La Kea Jones joined the NJIT women’s basketball coaching staff in the summer of 2010 after two one-year stints as an assistant at Division I programs Mount Saint Mary’s (MD) (2008-09) and Southeast Missouri State University (2009-10).
At Southeast Missouri State, her team was honored by its peer players and coaches in the Ohio Valley Conference with the conference’s team Sportsmanship Award. The 2009-10 Redhawks were the fourth-youngest Division I team in the nation, with nine freshmen on the roster.
While at Mount St. Mary's, she helped coach the team to a 14-16 record, a six-game improvement from the previous year and the best record for the program since the 2000-01 season.
Her duties included assisting in the development of both guards and post position players, scouting, film exchanges, editing game film, recruiting as well organizing travel and team meal arrangements.
She moved into coaching after a four-year Division I playing career for Virginia Commonwealth University, where she started every season at point guard from 2004 to 2008.
She graduated with rankings in the VCU program's top 10 in five career categories. She was first in games played (121, with 109 starts) and minutes played. She ranked third all-time in assists, with 424, including 159 assists during her senior year, which ranks fifth on the school's single-season charts. She also ranked eighth in career steals, with 177, and 10th in career three-pointers made.
During her senior season she played in a school record 1,129 minutes.
Jones averaged a career-high 8.5 points per game as a sophomore. Her senior year her averages were 4.2 ppg , 4.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game. Her 159 assists during her senior campaign led the Colonial Athletic Association. She recorded 31 double-digit scoring games in her career.
Jones posted a 67-54 career playing record with the VCU Rams and helped the program to its second postseason berth and best record in program history in her senior campaign.
Virginia Commonwealth finished the 2007-08 season with a 26-8 mark, made an appearance in the school's first-ever CAA Championship Game and advanced to the second round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament, the deepest trip into postseason in program history.
Jones graduated with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth in 2008.
She is from Clinton, MD, and graduated from National Christian Academy there before heading to college in Virginia.
She resides in Jersey City, NJ.
