NYU Athletics

The 2004-05 season marked Joe Nesci’s 17th year as the head men’s basketball coach at New York University.  During his tenure, the Violets have produced 16 winning seasons, have made 11 post-season appearances (including seven-consecutive NCAA Tournament bids from 1992-98), and have compiled an overall 297-140 (.679) record.

Last season, the Violets went 16-10 overall, finished fifth with a 6-8 record in the University Athletic Association, and earned a berth to the ECAC Division III Metro Championship Tournament.

Individually, several of Nesci’s players earned distinction in ’04-05.  Senior Jeff Gilkerson led the team in rebounds (7.0), was second on the team in scoring (11.2), and finished his career tied for ninth on the Violets’ all-time scoring list (1,236 points).  He was selected Second Team All-UAA, Third Team All-Metropolitan, and an ESPN The Magazine Second Team District I Academic All-American.  Sophomore Jason Boone recorded the second-highest field goal percentage (61.2%) in team history and was also named Second Team All-UAA.  Sophomore Daniel Falcon received Honorable Mention All-UAA accolades.

Nesci, whose NYU head-coaching career began during the middle of the 1988-89 season, has now coached the second-most games in team history (437).  Only NYU Hall of Famer Howard Cann (641) has coached more games for the Violets.   

Nesci, along with fellow NYU coaching greats Cann and Lou Rossini, also holds the distinction of having led his team to the NCAA Final Four.  Cann guided the ‘44-45 team to the National Championship Game with a lineup led by Dolph Schayes, before the Violets fell to Oklahoma A&M (now known as Oklahoma State), 49-45.  Rossini’s ‘59-60 team, with Tom “Satch” Sanders scoring 21.3 points per game, also advanced to the Final Four, but lost to Ohio State 76-54 in the semifinals.

In 1993-94, Nesci led NYU to the Division III National Championship Final as the Violets won the UAA Championship and a school-record 25 games.  As a result of the Violets’ tremendous success that season, Nesci was honored by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers’ Association as the Division III Coach of the Year.  It was the third-consecutive year Nesci received the award after earning Co-Coach of the Year honors the previous two seasons.  Nesci and his assistants were also named UAA Coaching Staff of the Year for the second consecutive season after the successfully defending their 1992-93 title.

These accolades notwithstanding, the 1994-95 season may well have offered the strongest evidence of Nesci’s impressive coaching skills.  After losing all five starters from the 1993-94 team, Nesci took an inexperienced group of players and led them to a 22-5 record that included a first-round NCAA Tournament win.

Nesci now owns the best winning percentage (.679) of any NYU men’s coach with at least 50 victories, and is second on the all-time wins list (behind Cann`s 409).  His teams have also amassed a 133-99 (.583) record in UAA competition. 

Nesci joined the NYU staff as an assistant coach in June 1984 and took over as head coach in January 1989.  That squad went 6-5 under his guidance and 16-12 overall. 
Nesci began his coaching career at Xavier High School in Manhattan, where he was Chairman of Physical Education from 1982-87. 

A 1979 graduate of Brooklyn College with a degree in health, Nesci and his wife Jane have three children: Alyssa (who currently attends NYU), Andrew and Amanda.  The family currently resides on Staten Island, NY.  

Nesci’s Numbers, Year-by-Year

* Became head coach after 17 games
• NCAA Division III Regional Semifinalist
•• NCAA Division III Sectional Semifinalist
••• NCAA Division III National Runner-up
e ECAC Metro Championship Participant
E ECAC Metro Championship Runner-Up