Episode 140: Jack Owens, Program Building and Offensive Transition

Guest: Jack Owens, Miami University Basketball Head Coach

In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, Miami University head coach Jack Owens joins the Basketball Podcast to discuss building a program and transition and half-court defense.

Jack Owens is the current head coach at the University of Miami Ohio. He was hired in 2018 and began to make a positive impact immediately. In his first season, Miami won 16 games and made their first post-season appearance in nearly a decade. He has continued to build the program by having a top recruiting class in the MAC conference. Throughout the past two seasons, he has helped develop that talent into All-conference players while having success in the MAC conference.

Before Miami Owens was an assistant and an associate head coach at Purdue. He was a part of the staff for nine years over the course of 2008-2017. During this time, Purdue averaged 23 wins a year and was consistently a top 25 ranked team. Coach Owens was heavily involved with the development of a number of NBA draft picks. Some of the most notable names Owens helped develop are Carsen Edwards, Caleb Swanigan, Aj Hammons, and Robbie Hummel.

Jack Owens also was an assistant coach at Southern Illinois for 5 years. In his time there he helped lead the team to a 25-5 record and multiple NCAA Tournament berths. Owens also coached SIU to an NCAA Sweet 16 which is the furthest in the program's history.

Owens has an incredible track record in his young coaching career. This includes 14 postseason appearances, 11 NCAA Tournament berths, and 4 trips to the Sweet 16. Jack has proven to be successful no matter the challenge and is an emerging coach to look out for this college basketball season.

Breakdown

1:00 - First Steps

4:30 - Developing Relationships

8:00 - Forming Better Relationships

13:00 - Tweaking his Current Program

17:00 - Balancing Priorities as a Head Coach

23:00 - Recruitment

26:00 - General Outline of their Defense

30:00 - Offensive Rebound

34:00 - Recover to Help

37:00 - Take Away Rhythm Threes

39:30 - His Closeout Philosophy