Baylor

John Jakus spent seven season as a Baylor men’s basketball assistant and associate head coach, before being named the head coach at Florida Atlantic on March 27, 2024. Jakus joined the Baylor staff on May 19, 2017, after spending the previous three seasons as director of operations at Gonzaga. Prior to his time at Gonzaga, he was on the staff at Baylor as a graduate assistant during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Jakus has helped lead Baylor to a 167-64 record in his seven seasons as an assistant coach, including an 82-40 mark in Big 12 Conference play. In 12 seasons as a member of Division I coaching staffs, Jakus helped teams post a combined 316-99 record, including a 27-9 postseason mark with five Sweet 16 berths, three Elite Eights, two Final Fours and one National Championship.

BU had guards win All-America honors in four of his last five seasons in Waco (Jared Butler ‘20 & ’21, Davion Mitchell ‘21, James Akinjo ‘22 and Adam Flagler ‘23). 

In his time at Baylor, the Bears had seven selections in the NBA Draft including four-straight top-19 picks (Davion Mitchell —9th in 2021, Jeremy Sochan —9th in 2022, Keyonte George — 16th in 2023 and Ja'Kobe Walter 2024). The Bears are the only program with four players picked in the top-19 in 2021, 22, 23 and 24 seasons. BU’s seven selections since 2017 were the most in the State of Texas during that span.

In 2023-24 The Bears notched 20 wins for a sixth-straight year and became the only school in the country to secure a top-three seed in the 2021, 22, 23 and 24 NCAA Tournaments. With a win over Colgate in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the Bears joined Gonzaga, Houston and Kansas as one of four teams to win at least one NCAA Tournament game in five-straight tournaments. Facing the No. 1 strength of schedule, BU won 20 games for the sixth-straight season and won 11 Big 12 games, becoming the only team in the conference to win 11-or-more games in five-straight seasons.

During the 2021-22 season, Jakus helped the Bears become just the third team in Big 12 history to win back-to-back Big 12 Championships with a 14-4 mark in the league, earning BU a second-straight No. 1 seed.

Over the three NCAA tournaments the Bears have earned a top-3 seed, becoming one of just four programs to earn that distinction. With a win over UC Santa Barbara in the opening round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, BU became one of just four schools to win an NCAA Tournament game in each of the last four tournaments played.  

Baylor won its first National Championship and first Big 12 Conference title in 2020-21, going 28-2 overall and 14-1 in conference play. The Bears posted a school-record 11 wins against ranked opponents, including a perfect 7-0 mark against top-10 teams. BU was top-5 ranked for 29-consecutive AP Top 25 polls and finished the 2020-21 season with the nation’s third-longest active streak of 37-straight weeks ranked.

Three BU guards picked up 2021 All-America honors, with Jared Butler becoming the first consensus first-team All-American in program history and earning Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors. Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teague were named third-team All-Americans, and Mitchell swept the National Defensive Player of the Year awards.

Jakus helped the Bears to what was then the greatest season in program history in 2019-20, as Baylor posted a 26-4 record and was projected to earn an NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed before the postseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bears won a Big 12 Conference record 23 consecutive games and spent five weeks ranked No. 1 nationally, the longest streak by any team since Kentucky in 2015.

Baylor’s success on the court carried over into the offseason on the recruiting trail, as the Bears signed the highest-rated class in program history for 2021. Kendall Brown, Langston Love and Jeremy Sochan all inked with the Bears in the early signing period, and the Bears’ three-man class was ranked No. 4 nationally by ESPN.

In Jakus’ second year with the program, Baylor extended its school-record streak to eight consecutive postseason appearances and finished 20-14 in 2018-19. BU went from being picked ninth in the Big 12 preseason poll to finishing fourth in the league despite losing four projected starters to injuries throughout the year. Baylor was two games into Big 12 play when leading scorer Tristan Clark went down with a season-ending injury. After switching to a three-guard lineup, BU went on a six-game winning streak and earned a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where the Bears knocked off Syracuse in the first round before falling against No. 1 seed Gonzaga.

Jakus helped the Bears post a 19-15 mark and advance to the NIT second round during his first year at BU in 2017-18. Baylor was ranked as high as No. 16 nationally, extending a streak to 11 consecutive seasons ranked, which was the ninth-longest streak nationally at the time. After a slew of injuries led to a 2-7 start to conference play, Baylor rebounded with a five-game winning streak that included wins over No. 10 Kansas and No. 7 Texas Tech and a double-overtime win at Texas.

Jakus was on Mark Few’s staff as director of operations at Gonzaga for the three seasons prior to joining the Baylor staff. He assisted the coaching staff with scouting using both film and advanced analytics, and he helped establish a series of cultural beliefs that allowed both the offensive and defensive efficiencies to improve. He also acted as the program’s liaison to the athletics department in the areas of game scheduling, recruiting, on-campus visits, travel, fundraising, sports information and marketing.

Jakus gained experience evaluating and recruiting during the July 2015 live period while Few was coaching USA Basketball. Additionally, he oversaw and established the use of analytics, working with the video coordinators to establish in-house editing to produce postgame and season-long analysis.

Gonzaga reached its first Final Four in 2017, and the Zags defeated South Carolina to advance to the national title game against North Carolina. In addition to finishing as national runner-up in 2017, Gonzaga earned an Elite Eight berth in 2015 and advanced to the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed in 2016. The program went a combined 100-13 during Jakus’ three seasons on staff, including a 9-3 NCAA Tournament record.

Prior to his three seasons at Gonzaga, Jakus spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at Baylor. The Bears advanced to the 2014 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 and won the 2013 NIT title during his tenure. He worked with video operations, including film breakdown and evaluation video for Baylor players. He also assisted the coaching staff in limited on-court activities during practices, advance scouting, offensive and defensive strategies and on-campus recruiting.

Jakus gained extensive experience as a professional coach in Europe prior to joining the Baylor staff in 2012. He was head coach and assistant general manager of ABA Strumica in Macedonia (2010-11) and head coach and chaplain for Agape Bulgaria (2007-09). He also worked with Athletes in Action as volunteer head coach for both NCAA and professional basketball trips (2005-08) and as international basketball head coach and director (2008-14).