Kansas assistant basketball coach Joe Dooley arrested on suspicion of DUI, failure to stop at accident

Gary Bedore, The Kansas City Star on Dec 21, 2025

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LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas assistant basketball coach Joe Dooley was arrested late Saturday night in west Lawrence, Kan., on suspicion of driving under the influence, failure to stop at an accident and transporting an open container, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office booking recap report.

He has been suspended from coaching duties for three weeks, KU coach Bill Self said Sunday in a news release.

“We are aware assistant coach Joe Dooley was arrested for driving under the influence. Joe exercised poor judgment and will be suspended for three weeks effective immediately. Joe is remorseful, apologetic and accepts the consequences of his actions,” Self said.

The booking report indicates Dooley, 59, was arrested at 11:15 p.m. Saturday in northwest Lawrence. Dooley was released on bond Sunday morning. The booking report listed bond as $1,250 on each of the three counts.

The counts as revealed on the booking report:

— Driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol; 1st conv; blood/breath .08 or >

— Failure to stop at accident; injury or damage over $1,000

— Transporting open container

Self was asked by a Kansas City Star reporter about the report of Dooley’s arrest at Sunday’s media availability in advance of Monday’s home game against Davidson.

He said: “It’s accurate, it’s accurate. And I put out a statement; I don’t know if you guys got it. So I’ll stand by the statement. There’s really not much else to say because it just recently occurred. But that’s where we’re at. We’ll deal with it. He’ll deal with it. We’ll address it and make the most of it.”

Dooley is now in the fourth season of his second stint on Self’s KU coaching staff and 14th season overall. He was previously an assistant at KU from 2003-04 to 2012-13.

The West Orange, N.J., native also coached at New Mexico, South Carolina and Wyoming. He was the head coach at Florida Gulf Coast and East Carolina. He is a graduate from George Washington University.

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