Bio

John Putyrski is entering his second season leading the Florida State College at Jacksonville Men’s Basketball program after a historic first season in 2023-2024, where the team tied the most wins in school history (26)—more than the previous four seasons combined—and advanced to its first ever national tournament in school history.

At the 2024 National Tournament, FSCJ upset No. 15th nationally ranked Howard Community College in the first round before falling to the No. 2nd nationally ranked—and eventual national runner-up—South Suburban College in the Sweet Sixteen.

FSCJ earned an auto-bid to the national tournament after defeating Snead State Community College 72-69 to win the Gulf South District Championship in Bay Minette, Alabama on March 9th. FSCJ advanced to the district finals after winning the Region 8 Tournament Championship when they defeated defending champion Florida Gateway College 70-60 on March 2nd in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. FSCJ secured the region’s No. 1-overall seed and were named Region 8 regular season champions after its 73-49 rout of Palm Beach State College on February 21st’s Sophomore Night in Jacksonville. It was the first time in school history that FSCJ had won either the Region 8 regular season or Region 8 tournament championship. 

Excelling in player development, this past season Putyrski led the on-court development of NJCAA 1st Team All-American and Region VIII Player of the Year Tarence Guinyard, Region VIII All-Conference Alex McCray, and Region VIII All-Tournament Team Aiden Fletcher and Jordan Smith.

FSCJ Men’s Basketball carried their on-court success over into the classroom. The team set a program-record grade point average in Spring 2024 with a 3.53 GPA, which broke the 3.18 program-record GPA they set the previous Fall 2023 semester. Eight players were named to the President’s List and Dean’s List, and sophomore guard Mark Brown was named Region 8's Hal Chasey Scholar Athlete of the Year after earning a perfect 4.0 GPA for the entire academic year.

All four graduating sophomores—Guinyard (Division I UT-Martin), Brown (Division II Erskine College), Calvin Brown (NAIA Spartanburg Methodist College), and Roderick Gardner (Division II Young Harris College)—have gone onto sign at 4-year colleges to continue their academic and athletic careers.

Originally from Chicago, Putyrski came to Jacksonville after serving as an assistant coach for the University of Texas at Arlington during the 2022-23 season. At UT-Arlington, Putyrski was primarily responsible for player development and opponent and recruit scouting. In his lone season, he led the on-court development of Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year Chendall Weaver who has gone onto excel at the University of Texas.

Prior to UT-Arlington, Putyrski served as an assistant coach at his alma mater Illinois State University. He most notably led the 3-year on court development of 2021-22 Missouri Valley All-Conference leading scorer Antonio Reeves—a fellow Chicago native. Reeves went on to star at the University of Kentucky before being drafted 47^th overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2024 NBA Draft.

In their 3 years together at Illinois State, Reeves saw yearly improvements in virtually all statistical categories with his points per game averages increasing from 7.2 in 2019-20, to 12.4 in 20-21, and ultimately a league leading 20.1ppg in 21-22. 

Putyrski was hired back to Illinois State as video coordinator in July 2019 after previously serving as a student manager for the program from 2011-2016. He was promoted to director of basketball operations before being elevated to an assistant coach during the 2021-22 season. In his variety of roles and in addition to his focus in player development, Putyrski ran much of the behind-the-scenes operations of the program including overseeing academics, budget, community service, film, scheduling, travel, and supervising the team’s staff of student managers. 

Before rejoining the Redbirds, Putyrski spent the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach at Eastern Florida State College. He helped lead the Titans to a 28-8 record as the team advanced to the quarterfinals of the NJCAA National Tournament. In just his first season as an assistant coach, Putyrski was named one of the top junior college assistants in the country by Coachstat.net and was praised for excelling in recruiting, teaching, game-planning, and player development. During his lone season at Eastern Florida, six of their players earned All-Conference honors and have gone on to excel at the Division I, II, and professional levels. Also in charge of overseeing academics at Eastern Florida, the team recorded a program-record 3.14 grade point average.

Prior to his time at Eastern Florida, Putyrski worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga from 2016 to 2018 where he assisted in the development of 2017 SoCon All-Conference Defensive Player of the Year forward Justin Tuoyo and All-Conference guard Tre McClean. 

As a student-manager for Illinois State, including serving as head manager for the 2015-16 season, Putyrski assisted in the development of several MVC All-Conference players: forward Jackie Carmichael and guard Tyler Brown (2012), forward Reggie Lynch and guard Daishon Knight (2015), and guard Devaughn Akoon-Purcell (2016). 

In his 13 years in college basketball, Putyrski has coached and worked with 44 players who have gone on to play professionally, including 13 at the NBA and G-League levels. Putyrski is a 2016 Illinois State graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics. He graduated from UT-Chattanooga in 2018 with a Master's degree in public administration.