James A. Ferry Jr. (born July 9, 1967) is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach who is the current head coach of the

UMBC Retrievers men's basketball The UMBC Retrievers men's basketball team represents the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition as a member of the America East Conference. They play their home games at ...

team. He formerly served as interim head coach for the 2020–2021 season at

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

and the head men's basketball coach at

Duquesne __NOTOC__ Duquesne or Duchesne ( , ; old spelling Du Quesne, American spelling DuQuesne) is a family name derived from a northern dialectal form of French (Norman and Picard) meaning ''du chêne'' in French ("of the oak"). The anglicization of t ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, Adelphi, and

Plymouth State Plymouth State University (abbrevriated PSU), formerly Plymouth State College, is a public university in Plymouth, New Hampshire, United States. As of fall 2020, Plymouth State University enrolls 4,491 students (3,739 undergraduate students and 7 ...

Playing career

Ferry played one season at

NYIT The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a Private university, private research university, research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York (state), New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long I ...

before transferring to

Keene State College Keene State College is a Public college, public Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college (originally, Ke ...

for his final three years where he led the Owls in scoring his junior year.

Coaching career

After graduation, Ferry stayed on as an assistant coach with his alma mater for one season before joining

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars and Sport utility vehicle, SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Crickle ...

as an assistant coach from 1991 to 1998. He'd accept his first head coaching job, a single season at Division III

, guiding the Panthers to the 1999

Little East Conference The Little East Conference (LEC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. The member institutions are located in all six states of New England. History Chro ...

regular season title. Ferry moved on to Division II Adelphi, where he stayed for three seasons, making three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including two Elite Eights. He also guided the Panthers to 30-straight wins during the 2000–01 season. In 2002, Ferry would be named the head coach at LIU Brooklyn, where he'd stay for 10 seasons, earning a pair of

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

regular season and tournament titles plus back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. Ferry would accept the head coaching position at Duquesne in 2012 where he'd coach for five seasons before being fired with a 60–97 overall record. Ferry would subsequently join Pat Chambers' staff at Penn State in 2017 and was part of the program's 2018 NIT Championship squad. Following the resignation of Chambers on October 21, 2020, Ferry was named interim head coach at Penn State for the remainder of the season, putting together an 11–14 record. Ferry would not be retained by Penn State, which chose to hire Micah Shrewsberry as its permanent head coach. On April 12, 2021, Ferry was named the head coach at UMBC, replacing

Ryan Odom Ryan Odom (born July 11, 1974) is an American men's college basketball coach who is the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball, Cavaliers men's basketball team since March 21, 2025. He has previously c ...

who departed for the head coaching position at Utah State.

Head coaching record

References

External links