Joel Justus named a potential candidate for Appalachian State

The Appalachian State Mountaineers are looking for a new head basketball coach after firing Jim Fox following five losing seasons.

According to a hypothetical list put together by the Winston-Salem Journal, Kentucky Wildcats assistant coach Joel Justus is named as a potential candidate to take over the Mountaineers basketball program.

Other notable names included on the list of ten include Duke’s associate head coach Nate James, NC State assistant coach Takayo Siddle, and Murray State head coach Matt McMahon.

When talking about why Justus could be a potential fit for App State, the article said this:

Justus is a Winston-Salem native in the midst of his third season as an assistant coach with the Wildcats. He joined the program in 2014-15, working as the director of analytics then as special assistant to the head coach for the following season.

Before that, Justus was the head coach at Davidson Day High School for two years. He’s also been an assistant at Elon (from 2004 to 2008) and graduated from UNC Wilmington. Justus’s only experience as a head coach is at the high school level — coming at Davidson Day and at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia (2008 to 2012).

Being a North Carolina native seems to be the only real reason why anything is linking Justus to App State. Nearly every coach on this list either currently coaches at a North Carolina school or has ties to the Tar Heel state.

Thus, there likely isn’t any true momentum of Justus leaving UK for App State, but it could be worth keeping an eye on following the conclusion of the NCAA tournament.