LCU assistant hired as ACU head coach

Jason Copeland 14th head coach in ACU basketball history

ABILENE -- Lubbock Christian University assistant basketball coach Jason Copeland has been hired as the men's basketball coach at Abilene Christian University, effective June 1.

ACU director of athletics Jared Mosley made the announcement Wednesday, bringing to a close a search process that began March 8 when Klint Pleasant announced his resignation after three seasons at the helm of the Wildcats' program.  Pleasant's resignation is effective May 31.

Copeland, 30, just completed his seventh season as the assistant coach at Lubbock Christian where his father, John Copeland, has been the head coach for 25 seasons.  Jason Copeland has been LCU's top assistant since 1998, and his main off-court duties have included recruiting and scheduling.

Copeland is the 14th head coach in the 84-year history of ACU basketball, and he said he's eager to begin the process of re-building the program.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to be at ACU," said Copeland, who has been married to his wife, Kristy, since May 2002.  "I've been interested in going somewhere and building something and getting it established, and I feel like ACU is the place where I can get that done."

Copeland has built his reputation on his ability to recruit, and those talents will have to come into play if he is to turn around a program that has recorded just five winning seasons since 1987-88 and none since 1998-99.  Since it's last winning season, the Wildcats are a combined 58-101 (.365 winning percentage) in the last seasons.  Still, Copeland is looking forward to the challenge.

"I'm not going to try and come in and pull off a one-year turnaround," he said.  "We've got to do a good job recruiting the right athletes that are the right fit for the school and then work them until we get better.  I feel confident that I can come in and get good enough players to get this thing going in the right direction."

Copeland's ability to recruit (UTEP head coach Doc Sadler said Copeland "made his mark" in Texas as a tremendous recruiter) is what drew Mosley's attention.

"He has been very instrumental in Lubbock Christian's success at the NAIA Division I level, and I believe he will make those same strides here at ACU," Mosley said.  "Jason also has established a great network with regional high school and junior college coaches throughout Texas over the  last seven years.  That is a major factor to having success at our level.  The ability to recruit Texas and the surrounding states is essential to successfully building a nationally competitive program."

Sadler pointed out, however, that Copeland's abilities don't end on the recruiting trail.

"Jason understands that to be a good coach, you have to go get good players," said Sadler, who was an assistant coach at Texas Tech under former head coach James Dickey when he met Copeland.  "And once he gets them, Jason will do a tremendous job coaching them."

Copeland will meet with the returning men's basketball team before the week is out, and then he'll get started on the recruiting trail.  ACU finished 8-19 overall last year and 1-11 in the Lone Star Conference South Division and dropped its last nine games of the season and 15 of its last 16 after starting 7-4.  Among the players who will not be returning are senior guard David Baxter (20.1 ppg and an ACU single-season record 94 3-pointers) and junior forward Hakim Rasul (26.0 ppg and ACU single-season record 649 points).  Rasul withdrew from school after the basketball season concluded.

Copeland will also have to contend with a conference that in the last four years has produced one NCAA Division II national champion (Northeastern State in 2002-03) and one Final Four team (Tarleton State in 2004-05).

"The Lone Star Conference is one of the toughest leagues in Division II basketball," Copeland said.  "But I feel like I'm coming from the toughest league at the NAIA Division I level (Sooner Athletic Conference).  But we've got a product at ACU that's as good or better than the other LSC schools to sell to kids.  We've got a great school, a great city and some of the best facilities in the league."

Copeland said he would like to have a nice mix of high school and junior college talent, but knows that winning with high school players at the Division II level is tough.

"At this level, there has to be a nice balance," he said.  "You can't be heavy on junior college kids, but you have to go get the best players you can get.  I'm anxious to see who will be coming back and then get to work putting together a plan on what we need to go get this summer."

A 1993 graduate of Lubbock Christian High School, Copeland was a four-year standout for the Eagle basketball team and a Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) all-state golfer.  After graduating from LCU in 1997 with a B.S. in kinesiology, Copeland returned to LCHS to coach the basketball team.  During his two-year run, he led the Eagles to a pair of district titles, an appearance in the state championship game and a 41-18 overall record.

In 1998, Copeland returned to LCU to join his father on the Chaparrals' sideline and since then the Chaps are a combined 124-80 with one Sooner Athletic Conference tournament championship (2000-01), one Sooner Athletic Conference title (2003-04) and two appearances in the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City, Mo. (2003-04 and 2004-05).

Perhaps the most amazing accomplishment of Copeland's tenure at LCU was in November 2003 when the Chaps played three NCAA Division I teams in five nights and won two games.  On Nov. 21, the Chaps went Coral Gables, Fla., and lost to Miami (Fla.), 86-66.  Two nights later, though, the Chaps went to Kingston, R.I., and stunned the Rams of Rhode Island, 74-68, on their home floor.  Two nights and three time zones later, the Chaps beat Bradley, 89-81, in Las Vegas, Nev.

While Mosley doesn't expect Copeland and the Wildcats to go out and beat two NCAA Division I teams next season, he would like to see a more competitive program than the one that over the last six seasons has lost 29 games by 20 or more points, 10 games by 30 or more points and four games by 40 or more points.

"Building a program takes a lot of time and hard work," Mosley said.  "Jason is a tireless worker, recruiter, and mentor to his players and I look forward to him coming in and injecting a great amount of enthusiasm and excitement into the program immediately.

It is our goal to immediately put a product on the floor that will be competitive each night in Lone Star Conference play and a program that our faculty, staff and students will rally behind and support.  Long-term we want to have a program that is competing on a national level year in year out -- much like most of our other athletic programs."