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Jay John brings 27 years of coaching experience to Mike Montgomery's staff, returning to the Golden Bears for the 2010-11 campaign.
A former head coach at Oregon State, John has also had stints as an assistant at Arizona, Oregon, Butler and San Francisco during his career, helping programs to the postseason at each stop.
Most recently, John served as head coach at Oregon State from 2002-08. In 2005, he directed the Beavers to the National Invitation Tournament, compiling a 17-15 mark, for the program's first postseason berth and winning record in 15 years. The Beavers also had their highest Pac-10 finish (fifth) since 1992-93.
During his first season at OSU, John's team won at UCLA and USC for the first time in 15 years and posted its most road victories in a decade. He won 66 games during his first five seasons in Corvallis, the most for an OSU coach in a five-year stretch since 1988-93. John had an overall record of 72-97.
John previously spent 15 seasons as an assistant coach at the Division I level, including four years under Lute Olson at Arizona. He was also on staff at Oregon for two stints (1984-85 and '97-98), with additional stops at San Francisco in 1988-89 and Butler from 1989-97.
While at Arizona from 1999-02, John primarily worked with the Wildcats' frontcourt players and helped the team to NCAA Tournaments every year, including the 2001 national championship game. Arizona was ranked no lower than 12th at the end of each season during his tenure, and John was rated No. 1 by Hoop Scoop in its top 25 assistant coaches poll.
John earlier worked under Barry Collier at Butler, where he helped the Bulldogs to the 1997 NCAA Tournament, a first for the school in 35 years, and a then-school-record 23 wins.
John also coached at Jamestown Community College in New York as an assistant from 1983-85 and head coach from 1987-88. He guided JCC to a two-year mark of 41-19 and was named the conference's coach of the year in his first season.
John first entered the coaching ranks at his alma mater, Salpointe Cathlolic High School in Tucson, Arz., where he was the freshman coach and varsity assistant for three seasons. He also taught physical education and biology at the school.
A 1981 graduate of Arizona with a degree in biology, John earned a master's degree from Butler in 1994. He and his wife, Lisa, have two sons, Tyler and Trevor.
