Based on a report by Jon Rothstein, former IU walk-on basketball player Kory Barnett will be the next head coach at Oral Roberts.
Barnett was an assistant coach for Darian DeVries at West Virginia this past season, so this news obviously means there will be no homecoming for Barnett in Bloomington.
At Oral Roberts Barnett will take over a program that has gone just 19-42 over the last two seasons after making the NCAA Tournament in both 2023 and 2021. The Tulsa, Okla. program once propelled the career of Kansas head coach Bill Self.
Barnett joined DeVries’ Mountaineer basketball staff after spending the five prior 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.
Barnett has never been a head coach, except for one game when he led Nevada in 2021 for a game against Pepperdine, leading the Wolf Pack to a 79-66 victory.
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.
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