Taylor completes his coaching staff

Benjy Taylor’s coaching staff is complete.

Former Marquette assistant coach Brad Autry rounds out Hawaii’s reformed group, which came together in the wake of the firings of head coach Gib Arnold and assistant Brandyn Akana on Oct. 28. Autry began actively assisting Taylor at Tuesday afternoon’s team practice. Senque Carey and Brandon Loyd are the other assistants.

Autry spent the past six years with the Golden Eagles. Taylor knew of him from when his Chicago State team played Marquette early in the 2008-09 season.

"He brings a ton of experience," Taylor said. "He was at Marquette and Tulsa when they had great teams. We were lucky he was available right now. And he’s got a great knowledge of the game and a lot of enthusiasm. He’ll be great with the young men."

Autry was not brought over to Virginia Tech this summer when Marquette coach Buzz Williams took the head coaching job with the Hokies. Autry said his mother became ill and he didn’t want to stray far from her home in Stillwater, Okla. He looked for jobs in the region but couldn’t find any.

"It was a tremendous blessing because my mom got healthy and I got a chance here," Autry said. "Under obviously a difficult situation, but I’m thrilled to be here.

"I just feel like I have a lot of experience. I’ve seen a lot of good basketball, and unfortunately I’ve seen a lot of bad basketball too. I think I can kind of tell the difference. I think they’re in a difficult situation and they needed some assistance. Like I told Coach Taylor, whatever you need me to do, I’ll do."

Notably on Autry’s resume, he was an assistant with Tulsa under Bill Self in 2000 when the Golden Hurricane of the Western Athletic Conference notched 32 wins and reached the NCAA Elite Eight.

"I remember coming out here (to Hawaii) and thinking, ‘Man, this is a hard place to play.’ It left a really good impression … I thought this was one of the hardest wins (75-61) we got all year."