Michael D. Jarvis (born April 12, 1945) 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 most recently as head men's basketball coach at

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. The university is a member of the State University System of Florida and has s ...

. He has coached at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

and St. John's University. He also has worked as a commentator for college basketball games on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. His career college coaching record in over 18 seasons is 364–201.

Early life

Jarvis was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

and played high school basketball at Rindge Technical High School, the predecessor to

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, also known as "CRLS" or "Rindge", is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of the Cambridge Public School District. In 1977, two separate schools, Rindge Technical Sc ...

. He also coached at Rindge and Latin, where his players included NBA players

Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is a basketball ambassador for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played most o ...

Rumeal Robinson Rumeal James Robinson (born November 13, 1966) is a Jamaican-American former professional basketball player and convicted felon. Growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Robinson graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and went on to pl ...

and former George Washington head coach Karl Hobbs. He played basketball and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

, graduating in 1968.

College coaching career

Jarvis became head coach at

in 1985, becoming the Terriers' all-time winningest coach in five seasons with a 101–50 record (he was later overtaken by Bob Brown, then

Dennis Wolff Dennis Wolff (born March 1, 1955) is an American basketball coach whose most recent coaching position was with the Virginia Tech Hokies women's team.

). Boston University reached the NCAA tournament in 1988 and 1990 under Jarvis. He was hired at

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

in 1990, leading the Colonials to four NCAA tournament appearances, including the Sweet 16 in the 1993 NCAA tournament, the Colonials' best tournament performance. The team was defeated by the " Fab Five" Michigan Wolverines, who later vacated the entire season due to a scandal with a booster. Jarvis also led the Colonials to two victories over number one ranked UMass, compiling a 143–100 record at George Washington. Jarvis also coached the

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under-22 men's national team in 1993.

St. John's

After the 1998 season, Jarvis accepted the head coaching job at St. John's University after

Fran Fraschilla Francis John Fraschilla (born August 30, 1958) is an American basketball commentator and former college basketball coach. Career Fraschilla was an assistant coach at University of Rhode Island for Jack Kraft, Ohio University for Danny Nee an ...

was fired, leading the Red Storm to the

Elite Eight In the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, NCAA men's Division I basketball championship or the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, NCAA women's Division I basketball championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight t ...

in the 1999 NCAA Tournament and the 2000 Big East tournament championship. They won the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

in 2003. The next season the Red Storm stumbled out of the gate, losing to several nonconference teams that they usually beat with ease. Jarvis was fired on December 19, 2003—the first

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

coach to be fired during the season. Assistant Kevin Clark replaced him for the remainder of the season. His final record at St. John's was 110–61. It later emerged that school officials had fired Jarvis in part due to a series of embarrassing off-court incidents. Among these, a junior college transfer had been charged with assaulting a female student, and a senior guard had been kicked off the team after being caught smoking marijuana near St. John's campus in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. During the 2003–04 season, St. John's center Abe Keita claimed that a member of Jarvis's basketball staff had paid him nearly $300 a month for the past four seasons. As a result, St. John's placed itself on two years' probation, withdrew from postseason consideration for the 2004–05 season, and forfeited 43 wins in which Keita participated. This included the team's NIT championship in 2003, making St. John's the third team in the history of the NIT to be forced to vacate its standing in the tournament; the two previous schools,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, had also won the tournament in their respective years. The NCAA accepted St. John's sanctions and faulted Jarvis for not properly monitoring Keita's situation, but otherwise cleared him of wrongdoing. After his ouster, Jarvis was criticized for ignoring New York City's rich pool of high school players, which particularly rankled fans used to seeing national powerhouses built primarily on New York City talent.

Career after St. John's

Jarvis last coached for Florida Atlantic for six seasons. Prior to coming back with the Owls in 2009, Jarvis worked for ESPN as a college basketball commentator, and

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as their NCAA men's basketball analyst, and continues to work as a speaker and broadcaster. He has written two books: ''Skills For Life'' (with Jonathan Peck) and ''Everybody Needs A Head Coach'' (with Chad Bonham).

Head coaching record

College

*Jarvis was fired on December 19, 2003; assistant Kevin Clark finished the season.
** St. John's vacated 47 games (46 wins and one loss) from 2000 to 2004 after Abe Keita was ruled ineligible. Official records are 5–15 for 2000–01, 7–11 for 2001–02, 1–13 for 2002–03 and 0–4 for 2003–04.
% Official record at St. John's is 66–60 (53–32 Big East) not counting vacated games.

References

External links