Tim Saunders will join the UB men’s basketball coaching staff as the director of basketball operations, the team announced Thursday afternoon.
New UB head coach George Halcovage III hired Saunders from his previous staff at Villanova, where Saunders spent the 2022-23 season as the Villanova men’s basketball video coordinator. Saunders worked alongside Halcovage for six years, first as a Villanova player, then as an assistant coach.
"In my six years knowing Tim Saunders as a player and young coach at Villanova, he showed a great enthusiasm and knowledge for the game," Halcovage said in a UB Athletics press release. "Tim is a rising star in this business, and we look forward to having him here in Buffalo."
Saunders is a native of Torrey Pines, California where he played basketball for former Villanova player and assistant coach, John Olive, at Torrey Pines High School. He then played two seasons (2015-17) at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. In his second season he appeared in seven games, earning five starts, with an average of 12.3 points per game.
He then went to Villanova where he served as a practice player during the Wildcats’ 2017-18 NCAA national championship campaign. He joined the active roster the following season and was a part of the Big East Championship teams in 2019 and 2020. He earned a marketing degree from the Villanova School of Business in May 2020.
Saunders then remained at Villanova as a graduate student, while serving a variety of roles for the basketball team. He assisted the team in the video area during the 2021-22 season, in which the Wildcats returned to the NCAA Final Four.
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