UMBC Basketball Head Coach Jim Ferry Tried to Dunk on Me for No Reason

UMBC Basketball Head Coach Jim Ferry Tried to Dunk on Me for No Reason

UMBC Basketball fell to Georgetown last night, 86-62, in a game where the Retrievers committed a season-high 21 turnovers. I was present at the game, as I have the honor of being credentialed media at Georgetown. It’s a really cool opportunity that I want to shout out the Athletics Communications staff for giving me, validating all the work I do on the Jimmer Range Podcast. The Georgetown staff rocks!

In postgame media availability, the opposing coach will typically pop in first to answer a few questions before Georgetown representatives come in. After this particular game, I had a very strange interaction with UMBC Basketball head coach Jim Ferry.

Was he not kinda rude to me here? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think anything I said was disrespectful or antagonistic. Why did he respond this way?

I’ve challenged myself to ask at least one question in every press conference I have the privilege of being in this season. Not every question will be profound, interesting, or even good, but I want to get the reps in. I want to get better at this. In every prior interaction I’ve had, coaches have given me the time of day, which I’m very grateful for! This one was different. He cut me off, belittled me, and was also very wrong about a few things.

Let’s start with why I asked this particular question. Sometimes, teams that play faster turn the ball over more. It isn’t a particularly strong correlation, but it certainly happens. As much as his answer might communicate otherwise, it’s not a stupid idea that pace and turnovers could be related (especially given the numbers for Ferry’s previous teams, which we’ll get to in a second). I wanted to know, given that the America East features a few uptempo teams like Bryant, UMass Lowell, and UAlbany, 1) if Ferry saw his team’s turnovers as a sort of unfortunate side effect of high pace, and 2) if he felt that the turnovers would be less of a critical issue in league play given that other teams like to play fast and could be prone to similar or worse problems.

Maybe it’s a bad question, and maybe I did a poor job of asking it. I’m not above criticism. However, I think it’s fair to say that if you’re going to interrupt me in the middle of a question to dunk on me, you better be 100% correct about what you are saying. Jim Ferry was not.

Here’s Where Jim Ferry Was Wrong

For the record, I have watched Jim Ferry’s teams play several times over the last few years, mostly 2023-24 UMBC and 2020-21 Penn State. I’m a college basketball junkie – probably in the top 15-20% of Jim Ferry watchers if I had to guess. Last season, UMBC Basketball ranked 299th nationally in turnovers per game with 13.1. If rate stats are your thing, the Retrievers finished 231st in turnover percentage. That’s significantly worse than Ferry let on, both in terms of the number of turnovers (“We averaged about 10 turnovers a game.”) and his team’s national standing (“We don’t turn the ball over.”).

I then went and checked the turnover numbers from the large portion of Ferry’s coaching career that I have not watched. While there have been a couple solid seasons more recently, it’s worth noting that ball security has not historically been a hallmark of teams coached by Jim Ferry. You can see the numbers below.

Averaging a No. 196 national finish in turnovers per game? More seasons outside the Top 250 than inside the Top 100? Interesting.

Again, I’m not going to sit here and say my question was awesome or anything. I’m new at this and trying my best. Despite my relative naïveté, I wish my question wasn’t interrupted and turned back on me in a disrespectful manner while citing false statistics. I also wish the reporter (who I will not name) from a prominent outlet sitting in front of me during the press conference didn’t shake his head in disapproval as I asked my question. I won’t name you, but I noticed. That was rude too, man. Remember where you came from.

I will not fall victim to the Fundamental Attribution Error and say that Jim Ferry is a mean guy, point blank period. In this given situation he was, but I don’t know the man. This was my first interaction with him. Maybe he’s justifiably upset at his team turning the ball over 21 times and losing, and he took it out on me. Maybe he’s worn out from his 19 years of coaching. I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter.

In conclusion, here’s to getting better, even when others might not respect your efforts. Let’s all keep doing our best.

Onward and upward.

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