Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Director of Player Development
Zach Ruebesam is in his third season with the University of Colorado men's basketball staff. He was promoted to assistant coach on Sept. 7, 2023, after two seasons as the team's Director of Player Development.
A Colorado native and CU Boulder graduate, Ruebesam was a student manager for the Buffaloes from 2012-16, serving as the head student manager for the last three of those seasons. During that span, Colorado advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times (2013, ’14 & ’16), winning at least 20 games in each of those seasons.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a minor in Leadership Studies from CU in 2016 and received his master’s degree in Sports Coaching from Denver in 2018.
Ruebesam was an assistant coach for Team Colorado, the Buffaloes alumni squad in the The Basketball Tournament, in 2019 and was slated to be the head coach for 2021 before the team backed out due to COVID-19 issues.
Ruebesam spent two seasons as an assistant men’s basketball coach on Dan Ficke’s staff at Belmont Abbey, an NCAA Division II school in Belmont, N.C., helping lead the Crusaders to a 39-15 record and two NCAA Tournament berths.
In 2020-21, Belmont Abbey was 18-5 overall and finished second in the in the Carolinas Conference with a record of 13-4. The Crusaders won the Carolinas Conference Tournament and claimed the NCAA Southeast Region’s No. 1 seed, advancing to the semifinal round.
Ruebesam served as the team’s recruiting coordinator in 2020-21 and primarily worked with the guards. In his first season, he worked with the bigs while serving as the head coach of the program’s development team.
In 2019-20, Belmont Abbey was 21-10 overall and runner up in the Carolinas Conference. The Crusaders were set to be the No. 8 seed in the Southeast Region before the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to Belmont Abbey, Ruebesam spent three years on staff at the University of Denver under former CU assistant coach Rodney Billups. Ruebesam was the Director of Player Development at DU for the 2018-19 season. He assumed the role of director of operations leading into the 2019-20 season, but when Ficke, who at the time was a DU assistant, took the job at Belmont Abbey, Ruebesam went with him as an assistant coach. He was a graduate manager for the Pioneers his first two seasons while completing his master’s degree.
Ruebesam served as the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Stay in to Win Coordinator for the DU men’s basketball program. Stay In to Win is a drop out prevention program that partners college programs with local high schools to encourage, educate and help students who are at the risk of dropping out to make good decisions, stay in school, and graduate.
