Men's Basketball Completes Staff for 2013-14
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self named Fred Quartlebaum director of student-athlete development Wednesday. Additionally, Self has promoted Brennan Bechard to director of basketball operations, while Jeff Forbes continues his tenure with the KU program as the video coordinator.
“I feel fortunate that we have guys in place, with Brennan and Jeff, who have been here for a while and have had a chance to do things to enhance our program,” Self said. “Now we add a person like Fred Quartlebaum who has been around big-time college athletics having worked at Notre Dame, Iowa State, North Carolina and St. John’s as a full-time assistant. Fred played a huge role in the recruitment of the Carolina team that went on to win a national championship. He brings a ton of energy and organization and we feel Fred will be a perfect fit here at Kansas.”
Quartlebaum has a long resume of basketball coaching experience, which encompasses more than 20 years. He comes to KU after working as associate director of PACT (Personalized Achievement Contract), a leadership and mentoring program at Mercy College in New York. Additionally, in 2010, he started his own company, 212 Hoops, which combines his experience developing collegiate athletes to youth basketball. Prior to his position at Mercy College, Quartlebaum spent six seasons as an assistant coach at St. John’s under current KU assistant coach Norm Roberts.
A Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., native, Quartlebaum played collegiately at Fordham where he was a four-year letterwinner for the Rams from 1985-89. Following a stint in the high school ranks, he then was an assistant coach at Navy (1992-96), Towson (1996-97), Holy Cross (1997-98) and Fairfield (1998-99) before joining Matt Doherty at Notre Dame in 1999-2000. He accompanied Doherty to North Carolina (2000-03) where he played a part in recruiting five McDonald’s All-Americans that eventually would win an NCAA title in 2005. After UNC, he was an assistant for one season under head coach Wayne Morgan at Iowa State (2003-04) before joining Roberts’ staff at St. John’s.
“I am extremely excited about this opportunity,” Quartlebaum said. “What a thrill to come back and work with coach Roberts and the basketball program at Kansas. Coach Self is one of the top coaches in college basketball and to have the opportunity learn under his direction is such a privilege for me. I’m thrilled to be a part of Kansas basketball.”
A member of the 2008 Kansas NCAA National Championship team, Bechard joined the KU basketball staff as a graduate student manager in August 2009. In summer 2011, he was named assistant director of basketball operations. In his role, Bechard works with the day-to-day operations with the KU program in the office, travel and scouting. Bechard replaces Doc Sadler who moved on from KU to be a full-time assistant coach at Iowa State in May 2013.
Forbes joined the Kansas men’s basketball staff in a full-time capacity in August 2010 as video coordinator. In his role, Forbes works closely with the scouting video of opponents, the filming of practices and games, much of the content for BillSelf.com and KU’s men’s basketball twitter account – @KUhoops. Forbes is the creator and producer of the popular “Pay Heed” videos which were nominated for an Emmy Award in May 2013.
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