This one has been floating out there for the past few days. It’s now official – Virginia Tech’s Mike Jones has been added as an assistant coach on Kevin Willard’s staff at Maryland. Here’s the release from the school:
After two years on the staff at Virginia Tech, Mike Jones has been named assistant coach for the Maryland men’s basketball team as announced by head coach Kevin Willard today. Jones is deeply familiar with the area after spending 19 years as the head coach at DeMatha.
“Mike brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, while having so many connections in the area that will help us in recruiting,” said Willard. “His success at DeMatha as well as USA Basketball shows his ability to teach and develop young players. He is an outstanding mentor and connects with players in ways that positively impacts them on and off the court.”
Before his two years with the Hokies, Jones led DeMatha to a 511-119 (.811) record during his 19 years leading the program from 2002-21 including a 2006 national title. Additionally, he was a 22-time USA Basketball coach – most recently as the 2021 USA Men’s Under-16 National Team head coach.
In his two seasons at Virginia Tech, the Hokies were 42-28 overall and 19-21 in the ACC. In 2021-22, Virginia Tech was 23-13 overall winning the ACC Tournament championship title with an 82-67 win over Duke before falling to Texas in the NCAA Tournament First Round. It was the first ACC Tournament Championship in program history.
While leading DeMatha, Jones won nine Washington Catholic Athletic Conference regular season titles, eight WCAC Tournament crowns and four Maryland Private School Tournament championships. Additionally, since he started as a head coach at DeMatha, Jones coached six athletes who went on to play in the NBA.
In addition to his experience of developing players at the prep level, Jones has extensive ties to USA Basketball. After serving in three coaching roles with USA Basketball alone in 2019, Jones was named a co-recipient of the 2019 USA Basketball Developmental Coach of the Year award. He led the 2019 USA Basketball Men’s U16 National Team to a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Brazil, was a lead coach at the 2019 USA Men’s Junior National Team July minicamp and was a court coach at the 2019 USA Men’s Junior National Team October minicamp.
Jones has also served as head coach of the USA Nike Hoop Summit Team three times, in 2013, 2014 and 2018, and he served as the USA’s Hoop Summit assistant coach in 2012 and 2017.
He got his start with USA Basketball as an assistant coach for the 2004 Youth Development Festival East Team. He won three gold medals with USA Basketball men’s junior national teams, including the 2011 U16 team and 2012 and 2016 U17 teams. Prior to 2019, he was a coach at the annual USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team October minicamp eight times (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018).
A standout player at Old Dominion University from 1991-92 through 1994-95, Jones was a member of the All-Colonial Athletic Association second team and earned CAA All-Tournament team honors in his senior season, in which he averaged 16.5 ppg. Jones led the Monarchs to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1992 and 1995, and he capped his ODU career with 1,166 points.
He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services and Counseling from Old Dominion in 1995.
Following his career at ODU, Jones played professionally in the CBA and International Basketball Association, where he was all-league first team in 1997. He also played professionally in Portugal, Hong Kong, Finland and the Dominican Republic.
Jones has a wife, Stayce, daughter, Maya, and stepson, Jacques.
