Greg Youncofski - Men's Basketball Coach - St. John's University Athletics

Greg Youncofski

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
youncofg@stjohns.edu

Greg Youncofski completed his second season on the St. John’s staff in 2025-26. He was elevated to the position of assistant coach during the 2025-26 season after joining on as the program’s director of operations in June of 2024.

Youncofski’s two seasons in Queens have been two of the most memorable campaigns in the program’s proud history. With Youncofski on staff, St. John’s owns a record of 61-12 (.836) with two outright BIG EAST Regular Season titles and two BIG EAST Tournament crowns. After notching the program’s first NCAA Tournament win since 2000 in his first season, this past year’s Red Storm advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.

St. John’s has produced two BIG EAST Players of the Year in as many opportunities with Youncofski on staff, as RJ Luis Jr. took home the award in 2025 before Zuby Ejiofor unanimously won the accolade in 2026. Ejiofor also was also named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete of the Year, becoming the first player to win all three awards since UConn’s Emeka Okafor in 2004.

Youncofski joined Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino’s staff with over a decade of Division I experience that includes stops at Loyola Marymount, UCLA, Cincinnati and Kansas.

Youncofski arrived in Queens after spending four seasons as an assistant coach at Loyola Marymount under Head Coach Stan Johnson. During his tenure in Los Angeles, Youncofski helped lead the Lions to a pair of winning campaigns, including a 19-win season in 2022-23 that marked the third-most victories for the program in more than three decades. Youncofski also helped mentor 2022-23 All-WCC First Team selection and Lou Henson Award National Player of the Year finalist Cam Shelton, who averaged 21.2 points per game that season.

In 2022-23, Youncofski helped the Lions earn the highest ranked win, 68-67, in program history on Jan. 19, 2023, by defeating sixth-ranked Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash. The win ended the Bulldogs’ 75-game home win streak, 93 straight triumphs over unranked teams and 25 consecutive victories against LMU. Nearly a month later, LMU took down 15th-ranked Saint Mary’s, 78-74, in overtime to become the first Lions team in over a decade to knock off a pair of top-15 teams in the same season.

During his second season at Loyola Marymount, the Lions finished in the top three of the West Coast Conference (WCC) standings for the first time since 2005-06. It was also the first time Loyola Marymount posted a winning record in the WCC since 2011-12.

Prior to LMU, Youncofski spent the 2019-20 season at UCLA as the program’s Director of Recruiting/Player Personnel after having spent the previous six seasons on Mick Cronin’s staff at the University of Cincinnati. Youncofski’s day-to-day responsibilities included managing recruiting databases and schedules, assisting with film breakdown, and serving as a liaison for the coaching staff between athletic administration and other department officials.

Youncofski helped UCLA’s program record a strong mid-season turnaround in 2019-20, as the Bruins won 11 of their final 15 games to go 19-12 overall. UCLA finished second in the Pac-12 standings with a 12-6 mark and secured the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. UCLA won each of its final three games against teams that were ranked in the AP Top 25 – against No. 20 Colorado, at No. 23 Arizona and at No. 18 Colorado. Cronin became the Bruins’ first head coach to win Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors since 2006 (Ben Howland).

In Youncofski’s six seasons at Cincinnati, the Bearcats registered a record of 161-47 (.774). Cincinnati advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of those six seasons, notching two AAC regular-season titles and a pair of AAC Tournament crowns.

Youncofski served as an assistant coach with Cincinnati in 2018-19. That season, the Bearcats compiled a 28-7 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Cincinnati finished second in the American Athletic Conference’s regular-season standings (AAC) and won the AAC Tournament with a 69-57 win over Houston in the title game.

During his previous five seasons with Cincinnati, Youncofski assisted the coaching staff in a variety of areas. He served as the video, analytics and recruiting coordinator. He oversaw team video operations, analytics and advanced scouting of Cincinnati’s upcoming opponents. In addition, he helped the coaches in their coordination of recruiting databases and schedules.

Youncofski was named to the 2023 Silver Wave Media’s 75 Rising Stars: Impactful Men’s Mid-Major Assistants list. Additionally, he was selected to participate in the 2023 Collegiate Coaching Consortium, which is hosted by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and AthleticDirectorsU. Youncofski also received recognition as one of Under Armour’s “30-under-30” honorees in 2017-18 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). He serves on the Board of Directors for Rising Coaches Elite, an organization dedicated to facilitate learning, growth and networking within the coaching realm.

Youncofski earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in May 2013 after working for three years as a student manager with the Kansas men’s basketball program. As an undergraduate, Youncofski was a member of three straight Big 12 Championship teams under head coach Bill Self, including the 2012 squad that finished as the NCAA Tournament’s runner-up.

Among his duties at Kansas, Youncofski supported the basketball program’s Director of Operations, managed all team practices and games and assisted the coaching staff with scouting reports and basketball drills. He created video playbooks with the team’s video coordinator and organized several Kansas basketball clinics.

Youncofski grew up in Middletown, N.J., and was a three-year varsity basketball letterwinner at Middletown High School North from 2007-09. He married his wife Kelsey in 2021 and the couple welcomed a son, Rowdy, in 2025.