The University of Cincinnati Bearcats men’s basketball team has added Jason Slay as assistant coach, first-year head coach Jerrod Calhoun announced on Tuesday, June 16. Slay comes to the Bearcats from Illinois State, where he served on staff for the last three seasons.
“I am really excited that Jason Slay will be joining our Bearcats’ staff,” Calhoun said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and familiarity to our system. Jason has a tremendous motor and really cares deeply about developing student-athletes on and off the floor.”
In those three years at Illinois State, the last two of which Slay served as associate head coach, the Redbirds won 60 games and advanced to the semifinals of the NIT this past season. Among players Slay has coached are Chase Walker, a two-time First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) selection; and Johnny Kinziger, a Second Team All-MVC honoree in 2024-25. Also from Illinois State, Jack Daugherty was on the MVC All-Freshman team, and Dalton Banks was on the MVC All-Defensive team.
Before his time at Illinois State, Slay was an assistant at the University of South Florida for two seasons, and served on Calhoun’s staff at Youngstown State from 2017-21, helping guide the Penguins to the first back-to-back winning seasons in almost a decade while setting Horizon League-era records for total wins. In his first season at Youngstown State, Slay helped YSU to a program-record 266 steals, breaking the 27-year-old record, while the offense scored the fifth-most points in school history.
Prior to his stint at Youngstown State, Slay was an assistant coach at Virginia Military Institute (2015-17), East Tennessee State (2014-15), Tennessee State (2013-14) and was the director of basketball operations at Georgia Southern (2012-13). He also spent time as the top assistant coach at Hargrave Military Academy after starting his coaching career at his alma mater of West Virginia State, after he graduated with his undergraduate degree in general education in 2008.
As a student-athlete at West Virginia State, and as a four-year captain, he helped guide the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
Slay comes from a basketball family, as his older brother Tamar played at Marshall and in the NBA for the New Jersey Nets after being drafted in the second round; and his cousin, Ron, played for Tennessee and made a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 as a freshman in 2000.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jerrod Calhoun adds new assistant coach to UC Bearcats basketball team
Reporting by Scott Springer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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By Scott Springer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
