North Carolina A&T suspends basketball coach Jay Joyner indefinitely
The N.C. A&T men’s basketball team will embark on a trip to Big Ten country on Saturday without head coach Jay Joyner. The university announced today that Joyner has been suspended indefinitely by director of athletics Earl M. Hilton III.
Associate head coach Willie Jones will serve as acting head coach in Joyner’s absence and will be in charge when the Aggies face Illinois at 2 p.m. Sunday. Hilton will have no further comment on the suspension “until the personnel matter is resolved,” the school said in the news release, which did not specify a reason for Joyner’s suspension. Joyner could not be reached for comment.
The Aggies are 3-10 this season, Joyner’s fourth full season as head coach. He took over Jan. 29, 2016, when Cy Alexander resigned, and A&T is 50-71 overall and 30-26 in the MEAC during his tenure. He most recently coached the Aggies in their 76-64 loss at Wake Forest on Dec. 21.
Jones said he was informed that Joyner had been suspended around 5:30 p.m. Christmas Eve by Hilton. He ran his first practice as the Aggies’ acting head coach Thursday, with assistants Ahmad Dorsett and Phillip Shumpert aiding him.
“I just needed to come up with a game plan to make sure the guys were going to be good, make sure the program was going to be good,” Jones said before today’s 2:30 p.m. practice. “At that point I had to put my thoughts together and make sure that when we hit the floor yesterday that it would be business as usual.”
He said “there was a lot of energy” at that practice. “Guys were back from Christmas and ready for the opportunity to play on Sunday,” Jones said.
Jones, who was hired by Joyner in July 2016, was promoted to associate head coach in July 2018. According to the university’s website, he has served as “A&T’s lead recruiter along with taking on the tasks of player development, academics, scouting, on-court teaching” and was the Aggies’ defensive coordinator on game days. His only head coaching experience was at Callahan (Fla.) West Nassau High School during the 2014-15 season, when the team went 1-21.
The chance to be a head coach again was not something Jones expected to happen this season, “But in this business, you never know what opportunity is going to present itself,” he said. “When you get these opportunities you have to be ready. We’ve built this program from the foundation up. ... We’ve built it the right way, to be a program. If you build it the right way, then things should run normally. It’s just one day at a time.”
Jones is optimistic about the trip to Illinois, which will be followed by a home non-conference game Jan. 3 against Mid-Atlantic Christian.
“We’ll be fine,” he said. “We’ve been playing well the last couple of games against some really good teams. I think it will be business as usual.
“I just need to make sure the focus is on A&T basketball,” he added, but he did acknowledge that as acting head coach, “my seat just got a little warmer.”
Jones said the team welcomed guards Tyler Maye and Kwe Parker back from injuries when the team resumed practice Thursday.
“We’ve had some guys who’ve really had to grow and step up over the last month really,” Jones said. “... So I think we’re moving in the right direction with two games left before conference play.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2019 at 7:20 PM with the headline "North Carolina A&T suspends basketball coach Jay Joyner indefinitely."