Donnie Jones Hometown: Point Pleasant, W.Va. Position: Head Coach Alma Mater: Pikeville (Ky.) College '88

The buzz surrounding the hiring of Donnie Jones at Marshall University in April '07 was the result of bringing aboard a reigning two-time national champion coach with local ties and a previous coaching stint with the Thundering Herd. The buzz in the community resonated heavily the summer before the rookie head coach's inaugural season and became more evident when MU's attendance increase ranked the 14th highest in the nation. Now, following Marshall's first winning season in seven years, the buzz has evolved into an all-out roar as Herd fans are eager to see what Jones has in store for them in his second season in Huntington.

To call Jones' first season as a head coach merely a success may be a disservice to the accomplishments of him and his 2007-08 Herd. Taking over a program that had gone 43-74 in four years under his predecessor, Jones added a few late signees to join his inherited players. It was this group of athletes that bought into the up-tempo style of play employed by Jones in effort to lay the foundation of a new era of Marshall basketball.

A fast start made Jones the 10th coach to begin his Marshall career 3-0, with two of the non-league wins coming against teams picked to win their respective conferences. The Herd later picked up a pair of wins versus eventual NCAA Tournament teams San Diego and Winthrop to round out the majority of its non-conference schedule.

The Herd, 16-14 last season, made its biggest splash in Conference USA play where it went a respectable 8-8, just four wins shy of matching its C-USA win total the previous two years combined. The Herd entered the final regular season game with a chance to secure a first-round bye in the league tournament, a far cry from its first two years of existence in its new conference. The Herd finished the C-USA regular season in a tie for sixth place to formally announce its presence in the league and its intentions to remain a contender for years to come.

Jones got the most out of his players and many believe the team overachieved. He got unheard of production out of departed senior guard Taurean Marshall and rising junior forward Tyler Wilkerson. He played a pair of true freshmen over 25 minutes per game. All-Conference USA Third Team selection Markel Humphrey commented after MU's come-from-behind overtime win over Winthrop that "we didn't win this type of game the last few years."

Jones' influence and mentoring has changed the culture of Marshall basketball. He and his staff, with a full year of recruiting under their belts, has brought in a highly-touted recruiting class that will join now-eligible transfers and MU's five returning letterwinners to construct a formidable foe for all future opponents.

Jones returned to Marshall on April 7, 2007, when he was introduced as the 27th head coach in school history. The Point Pleasant, W.Va., native previously worked as a graduate assistant and assistant coach with the Thundering Herd from 1990-1996. Following his first stint at MU, he spent 11 seasons at the University of Florida with head coach Billy Donovan, where Jones helped the Gators to three Final Fours and back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Jones, who was retained as an assistant coach at Marshall when Donovan was hired as the Herd's head coach in 1994, assisted in all phases of coaching - from off-campus recruiting, practice planning, on-floor coaching to scouting.

Jones worked with Donovan for a combined 13 years at both Marshall and Florida.

Jones played a key role in UF's recruiting and player development that led to a school-record nine consecutive NCAA appearances, three Final Fours, four Southeastern Conference Eastern Division titles, three SEC Tournament titles and the only two national titles in UF history. The 1999 and 2000 teams made the first back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in school history and the 2000 squad made the first-ever appearance in the National Championship game. Combined with UF's Final Four runs in 2006 and 2007, the Gators are one of only five teams to reach three Final Fours in the 2000s and last year were joined by Kansas as the only squad in that span to play for the national title multiple times.

The 2006 Gators became the first UF team to win the national title, doing so in dominant fashion by defeating their six NCAA Tournament opponents by an average of 16 points. Florida produced even more history on April 2, 2007, as the Gators became the first team in 15 years to repeat as national champions and only the second team to do so in the post-Wooden UCLA era.

The Gators were 261-103 (.717) during Jones' 11-year stint in Gainesville and posted more 20-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances (nine each) than UF did in the 77-year history of the program prior to the staff's arrival.

For a program that experienced success in pockets, but never on a consistent level until now, Jones was responsible for helping the Gators lure some of the most attractive recruiting classes in college basketball to Gainesville. During his years at UF, the Gators signed 11 McDonald's High School All-Americans and boasted consensus top-five recruiting classes in five out of his last nine years at Florida.

Jones served on the Marshall staff for six years. He was a graduate assistant at Marshall in 1990 and earned his master's in sports management in 1992. He was then promoted to assistant coach and was involved in all aspects of the basketball program, assisting with scouting, the conditioning program, film exchange, on-floor coaching and serving as Thundering Herd's summer camp coordinator.

Prior to his arrival at Marshall, Jones worked for two years as an assistant coach at Pikeville (Ky.) College, his alma mater. While at Pikeville, Jones was responsible for scouting, recruiting, preseason conditioning, on-floor coaching and the school's summer basketball camps. Jones also worked in an administrative capacity in the admissions office while at Pikeville.

Jones, 42, earned his bachelor's degree in business education from Pikeville in 1988 after setting several school records during a stellar basketball career. He set school marks for most assists in a game (21), season (276) and in a career (513). Jones served as the team's captain as a senior, finishing second in the nation in the NAIA with 10.7 assists per game. During his career, Jones played with two-time NAIA All-American Todd May, who averaged 40.1 points per game and helped Pikeville to its first 20-win season in 11 years. Jones was inducted into the Pikeville Hall of Fame in the summer of 2004. In addition, he was recognized in Who's Who among college students.

Jones is married to the former Michelle Gibson of Salt Rock, W.Va. They have three children, daughters Madisyn Michelle (born Feb. 17, 2001) and Sofie Louise (born Jan. 21, 2008), and a son, Donald Isaac (born Feb. 4, 2004).