July 26, 2006
After leading Arkansas-Fort Smith to the national junior college championship last spring, Jeremy Cox has been named assistant coach at Texas A&M, head coach Billy Gillispie said Wednesday.
Cox was named the NJCAA Men?â„¢s Basketball Coach of the Year after leading the Lions to a 33-3 record and their first national title since 1981. That team produced five players who received Division I college scholarships. Cox also coached the National Junior College All-Star Team in April.
?We are awfully lucky to have Jeremy join our staff,? Gillispie said. ?He?â„¢s a proven winner at every level and always does a great job in every aspect of coaching. He can recruit, he can coach and he gets along well with everyone. He?â„¢ll be a great asset as we continue our quest to go to the next level.?
Cox fills one of two staff vacancies created by the departures of assistant coaches Buzz Williams and Steve Forbes earlier this summer. Williams was hired as head coach at the University of New Orleans and Forbes was hired as an assistant coach at Tennessee.
Cox began his coaching career as an assistant coach at the University of Wyoming (1991-92) and later was an assistant at the University of Texas-San Antonio for four seasons (1993-97).
?Texas A&M plays at the highest level of Division I basketball and that's very exciting to me,? Cox said. ?The Big 12 Conference is one of the top two or three leagues in the country, Texas A&M is one of the top upcoming programs in country, and Billy Gillispie is one of the top upcoming coaches. It?â„¢s an exciting opportunity and challenge.
?It?â„¢s in a location and area where I feel comfortable, recruiting-wise and living-wise, and where we can be successful because of the people we know and the area we?â„¢re familiar with,? Cox added. ?Obviously there?â„¢s something magic about Coach Gillispie. I am really looking forward to learning that and learning what he does to make teams perform at such a high level for such long periods of time and get it done in such a short period of time.?
As a part of former Lions coach Doc Sadler?â„¢s staff at Arkansas-Fort Smith in 2002-03, Cox helped the Lions to a 20-8 finish and the Bi-State Conference East Division title. He was promoted to head coach the next season after Sadler become an assistant coach on Gillispie?â„¢s staff at University of Texas-El Paso. Sadler was later promoted to head coach at UTEP after Gillispie was hired at Texas A&M.
As head coach, Cox guided the Lions to an 84-17 record, three consecutive 20-win seasons and two Bi-State Conference East Division championships.
Last season, UAFS 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 arrived in Fort Smith after serving four years (1998-99 through 2001-02) as head coach at Garden City Community College (Kan.), where his teams amassed a 93-36 slate (.721 winning percentage). Cox 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, the NJCAA Region XIII championship, and was tagged 1998 NJCAA Region XIII Coach of the Year for his efforts.
In eight years as a head coach, Cox?â„¢s teams compiled a 197-62 record.
Cox got his coaching start as an assistant at the University of Wyoming during the 1991-92 season and saw three Cowboys from that squad go on to play in the NBA, including Tim Breaux, Theo Ratliff and Reggie Slater. Following a stint as an assistant at Paris Junior College (Texas) in 1992-93, Cox spent four years (1993-94 through 1996-97) on the sidelines as an assistant at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Cox graduated cum laude in 1991 from Mesa State College (Colo.) and received his master?â„¢s degree in sports management from the United States Sports Academy (Ala.) in 1999.