Sadler hires

[Husker_Power]

BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star

 

Nebraska men's basketball coach Doc Sadler announced Thursday he's hired San Diego assistant Walter Roese to be an assistant coach with the Huskers.

 

The 41-year-old Roese (pronounced row-EESE) comes to Nebraska with international and junior college recruiting connections. A native of Novo Hamburgo in southern Brazil, Roese is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

 

Roese spent two years as an assistant at BYU before accepting a promotion at San Diego, where he spent last season. The Toreros went 22-14, won the West Coast Conference Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

 

At BYU, Roese was the Cougars' director of basketball operations for two seasons before being promoted to assistant coach in 2005, making him the first Brazilian full-time assistant coach in NCAA Division I men's basketball. BYU finished 25-9 in 2006-07.

 

Roese was responsible for bringing four Brazilian players to BYU, including junior college transfer Rafeal Araujo, the No. 8 pick of the 2004 NBA Draft, and Jonathan Tavernari, voted the Mountain West Conference freshman of the year in 2006-07.

 

San Diego, meanwhile, recently signed Roberta Mafra, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound power forward from Recife, Brazil. Mafra played at Southeastern (Iowa) Community College.

 

Roese coached the Brazilian Junior National Team, which qualified for the 2007 World Cup, and was head coach for Brazil's team for the World University Games in Thailand. He's represented the Brazilian National Team and professional clubs at four World Cup tournaments and international championships in Europe, Asia, South America and North America.

 

In 1987, Roese signed to play at Texas but backed out, and two years later began his playing career at Houston. He also played at West Texas A&M (Division II) and BYU-Hawaii (NAIA), where he earned a degree in international business administration in 1994. He played seven years professionally in Brazil and Italy before earning his MBA from BYU in 2003.

 

Six members of Roese's family have participated at the Olympic level in basketball, volleyball and tennis.

 

Roese replaces Tony Benford, who left Nebraska for an assistant coaching position at Marquette.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

I foresee Brazil in the hometown column on future nebraska rosters.