One of the first-round games of the 2018 NCAA Basketball Tournament pits #1 Villanova Wildcats vs. #16 Radford Highlanders. Where’s Radford? It’s a small public school (9,410 students) in Radford, Virginia. (It used to be an all-women’s teacher college.) The head coach of Radford’s men’s basketball team is Mike Jones. The 2017-18 Big South Conference Coach of the Year is the son of Jimmy Jones, a star guard in the ABA from 1967-1974. (Mike was born in 1965.) Jimmy Jones latter played with the Washington Bullets as he finished his career in the NBA in 1977.
Mike Jones didn’t play in the NBA like his dad but after playing ball at Howard University, he landed his first coaching job at the prestigious Sidwell Friends School. That’s the private school President Obama chose to send his daughters Sasha and Malia while he was in office. It’s a popular pick for presidents. When Jones was on the Sidwell campus (199-1994), President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea was a student. (Al Gore’s son Albert Gore III is an alum, as is Nixon’s daughter Tricia, and Theodore Roosevelt’s son Archibald.) The Villanova vs. Radford game airs Thursday, March 15 at 6:45pm on TNT from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
