Joel Justus joined the Vanderbilt coaching staff in April 2026. Justus comes to Nashville after a two-year stint at Ohio State.
While with the Buckeyes, Justus helped guide the squad to a 21-13 mark and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2025-26. Justus was instrumental in running the Buckeye offense, guiding Ohio State to 78.8 points per game in 2024-25 and 79.3 points in 2025-26. The Buckeyes hit 261 threes in his first season and 273 in 2025-26, both marks ranking in the top seven seasons in program history.
Buckeye star Bruce Thornton thrived in Justus’ offense, setting career-high scoring marks in his junior and senior seasons at 17.7 and 19.9 ppg, respectively. Thornton earned All-Big Ten honors each season.
Prior to his time in Columbus, Justus served as an assistant for two seasons at NC State where he helped the Wolfpack to the 2023-24 Final Four and an ACC Tournament title.
Justus also knows his way around the SEC, spending seven seasons as a member of the Kentucky staff from 2014-2021. He served as an assistant coach for the final five years of his tenure with the Wildcats.
Justus joined Kentucky’s staff prior to the 2014-15 season as the director of analytics. He introduced a two-platoon system which turned the Wildcats into of the most efficient teams in the country, as UK became the first team in college basketball history to start a season 38-0.
He was elevated to special assistant to the head coach for the 2015-16 season before moving into an assistant coaching role a year later.
In his first season as an assistant coach, Kentucky won both the SEC regular-season and tournament championships while advancing to the Elite Eight. He was integral in putting together the best recruiting class ever, according to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, in 2017 and the No. 1 class in 2020.
In 2017-18, he was instrumental in the development of SEC Tournament MVP and future NBA star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. During the 2018-19 season, Justus played a key part in the development of SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year Ashton Hagans. He also worked closely with NBA first-round picks Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro, along with 2020 SEC Player of this Year Immanuel Quickley and Tyrese Maxey, both first-round picks.
Highlighted as one of the top young assistants in the country, The Athletic tabbed Justus one of the top 40 people in college basketball under 40 and ESPN named him one of the nation’s top 40 coaches less than 40 years old in 2020.
Justus began his college coaching career as an assistant coach at Elon University from 2004-08. He went on to become a head coach at Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry, Va., from 2008-12 and Davidson Day High School in Davidson, N.C. from 2012-14.
A 2004 graduate of UNC Wilmington, Justus helped the Seahawks capture two Colonial Athletic Association titles, make three postseason appearances (NIT in 2001 and NCAA in 2002 and 2003) and was team captain his senior season.
Justus is married to the former Hannah Brown and they have two children, Deacon and Siler.