Following up on something that I first mentioned in the Daily Dirt yesterday. Jonathan Jones has officially been named as an assistant at American. Here’s the official release from AU:
Jonathan Jones has been hired as an assistant coach for head coach Mike Brennan‘s men’s basketball staff. Jones comes to American University from Princeton University where he spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach with the Tigers.
“I would like to thank Coach Brennan for this opportunity to become a part of American University,” said Jones. “I’m looking forward to working within the community and the athletic department to continue the student-athlete experience.”
While at Princeton, he helped guide the Tigers to a 22-5 overall regular and a 12-2 mark in Ivy League action on their way to securing the Ivy League Championship during the 2021-22 season. He was instrumental in helping lead the program to four new team records during that same season and helped coach 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year Tosan Evbuomwan as well as three first-team All-Ivy selections, two second-team All-Ivy selections, an All-Ivy Academic Team selection, and an NABC Second-Team All-District selection over his four years on staff. He also helped develop Duke University grad transfer Max Johns, helping him improve his three-point percentage by 11%.
He began his coaching career in 2015 at Elizabeth High School as a junior varsity coach before returning to Kean to be an Associate Head Coach from 2016-2018.
“Jonathan has been coaching and recruiting for the past four years at one of the top schools and basketball programs in the country,” said Brennan. “He understands the balance between athletics and academics at the highest level. His experience playing professionally is an additional resource that will allow Jonathan to teach and connect with our players immediately. Most importantly, Jonathan is a terrific person that our players can look to for daily guidance on and off the court.”
Jones spent his collegiate career at Kean University. As a senior, he was a first-team Division III All-American unanimous honoree, runner-up for the Division III National Player of the Year, NJAC Male Athlete of the Year, a D3hoops.com First-Team All-America, a D3 News First Team All-America, D3hoops.com First Team All-Region selection, NABC Atlantic Region Player of the Year, first-team NABC Atlantic Region, first-team All-NJAC, ECAC Metro Region Player of the Year, and first-team All-ECAC Metro Region.
He achieved 24 double-doubles leading Division III, while also finishing second in the division with 13.7 rebounds per game and eighth with 23.9 points per game while helping Kean to an 18-8 record and a NJAC South Division title.
Jones went on to play professionally for Norway’s Tromsø Storm, averaging 23 points and 15.2 rebounds per game while being named Eurobasket All-Norwegian BLNO Forward of the Year, Import Player of the Year and first-team All-League. The following season, he played for AS Soleuvre in Luxembourg, averaging 20.3 points and 13.3 rebounds. He then went on to play for Finland’s UU-Korihait in 2013-14, averaging 15.4 points and 8.4 rebounds, and played for Anzorena in Argentina for 2014-15, averaging 17.4 points and 10.6 rebounds.
Jones’ mother Desiree is a National Board Certified Teacher in Newark, N.J. and his father Nathan has worked for NJ Transit for more than 30 years. He has three older siblings – Nathaniel, Jason and Nicholas.
