Arkansas State men’s basketball head coach Mike Balado announced that Ian Young has been elevated to assistant coach. Young moves to assistant coach after spending the last two seasons as a graduate assistant on staff.
“Ian has taken the long road to becoming an assistant coach, but he has earned this role with our program,” said Balado. “With his professional experience, our players have respected him as a mentor since he joined our program as a graduate assistant two years ago. Ian has done a great job with player development and we are excited to have him continue to work with our players as an assistant coach.”
Over the last two seasons, Young has contributed to scouting reports, game and practice preparations, offensive and defensive implementation, player development and video analysis. Young has played a vital role in the development of the A-State guards, seeing Marquis Eaton post a league-best 91 assists in 2020-21 while earning All-Conference honors each of the last two seasons.
“I’m grateful for Coach Balado and staff for taking a chance on a 38-year-old graduate assistant two years ago and extremely excited to now start my career as an assistant coach here at Arkansas State,” said Young. “The last two seasons have been great experience working with the staff and our players and I look forward to adding to the culture that Coach Balado has been building here at Arkansas State.”
Young arrived at A-State following a two-year stint as Associate Head Coach at Apopka (Fla.) High School. He conducted 6:00 a.m. workouts and was the skill and development coach. Apopka was the long public school in all of Florida ranked in the top-five, finishing the season at No. 4 with a 25-4 record and a district championship for the first time in over 20 years.
An All-SEC performer at Auburn, Young played two seasons for the Tigers (2003-05). He had two appearances in the NBA Summer League, playing for the San Antonio Spurs (2005) and Golden State Warriors (2008). He played for the Trinidad and Tobago National Team from 2007-17 and is the all-time leader in points and assists. He led Trinidad and Tobago to an upset of No. 12 Puerto Rico in 2008. During his 13-year professional career, Young played in 20 different countries.
Ian and his wife, Tiffany, have three children – Monet, Tiana and Ian Jr.
Young elevated to Assistant Coach at Arkansas State
