NORFOLK, Va. — For Mike Jones, it was about his basketball life coming full circle.
"The last time I went to my alma mater, it worked out pretty well. So I'm looking forward to similar success," he said at ODU's Friday morning press conference officially introducing him as the school's new men's basketball coach.
Jones comes from the University of Maryland where he was assistant coach this past season. Before that, he was with Mike Young at Virginia Tech for two years.
His lone head coaching experience came at the high school level... but not just any high school.
He took over at famed DeMatha Catholic High School for the legendary Morgan Wooten, his former coach in 2002, after being an assistant coach. Jones was there for 19 seasons capturing eight Washington Catholic Athletic Conference titles to go with a record of 511-119.
Jones knows all too well about the Monarch program having played there from 1991-1995. They made two NCAA tournament appearances that included a thrilling 89-81 triple overtime upset win in 1995 over Villanova in which he had 19 points.
He described his coaching style as, "Some of my players will disagree with this, but I'm not a yeller or a screamer," he joked. "I want to communicate. I want to be an effective leader."
ODU has struggled as a program in recent years since last being in the NCAA tournament in 2019.
"This isn't going to be easy," he said. "I think the blueprint is there."
Jones has coached nine players who are currently in the NBA during his time at DeMatha, which includes Maryland’s current leading scorer, Jahmir Young.