Notre Dame working to hire Winthrop assistant Tony Rack to men's basketball coaching staff

Notre Dame is working to hire Winthrop associate head coach Tony Rack to its men’s basketball coaching staff, a source confirmed to Blue & Gold on Monday afternoon.

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune was the first to report the expected news.

No agreement is finalized yet, but according to the source, the process is headed in that direction. Rack would fill the vacancy created by associate head coach Kyle Getter, who left for the Cal Baptist head coaching job on April 6, on fourth-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry‘s coaching staff.

It’s unclear whether Rack will be Notre Dame’s assistant head coach, despite Getter previously holding that title.

Rack has worked at Winthrop since 2021 — his second stint with the program — during which time the Eagles have been a fixture at the top of the Big South standings. Winthrop has a record of 101-63 during his five seasons in Rock Hill, S.C.

Before Winthrop, Rack worked as an assistant coach at Western Carolina and Northern Kentucky. His first stint at Winthrop kick-started his coaching career from 2012-15, working as a graduate assistant and later in basketball operations under then-head coach Pat Kelsey. Kelsey is now the head coach at Louisville, where he’s made the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons.

Rack is a Cincinnati native and a product of Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller, a high school that has historically been a Notre Dame pipeline. He played for four seasons at Northern Kentucky, where he lead the Norse in three-point percentage for three-straight seasons.

At Winthrop, one of Rack’s most significant accomplishments was developing little-known center Logan Duncomb into the Big South Player of the Year in 2025-26. Duncomb briefly quit basketball before coming to Winthrop in 2024, but the Eagles’ coaching staff helped bring him back from the abyss.

Duncomb, of course, transferred to Notre Dame and will likely start at center for the Irish this season. He credited Winthrop’s entire coaching staff for restoring his confidence throughout his two years in Rock Hill, but the first name he mentioned was Rack’s.

“They all just really bolstered my confidence and made be believe that I could do it, when maybe at times I didn’t feel like I could,” Duncomb told Blue & Gold. “Just when I got down, they’d be like, ‘Logan, you’re the best player out here. Who’s No. 2 in the gym?’ That’s what I always think now: ‘I’m the best player out here, so who’s No. 2?’

“Just stuff like that, that really helped me get that confidence back. And I really needed that, because once I felt like I had it back, I felt like there was no stopping.”

If officially hired, Rack would join Mike Farrelly, Ryan Owens, Tre Whitted and Grady Eifert on Notre Dame’s coaching staff. The Irish are searching for their first winning season with Shrewsberry at the helm.