Georgia Basketball loses Assistant Jonas Hayes to Xavier

Whoops. Looks like an initial report that Georgia Basketball would be keeping Assistant Coach Jonas Hayes proved to be incorrect.

Well, that will teach me. The other week CBS reported that Jonas Hayes was going to be staying on at UGA after accepting a position on Tom Crean’s staff. It has since been announced that he will actually be leaving the school and heading to Xavier. That’s a lesson learned for me. Don’t write about something until you’ve seen it confirmed by multiple outlets.

Moving away from that, Hayes departure is a loss for UGA. He was a well-respected coach in the area and had a solid career at Georgia. He was a part of the community and had built up great relationships with a lot of the local high schools. He’ll be difficult to replace although Chad Dollar should help in that regards.

It’s a move that some Bulldogs fans might not understand. Why would Hayes leave the school that he’s known for so long just to be an assistant elsewhere? Well, I think it’s probably safe to say that Jonas has his eye set on being a head coach at some point. If he’s going to do that, he needs to keep building his resume.

Xavier is a basketball power. While their head coach Chris Mack has just departed, new HC Travis Steele has been apprenticing there for a decade. Hayes will have a chance to build his profile and his credentials at the school. When vacancies come up in future years, he should be well positioned to get a shot.

Next: Biggest stories from Football's spring camp

It’s a shame to see him leave but UGA will have to move on. Crean made it clear that he wanted to keep Hayes, but ultimately, he decided to move on. Now we’ll have to see who else Crean is going to bring into the program. He still has 2 more Assistant Coaches to hire to finish off his staff.