After eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight, a dozen 20-win seasons, and an NIT Championship, Old Dominion University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jeff Jones announced his retirement on Monday. Jones finishes his 32-year head coaching career with a record of 560-418.
We were lucky enough to get to know Jeff a lot better the last two years hosting the basketball podcast with him. He was always willing to be honest and authentic and never dodged a question. Let us pull the curtain back a little bit and share a cool story with Monarch Nation. In June of 2022, we had just wrapped up recording the ninth episode of The Monarchists Podcast and the very first time that Jeff was a guest on our show. After the red light went off, we asked him if there was any thought to him doing a coach’s radio show again or perhaps a podcast. He paused for a very brief second and asked us, “why, you guys want to do it?” We turned to each other and immediately told Jeff, “hell yeah!” He told us he was taking a very brief vacation, but asked if we wanted to do lunch and talk about it when he returned. We didn’t want to get our hopes up too much as plans fall through, but a couple of weeks later we got that phone call. The following week the three of us were breaking bread at P Franks, brainstormed, and then hit basketball practice. That’s the day the Monarchists Basketball Show was born.
We will be forever thankful for him giving us that opportunity to help tell the team’s story and are just as thankful that we have gotten to know him on a more personal level. We look forward to bumping into each other in the 757 and will certainly will be rooting for him long into the future.
Watch the retirement press conference below: