Jim Jabir

James Jude Jabir Jr. (August 12, 1962 – April 16, 2026) was an American basketball coach who coached at the college level and the professional level.

Career A native of Brooklyn, New York, Jabir graduated from Nazareth College in 1984 with a degree in English. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Nazareth in 1984–85. He was the head coach of Buffalo State College in the NCAA Division 3 in 1986–87, guiding the team to a SUNYAC Championship and the NCAA Regionals. At Buffalo State, he earned a Master's degree in Student Personnel Administration.

In 2002–03, Jabir was an assistant coach at the Colorado University Women’s Basketball Team, helping the squad to a Sweet 16 appearance. Jabir moved to the University of Dayton, where he was the Head Women’s Basketball Coach from 2003 to 2016. At Dayton, he compiled a record of 252 wins and 155 defeats and became the winningest coach in program history. In 2013, his Dayton Flyers’ team was ranked 11th nationally in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls. He coached Dayton to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2015. Jabir received Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year honors in 2008 and 2013 and was a finalist for the Naismith College Coach of the Year Award in 2013.

In parts of the 2016–17 season, he coached in the professional ranks, serving as head coach for SISU's men's team in Denmark’s Basketligaen, where he signed in January 2017. and was named 2016–17 Basketligaen Coach of the Year. Under his guidance, SISU won eleven of its 18 games.

Jabir went back to the United States and was Head Women's Basketball Coach at Florida Atlantic University from 2017 to 2021. In April 2021, he returned to Siena College and was named Siena's Women's Basketball Head Coach.

Retirement and death Jabir announced his retirement in March 2024. He decided to move to California where his wife took a job at Stanford University. Jabir died from complications of pancreatic cancer on April 16, 2026, at the age of 63.

Head coaching record