Ex-Duke basketball star receives contract extension within own program

A former Duke basketball standout received a contract extension within his own program through the 2025 season.

Greg Paulus will now be sticking around Niagara for a while to build his own program in the MAAC after the head coach and the school came to an agreement on a contract extension through the 2025 season.

It has been a merry-go-round for Paulus ever since he left the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium, making a trip to Syracuse to play football for a season and then getting a tryout with the New Orleans Saints in 2010.

In four seasons in Durham, 2005-09, Paulus was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team in 2005 and Third Team All-ACC in 2008, while averaging 8.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game in 139 total games, starting 100.

After not making it with the Saints, Paulus became an assistant coach with the Navy basketball program in 2010 and then joined the Ohio State program in 2011 before being promoted as an assistant coach in 2013.

https://twitter.com/NiagaraMBB/status/1316046223971954695?s=20

Paulus remained with the Buckeyes until 2017 when he was asked to join the coaching staff of  David Padgett at Louisville, following the fallout with Rick Pitino and the school.

However, following the season, the Cardinals did not keep Greg Paulus on the staff after the program hired Chris Mack as its new head coach.

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Paulus then was hired by George Washington for the 2018-19 season but did not stay long in the nation’s capital, bolting for Niagara following the season, where he was an assistant coach under Patrick Beilein. But he quickly became the interim head coach as Beilein stepped down for “personal reasons.”

Where does that leave the former Duke basketball standout?

In his first season as a head coach, Greg Paulus led the Purple Eagles to a 12-20 (9-11 MAAC) record and was awarded the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Award, which is given annually to the top first-year coach in NCAA Division I College Basketball.

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Perhaps within at least five more seasons at Niagara, Paulus and his program will make the trip down to Cameron Indoor Stadium to play his former coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils.