Men’s basketball finalizes full support staff

BY TRINITY RAMM sports@thesunflower.com

The men’s basketball program has officially announced the full staff that will join Paul Mills in his first season as head men’s basketball coach.

9 of 11 members of the previous staff were let go. Ryan Hillard will move from Special Assistant to the Head Coach to Chief of Staff to generally handle internal travel and monetary matters. Todd Fagan will continue with the program as athletic trainer.

Coaching Staff: Mills brought in three assistant coaches to work under him: Kenton Paulino, Chris Hollender and Quincy Acy.

Paulino was named associate head coach. The Los Angeles native played for and coached under Rick Barnes at Texas. Before his time at Oral Roberts, Paulino was most recently an assistant at the University of Texas at El Paso under Rodney

Terry.

“I had the privilege of watching Kenton work up close with players during our time at ORU and saw how he dramatically propelled their development as players and people,” Mills said. “I’m confident KP will soon be a head coach because of his diverse skillset as a leader and coach.

Having coached at the collegiate level for over twenty years, Hollender is known for his offensive prowess and helped develop current NBA player Michael Porter Jr. during his time at the University of Missouri.

During his time at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Hollander worked to reinvent their offense which shows in their record books as their 2016-17 squad set program records in points scored, rebounds, 3-pointers, field goals and free throws.

Acy played for Mills while he was an assistant under Scott Drew at Baylor. He was drafted 37th overall in the 2012 NBA draft.

In the NBA, Acy played for six teams in seven seasons. He played professionally for ten years before retiring in 2022 and joining the player development team for the Texas Legends, a G-League team.

“I’ve known Quincy since he was 15 years old and have always been amazed at his tenacity,” Mills said. “Our players will be the beneficiary of Quincy’s work ethic, tenacious approach to competition and teaching skills.”

Additional Support Staff:

To round out his staff, Mills brought on Luke Gore as Director of Basketball Operations, Iain Laymon as Director of Player Development, Xavier Holland as a special assistant and Ashtin Meerpohl as head strength and conditioning coach.

Laymon and Meerpohl come from Mills’ staff at Oral Roberts. Holland was a manager at Oral Roberts under Mills from 2020-2022.

Gore spent over two decades in various positions at Valparaiso, working with Scott, Homer and Bryce Drew during their times as head coach. Valparaiso made ten postseason appearances between the NCAA tournament and NIT. His job description includes scouting and team analysis, as well as strategies and day-to-day operations.

After four seasons under Tom Crean as a student manager at Indiana, Laymon was with Mills for his six-season tenure at Oral Roberts.

As Director of Player Development, his job will entail preparing men’s basketball players for success on and off the court.

“I've watched (Iain’s) development up close these past six years, and he’s as good a coach, relationship builder and competitor as I’ve observed during my nearly 30 years of coaching basketball,” Mills said. “He truly prioritizes the players