Ryan Hyland was hired as the head men's basketball coach at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in July 2014. When hired in July 2014, Hyland had just turned 25 years old making him the youngest Head Coach in all three divisions of the NCAA. In addition, Hyland works as the Recruiting Coordinator for the Athletics Department.
Having just concluded his tenth season on the sidelines (eleventh year in all), Hyland became only the second Bloodhounds coach to lead the Bloodhounds to the NCAA tournament. John Jay defeated top ranked Baruch 80-70 on February 28
th, 2025 to capture the CUNYAC title for only the second time in program history, first since 2008.
With Hyland at the helm of the John Jay men’s basketball program, he has taken the Bloodhounds to new heights. He has already ascended into second all-time in career wins at John Jay and orchestrated two of the biggest turnarounds in Division III, leading the Bloodhounds to a 17-win improvement from 2015-2020, and a 12-win improvement from 2023-24 to 2024-25.
Hyland’s Accolades:
- In 2020, The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) announced the 2020 Under Armour 30-Under-30 Team, representing 30 of the most outstanding men's college basketball coaches under the age of 30 and Hyland was among the honorees. Hyland is the first Bloodhound coach and first from the CUNY Athletic Conference to make the list, which touts the country's top rising coaches.
- The 2019-20 season Hyland and his staff were named the CUNYAC Coaching Staff of the Year, the first time a John Jay Coach has won the honor in 17 years when Mike Brown took home the award.
- Named to the Silver Waves Media Most Impactful D3 Head Coaches in 2020 & 2022
In addition, during his time at John Jay, the Bloodhounds won the regular season CUNYAC title in 2019-20, earned eight postseason appearances and reached back to back ECAC Tournaments in 2019 & 2020. The 2019-20 season saw the Bloodhounds re-write the record books as they won 20 regular season games and secured the CUNYAC outright regular season title with three games still to play. The Bloodhounds finished the regular season 20-5 (best since 2003-04) and 13-1 in the CUNYAC (best since 1984-85). They finished with their best CUNYAC win percentage (92.9%) in program history.
In addition to the on the court success under Hyland, the Bloodhounds have fostered an academic environment where the student-athletes have thrived. The men’s basketball student athletes are regular guests at the Presidents Scholar Athlete Reception each Spring, which honors student athletes with 3.2+ GPAs.
Under Hyland’s guidance, the 2019-20 Bloodhounds capped off the most successful four-year run under the same head coach in program history. Their 59 wins from 2016-2020 is the best stretch since Guy Rancourt led the Bloodhounds to 55 wins from 1999-2003.
The 2024-25 season saw the Bloodhounds finish 11-3 in CUNYAC play and 19-9 overall. The team was led on the court by Jamir Stewart & Keyshawn Miller who both earned their way onto the CUNYAC First Team.
Hyland’s strong ability to recruit talented student-athletes has seen some of the best to ever play at John Jay walk into the Doghouse over the past eleven years. In the 2019-20 season, John Jay produced the CUNYAC Player of the Year when Doug Levy ‘20 was recognized by the conference coaches as the top player in the league. It was only the fourth time in history that a Bloodhound was recognized as the conference Player of the Year, and the first since 2013 when Jamar Harry went home with the honor.
Levy went on to gain national recognition from several outlets for his stellar senior campaign:
- Pre-season CUNYAC Player of the Year
- NABC/Reese’s DIII All-star team
- NABC All-Atlantic first team
- NIT/MBWA Haggerty Award ALL-MET first team
- DIII Men's Basketball All-ECAC First Team
- D3hoops.com Men's Basketball All-Atlantic Region second team
Levy adds his senior year accolades to the haul he brought in following the 2018-19 season in which he was honored at the
- NIT/MBWA Haggerty Awards dinner with an ALL-MET third team selection.
- CUNYAC First Team All-Star
- D3hoops.com All-Atlantic Regional Third Team
- All-ECAC Honorable Mention
He graduated as the only player in the men's program to score 1,000 points and pull down 1,000 rebounds in his career, all the while setting the school record for blocks.
Joining Levy as one of the most decorated Bloodhounds ever to play in the Doghouse is the
college’s all-time leading scorer, Essien Epps ’19.
- Second team CUNYAC All-Star in 2018-19
- First team CUNYAC All-Star in 2017-18
- First team CUNYAC All-Star in 2016-17
- Rookie of the Year for the CUNYAC
- D3Hoops Atlantic Region Rookie of the Year
- ECAC Metro Rookie of the Year
In addition to Levy and Epps plenty of other Bloodhounds have garnered All Conference awards
1,000 Point Scorers:
- Garrison Watkins, Doug Levy, Essien Epps, Korede Griffith, Kris Owens
CUNYAC All-Conference:
- Keyshawn Miller, Jamir Stewart, Garrison Watkins, Doug Levy (x2), Jayson Brower, Kyle LaGuardia, Essien Epps (x3), Korede Griffith, Kris Owens
CUNYAC Rookie Of the Year:
- Essien Epps (2016) & Wyatt Harkins (2017)
CUNYAC Player Of the Year:
Following their outstanding 2019-20 seasons, both Doug and Jayson signed professional contracts to play basketball overseas. Doug Levy signed with Hapoel Afula in Israel, while Jayson Brower began his pro career in Puerto Rico with Vaqueros de Bayamon. Brower has gone on to sign contracts in Azerbaijan and Nicaragua and continues to play professionally.
In his nine years at the helm of John Jay, Hyland’s coaching tree has begun to sprout. Following their stint on Hyland’s staff, these coaches have moved on to other programs former Bloodhound assistant coaches on multiple college programs nationwide:
- Doug Levy (Northwestern)
- Louie Al-Hafidh (North Texas, Texas Legends)
- Robert Walton (Union University, Sam Houston State, Dallas Baptist University)
- Sean Clores (Sarah Lawrence, St. Thomas Aquinas, CCNY)
- DaVaughn Johnson (Wesleyan University)
- Kevin Coyle (Seton Hall, Adelphi)
- David Muchnick (NYU)
- Jose Rodriguez (Big East Conference)
- Kieran Hamilton (Hamilton Hoops Miami)
- Marlon McRae (Kingsborough)
- Phil Kurajian (Bloomfield Hills HS)
Hyland came to John Jay from his alma mater, Catholic University of America. He spent three seasons with the Cardinals as an assistant coach following his four years in the program as a player, manager and student assistant coach. After earning his bachelor's degree in Psychology from Catholic in 2011, he enrolled in the Masters of Science in Business Analysis program in the Busch School for Business and Economics, graduating in 2014.As an assistant at Catholic, Hyland and the Cardinals staff developed five All-Conference players, including
- Bryson Fonville, First Team All-Landmark in 2014
- Steve Limberiou, 2nd Team All-Conference, 1,000-point career scorer,
- Shawn Holmes, 1st Team in 2012-2013 and is also a 1,000-point career scorer.
- Darrell Caroll, the only Division III player among the finalists for the Arthur Ashe Award in 2012
- Chris Kearney:
- 1st Team All-American
- Josten's Trophy Finalist
- NABC All-Star
- Conference Player of the Year
- Defensive Player of the Year
- Landmark Conference All-Decade Team
In that same year, the Cardinals were rewarded with the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award, after finishing with the best assist/turnover ratio and recording the second fewest turnovers in the nation. They were ranked in the top 25 in the nation every week of the season (as high as #6), and they finished with 22 regular season wins for just the third time in 102 years of basketball. To top it all off, the coaching staff was awarded with both the Landmark Conference and Mid Atlantic Coaching Staff of the Year Awards, and they were among the 15 finalists for the Glenn Robinson National Coach of the Year Award.
Hyland’s legacy at Catholic carried on after he left for John Jay as some of the student-athletes he helped recruit collected numerous accolades throughout their careers.
Bryson Fonville went on to collect a number of accolades:
- Landmark Conference Player of the year in 2015
- NABC third-team All-American
- D3Hoops.com fourth-team All-American
- DIII News fourth-team All-American
- ECAC Division III South All-Star first team
- Middle Atlantic All-District first team
- D3Hoops.com All-Middle Atlantic Region first team
- First-team All-Landmark Conference
- Landmark Conference All-Decade Team
- Drafted to the G-League in 2016
Hyland’s last recruit before leaving for New York City, Jay Howard ‘18 finished his career third on the All-Time Scoring List in Catholic University 108-year history. In addition to that he was named to
- Landmark Conference All-Decade Team
- NABC All-American
- DIII News All-American
- Jostens Trophy Finalist
- NABC All-Star
- 4x Landmark Conference First Team member
- 2015 Rookie of the Year
- 2018 Player of the Year
- 2,000-point scorer
Hyland has also coached and/or directed at numerous elite summer basketball camps over the last fifteen years, working alongside the likes of Chicago Bulls Head Coach Billy Donovan, former Cavaliers and Michigan Head Coach John Beilein, Stanford’s Kyle Smith. Hyland was invited to participate in the inaugural NCAA Academy in the summer of 2019 and invited back again in 2023 & 2024.
Hyland was born and raised in Breezy Point, NY. He attended Poly Prep for High School, located in Brooklyn, NY. Hyland and his wife Caroline have two children, Olive & Finnegan and currently reside in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
