Former Jayhawk Jerod Haase shows class in final news conference as Stanford coach

Former Kansas basketball player and assistant coach Jerod Haase did not sulk Thursday night after learning immediately after Stanford’s Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal loss to Washington State that he’d been fired after eight seasons as the Cardinal head coach.

In fact, in an somewhat unusual development, he was the one to inform media members immediately after the Cardinal’s 79-62 season-ending setback in Las Vegas that “there has been a change of leadership with the men’s basketball program here.”

Haase opened with a statement about his dismissal then accepted questions from media just 10 minutes after learning he’d been informed by AD Bernard Muir he’d been let go.

Expressing no bitterness, Haase, who turns 50 on April 1, in fact provided media an inspirational line concerning his future.

“I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but I’m going to chase awesome,” said Haase, who promised that he has “a next chapter and hopefully many chapters in my book. Hopefully I can be around people like I’ve been around the last eight years.”

Haase — he directed the Cardinal to a 126-127 record with no NCAA Tournament appearances and one appearance in the NIT in his eight seasons in Palo Alto, California — pointed out that his dismissal comes amid a changing landscape in college sports.

“This is in so many ways, so many chapters are coming to an end — the Pac-12,” Haase said of the breakup of the league. Stanford is headed to the ACC in 2024-25.

“College athletics continues to evolve. We talked about conference realignment. There’s so many ends and so many new beginnings right now. It’s a little bit surreal to think that the Pac-12 is coming to an end,” Haase stated earlier at a pre-Pac 12 tourney news conference.

“Sad is probably the best description,” he added of the league disbanding. “Times are changing so fast in college athletics. And as we know, the realignment with all the schools, the advent of NIL, the number of transfers, I think the next few years it will continue to change.

“It’s sad and disappointing. But the reality is it’s part of the carnage that’s going on all across the landscape right now. And at the end of the day everybody’s going to need to move forward and reinvent themselves a little bit.”

Haase in his exit interview of sorts with the media Thursday night noted that, “It’s been a heck of a run, honestly, eight years. I look at my job, I suppose a little bit old school and multifaceted. ... Four straight years of scholar-athlete of the year in the league. I won’t get into specifics too much of team GPAs and the variety of majors and the hardest major at the greatest university in the world.

“But I’ll be leaving very proud of the team accomplishments. The reality is I did nothing for that other than recruit highly exceptional kids, men. The other big part of my job is winning games. And this doesn’t have anything to do with anybody else’s standards; it’s my own standards. I have not won here to the level that I expect. Just like I hold my team accountable, I’ve been held accountable, and I have no issue with that.”

Prior to arriving at Stanford, Haase went 80-53 in four seasons as head coach at UAB including a 26-7 mark in 2015-16. Prior to becoming a head coach he worked for Roy Williams as an assistant at KU (1999-2003) and North Carolina (2003-12).

Haase transferred to KU from California after the 1992-93 season. Following a redshirt year he played for the Jayhawks from 1995 to ’97. He averaged 12.5 points a game during his three seasons.

“He’s just a tremendous coach, a tremendous person. He’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever been around in my life. I love him. He’s like a son. He’s come closer to caring as much about the game as the head coach did of any player I ever coached,” former KU and North Carolina coach Roy Williams said of Haase after a North Carolina-Stanford game in 2020. “When we lost, it hurt Jerod more than anybody I’ve ever coached and I had great kids and a lot of them cared,” Williams added.

Haase and wife Mindy have three children — Gavin, Garrett and Gabby.

“If I were an AD I would not hesitate to hire Jerod Haase. Great man, great coach,” former KU assistant AD/media relations director Dean Buchan said on social media. Buchan pointed out that KU “created the ‘floor burns stat’ solely because of him.” That’s a stat that monitors extra-effort plays from players such as diving for the basketball.

From former KU assistant AD Doug Vance: “College basketball needs coaches like Jerod. He represents everything that is right about what we should expect in college coaches.”

And from former KU assistant AD Richard Konzem: “Jerod is one of the best people you’ll ever meet. Really cares about his players and contributed greatly to their success.”