Ronald Howard Jirsa (born December 21, 1959) 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 currently an assistant coach at

Eastern Kentucky Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

. He was previously the head coach at

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...

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 outlet of the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, which empties into Long Island Sound. The cit ...

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

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about ...

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

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

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 university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

, first under J. D. Barnett from 1985 to 1988 and second under

Tubby Smith Orlando Henry "Tubby" Smith (born June 30, 1951) is an American college basketball coach who last coached the men's basketball team at High Point University, his alma mater. Smith previously served in the same role at the University of Tulsa, t ...

from 1991 to 1993. Jirsa completed his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) 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. Those admitted to the degree have ...

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, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

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 unde ...

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

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

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 Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. 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. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, and before that as University of Dixie, the name unde ...

. 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, University of North Carolina system. It is accredited by the S ...

when Jones was named head coach there in 2021.

Head coaching record

References

External links