FIU men’s basketball Head Coach Jeremy Ballard rounded out his first coaching staff, when he announced the hiring of Joey Rodriguez as an assistant coach on May 14, 2018. The 2021-22 campaign will mark Rodriguez's fourth season with the Panthers.
In his first year at FIU, Rodriguez helped guide the Panthers to a 20-14 record and a 10-8 mark in Conference USA (C-USA) play. The team’s 20 wins marked just the third time in school history that FIU logged 20-or-more victories and were tied for the second most in a single season, while the 10 C-USA wins was the most since joining the conference. In addition, the Panthers earned a berth to just their second postseason tournament in program history taking part in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament (CIT) and advancing to the second round. During the first round of the CIT, the Blue and Gold won their first-ever postseason tournament game with an 87-81 victory at Texas State.
As a team, the Panthers set several single-season school records, including points (2,798), rebounds (1,218), assists (491) and steals (359), led the nation in steals-per-game (10.6), turnover margin (5.6) and turnovers forced (19.6), and was second in total steals.
With Rodriguez ’s tutelage, several student-athletes had breakout seasons, Both Brian Beard, Jr. and Osasumwen Osaghae were named to the C-USA All-Defensive Team while Beard, Jr. earned Second Team All-C-USA honors.
The winning ways continued with Rodriguez on the sidelines during the 2019-20 season when the Panthers went 19-13 before the remainder of the season was cancelled to the COVID-19 outbreak.
During his second season at FIU, the squad finished with a 9-9 league record, earning the fifth seed for the program’s highest ever seeding for the C-USA Tournament. During the conference tournament, the Panthers took down Rice 85-76 for the programs second ever win during the conference tournament.
FIU led the nation in blocked shots (210) and swats per contest (6.6) during the 2019-20 campaign. The team also ranked 11th in three-point defense (28.8) and total steals (280). The Panthers 8.8 steals per game ranked 13th nationally.
Rodriguez coached a pair of FIU players earned Conference USA Second Team Honors with Osaghae and Devon Andrews taking home the honors. Along with the award, Osaghae was named to the all-defensive team and earned FIU’s first ever Conference USA superlative after being named the Defensive Player of the Year.
During the 2020-21 season, Rodriguez was the program go 9-17 overall and 2-15 against C-USA opponents. He mentored a team that broke a pair of program records during the squad's dominant 111-34 victory over Carver. The Panthers' 34 assists and 20 made three-pointers were the new program records set. The previous mark for assists was set in 1990, while the last record from three was set at Cleveland State in 2019.
A catalyst of VCU’s historic 2011 Final Four squad, and one of the most beloved Rams in program history, Rodriguez comes to FIU after serving one season as director of player development at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he worked with Ballard, and former Rice University Head Coach Mike Rhoades.
Rodriguez also worked for Rhoades as video coordinator at Conference USA foe Rice during the 2016-17 season, where he helped the Owls to an 11-win improvement and the school’s first 20-win season in more than a decade.
Prior to his time at Rice, Rodriguez served as head coach at his high school alma mater, Lake Howell (Fla.) during the 2015-16 school year.
Rodriguez starred for VCU as a point guard from 2007-11. A deft playmaker, Rodriguez was one of the driving forces behind VCU’s 2011 march from the NCAA First Four to the Final Four. He averaged 10.4 points, 5.2 assists and 3.2 rebounds that season, including 9.0 points and 7.7 assists in the Rams’ five NCAA Tournament wins.
In all, Rodriguez helped lead VCU to four postseason berths during his career, including a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (2009, 2011). Rodriguez ranks third in school history in both assists (580) and steals (237), as well as 21st in points (1,362).
Following graduation, Rodriguez played professionally in Puerto Rico and Turkey.
The Winter Park, Fla., native got his start in coaching at UCF, spending the 2012-13 season as its assistant video coordinator, helping the Knights to a 20-11 record. He then returned to Richmond, and served as an assistant coach at Benedictine.
