Jeff Massey Position: Assistant Coach Birthdate: 07/10/1973 Experience: Third Season Alma Mater: Xavier '95

After a standout collegiate and professional career of overseas, Jeff Massey is now in his fourth season in the coaching ranks. Massey came to St. Bonaventure with head coach Mark Schmidt in April of 2007.

One of the rising stars of the collegiate coaches' fraternity, Massey is involved in all facets of the program. He deals directly with the development of the guards, academic progress, scouting of opponents, assisting with on-court practices and St. Bonaventure's nation-wide recruiting efforts.

Massey's instruction paid dividends for senior guards Zarryon Fereti and Tyler Relph in 2007-08. Both posted career-highs in every statistical category, while Relph finished as the NCAA leader in free throw percentage. Fereti's big season resulted in a professional contract in the top division in Germany.

Massey spent two seasons working with Schmidt at Robert Morris, where he helped the Colonials to records of 15-14 and 17-11. Robert Morris also won 19 Northeast Conference games over those two seasons, finishing fifth in 2006 and fourth in 2007. Massey was responsible for coaching the perimeter players as well as assisting in recruiting. Massey's teachings paid off for RMU senior guard Tony Lee last season as he was named the NEC Player of the Year.

In the 2004-05 campaign, Massey was director of basketball operations at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio. In addition to his work within the basketball program, he also was part of student enrichment and athletics, an organization that assisted student-athletes in academic advising, class scheduling and tutoring.

A 1995 Xavier graduate with a degree in liberal arts, Massey was a two-year letterwinner for the Musketeers. He was named the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Newcomer of the Year in 1993-94, when he averaged 12.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game and helped guide Xavier to the third round of the NIT. In his senior season, Massey served as team captain and led the Musketeers in scoring (18.9 ppg), steals, free throw percentage and blocked shots as Xavier advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Prior to Xavier, Massey played two seasons at Owens Community College, where he finished as the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,894 points, a total that also ranks ninth all-time in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) record books. Massey is the only NJCAA player in history to be named the national player of the year twice (1992, 1993) and was also a two-time most valuable player of the NJCAA national tournament. Owens Community College honored him by retiring his jersey (No. 30), the first in school history, in 1997.

After his collegiate career, Massey spent four seasons playing professionally for teams in France and Poland.

A native of Elkhart, Ind., Massey also holds a master's degree in counseling from Xavier. He and his wife, Jonelle, have an ninth-month old daughter, Aubrey.

COACHING CAREER