Jason Allison joined the Coastal Carolina coaching staff in August 2025 following a three-year stint at Drexel University.
His Division I coaching career also includes stops at Appalachian State and VMI, where he worked with and recruited six 2,000-point scorers and 13 1,000-point scorers. He has coached three different Defensive Player of the Year winners in two different conferences. He also mentored 2013 Big South Player of the Year winner Stan Okoye at VMI and a two-time NCAA scoring leader, Reggie Williams, and numerous other all-conference players.
Before getting his first Division I job at VMI in 2005, Allison 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 has served on the NABC Assistant Coaches Committee during his career.
Allison spent nine seasons at VMI under Head Coach Duggar Baucom, the all-time wins leader in school history, as they implemented the up-tempo' Loot n Shoot' style that rewrote the VMI record books. The Keydets won 140 games during his tenure and reached the Big South Conference Tournament championship game three times.
VMI averaged 100.9 points per game during the 2006-07 season, and two years later posted a 24-8 record, second-most victories in school history, that included a monumental win over Kentucky in Rupp Arena. In 2013-14, they reached the CIT semifinals and won 22 games, the third-most in program history.
Allison moved on to Appalachian State the following year and helped the Mountaineers soar 48 spots in the KenPom.com rankings. In 2018-19, Allison was promoted to associate head coach after recruiting two of the only three 2,000-point scorers in school history, Ronshad Shabazz and Justin Forrest.
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. The Mountaineers won 18 games and were invited to play in the CIT postseason tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season.
It was that core group of players that Allison helped recruit and retain for the Mountaineers who won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in 2021.
Allison joined the staff at Drexel in July 2022.
During his tenure at Drexel, he helped the Dragons to three consecutive winning seasons, which was the best three-year stretch for the program in over a decade (2010-12). He tutored several all-conference players, including 2025 NBA Draft selection Amari Williams, a three-time CAA Defensive Player of the Year.
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 No. 18 Villanova in the Big 5 Classic game and achieved 20 wins for the year, it's most total wins since 2012.
In his third season at Drexel, the Dragons posted 13 conference wins, their most since 2012, before achieving 20 wins during the 2024-25 campaign, also the most for the school in 13 years.
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 twice, earned the program's first-ever ACC win over Virginia and was on the team that won a then-school-record 23 wins.
Allison is married to the former Hope McLaughlin, and they are the parents of two boys, Riley Benjamin and Ryder Lane. The Allisons are active with the Special Olympics and Autism Awareness programs.
