Ronald Howard Jirsa (born December 21, 1959) is an American college basketball coach who is currently an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky. He was previously the head coach at Georgia and Marshall.
Jirsa bounced around as an assistant coach, but had two significant stints at the University of Tulsa, first under J. D. Barnett from 1985 to 1988 and second under Tubby Smith from 1991 to 1993. Jirsa completed his Master of Arts degree in athletic administration at Tulsa in 1987 while an assistant coach there.[1] Smith promoted Jirsa to associate head coach in 1994, and Jirsa followed Smith to the University of Georgia.
When Smith departed for the University of Kentucky in 1997, Jirsa remained at Georgia and became head coach. Although Jirsa led Georgia to third place in the 1998 National Invitation Tournament title in his first season, he was fired in 1999 after going 35–30.[3]
Jirsa moved to Dayton and was an assistant for four seasons there. In June 2003, he was hired to coach Marshall.[4] Jirsa was fired after four seasons at Marshall, going 43–74.[5] Most recently, he served under Tubby Smith as an assistant at the University of Minnesota. On March 25, 2013, it was announced that Smith, along with his entire staff had been relieved as coaches at Minnesota.[6]
In the 2013–14 season, Jirsa was recruiting coordinator at Division III Bethel University in Minnesota. The following season, Jirsa joined Steve Payne's coaching staff as an assistant at Tennessee Tech. In 2015, Jirsa made yet another move, this time as an assistant at Radford under Mike Jones,[7] following Jones to UNCG when Jones was named head coach there in 2021.[8]
