Kory Barnett is capitalizing on an opportunity out of high school to be a walk-on player at Indiana.
New West Virginia coach Darian DeVries announced the hiring of Barnett as assistant coach for the Mountaineers.
Barnett joins the Mountaineer basketball after spending the last five seasons at Nevada and six seasons at UCLA, working for former IU star Steve Alford at both places.
During his basketball career, Barnett has been with eight NCAA Tournament teams, including five in the Sweet 16, two conference championship teams, and seven 20-win seasons.
“We are thrilled to have Kory join our basketball staff as he is one of the great, bright young coaches in college basketball,” DeVries said. “He has worked his way up during his career and really did a great job at Nevada, especially working with their defense and having them ranked at the top nationally. Kory is an incredible person and family man.”
At Nevada, Barnett served as an assistant coach, helping the Wolf Pack to 96 victories, including 26 victories and NCAA Tournament appearances the last two seasons. Primarily focusing on Nevada’s defense the last two seasons, the Wolf Pack consistently ranked within the top of the Mountain West in numerous defensive statistical categories and ranking 71st in 2022-23 and 42nd in 2023-24 in KenPom as the team went a combined 48-19.
Barnett served as Nevada’s head coach in 2021 for a game against Pepperdine during COVID, leading the Wolf Pack to a 79-66 victory. In recent years, Barnett was named to the Silver Waves Media’s list of “75 Rising Stars: Impactful Men’s Mid Major Assistants” last season.
Barnett was at UCLA from 2013-19, serving as an assistant coach, director of operations, director of scouting & player development and video coordinator. In December 2018, he was promoted to assistant coach before heading to Nevada with Alford. Over Barnett’s six seasons at UCLA, the Bruins reached the NCAA Tournament four times (2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018), including NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
A native of Rochester, Ind., Barnett, played at Indiana from 2009-12. He was originally promised a spot at IU as a walk-on by Kelvin Sampson, and he was retained by Tom Crean during the 2008 upheaval.
Barnett helped the Hoosiers to the postseason for the first time since 2008, as Indiana reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in his senior season. For his career he played in 48 games and scored 12 points.
He earned three Academic All-Big Ten Conference honors and received the team’s Big Ten Sportsmanship nomination after his junior season.
Barnett was a graduate assistant at Indiana in 2012-13, helping the Hoosiers to the Big Ten regular season championship and an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance.
Barnett received his bachelor’s degree in sports communications at Indiana.
