Justin Gainey was named assistant coach at the University of Arizona in May of 2018, joining head coach Sean Miller’s staff from Santa Clara University. Gainey reunites with Miller in a relationship that dates back two decades.
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In his two seasons in Tucson, Gainey has helped the Wildcats average nearly twenty wins and coached 2020 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Pac-12 forward Zeke Nnaji. He also helped Nico Mannion earn Second Team All-Pac-12 accolades and both Nnaji and Mannion were on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team list. Offensively, Arizona led the Pac-12 in scoring during the 2019-20 season and ranked third in defensive points per game.
Gainey’s career in college basketball began as a three-year starter at NC State from 1996 to 2000 for head coach Herb Sendek whose staff included Sean Miller as an assistant coach. He earned honorable mention All-ACC honors for the Wolfpack. Gainey helped guide NC State to the ACC Tournament Championship game as an eight seed in his freshman season, playing in all forty minutes of all four games to earn ACC All-Tournament honors.
His coaching career began with a three-year stint at his alma mater, NC State, as Administrative Coordinator and Director of Basketball Operations from 2006 to 2009. Gainey broke into the coaching ranks with Elon University in the 2009-10 season as the program during coach Matt Matheny’s rebuild on the program. During his time with the Phoenix, Elon defeated SoCon power Davidson in the conference tournament.
Gainey spent four seasons, from 2010 to 2014, as an assistant coach at Appalachian State where he worked primarily with the Mountaineers’ guards. His work with the perimeter players was highlighted by Donald Sims’ ascension to first team all-conference honors and the program’s all-time scoring record.
He went on to spend three seasons as the Director of Basketball Operations at Marquette under head coach Steve Wojciechowski before joining his former coach, Herb Sendek, as an assistant coach at Santa Clara. While with the Broncos, Gainey worked with SCU’s perimeter players that included First Team All-WCC selection K.J. Feagin. Santa Clara’s 2018 recruiting class ranks among the ten best mid-major recruiting classes in the nation.
Gainey and his wife, Courtney, have three sons - Jordan, Jayson and Jaxson.
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