{"id":714763,"date":"2026-04-20T19:34:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714763\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:34:40","slug":"longtime-ncaa-division-i-basketball-coach-dies-of-pancreatic-cancer-jim-jabir-was-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714763\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime NCAA Division I Basketball Coach Dies of Pancreatic Cancer: Jim Jabir Was 63"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"83\" data-end=\"324\">Jim Jabir, a longtime women&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/fanbuzz.com\/category\/college-basketball\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">college basketball<\/a> coach who won more than 500 games and led Dayton Flyers to a historic run in 2015, has died at 63 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"326\" data-end=\"468\">Dayton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ncaaw\/2026\/04\/16\/jim-jabir-dies-63-cancer-battle\/89653685007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced the news<\/a> late last week, with athletic director Neil Sullivan offering condolences to Jabir&#8217;s family.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"470\" data-end=\"540\">Around Dayton, one moment always stands out: The 2015 NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"542\" data-end=\"797\">Jabir&#8217;s Flyers, a No. 7 seed, caught fire behind stars like Andrea Hoover and Ally Malott. They knocked off Iowa State, Kentucky and Louisville to reach the Elite Eight, the deepest run in program history.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"799\" data-end=\"1016\">The ride ended against UConn Huskies, led by coach Geno Auriemma, but the impact stuck. Dayton became just one of a few teams that season to even push UConn offensively.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1018\" data-end=\"1220\">That run was part of a bigger stretch. Jabir led the Flyers to six straight NCAA Tournament appearances and built the program into a consistent winner, including eight seasons with 20 or more victories.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1222\" data-end=\"1437\">His coaching journey stretched well beyond Dayton. He started as a head coach at just 23 and had stops at Siena, Marquette, Providence, Colorado, Florida Atlantic and a return stint at Siena before retiring in 2024.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1439\" data-end=\"1630\">Jabir stepped away from Dayton in 2016, citing health and the need to focus on family. Even then, he stayed connected to the game, including a successful run coaching professionally overseas.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1632\" data-end=\"1725\">He finished his career with 551 wins and earned multiple conference Coach of the Year honors.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1727\" data-end=\"1837\">Jabir spoke candidly about his diagnosis in recent months, sharing that the cancer had returned after surgery.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1839\" data-end=\"1948\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">In the end, he leaves behind a long coaching r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and a moment in March 2015 that Dayton fans won&#8217;t forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Jabir, a longtime women&#8217;s college basketball coach who won more than 500 games and led Dayton Flyers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,3231,231,772,1400,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-714763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-dayton-flyers","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaa-tournament","14":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116438716867519652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}