Jacksonville State University Athletics

When Rick Pietri, a coach with a reputation for turning programs around, came on-board as the new head women’s basketball coach at Jacksonville State University in June of 2013, he began developing a new culture for the Gamecock women’s basketball program.
 
After 12 seasons at the helm of Jax State, Pietri has compiled 181 victories and stands as the school’s winningest head coach. His teams have set Division I school records for both overall and conference wins in a season. With 401 career victories at the Division I level, he ranks second all-time amongst the winningest collegiate women’s head coach in the state of Alabama history, behind only Auburn’s legendary Joe Ciampi.
 
Pietri is one of just five head coaches in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to be the winningest head coach at two programs (Jacksonville State and South Alabama). In addition, after reaching the 150-win milestone at Jax State with a 59-51 victory at Chattanooga on Dec. 29, 2022, he became just the 23rd coach at the Division I level to ever earn 200 and 150 victories at separate institutions.

Pietri guided the Gamecocks to a 16-14 record in 2022-23 as they posted their fourth winning season in the last five years. Their 9-9 mark in ASUN competition served as the sixth consecutive season with a .500 or better record in conference play. Kennedy Gavin, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, netted selections to the ASUN Conference’s Second-Team All-Conference and Women’s Basketball All-Academic squads. Jax State started the year off hot, breaking program records for points in a game, margin of victory, field goals, and field goals in a half in a 114-33 drubbing of Shorter in the season opener on Nov. 7. Following another successful season against challenging non-conference and conference slates, the Gamecocks once again advanced to the ASUN Tournament in March.
 
Upon his arrival, Pietri immediately reversed the fortunes of Gamecock women’s basketball. After inheriting a team that had gone 1-27 the year prior, Pietri posted 14 wins in his debut season in charge of the program. The turnaround was among the best in NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball that year. The Gamecocks won eight of their last 12 league games to sneak into the 2014 OVC Women’s Basketball Tournament, where JSU constructed an improbable run as the No. 6 seed.
 
Jax State topped SIU-Edwardsville in the opening round to set up the third meeting of the year with Tennessee Tech. Trailing TTU for most of the game, Briana Benson made a put-back at the buzzer that sent the JSU on to the semifinals. Benson’s buzzer-beater made ESPN’s Top-10 plays of the day on SportsCenter that night. Their run ended the following day as three games in three days proved too much against the No. 2 seed Belmont. For his efforts in that first season, Pietri was named the 2013-14 OVC Coach of the Year by his colleagues.
 
Continuing the program’s upswing in his second year, Pietri guided the Gamecocks to heights unseen during its NCAA Division I history. His squad turned in a 19-10 overall mark – the most wins in Jacksonville State's Division I era. The Gamecocks started strong by winning nine of 12 games in the first two months of the season, which marked the most non-conference wins since moving to Division I.  One of those victories was the first ever Jax State road win over a “Power 5” conference school, when the Gamecocks beat SEC foe Alabama in Tuscaloosa, 64-62.
 
Jacksonville State finished the 2014-15 Ohio Valley Conference slate with a 10-6 record and placed in a tie for fourth in the league. The Gamecocks were among the best in the nation at handling the basketball that year. The team ranked fourth in NCAA Division I women’s basketball in fewest turnovers committed with a per-game average of 11.2.
 
The success on the hardwood also translated into success in academics.  Jax State ranked 14th in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association 2015 Academic Top 25 Honor Roll presented by AT&T. They posted a team grade point average of 3.511, soaring from the 2.30 mark prior to Pietri’s arrival in 2012-13.
 
A roster decimated by injuries in 2015-16 impacted the Gamecocks to a 10-18 overall mark and a 5-11 mark in conference play. Jax State’s success at home under Pietri still continued with seven wins at the newly renovated Pete Mathews Coliseum.
 
The following season saw Jacksonville State add depth to a depleted roster, however, the injury bug struck again as three key contributors, including 1,000-point scorer Destany McLin, were lost for the season early in the year. Despite hardships, the 2016-17 squad made several positive impressions such as playing competitively with nationally ranked Florida State on the road and nearly upsetting Clemson at home in December. The team won three of its final four OVC games to finish 6-10 in the league. Senior transfer Lacey Buchanon received All-Conference honors making the All-Newcomer squad that year.
 
Once healthy again for the 2017-18 campaign, Pietri’s club picked up where it left off three years prior en route to matching the school record with 19 wins for a 19-12 overall mark. In OVC play, the Gamecocks turned in a 12-6 record, notching the most conference wins ever in the school’s 23-year Div. I history which spanned the Atlantic Sun and Ohio Valley Conferences.
 
The 12-6 league mark dealt Jax State the No. 4 seed in the 2018 OVC Tournament held at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., for the first time. The Gamecocks beat fifth-seeded Morehead State for the third time that season in the first round to advance to the semifinals. They faced a nationally ranked Belmont squad the following day and held close before a couple of late baskets gave the Bruins the advantage they needed for their 45^th consecutive win over an OVC opponent.
 
The Gamecocks had more highlights early in the 2018-19 season, beginning with a road win at Ole Miss in early December for Jacksonville State's second win over a SEC opponent in five years. That same month saw Coach Pietri eclipse the 300-mark in career wins against Alabama A&M. Jax State returned to Evansville, Ind., and the OVC Tournament again after earning the No. 7 seed with an even 9-9 record in league play. A young Gamecock squad took time to develop, but a 3-6 start in conference action ended with a 6-3 stretch. Senior Rayven Pearson climbed to fourth on the school's all-time career rebounding list and became the program's first All-OVC first team selection since 2005, while redshirt-senior and first-year Gamecock Destiney Elliott made the OVC All-Newcomer team.
 
In 2019-20, the Gamecocks made it three-straight seasons reaching the OVC Tournament after a 14-15 regular season and 10-8 league record. It tied the longest consecutive stretch of postseason play since joining the OVC in 2003-04. Jax State opened the season at historic Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn., taking on Vanderbilt where the Gamecocks held close until the final period. Pietri's team made 10 three-pointers in the contest, signaling what was to come for the rest of the season as the Gamecocks went on to set the program record with 198 made treys. JSU placed two players on All-OVC Teams for the first time in five years with graduate-senior Destiney Elliott earning first team honors, while junior Taylor Hawks was selected to the second team.
 
Immediately following the 2020 OVC tournament the world suddenly changed with the impact of Covid-19. With uncertainty going into the following season, the Gamecocks were ready and waiting for whatever came. What came was a delayed start to the season from the NCAA, and a maximum 25-game schedule which forced several scheduling alterations in the weeks leading up to the 2020-21 season. In total, Jacksonville State had nine major postponements or cancelations during the season, but persevered for a 15-8 regular-season record and the school’s first-ever trip to four consecutive OVC tournaments in the team’s final year in the conference.
 
Senior Taylor Hawks became the 14th member of the program to reach 1,000 career points and junior Yamia Johnson earned second-team All-OVC honors after ranking among the best scorers in the conference all season. The duo helped Jax State to a 7-2 start out of the gate, including a 72-67 win over UT Martin to snap a 14-game losing skid to the perennial OVC power. The UTM win came at home as the Gamecocks reeled off 10-straight home wins to begin the season, ranking among the top 10 streaks in the nation. The wild season came to a close with a 79-64 loss to Tennessee Tech in the first round of the tournament.

Pietri led the 2021-22 Gamecocks, in what is considered the best NCAA Division I season in school history, to a program-best 24-8 record, 15-1 home mark, 13 conference wins, and nine non-conference victories. Jacksonville State's records at home (15-1), in conference (13-3) and in non-conference (9-3) in 2021-22 are all NCAA Division I program records. Their 24 wins were the most since the 1990-91 season and the program’s most in the Division I era. Included in Jax State's historic winning total was an ASUN West Division Championship - the first championship of any kind for the Gamecocks in the D-I era. Their West Division Title earned the squad a spot in the ASUN Championship Tournament as one of two No. 1 seeds.

Jax State easily moved past Jacksonville in the quarterfinals, 70-56, marking its first postseason win since 2018. In the semifinals the Gamecocks welcomed 27-2 Liberty, the No. 2 seed from the East Division. Jacksonville State never trailed in that contest and defeated the Flames 59-57 on a buzzer-beating layup from senior Kiana Johnson that was featured on SportsCenter’s Top Ten Plays. The win over Liberty marked one of the greatest wins of the Division-I era and sent Pietri's squad to their third-ever ASUN Championship Final and their first since 1999. The Gamecocks fell short in the title game to a Top-25 ranked Florida Gulf Coast team, but despite the loss in the Championship Final, Jax State's season was not over. Pietri and the Gamecocks earned a WNIT bid, securing the first postseason national tournament appearance for the program in the Division-I era. They lost in the first round to Tulane, ending a record-setting year for the Gamecocks.
 
Before his tenure at Jacksonville State, Pietri spent the previous 13 seasons as the head coach at South Alabama.  Prior to his arrival, South Alabama had posted 10-straight losing seasons. He turned the Lady Jags into a contender in the Sun Belt Conference, capturing back-to-back Sun Belt West Division titles in 2003 and 2004. South made consecutive WNIT Postseason appearances both in 2003 and 2004, and he finished as the all-time winningest coach in Lady Jaguars history with a career record of 220-167. In a list compiled in 2020, Pietri is one of just 55 Div. I women’s head coaches with 100-or-more wins at two schools, and only 32 of those have at least 200 at one of their stops.
 
Pietri's turnaround of the South Alabama program started with his first team, during the 2000-01 campaign as the Jags finished with a record of 13-16.  The thirteen victories were the most wins in a season for the program in over 10 years.
 
The rebuild continued the next season, as USA posted the first winning season since the 1989-90 season with a 17-11 record. Two years later, the Lady Jags finished 22-7 after opening the season with a 14-1 record and won the division crown for the second straight year.
 
During Pietri's tenure, the Jags posted a 130-54 (.707) record at home, including setting an arena record with 14 home wins during the 2008-09 season.  The Jags finished with a winning record in five of his last six years, including three straight years with a 17-13 record from 2010-11 through the 2012-13 season.
 
One of USA’s best defensive clubs was the 2003-04 squad, which finished the campaign ranked eighth in the nation in scoring defense (55.0 ppg) and led the Sun Belt in that category for the third straight year. In 2011-12, South Alabama once again led the league and ranked 11th nationally while allowing a program-best 52.8 ppg.
 
Pietri brought in an established pattern of winning and success to the South Alabama program in the spring of 2000. In only his second season at St. Paul’s High School in Mobile, his 1999-2000 boys’ team finished with the school’s best record, 26-5, and first playoff win in the history of the program. After that season, he was voted Mobile County Private School Coach of the Year by local coaches, his fifth county Coach of the Year honor in six years.
 
The boys’ teams Pietri coached at Mobile’s B.C. Rain High School from 1995-98 each garnered a winning percentage at or above 75 percent. He led his B.C. Rain teams to four consecutive appearances in Alabama’s “Final Four”. His 1997 squad finished 28-7 and won the 5A State Championship, while his teams finished as runners-up in 1996 and 1998. Pietri was named 1998 5A State Coach of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association and was also named Mobile Press Register Coach of the Year for Southwest Alabama each season he coached at B.C. Rain.

Pietri began his collegiate coaching career as a men's assistant at Spring Hill College for four seasons (1989-93), before joining Duane Reboul's staff at Birmingham Southern in 1993-94.
 
Before earning his degree from South Alabama, Pietri was a 1983 graduate of De La Salle High School in New Orleans, La. Pietri is married to the former Suzanne Odom, a Mobile native. They have two sons, Wesley and Jordan, and daughters-in-law, Emily and Katie, as well as new grandson, Wayne III.