Jared Nuness enters his 16th year on the Baylor basketball staff and his fourth season as an assistant coach in 2025-26. Prior to that, Nuness spent five seasons as special assistant & director of player development. He was promoted to that role prior to the 2017-18 season after five years as director of player personnel, and he spent his first two years on Baylor’s staff as the director of video operations.
Baylor's longest-tenured assistant, Nuness has helped guide the Bears to 13 consecutive postseason appearances, including the 2021 National Championship, three Elite Eights, five Sweet 16s and an NIT title. BU also won its first conference title in 71 years with the 2021 Big 12 championship and followed it up with a second conference title in 2022. In his 15 seasons on staff, the Bears have averaged 24 wins per season with a combined 357-145 record, including a 24-11 postseason mark.
In his four seasons as an assistant the Bears have sustained their success becoming one of just three squads to win a game in each of the last five NCAA Tournaments. Opening the season at No. 8 last season, the Bears have now reached the AP top-10 in six-straight seasons joining the likes of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Gonzaga.
Nuness has also had a hand in Baylor becoming the only school in the nation with four-straight top-19 picks in the NBA draft, dating back to 2021.
Upon graduating from Valparaiso University in 2001, Nuness has served as an assistant basketball coach at Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.) High School, head boys basketball coach at Minneapolis’ Park Center High School (2005-06) and head coach at Bloomington’s (Minn.) John F. Kennedy High School (2007-10). He was a camp director and coordinator for the University of Minnesota basketball camps for three years and another four years for NBA player Kris Humphries’ basketball camps.
He has also worked for several years as a special education teacher and skills tutor at both Hopkins and Kennedy High Schools.
The Eden Prairie, Minn., native played for the Valparaiso Crusaders under legendary head coach Homer Drew and Baylor head coach Scott Drew. Nuness, who was named Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year in 1997 ahead of former UConn All-American Khalid El-Amin, was a freshman on the Crusaders’ 1998 Sweet 16 team.
Nuness was a three-year starter (1994-97) at Hopkins High School and was a three-time all-conference and two-time all-state performer. In addition to being named Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year in 1997, he was named Minneapolis Metro Player of the Year and was Mr. Basketball runner-up. Nuness is married and has five children.