Staff Directory

Jim McDonnell

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:

Jim McDonnell joined the Golden Hurricane women's basketball program as an assistant coach early in the 2025-26 season. He brings NBA and collegiate basketball experience to TU.

McDonnell helped the 2025-26 Golden Hurricane women go down as the third-winningest group in team history with 19 wins to only 12 losses. Tulsa would finish 11-7 in American action for fourth place, earning a double-bye in the American Championship. He helped coach Hannah Riddick to first team all-conference honors, Mady Cartwright to second team all-conference status and Dora Toman to seven Freshman of the Week awards and an All-Newcomer selection. Tulsa led the American with 17 weekly individual regular season awards and went 12-3 at home in the Donald W. Reynolds Center, which ties for the second-winningest home record in program history.

McDonnell came to TU following three seasons (2022-25) as a video coordinator for the Brooklyn Nets. As the head coordinator in 2024-25, he helped develop team edits and practice plans, prepared film, scouted games, assisted on the court with player development and maintained a video playbook and video drill book.

Before the Nets, McDonnell spent three years (2019-22) working for Fairfield University’s men’s basketball team in Fairfield, Conn., as the director of basketball operations.

Prior to Fairfield, McDonnell spent the 2018-19 season working for the Phoenix Suns as a video coordinator. His first job in video coordination came one year earlier, working for Maccabi Ashdod, a professional basketball team based in Ashdod, Israel, from Fall 2017 to Summer 2018.

McDonnell’s first professional gig after his playing career was for the NBA itself, working as a project employee for the league during the 2016-17 campaign. He worked closely with referee operations, tracked Hustle Stats and checked, verified and corrected traditional stats throughout the year.

McDonnell played professionally for Hapoel Galil Elion in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, in late 2015.

A native of Jackson, N.J., McDonnell was a three-year letterwinner for Temple University, where he earned his Bachelor’s in civil engineering with a minor in political science in 2014 and went on to earn a Master of Science in engineering management in 2015, also at Temple.