COLUMBUS – Dean Burrows has been promoted to full-time assistant athletic director and will step away from his role as head coach of men’s basketball, The W announced Tuesday.
Burrows has been serving in the assistant AD role for over a year on an interim basis and will now permanently into the role. The university said a national search for the next head coach is now underway.
“We are so blessed and appreciative to have someone like Dean Burrows as a part of the Owls’ family,” athletic director Buddy Foster said in a release. “As a former coach myself, I understood the difficulty of the decision he had to make in choosing between coaching and an expanded leadership opportunity. While it is certainly hard on the men’s basketball program to lose him, the entire athletics department is now enriched across the board to have someone with his expertise and vision working to better 17 sports and not just one. We are excited for what’s ahead for our department.”
Burrows leaves coaching after leading the Owls for five years, a period during which he flipped the program from a 3-15 campaign in his first season to setting the school record for victories (17) in the 2025-2026 season. He guided the Owls to their first St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in February and led the team to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament, an 87-73 loss at Emory University on March 6.
“I have been beyond blessed to have (coached) for almost 30 years of my life,” Burrows said in a release. “This upcoming opportunity allows me to be more present, first and foremost, for my wife and our four children, who have sacrificed more than their fair share over the years. I get the opportunity to continue to be a part of a team and something that is far bigger than me. Transitioning into this new role on a full-time basis, I feel that I can impact and be a resource for the coaches in our department, while also being able to do my part to try and help more student-athletes. I’m appreciative of Buddy Foster for entrusting me with this responsibility and excited to get to work and do my part to help move our department, university and community forward.”
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