Basketball Coach Has the Game in His Blood Coaching, a Life
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Basketball coach has the game in his blood Coaching, a Life !"#$%&' () #& Long !"# !"$#% says his father’s lessons on work ethic and the Island, Joe Jones spent importance of giving all you taking over a team with a summer days in the jungle- have to whatever you do have miserable 2 and 25 record. like heat of a dry cleaner’s, shaped him as a coach and He found himself having to as a person. watching his father press compete with his brother, clothes. It wasn’t his choice. who by then was at Yale. The Each morning his father tory over BC for the first brothers had once enjoyed roused him and his brothers, time in 37 years and lows besting each other, but that James and John, and insis t- that included a seven-game time had long since passed. ed they join him on the job. losing streak. Although the “There was no winner,” says Amid the hot steam and the team was 16 and 16 overall, James, now Yale’s men’s hissing of the press, their with a tough nonconference basketball head coach. father would preach the schedule, it was 12 and 4 in By 2010 Jones was look- virtues of hard work and of America East conference ing for a change. He and being a stand-up person. games. BU lost 53-49 in the his wife wanted to raise The memory still makes conference tournament their two young children Jones roll his eyes. quarterfinals to Hartford. in the suburbs, not in Man- “I hated it,” he says. Jones played guard on his hattan, where they lived Now the 46-year-old high school basketball team near Columbia. He made Jones, head coach of the with his brother James, who an unconventional move, BU men’s basketball team, is a year older. He was a good signing on as an assistant looks back on those days as shooter and an analytical coach at BC under head formative. His dad taught player, says James, who coach Steve Donahue. It him a near-blistering work admits that the brothers was a sabbatical of sorts, ethic and the importance were competitive, to the a rare chance to step out of giving all you have to point that they once got into of the limelight and recon- whatever you do, even a fight on the court. It was sider the game he loved. pressing shirts, les sons he only later, after both became “Once I was able to says shaped him as a coach coaches, that they decided put my ego aside, it was and as a person. they liked each other. Now wonderful,” Jones says. He That foundation has they talk on the phone learned not to take losses served Jones well. His most days, about family so hard, how to be a better coaching career includes and basketball. recruiter, and to have a little a stint as head coach at Each played college bas- more balance in his life. Columbia University and ketball, James at SUNY In a college basketball an assistant coach position Albany and Joe at SUNY coach’s life, however, bal- at Boston College before Oswego. James then took ance is a relative term. At being hired by BU in June a job coaching at his alma BU, Jones starts most morn- 2011, roughly four months mater, and Joe became ings during the season by later than the ideal time assistant coach at Hofstra dropping his kids off at to take the reins. The fact University, where he quickly school and going for a run. that he was replacing the earned a reputation as a top- The rest of the day is taken popular Pat Chambers and notch recruiter. He moved up by meetings, practice, inheriting a title-winning on to Villanova University, and game videotapes. Jones team just added to the working under head coach then heads home at 7 or 8 pressure. Undeterred, Jones Jay Wright, the man he in the evening so he can say did what he always does: credits with teaching him good night to his kids. Then worked hard. 90 percent of what he knows he watches more videotapes The regular season was about coaching. late into the night. When a roller-coaster ride, with In 2003, Jones landed the at last he goes to bed, he highs that included a vic - head coach job at Columbia, KALMAN ZABARSKY BY PHOTOGRAPHS dreams about basketball. AS Summer 2012 BOSTONIA ! 004-15_BostoniaSummer12_03_r1.indd4-15_BostoniaSummer12_03_r1.indd 9 66/6/12/6/12 112:372:37 PMPM.