Missouri officially announced the hiring of new basketball assistant coach Emanuel Dildy on Friday. This comes just weeks after the Chicago native was rumored to be a candidate for the job as the Missouri basketball team was prepping for a trip to Italy.

Dildy comes to the Tigers from Loyola University Chicago, where he spent three years as an assistant for head coach Porter Moser. In a release from the Missouri athletics department, Dildy spoke of the ease in transition in the fact that he’s familiar with Missouri.

“I spent part of my childhood in Missouri, so I know what Mizzou Basketball means to people in the state and the importance it has to so many,” Dildy said. “The chance to join a staff with Coach [Kim] Anderson and Coach [Brad] Loos, two guys I got to know in my early years of coaching, makes the transition very smooth. Add in that I was able to meet Coach [Steve] Shields during my time at Loyola and you’ve got a lot of familiarity and comfort there. It will be easy to be on the same page with how we’re teaching and how we’re recruiting.”

Dildy played college basketball in the early 2000s at both New Mexico State and Eastern Illinois, where he averaged 15.3 points per game as a senior. Dildy always had stints playing professionally in Germany. In his time at Loyola, Dildy helped to mentor Milton Doyle, who was the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Freshman and Newcomer of the Year. Dildy also assisted in coaching Devon Turk, who became Loyola’s all-time leading three-point shooter during the 2014–15 season.

On Dildy, coach Kim Anderson said he is a “high character, high motor type of coach.”

“He is a young, energetic coach who has done all the right things leading up to this point in his career — build great relationships and coach smart, intense basketball,” Anderson said. “Mizzou fans will love getting to know Emanuel, who is passionate about teaching the game and developing young men.”

Dildy fills a spot left open by former assistant Corey Tate, who left weeks ago to coach at Saint Louis University. On the opportunity, Dildy said he “cannot wait.”

“I’m looking forward to being a part of the Mizzou and Columbia community,” Dildy said. “It’s already the fall, so it’s exciting to step in and start getting the team ready for the season.”