Xavier Joyner - Men's Basketball Coach - James Madison University Athletics

Xavier Joyner

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
joynerxl@jmu.edu
Phone:
540-568-6462

Xavier Joyner will enter his fourth season at JMU in 2023-24, looking to continue building on the immediate success from his first three years with the Dukes.

Joyner arrived at JMU as part of Byington's initial staff in Harrisonburg prior to the 2020-21 campaign. He came to JMU after two seasons as an assistant coach at Mount St. Mary's and a lengthy coaching career with stops at the collegiate, high school and AAU levels.

The 2022-23 campaign, JMU's first as a member of the Sun Belt Conference, saw the Dukes rack up 22 wins on the season, their most since the 1981-82 edition posted the program record of 24. JMU set season records for total points (2,658), total rebounds (1,257), total steals (298) and steals per game (9.03), while the Dukes' scoring average of 80.5 points per game was the third-highest in their Division I history.

The Dukes also went 3-1 against in-state foes on the year, improving to 10-3 against Division I opponents from Virginia in Joyner's time at JMU.

In 2020-21, Joyner helped lead the Dukes to the CAA Regular Season championship just one year after JMU posted a 9-21 mark. The Dukes went 13-7, capturing their ninth regular season title and earning the program's first No. 1 seed in the CAA Tournament since 1992-93.

The Dukes led the league in scoring and scoring margin on the season, despite the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, and won 10 of 11 games down the stretch to clinch JMU's first No. 1 seed in the CAA Tournament since 1992-93.

Joyner's second year in Harrisonburg, the 2021-22 season, saw the Dukes battle to a 15-14 mark while overcoming unprecedented obstacles. Faced with a ban from the league's tournament, JMU overcame injuries and a 29-day COVID-19 pause to notch the program's second straight winning season.

Prior to Emmitsburg, Joyner spent three years as the assistant coach and scouting director at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va., capped by the 2017-18 season that saw him help lead the team to a 33-4 record and 18-0 mark in WCAC play.

Joyner also spent four seasons as an assistant coach for Washington D.C.'s Nike Team Takeover, one of the top AAU programs in the country, helping the team capture the prestigious Las Vegas FAB 48 Championship in 2017, while also propelling the 16U EYBL squad to the No. 1 ranking in the nation in the final poll of the season.

He has head coaching experience at both Prince George's Community College (2010-15) and Montgomery College Germantown (2004-10). His 200 junior college head coaching victories are among the most in history and he is the only coach in Maryland JUCO history to win regional titles at two different schools.

As a player, Joyner was a member of the Husson University men's basketball program in Bangor, Maine. He was an all-conference performer and helped lead his squad to back-to-back Maine Athletic Conference Championships. Joyner was also the recipient of the Allen Kenyon Leadership Award and the Nelson Degrasse Scholar-Athlete Award.

Joyner graduated from Husson in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in business administration/marketing. He and his wife, Nikki, have three adult children, twin daughters Taylor and Tianna, and Xavier.