Jamion Christian enters his second season as the head coach of Bryant men's basketball in 2026-27.
The 10th head coach in program history, Christian was hired in April 2025 after coaching stops at Pallacanestro Trieste of the Italian Professional Basketball League along with prior head coaching positions at George Washington University, Siena College and Mount St. Mary's University.
Coach Christian's first season with the Bulldogs ended with a 9-22 overall record and a 5-11 mark in the America East. The Bulldogs qualified for the America East Playoffs, falling to Vermont in the quarterfinals. Bryant featured one of the youngest rosters in the country under Christian, with over 10 freshmen playing pivotal minutes throughout the year.Â
One of the most highly touted young coaches in college basketball, Christian brings 18 years of collegiate coaching experience plus two years of coaching at the professional level in Italy to Bryant. He has served as the head coach of Italy's Serie A program team, Pallacanestro Trieste, for the last two seasons, and has had head coaching stops at Mount St. Mary's, Siena and George Washington. In 2020, Christan was listed 14th on ESPN's Top 40 under 40 ranking of the best young college coaches in the country.
Christian joined Trieste for the 2023-24 season and led the club to a Serie A2 playoff championship and a return to the Italy's top league, Serie A, for the 2024-25 season. He has posted a 41-24 record in his two seasons and currently has the club in sixth place in the 16-team league.
A 2004 graduate of Mount St. Mary's, Christian made a name for himself as one of the best young coaches in college basketball, earning his first head coaching opportunity in 2012 at his alma mater at the age of 29. Christian would lead the Mountaineers for the next six seasons, winning Northeast Conference Championships and advancing to the NCAA Tournament in 2014 and 2017. The 2017 team also won an NCAA Tournament game, defeating the University of New Orleans in the First Four. Â
Christian compiled a 101-95 overall record and a 67-39 conference record at the Mount, earning NEC Coach of the Year honors in 2017.
Christian was named the head coach at Siena in May of 2018 and coached the Saints to a 17-16 overall record, a nine-win improvement from the previous season. In his lone season in Albany, Christian's brand of basketball saw the Saints improve from 251st to 43rd nationally in scoring defense, 322nd to eighth in fewest turnovers, and 250th to 74th in 3-point field goals per game.
The New Kent, Virgina, native was called back to his roots, however, becoming the head coach at George Washington after just one season with the Saints. Christian served as the head coach for three seasons (2019-22) at GW, posting a 29-50 overall record.
Christian also has assistant coaching stops at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), William & Mary, Bucknell and Emory and Henry. At VCU, Christian worked under Shaka Smart (now head coach at Marquette) and helped the Rams win the CAA title and reached the Sweet 16 in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Christian's teams play a mayhem-style of basketball, styled after Smart's "havoc" defense from his time at VCU, with a pressing defense and up-tempo offense that relies on three-point shooting. The Mount ranked in the top 70 nationally in defensive turnover percentage in five of his six seasons, including as high as third during the 2015-16 season.
As a player, Christian was a three-year captain at the Mount St. Mary's, scoring 581 points in 90 career games and 56 starts. He led the Mount in scoring with 11.3 points per game in 2001-02 and averaged 8.2 ppg the following season.Â
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