Former Furman standout and professional player Jordan Lyons has been named an assistant coach for the Navy men’s basketball team, head coach Ed DeChellis announced today.
“I am incredibly honored and humbled to coach DeChellis for the opportunity to join the Navy basketball family,” said Lyons. “The opportunity to work at such a prestigious institution with special people is a real blessing. The Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy are some of the most inspiring people in the world. I’m excited to work with future leaders of our country. Go Navy!”
“We welcome Jordan to our basketball staff! Jordan was a great college and professional player who has displayed a great deal of energy and enthusiasm for basketball. Jordan is an outstanding addition to our staff who possess all of the morals and values I look for in an assistant coach. He is a tireless worker on and off the court,” said DeChellis.
Lyons graduated from Furman in 2020. He totaled 1,529 points in his career to rank 16th on the school’s scoring list and is the program’s leading three-point shooter with 288 triples over his four years. Lyons tied the NCAA record for the most treys made in a single game when he drained 15 against North Greenville on Nov. 15, 2018. He scored 54 points against the Crusaders that day, an effort that ranks eighth in school history and is tied for 10th place in Southern Conference history.
Lyons received all-conference accolades in both 2019 (third team) and 2020 (first team) after first being named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team in 2017. He also earned placement on the conference’s all-tournament team in 2018 and ’19. Additionally, he was named to the Lou Henson Mid-Major All-America Team in 2020.
Lyons was part of Furman teams that shared the 2017 Southern Conference regular season title and never placed lower than third in the conference standings in his four seasons. The Paladins amassed an overall record of 96-37 and a SoCon regular season record of 55-17 during his career. He started on the 2018-19 team that opened the season with a 12-0 record, defeated 2018 NCAA national champion Villanova and 2019 Final Four team Loyola (Ill.), appeared in the Associated Press top-25 national rankings for three weeks and played host to Wichita State in the first round of the NIT.
After graduating from Furman, he began a professional career that included stops in the Latvian Estonian Basketball League (BK Ogre, 2020), The Basketball League (Shreveport Mavericks, 2021) and the Kosovo Superliga and Liga Unike (KB Prezreni-16, 2022).
Lyons began his coaching career as a video and analytics coordinator at his alma mater last season. The Paladins ended the season with an overall record of 28-8, shared the SoCon regular season title with a 15-3 record and won the conference tournament for the first time since 1980. Furman made its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in over four decades a memorable one as it defeated Virginia in the first round before losing to eventual tournament-finalist San Diego State in the second round.
The Peachree City, Ga., native graduated from McIntosh High School with a school and Fayette County (Ga.)-record 2,351 points. Lyons earned all-region and all-county accolades in each of his four seasons to go along with a pair of all-state laurels.
He served as the captain of the team at both McIntosh and Furman.
