• Home
• College coaches
• Mike Jarvis

Mike Jarvis College coach

Michael D. "Mike" Jarvis (born April 12, 1945) is an American college basketball coach most recently as head men's basketball coach at Florida Atlantic University. He has coached at Boston University, George Washington University and St. John's University. He also has worked as a commentator for college basketball games on ESPN. His career college coaching record in over 18 seasons is 364–201 and is one of four Division I coaches to have won 100 games at three different colleges.Jarvis was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and played high school basketball at Rindge Technical High School, the predecessor to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He also coached at Rindge and Latin, where his players included NBA players Patrick Ewing, Rumeal Robinson and former George Washington head coach Karl Hobbs. He played basketball and baseball at Northeastern University, graduating in 1968.Jarvis became head coach at Boston University in 1985, becoming the Terriers' all-time winningest coach in five seasons with a 101-50 record (he was later overtaken by Bob Brown, then Dennis Wolff). Boston University reached the NCAA Tournament in 1988 and 1990 under Jarvis.He was hired at George Washington in 1990, leading the Colonials to three NCAA tournament appearances, including the round of 16 in the 1993 NCAA Tournament, the Colonials' best tournament performance. He coached the United States under-22 men's team in 1993. Jarvis also led the Colonials to two victories over number one ranked UMass, compiling a 143–100 record at George Washington.After the 1998 season, Jarvis accepted the head coaching job at St. John's University after Fran Fraschilla was fired, leading the Red Storm to the Elite Eight in the 1999 NCAA Tournament and the 2000 Big East tournament championship. They won the National Invitation Tournament in 2003.The next season the Red Storm stumbled out of the gate, losing to several nonconference teams that they usually beat with ease. Jarvis was fired on December 19, 2003—the first Big East coach to be fired during the season. Assistant Kevin Clark replaced him for the remainder of the season. His final record at St. John's was 110–61.It later emerged that school officials had fired Jarvis in part due to a series of embarrassing off-court incidents. Among these, a junior college transfer had been charged with assaulting a female student, and a senior guard had been kicked off the team after being caught smoking marijuana near St. John's campus in Queens.During the 2003–04 season, St. John's center Abe Keita claimed that a member of Jarvis's basketball staff had paid him nearly $300 a month for the past four seasons. As a result, St. John's placed itself on two years' probation, withdrew from postseason consideration for the 2004–05 season, and forfeited 43 wins in which Keita participated—including the 2002 NCAA Tournament and the 2003 NIT. The NCAA accepted St. John's sanctions. Jarvis was faulted for not properly monitoring Keita's situation, but was otherwise cleared of wrongdoing. After his ouster, Jarvis was criticized for ignoring New York City's rich pool of high school players, which particularly rankled fans used to seeing national powerhouses built primarily on New York City talent.Prior to coming back with the Owls in 2009, Jarvis worked for ESPN as a college basketball commentator, and Yahoo! Sports as their NCAA men's basketball analyst, and continues to work as a speaker. He currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.Jarvis last coached for Florida Atlantic after being fired after 6 seasons.