ODU's Jeff Jones Named Chair of NIT Selection Committee; NCAA Tournament Advisory Committee

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Former Old Dominion Head Coach Jeff Jones has been named to two prestigious NCAA men’s basketball committees that give him a role in helping to determine who receives postseason bids for both the NCAA Tournament and the National Invitation Tournament.

Jones was named chair of the 2026 NIT Selection Committee, which selects teams for the NIT. He served on the selection committee last year.

He was also named as a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches Advisory Committee that will advise the NCAA Tournament Committee on seeding for teams in higher brackets.

Jones clearly has the resume for both jobs. The former Virginia point guard was a head coach for 32 years at Virginia, American University and ODU and compiled a 560-417 record. He was 203-131 in his 13 seasons at ODU. He both played and coached in the NCAA Tournament Final Four at UVA as an assistant coach.

Jones serves as a mentor for Monarch coaches as Assistant Athletic Director of Coaching Performance.

Jones works with all of ODU’s 18 intercollegiate programs, and mentors coaches and staff members in areas such as career development, recruiting and handling the stress of coaching. 

Jones was forced to retire for health reasons after suffering a heart attack during the 2023-24 season. He said his health is much improved since he left coaching.

Jones said he enjoyed working with the NIT last season.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “The members of the committee each had certain conferences to monitor. We met by Zoom and then met in person as the end of the year. It was a great experience.”

While every Division I team aspires to play in the 68-team NCAA Tournament, the NIT is still considered a highly desirable postseason event. Taken over by the NCAA in 2005, the 32-team tournament is played at on-campus sites until the semifinals and finals, which were played in Indianapolis last season.

Arkansas State, which plays with ODU in the Sun Belt Conference, made the tournament field. More than half the field was comprised of mid-major programs.

Chattanooga defeated Cal-Irvine in the final. All games were televised on an ESPN linear network.

“I thought we had a terrific field last year,” Jones said. “We had a lot of mid-major teams that won a lot of games and accomplished a lot.”

Even with the introduction of the College Basketball Crown last season, Jones said it was difficult trimming the field to 32. The CBC, which is partially sponsored by Fox Sports, has 16 teams, with most coming from power leagues.

“We had to make some very hard decisions at the end,” he said. “Obviously, the NIT is not the goal at the beginning of the season, but a lot of teams want to play in the tournament. 

“It remains a very prestigious event.”

Jones won the 1992 NIT at Virginia and led ODU to the NIT semifinals in 2015. He will serve on the NIT committee with Clifton Douglass, Conference USA’s Associate Commissioner for Basketball; Kermit Davis, formerly the head coach at Ole Miss, and Kelley Ford, Senior Associate Commissioner of the Horizon League.

A past president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Jones will serve on the NABC advisory board with former coaches Tubby Smith (Tulsa, Georgia and Kentucky), Gary Waters (Kent State, Rutgers, Cleveland State), Phil Martelli (St. Joseph’s, Michigan), Norm Roberts (St. John’s), Scott Davenport (Bellarmine) and Ed DeChellis (East Tennessee, Penn State, Navy).

“I’m certainly flattered to be on that committee with some very good people,” Jones said. “It will be fun. It was so nice of them to ask.

"I just want to do a good job on both committees.”

Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram