We’ve been talking about this one for the past two days, but has now been confirmed. IPFW head coach Tony Jasick is the new head coach at Jacksonville. An email went out to JU staffers not too long ago confirming the hiring. It also sounds like the press conference will take place Thursday at 12:15. More on this as we hear it.
**UPDATE**
Here is the official statement from JU:
Jacksonville University and Chief Athletics Officer Brad Edwards are pleased to announce the hiring of Tony Jasick as the head coach of the JU men’s basketball program.
Recently named the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com as the top Division I mid-major coach in college basketball, Jasick served as the head coach at the Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW) for the past three seasons. The prestigious award is named for Hugh Durham who is one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history and the former head coach and athletic director at Jacksonville.
A press conference will be held on Thursday, April 10 at 12:15 pm in the Davis College of Business as Jasick unveils his vision for the future of Dolphin basketball. He will be the 16th head coach in Jacksonville program history.
“We are delighted to be hiring a coach of Tony’s caliber, particularly given the multiple opportunities he was presented with,” said Edwards. “Tony is an energetic, proven leader, who many in the basketball world believe is a rising star in the field of coaching.”
A nine-year veteran of the IPFW program, Jasick oversaw the Mastodons as the school transitioned from a Division I independent into one of the Summit League’s elite. Moving up the bench from assistant to associate to head coach, Jasick recently completed his third season in charge of the IPFW program, one in which the Mastodons set a school record with 25 victories and nabbed the program’s first-ever postseason victory in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament against Akron.
While Jasick was at the center of a jump in wins for IPFW in each of his three seasons at the helm, his contributions were recognized beyond just the playing court. In late March, he was named one of 15 finalists for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, given annually to a head coach who achieves success on the court while displaying moral integrity off it. Other finalists for this year’s award include such coaching luminaries as Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Phil Martelli of Saint Joseph’s and Jay Wright of Villanova.
Before joining the staff at IPFW in 2005-06, Jasick spent the 2004-05 season at Middle Tennessee State, coaching two All-Sun Belt Conference selections and helping the Blue Raiders to 19 wins. In 2003-04, he was an assistant at Newberry College helping the team to the South Atlantic Conference title game for the first time in program history. Jasick began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at North Alabama.
A 2000 graduate of Mars Hill College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology Education, Jasick went on to earn his Master’s in Education from Lincoln Memorial University in 2002 before entering the coaching field.
