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Illini basketball hires Alexander as assistant head coach

Geoff Alexander, a 17-year veteran of college basketball's coaching ranks, will join the Fighting Illini as an assistant head coach, team officials announced Friday.

The move reunites Alexander, who spent the past five seasons as an assistant at Evansville, with Illinois head basketball coach Brad Underwood, whom he worked with more than a decade ago at Daytona State College.

Alexander also has worked at Eastern Illinois (2011-12), Idaho State (2006-11), at Daytona State College (2003-06), Jacksonville (Texas) College (2002-03) and as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Western Illinois (2000-02).

Alexander also played two seasons the Leathernecks (1998-2000) when Underwood was a WIU assistant.

"He has great familiarity with me and our system, and being from Lincoln (Illinois) and playing and recruiting this state, he has connections with coaches and programs throughout Illinois," Underwood said.

"Geoff is a great basketball mind," Underwood continued. "He spent the last five years at Evansville with Marty Simmons, who is a tremendous offensive basketball coach. So I'm excited to get to explore some of the things he picked up during his time there."

At Lincoln High School, Geoff played for his father, Neil, the winningest coach in school history and a member of the IBCA Hall of Fame.

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