Utah head men’s basketball coach Alex Jensen taps into his vast network and named Martin Schiller as an assistant coach on Friday.

“I’m excited to have Martin join our staff here in Salt Lake City,” said Jensen. “Martin has a great basketball mind having coached at various levels of the game both in the US and internationally. Our players will benefit from his experience and his ability to teach and develop them.”

Schiller will move stateside from Germany, where is currently the head coach for Rasta Vechta out of the German Bundesliga and FIBA Champions League. In total, he has held the position of head coach in four different countries during his career.

“I’m very excited to join Alex and the entire Utes family!” said Schiller. “Working with and for Alex is something that I have been intrigue with since meeting him with the German National Team in 2015. I was able to learn a lot from him during my days in the Jazz organization and am looking forward to reuniting again. My family and I used to enjoy visiting the Huntsman Center as fans of Utah Athletics. Now we are thrilled to be able to be a part of it.”

Prior to that, Schiller served as the head coach for the U20 German National Team at the 2024 FIBA European Championship in Poland. In 2022-23, he was the head coach for Casademont Zaragoza and competed in the top Spanish professional league (Liga ACB).

Before his time in Spain, Schiller was the head coach at Zalgiris Kaunas, one of the most traditional Euroleague teams, and competed in the top basketball league in Lithuania (LKL). He led the team to an LKL Championship for the 2020-21 season and posted the organization’s best winning-percentage in eight seasons. They also captured the LKL King Mindaugas Cup Championship that season.

Schiller got his first head coaching job stateside with a familiar organization for Runnin’ Ute fans with the Salt Lake City Stars (NBA G League) from 2017-20. His was named the NBA G League Coach of Year in his final season with the Stars after guiding the squad to the western conference regular-season title and winter showcase championship. The Stars also posted the second-longest winning-streak in NBA G League history at that point in the league, winning 14-straight contests behind the western conference’s top defensive net rating.

He first joined the German National Team staff in 2015 and served as an assistant for all the major FIBA tournaments. During his four-year tenure with the national team (2015-19), Schiller worked directly with several NBA players like Dirk Nowitzki, Dennis Schröder, Daniel Theis, Maxi Kleber, Paul Zipser and Moritz Wagner.

Schiller cut his teeth in the German Bundesliga, starting out as an assistant with the Artland Dragons (2010-15) before moving onto to the same role with Riesen Ludwigsburg.

Schiller got his coaching start in Austria (2002-10), where he led a trio of squads at the U16 level and led them to two league championships. He also garnered coach of the year honors after leading his squad to two semifinal appearances in the Austrian Championships.

https://utahutes.com/news/2025/4/11/mens-basketball-jensen-continues-to-fill-staff-names-martin-schillar-as-assistant-coach

Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, and Nick Blankenburg each scored for the Predators (29-42-8), who have won two straight games. Forsberg had the only goal in the shootout.

Dylan Guenther, Josh Doan, and Nick Bjugstad scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 28 saves for Utah (36-30-13), which had won two straight.

Bjugstad opened the scoring at 4:49 of the second period, firing a shot from the goal line that went over the right shoulder of Saros to give Utah a 1-0 lead.

Josh Doan made it 2-0 at 13:54, tapping in a rebound off a shot from Jack McBain.

Blankenburg scored a power-play goal at 17:21, beating Vejmelka with a wrist shot from the point to make it a 2-1 game.

Forsberg tied the game 2-2 on the power play 1:19 into the third period.

O’Reilly put the Predators up 3-2 at 3:17 when he collected a rebound and beat Vejmelka with a wrist shot from the right circle.

Guenther answered back at 5:42, scoring off a rebound in front from Logan Cooley to tie it 3-3.

With days remaining, union officials are scrambling to get signatures in a number of critical senate districts.

With less than a week left before they have to turn in signatures, labor leaders are scrambling to collect enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to repeal a law cracking down on unions passed during the last legislative session.

April 15 is the final day Utahns can sign petitions for the “Protect Utah Workers” referendum, and organizers are planning to submit their signature packets the following day to county clerks to be verified.

“This is the big push this last week,” said Renee Pinkney, president of the Utah Education Association. “We’re in the home stretch, and we need people to get out to the various events, and we still need people to sign petitions right up until April 15.”

UEA, AFL-CIO, Utah Public Employees Association, Utah Professional Firefighters, AFSCME and others have banded together in an attempt to repeal HB267, which bans collective bargaining with government employers — meaning those public employee unions cannot represent members in contract negotiations.

“We’re coming down to the wire and its always one of those ‘hold your breath, here you go guys’ [things],” said Jeff Worthing, president of the Utah AFL-CIO. “You just pray that everyone has done the right process in getting the signatures and that they all verify out, because if they don’t … then it was all for naught, so it can be a little nerve-wracking.”

During the final week, Pinkney said organizers are trying to ensure volunteers who have taken packets out remember to return them, whether the packets are full of signatures or not.

Utah has the most onerous referendum law in the country. To get a repeal measure on the ballot, supporters have 30 days to gather signatures from 8% of the registered voters statewide — equating to 140,748 people — as well as meet that same 8% threshold in 15 of the state’s 29 Senate districts. Those targets range from about 3,000 to 5,700, depending on the district.

Currently, organizers believe they have enough signatures in six Senate districts, but still need to meet their targets in nine more.

Pinkney said efforts are focused intensively in this final week on gathering signatures in critical areas of Davis and Utah counties.

The referendum movement has been bankrolled in large part by money from the National Education Association and teacher unions around the state and country. The Protect Utah Worker Political Issues Committee has reported receiving nearly $2.6 million, which includes a $1 million contribution from NEA and another roughly $750,000 in in-kind donations — things like payments to professional signature gatherers, Spanish translation of materials and supplies.

In addition, after the signatures are submitted, opponents of the referendum have 45 days to contact voters who signed the packets and try to convince them to rescind their support.

While labor groups had collected more than 130,000 signatures as of March 28 and say they now have more than the required number of signatures in hand, but they are finding more than expected are invalid for various reasons, prompting them to raise their signature goal before the deadline.

Groups supporting the collective bargaining ban are mounting their own offensive. The Utah chapter of the Koch brothers-backed Americans For Prosperity is running ads urging voters to “Decline to Sign.” Utah Parents United is pushing back, as well, accusing teachers of putting their own paydays ahead of students’ well-being.

The bill the Legislature passed is good policy, said Kevin Greene, state director of Americans for Prosperity.

“I think it protects taxpayers,” he said. Unlike when private companies negotiate with unions, Greene said, with public employee unions, “the taxpayer is the ultimate person who is being negotiated against and we actually don’t have any say as taxpayers when collective bargaining is happening.”

That said, based on the 130,000-signature figure previously released, Greene said he thinks “they’re well on their way to more than enough signatures.”

If the unions do get enough, Greene said AFP will see if there are specific districts where it can get involved to knock off enough to make a difference.

Worthington said he has seen huge momentum for the effort to repeal the anti-union law and doesn’t think the opposition efforts will make a dent.

“People are tired of the bulls—,” Worthington said. “They’re tired of the attacks on working-class people. They’re tired of the attacks from our own legislators and government.”