A passionate coach with great knowledge of the game. That’s Jimmy Elgas, who came to UE soon after Marty Simmons was chosen as head coach in 2007. He has been part of four postseason teams in the last six years at the University of Evansville.
A Midwest native and former staff member at Kansas State and Utah, Elgas began his coaching career at age 20 at Illinois State University, serving as a student assistant coach for the Redbirds. He then served as assistant coach at Lincoln (Ill.) College from 1993-1995 and Texas State University from 1995-2000. Texas State won two Southland Conference championships with Coach Elgas on the staff, and reached the 1997 NCAA Tournament. He stepped up to the Kansas State program in the Big 12 Conference in 2000, first as director of basketball operations for two years before earning a promotion to assistant coach from 2002-2006.
Coach Elgas helped recruit three nationally ranked recruiting classes to Kansas State, including Hoop Scoop’s number one rated class in 2003. He also served as Kansas State’s interim head coach for two games in February, 2006. Coach Elgas joined another nationally known program in 2006, at the University of Utah, before Coach Simmons convinced him to return to his Midwest roots as an assistant coach for the Purple Aces. Originally from Crystal Lake, Illinois, he and his wife, Tamara, have three children–Kyla, James and Kambry, who was born in 2011.
“Jimmy has a passion for teaching the game to our players,” according to Coach Simmons. “Plus, having been at different programs, he is very good at coming up with new ideas and making us realize there’s more than one way to approach things.”
