Joey Meyer (basketball)

Meyer was an assistant coach at DePaul for eleven seasons under his father, Ray Meyer.[3] Ray Meyer coached DePaul from 1942 to 1984, winning 724 games and leading the Blue Demons to winning records in 37 of his 42 seasons.,[3] including seven NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances in his last nine seasons. When Ray Meyer retired in 1984, Joey Meyer was promoted to head coach.[4]

Joey Meyer led DePaul to seven NCAA Tournament appearances in his first eight seasons, including back-to-back Sweet Sixteen appearances in his second and third seasons. In the 1986 tournament, #12-seeded DePaul—led by freshman guard Rod Strickland (14.1 ppg season average) and junior Dallas Comegys (13.8 ppg) -- upset #5-seeded Virginia and #4-seeded Oklahoma in the East regional before losing to top-seeded Duke 74-67.[2] In 1987, the Blue Demons—again led by Comegys (17.5 ppg) and Strickland (16.3 ppg) -- finished the regular season 26-2 and received a #3 seed in the Midwest regional of the 1987 tournament. They defeated #14-seeded Louisiana Tech and #6-seeded St. John's before losing to #10-seeded LSU. Meyer was honored as the Chevrolet Coach of the Year in 1987.[5] Besides seven NCAA tournament appearances, Meyer led the Blue Demons to three appearances in the National Invitation Tournament.[4]

In both 1988 and 1989, DePaul reached the second round of the NCAA tournament, but they were on a downward trajectory. In 1992, the Blue Demons were co-champions of the newly formed Great Midwest Conference but made their last NCAA tournament appearance under Meyer. In 1996, they finished 11-18, their first losing season since 1971, and the next year, a young DePaul team finished 3-23. Meyer was dismissed on April 28, 1997 and succeeded by Pat Kennedy just over six weeks later.[6][7]

Meyer began his professional basketball head coaching career with the Chicago Skyliners of the American Basketball Association, leading them to a 29-11 record and the Western Conference championship in 2000-01.[1] The Skyliners lost the championship game to the Detroit Dogs 107-91.

In 2001, he joined the NBA D-League with the Asheville Altitude, winning back-to-back league championships in 2004 and 2005. After the franchise moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma following its second title, Meyer continued to coach the team through the 2007-08 campaign. He was named the head coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on June 3, 2009.[1] During his first two seasons with the Mad Ants, the ballclub went 22–28 in 2009–10 and 24–26 in 2010–11.[8] The team's 5–10 start to the 2011–12 campaign led to his dismissal on January 6, 2012.[9]

His son Brian is a National Basketball Association (NBA) scout with the Chicago Bulls.[10]