Mike McKee, Jon Jordan, A.J. Kuhle and John Fitzgerald have been named to the Pioneers men’s basketball staff, head coach Joe Scott announced today. McKee and Jordan were on Scott’s staff and Kuhle played for Scott at Air Force when the Falcons won the Mountain West Conference title in 2004.
“I am very excited to reunite with these staff members,” Scott said. “All four of these individuals provide exceptional talent, energy and the dimension needed to begin to build a winning program.”
McKee joins the DU staff as associate head coach after spending two years as associate head coach at the University of Richmond. The Delran, N.J., native spent four seasons on the staff at Air Force, the first three of which were under Scott. He was an assistant coach for the first three years at the Academy before being promoted to associate head coach in 2004–05.
McKee was a four-year letter winner at Lehigh and a team captain during his senior season. He earned the team’s outstanding player and Coaches Award in 1994 while being named the top newcomer in 1991 and the most improved player in 1992. McKee still holds the program’s single-game and single-season records for most assists.
Kuhle begins his tenure as an assistant coach after spending the previous three seasons as assistant coach at Air Force, where he had been a four-year letter winner in basketball under Scott. In his three years on the Falcons’ coaching staff, Air Force posted a record of 68-28, including a school-record 26 wins in 2006–07.
Under current Colorado head coach Jeff Bzdelik, Kuhle helped guide the Falcons to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Combined with its 24 wins the previous year, Air Force was one of just 17 Division I teams to have at least 50 wins the past two seasons. A 2004 graduate of the Academy, Kuhle was a four-year letter winner and a three-year starter for Air Force under Scott. As a senior co-captain, he was named the team’s Most Valuable Player after helping the Falcons to a then-school record 22 victories and their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 42 years.
Jordan spent five seasons at Air Force as an assistant coach from 2000–05, the first four seasons of which were under Scott. Jordan left the Academy after the 2004–05 season when he retired from the Air Force and worked in the private sector in Boston for two years. He also was head coach of the Air Force Academy’s Prep School from 1995–98. A 1985 graduate of Air Force, Jordan was a three-year basketball letter winner.
He averaged nearly 11 points and seven rebounds per game and was named honorable mention all-conference his senior year. Against conference opponents, he led his team in field-goal percentage at 50.6 percent his junior year and pulled down over 100 rebounds against conference opponents his senior season.
Fitzgerald, a native of Englewood, Colo., returns to the Centennial State as director of basketball operations for the Pioneers. Fitzgerald spent the last three years in the same capacity with Princeton under Scott as the head coach. Prior to his stint with Princeton, Fitzgerald was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Division III Williams College for one year. The Ephs finished 30-2 in 2003–04 and advanced to the national championship game.
A four-year letter winner at Williams, Fitzgerald was a member of the 2003 Eph team that won the NCAA Division III national championship. He received the team’s “Purple & Gold” Award for Leadership and Character in 2003 and was a three-time Williams College scholar-athlete. The Ephs finished 94-18 overall in his four years.
The men’s basketball staff members will begin their new responsibilities immediately.