The Jonas Hayes era of Georgia State basketball is off to a strong start as the Panthers’ new head coach has assembled a talented staff.
Hayes’ GSU first staff features newly hired assistant coaches Danny Peters, formerly of Xavier, and Allen Payne, formerly of Elon, along with Jarvis Hayes, who enters his fourth season as a Georgia State assistant coach. The new staff also includes director of operations Chaese Vaudrin.
The trio of Peters, Payne and Jarvis Hayes give the program a strong blend of experience, tactical knowledge, player development and recruiting ability to help Jonas Hayes lead the Panthers to even greater heights. This staff will build on the success of a Georgia State program is coming off its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance since 2015.
“First and foremost, I was looking for great people,” Hayes said. “It goes without saying that these are talented individuals who can coach and recruit. So in addition to that, I was looking for great people, positive people, great leaders of men who can bring out the best versions of our student-athletes.
“You will not find a better staff in the country that is more committed to the total development of our student-athletes, socially, emotionally, athletically and academically,” he continued.
“I think what we have in Jarvis Hayes, Allen Payne, Danny Peters and Chaese Vaudrin is a group of men who will be pulling in the same direction to take Georgia State from a high level of success to even more. I’m blessed to have this group of men as part of my first staff as a head coach as we move forward to build on the success that Georgia State has had and elevate the standards.”
JARVIS HAYES
Assistant Coach
Jarvis Hayes, a former NBA standout and a highly-respected figure throughout the basketball community in the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia, enters his fourth season as an assistant coach at Georgia State and his first under head coach Jonas Hayes.
Hayes’ roots in this city and state run deep as the Atlanta native starred at Douglass High School and then the University of Georgia. Following his 12-year pro career that included seven seasons in the NBA, he served as the head coach of the Atlanta Celtics AAU team from 2015-18, one of the premier AAU programs in the country.
In his first three seasons at GSU, Hayes has been a key component for a GSU program that won the 2022 Sun Belt Conference title to earn the Panthers’ sixth NCAA Tournament berth and fourth since 2015. He helped the Georgia State to winning seasons each year, including back-to-back appearances in the Sun Belt title game.
Another highlight of his tenure at Georgia State was the Panthers’ 2020-21 opening night, quadruple-overtime victory at Georgia Tech for the first win over an ACC opponent in school history.
In his first season, he helped the Panthers to 19 wins in a 2019-20 season that included a seven-game winning streak and the championship of the 2K Empire Classic Riverside Regional.
Before coming to Georgia State, Hayes spent the 2018-19 season as an assistant coach at Atlanta’s Morehouse College, helping guide the squad to a 20-5 overall record and the SIAC regular season title while assisting in the recruitment and development of the conference Player and Newcomer of the Year.
From 2015-18 he led the Atlanta Celtics AAU team while also serving as a color commentator for NBA TV and the ESPN/SEC Network. He also served as an assistant basketball coach at the Drew Charter School for two seasons.
Hayes was drafted with the 10th pick in the first round of the 2003 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards. He spent four seasons in Washington before playing the 2007-08 season for the Detroit Pistons, who advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. He spent his last two seasons in the NBA with the New Jersey Nets, where he served as an NBPA Team Representative.
From 2010-15, Hayes continued to play professionally overseas winning a championship with CSU Asesoft Ploiesti in Romania. He also played in Italy, Qatar, Israel, Russia, and Turkey.
After his freshman season at Western Carolina, where he averaged 17.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game to become the first freshman in 40 years to lead the Southern Conference in scoring, Hayes transferred to Georgia.
At Georgia, Hayes played two seasons before entering the NBA Draft. As a sophomore, he won the SEC scoring title wtih 18.6 points per game and was voted the SEC Player of the Year by Basketball America, The Sporting News, and CNN-SI.
During his junior year, he ranked second in the conference in scoring and fourth in 3-point field goal percentage. He became the only Bulldog to be a two-time, unanimous First-Team All-SEC selection by the coaches.
Hayes and his wife Illia were married in 2008. The couple has two sons, Jarvis Jr., and Myles.
ALLEN PAYNE
Assistant Coach
Allen Payne, joins Jonas Hayes‘ first Georgia State staff as an assistant coach after three seasons at Elon.
In 2019, while an assistant coach at Indiana University (Pa.), Payne was recognized on the Under Armour NABC 30 Coaches Under 30 list.
At Elon, he helped lead the Phoenix to the program’s first appearance in the 2021 Colonial Athletic Association championship game in 2020-21, following a berth in the tournament semifinals for the first time in 2019-20.
During his time on the Elon staff, Payne’s focus on defensive scouting and game-planning helped lead to significant defensive improvement as the Phoenix lowered their points allowed per game from 76.4 in the year before his arrival to 71.7 in 2019-20 and then to 65.0 points per game allowed in 2020-21. That year, Elon led the CAA and ranked in the top 50 nationally in scoring defense.
Payne also played a key role in helping Elon student-athletes earn five All-CAA awards the last two years.
Before going to Elon in 2019, Payne was an integral part of a very successful coaching staff at IUP for two seasons. He helped guide the program to back-to-back conference regular-season championships and the PSAC Tournament title in 2019. That earned the Crimson Hawks a berth in the 2019 NCAA D-II Tournament and a No. 2 overall final ranking with a 30-3 record, the third 30-win season in program history.
Payne’s responsibilities at IUP included recruiting, opponent scouting, player development and administrative duties.
Payne began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Xavier for two seasons (2015-17). In both seasons, he assisted the staff in leading Xavier to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the Elite Eight as an 11th seed in 2017.
As a collegiate player, Payne was a three-year starter at Auburn who was selected as a team captain in his senior season. He went on to play one year of professional basketball in the United Kingdom for the Sheffield Sharks.
Payne is a 2014 Auburn graduate with a bachelor’s degree in public administration.
The Cincinnati, Ohio, native was an all-state prep player Payne at Winton Woods High School.
Payne is married to the former Tyrese Tanner, who was an All-SEC women’s basketball standout at Auburn. The couple has one daughter, Ava, and one son, AJ.
DANNY PETERS
Assistant Coach
Danny Peters, formerly an assistant coach at Xavier, Arizona and Ball State, comes to Georgia State as an assistant coach on head coach Jonas Hayes‘ first staff.
Peters coached alongside Hayes at Xavier in 2021-22, helping the Musketeers to a 23-13 campaign, highlighted by the 2022 NIT Championship as XU won four straight games against Florida, Vanderbilt, St. Bonaventure and Texas A&M to claim the title.
Before his one season at Xavier, Peters spent a total of seven seasons at Arizona. In his three seasons (2018-20) as an assistant coach in Tucson, Peters helped the Wildcats sign two Top 10 recruiting classes, including a 2020 class that ranked among top five in the nation. The 2019-20 season saw Arizona win 21 games and lead the Pac-12 in scoring while holding opponents to the third-fewest points per game in the league.
Peters originally worked at Arizona four years from 2010-14, working as a graduate manager for two years and then assistant director of basketball operations for his final two years. The Wildcats won a pair of Pac-12 Conference championships and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament twice during Peters’ first tour with the Wildcats.
In between his Arizona stints, Peters served four seasons as an assistant coach at Ball State. During his time with the Cardinals, Peters aided in the nation’s fourth-largest turnaround in 2015-16 as Ball State earned the first of its two 20-win seasons and shared the MAC West Division championship. The program’s first postseason trip of Peters’ time in Muncie, Ind., the 2016 CIT, was Ball State’s first postseason berth in 14 years.
Peters was a four-year letterwinner at Ohio State from 2006-10. The Buckeyes won two Big Ten regular season championships and a pair of Big Ten Tournaments during his playing career while advancing to the NCAA title game in 2007.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Peters played at Lakota East High School before transferring to New Albany High for his senior year. His father, the late Dan Peters, was a longtime college basketball coach who served as the head coach at Walsh University (1983-88), St. Joseph’s College (Ind.) (1991-93) and Youngstown State (1993-99).
CHAESE VAUDRIN
Director of Operations
Chaese Vaudrin is the director of basketball operations on head coach Jonas Hayes‘ first Georgia State staff.
Vaudrin comes to Georgia State after one season as the director of operations at Xavier, where he worked alongside Hayes and assisted the staff in guiding the Mountaineers to 23 victories and the 2022 NIT Championship.
Before going to Xavier in 2021, he spent two years with the Hoop Group, which conducts youth basketball camps and tournaments. Vaudrin joined the Hoop Group as an intern in the summer of 2019 and was elevated to a full-time position as the Director of Skills and Middle School Tournaments in September of 2019.
Vaudrin graduated from Geneva College of Pennsylvania in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. While at Geneva, he was a 1000-point scorer and four-year starter on the basketball team. After graduating from Geneva, he spent a year as a varsity men’s basketball assistant coach at his alma matter, Uniontown Lake High School.
https://georgiastatesports.com/news/2022/4/28/mens-basketball-hayes-introduces-coaching-staff.aspx
