Title: | Assistant Coach |
Phone: | 931-372-3951 |
Email: | rjirsa@tntech.edu |
Previous College: | Gettysburg College |
A veteran of the coaching profession for over 30 years, Ron Jirsa enters his first season as an assistant coach for the Tennessee Tech men's basketball program. His responsibilities with the Tech squad will consist primarily in two areas of his expertise: coaching the Golden Eagle big men and recruiting.
With experience as both a head coach and assistant at several different institutions, Jirsa, 54, joins the Tech staff after spending last season as a recruiting coordinator at Bethel University in Arden Hills, Minn.
Prior to his work with the Royals, Jirsa spent six years as the associate head coach at Minnesota, serving under head coach Tubby Smith for the fourth time in his coaching career. Smith and Jirsa first began their working relationship at Virginia Commonwealth, where both served under coach J.D. Barnett during the 1984-85 season. The Rams finished 26-6 that season, winning the Sun Belt Conference title and playing in the NCAA Tournament. They reunited when Smith hired Jirsa as an assistant at Tulsa before the 1991-92 season. Three years later, Jirsa was named associate head coach of the Golden Hurricane.
Jirsa accompanied Smith to Georgia when he took over the Bulldogs program in 1995. For two years, he served as associate head coach for Smith at Georgia before serving as head coach from 1997-99. His Bulldog squads posted a combined 35-30 record. During his time in Athens, the Bulldogs put together back-to-back recruiting classes that were rated among the top-five in the nation by several recruiting analysts.
His teams also made two NIT appearances. In his first season,
UGA posted a 20-15 record, only the seventh 20-win season in
program history, en route to a third-place finish in the NIT.
Jirsa's Bulldogs put together a 4-1 mark in the postseason with
wins over Iowa, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt and Fresno State
in March 1998.
In his six combined seasons as an assistant at Tulsa and Georgia,
Jirsa helped four consecutive teams win at least 21 games and reach
the NCAA Tournament each year. The first three seasons - two at
Tulsa and one at Georgia – he reached the Sweet Sixteen. He
also coached Jumaine Jones, who was a first round NBA Draft pick of
the Atlanta Hawks in 1999.
Before his coaching stint at Minnesota, Jirsa spent four seasons
as head coach at Marshall University. The Thundering Herd went
13-19 in 2006-07, losing to Memphis in the Conference USA
Tournament Quarterfinals.
Preceding his position at Marshall, Jirsa was the senior assistant
coach at Dayton under then-head coach Oliver Purnell for four
seasons. During his stint at UD, the Flyers posted an 88-39 overall
record, made two NCAA Tournaments and two NIT appearances. In the
2002-03 campaign, Dayton posted a 24-6 record, won the Atlantic 10
Tournament championship, advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a four
seed and finished the season ranked among the top 25 teams in the
nation in the final Associated Press and USA Today polls.
Jirsa has coached in 30 postseason games overall, 18 of those in
the NCAA Tournament, and has appeared in postseason play 15 times.
He owns a career record of 78-104 in six years as a head coach at
Marshall and Georgia.
His coaching career began at Connecticut College as an assistant
coach following his graduation from Gettysburg College in 1981. Two
years later, he moved on to the University of Delaware and spent
one season with the Blue Hens, before taking a graduate assistant
position with a VCU program that finished ranked 11th in the nation
in 1984-85.
He then took an assistant position at Tulsa for three seasons
(1985-88) before making one-year stops at Belmont Abbey (1988-89),
and Gardner-Webb (1990-91). At Tulsa, Jirsa coached with former
Golden Gopher Flip Saunders. In 1991, he returned to Tulsa as an
assistant under Smith before being promoted to associate head coach
in 1994.
Jirsa earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Gettysburg
College in 1981 and a Master of Arts in Athletic Administration
from the University of Tulsa in 1987. He was a three-sport
letterwinner at Ledyard High School in Ledyard, Connecticut. He and
his wife, Laura, have one daughter, Hannah.