On Thursday, Sept. 18, Augustana men’s basketball head coach Jordan Delp was recognized in the Quad City Business Journal’s “40 Under 40 Awards” for his work with the Vikings. For the young coach, this is a significant accomplishment on his already impressive resume, despite only entering his second full season as the head coach.
The award comes after a season in which the Vikings went 17-10, nearly doubling their win total from the previous year, and also hosted a conference tournament game for the first time since 2019.
Hired as an assistant coach under the then-head coach Tom Jessee for the 2021-2022 season, Delp was named the interim head coach in December of 2023, after Jessee stepped down. Under his leadership, the team won six huge games down the stretch and advanced to the CCIW conference tournament for the eighteenth time in 19 seasons.
However, for Delp, the recognition wasn’t just about the award itself, but about what it represented to him personally and professionally.
“It was certainly a very humbling honor,” Delp said. “I had no idea it was coming. It was completely unexpected, but very much appreciated. I’ve tried to spend a lot of time in my career serving others and helping our community, and with the younger generations in our community, who continue to grow and exceed what they think they can become.”
Though the play on the court was improving, it was not just that which led to the decision to bring him back. It was the relationship he had already established with both the current players and the recruits he was bringing in as an assistant coach. The combination of those two factors was enough for Athletic Director Mike Zapolski to see a cultural shift that led to success, despite the short timeframe in which Delp achieved it.
“For those of us who had been around for a while, we definitely felt that there had been a pretty significant paradigm shift in terms of the mood around the program,” Zapolski said. “Jordan really seemed to connect with the young men on the roster on a personal level and from a mentoring standpoint. You could definitely sense that there was a strong buy-in from the young men on the roster who really liked the way that Jordan was going about his business because of the role that he had.”
Delp’s ties to Augustana date prior to his 2021 start as an assistant coach. They go back to his playing days, when he suited up for the team from 2004 to 2009, under legendary Augustana coach Grey Giovanine.
With the Vikings, Delp earned second-team All-CCIW honors in 2006-07. During that season, he led a 22-6 league champion team in scoring with 13.1 points per game and shot .449 from three. By the time Delp graduated, he had a career record of 103-34, won three CCIW championships and two conference tournament titles.
In other words, he was a winning player, and that is something that the Vikings were looking to bring back. Under Giovanine, from 1999 to 2020, the Vikings went 433-150. However, since 2020, before Delp was named full-time head coach, the program has gone 34-55.
While he is still trying to instill the culture from years ago, his efforts to do so have certainly been recognized, not only by Zapolski but also by the Quad City Journal.
“Certainly, there are a number of standards that we hold our guys accountable to every single day, the Augie ego ‘team first,’ and the Viking rule of ‘no excuses get it done’ are two of the biggest ones,” Delp said. “I think for me, the biggest thing is understanding the brotherhood that we have here and the lifelong bond. We tell guys, yeah, it’s a four-year college commitment, but it’s a lifetime commitment in terms of your time at Augustana. ”
The team started practice on Monday, Sept. 29. Their first scheduled game is at home on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. against Wisconsin Lutheran College at the Carver Center.
