A few years ago, the University of Richmond men’s basketball program began to make the transition from playing primarily a matchup zone defense to a man-to-man based defense. At that time, Richmond assistant basketball coach Rob Jones began to reach out to several coaches with familiarity in the Packline defensive system, one of those was Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay.
During that time, the relationship between Jones and McKay developed. It grew from being strictly tactical basketball conversations to having real conversations where the two men would discuss their family and faith. Jones even visited Lynchburg last summer to watch practice prior to the Flames going on their foreign tour ahead of the 2021-22 season. Ultimately, it led to McKay hiring Jones to join the Liberty basketball staff as an associate head coach after spending the previous 17 seasons at Richmond.
“That’s kind of my story in basketball,” Jones said during his introductory press conference at Liberty on Wednesday. “The desire to learn something, to learn a system, to learn a way of playing, and the relationships that built off of that have really changed my life.”
It first happened when he was a high school basketball coach and had a desire to learn the Princeton offense. Jones would end up being introduced to Chris Mooney and the two began a relationship that led the current Richmond head coach to hire Jones to his staff at UR.
“Now, it’s a different relationship, a different philosophy, and a different style that has taken my life on a different path,” said Jones.
Jones said it was incredibly difficult to leave behind the Richmond program after spending such a large portion of his professional career, but the opportunity to coach at Liberty and alongside McKay was too good to pass up.
“Incredibly hard,” Jones said of leaving UR. “I say that with all sincerity. 17 amazing years, not just great experiences, it was transformational for me personally, professionally, every way around, but relationally there were so many people, over a 17-year period, that I needed to say thank you to. Coach Mooney was unbelievably supportive in the decision. We had several very emotional conversations, but he was nothing but supportive to me.”
Jones went to college at a small Christian school in Georgia, Toccoa Falls, and the desire to return to a similar environment among people who share his same beliefs was too much for him to say no to.
“This is a special place all the way around, surrounded by so many special people,” Jones said of Liberty. “Coach McKay, as we had talked through things, he told me just how unique the culture and the environment is. I was excited and thought I had a good idea of what it was going to be like. Over the past 48 hours, I’ve been blow away by the people at every turn. Everything has been terrific.”
As McKay set out to find a replacement for Brad Soucie who stepped down in March, he was unsure where that process would take him. Initially, McKay thought he might promote from within the program. Then, as coaches began to express interest in the open position, McKay was “blown away” at the interest received. According to McKay, former Division I head coaches, head coaches at current programs, and “quality” assistants all expressed interest.
“As the process unfolded and Rob Jones was someone I’ve known for years, I would have thought I would reach out to him, I’d love to have him but I didn’t think he would leave a place he’s been 17 years,” said McKay. “Someone mentioned his name and I thought it was worth a phone call. That call led to another call and another call, then I found myself recruiting him a little bit.”
“I can’t speak to the excitement that I have for our program and our players and the rest of us as coaches that we get some of his caliber to join and help try to level up what we do on a daily basis,” McKay continued. “Elated to have him.”
McKay said he’s not exactly sure yet what duties Jones will handle in his role on the staff, but he looks forward to some of the thoughts and ideas Jones has to help improve the team.
“This is a fit,” said Jones. “This is a really good fit for me and who I desire to be both professionally and personally. Unbelievably hard to leave so many people that we love so dearly, but feel like this is an incredible fit into what we’re coming into. Tears of sadness in so many relationships that were so special but also such excitement coming into this office.”
*photo courtesy Liberty Athletics
