Mississippi State women’s basketball head coach Sam Purcell announced the hiring of Kelby Jones as the program’s director of scouting and analytics on Monday.
Jones, a native of Pottsboro, Texas, comes to Starkville with a wealth of basketball knowledge as an assistant coach and as an analytics director. Most recently, Jones spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of North Texas, where he also served as the team’s recruiting coordinator. While leading the Mean Green’s recruiting efforts, Jones helped sign the 33rd ranked class, according to the Dan Olson Report, the best recruiting class in program history.
During his time in Denton, Texas, Jones helped guide UNT to 30 wins, including a 17-win campaign and a WNIT appearance during the 2021-22 season. He helped guide a pair of student-athletes to All-Conference USA honors the past two seasons, including Quincy Nobles, who earned first team honors in 2021 and second team honors in 2022.
Prior to coaching at his alma mater, Jones spent four seasons at the University of Texas, serving in several different roles. He got started with the Longhorns in 2016 as a graduate assistant, where he assisted the coaching staff with game scouts, player development and recruiting efforts. He also led Texas’ group of student managers for game day and practice duties, the scout team, and handled equipment for the program.
After graduating with his Master’s in Physical Education in 2018, he was promoted to the team’s video coordinator and oversaw the breakdown and distribution of all practice and game film while assembling scouting reports for the coaching staff and student athletes and researched analytical trends of upcoming opponents.
In August of 2019, he was elevated to the director of analytics, where he provided scouting reports to head coach Karen Aston on the team’s upcoming opponents. Jones was also tasked with developing an analytical plan for the coaching staff to track player progress throughout the season while breaking down film for scouting. He oversaw Texas’ use of JustPlay technology by uploading virtual playbooks and scouting reports and helped plan and execute all Texas youth basketball camps.
Jones earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology from North Texas in 2016 and spent four years as the director of managerial operations as a student at UNT, beginning in 2012. He served as the team’s head manager and was promoted to the program’s interim basketball operations director his senior year. Jones was responsible for film exchange, team travel, practice schedules, scout team, equipment and assisted with on-campus recruiting. In 2015, he was nominated for the “Hardest Working Employee” award at the University of North Texas.
