Jeff Price bio
9/20/2007 4:16:00 AM | General
As he wraps up his first decade in charge of the men's basketball program, Jeff Price has turned the Eagles from a Southern Conference also-ran into a yearly contender.
His nine seasons at the helm has produced three 20-win seasons (all in the last five years), three division titles, a conference championship and the school's first postseason berth in 14 years (2006 NIT).
Since taking over at the start of the 1999-00 season Price has guided Georgia Southern to an 88-61 (.591) league record and a 157-111 (.586) overall mark. Both wins totals are third-best by any school in the league over that span and second-best among all coaches.
His previous 15 years in the coaching profession has been marked by overwhelming success. His 291-155 record includes eight 20-win seasons and seven trips to the postseason. Price has also received the Whack Hyder State of Georgia Men's College Coach of the Year and Southern Conference Coach of the Year awards.
Prior to Price's arrival in Statesboro the Eagles were in the midst of a streak of six straight non-winning seasons and a combined SoCon record of 29-61 (.322).
His transformation of the Georgia Southern program paid immediate dividends in the form of a 16-12 record in 1999-00, his first at the helm of the Eagle program as well as a season in which he was named the Southern Conference's Coach of the Year.
The Eagles followed with a 15-15 mark in 2000-01 and advanced to the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals for the first time in seven seasons.
In his third season, Price's squad was picked to win the Southern Conference's South Division. The Eagles did just that, finishing 16-12 while claiming their first title of any kind since joining the SoCon in the 1992-93 season. Georgia Southern was again picked to win the conference in 2002-03 and responded with its third 16-win season in four years under Price, tallying a 16-13 record. The campaign marked the first time the Eagles had strung together four consecutive 15-win seasons since 1986-87 through 1989-90.
Price's efforts continued in the 2003-04 season as he led the Eagles to one of their most memorable seasons in the last two decades. Georgia Southern rolled to a 21-8 record, including an 11-5 mark in Southern Conference play that brought a second SoCon South Division title. The 21 wins marked the fifth-most in school history and the program's first 20-win season since 1992. Meanwhile, the 11 SoCon wins were the second-most in school history, falling just one short of the school record of 12 set in 1993. The season was highlighted by a 13-game winning streak, the fifth-best in school history, that stretched from December 20 to February 7 and saw the Eagles record their first perfect month since 1988-89 by going 9-0 in January.
The stats also told a telling story on the 2003-04 season. A program that had and would continue to excel in offense, finished the year ranked 10th in scoring and ninth in assists and saw a new defensive mentality instituted by Price led to school records for blocks and steals. Two players were ranked nationally in steals as the team finished the season ranked fifth in the nation at 11.3 per contest.
The 2004-05 Eagles remained atop the national leaderboard, as they finished sixth in scoring and eighth in steals. Newcomer Louis Graham set a new Georgia Southern record in blocks with 50.
2005-06 was a year to remember for Georgia Southern as Price and the Eagles won their third South Division title in the last five years. They earned the league's automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament with the regular season title, the school's first postseason berth in 14 years.
The team's success also brought individual recognition. Senior Elton Nesbitt became the first Georgia Southern player to claim the SoCon Player of the Year award and was also named to the AP Honorable Mention All-America team and was the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Most Valuable Player.
Two of Nesbitt's teammates also earned all-conference recognition. Graham and Donte Gennie were tabbed to the media's third team.
After an uncharacteristic down year in 2006-07 that saw Georgia Southern slump to a 15-16 mark, the team rebounded to post 20 wins for the third time in five years and a second-place finish at 13-7 in the South Division behind undefeated Davidson.
The school's 20-12 overall record was also second-best in the Southern Conference and the 13 league wins were third-most in school history and the highest total since joining the SoCon in 1992.
His work led to being named the 2007-08 Whack Hyder State of Georgia Men's College Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club, given to the top college coach in Georgia.
Price's efforts have not only led to victories, they have brought instant credibility to the Eagle program and an electric atmosphere to Hanner Fieldhouse. The 2004-05 season saw the Eagles record the highest attendance in SoCon games in 12 years, after an impressive 7-1 record, averaging more than 3,000 a game.
Earlier this decade the Eagles ranked among the top 40 in the nation in scoring in four of five seasons, finishing 25th in 2005-06, 10th in 2003-04, 40th in 2002-03 and 23rd in 2001-02.
Meanwhile, numerous individual Eagles have found themselves ranked among the conference's elite at the end of the year, including three in 2004-05, the most of any SoCon school. Terry Williams earned his second straight honor while Jean Francois and Nesbitt earned their first all-conference plaudits.
Price's influence on the team can also be seen in the number of individual honors that Eagle players have received in the last eight years. Since Price assumed control, an Eagle player has earned All-Southern Conference team honors 21 times. Meanwhile Georgia Southern claimed a member of the All-Freshman Team for the Southern Conference in four of Price's eight seasons with Graham being the most recent. Both Nesbitt and Julius Jenkins finished as runners-up for conference Player of the Year. Additionally, four Eagles have earned Southern Conference All-Tournament team honors under Price.
Price was named head coach by Georgia Southern Director of Athletics Sam Baker on March 26, 1999, bringing the former Eagle assistant coach back to Statesboro, 16 years after he first worked on the Georgia Southern bench.
Price's biggest challenge, undoubtedly, was changing the perception of a once-proud Eagle basketball program which made five NCAA and NIT appearances between 1983 and 1992. He took little time in achieving that feat.
In just his first season Price validated Georgia Southern as a threat every time it took the floor. He guided the Eagles to their most wins and their highest scoring and attendance averages in seven seasons, dating back to 1992-93.
Price's appointment as the 11th head coach in Georgia Southern history ended a six-year stay as head basketball coach at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., where he led the Fighting Knights to an overall record of 136-42 and six consecutive national postseason appearances.
After accepting an offer to start the Lynn program from scratch in March, 1993, Price successfully built one of the top collegiate programs in the nation.
In addition to the Fighting Knights' .764 winning percentage, which ranked as the winningest program in the state of Florida over that six-year span, Lynn advanced to national postseason play all six years of its existence ? three NAIA and three NCAA Division II appearances.
Price averaged nearly 23 wins per season while at the helm of the Lynn program, guiding his teams to 23-7 (1993-94), 20-10 (1994-95), 16-11 (1995-96), 28-3 (1996-97), 22-7 (1997-98) and 25-6 (1998-99) records.
Price's first team at Lynn showed the coach's knack for success as it advanced to the first round of the NAIA National Tournament. The Fighting Knights advanced to the third round of the NAIA Tournament in 1994-95 and made it to the first round in 1995-96.
In 1997, he was named NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year after the Fighting Knights rolled to a 28-3 mark, becoming the first school in NCAA history to reach the national semifinals in their first season of NCAA competition. During that season, Lynn put together a 20-game winning streak, the longest in the nation, and had the best overall record in Division II.
Price and the Fighting Knights made their fifth straight appearance in postseason play in 1997-98, as they advanced to Divsion II's round of sixteen.
1998-99 saw Price lead Lynn to an at-large selection to the NCAA Division II South Region Tournament after compiling a 24-5 regular-season mark. The Fighting Knights earned a first-round win over Paine (Ga.) College, advancing to the second round en route to a 25-6 overall finish.
During Price's tenure at Lynn, the men's basketball program not only enjoyed success on the basketball court with consecutive regional and national tournament showings, but also thrived in the classroom, as evidenced by an 80 percent graduation rate following his arrival and team inception.
Prior to building the Lynn program, Price spent four seasons as assistant coach at the University of South Alabama. While in Mobile, serving as the team's recruiting coordinator, he helped USA to the 1991 Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament titles, earning the Jaguars an NCAA West Regional Tournament bid.
He also worked a pair of stints in the Pac-10, assisting in the development of Eldridge Recasner and Christian Welp at Washington and helping lead the Huskies to a league runner-up finish and NCAA Mideast Regional appearance in 1985-86. He returned to the Huskies' sideline in 1987 and served as an assistant through the 1988-89 season.
Price served two separate previous assistant coaching stints at Georgia Southern, both resulting in NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1982-83, the Eagles recorded an 18-12 mark which included the school's first-ever NCAA Division I postseason appearance against Robert Morris in the Mideast Regional at Dayton, Ohio.
After two seasons at Union (Ky.) College and one year at Washington, Price returned to Statesboro in time to help guide Georgia Southern to a 20-11 ledger and a matchup against Syracuse in the 1987 East Regional. During that season, Price worked with NBA-veteran swingman Michael Curry, then a freshman guard for the Eagles.
Price's coaching career began at his alma mater as he served the 1981-82 academic year as an assistant coach at Pikeville (Ky.) College.
Price earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Pikeville in 1981. As a standout guard at Pikeville, he led the Bears in assists during both seasons after an illustrious junior-college career at St. Petersburg Junior College where he was a starter in the Florida All-Star Game.
Price is married to the former Jody Wadsworth and has a son, Jaxson (10) and a daughter Abby, born Dec. 27, 2006.
His nine seasons at the helm has produced three 20-win seasons (all in the last five years), three division titles, a conference championship and the school's first postseason berth in 14 years (2006 NIT).
Since taking over at the start of the 1999-00 season Price has guided Georgia Southern to an 88-61 (.591) league record and a 157-111 (.586) overall mark. Both wins totals are third-best by any school in the league over that span and second-best among all coaches.
His previous 15 years in the coaching profession has been marked by overwhelming success. His 291-155 record includes eight 20-win seasons and seven trips to the postseason. Price has also received the Whack Hyder State of Georgia Men's College Coach of the Year and Southern Conference Coach of the Year awards.
Prior to Price's arrival in Statesboro the Eagles were in the midst of a streak of six straight non-winning seasons and a combined SoCon record of 29-61 (.322).
His transformation of the Georgia Southern program paid immediate dividends in the form of a 16-12 record in 1999-00, his first at the helm of the Eagle program as well as a season in which he was named the Southern Conference's Coach of the Year.
The Eagles followed with a 15-15 mark in 2000-01 and advanced to the Southern Conference Tournament semifinals for the first time in seven seasons.
In his third season, Price's squad was picked to win the Southern Conference's South Division. The Eagles did just that, finishing 16-12 while claiming their first title of any kind since joining the SoCon in the 1992-93 season. Georgia Southern was again picked to win the conference in 2002-03 and responded with its third 16-win season in four years under Price, tallying a 16-13 record. The campaign marked the first time the Eagles had strung together four consecutive 15-win seasons since 1986-87 through 1989-90.
Price's efforts continued in the 2003-04 season as he led the Eagles to one of their most memorable seasons in the last two decades. Georgia Southern rolled to a 21-8 record, including an 11-5 mark in Southern Conference play that brought a second SoCon South Division title. The 21 wins marked the fifth-most in school history and the program's first 20-win season since 1992. Meanwhile, the 11 SoCon wins were the second-most in school history, falling just one short of the school record of 12 set in 1993. The season was highlighted by a 13-game winning streak, the fifth-best in school history, that stretched from December 20 to February 7 and saw the Eagles record their first perfect month since 1988-89 by going 9-0 in January.
The stats also told a telling story on the 2003-04 season. A program that had and would continue to excel in offense, finished the year ranked 10th in scoring and ninth in assists and saw a new defensive mentality instituted by Price led to school records for blocks and steals. Two players were ranked nationally in steals as the team finished the season ranked fifth in the nation at 11.3 per contest.
The 2004-05 Eagles remained atop the national leaderboard, as they finished sixth in scoring and eighth in steals. Newcomer Louis Graham set a new Georgia Southern record in blocks with 50.
2005-06 was a year to remember for Georgia Southern as Price and the Eagles won their third South Division title in the last five years. They earned the league's automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament with the regular season title, the school's first postseason berth in 14 years.
The team's success also brought individual recognition. Senior Elton Nesbitt became the first Georgia Southern player to claim the SoCon Player of the Year award and was also named to the AP Honorable Mention All-America team and was the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Most Valuable Player.
Two of Nesbitt's teammates also earned all-conference recognition. Graham and Donte Gennie were tabbed to the media's third team.
After an uncharacteristic down year in 2006-07 that saw Georgia Southern slump to a 15-16 mark, the team rebounded to post 20 wins for the third time in five years and a second-place finish at 13-7 in the South Division behind undefeated Davidson.
The school's 20-12 overall record was also second-best in the Southern Conference and the 13 league wins were third-most in school history and the highest total since joining the SoCon in 1992.
His work led to being named the 2007-08 Whack Hyder State of Georgia Men's College Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club, given to the top college coach in Georgia.
Price's efforts have not only led to victories, they have brought instant credibility to the Eagle program and an electric atmosphere to Hanner Fieldhouse. The 2004-05 season saw the Eagles record the highest attendance in SoCon games in 12 years, after an impressive 7-1 record, averaging more than 3,000 a game.
Earlier this decade the Eagles ranked among the top 40 in the nation in scoring in four of five seasons, finishing 25th in 2005-06, 10th in 2003-04, 40th in 2002-03 and 23rd in 2001-02.
Meanwhile, numerous individual Eagles have found themselves ranked among the conference's elite at the end of the year, including three in 2004-05, the most of any SoCon school. Terry Williams earned his second straight honor while Jean Francois and Nesbitt earned their first all-conference plaudits.
Price's influence on the team can also be seen in the number of individual honors that Eagle players have received in the last eight years. Since Price assumed control, an Eagle player has earned All-Southern Conference team honors 21 times. Meanwhile Georgia Southern claimed a member of the All-Freshman Team for the Southern Conference in four of Price's eight seasons with Graham being the most recent. Both Nesbitt and Julius Jenkins finished as runners-up for conference Player of the Year. Additionally, four Eagles have earned Southern Conference All-Tournament team honors under Price.
Price was named head coach by Georgia Southern Director of Athletics Sam Baker on March 26, 1999, bringing the former Eagle assistant coach back to Statesboro, 16 years after he first worked on the Georgia Southern bench.
Price's biggest challenge, undoubtedly, was changing the perception of a once-proud Eagle basketball program which made five NCAA and NIT appearances between 1983 and 1992. He took little time in achieving that feat.
In just his first season Price validated Georgia Southern as a threat every time it took the floor. He guided the Eagles to their most wins and their highest scoring and attendance averages in seven seasons, dating back to 1992-93.
Price's appointment as the 11th head coach in Georgia Southern history ended a six-year stay as head basketball coach at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., where he led the Fighting Knights to an overall record of 136-42 and six consecutive national postseason appearances.
After accepting an offer to start the Lynn program from scratch in March, 1993, Price successfully built one of the top collegiate programs in the nation.
In addition to the Fighting Knights' .764 winning percentage, which ranked as the winningest program in the state of Florida over that six-year span, Lynn advanced to national postseason play all six years of its existence ? three NAIA and three NCAA Division II appearances.
Price averaged nearly 23 wins per season while at the helm of the Lynn program, guiding his teams to 23-7 (1993-94), 20-10 (1994-95), 16-11 (1995-96), 28-3 (1996-97), 22-7 (1997-98) and 25-6 (1998-99) records.
Price's first team at Lynn showed the coach's knack for success as it advanced to the first round of the NAIA National Tournament. The Fighting Knights advanced to the third round of the NAIA Tournament in 1994-95 and made it to the first round in 1995-96.
In 1997, he was named NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year after the Fighting Knights rolled to a 28-3 mark, becoming the first school in NCAA history to reach the national semifinals in their first season of NCAA competition. During that season, Lynn put together a 20-game winning streak, the longest in the nation, and had the best overall record in Division II.
Price and the Fighting Knights made their fifth straight appearance in postseason play in 1997-98, as they advanced to Divsion II's round of sixteen.
1998-99 saw Price lead Lynn to an at-large selection to the NCAA Division II South Region Tournament after compiling a 24-5 regular-season mark. The Fighting Knights earned a first-round win over Paine (Ga.) College, advancing to the second round en route to a 25-6 overall finish.
During Price's tenure at Lynn, the men's basketball program not only enjoyed success on the basketball court with consecutive regional and national tournament showings, but also thrived in the classroom, as evidenced by an 80 percent graduation rate following his arrival and team inception.
Prior to building the Lynn program, Price spent four seasons as assistant coach at the University of South Alabama. While in Mobile, serving as the team's recruiting coordinator, he helped USA to the 1991 Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament titles, earning the Jaguars an NCAA West Regional Tournament bid.
He also worked a pair of stints in the Pac-10, assisting in the development of Eldridge Recasner and Christian Welp at Washington and helping lead the Huskies to a league runner-up finish and NCAA Mideast Regional appearance in 1985-86. He returned to the Huskies' sideline in 1987 and served as an assistant through the 1988-89 season.
Price served two separate previous assistant coaching stints at Georgia Southern, both resulting in NCAA Tournament appearances. In 1982-83, the Eagles recorded an 18-12 mark which included the school's first-ever NCAA Division I postseason appearance against Robert Morris in the Mideast Regional at Dayton, Ohio.
After two seasons at Union (Ky.) College and one year at Washington, Price returned to Statesboro in time to help guide Georgia Southern to a 20-11 ledger and a matchup against Syracuse in the 1987 East Regional. During that season, Price worked with NBA-veteran swingman Michael Curry, then a freshman guard for the Eagles.
Price's coaching career began at his alma mater as he served the 1981-82 academic year as an assistant coach at Pikeville (Ky.) College.
Price earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from Pikeville in 1981. As a standout guard at Pikeville, he led the Bears in assists during both seasons after an illustrious junior-college career at St. Petersburg Junior College where he was a starter in the Florida All-Star Game.
Price is married to the former Jody Wadsworth and has a son, Jaxson (10) and a daughter Abby, born Dec. 27, 2006.
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