In the wake of the much-lamented departures of Gary Williams and Jim Larranaga from the local college basketball scene last spring, few noticed that American coach Jeff Jones was suddenly the area’s dean.

Yes, the same Jones who was the point guard for Virginia’s 1981 Final Four team and who seemed like he would never leave Charlottesville. After all, Jones became one of Terry Holland’s assistants upon his 1982 graduation before succeeding his boss in 1990 at 29 and becoming the youngest head coach in ACC history.

But after going 146-104 with five NCAA bids and an NIT title in eight years at UVa, Jones was fired in 1999. After one year as an assistant at Rhode Island, Jones arrived at AU in April 2000. Nearly a dozen years later, Jones isn’t going anywhere, perhaps because — unlike famed predecessors Williams, Tom Young (who later coached Rutgers to the Final Four) and Jim Lynam (who went on to coach 10 years in the NBA, who lasted a combined 13 seasons at Ward Circle — he wasn’t looking to reach the big-time from AU. He had already been there.

“I wasn’t looking at AU as a steppingstone, but I wouldn’t have thought that I would’ve still been here after 12 years,” said Jones, whose victory over Army last Saturday was his school-record 200th with the Eagles. “The simple truth is we’ve loved Washington. AU has been very good to us. Just because someplace is bigger isn’t a reason for me to lean that way. My wife (Danielle) has a great job (as Politico’s online managing editor). We’re settled. We’ve got roots. There’s something to be said for being happy.”

And AU is happy with Jones, who’s under contract through 2016. He has won 56 percent of his games and his Eagles, who went to the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2009 – the only such trips in school history – are 18-9 overall and 9-3 in the Patriot League heading into tonight’s matchup at Bender Arena with defending champion/league-leading Bucknell, which edged AU 67-61 last month.

“We have a chance to win the league every year,” said AU athletic director Keith Gill. “At the same time, our players have a (collective B) average, they graduate and they’re nice young men. Jeff runs a wonderful program that has helped increase our school’s visibility.”

AU wasn’t supposed to be very visible this year. The Eagles were picked to finish fifth in the league after losing top scorer Vlad Moldoveanu and fellow starters Nick Hendra and Steve Luptak to graduation and Stephen Lumpkins to the Kansas City Royals. Troy Brewer, the only returning starter, injured a toe in November and hasn’t really regained his form.

“While it’s not a completely new group, none of them had really been in the role that they were going to have to play,” said Jones, whose team is led by senior shooter Charles Hinkle. “That’s the great thing about my job. Each year it’s a different challenge. It’s rewarding to see the guys figuring it out and coming together. We saw signs early that we could be good, but … it’s not like we can just show up and be (great). We’ve gotta work and rely on one another. We’ve gotta have everybody.”

In truth, the rigorous academic standards of the Patriot League and of AU prevents Jones from recruiting everybody, which took some getting used to after he had competed for so long in the less-picky ACC.

“I’m not sure that people understand how limited our pool really is,” Jones said. “When we say, ‘This kid’s a good student,’ and other schools say that, there’s a difference. But after a while, you figure it out. We’re looking for kids that fit our profile. It’s the Patriot League, the Ivies and a handful of other schools. But we can offer a great education and an environment where you’re not gonna be (the only) one out of 15 guys that’s really seriously pursuing their degree.”

Over the last seven seasons, all 27 of Jones’ seniors have graduated. But don’t think for a moment that such players as accounting major Hinkle don’t take basketball seriously, too.

“Being picked fifth in the league, we definitely took that as motivation,” said Hinkle, who transferred to AU from Vanderbilt in 2009. “We knew we had lost a lot of players, but we felt we could definitely get back to the tournament. A lot of people who played here won championships and that’s definitely my goal.”

But even if AU falls short of returning to the NCAAs, Jones has already succeeded with his ninth winning season of his 12 years.

“We were good for a while before we went to the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “That was the threshold that we had to cross, but it’s not like we hadn’t had good seasons. When I was hired, one of the statements I made was, ‘We’re not looking to build a team, we’re looking to build a program.’ We had to get to the tournament to legitimize (ourselves), but we’ve been consistent. A program can expect to be good year-in and year-out and that’s we expect.”

David Elfin has covered sports since he was a junior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1975. He is the Washington representative on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee and is the author of the new book: “Washington Redskins: The Complete Illustrated History.” A pre-game regular on 106.7-The Fan the last two Redskins seasons, he has been its columnist since March.