Jimmy Dykes (born May 3, 1961) is a former 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 Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and current sportscaster for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and

SEC Network The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds ...

. He was the women's basketball head coach at the University of Arkansas until resigning in March 2017. Before making the transition to working for ESPN the first time, Dykes served as a men's assistant basketball coach at

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

, Appalachian State University,

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

Arkansas State University Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osa ...

, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. He has also served as a scout for the NBA's

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

. Dykes also served as

Shiloh Christian School Shiloh Christian School is a private Christian school in Springdale, Arkansas, United States. History Shiloh Christian School was founded in 1976 as a ministry of the First Baptist Church of Springdale, by Dennis Cottrell and Tom Ellis, under th ...

's (located in

Springdale, Arkansas Springdale is the fourth-largest city in Arkansas, United States. It is located in both Washington and Benton counties in Northwest Arkansas. Located on the Springfield Plateau deep in the Ozark Mountains, Springdale has long been an important i ...

) Director of Athletics in 2006.

Head coaching career

Arkansas (2014–17)

Jimmy Dykes was announced as the new head coach of the University of Arkansas women's basketball team on March 30, 2014. Dykes replaced Tom Collen as the women's head coach at Arkansas after Collen was fired at the end of the 2013–2014 season. In his first year at Arkansas, Dykes led his team of nine players to the NCAA tournament after finishing in the middle of the pack of the SEC. His Razorbacks defeated 7 seed Northwestern before falling to second seeded Baylor in the second round. Dykes' second year saw the team finish 10th in the SEC and with a losing record overall, at 12–18. His third team finished last in the conference, winning only two league games.

Personal life

Dykes is a 1985 graduate of the University of Arkansas, where he played basketball for the Razorbacks and former head coach

Eddie Sutton Edward Eugene Sutton (March 12, 1936 – May 23, 2020) was an American college basketball coach. A native of Bucklin, Kansas, Sutton played college basketball at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State) and was a head coach at the high school, junio ...

. Dykes currently resides in Johnson, Arkansas. He is married to Tiffany Beasley, a former Razorback cheerleader. The two have one daughter, Kennedy, born in 2005. Dykes is a Christian. Jimmy lived in Nashville early in his career for 9 months while pursuing a career in country music.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Arkansas profile
1961 births Living people American basketball scouts American men's basketball players American television sports announcers American women's basketball coaches Appalachian State Mountaineers men's basketball coaches Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball players Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball coaches Arkansas State Red Wolves men's basketball coaches College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball coaches Seattle SuperSonics scouts Sportspeople from Tulsa, Oklahoma {{1960s-US-basketball-bio-stub