Ronald Howard Jirsa (born December 21, 1959) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach who is currently an assistant coach at

UNC Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...

. He was previously the head coach at

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

Early life and education

Jirsa was born in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...

and grew up in nearby Ledyard. After graduating from Ledyard High School in 1977, Jirsa attended

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...

. A member of the basketball team, Jirsa graduated from Gettysburg in 1981 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

Coaching career

Jirsa bounced around as an assistant coach, but had two significant stints at the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

, first under

J. D. Barnett Joseph Donald Barnett (born January 10, 1944) is an American retired college basketball coach. He was a former head basketball coach at several NCAA Division I, Division I institutions, the most high-profile being VCU Rams men's basketball, Virgini ...

from 1985 to 1988 and second under

Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach. He was the men's basketball coach at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, the Univers ...

from 1991 to 1993. Jirsa completed his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in athletic administration at Tulsa in 1987 while an assistant coach there. Smith promoted Jirsa to associate head coach in 1994, and Jirsa followed Smith to the University of Georgia. When Smith departed for the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

in 1997, Jirsa remained at Georgia and became head coach. Although Jirsa led Georgia to third place in the

1998 National Invitation Tournament The 1998 National Invitation Tournament was the 1997 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. Minnesota's tournament victory was vacated as a result of numerous NCAA violations, including academic fraud, that took place under c ...

title in his first season, he was fired in 1999 after going 35-30. Jirsa moved to

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

and was an assistant for four seasons there. In June 2003, he was hired to coach

. Jirsa was fired after four seasons at Marshall, going 43-74. Most recently, he served under Tubby Smith as an assistant at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. On March 25, 2013, it was announced that Smith, along with his entire staff had been relieved as coaches at Minnesota. In the 2013–14 season, Jirsa was recruiting coordinator at Division III Bethel University in Minnesota. The following season, Jirsa joined Steve Payne's coaching staff as an assistant at

Tennessee Tech Tennessee Technological University, commonly referred to as Tennessee Tech, is a public research university in Cookeville, Tennessee, United States. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, and before that as University of Dixie ...

. In 2015, Jirsa made yet another move, this time as an assistant at Radford under Mike Jones, following Jones to

UNCG The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-a ...

when Jones was named head coach there in 2021.

Head coaching record

References

External links