Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus are working on revamping their coaching staff.

After firing five coaches earlier this month, including offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, the Bears began the offseason seeking at least new offensive and defensive coordinators and position coaches for the quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs.

On Tuesday, the Bears officially announced the hiring of former Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron as their new offensive coordinator. A deal had been reported Monday to be in the works.

“This was a very exhaustive search, but in the end I’m grateful the journey led us to Shane,” Eberflus said in a statement. “He is a great teacher and communicator with a diverse coaching background among some of the game’s most elite head coaches. I look forward to partnering with him as we build out the rest of the staff and get him started here.”

Waldron said in a statement: “I appreciate this opportunity given to me by Coach Eberflus and Ryan Pole. We can’t wait to get to work at a franchise with such a storied history and passionate fan base.”

Here’s how the offensive coordinator hiring process unfolded.

Jan. 18

The Bears are expected to interview former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, ESPN reported.

The rundown: Kingsbury, 44, spent this past season as a senior offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach at USC, where potential No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams played. The Bears are getting deeper into their evaluations of Williams as they determine whether to draft a quarterback with the No. 1 pick this spring. Williams threw for 3,633 yards with 30 touchdowns and five interceptions in 12 games in 2023.

In four seasons as the Cardinals coach, Kingsbury was 28-37-1. The Cardinals fired him last January following a 4-13 season after the team made the playoffs a year earlier behind quarterback Kyler Murray. Before that, Kingsbury was the head coach for six seasons at Texas Tech, where he coached quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

He also was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M and Houston. Kingsbury played quarterback at Texas Tech and in the NFL, NFL Europe and CFL.

The Bears are interviewing Los Angeles Rams passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Zac Robinson, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported.

The rundown: Robinson, 37, has been part of Sean McVay’s coaching staff in Los Angeles for the last five seasons and in his current role the last two years. In 2021, Robinson also served as Matthew Stafford’s quarterbacks coach as Stafford matched a career high with 41 touchdown passes and led the Rams to a Super Bowl title.

This season Robinson contributed to a passing offense that ranked in the top 10 in yards and yards per play.

Robinson was a standout quarterback at Oklahoma State and a seventh-round selection by the New England Patriots in 2010. He spent four seasons in the NFL with the Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bears have requested an interview with Philadelphia Eagles senior offensive assistant Marcus Brady, ESPN reported.

The rundown: Brady, 44, spent the 2023 season on Nick Sirianni’s Eagles staff after five seasons with the Indianapolis Colts.

He worked on the same Colts coaching staff as Bears coach Matt Eberflus for four years under Frank Reich, though on the opposite side of the ball from Eberflus. With the Colts, Brady rose from assistant quarterbacks coach (2018) to quarterbacks coach (2019-20) and then to offensive coordinator (2021-22) after Sirianni left for the Eagles. The Colts offense was one of the best in the league at running the ball in 2021, but it ranked 27th in total yards per game with 311.6 in 2022.

Brady also spent nine seasons coaching in the Canadian Football League.

Jan. 17

The Bears are interviewing Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, The Athletic reported.

The rundown: Brown, 37, completed his first year as the Panthers coordinator after three seasons with the Rams, with whom he won a Super Bowl under McVay.

The Panthers struggled behind rookie quarterback Bryce Young in 2023, averaging a league-worst 265.3 yards per game. With the Rams, Brown coached running backs and then tight ends and had the title of assistant head coach in his last two seasons.

The former Georgia running back was a running backs coach in college for eight seasons, including with Wisconsin, Georgia, South Carolina and Miami, where he also was the offensive coordinator. Brown also is scheduled to interview with the Tennessee Titans for their head coaching position.

Jan. 15

The Bears interviewed former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman, NFL Network’s Peter Schrager reported.

The rundown: Roman, 51, is a longtime NFL coach who served as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills and Ravens. Among his accomplishments is crafting the Ravens offense around dual-threat quarterback Lamar Jackson and helping Jackson to an MVP season in his second year in 2019. The Ravens had the best rushing offense in the league that year.

However, Roman and the Ravens parted after the 2022 season after the offense declined. The Ravens went from averaging 33.2 points in 2019 to 20.6 in 2022.

Jan. 12

The Bears interviewed Seahawks quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The rundown: Olson, 60, has been a college and NFL quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator since 1990. He has extensive experience as an NFL offensive coordinator, holding the position with the Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, Oakland and Las Vegas Raiders in separate stints and Jacksonville Jaguars.

He most recently was the Seahawks quarterbacks coach in 2023 and a senior offensive assistant with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. Olson spent the 2003 season as the Bears quarterbacks coach.

The Bears planned to interview Kentucky offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Liam Coen, CBS Sports reported.

The rundown: Coen, 38, has one season of NFL offensive coordinator experience with the Rams in 2022, though McVay called the plays. He was an assistant wide receivers coach and assistant quarterbacks coach with the Rams from 2018-20.

Beyond that, Coen has been a college quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator since 2010 at Brown, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine and most recently Kentucky in 2021 and 2023.

Jan. 11

The Bears planned to interview 49ers passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak, ESPN reported.

The rundown: Kubiak, 36, is in his first season with the 49ers under Kyle Shanahan. Before that, he was the Denver Broncos passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022 for Russell Wilson and their QBs coach from 2016-18.

Kubiak, the son of longtime NFL coach Gary Kubiak, also worked for the Minnesota Vikings as offensive coordinator in 2021 and quarterbacks coach from 2019-20, working with Kirk Cousins.

Jan. 10

The Bears requested an interview with Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, NFL Network reported.

The rundown: Waldron, 44, was the Seahawks offensive coordinator the last three seasons, helping quarterback Geno Smith to a comeback season in 2022. Before that, he spent four seasons with the Rams as passing game coordinator, quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach under McVay.

He also served as an offensive assistant with the Patriots (2008-09) and Washington (2016) and worked in operations with the Patriots early in his career. He has coached in college, high school and the UFL.

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To mark its 30th anniversary, Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul is hosting a 30-hour-long meditation “sit-a-thon” on March 23 and 24.

Yes, that’s right: Thirty straight hours of meditation.

Participants don’t have to sit the full time nor do they even have to be practicing Zen Buddhists, said Renkyo Heather Fehst, the center’s executive director. During the event, people can meditate for as long or as little as they feel comfortable, and there’ll be an orientation space for teachers to show first-time meditators how to sit and spend time with their thoughts. Participants can also join via Zoom.

The sit-a-thon starts 7 a.m. Saturday, March 23, and concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 24. The final hour will feature 108 bell-ringings, a Japanese Buddhist ritual that’s frequently part of New Year’s observations. And after the event concludes, the Zen center is hosting a community lunch.

As of now, one person is planning to meditate for the full uninterrupted 30 hours: Clouds in Water’s guiding teacher, the Soto Zen Buddhist priest Sosan Theresa Flynn — “because she’s a bada**,” Fehst said.

(Fehst and Flynn, like many practicing Buddhists, have Dharma names in addition to their birth names, which they receive as part of a rite of passage called jukai in which they accept Buddhist teachings.)

Clouds in Water, which is affiliated with a Japanese school of Buddhism called Soto Zen, opened in 1994 in Lowertown. They’re now located on Farrington Street in the Rondo area, and Fehst hopes the sit-a-thon will help boost awareness of the center’s existence as a broader community resource. Plus, they run entirely on donations, so the event is an important fundraiser, too.

For those new to the form of mostly silent Zen meditation practiced at Clouds in Water, the experience can feel, counterintuitively, like a “blast of noise” at first, Fehst said. Your mind is trying to compensate for the sudden absence of constant sensory stimulation, she said, and it takes practice to simply let your thoughts come and go, with acknowledgment but not judgment.

“The word ‘zen’ is used very casually to mean you’re so relaxed,” Fehst said. “I think that’s so funny. Yes, Zen can be soothing and relaxing, but it’s really trying to befriend your mind. … It can be really uncomfortable, because we’re not used to being with our thoughts.”

The way Fehst and others at Clouds in Water see it, Zen is not effortless, not passive and not exactly about achieving some sort of ‘enlightenment.’ Instead, it’s an understanding that life presents difficulties of all sizes, and we must face them empathetically, without letting them knock us off-kilter.

“It’s really about, how do I just be with this life that I have, with as much grace for myself and others as I can muster?” Fehst said. “Sitting with ourselves is the foundation of that, but it goes beyond that.”

To that end, Clouds in Water prioritizes what Fehst called the “off-the-cushion practice” — how participants can take Buddhist teachings outside the center’s walls. Leaders place specific emphasis on discussions of race, justice, accessibility and community engagement. Many teachers at the center are women, queer or transgender, and the center has specific sanghas, or Zen practice groups, for people of color.

Another key topic of conversation — “a tricky one,” Fehst said — is what it means to practice a Japanese form of Zen Buddhism in America, especially for participants who are not themselves of Japanese descent. How can participants carry on traditions of another culture they find personally meaningful, but in a way that doesn’t whitewash them or recast them as “wellness” trends?

At Clouds in Water, this sort of engagement with social issues is as central to Zen practice as bowing or studying spiritual texts, Fehst said.

“We don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, we’re just going to sit in our little bubble and meditate for peace, but then not do anything,’” she said. “There are some people who just want to hide away. That’s not what we’re about.”

If you go

What: Meditation “sit-a-thon” to mark the 30th anniversary of the Clouds in Water Zen Center.

Where: Clouds in Water: 445 Farrington St., or on Zoom; links at https://cloudsinwater.org/

When: From 7 a.m. Saturday, March 23, till 1 p.m. Sunday, March 24 — but it’s open-house style, so come any time for as long as you’d like.

Cost: Free! Clouds in Water tries to make their programming as accessible as possible. The sit-a-thon is a fundraiser for the center, though, and several participants are committing to meditate for a certain amount of time corresponding to how much money they raise.

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While History Theatre is known for bringing Minnesota stories to the stage, its latest takes us to 1962 Mississippi. Yet “A Unique Assignment” is a Minnesotan’s story.

Lt. Henry Gallagher was a 23-year-old army officer from South Minneapolis following orders that came all the way from the top: President John F. Kennedy dispatched troops to Oxford, Mississippi, to keep the peace as James Meredith became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. Gallagher was named head of the security detail assigned to protect Meredith from violent racists, arriving amid the gunfire and fury that’s come to be called the Ole Miss riot of 1962.

Assembled from the memoirs of Meredith and Gallagher, “A Unique Assignment” is a gripping piece of storytelling that feels like one of the most important works History Theatre has created in the past decade. With only four actors portraying a virtual battalion’s worth of characters, it’s a story about civil rights seen in close-up, in which one young man’s courageous and confident decision to desegregate a school leads to a life-changing experience for the young officer entrusted to keep him safe.

Directed with a crisp pace and fluid flow by Richard D. Thompson, it’s an expertly executed interpretation of Harrison David Rivers’ deeply involving script. With very few props but a plethora of costume and character changes, “A Unique Assignment” eloquently conveys the danger, hatred and unease that permeated the steamy southern air, as well as the calm contrast found in the relationship that developed between Meredith and Gallagher.

While admirably explaining some principal cultural differences between south and north, Rivers also offers a very believable portrait of U.S. Army culture circa ‘62 and the tug of war between order and chaos that can ensue when soldiers are cast into a role of unclear scope.

Conversely, Meredith is acutely focused on his mission, and James A. Williams imbues him with a fascinating blend of inspiring self-confidence and enigmatic unflappability. Through monologues that sound directly from the pages of Meredith’s memoir, Williams brings us a very private man who decided to take on a very public challenge.

Meanwhile, Kevin Fanshaw’s young Gallagher is disarmingly open about his flaws and misgivings, taking us inside the mind and heart of a kid trying to figure out how to be a leader. As Pearce Bunting ably evokes an older Gallagher narrating his youthful experiences, Rivers’ script frequently finds the humor within this soldier’s reminiscences, with Kevin Brown Jr. making a multitude of characters invariably engaging.

In a story about divisions between black and white, Ursula K Bowden’s abstract set is decked in gray, its tall rectangular panels serving as screens for Brown to duck behind for his countless costume changes. Kurt Jung’s lighting serves the story well, and Kathy Maxwell’s projections combine with Katharine Horowitz’s sound design to make the riot scenes crackle with tension.

Speaking of sound, the show’s true-to-the-times modern jazz soundtrack is great for the atmosphere, but the volume is sometimes way too high. This is a show in which words are very important, so best not to obscure them. For they forge an important link to aspects of recent history that some Americans believe best left untold.

‘A Unique Assignment’

When: Through April 7

Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul

Tickets: $64-$25, available at 651-292-4323 or historytheatre.com

Capsule: An important piece of theater filled with gripping storytelling.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

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The Gophers men’s basketball confirmed a clear improvement for the program on Sunday: they will continue to play in March.

Minnesota will play at Butler in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Minnesota won double the amount of overall games as last season (9 to 18) and more than four times as many Big Ten games (2 to 9).

“It’s a great opportunity for our team to continue to build, grow, get better and compete,” Ben Johnson said in a statement. “Our guys are excited and looking forward to preparing for it this week. It’s the next great step for our program, and we’re ready to get back on the court.”

But the Gophers lost seven of their final 10 games, including a 77-67 loss to Michigan State in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday at Target Center. This left an NIT bid in doubt early this week.

Minnesota’s NET ranking at 89 looked to be too high to make the field, according to national projections.

Butler comes into the game with an 18-14 record. The Bulldogs finished tied for eighth in the Big East Conference with a 9-11 league mark, and they were knocked out in the first round of the conference tournament by Xavier last Wednesday at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

While Butler recorded impressive wins this season over Big East powers Marquette and Creighton, it finished February with a five-game losing streak.

The Gophers cannot host a game at Williams Arena in the postseason due to Big Ten, Timberwolves and high school tournament schedules at Target Center and the Barn.

The winner will advance to the second round on March 23-24.

The Gophers last competed in the NIT since 2014, finishing runner up to Southern Methodist, 65-63, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

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