Matt Ruffing - Women's Basketball Coach - Florida Atlantic University Athletics

Photo by: ©JC Ridley/Florida Atlantic

Matt Ruffing

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
mruffing@fau.edu

Matt Ruffing joined the Florida Atlantic women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach in May 2021. Ruffing made his way to South Florida after a 10-year stint at Evansville.

During his first season on staff, the Owls saw four players average double digits in scoring, one of only two schools in Conference USA to do so. Ruffing works closely with the forwards and was instrumental in the development of Amber Gaston, who nearly doubled her scoring and rebounding average in comparison to her first three collegiate seasons. Gaston was named C-USA Player of the Week following her 19-point, 13-rebound performance against Florida Memorial. Forward Janeta Rozentale, led the Owls in scoring during the 2021-22 season, averaging a near double-double of 11.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

Prior to his arrival to Paradise, Ruffing spent his first five seasons with Evansville as an assistant coach and was assumed head coaching duties on an interim basis before earning the full-time position on Dec. 21, 2016. Ruffing helped lead the program to an 11-win improvement in his first full season as the head coach after logging a 14-17 record in 2016-17, which included a 69-59 win over Missouri State in the 2017 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Throughout his time at Evansville, Ruffing coached a pair of student-athletes who were productive scorers for the Aces. Sara Dickey, a player at Evansville from 2013-17, accumulated 2,187 career points to become the all-time leading scorer in program history. Just two years later, Kerri Gasper entered the record books as the program’s 13th-highest scorer with 1,179 points.

Ruffing’s teams have produced from the charity stripe. The Aces earned the NCAA statistical national championship in 2017-18 for the best free-throw shooting percentage in the nation, which also broke a program and MVC record, shooting 82% from the line.

Before his promotion to head coach at Evansville, Ruffing spent five years as an assistant at Evansville. He took over as the interim coach from March through December of 2016 before earning the full-time role.

Prior to his time at Evansville, Ruffing coached at Akron as a four-year member of the staff. Ruffing began his time with the Zips as a graduate assistant before being promoted to assistant coach for the next three seasons. He also served as the scouting and equipment coordinator, while assisting with recruiting, handling film exchange and assisting in offseason conditioning.

At Akron, Ruffing worked closely with the post players, including center Rachel Tecca who earned First Team Mid-American Conference honors in 2011. She became the third Zip in program history to receive the honor. Tecca was also named the MAC Sixth Player of the Year under Ruffing’s guidance in 2010, while he coached an All-MAC Freshman Team recipient each of his three years as an assistant.

Before Akron, Ruffing was a student assistant and head manager for the Dayton women’s basketball team. Ruffing helped coordinate the team’s tape exchanges and assisted the coaching staff in several more roles, which included daily operations at practices.

Ruffing graduated from Dayton with a degree in childhood education in May 2007. He married his wife, Erin Meyer, in June 2016.