On Thursday, Virginia Tech women's basketball announced the hiring of Jauwan Scaife as the program's third assistant coach. He ventures to Blacksburg after spending last season at Ball State, his alma mater.
https://twitter.com/HokiesWBB/status/1677044771309645826?s=20
A former All-MAC player with the men's program from 2009-13, Scaife helped the Cardinals to a 26-9 (14-4 MAC) record in 2022-23 that included a trip to the WNIT. Ball State hosted Belmont in the first round and won, 101-86, before falling at Memphis in the second round.
He got his start in the coaching ranks as a graduate assistant with the women's program at Ball State in 2013. Scaife spent two years there as an assistant before joining the program's former associate head coach, Rekha Patterson, after she took over at Southeast Missouri State. He helped the Redhawks reach the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the first time in seven years in 2015-16 and coached a Second Team All-OVC performer in Brianna Mitchell.
After working at Evansville in 2017-18, he coached at Murray State for two seasons (2018-20). In his first year with the Racers, Scaife helped them nine conference wins, the most in 10 years. He also mentored two First Team All-Ohio Valley players in Evelyn Adebayo and Macey Turley.
In between Murray State and Ball State, he spent 2020-22 at Utah State. The Aggies were 11-19 (5-13 Mountain West) under his watch in 2021-22, a stark improvement from their 4-20 campaign the year prior. Scaife was heavily involved in recruiting in his time in Logan, much like his previous stops at Murray State, Evansville and Southeast Missouri State, so he has plenty of experience on the trail.
"I am extremely excited to add Jauwan to our staff," Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said in a release. "He brings energy and a wealth of knowledge that will benefit not just our athletes but the entire staff. He is top notch and a rising star in our profession."
As a player, Scaife ranks 14th in Ball State men's basketball history in scoring with 1,326 points. He also broke the school record for career 3-pointers (203) in the final game of his career. On top of that, he ranked seventh in career minutes (3,368), seventh in games played (120) and ninth in games started (93) at the end of his career.
Scaife fills a position on the Virginia Tech coaching staff that was vacant last season. Boston College assistant George Porcha was hired to be the third assistant last summer but was let go in October before the season started due to "philosophical differences," as Brooks explained after the team’s season-opener on Nov. 7. Thus, the Hokies had just two full-time assistants for 2022-23.
Despite that, though, they won the ACC tournament, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and made the Final Four, finishing 31-5 (14-4 ACC). Click here to go behind the scout and read more about why the trio of assistants — Lindsey Hicks, Radvile Autukaite and Will Sims — was so crucial to the program's success.
Jauwan Scaife's career path:
2013-15: Ball State (graduate assistant)
2015-17: Southeast Missouri State (assistant coach)
2017-18: Evansville (assistant coach, recruiting coordinator)
2018-20: Murray State (assistant coach)
2020-22: Utah State (assistant coach, recruiting coordinator)
2022-23: Ball State (assistant coach)