Cary Cochran - Men's Basketball Coach - James Madison University Athletics

Cary Cochran

Title:
Directon of Basketball Operation

Cary Cochran is in his third season as director of operations for the JMU basketball program, and he brings to the position the insight of being a former college player and the personal skills necessary to play a key role on the JMU staff.

NCAA rules don't allow team operations directors to be involved in on-court team activities, but Cochran handles many of the program's organizational functions and day-to-day responsibilities.

"Cary is extremely organized, and as a former player has a real understanding of the college game," said Dukes' head coach Dean Keener, referring to the 27-year-old Cochran as a "rising star" in the college basketball ranks. "Rules prohibit him from working on-court with our players, but he touches our program in a lot of ways behind the scenes."

Cochran joined the JMU staff after working as a graduate-assistant manager at Wyoming from 2003-05, and he is a former four-year letterman, a three-year starter and 1,000-point career scorer at Nebraska.

At Nebraska, Cochran set team records for game, season and career three-point field goals, and he completed his career third on the Big 12 Conference's all-time list for three-pointers.

The opportunity to work under Keener was Cochran's motivation for making his move east.

"The reason I made a move this far was Coach Keener, who I've known for about 10 years," the Iowa native said. "He recruited me out of high school (when Keener was a Southern Methodist assistant coach), and we've stayed in some contact since. I didn't know a lot about James Madison or its program, but I knew there was someone leading the program for whom I had a great amount of respect."

Outside of basketball while at Nebraska, Cochran represented the Cornhusker Athletics Department at booster club events, civic organization meetings and other school functions. He also was selected to represent the Big 12 Conference on the Student Basketball Council sponsored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

After completing his Nebraska career, Cochran briefly played professionally for the Magic City Snowbears of Minot, N.D., and was selected to the league all-star team.

Cochran was an outstanding player at Tri-Center High School in Neola, Iowa, leading the team to a 76-17 (.817) record in four seasons. He twice was the state scoring champion, and he completed his career as the state?s leading career scorer.

Cochran earned his bachelor of arts degree in communication studies and had minors in history and sociology. He was working toward a master?s degree in communications while at Wyoming.