Jason Gardner will be visible as IUPUI's basketball coach

Jason Gardner was officially introduced Wednesday as IUPUI's eighth men's basketball coach, and he made it clear he intends to approach his job with a full-court press.

"You have to be visible at every open gym, every high school game, to get the word out that IUPUI is the place to be," said Gardner, 33 and an Indianapolis native. "That's what we're going to do with our staff. Every time you look over your right or left shoulder, IUPUI is in the gym.

"I think that's how you create buzz."

The Jaguars can use it. They are coming off a 6-26 season, the last in a 26-70 three-year run under Todd Howard, who was fired earlier this month. Attendance at "The Jungle," IUPUI's 1,215-seat on-campus gym, slipped to 615 a game as the Jaguars receded into irrelevance.

People who know Gardner, the men who have coached him and those he has coached under, say he's ready, and that he's the man for the job.

"Look at the guy," said Josh Pastner, head coach at Memphis, where Gardner toiled last year. "He's 5-10 and the guy got his jersey retired at his high school (North Central). He got his jersey retired at Arizona.

"He's sharp. He has a high basketball I.Q. He's hardworking. He's always been around winning. He knows how to win. He's a winner."

Twenty years ago, in 1994, Ron Hunter was introduced as IUPUI's sixth coach. People doubted that he was ready. Hunter himself wondered.

He toiled 17 seasons. He developed the program from the NAIA level to Division II, and in 2003, took the Jaguars to the NCAA tournament in only their third season of Division I membership.

"I was 30 years old when I took over at IUPUI," said Hunter, now in his third season at Georgia State, which he coached to a 25-9 season, and at 17-1, the Sun Belt Conference regular-season championship. "I think at that job, you need somebody who has a ton of energy and is young enough to build the program and grow with it.

"I do believe you have to have somebody who knows the city, and Jason does. If you don't recruit Indianapolis and make Indianapolis a priority, you can't win at that job."

Relying on local talent

Hunter did that by recruiting players like Indiana Pacers point guard George Hill, a Broad Ripple High School graduate and the only IUPUI player taken in the NBA draft (26th overall in 2008 by the San Antonio Spurs), Northwest's Alex Young, IUPUI's all-time D-1 scoring leader, and Ben Davis' Don Carlisle, the Jaguars' career rebounding leader.

That should be no problem, volunteered Porter Moser, head coach at Loyola in Chicago, where Gardner served as an assistant coach for two seasons before moving to Memphis.

"When I went recruiting with him in Indianapolis it was the 'Jason Gardner Show,'" Moser said. "We'd go to a high school and the administrators would come out to the gym to meet him.

"I remember when we played at Butler (in 2011-12). He's got an autograph line before the game. I'm like, 'Jason, come on, man. We've got to coach the game.'"

There are reasons for Gardner's favored-son status. He was IndyStar Mr. Basketball and a McDonald's and Parade All-American as a senior at North Central in 1998-99. He led the Panthers to the Class 4A state championship that year.

Long-time North Central coach Doug Mitchell remembers. He goes back to the Hinkle semi-state championship game that delivered the Panthers to that finale.

North Central and Bloomington South were tied with 5.2 seconds to play. The Panthers had the ball out of bounds at the far end of the court. They got it to Gardner who ran off three screens and hit the tying 3-pointer. North Central won in overtime.

"As we were celebrating, we started looking for Jason and we can't find him," Mitchell recalled. "There he is in a ball on the floor. He's had a total body cramp. His body has seized. He ran out of juice. They had to give him I.V.s right there in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

"He started cramping in the middle of the third quarter. His mind had literally overridden his body."

Mitchell lists toughness and compassion as two of Gardner's prime personal qualities and great coaching assets. The toughness was on display that night. The compassion, Mitchell said, is always there, and it's appealing.

"He's going to be endearing with little kids," Mitchell said. "Recruits' mothers are going to like him, and fathers. Grandparents are going to like him."

Family up front

Former Arizona coach Lute Olson knows where that side comes from. When Olson made a recruiting visit to the Gardner home, Jason and 21 others awaited him. The platoon included parents, sister and brother, grandparents, dear family friends, coach and minister.

Olson saw how grounded Gardner was, and in what and whom. The rest was basketball.

By the time Gardner left Arizona, he was an All-American, the 2002-03 Naismith National Player of the Year. He led the Wildcats to an NCAA runner-up finish in 2001 and a four-year record of 107-29. He was the school's career leader in games played, games started, minutes played and three-point field goals.

He was Olson's rock.

"We've had some great point guards here," said Olson, whose 1997 Wildcats won the national championship in Indianapolis' since-razed RCA Dome, "Steve Kerr, Damon Stoudamire, Gilbert Arenas and Mike Bibby.

"Jason's right in there with any of them."

That kind of legacy lends credibility and commands respect. That and his Indianapolis heritage and record should be a foot in the door with Hoosier recruits.

The Jaguars move to the comprehensively renovated Indiana State Fairgrounds ($63 million, 22 months) in 2014-15. Capacity is expected to be 6,841. It's Gardner's charge to build a product that will put backsides in those seats, particularly the commuter school's students, who must supply passion, energy and noise.

Gardner's first priority is meeting with his team, and with three starters eligible to return, keeping defections to a minimum. He is engaged in building a staff, but when the next recruiting period opens Thursday, he plans to be in the gym, maybe over your right or left shoulder.

"My goal is one day to look up and there are going to be banners in that arena," Gardner said. "It's going to be hard work. Nothing is easy but I think that's kind of the way my life has been is that I've always been kind of the smallest guy and I've always had to outwork people."

Gardner will have help, specifically from his wife, Jackie. They have been sweethearts since age 12, Jason at Westlane Middle School, Jackie at Northview.

Jackie now calls herself the recruiting coordinator and says she "closes the deal." The Gardner team consists of mom and dad, daughters Jasper, 11, and Jackson, due in June, and sons Jason, 5, and Jacob, 2.

You can call them the "J team," and you can call them Jaguars.

Email Star reporter Phil Richards at phil.richards@indystar.com and follow him on Twitter at @philrichards6.

By the numbers

8: Coaches in IUPUI men's basketball history.

6: Games IUPUI won this past season.

135: School-record games Gardner started at Arizona

4: NCAA Tournament trips for Wildcats during Gardner's tenure

1,984: Points he scored at Arizona, third all-time

1: Jersey he earned as 1999 IndyStar Mr. Basketball