Jeff Bzdelik

Jeffrey Joseph Bzdelik (born December 1, 1952) is an American professional basketball coach who most recently served as associate head coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Bzdelik earned four varsity letters while playing basketball at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and was named team MVP in 1975–76.

He also spent six years in the Army National Guard.

His team also became the first in the history of the NBA to go from less than 20 wins to the playoffs the next year (since going to an 82-game schedule in 1976).

The team had high expectations in his third year after signing Kenyon Martin as a free agent.

Bzdelik began his coaching career in 1978 as an assistant at Davidson College in North Carolina.

He moved to Northwestern University in 1980, where he spent six seasons as an assistant, helping the Wildcats to their first NIT appearance in school history.

He then took the head coaching position at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County for two years.

Washington Bullets coach Wes Unseld hired Bzdelik as an assistant in 1988.

He stayed there until Unseld resigned in 1994.

He then took a scouting position with Pat Riley and the New York Knicks before moving with Riley to the Miami Heat the next season as an assistant coach and advance scout.

They bounced back in his second season to finish with 43 wins, reaching the postseason for the first time since 1995, before losing in the first round to eventual Western Conference finalist Minnesota.

The Nuggets improved their win total by 26 games – the most ever by a team that won less than 20 games the year before and at the time the sixth-best single-season improvement in NBA history.

In 1997, Sports Illustrated named Bzdelik the NBA's best advance scout.

In 2000, USA Today named him one of the NBA's top five assistants.

Bzdelik was hired in 2001 by the Denver Nuggets to be their East Coast scout.

He was head coach of the Denver Nuggets in the NBA for slightly over two seasons, from 2002 until he was fired near the end of 2004.

He also served as a college head coach at UMBC, Air Force, Colorado, and Wake Forest.

He was promoted to assistant coach in July 2002 and impressed team management by going 6–0 in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league and motivating the team's young players.

He was named the head coach of the Nuggets on August 21, 2002.

The team struggled in his first year, winning just 17 games.

The Nuggets, though, struggled out of the gate to a 13–15 start and Bzdelik was fired on December 28, 2004.

On May 18, 2005, Bzedlik signed a multiyear contract to become the head coach at the US Air Force Academy.

The team made a first round NCAA tournament appearance – just the fourth in school history – his first year after finishing with the best record (24–7) in the program's 50-year history.

The Falcons have not appeared in the NCAA tournament since.

The next year, they surpassed the record from the previous year by winning 26 games and made it to the NIT semifinals.

Bzdelik left Air Force on April 4, 2007, to become the head basketball coach for the Colorado Buffaloes for three seasons.

In his third and final season at CU, Bzdelik's team finished the regular season with four wins in its last six games.

A first-round loss to Texas Tech in the Big 12 Tournament ended the Buff's season and left the team with a 15–16 record, their third straight losing season under Bzdelik.

On April 13, 2010, Bzdelik left Colorado to become the 21st head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University, inheriting a successful team that was 21–12 the previous season, and had made back to back NCAA Tournament appearances.

His records at Wake Forest were abysmal at 8–24 (2010–11), 13–18 (2011–12), 13–18 (2012–13) and 17–16 (in his final season in 2013–14).

He resigned from Wake Forest in March 2014.

On July 31, 2014, Bzdelik was signed by the Memphis Grizzlies to be an assistant coach.

The Grizzlies completed the regular season 55–27, tied for the fifth-best record in the entire NBA.

During his 19 years in the NBA, Bzdelik served as a head or assistant coach for 12 teams that advanced to the playoffs.

On June 1, 2016, Bzdelik became associate head coach of the Houston Rockets, joining the staff of newly appointed head coach Mike D'Antoni.

"It stood out to us that he had so much head coaching experience," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said.

"That level of experience and gravitas really helps when you are explaining the battle plan. Second, the coaching tree he comes from is second to none. And there was a lot of respect from being the primary guy with the Memphis defense."

One of the least-discussed plots was the fact that head coach Mike D'Antoni willingly accepted a "defensive coordinator" with the addition of Jeff Bzdelik.

D'Antoni brought the glitz, the glamor and the stats to Houston, while Bzdelik has helped keep the team from having a one-track mind.