JOHN KRIKORIAN has led the Christopher Newport University men's basketball program to remarkable success, including its first three NCAA Division III Final Four appearances and first National Championship. He has compiled a record of 314-72 (.813) in 13 seasons at the helm at CNU, and is 379-114 (.769) all-time as a head coach.
Krikorian was introduced as the Captains new leader on June 14, 2010. He is just the fourth head coach in the program's 56-year history. Krikorian had the daunting task of following longtime coach and Athletic Director C.J. Woollum, who led the program successfully for 26 seasons, and his efforts have lifted the Captains to even greater success and national visibility.
Krikorian was named the National Coach of the Year by the NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) following his national title in 2023. The Captains defeated Mount Union in the 2023 title game in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to capture the school's first title in 55 seasons of CNU men's basketball. Krikorian's squads also advanced to the 2015-2016 Final Four in Salem, Va., as well as the 2018-2019 Final Four in Fort Wayne. In his tenure, Krikorian has led the Captains to ten NCAA Tournaments in 13 seasons, including the last eight tournaments. CNU is the only school in the nation to win at least one game in each of the last eight NCAA tourneys, and Krikorian now has a career mark in tournament games of 26-8.
Krikorian’s teams at CNU have won at least 18 games per season, and have advanced to the conference championship game every year for the last ten seasons in the Capital and Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conferences. His squads have reached the NCAA National Quarterfinals in each of the last four seasons, becoming just the fourth program in Division III history to achieve that feat.
The National Championship team of 2022-2023 tied the school mark for victories with 30, finishing 30-3, and ending the year on a 15-game winning streak. The Captains opened the season with a nine-game winning run, and earned the first-ever #1 ranking in the D3hoops.com weekly national poll. CNU sailed through the C2C Tournament with two victories in Santa Cruz, Ca., and then won six straight NCAA Tournament games (two in Hampden-Sydney, Va., two at the Freeman Center, and two in Fort Wayne) to claim the crown. After winning the national title in Fort Wayne, CNU was the unanimous #1 pick in the post-season poll.
Krikorian's 2015-2016 squad finished with a 30-2 record, at the time setting the new school all-time single season win mark, and advancing to the Final Four for the first time ever. The Captains posted a 29-4 record in 2018-2019, and won four games in the NCAA Tournament, two at the Freeman Center and then two more in a sectional in Clinton, NY., where they ousted NESCAC programs, Hamilton and Williams, on back-to-back nights to reach the second Final Four in program history.
Krikorian, who enjoyed a very successful four-year stint as the head coach at the United States Merchant Marine Academy, is a native of Auburn, Massachusetts, “Coach K” compiled a record of 65-42 (.607) at the Merchant Marine Academy, and led the squad to a 24-5 record his last season there in 2009-2010. The Mariners won the Landmark Conference regular-season and post-season championships that year and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He was named the 2010 Landmark Conference Coach of the Year.
Krikorian’s journey to CNU began with a passion for basketball from an early age, and a tremendous work ethic on the court as an athlete and in the classroom as a student. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering in 1996 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he played on the junior varsity basketball team coached by Steve Donahue, who later became head coach at Boston College after years of success at Cornell. Krikorian played as a sophomore and junior on the Penn JV squad, and then became a student assistant at Penn during his senior season, his first taste of coaching hoops.
Following his college days, Krikorian spent two years in the business world working for Princeton Consultants, an information management company in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1998, Krikorian returned to his passion and accepted the position of graduate assistant basketball coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College. What followed was a steady climb up the ladder of the college coaching ranks.
After one season at West Virginia Wesleyan, “Coach K” made his first stop at the Merchant Marine Academy as an assistant coach under Billy Lange during the 1999-2000 season. After a season there, he returned to his alma mater for two seasons, working as an assistant at Penn under Fran Dunphy. There he would be a part of one of the nation’s biggest turnarounds as the Quakers won 25 games in 2001. Krikorian then accepted an assistant position at another Division I program, Lafayette College in Easton, PA. There he assisted Fran O’Hanlon from 2002-2004. His journey then took him to Annapolis, MD, where he spent two years as an assistant at the United States Naval Academy (2004-2006)…re-uniting with head coach Billy Lange. His time at Navy came to an end when he was named the head coach at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 2006, beginning his head coaching career with an amazing four-year transformation of the Mariners.
Krikorian’s coaching resume now includes six seasons as an NCAA Division I assistant and 17 as a Division III head coach. Krikorian and his wife, Emily, reside in Newport News with their three children...daughters, Lillian Grace and Katherine Rose ...and son, Jack.
