A veteran of the junior college coaching circuit, TJ Cox is in his first season on the Northwestern State staff.
Cox is in his first season as a full-time Division I assistant coach after spending the 2022-23 campaign engineering a 16-win turnaround at Ranger College in Ranger, Texas.
In his lone season with the Rangers, Cox led the team to a 27-8 record,the outright North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference championship and a berth in the Region V tournament finals.
The Region V North and NTJCAC Coach of the Year, Cox helped the Rangers earn the No. 11 overall seed in the NJCAA Division I national championship tournament while developing three first-team all-conference selections (four overall), the league Defensive Player of the Year and the Region V Player of the Year.
Under Cox' leadership, Ranger reached the NJCAA Sweet 16.
Cox came to Ranger after a one-season stint as an assistant coach at Dodge City Community College.
While with the Conquistadors, Cox helped Dodge City set a school single-season record with 30 wins and a berth in the NJCAA Elite Eight.
Dodge City was 8-0 against Top 25 teams and doubled its win total from the season before. Cox played a pivotal recruiting role in remaking a Dodge City roster that had only one returning player from the previous season in which the Conquistadors went 15-9.
That nucleus helped Dodge City collect its first Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference championship and first Region VI title since 1982.
Cox spent the 2020-21 season at Tallahassee Community College, helping the Eagles post a 19-3 mark and capture the Panhandle Confrence regular-season championship. Cox helped develop the Panhandle Conference Player of the Year, two all-state honorees and four all-conference performers.
Prior to his one season at Tallahassee, Cox coached three seasons at John A. Logan College, helping the Vols to a collective 81-16 mark in his time on staff.
While at Logan, Cox was the program's lead recruiter, helping produce three NJCAA All-Americans, three Region Players of the Year, eight all-conference selections and double-figure players who signed with Division I programs.
Cox helped recruit and develop the 2020 NJCAA National Player of the Year, Jay Scrubb, who became the first junior college player chosen in the NBA Draft in more than 15 years when the Los Angeles Clippers selected him in the second round of the draft.
Cox helped lead Logan to three consecutive Great Rivers Athletic Conference championship, including a perfect 18-0 conference season in 2019-20. John A. Logan was seeded 5th in the NJCAA national tournament before it was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
An interdisciplinary studies graduate from Covenant College, Cox earned his master's degree in sports administration at Arkansas State, where he served as a graduate assistant.
Cox also spent a season as a graduate assistant at North Texas and started his basketball coaching career at Accelerate Basketball Training in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Cox and his wife, McKena, were married in August 2022.
