m-baskbl Jimmy Patsos Profile - Loyola University Maryland Official Athletic Site

  Jimmy Patsos
Jimmy Patsos

Hometown:
Boston, Mass.

Last College:
Catholic '89

Position:
Head Coach


04/10/2012

Jimmy Patsos' First Pitch At The Orioles

Jimmy Patsos threw out the first pitch on April 10 before the Baltimore Orioles-New York Yankees game at Camden Yards

04/04/2012

2012 Men's Basketball MAAC Championship

Photos from the postseason awards ceremony and all three games from the 2012 men's basketball MAAC Championship at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.

03/15/2012

Loyola vs. Ohio State

Loyola vs. Ohio State - AP Photo Gallery

03/15/2012

Men's Basketball vs. Ohio State - NCAA Second Round

Men's Basketball vs. Ohio State - NCAA Second Round

02/10/2012

Loyola Men's Basketball vs. Iona

Loyola defeated Iona in men's basketball action on February 10, 2012.

Since taking over the reins of the program in April 2004, Head Coach Jimmy Patsos has turned around the Greyhounds and continued to establish new school marks. Patsos led a young Greyhounds team to double-digit wins for the sixth consecutive season, the first time that a Loyola coach has achieved that mark in nearly three decades.

Entering his eighth season at the helm in 2011-2012, Patsos looks to continue to build on the consistency that he has established since taking over.

Last season, the Greyhounds recorded a two-game improvement over the year before, finishing 2010-2011 with a 15-15 overall record and 10-8 mark in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The team played its best basketball of the season after the New Year dawned, going 7-2 in the month of January.

During that stretch of time, Patsos' team matured and adapted to the pace of games in which they played, scoring 83 or more in three wins and then recording 66 or fewer in three other victories. The Greyhounds showed their versatility to combine offensive numbers with a lock-down defense that limited opponents scoring chances.

Patsos' side advanced to the MAAC Quarterfinals in 2010-2011,and three of the team's players earned postseason conference awards. Shane Walker was named to the All-MAAC Third Team, while Justin Drummond earned MAAC All-Rookie honors. J'hared Hall also became Loyola's first-ever winner of the MAAC Sixth-Player of the Year Award.

Taking over a team that had recorded just one win the season prior, Patsos and his staff injected immediate energy into the program and generated legions of followers through its fast-paced, pressing style of play. That first season featured the college's first three-game winning streak in five years and the snapping of a 39-game road losing streak. Patsos registered his first career coaching win over eventual MAAC regular-season and championship titlist Niagara when the Purple Eagles left Reitz Arena saddled with a 97-89 defeat.

There was plenty more to come in Season Two. A five-game winning streak to start the season ballooned into a 10-3 start with the only blemishes being losses to MAAC regular-season champion Manhattan, Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Providence of the BIG EAST. Regrouping at the end of the season, Patsos rallied the team to finish with four wins in the final five regular-season games to secure a winning record and the No. 6 seed at the MAAC Championships, where the season ended with a tough two-point loss in the opening round.

Patsos' third season saw the successes came more frequently and the wins began to pile up. After concluding December with a three-game losing streak, the Greyhounds ran off six straight MAAC wins in January for a school-record seven straight conference victories. By mid-February, Loyola had secured a bye in the MAAC Championship for the first time since 1998 and finished tied for third in the conference standings and as the No. 3 seed. The quarterfinal win over Fairfield gave the Greyhounds wins over all nine MAAC opponents for the first time in school history and that spot in the Championship Semifinals.

The Greyhounds backed up that success in 2007-2008 by collecting 11 home wins -- the most victories in Reitz Arena since the first team to play there won 12 games in 1984-1985. Another MAAC Quarterfinal win over Fairfield vaulted Loyola back into the Semifinals where they lost to the eventual champion for the second straight season.

Three years ago, despite losing more than 3,000 points and 1,500 rebounds to graduation, the young team found its mark at the end of January, winning six straight, including road wins at Manhattan, Marist and Rider. And last year, the team recorded arguably the biggest regular-season win in the 100-season history of the program with a 72-67 victory at five-time National Champion Indiana.

The turnaround is not surprising after looking at Patsos' pedigree. He was been surrounded by winners and learned from some of the best basketball minds in the nation during his rise to the helm of the Greyhounds.

Patsos came to the Loyola campus straight from the University of Maryland where as an assistant on the staff of Gary Williams for 13 seasons he helped guide the Terrapins to 11 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, including seven Sweet Sixteen appearances, consecutive trips to the Final Four (2001 and 2002) and the 2002 NCAA National Championship. In those 13 seasons, Maryland finished in the top half of the rugged ACC 10 times, won two ACC regular-season championships (1995 and 2002), captured the 2004 ACC Tournament title and posted a school-record eight straight 20-win seasons. Additionally during his tenure with the Terrapins, 13 players who Patsos coached were drafted into the NBA, including six first-round selections with four of those being tabbed as lottery picks -- Walt Williams (1992), Joe Smith (1995), Steve Francis (1999) and Chris Wilcox (2002). Former Terrapins Keith Booth (1997) and Juan Dixon (2002) round out the sextet.

While at College Park, Patsos was recognized by ESPN's Andy Katz as a "Coach on the Rise" after helping Maryland to their seventh Sweet Sixteen appearance, a fifth Top 10 ranking in the final coaches poll and a victory over No. 1 Duke in the inaugural season at the Comcast Center in 2003.

Patsos joined the Terrapins as a volunteer assistant prior to the 1991-1992 season and immediately became an integral part of Williams' staff. His numerous responsibilities included on-court coaching and the academic development of Maryland's players. His role as an academic mentor during his first 10 seasons on Williams' staff proved productive, as the teams' overall academic performance improved under his guidance. As a recruiter, he helped Maryland land a 2002-2003 incoming class ranked as high as fourth in the nation and a group of Terrapins newcomers for the 2003-2004 season rated as high as second in the country by several national publications.

Prior to his appointment at Maryland, Patsos was the assistant coach at Archbishop Carroll HS in Washington, D.C. He helped Carroll to a 21-8 record and a national ranking of No. 6 during his first season before the team lost to famed DeMatha Catholic HS in the city playoffs. Patsos was involved in the maturation of Charles Harrison (Wake Forest) and Lawrence Moten (Syracuse), both of whom became collegiate stars.

A three-year varsity letter winner at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Patsos played for the late Jack Bruen, who later led Colgate University to a pair of NCAA Division I Tournament appearances in the 1990s. The Cardinals posted a record of 51-26 during his career as a player and captured four in-season tournament championships, highlighted by a 106-99 victory over Manhattanville in the championship game of the Manhattanville Tournament as Patsos led the Cardinals with career-highs for points (17) and rebounds (14). Other top games during his senior campaign included 12 points and five rebounds against Frostburg State, 10 rebounds at Scranton, and 12 points and nine rebounds against St. Mary's (Md.).

As a junior, Patsos recorded season-highs of 14 points against Upsala and 11 rebounds against Washington (Md.) College. He scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead Catholic to the championship of the Alfred University Charity Cage Classic with a 90-88 victory over the host Saxons. The Cardinals were 18-8 during both his junior and senior years, then school records for victories in a single season.

A native of Boston, Mass., Patsos grew up attending games at the Boston Garden. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in History from Catholic in 1989. His brother Chris captained the Florida Southern baseball team to the 1981 NCAA Division II World Series championship and his father Charles received a Tony in 1987 for Best Revival as a member of the producing team for "All My Sons".