Rashon Burno enters his fifth season as head coach at Northern Illinois University in 2025-26. Burno came to DeKalb following six seasons at Arizona State, including five as associate head coach, and is the 29th head coach in Huskie men’s basketball history.
In 2023-24, Burno guided NIU to its best start since 2015-16 as the Huskies opened 5-1 with victories over Sun Belt regular season champion Appalachian State and NIU’s first win over DePaul since 2005. The Huskies recorded the fourth-most three-points field goals in school history (227) while playing the toughest schedule in the Mid-American Conference.
David Coit became just the fourth player in program history to reach 1,000 career points in just two seasons (joining Jim Bradley, Kenny Battle and Xavier Silas) as he was named to the All-MAC Third Team and the NABC All-District Second Team. Will Lovings-Watts was named to the MAC All-Freshman Team while NIU had two Academic All-MAC honorees, Oluwasegun Durosinmi and Harvin Ibarguen, marking the first time the program has had multiple Academic All-MAC recipients since the 1999-2000 season.
During the 2022-23 season, Burno led the Huskies to their first appearance in the MAC Tournament in three seasons. NIU recorded its longest road winning streak since the 2002-03 season and also claimed a victory over MAC champion Kent State, snapping the nation’s third-longest win streak.
Burno’s Huskies finished league play second in the MAC in field goal percentage, third in three-point percentage, third in field goal defense, third in three-point defense and third in assists. The Huskies scored the sixth-most points in a single-season in program history (2,304) and had the second-most three-point field goals in school history (236).
NIU had a pair of All-MAC honorees for the first time since 2003-04 as David Coit was named to the All-MAC Third Team and Kaleb Thornton claimed All-MAC Honorable Mention recognition. Coit was also named to the NABC All-District Second Team.
In his first season with the Huskies, Burno made an immediate impact in signaling a new era for Huskie hoops as he guided NIU to a 71-64 victory at Washington in his head coaching debut. The win marked NIU’s first over a “high-major” opponent since 2005 and the first in program history against a Pac-12 foe. Burno became the first Huskie head coach to win his debut since Tom Jorgensen in 1966.
The road victory in Seattle was a sign of things to come for Burno’s first Huskie team as NIU won six true road games during the 2021-22 season, including four in conference play, the most for NIU since the 2005-06 campaign.
Under Burno’s guidance, Keshawn Williams earned all-conference honors as he averaged a team-best 16.3 points per game while Kaleb Thornton became NIU’s first Academic All-MAC selection since 2017.
Prior to his arrival in DeKalb, Burno was named one of The Athletic's 25 Next Head Coaches in November 2020 and was also ranked as the third-best assistant coach in the Pac-12 by Stadium's Jeff Goodman in July 2020. He was also on Silver Waves Media's 50 Impactful High Major Assistant Coaches list in April 2020.
In six seasons at Arizona State, Burno has helped the Sun Devils to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances as ASU played in the First Four in 2018 and the First Round in 2019. Arizona State had 20 wins and was on track for its third-straight tournament appearance in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season. Three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances would have been a first for the Sun Devils in 60 seasons.
During Burno's time in Tempe, the Sun Devils matched the highest ranking in program history as they ascended to number three in the AP Poll for two consecutive weeks in December 2017. Arizona State won 20 games in 2017-18, 23 games in 2018-19 and 20 games in 2019-20, marking just the third time in program history that the Sun Devils posted three-straight 20-win seasons.
Burno has helped mentor eight all-conference honorees over his six seasons at Arizona State, including first team recipients Tra Holder (2018), Zylan Cheatham (2019) and Remy Martin (2020). Luguentz Dort was named the 2019 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year while Martin and Alonzo Verge Jr. earned Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Prior to his time at Arizona State, Burno was an assistant coach for three seasons at the University of Florida under current Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, helping the Gators reach the Final Four in 2014 and the Elite Eight in 2013. Burno and the Gators won SEC regular season titles in both 2012-13 and 2013-14, posting a perfect 18-0 conference mark in 2013-14 while also winning the conference tournament that season. Burno helped develop All-SEC guards Kenny Boynton, Mike Rosario and Scottie Wilbekin, who became the first Gator guard to win SEC Player of the Year honors in 2014.
Burno was an assistant coach at Manhattan College in 2011-12, working under head coach Steve Masiello as the Jaspers won 21 games, a 15-win turnaround from the prior year. Burno began his collegiate coaching career at Towson in 2010-11, where he reunited with his college head coach, Pat Kennedy.
Before joining the collegiate coaching ranks, Burno was the head coach at Marmion Academy in Aurora, Illinois, from 2007-10.
As a player, Burno earned 58 starts in four seasons at DePaul (1998-2002), helping the Blue Demons to the NCAA Tournament in 2000 and the NIT in 1999. He was named to the 2000 Conference USA All-Tournament Team and still ranks third in DePaul history in steals (201) and sixth in assists (439).
Burno attended St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City, N.J., and played for Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Bob Hurley Sr., winning high school national championships in 1996 and 1997. He was an executive producer for the 2010 documentary, "The Street Stops Here," which chronicled Hurley and his St. Anthony's program.
