Tag: UMBC Retrievers

Jim Ferry says he will return to Penn State for a football game

Former Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry says PSU will always be a special place for him, and he’ll be back for a football game.

Whenever you move on to a new job, you want to take the time to say thank you for the opportunity you got at your former location.

On Wednesday, Jim Ferry was introduced as the new head coach at UMBC. During his introductory press conference, Ferry was asked if there was anything he wanted to say to Penn State and its fans. Naturally, he obliged and offered his thanks to the entire Penn State basketball community.

“I’d like to thank everybody for the support throughout the year,” Ferry responded. “I know they missed not being able to come out to the games, but all the text messages and emails I received during the season and even after when I left Penn State, you know you did the right thing when all those people are reaching out.”

Ferry served as the interim head coach of the Nittany Lions for the 2020-21 season, taking over for Pat Chambers, who was removed as head coach shortly before the start of the season amid controversy. It was not an easy spot for Ferry to take over, and the season proved to be a challenging one in a deep Big Ten.

“Penn State is always going to be a special place to me. My two daughters are graduates,” Ferry said. “It’s nice to feel that the respect of what we did and how we did it.”

Ferry went on to say he will return to Penn State as a fan to attend football games with his daughters. In the meantime, maybe Penn State can book UMBC for a future basketball game.

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Former Penn State basketball coach is new head coach of UMBC Retrievers

As Penn State moves in a new direction with its basketball program, a former head coach is ready to write his next chapter on the sideline.

When the college basketball season ended for the Penn State Nittany Lions, it was widely expected interim head coach Jim Ferry would be moving on to another program as Penn State opted to go in an entirely new direction. Penn State did that with the hiring of Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry to be the new head coach. While Penn State and Shrewsberry have been busy filling out their new basketball staff, Ferry has found his own landing spot.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County announced on Monday Ferry will be the next men’s basketball coach of their program. Ferry will fill the vacancy with the UMBC program that opened up following Ryan Odom leaving to accept a coaching offer from Utah State.

UMBC is most famous for their historic upset of No. 1 seed Virginai in the 2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament. The Retrievers became the first men’s team to win a first-round game as a No. 16 seed.

Ferry was an assistant coach at Penn State from 2017 through 2020. He was named the interim head coach prior to the 2020-21 season after Penn State removed Pat Chambers as head coach shortly before the start of the season. Penn State went 11-14 with Ferry serving as the interim head coach.

Ferry will be taking on his first full-time head coaching job since before his time at Penn State, when he was the head coach of Duquesne from 2012 to 2017. He was also the head coach of Long Island from 2002 through 2012, with back-to-back NCAA tournament second-round appearances in 2011 and 2012.

Former Nittany Lion Lamar Stevens send along his congratulations on Twitter.

The move has also been praised by college basketball analyst Andy Katz…

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