn, and Chase Buford left for a job with the Denver Nuggets and was replaced by Tony Bland from Washington. Fred Quartlebaum left his post as director of basketball operations, and Self promoted office manager Lexi Price as his replacement. Recent KU player KJ Adams is now serving as an assistant video coordinator while he recovers from a torn Achilles tendon suffered in his final collegiate game.

Case has been a part of both of Self’s title-winning teams, one as a player and one as an assistant coach. After finishing his playing career at KU and serving on staff for a year while taking graduate classes, he coached at Southeast Missouri State and Houston Baptist. He returned to Lawrence for good in 2016 as a video coordinator, then received his promotion in 2021 after spending several months as an interim assistant coach following the departure of Jerrance Howard.

Now he’ll serve as associate head coach on a staff that also features assistant coaches Vaughn, Bland, Joe Dooley and Kurtis Townsend working under Self.

“I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to continue my development at a place that is so special to me,” Case said in the release. “Having the chance each day to work for a Hall of Fame coach is such an honor. I’m thankful to Coach Self for the belief he has in me as a coach and am very excited to continue to work with a great staff.”

Self referred to Case as “a rising star in the profession.” In a July interview with college basketball reporter Jon Rothstein, Self mentioned Case as one potential internal candidate to succeed him when he eventually retires (he also agreed with Rothstein that Vaughn could be another possible candidate).