Where Are They Now? — Justin Gainey ’00, ’06 MR
THEN: Wolfpack guard with never-quit grit
NOW: Associate head coach for University of Tennessee men’s basketball
Justin Gainey ’00, ’06 MR is presented with a scenario. Travel back in time to High Point, N.C., in the mid-1990s, when he was growing up playing basketball anywhere he could — from outdoor courts to early-morning gym sessions at what was then High Point College. What would the young Gainey think of the fact that he became one of the top assistant coaches in college basketball today?
“I don’t think that kid saw basketball outside of playing it,” says Gainey, who starred for NC State basketball from 1996 – 2000. “All the places and all the things that basketball could bring you, there’s so much more than just being a player.”
I don’t think that kid saw basketball outside of playing it. All the places and all the things that basketball could bring you, there’s so much more than just being a player.
Gainey, 47, is in his third year as the associate head basketball coach for the Tennessee Volunteers. And now in his 18th season overall as a coach or administrator, he’s accepting that he’s a basketball lifer.
That acceptance wasn’t always there. The idea was first planted in Gainey as a player on a road trip to a game at the University of Virginia, when then-assistant Wolfpack coach John Groce suggested coaching was in Gainey’s future. “At the time, I was like, ‘I don’t want to coach.’” Gainey admits he fought the coaching bug after he wrapped up his playing career overseas in the early 2000s. But once he joined the Wolfpack in 2006 as an administrative coordinator, he never looked back, moving on to coaching stops at Elon, Appalachian State, Santa Clara, the University of Arizona and Marquette.
As a player, Gainey was known for his tenacity — he set an ACC Tournament record as a freshman in 1997 for minutes played, never coming out in four games. That relentlessness has translated well as he’s risen to being a top lieutenant in the game. He applies the tireless work ethic he’s learned from watching some of the best coaches in the game up close. And he tries to build genuine relationships with recruits and players.
Do the players on the Vols team, which for two seasons has included Gainey’s son, Jordan, know they’re learning from a former ACC great? “They don’t,” Gainey says, before momentarily breaking with his signature humility.
“But I don’t mind telling them.”
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