Sac State's Katz retiring due to medical reasons

Updated Nov. 5, 2021 7:24 p.m. ET

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sacramento State men's basketball coach Brian Katz is retiring after 14 years due to medical reasons.

Associate head coach Brandon Laird will serve as interim coach for the 2021-22 season.

“Due to an ongoing health issue, my family has convinced me to retire,” Katz said in a statement on Friday. “After coaching for 45 years, this already feels very strange. I’ve woken up every day at 4 a.m. fully invested in my players and my staff until I laid my head on the pillow at night."

Katz is the winningest coach in Sac State's Division I history (since 1991) with 150 wins. He was named national mid-major and co-Big Sky coach of the year and led the Hornets to their first postseason game in 53 years at the 2015 CollegeInsider Tournament.

Sac State had a graduation rate of 98% under Katz and the Hornets were the only men's basketball program from a public school in California to earn NCAA Public Recognition honors for academic excellence, accomplishing it from 2017 to 2020.

A Sacramento native, Katz graduated from Sac State and spent his entire 45-year coaching career in California.

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