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SALT LAKE CITY — Newly-hired Runnin' Utes head coach Alex Jensen continues to add some NBA experience to his coaching staff with his latest hire.
On Friday, Utah announced the addition of Martin Schiller as an assistant on Jensen's staff. Schiller has extensive international experience, as well as spending time as the head coach of the Salt Lake City Stars, the Utah Jazz G League team, from 2017-20.
As such, the two have deep connections from when Jensen was an assistant with the Jazz.
"I'm excited to have Martin join our staff here in Salt Lake City," Jensen said in a statement. "Martin has a great basketball mind having coached at various levels of the game both in the U.S. and internationally. Our players will benefit from his experience and his ability to teach and develop them."
Schiller will return to the United States after having spent the last few years coaching in Germany, most recently as the head coach for a team in the German Bundesliga and FIBA Champions League.
"I'm very excited to join Alex and the entire Utes family." Schiller said in a statement. "Working with and for Alex is something that I have been intrigued with since meeting him with the German National Team in 2015. I was able to learn a lot from him during my days in the Jazz organization and am looking forward to reuniting again.
"My family and I used to enjoy visiting the Huntsman Center as fans of Utah athletics. Now we are thrilled to be able to be a part of it."
The two coaches first met when Schiller was an assistant on the German National Team (2015-19), where he helped NBA players like Dirk Nowitzki and Dennis Schroder, among others.
After working with the national team, Schiller moved to the United States to accept the head coaching position for the SLC Stars. In his last season with the G League team, Schiller was named the NBA G League Coach of the Year after his team claimed the Western Conference regular-season title.
During his tenure, the Stars also recorded the second-longest winning streak in G League history, winning 14 straight games.
Schiller has also served as the head coach of the U20 German National Team, the head coach of a team in the Spanish professional league Liga ACB, and as a head coach for a Euroleague team where he recorded the best winning percentage in eight seasons while also claiming the LKL King Mindaugas Cup championship.
New director of operations
Jensen continued the hiring announcements Friday afternoon with the addition of Rico Sylvester Jr. as the team's director of operations and player personnel.
Sylvester, too, comes from the NBA ranks, where he was most recently with the Sacramento Kings front office with now current Utah general manager Wes Wilcox. As part of his role, Sylvester was tasked with scouting and logistics, including work for pre-draft invites for potential prospects to the team.
"Rico comes to us with experience at multiple levels both in the NCAA and in the NBA front office," Wilcox said in a statement. "Rico was a standout in the NBA's Future Basketball Operations Stars program and I got to witness it first-hand when he joined the Sacramento Kings organization.
"We're excited to have a rising star in the business join our program and help build an NBA style front office that will establish proven systems to successfully navigate the changing NIL landscape in college basketball."
Sylvester's role will be pivotal to the recruiting efforts for Utah as Jensen hopes to model his team after the NBA. His work and familiarity with Wilcox adds to that ability to land future recruits.
After working as a practice player for Cuonzo Martin's team at Missouri, Sylvester worked as a graduate assistant at Louisiana Tech before moving on to Tulsa in the same position, where he was integral in the team's recruiting efforts.
During his time at Tulsa, Sylvester participated in a six-month NBA Future Basketball Operations Stars program and was later hired on to work with the NBA All-Star Game and the NBA Draft Combine in 2024.
