Wichita State assistant will be BGSU coach

Jans has been with Shockers for 7 years

3/23/2014

The Blade
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BOWLING GREEN — Chris Jans will be named the next men’s basketball coach at Bowling Green State University.

The school will announce today that Jans, who spent the last seven seasons as the associate head coach at Wichita State, will become the 16th head coach in school history. A news conference to formally introduce him will be held Tuesday.

FALCON FODDER BLOG: A look at Jans' resume

Bowling Green athletics communications sources confirmed the hire on Sunday. Jans will replace Louis Orr, who posted a 101-121 record in seven seasons including a 12-20 record this past season.

Jans’ assistant coaching career at Division I includes seven years at Wichita State, three years at Illinois State, and two years at Idaho. He also was an assistant at Division III Elmhurst (Ill.) College and NAIA member Grand View (Iowa) College.

In his seven seasons at Wichita State, the Shockers played in the postseason six times, winning the National Invitation Tournament title in 2011 and earning NCAA tournament berths in each of the last three seasons.

Wichita State advanced to the NCAA Final Four last season and this year was 35-0 before losing Sunday to Kentucky in the second round.

Jans has six years of head coaching experience and has a 159-45 career record. He led Kirkwood Community College (Iowa) to the National Junior College Athletic Association title in 1998, his second year at the school.

A native of Fairbank, Iowa, Jans played at Loras (Iowa) College from 1987-91. A three-year starter and captain as a senior, he broke 16 school scoring records and two NCAA Division III records for 3-point shooting.

Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481 or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.