Lumberjack Basketball Welcomes New Assistant Coach Jean Prioleau
7/18/2023 9:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SFA Head Coach Kyle Keller is ecstatic about the hire, saying "I am thrilled that such an accomplished coach and mentor is joining our already terrific staff. Jean brings a wealth of experience from not only his time as a former Head Division 1 Coach but 17 successful years with many NCAA Tournament appearances. He has recruited numerous NBA and all-conference players along his journey. Coach Prioleau also had a very successful professional playing career, after being an all-conference player at Fordham University where he is inducted in their Hall of Fame. He, his wife, Janelle, and son, Elijah, will touch our players in many different ways."
Prioleau grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and played college basketball at Fordham, where he was a two-time All-Patriot honoree and helped Fordham qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over 20 years. From 1992 to 1999, Prioleau played professional basketball for the Continental Basketball Association in the U.S. and various European leagues.
From 2000 to 2005, Prioleau was an assistant coach at Wichita State under Mark Turgeon. The new coaching staff inherited a program that had just one winning season in the entire 1990s. Wichita State qualified for the National Invitation Tournament three straight seasons from 2003 to 2005; Prioleau helped build some of the best recruiting classes in program history.
In the 2005–06 season, Prioleau was an assistant coach at Marquette under Tom Crean. Marquette went 20–11 and qualified for the NCAA tournament.
From 2006 to 2008, Prioleau was an assistant coach at Iowa State under Greg McDermott. Iowa State went 15–16 in 2006–07 and 14–18 in the 2007–08 season. Then from 2008 to 2010, Prioleau was an assistant coach at TCU under Jim Christian. TCU went 14–17 and 13–19 in Prioleau's two seasons on staff.
On May 12, 2010, new head coach Tad Boyle hired Prioleau as an assistant coach on his staff at Colorado. Coming off four straight losing seasons, Colorado improved to 24–11 and an NIT appearance. He was promoted to associate head coach in 2013 and would remain on staff through the 2016–17 season; Colorado had winning records and postseason appearances every season including four NCAA Tournament appearances (2012–14 and 2016).
On August 4, 2017, Prioleau was hired as head coach at San Jose State. The bulk of his success came in the 2019–20 season. It began with an upset of defending Colonial Athletic Association regular season champion Hofstra in an away game. San Jose State had a 2–3 start in Mountain West play after wins over New Mexico and defending Mountain West regular season champion Nevada in the first two weeks of January.
He now joins the SFA family in Nacogdoches, Texas as an assistant coach to Kyle Keller.
Prioleau is looking forward to the opportunity to become apart of the Lumberjack culture, saying "Coach Keller and I have known each other for quite some time. We have competed against each other as assistants in the Big 12 and I have always admired what he has accomplished. Coach Keller and his staff have done an unbelievable job in developing student-athletes on and off the court. His tireless work ethic has produced a culture that I wanted to be a part of. I am extremely happy to be here."
