Dayton assistant takes head coaching job at Stetson after one season on Grant’s staff

One year after James Kane left Dayton after one season to work as an assistant at Iowa State, Dayton assistant Donnie Jones has accepted an offer to be the head coach at Stetson University in Deland, Fla. Stetson announced the hire Friday.

“I’m so excited and grateful to be a part of the Stetson Hatter family," Jones said in a press release. "I appreciate the opportunity to help build a culture and a style of play that will be exciting to play and fun to watch."

During his season in Dayton, Jones helped recruit Florida transfer Chase Johnson, who joined the program in January. Both are natives of West Virginia.

Jones joined Grant's staff last July. They first coached together in 1994 at Marshall under Billy Donovan. Grant got his start in college coaching at age 27 as an assistant at Stetson under Dan Hipsher in July 1993. He worked there until he left for Marshall in 1994.

» ARCHDEACON: Jones, Grant go way back

Jones and Grant coached with Donovan at Marshall until 1996 and then followed Donovan to the University of Florida. Both were on Donovan’s staff when the Gators won the national championship in 2006, and Jones remained on the staff when the Gators won the title again in 2007. Dayton has another assistant coach, Darren Hertz, who was also a part of those national championship teams.

This will be the third head coaching job at the Division I level for Jones, who coached Central Florida from 2010-16 and Marshall from 2007-10. He takes over a program that has experienced 11 straight losing seasons and hasn’t had a winning season since 2000-01. The Hatters finished 7-24 last season under Corey Williams, who was fired in March after six seasons.