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Pete Thamel, ESPN
Cornell is promoting longtime assistant coach and current associate head coach Jon Jaques to become the men’s basketball program’s next head coach, sources told ESPN.
Jaques spent 12 years as a Cornell assistant and also worked a graduate assistant for Kyle Smith at Columbia. He has been the school’s associate head coach since 2022, bringing a depth of experience in the Ivy League during his tenure.
Jaques takes over for Brian Earl, who left to take the head-coaching job at William & Mary. Jaques played a key role in recruiting and building the roster for this year’s team, which finished 22-8 and 11-3 in the Ivy League. Cornell finished second in the Ivy this season and fourth the past two seasons, which qualified it for the four-team Ivy basketball tournament.
Jaques is a former Cornell player who was a captain and starter on the school’s round-of-16 team in 2010 as a senior. He moonlighted as a blogger for The New York Times during his time as a student-athlete at Cornell.
On the team that reached the round of 16, Jaques emerged as one of the program’s feel-good stories. He had barely played any meaningful minutes in his first three years, but he seized an opportunity when an injury opened up a starting job.
He averaged 6.7 points per game as a senior and hit 45% of his 3-pointers. That came after scoring just 33 points over his first three seasons in the program.
Jaques, a native of Southern California, quickly turned to coaching after playing. He has been at Cornell as an assistant since 2013, spanning the tenures of Bill Courtney and Earl.
Jaques has played a key role in many aspects of the program, including improving offensive efficiency, opponent scouting and individual player development. Cornell has gone 54-30 over the past three seasons and gone 31-4 at home.
Cornell finished No. 9 in the country in effective field goal percentage this year and No. 2 in 2-point percentage.