FIU men’s basketball Head Coach Jeremy Ballard continues to put his inaugural staff together, announcing Jesse Bopp as assistant coach on Tuesday. Bopp will reunite with Ballard after spending the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons together at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia, under former Rams Head Coach Shaka Smart.
“I am beyond excited to have Jesse Bopp join the Panther family as an assistant coach,” said Ballard. “Jesse’s background in basketball could not be any more decorated or diverse and our program will benefit greatly from the knowledge he has gained from those experiences. He is truly a star in every aspect of coaching from recruiting to player development to knowledge of X’s and O’s and everything in between.”
“I am thrilled to be joining Jeremy, and so happy for him that he has been given the opportunity to run his own program,” said Bopp. “He is a dear friend and truly an amazing leader of young men. I am eager to get to know our players and to establish meaningful relationships with them. I couldn’t be more excited to get to work with them and the amazing staff that has been assembled.”
Bopp spent the 2017-18 season as the head varsity basketball coach at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, compiling a record of 18-13 and qualifying for the National Christian School Athletic Association post-season tournament. Bopp carries a 67-54 career record in four seasons as a high school head coach including stops at IMG Academy and Vermont Academy.
Bopp spent the 2016-17 season working as an assistant coach at New Mexico State University. While setting a school record for wins (28; the most for any first-year staff in the country), the Aggies achieved the third-longest winning streak of the year in college basketball (20). They captured the 2017 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament Championship and secured the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
During the 2015-16 season, he was an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Their season included a school-record 29 wins (the most for any first-year staff in the country), a Southern Conference regular-season and tournament championship, and a bid to 2016 NCAA Tournament.
Prior to his time at Chattanooga, He spent two years as the director of basketball operations (2013-15) for Smart at VCU. They earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, while going 26-9 in 2013-14 and 26-10 in 2014-15, winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship in 2015. They also secured back-to-back top 25 recruiting classes according to ESPN.
From 2010-13, He was the head coach at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont, while competing in the nationally-regarded New England Prep School Athletic Council (NEPSAC). During his three seasons at Vermont, he compiled a record of 49-41, recruited and coached 15 players that would go on to play at the college level (10 Division I) and earned three-straight post-season appearances which were the first in school history.
In 2009-10 Bopp served as a graduate assistant at VCU, also under Smart, while setting a school record for wins (27) the most for any first-year staff in the country. The season culminated with a College Basketball Insider Tournament Championship over Saint Louis University.
Bopp got his start in college basketball as a graduate assistant under Billy Donovan during the 2008-09 season at the University of Florida where the Gators went 25-11 and advanced to the NIT Quarterfinals.
A native of Concord, New Hampshire and raised in the nearby town of Henniker, Bopp graduated from Plymouth State University in Plymouth New Hampshire, where he also played for 2003-07. He graduated in 2007 with a degree in Interdisciplinary studies and later earned a Master’s Degree in Sport Leadership from VCU in 2010.
Bopp is engaged to Brianna Lucas and the couple is set to be married in August of 2018.
