Men’s Basketball

Northwestern announced the hiring of Jon Borovich, who spent the last eight seasons on the staff at Northern Illinois, as a new assistant coach Thursday.

Borovich began his coaching career in 2001 as a graduate assistant at Michigan State under Tom Izzo. After serving in that role with the Spartans for two seasons, he moved onto Dayton to become Director of Basketball Operations.

He got his first job as a full-time assistant coach in 2005, when he was hired by Oakland. Borovich then returned to the Flyers in 2007 as an assistant coach, where he worked for four seasons before being hired by Northern Illinois.

“We are extremely excited to add Jon to our staff,” coach Chris Collins said in a statement. “He is an experienced college coach with a great pedigree coaching under fantastic coaches throughout his stops along the way.”

Northern Illinois won just five games in each of Borovich’s first two years on the staff there, but by 2015-16 the Huskies were 21-13, including an impressive 18-1 at home. That was the only winning season Northern Illinois had during Borovich’s tenure.

Borovich joins the Wildcats coaching staff that also includes Brian James, who was Collins’ coach at Glenbrook North High School and has been an assistant with the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers, as well as Emanuel Dildy, who has worked as an assistant at Eastern Illinois, Loyola, Missouri and Valparaiso.

A Michigan native, Borovich played at Central Michigan, earning Academic All-MAC honors his senior year. He replaces Billy Donlon, who spend the last two seasons assisting Collins on the NU bench.

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Twitter: @bxrosenberg