Danny Peters, Sean Miller, Justin Gainey.
Following a season of off-court uncertainty, Arizona gave new assistant coaches Justin Gainey and Danny Peters the unusual security of two-year contracts.
Gainey will be paid $290,000 annually and Peters $275,000 through the end of the 2019-20 season, according to contracts obtained by the Star through public records requests. The contracts are fully guaranteed, unless the assistants are fired for cause. Gainey and Peters must pay $50,000 buyouts if they leave voluntarily before April 2020.
The multi-year terms are believed to be a first for basketball assistants, though the football program's coordinators have had similar deals in recent years.
Arizona's assistant basketball coaches have typically run on year-to-year offer letters, such as the one returning assistant coach Mark Phelps is still operating under. Phelps received a raise from $257,000 to $275,000 for the 2018-19 school year. His deal is set to expire June 30, the end of the UA's fiscal year.
Coach Sean Miller's three assistants will make a combined $840,000 per year, less than the $907,000 budgeted last season.
Lorenzo Romar earned $400,000 in one season before leaving to become Pepperdine's head coach, while Phelps earned $257,000 and Book Richardson was contracted for $250,000. Richardson was arrested in September on federal bribery and fraud charges, and the UA fired him in January. As a result, Richardson ended up earning only about half of his $250,000 annual salary. Austin Carroll, UA’s assistant director of basketball operations, filled in as an acting assistant coach last season.
A former player at North Carolina State, when Herb Sendek was head coach and Miller an assistant, Gainey left Sendek’s Santa Clara staff to join Arizona in May. He also coached at Marquette, where he joined Phelps on the 2014-15 staff, and at Appalachian State and Elon.
Peters rejoins the UA staff after spending four seasons with the Wildcats from 2010-14. He was a graduate assistant during the 2010-11 season, then spent three seasons as the Wildcats’ assistant director of basketball operations. Peters left in 2014 to become an assistant coach at Ball State, where former UA associate head coach James Whitford had become head coach a year earlier.
In statements issued this spring, Miller said he was impressed with Gainey’s “incredible work ethic and unselfish nature” as a player and coach, while also complimenting Peters on his communication ability, coaching acumen and his “relentless nature as a recruiter.”
“He also has a love for Tucson and Arizona basketball,” Miller said of Peters. “I am elated to have Danny rejoin our coaching staff. We all look forward to working with him again.”
