How Florida, Houston assistants veered from Jai Lucas’ blueprint at Duke to pull double duty in Final Four

SAN ANTONIO — After Florida finished off Texas Tech in a thrilling Elite Eight battle last weekend, the Gators finally got a moment to catch their collective breath. Amid the mayhem of the program’s deepest postseason run since 2014, UF took Monday off before diving into preparation for Saturday’s Final Four showdown against fellow No. 1 seed Auburn.

But for assistant coaches Kevin Hovde and John Andrzejek, there was no rest to be found.

Both have accepted head jobs — Hovde at Columbia, Andrzejek at Campbell — leaving them with a juggling act as the Gators’ season barrels into April amid the mayhem of an open transfer portal.

“It’s important to be fresh, and it’s challenging working two full-time jobs,” Andrzejek told CBS Sports. “I feel obligated to these guys to give them the best chance possible to fulfill their dreams and win a national title. At the same time, I’m really excited to be the next head coach at Campbell.”

Florida’s retention of Andrzejek and Hovde through the season’s end contrasts with how things played out for Duke with assistant coach Jai Lucas, who left the Blue Devils after the regular season to devote his sole attention to his new job as Miami‘s coach. 

The departure of Duke’s de facto defensive coordinator left the Blue Devils with some staff rearrangement to sort through on the fly at the season’s most critical juncture.

“Jai, for me, has been a key entrusted guy, but for us, it’s business as usual,” Scheyer said last month. “We have to step up and be ready to go. Emanuel (Dildy), Chris (Carrawell) and our entire staff have done a great job of just picking up the load and making sure it doesn’t feel different.”

Duke’s opponent on Saturday, Houston, also has a departing assistant on staff. Louisiana announced longtime Cougars’ aide Quannas White as its next coach on March 10.

Like the Florida assistants, White is sticking with Houston through season’s end before devoting his undivided attention to a new job.

“It’s a great opportunity down at Louisiana,” White said. “But we started this journey a long time ago, and I wanted to see it through.”

It’s nice for a program like Campbell, Columbia or Louisiana to tout an incoming coach as Final Four-bound, but it also means that any work on 2025-26 roster assembly at those schools is split with Final Four game preparation.

“Obviously, the number one priority is to finish this thing off right and to win a national championship,” Hovde told CBS Sports. “I’ve been with some of these guys for two or three years, and to be here, I just want to make sure I put everything I possibly can into helping us achieve that. But also, with the new job, I actually got to go up there for a day last Monday after we beat UConn in the second round. I flew to New York, because we had an off day in Gainesville. So I got to meet the guys at Columbia and do some individual meetings and just be able to get in front of them. 

“That was awesome, so I’m now just in constant contact with them until I get up there.”

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Both Florida assistants praised coach Todd Golden for accommodating the reality that two of his trusted lieutenants have an eye on the future as they help the Gators prepare to finish off what’s been a special season.

“Pretty quickly, the Campbell administration, Coach Golden and myself were able to come to a consensus that the best thing for both programs would be for me to continue with the Gators so the Gators can go as far as possible,” Andrzejek said. “And that attention for the Campbell program is really valuable. It’s going to enhance the recruiting, it’s going to get our alumni excited. It’s all good stuff. It means I’ll have to work a little harder once I get down there to catch up a little bit. But we’ll do it.”

Hovde said he and Golden mapped out a plan to make sure the news of his looming departure dropped at the right time. They didn’t want the announcement coming on a game day for the Gators and were able to hold off on revealing his move to Columbia until after UF completed the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

“He was great and super supportive,” Hovde said. “He knows my goal has always been to be a head coach and run my own program. So he was absolutely thrilled about it.”

Hovde’s start at Columbia is simplified by his time there as an assistant from 2012-16; he already knew much of the Lions’ athletic department staff.

“That’s been huge,” he said. “Going back there, I have some familiarity. There’s a lot of people that I can rely on during this transition with not being up there yet.”

Lucas’ departure from Duke last month also came under unique circumstances that would have made continuing with the Blue Devils an especially tricky situation. Miami is an ACC school and the hometown of highly touted Duke signees Cameron and Cayden Boozer, who Lucas helped recruit to Duke.

By contrast, Hovde, Andrzejek and White are headed to mid-major gigs and schools that will mostly recruit from a different talent pool. So, for a few more days, they’ll pull double-duty.

“I’ve got two jobs that I’m working, but there’s nothing wrong with that,” White said. “I’d rather have two jobs than no job.”