Mike Pegues - Men's Basketball Coach - Xavier University Athletics

Mike Pegues

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
peguesm@xavier.edu
Phone:
513.745.3766

Mike Pegues has spent six successful years as a Xavier assistant coach. Pegues has been involved in all facets of the program, including recruiting and on court coaching. He serves as the primary big man coach and, among his recent success stories, is the tremendous transformation of James Farr, who is now playing professionally in France, as is RaShid Gaston.

Pegues has played a key role in multiple nationally-ranked recruiting classes in recent years, including most recently three straight classes ranked among the top 20 in the country.

Xavier has been to five NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16, during Pegues’ time at XU. This past year’s team won XU’s first BIG EAST Regular Season Championship, a school-record final AP ranking of No. 3 and the first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed in school history.

Before coming to Xavier, Pegues spent two seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Delaware, under head coach Monté Ross. Delaware finished 18-14 in Pegues’ final season, including 12-6 in the CAA. Pegues, a 2000 UD graduate with a degree in communications, served as video coordinator at Virginia Commonwealth during the 2009-10 season, helping the Rams to a record of 27-9 and the Collegiate Basketball Invitational title.

“Mike has played an integral role in our recruiting success,” said Mack. “Equally impressive is the impact he has had on the court with our players, especially the big men. Mike has a tremendous pedigree. As a high school player Mike was coached by the legendary Morgan Wooten and later became the University of Delaware’s all-time leading scorer. Mike has a tremendous IQ for the game. That served him well as a player and has helped him develop post players both at Delaware and here at Xavier.”

Pegues is a former Academic All-American who led the Blue Hens to two NCAA Tournament appearances and finished as the all-time leading scorer in UD men’s basketball history with 2,030 points. Pegues, who played under former UD head coach and current Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey from 1996-2000, was a two-time All-District selection and a 2000 CoSIDA Academic All-American and became the first UD men’s player to be named Conference Player of the Year (1999-2000). He was inducted into the UD Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007.

Pegues, who was born in Washington, D.C., is a former standout at national power DeMatha Catholic High School in the Washington, D.C. area. Pegues played professionally in Italy, New Zealand, England and Argentina and one season in the Continental Basketball Association. After suffering a knee injury, he returned close to home to teach at Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington, D.C. He served as an assistant coach for three seasons at Bishop O’Connell High School under Joe Wooten, son of legendary high school head coach Morgan Wooten. He also coached the DC Assault AAU squad.