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| This is how I will always see Jeff Jones in my mind |
The big news lately are the coaching vacancies at two nearby institutions, namely George Mason and George Washington. Jim Larranaga left a little over a week ago to take the head job at Miami, while GW's new athletic director "let go" of Karl Hobbs shortly after taking over. Jeff Jones, logically, was named as a potential candidate for both positions by major media outlets and the college basketball blogosphere alike. Fortunately, The Washington Post reported today that Paul Hewitt, formerly of Georgia Tech, has taken the Mason job. While the GW job is still open, it's fortunately looking more and more likely that we'll have a few more years of Jones sticking around Tenleytown.
I for one am thankful for this, as the thought of losing Jones made my heart briefly stop. Love him or hate him, he's turned our program completely around, and replacing him would be a tall order. In my opinion, there's not a better coach out there for us at the moment, although I'm sure some might disagree. That being said, Jones is rooted down in the area and likes it here (and his job security, I'd expect), and really the only positions that might be able to draw him away are local ones (unless, you know, we pull a Butler or VCU next season), so the timing of both GW and GMU losing their coaches in the span of a week wasn't particularly great. Oh, and we lost our award-winning wrestling coach to Oklahoma less than a month ago to boot.
Any thoughts on the DC coaching merry-go-round? Let us know in the comments. We'll be back to full strength shortly, so keep checking back for updates. My goal is to come up with a relatively regular posting schedule I can stick to a whole lot better than last summer, so stay tuned.
Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh
Coach Jones is in a great situation with President Kerwin as one of of his biggest fans. He has a solid salary and job security as long as he produces a winning program. Plus his wife most likely makes 6 figures + at Politico. It's tough to work at Politico and not be in the DC area. So unless some other D-1 school puts out a very high six figure offer, then JJ will be at AU for the near future
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion over the last few years JJ's biggest improvement has been his realizing what it takes to recruit Patriot League players. a big difference from his UVa years- and he had difficulty with the adjustment. X's and O's have always been his strength. With his better recruiting techniques, he now gives AU bb fans good reason to give him our support for the long term.
I'm not sure it's right to say he has turned the program around. JJ has been our only coach in the PL. He came in with CAA talent.
ReplyDeleteThis is not meant as an insult at all. He has been the AU program - it's not like he just came in and everything has changed.
Next year will be a very telling year for AU - will we see improvement from some of the key returning players? Lumpkins, Brewer, Munoz, and Hinkle will all play important roles - and all have potential to step up.