Jamie McNeilly

Jamie McNeilly begins his fifth season as an assistant coach with the Hokies, having come to Blacksburg as a member of Buzz Williams’ original staff.

During his time at Virginia Tech, McNeilly has taken on a wide range of duties and has the added responsibilities of Director of Student-Athlete Development.

Prior to arriving at Virginia Tech, he had worked the previous six seasons with the Marquette University men’s basketball program, including the final three years as the student-athlete development specialist. He spent the 2010-11 season as the team’s video coordinator. The previous two years at Marquette, McNeilly worked as a graduate manager, and he earned his master’s degree in leadership studies in 2010. He was also an adjunct professor in the college of professional studies, teaching classes for three years in Marquette’s Graduate Sports Leadership program.

McNeilly has spent numerous years coaching with the Canadian men’s basketball program as an assistant. The summer of 2011 saw McNeilly help lead the Canadian Cadet Men’s Basketball team to a bronze medal at the FIBA Americas World Qualifying Championships held in Mexico. In 2012, McNeilly traveled to Brazil with the Canadian Junior Men’s National Team and helped guide the squad to a bronze medal finish at the FIBA Americas U18 Men’s Championship. The team posted a 4-1 record at the event, and Canada earned a medal for the third straight appearance.

McNeilly’s international coaching experience continued in 2013 at the U19 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. The team finished in sixth place in the 16-team tournament. Some notable players McNeilly coached as a Canadian national team assistant included Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis and Trey Lyles. In the summer of 2015, McNeilly was an assistant coach on the Canadian National Team at the FIBA U19 World Championship in Herkalion, Greece. In 2016, he worked as an assistant coach for the Canadian National Team at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship in Valdivia, Chile, and in the summer of 2017, he was an assistant coach on the gold medal-winning Canadian team in the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup held in Cairo, Egypt.

McNeilly played his collegiate basketball at the University of New Orleans. He was a standout player for the Privateers, earning Sun Belt all-conference recognition as a junior and making the league’s academic honor roll following his senior year. He saw action under Williams as a senior in 2006-07, and in conference games under Williams, McNeilly averaged 38.4 minutes, 16.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from UNO in interdisciplinary studies in 2007, the Toronto native played professionally in Germany in 2007-08. He joined USC Heidelberg of the Pro A League, where he averaged 10.9 points, 3 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game. He earned three letters with the Privateers after a season at South Georgia Technical College (2003-04), where he was an all-conference performer as well.

McNeilly possessed international experience prior to his stint in Germany, having played for Team Canada in two consecutive World University Games (2005 Summer Universiade in Turkey and 2007 Universiade in Thailand). While representing Canada in 2007, he helped his team earn a bronze medal as a team captain.

McNeilly and wife Shola were married on July 31, 2014 and welcomed their son, Jahro in November 2016 and are expecting another child this fall.