Kansas basketball’s Jerrance Howard ranked too low in 40 under 40

An assistant on Bill Self’s Kansas basketball staff, Jerrance Howard needs a higher ranking on ESPN’s best young coaches in college basketball.

Jerrance Howard has been an invaluable asset on Bill Self’s Kansas basketball coaching staff for the past seven years. He’s easily one of the best recruiters in the country and he’s helped the Jayhawks land multiple four and five-star recruits during his tenure.

Howard and Self initially became acquainted when Self coached him for three seasons at Illinois. Howard began his coaching career in 2008 at his alma mater Illinois under then-head coach Bruce Weber until 2012. During the 2012-13 season, Howard joined Larry Brown’s staff at SMU and then joined Self at Kansas the following season.

In ESPN‘s top 40 coaches under the age of 40 rankings, Howard came in just outside the top 20 at No 21 overall. While that’s a solid ranking, he deserved to be higher up, and Myron Medcalf agrees.

Medcalf writes:

"“Howard is one of the best assistant coaches in the country for one of the premier programs in America, so he’s too low, in my opinion. He has found success during stints with both Bruce Weber and Bill Self, and has formed special bonds with the players on the Kansas roster, while evolving into an important voice on the bench and sustaining the talent pipeline as one of the top recruiters in the country.”"

Medcalf is spot on with his analysis.

Looking at many of the coaches (especially the assistants) that are higher up than Howard, many of them aren’t at schools as prestigious as Kansas. The fact that Howard goes after some of the top recruits in the nation and regularly battles other blue blood programs like Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky isn’t something a lot of people can do.

Combine that with the amount of success Kansas has had in recruiting as well as on the court and it gives you an idea of just how good and valuable of an assistant coach Howard is along with Self’s other assistants.

At 39 years old Howard is almost too old for the top 40 under 40, but even then, he’ll still be considered one of the best coaches and recruiters in the country.