Tony Jasick was hired as the 16th head coach in Jacksonville men’s basketball history on April 9, 2014. Jasick came to JU after spending the previous three seasons as the head coach of Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW), and has spent the past nine seasons in total as a member of the IPFW coaching staff.
“I’d like to thank some of the people that are probably most responsible for today,” Jasick said at his introductory press conference. “I don’t take lightly the opportunity that they’ve given me and certainly will work every day to prove you both right with the hire. So for that, my family and I truly appreciate it.”
Named the 2014 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com as the top Division I mid-major coach in college basketball, Jasick brought a highly decorated resume to the Dolphins historic program. 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.
In his first year with the Dolphins, Jasick guided a team of nine newcomers to wins in three of the final five regular season conference games to earn the seventh seed in the Atlantic Sun Tournament. The newcomer core was led by Kori Babineaux who was named the A-Sun Newcomer of the Year and Second Team All-Atlantic Sun.
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.
“I’ve had the opportunity to meet with our team and kind of share my vision for JU basketball,” said Jasick. “That vision is very basic but I also think it’s encompassing in exactly what we’re trying to do. First and foremost we’re going to handle everything that we do with great class, whether that’s on the floor, in class, around campus, in the community. We’re going to represent JU; we’re going to represent this town the way that we all think it should be represented. Once we take it to the floor we want our team to play with great energy, an unbelievable level of toughness, and be the most unselfish team that we play. I think that if we can accomplish those three goals, the rest will follow.”
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.
He and his wife, Melissa, have two daughters.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
"What a great hire for Jacksonville University! Tony did a great job in Fort Wayne. His teams are always well-prepared and play with great toughness." - Tom Izzo, Head Men’s Basketball Coach Michigan State University
"The college basketball scene is one that has become about correct fits at every institution. Tony Jasick to Jacksonville is a perfect fit." - Adrian Branch, ESPN College Basketball
"Tony is a great hire for Jacksonville. He''s an excellent coach and a dynamic personality. He recruits well and can really coach. He will connect with the student-athletes, the fan base, and the campus community in tremendous fashion. Home run hire for the Dolphins." - Tim Miles, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, University of Nebraska, 2014 Big Ten Coach of the Year
