Florida has filled one of its assistant coach openings with the hire of Dave Klatsky.
If the last name rings a bell it’s because Klatsky is the first cousin (once removed) of former Florida walk on Alex Klatsky.
Klatsky might seem like somewhat of an unconventional hire as he comes to the Gators from the D-III level where he was the head coach of New York University. He had a successful stint at NYU that saw them reach the National Championship game where they unfortunately fell to Trinity (CT). There is a trend right now at the high-major level of head coaches from lower levels being hired as assistants so this falls in that line as well.
Prior to taking the head job at NYU, Klatsky was an assistant at Colgate where he was for 11 years under Matt Langel, one of the most respected mid-major coaches in the country. Colgate has always been known as one of the best offensive teams at the mid-major level, and the Raiders went to three NCAA Tournaments during his time in Hamilton.
Much like Todd Golden, Klatsky was in the corporate world before going into coaching and worked as an equity analyst and trader in Manhattan before shifting his passion to basketball. Another similarity that Klatsky has to Golden is that he is a huge believer in advanced stats and analytics, something that he played a huge role in while at Colgate. Not only did he implement advanced stat ideas with his program, but he also hosted a podcast called StatChat where he talked about basketball analytics alongside a number of guests. He also mentored a student at Colgate who was working on an advanced stat program, and that program went on to be Shot Quality–a tool that many of you reading this will be familiar with.
With Florida losing both their offensive and defensive coordinators this year to head coaching jobs both roles are open, and while it’s currently unknown if Klatsky would slide into that role he would certainly be particularly capable on the offensive end. As mentioned previously Colgate is a strong offensive program and Klatsky got to learn under Coach Langel, and while Klatsky’s NYU team was great on both sides of the ball–they were particularly good on the offensive end.
It’s worth noting that NYU played a lot like the Colgate programs Klatsky was a part of–though even if he was made offensive coordinator it doesn’t mean he’d necessarily want to play the same style with high-major talent. NYU was a methodical half court team that made defenses work by putting them through multiple actions, and they were particularly adept at cutting and generating easy points with back door cuts. Klatsky was also able to recruit a number of talented post players which is never easy at the D-III level, and they were able to create mismatches that NYU leveraged into buckets. Seeing his team play with a high level of basketball IQ and discipline is a good sight and a nice reflection of Klatsky’s coaching and the lessons he learned while being a head coach will serve him well as part of Todd Golden’s staff. More head coaching experience is always going to be something that’s good for a staff, particularly one that’s on the younger side like Florida’s.