PEMBROKE – UNC Pembroke men's basketball head coach Drew Richards announced Friday that he has promoted Chris Sause to associate head coach. 

The Durham native just completed his third season with the Braves and played a key role in helping the program to a pair of Conference Carolinas Championship titles and a historic run in the NCAA Tournament for the 2024-25 season where they team advanced to the NCAA Regional Final. 

"Promoting Coach Sause was an easy decision based on his professional growth this past season," said head coach Drew Richards. "Between his work ethic, player relationships, X's and O's acumen, and recruiting prowess, he has become an extremely valuable part of our program and we hope this shows how much we appreciate his contributions to our success."

Prior to his stop in Pembroke, Sause attained a wealth of experience with previous coaching stops at two other collegiate institutions, including a one-year stint at Wingate during the 2021-22 campaign. He joined the Averett coaching staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2018-19 season and helped lead the Cougars to a wealth of success, including a 2020-21 campaign that saw the Cougars amass a 20-7 record, including a 15-2 mark in the always-tough USA South Conference. The success of the program during his time in Danville, Va., was also evidenced by a quartet of All-USA South selections as well.

Wingate registered a 21-8 mark and a fourth-place finish in the South Atlantic Conference during his season with the Bulldogs. Sause also enjoyed a stint as a scout and social media reporter for Phenom Hoop Report across the 2018-19 college basketball season as well.

"I am very thankful for the opportunities that I have had at UNC Pembroke under Coach Richards," said Sause. "I am looking forward to continuing to help take our program to new heights!"

Sause earned bachelor's degrees in both business administration and organizational administration from North Carolina Wesleyan in 2019, and completed his master's of business administration coursework at Averett in 2020. He also completed his master's sports management from Western Carolina in 2025.