Jason Allison - Chief of Staff - Men's Basketball Coaches

Jason Allison

Title:
Chief of Staff
Email:
jra332@drexel.edu

Jason Allison joined Drexel Basketball in July of 2022. He is entering his fourth season on Head Coach Zach Spiker’s staff in 2025-26 and 19th overall on an NCAA Division I bench. Since Allison joined the staff, Drexel has had three consecutive winning seasons, which is the best three-year stretch for the program since 2010-2012.

In 2024-25, despite Drexel being one of the least experienced teams in the nation according to KenPom.com, the Dragons won eight games before the holiday break and 18 overall. During the 2023-24 season, the Dragons won 13 CAA games, the most wins in league play since the 2012 season. That season, Drexel knocked off #18 Villanova in the Big 5 Classic game and achieved 20 wins for the year, the most total wins since 2012.

Allison has coached a number of All-CAA players since his arrival, including Amari Williams, a three-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year, a two-time All CAA honoree and an NBA Draft pick. Justin Moore was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team and was a Third Team All-CAA pick. Cole Hargrove was an All-CAA Defensive Team member, while Kobe Magee was named Third Team All-CAA.

During his time, the Dragons have consistently been a top ranked defensive team nationally. Drexel finished the 2024-25 season ranked #40 in scoring defense, while they finished 35^th in 2023-24 and 17^th in 2022-23.

In his Division I coaching career, with stops at Drexel, Appalachian State and VMI, Allison has worked with and recruited six 2000-point scorers and 13 1,000-point scorers. He has coached three different Defensive Players of Year winners (Travis Holmes, DJ Covington and Amari Williams) in two different conferences. He’s also coached a Player of the Year winner (Stan Okoye) a two-time NCAA scoring leader (Reggie Williams) and many other All-Conference or All-Tournament team members along the way.

Prior to Drexel, Allison worked at Appalachian State under Head Coach Jim Fox. After his first season in 2014-15, App State improved 48 spots in the KenPom.com rankings and defeated ACC-foe Virginia Teach coached by Buzz Williams.
Allison spearheaded the recruiting efforts under Coach Fox, which landed two 2000-point scorers in Ronshad Shabazz and Justin Forrest – two of only three 2000-point scorers in App State history. In 2018-19, Allison was promoted to Associate Head Coach for the Mountaineers.

In the spring of 2019, Allison served as the Interim Head Coach, charged with keeping the players together during a leadership transition and not one player entered the Transfer Portal while in this role. He then served as Special Assistant to the Head Coach under the direction of new Head Coach Dustin Kerns. That season, the Mountaineers won 18 games, the most wins since 2010. They were invited to play in the CIT postseason tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season. Allison also worked closely with administration in various roles within the App State Yosef Club under Athletic Director Doug Gillin. The same core players Allison helped recruit and retain for the Mountaineers went on to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in 2021.

In June of 2020, during COVID-19, Allison was asked to serve as the App State Men’s Golf Coach. During the 14 tournaments he coached, App State finished top three in eight tournaments, had two individual tournament winners and an NCAA Regional qualifier.

In 2005, Allison got his start at the D-1 level at VMI under Head Coach Duggar Baucom, where he spent nine seasons in Lexington Va. He assisted Baucom in becoming the all-time wins leader at VMI as they implemented the uptempo ‘Loot n Shoot’ style that rewrote the VMI record books. During the 2006-07 season, VMI averaged 100.9 points per game. In nine seasons they made it to three Big South Tournament Championship games and had two seasons with more than 20 wins. His teams won 140 games while at VMI.

In 2008-09, VMI Basketball went 24-8, the second-most wins in school history and had a monumental win in Rupp Arena over Kentucky. That team received votes in the AP Top 25. In 2013-14 they reached the CIT semifinals, the first postseason since the 1970’s and won a total of 22 games, the third-most in program history.

Allison coached Reggie Williams, a seven-year NBA veteran, who twice led the NCAA in scoring and had more than 2,500 career points. Other players he worked with included twin brothers Chavis and Travis Holmes, the all-time NCAA scoring duo for twins, combining for more than 3,700 points. Stan Okoye was the 2013 Big South Player of the Year and a 2016 Rio Olympics participant for Nigeria while DJ Covington was two-time Big South Defensive Player of Year.

Allison has served on the NABC Assistant Coaches Committee during his career. He started coaching while still in college. He coached two seasons at the High School level (Lynchburg Christian Academy and Gaston Day School), two seasons of NAIA (King College, now King University) and one season of NCAA Division II basketball (Lees-McRae College).

Allison attended Liberty University, where he played basketball for the Flames and graduated with a degree in physical education. His team reached the Big South Tournament Finals two times, earned the program’s first-ever ACC win over Virginia coached by Jeff Jones and was on the team that won a then school-record 23 wins. Allison played under Liberty Hall of Fame Coach Jeff Meyer, and he was teammates with Hall of Famer Peter Aluma.

Allison is married to the former Hope McLaughlin and they are the parents of two boys, Riley Benjamin and Ryder Lane. The Allison’s have been very active in their journey with the Special Olympics and Autism Awareness programs. The family resides in Drexel Hill, Pa.