Jay Thomas Spoonhour (born October 14, 1970) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach. He was the head men's basketball coach at

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University (EIU) is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradual ...

, a position he had from 2012 until 2021. Previously, Spoonhour served as the head coach at

Moberly Area Community College Moberly Area Community College (MACC) is a public community college based in Moberly, Missouri. In addition to the Moberly campus, MACC has four campuses across a large portion of Northeastern and central Mid-Missouri regions of the state of Miss ...

in Missouri. He has also held several assistant jobs, including at Saint Louis,

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and

Texas-San Antonio The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA or UT San Antonio) is a Public university, public research university in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Established in 1969,UNLV Runnin' Rebels The UNLV Runnin' Rebels are the men's basketball team that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the Mountain West Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); it plays at the Thomas & Mack Center on campus. As ...

in 2004 after his father,

Charlie Spoonhour Charles Graham Spoonhour (June 23, 1939 – February 1, 2012) was an American basketball coach. Spoonhour was born in Mulberry, Kansas, attended high school in Rogers, Arkansas, and received an education degree from the University of the Ozarks. ...

, resigned mid-season.

Career

Spoonhour started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Central Missouri State (1994–96). He then held assistant coaching positions at Valparaiso (2000) and Saint Louis (1996–1999) before accepting his first head coaching position at Wabash Valley College. In his one and only season at Wabash, he led the team to a 36-1 overall record and won the 2001

NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships is held annually in March at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS. The first official NJCAA National Championship was in 1948 in Springfield, MO at the Southwest State College Fieldhouse. The ...

. He was named the National Junior College Coach of the Year by both the NABC and NJCAA. Following the national title season, Spoonhour joined his father's staff at UNLV as an assistant. He spent three seasons in Las Vegas and in 2004, he took over as the interim head coach after his father resigned midseason. In the 10 games that the younger Spoonhour coached, the Runnin' Rebels went 6–4, including an appearance in the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

title game and an opening round loss in the 2004 NIT. He then went on to spend two seasons as an assistant at Missouri and three as an assistant at Texas-San Antonio before being hired as the head coach of Moberly Area Community College in Moberly, Missouri. In his three years there (2009–12), Spoonhour had a record of 63–27. On April 6, 2012, Spoonhour was hired as the next head men's basketball coach at

of the

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...

. Spoonhour was chosen over a list of final candidates that also included Vanderbilt assistant

David Cason David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

assistant Brian Fish,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

assistant

Doug Novsek Doug is a male personal name (or, depending on which definition of "personal name" one uses, part of a personal name). It is sometimes a given name (or "first name"), but more often it is a hypocorism (affectionate variation of a personal name) whi ...

and Xavier assistant Kareem Richardson. In his first season as head coach, the Panthers finished 11–21 overall, but managed to make the conference tournament for the first time since the 2009–10 season. The Panthers were eliminated in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament by Southeast Missouri State.

Personal life

Jay is the son of former Missouri State, Saint Louis and

head coach

. He graduated from Glendale High School (

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the List of cities in Missouri, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County, Missouri, Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...

) in 1989 and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in physical education from

Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University (Pitt State or PSU) is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas, United States. It enrolls approximately 7,400 students (6,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students) and is a member of the Kansas Board of Regen ...

. He was a four-year letter winner in basketball at Pittsburg State, earning honorable mention all-conference honors as a senior. He is married to Nicole and has three children, Gracie, Charlie and Sam.

Head coaching record

Junior college

College

References

External links