Anyone who has asked me over the years who my favorite coach to work with has been, I’ve quickly answered Jeff Jones, because he “gets it.” He has always had a keen understanding of what my job as a sports journalist involved and was always incredibly accommodating.
He was on the first Virginia team that I covered, back in the Ralph Sampson days, then became a graduate assistant coach, assistant coach and eventually head coach of the Cavaliers before moving on to coach American University and Old Dominion.
While I always tried to keep up with him from afar, we reunited this season when I asked him if he would be interested in doing a weekly college basketball podcast with me. We’ve had a blast doing so, interviewing former Virginia players, coaches and even coaches’ wives in Lucia Odom, wife of Coach Ryan Odom. On occasion we’ll do a straight up show, highlighting JJ’s great insight as a coach with 40 years of hoops under his belt…