FAU women’s basketball head coach Jim Jabir is leaving to coach in New York for Siena College, sources can confirm. It will be the second time Jabir is coaching for Siena; the first time lasted from 1987 to 1990.

This comes after Jabir led the team to its best overall performance of 11-11 (8-8 C-USA) in Conference USA since the team joined the conference in 2013, including their first quarterfinal appearance in the C-USA tournament. 

Brian White, vice president and director of the athletics department, said that a national search for the next coach will be conducted immediately.

“We thank Coach Jabir for his efforts and his service while leading the FAU women’s basketball program,” White said. “Feedback from our student-athletes will be very important as we look forward to finding the next leader for FAU women’s basketball. I’ll be meeting with our team to get their input as we begin the search.”

Jabir became the head coach for FAU in 2017 after coaching Dayton for 13 seasons and leading them to six NCAA tournament appearances. His first season with FAU ended with a 13-15 overall record as the Owls lost 83-71 in the first round of the C-USA tournament to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

The 2018-19 season featured Jabir’s second-worst performance in his coaching career, only marking up five wins out of 30 games.

Jabir made up for that season by having FAU make significant improvements the next year, finishing with a 13-17 overall record but ending with a first-round loss to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

After making the notable acquisition of graduate guard Iggy Allen, Jabir coached the Owls to their best performance since the 2013-14 season, beating the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the first round of the C-USA tournament to advance to their first-ever C-USA quarterfinal. That is where Jabir coached his last game for FAU, bowing out of the tournament with a 74-67 loss to UTEP.

Jabir finished his time at FAU with an overall record of 42-68, including a 32-42 record in C-USA play.

Richard Pereira is the Sports Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Rich26Pereira.