JayDee Luster, a San Diego native and graduate of Hoover High School, has been named an assistant coach for the San Diego State men’s basketball team.
Head coach Brian Dutcher made the announcement last week.
“We all know JayDee and he comes highly recommended,” Dutcher said. “He has built a reputation as a great recruiter, and hopefully, being a member of our program allows him to enhance that reputation even more.”
Dutcher also credited Luster for his way with players.
“He is not that far removed from where the current players are, and I think that he has the ability to relate to today’s players on a different level,” the head coach said.
Luster said he “can’t wait to get started and continue to help bring in and develop the next generation of Aztecs.
“I couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity, especially since it affords me the chance to return to the city I grew up in and a place I have always considered my home,” he said.
Luster spent the previous five seasons as an assistant coach at University of the Pacific.
While there, he helped a program that won just nine games the year prior to his arrival. The team posted double digit wins in three of the next four seasons, including a single-season best 23 victories in 2019-20.
For the 2015-16 season, Luster was a member of the staff of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks serving as a development coach designing individual drills and workouts for a roster that included Dirk Nowitzki and Andrew Bogut.
Prior to that, Luster was at Bradley University, serving as the program’s director of basketball operations, and Arizona, where he was a graduate assistant for two years. The team had significant runs in the NCAA Tournament both years.
In college, Luster played for New Mexico State and Wyoming, where he became team captain and earned Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2012.
As a prep star at Hoover High, Luster became the all-time leader in career assists and career steals with 857 and 559, as of his graduation in 2007.
He was a three-time Student Sports Magazine All-American, a three-time all-state selection and a two-time Central League Player of the Year. He led Hoover to two league titles, two California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) finals appearances and one CIF championship, Hoover’s first in 44 years.
Luster earned two bachelor’s degrees at Wyoming, then a master’s degree in educational leadership at the University of Arizona.