At SFA, one of college basketball's veterans has found home

"We need to win again," said Cindy Cox. It was the early summer of 2016 and her husband, Jeremy, a veteran college basketball coach and assistant to Doc Sadler at Southern Mississippi, was on the other end of the phone.

It had been a long, exhausting six-year stretch for the Cox family. Since Jeremy left a two-year run at South Florida to join Sadler at Nebraska, things hadn't quite gone according to plan. Now, a recruiting trip landed him in a seat next to an old pal from his young days in the Southland Conference. He had a decision to make.

The careers of Cox and newly-hired Stephen F. Austin head coach Kyle Keller had only intersected once. The two men worked together for a season on Tim Carter's staff at UT-San Antonio in 1996-97. Almost 20 years later, as they watched prospects on the court, Kyle wanted Jeremy's advice hiring assistants. "He's just going through a list and suddenly he asks, 'why don't you just come join me?'" Cox remembers.

Jeremy declined. Southern Miss was still neck deep in NCAA sanctions stemming from actions of a previous regime and Jeremy didn't feel like he could leave Sadler. His daughter, Kaili, a talented high school volleyball player, was part of a team contending for a state championship. After the constant moving, following jobs all over the nation for nearly a quarter century, uprooting his family again didn't seem fair.

Still, Jeremy called Cindy to validate his decision. Her reaction surprised him.

Beginnings in the Equality State -

After playing for and graduating from Colorado Mesa University, Jeremy returned to his home state of Wyoming to follow his dream. The son of a high school basketball coach, Jeremy's career choice was clear from the beginning. Cindy, who he had recently married, had not yet completed college. When she enrolled at the University of Wyoming, he took the opportunity to make his move.

One morning, while on the Wyoming campus, Jeremy walked into the office of head basketball coach Benny Dees. Nevermind that most DI graduate assistants were at least in some way already affiliated with their basketball program. Jeremy wanted a job. Turns out, all he had to do is ask. "They hired me on the spot," Cox recalls. "It was fate. Someone had just quit and it opened a door."

His position was a temporary one - an NCAA-wide reduction in graduate assistants was scheduled to take place after the season. The Cowboys finished 8-8 in the Western Athletic Conference that year, but far more importantly, it was Cox's first experience at the Division I level. It would be far from his last.

Ascending the ranks of the college basketball world -

When an assistant coaching job was offered to Jeremy in Texas at Paris Junior College, Dees insisted he take it. "I've never once applied for a job I got," says Cox. "I just followed the opportunities."

A season at a junior college turned into four more years in the Lone Star State - this time as an assistant coach in the Southland Conference at UTSA. Quickly becoming a star, Cox turned just his second paid job into a JUCO head coaching position at North Dakota State College of Science in 1997. He was the region coach of the year in his inaugural season and won the region championship with a 19-9 record. From there, Cox went to Garden City College in Kansas. After a four-year stint and a 93-36 record, Cox joined coach and athletic director Doc Sadler at one of the top JUCO programs in the country, Arkansas-Fort Smith. When Sadler left a year later, Cox became the head coach. Just two seasons later, Cox led his team to an NJCAA national championship.

Reaching the pinnacle of success in the junior college ranks, Cox accepted an offer from Texas A&M head coach Billy Gillispie to join his staff in College Station. After a 13-3 season in the Big 12 (where the Aggies finished a school-best 9th in the final AP poll), Gillispie was hired at Kentucky. He wanted Cox to follow him there. "He is probably one of the best interior coaches in the game of basketball in the world, in my opinion," Gillispie would say of Cox later. It was a rocky two-season stint that culminated in Gillispie's dismissal, not for performance issues but for clashes with university administration. "The inability to come to an agreement on critical terms of an employment contract after two years of negotiation is just one indication of this incompatibility," wrote Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart at the time.

Even with Gillispie's firing, Cox was a commodity in the college basketball world. Weeks later, Jeremy accepted an invitation to join Stan Heath at South Florida. With Cox's help, USF improved immediately, winning nine games in the Big East (up from four the year prior). After another year, Jeremy's phone rang again. Doc Sadler had a position to fill in his staff at Nebraska. He wanted Jeremy Cox.

Adversity begins to strike -

Doc was in his sixth year as the Cornhuskers' leader when Jeremy moved his family to Lincoln. Already on the hot seat with boosters and lacking talent in a new conference, Cox's first season in Nebraska was Sadler's last. As soon as the season ended, Cox was, by virtue of a fired head coach, unemployed. Billy Gillispie, known by this point as a proven program builder, was now at Texas Tech. He pounced on the chance to reunite with his old assistant from Texas A&M and Kentucky.

Unfortunately for Cox, just a little over two months after agreeing to terms and before the season had even started, Gillispie resigned under pressure. Failing health and ongoing investigations into player mistreatment would ultimately end his career as a Division I head coach. Cox elected to stay for the season under interim coach Chris Walker but when it concluded, the College of Southern Idaho, another high-level JUCO program, sought out Jeremy to be their new head coach.

That year in Idaho wasn't an unsuccessful season by any means. A 27-5 record, conference championship, and a runner-up in the region tournament under most circumstances would be a positive experience. For Cox, it was a grind. "In many ways, it would be like Brad Underwood leaving SFA for Oklahoma State and then going to McNeese," he said. After years coaching the nation's best talent, mentoring NBA players, and sitting inside iconic basketball venues around the nation, junior college was no longer enough. After the season, Jeremy walked away.

As is a theme in his career, it wasn't long before another opportunity came calling. Doc Sadler, now at Southern Miss, wanted a reunion. Cox agreed.

Just a mere months after Jeremy moved his family to Hattiesburg, an NCAA investigation into the program was opened. Violations committed by former head coach Donnie Tyndall became public and the Golden Eagles were slammed with sanctions. Among them, a postseason ban forced Sadler's staff to recruit players who knew they'd never play in an NCAA Tournament. Since moving to Nebraska, it seemed the Coxes couldn't catch a break.

Findings wins, and home, once again -

Two years later, after seasons of three and five wins in Conference USA, Jeremy now found himself on the phone with Cindy, mulling the offer from Kyle Keller. The family had never been in one place for more than four years and even that hadn't happened since leaving Garden City in 2002. To Jeremy's surprise, Cindy was up for one more move. After a grueling journey through rebuilding programs since leaving South Florida, they needed a chance to win again.

It took many phone calls from Keller and chances to reconsider, but finally, Jeremy Cox said yes. Nearly two decades after working in the Southland Conference together, Cox and Keller had made a complete circle.

No doubt, "overqualified" is an understatement for the Lumberjacks' oldest assistant. "Sometimes I feel selfish," Cox chuckles. "We're on the road in this league sometimes and I think to myself, 'there should be a young coach in this seat.' Then we come home to this building and these fans and I remember why I'm at SFA."

Cox's memories of coaching in William R. Johnson Coliseum in the 90s are nothing like what he sees today. "Honestly," he says, "the atmosphere here now is better than at least 80% of college basketball." The contagious energy surrounding the SFA program has rejuvenated him, in a sense.

Having seen it all in the world of collegiate hoops, coached professional prospects, worked a summer for Team USA's U21 squad, experienced NCAA Tournament runs, and raised a family between moves, Jeremy has little regret. "Although, I think everyone probably wants the one thing they never got," he says. "I'm sure [Mike Krzyzewski] wishes he had a sixth championship and I know I always wanted a chance to be a Division I head coach. But if you'd told me 25 years ago that this was my story, I'd take it in a heartbeat."

And as a result of that story, SFA, somehow, has been gifted with one of the most veteran and respected assistant coaches in the nation - a man with a reputation the likes of which rarely, if ever, find a way back to a conference like the SLC as an assistant. Although his son, Austin, remains in Hattiesburg working for Southern Miss athletics, Cindy and Kaili finally joined him in Nacogdoches a couple months ago where they've immediately fallen in love with the community. It's a place that represents a chance to win, coach talented players, and work for a respected friend; a culmination of a long, fruitful coaching career that has led them back to a place that feels like home.

They may not know exactly what's in store for the future; that Division I head coaching opportunity may come yet. But now, sitting in an empty coliseum, silence surrounding a basketball court that generally sees little of it, Jeremy looks up and smiles. "I'll be here as long as Kyle will have me," he says. "As long as Kyle will have me."