NORFOLK, Va. — Ten days from now will mark five months since Jeff Jones announced his retirement at a press conference from the very Chartway Arena he coached for 13 seasons. These days the 64 year old has made a smooth transition into life without the day to day grind of being a college head basketball coach.
Jones says he's doing better since battling a pair of recent ailments. Back in December of 2023, he suffered a heart attack while he and team were in Hawaii for a tournament. It led him to stepping away to recover.
Several weeks later, Jones then had to resume treatments for prostate cancer for the fourth time. It would lead him to stepping away from a game he's loved since he was a child.
"The things always drove me as a player or as a coach is that you have something to prove", he said on Tuesday. ODU wound up finishing the season 7-25 under interim head coach Kieran Donohue.
"If I was going to draw it up that is not how I would have ended it. Heart attack or no heart attack", he said. "There's always things to prove."
Jones maintains a change in what he eats and picks up his walking pace to stay in shape. For now, he says in a good place post basketball.
"I'm at peace with it" he says. "It was what is my new routine going to be? And to not have that, it took me a while. It was a little bit out of place, but if I haven't gotten there, I'm at peace with all of that".