Jimmy Patsos

Jimmy Patsos (born October 1, 1966) is an American college basketball coach (of Greek and Irish heritage) and the current head men's basketball coach at Siena College.

Patsos earned his B.A. from Catholic University in 1989. There, he played basketball under Jack Bruen, who later coached Colgate University to a couple of NCAA tournament appearances in the 1990s.

Early career

Patsos served on the coaching staff of Gary Williams at the University of Maryland for 13 years, beginning as a volunteer assistant in 1991. Patsos took over at Loyola after they suffered a 1–27 season under former coach Scott Hicks.

Patsos was the 20th head coach of Loyola men's basketball. In his first season as coach in 2004, he guided them to a 6–22 record. In his second season, they reached 15–13, the first time they had a winning record since the 1993–94 season, the year they reached the NCAA Tournament under Skip Prosser.

On Dec. 22, 2009 a Patsos led Loyola team recorded the greatest regular season win in program history by defeating the Indiana Hoosiers 72–67. The Hounds led by as many as 22, before the Hoosiers rallied to take a late lead. Senior guard Brett Harvey led the Hounds back scoring 9 points in the final 3 minutes.^[1]

Patsos has guided the Greyhounds to multiple 3rd place MAAC finishes, finishing with 18 wins in 2006–07 and a tied a school record with 19 wins in 2007–08.

Patsos has sought local talent in his coaching staff. Former players from Maryland, Terrell Stokes and Matt Kovarik are former assistants at Loyola.^[2]

A former member of his staff at Loyola was current Loyola Head Coach G.G. Smith, the son of college basketball coach Tubby Smith

Patsos received a contract extension from Loyola on July 9, 2008. Per Loyola policies, details of the contract were not released.^[3]

On November 25, 2008, Patsos and the Greyhounds double-teamed Davidson All-American Stephen Curry for the entire game, leaving his other three players to face the 24th ranked Wildcats in a four on three game. Davidson won by 30, while Curry stood in the corner during most possessions. Commenting afterwords, Patsos said: "We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30? I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I'm not some rookie coach," said Patsos, a former longtime assistant at Maryland. "I won a national title as a top assistant coach to Gary Williams. For 13 years I spent on Tobacco Road. I coached a couple of No. 1 picks in the draft. And we scored 48 points. That's the problem that Loyola basketball had today." (implying that his team's offense cost them the game, not their defense).^[4]

Siena Saints

After nine seasons at Loyola, Patsos agreed to replace Mitch Buonaguro in a similar capacity at Siena on April 2, 2013.^[5]

2013-2014

On November 19, 2013 Patsos recorded his first win at Siena in a 72–70 triumph over St. Bonaventure.

In his first season at the helm, Patsos guided the Saints to their first winning season since 2010 as the program capped off a 20-18 year which ended in a CBI championship. The title was the program's second ever national postseason championship (1950 National Catholic Invitational). After starting the season 7-12, Siena finished the regular season strongly with an 11-9 conference record and fifth-place finish before losing in the MAAC Quarterfinals to Canisius 71-65.

The Saints were selected to play in College Basketball Invitational. Siena defeated Stony Brook 66-55 in the first round. The Saints then won a thriller beating Penn State from the Big 10 conference 54-52 in the Quarterfinals. After a 61-49 win over Illinois State in the semifinals; Siena defeated Fresno State in the best-of-three CBI championship series. Siena won game one on the road 61-57 after rallying from 12 down in the second half. The Bulldogs would tie the series before the Saints would clinch the title with an 81-68 victory in game three. Siena finished the season winning nine of their final 11 games.

Patsos currently has Greg Manning, Jordan Watson, and Abe Woldeslassie on his staff.

On April 14, 2016 Patsos agreed to a contract extension that will take him through the 2020-2021 season at Siena.

Head coaching record

Controversies

On November 19, 2008 Jimmy Patsos became one of the only coaches ever to coach from the stands during his teams game in an attempt to avoid being ejected by the referees.^[6]

On November 25, 2008 Patsos was roundly criticized for appearing to prefer holding Davidson player Stephen Curry scoreless over winning the basketball game by double-teaming Curry while he stood in the corner while Davidson played 4 on 3 against the remaining players.^[7] In his post-game press-conference, Patsos justified his strategy by stating that “We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I’m a history major. They’re going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?”

Personal life

His sister, Terri Stanley is the host and producer of Style Boston and his brother, Chris, is a long-time owner and Vice President of Baseball Operations of the Newport Gulls, a premier summer college baseball team in the NECBL.

Patsos has an eclectic taste including being an avid fan of The Grateful Dead.

In 2011 he married his wife Michele.

References

External links