Tech Basketball Adds New Assistant
By: TTU Press Release
Updated: June 29, 2012
Texas Tech head coach Billy Gillispie has announced the addition of Jeremy Cox to his staff.
Cox, who spent last season at the University of Nebraska, reunites with an old friend on the South Plains.
"I
am extremely excited about having Jeremy join our staff," said
Gillispie. "He is one of the best people I have ever been around. He is a
multidimensional
guy, which is the type of guys we like. He is probably one of the best
interior coaches in the game of basketball in the world, in my opinion. I
think we will definitely see immediate results there.
"We
had a great time when we worked together at Kentucky and Texas A&M.
We have known each other for a long time and have a level of comfort
with each other.
He has already come in and made an immediate impact and a seamless
transition. We look forward to the impact that he can make with our
basketball program. He is a great recruiter as well. He is a nation
champion coach and a proven winner with an old fashioned
work ethic. He'll fit right in on the South Plains!"
Cox
has 21 years coaching experience, including 10 as an NCAA Division I
assistant and eight as a junior college head coach. He has been a part
of four NCAA
Division I postseason appearances and nine NJCAA Division I postseason
appearances, including a national championship as head coach of
Arkansas-Fort Smith in 2006.
"I
am really excited to be back with coach in a situation that has so much
potential," said Cox. "There is so much momentum coming in with the
recruiting
class, the excitement of having (Gillispie) here and all the
possibilities that Texas Tech has to offer, making this a tremendous
opportunity for all of us."
He
has had a track record of success wherever he has gone, including
stints in the Big 12, SEC, Big East and Big Ten. Cox, who has coached 10
student-athletes
who have reached the NBA, spent two seasons at USF prior to joining Doc
Sadler's staff at Nebraska last season.
His
two years at USF were highlighted by the program's first two wins in
the Big East
Tournament, including a 16-point comeback against Villanova in 2011. In
his first year at the school, Cox assisted the Bulls to USF's third
20-win season with a 20-13 record and the school's first postseason
appearance since 2002 (NIT). The Bulls won a school-record
nine Big East contests and were led by first-round draft pick Dominique
Jones, who earned honorable-mention All-America honors.
Jones, who was picked by Dallas with the 25th pick,
after winning the Big East scoring title as a junior, was one of two
players coached by Cox selected in the first round of the 2010 NBA
Draft. He joined Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson, who was the No. 14
overall selection by the Houston Rockets.
Prior
to coaching at USF, Cox spent two years at the University of Kentucky
for Gillispie,
helping the Kentucky Wildcats to the NCAA tournament in 2008 and the NIT
quarterfinals in 2009. In his two seasons as an assistant coach at
Kentucky, the Wildcats posted 40 overall wins and a 12-4 conference
record in 2007-08. That same season the Wildcats
earned their 17th-straight berth into the NCAA tournament.
Cox
was added to the Kentucky staff after serving under Gillispie as an
assistant coach
at Texas A&M in 2006-07, where he helped lead the Aggies to a spot
in the Sweet 16 and a school-best final ranking of ninth in both the
Associated Press and Coaches' polls. That season, the Aggies finished
second in the Big 12 with a 13-3 record and were led
by Acie Law, who earned consensus first-team All-America honors and was a
first-round pick in the 2007 NBA Draft.
Prior
to his time in College Station, Cox was the head coach at Arkansas-Fort
Smith
for three seasons, guiding the Lions to the 2006 National Junior College
Championship while also being named the NJCAA National Coach of the
Year. He led the Lions to an 85-15 record, three consecutive 20-win
seasons and two Bi-State Conference East Division
Championships.
In
the 2006 season, UA-Fort Smith was the unanimous preseason No. 1-ranked
team in the
nation for the first time in recent history and won its first NJCAA
Region II championship since 2002 and its first national championship
since 1981.
Cox
began his association with UA-Fort Smith in 2002 when he was hired by
Sadler, then
the head coach and athletics director of the school. Cox served as an
assistant under Sadler for one year before Cox was promoted to head
coach when Sadler went to UTEP to serve on Gillispie's staff.
Cox arrived in Fort Smith after serving four years (1998-99 through 2001-02) as head
coach at Garden City College (Kan.), where his teams amassed a 93-36 slate (.721 winning percentage).
He
got his first head coaching position at North Dakota State College of
Science, where
he led his team in 1997-98 to a 19-9 record and the NJCAA Region XIII
Championship. He was tagged 1998 NJCAA Region XIII Coach of the Year for
his efforts. In eight years as a head coach, Cox's teams have compiled
a 197-63 record.
Before his years as a head coach, Cox spent time as an assistant at Paris Junior College
in 1992-93, and later was as an assistant at the University of Texas-San Antonio for four seasons (1993-97).
He got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at the University of Wyoming during
the 1991-92 season under head coach Benny Dees.
Cox also served as the court coach for the USA Basketball Under-21 World Championships
team in 2005.
Cox graduated cum laude in 1991 from Mesa State College (Colo.) and received his master's
degree in sports management from the United States Sports Academy (Ala.) in 1999.
He and his wife, Cindy, have a son, Austin, and a daughter Kaili.
--TECH--
