Jim Ferry

Head Coach

UMBC Director of Athletics Brian Barrio announced the hiring of Jim Ferry as UMBC's new head men's basketball coach. Ferry, the tenth head men's basketball coach in school history, was introduced to the campus community and the media on Wednesday, April 14.

"Jim Ferry is the type of mentor and leader that we would want our own sons or daughters to play for," said Barrio. "He is passionate, honest, and genuinely cares for the young men he coaches.  All of that came through clearly in his conversations with me, with the search committee, and with our President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski.  That part is foundational in terms of what we look for in a UMBC coach.

"In terms of basketball, he is a winner and a competitor who has many years of experience implementing a style of play that fans will love to watch, student-athletes will love to play, and for which opponents will not enjoy preparing."

Ferry has led the Retrievers to back-to-back 18-win seasons and the squad has already hosted three home playoff games at the Peake under his tenure. UMBC reached the 2021-22 America East Championship game after finishing second during the regular-season. The team also knocked off a Power 5 opponent, Pittsburgh (ACC), to highlight the non-conference season. The Retrievers finished fourth this past season and hosted a first-round conference tournament contest. In addition, UMBC won a program-record 10 non-conference contests in 2022-2023.

Ferry came to Baltimore after serving in 2020-21 as the interim head coach at Penn State University. That season, Ferry led the Nittany Lions to an 11-14 overall mark and a 7-12 Big Ten record that included wins over NCAA Tournament teams No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 15 Virginia Tech, Rutgers, and Maryland (twice).  

Ferry began his tenure as an assistant coach at Penn State in 2017-18 and was an integral part of the offensive resurgence for the Nittany Lions.

The 2019-20 season saw Penn State amass 21 wins overall and 11 Big Ten victories, its second-highest total since joining the league in 1992-93 and ranked third in the overall Big Ten statistical standings at 75.1 points per game. The Nittany Lions were positioned for an NCAA Tournament berth before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled their postseason opportunities.

During his tenure, Penn State vaulted into its historical top 10 of multiple statistical categories, including points scored, scoring average, field goals, and 3-point field goals. PSU claimed the top spots in 2019-20 Big Ten games in total points and field goals and crushed the previous 3-point field goal mark. The league scoring average of 71.6 in 2019-20 ranks fifth on the Nittany Lions' chart with the 2017-18 average of 72.1 ahead at third. Those averages were the first to enter the top-five echelon since the scoring record was set almost two decades ago.

Individually, two-time first-team All-Big Ten forward Lamar Stevens became one of only two Nittany Lions with at least 2,000 career points and only three to produce at least 500 points in three consecutive seasons.

Ferry's offensive mindset translated to an increase in the Nittany Lions' point production and helped rewrite the record book in 2017-18. All five starters had scoring averages in double figures through mid-February 2018 as Penn State was one of only 13 NCAA Division I teams that could make that claim. PSU won 26 games that year, its second-highest total ever, and captured its second National Invitation Tournament title.

The 2017-18 team scored 2,915 points in all games, and 1,297 in Big Ten contests, both totals earning the program's top rankings in those categories. The 46.4 field goal percentage easily ranked No. 1 in the 26 years of Big Ten play.

The 1,057 field goals smashed the previous mark, set in 2008-09, by more than 150. Records for 3-point field goals, both by the team (294) and by senior sharpshooter Shep Garner, also fell with Garner capturing both Penn State's career record (336) as well as PSU's single-season mark (120). That total also allowed Garner to break the Big Ten single-season record, one that stood for 23 years previously.

Prior to arriving in State College, Ferry was the bench boss at Duquesne. Ferry's Duquesne teams reached several milestones in his five years there, including a 17-win mark in 2015-16, a total reached only six times in the previous 43 years. The Dukes set a school record for points (2,704) that year and netted 322 three-point field goals, the third-highest total in Atlantic 10 history. During that season, Ferry celebrated his 300th career coaching win and the Dukes helped add to that total with their first postseason victory in nearly 50 years.

The Dukes posted other notable wins under Ferry, recording a victory at Atlantic 10 foe Temple in 2013, their first since 1995. An upset of 10th-ranked Saint Louis on the Billikens' home court gave Duquesne its first road win over a top-10 team in more than five decades. Victories over teams in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, and Big 12 conferences helped the program make significant progress.

Prior to his five years at Duquesne, Ferry spent 10 seasons as head coach at LIU Brooklyn, guiding that program to unprecedented levels of success. Ferry led the Blackbirds to Northeast Conference regular-season titles and tournament championships in 2011 and 2012, including their first NCAA Championship appearance in 14 years.

Ferry engineered a turnaround at LIU Brooklyn, inheriting a team that had won only five games in the season before his arrival. He transformed the program into a winner, posting back-to-back campaigns of at least 25 wins for the first time since the 1941-42 season. The program's 2011 and 2012 NEC crowns were the first back-to-back league titles in LIU Brooklyn's history, and Ferry helped position the Blackbirds for a third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2013.

At LIU Brooklyn, Ferry and his team achieved double-digit win totals eight times and he was selected the NEC Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2011. Recognition came also from the National Association of Basketball Coaches as he was tabbed the District 18 Coach of the Year and the NIT/Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) Peter A. Carlesimo Division I Coach of the Year in 2011.

With his offensive-minded approach, Ferry has produced some of the nation's top-scoring squads. LIU Brooklyn was the fourth-highest scoring team in the country in 2011 and his 2012 team ranked second, scoring at a clip of 81.4 points per game. In addition to steady improvements in other key statistical markers at Duquesne, the Dukes closed in on 80 points per game average in 2015-16.

Barrio said. "At LIU, he elevated a struggling program into the highest-seeded champion that the NEC has seen this century. More recently at Penn State, his impact on the team's offense after arriving as an assistant was visible and impressive. He took over as head coach just prior to the first game in a COVID year, unified a shaken team, and had them in the hunt for an NCAA bid late into the season despite the nation's #1 most difficult schedule."

Ferry, who owns a career record of 314-265 in 19 years as a head coach, entered the coaching ranks as an assistant at his alma mater, Keene State College, in Keene, New Hampshire, following his graduation in 1990. He then served as an assistant coach at Bentley College for seven years where he helped the Falcons win the 1992-93 Northeast 10 regular-season championship and earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

In 1998-99, Plymouth State hired Ferry to guide its program and saw the first-year head coach compile 22 wins. The Panthers captured a share of the Little East Conference title and played in the ECAC New England Tournament championship game.

Ferry returned to his home state to lead Adelphi University, compiling an 82-11 record in three seasons from 1999-2002. His 1999-2000 team advanced to the NCAA Div. II Sweet Sixteen and his 2000-01 and 2001-02 teams made back-to-back trips to the NCAA Div. II Elite Eight. The 2001 squad claimed a No. 1 with 31-straight wins and in his two final two seasons, the program had only four losses combined. He was recognized as the USBWA Basketball Times Division II Coach of the Year following the 2000-01 season and was the NIT/MBWA Division II Coach of the Year in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Ferry played one year at New York Tech before transferring to Keene State, where he posted a double-digit scoring average for his career. Ferry led the Owls in scoring as a junior and was team captain as a senior. The son of a New York City transit police officer, he earned his undergraduate degree in public safety science.

Barrio said, "I am thrilled to welcome Jim Ferry to UMBC, and together, our entire athletics staff is ready to begin the hard work that will build our next championship team."