As the University of Toledo prepared for a game at Northern Kentucky during Jordan Lauf’s sophomore season, the 6-foot-5 guard stood on the court at the Bank of Kentucky Center while the Rockets went through their shootaround.
“We were going through NKU’s plays,” Lauf recalled nearly eight years later, “and coach [Tod Kowalczyk] came up to me and asked, ‘What are they running here?’ I pointed it out and told him what the action was and he said, ‘That’s why you’re going to be on my staff one day. You get it.’”
So when assistant coach Walter Offutt left to join Ryan Pedon at Illinois State, Kowalczyk didn’t have to go far to fill the position.