RICHMOND, Ky. – In the months leading to the start of the 2024-25 college basketball season, Eastern Kentucky University men's basketball head coach A.W. Hamilton made three staff adjustments.
 
Jake Lorbach, who served as the program's video coordinator during the 2023-24 Atlantic Sun Conference championship season, will now serve as assistant coach/director of scouting.  Former Colonel Isaiah Minter, who spent last season as a student-assistant coach, is now the director of player development.  Lastly, Bryce Watts moves from a graduate manager position to program assistant.
 
Lorbach joined the EKU program after spending the 2022-23 season as an assistant coach at Kirkwood Community College.  He has also served as an assistant at the University of Colorado Springs and St. Edwards High School in Ohio.  The 4-time Academic All-Big Ten selection played at Ohio State from 2012 to 2016.
 
Minter concluded his playing career at EKU in 2022.  He was a student manager for the team in 2022-23 before moving to a role as a student-assistant last season.  The Richmond native was an all-state selection at Madison Central High School in 2018.
 
Watts, a Hazard, Kentucky native, served as a manager for the Colonels from 2021 to 2023 while completing an undergraduate degree in sport management.  He led the team's managers last season as a graduate manager. 
 
The 2024-25 season will begin against Alice Lloyd College at the Seabury Center in Berea on Nov. 4.  EKU will play four games on the campus of Berea College while construction continues on the renovation of Baptist Health Arena.  The first phase of the Baptist Health Arena renovation will be completed prior to the start of the Atlantic Sun Conference schedule, which begins for the Colonels on Jan. 9 against North Florida.
 
Season tickets are on sale now.  Being a 2024-25 season ticket holder guarantees a seat of comparable location at the games played at Berea College.  To purchase season tickets, contact the EKU Ticket Office at 859-622-2122 or by visit the ticket office inside the Rick Erdmann Olympic Sports Training Center located at 1122 Paul Van Hoose Drive.
 
The Colonels won the 2023-24 ASUN Regular Season Championship, the program's first regular season conference title in 45 years.  Hamilton was chosen as the ASUN Coach of the Year.  He is the first coach in program history to be named conference coach of the year twice.