Jamall Walker - Men's Basketball Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Jamall Walker

Title:
Assistant Coach
Years at GCU:
4th
Email:
jamall.walker@gcu.edu
Alma Mater:
St. Louis (1999)

Road to GCU
YEAR	SCHOOL	POSITION
1995-99	St. Louis	Student-Athlete
2000-01	Alston HS (Ill.)	Asst. Coach
2001-02	Schlagle HS (Kan).	Asst. Coach
2002-04	Redlands CC (Okla.)	Asst. Coach
2004-06	Ball State	Asst. Coach
2006-07	St. Louis	Asst. Coach
2007-08	Murray State	Asst. Coach
2008-09	Ohio	Asst. Coach
2009-10	Arizona	Dir. of Ops
2010-12	Ohio	Asst. Coach
2012-20	Illinois	Asst. Coach
2020-pres	GCU	Asst. Coach

Jamall Walker is in his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Grand Canyon men's basketball program for the 2023-24 season.

Walker is a part of a Lopes coaching staff that has remained fully intact since being brought aboard for Bryce Drew's first season as head coach in 2020-21. In that three-year span, the Lopes have made two NCAA Tournament appearances by winning the 2021 and 2023 WAC Tournaments.

In his first season with the Lopes, Walker helped lead GCU to its first WAC regular-season championship, first WAC tournament championship and first trip to the NCAA tournament. Walker and the Lopes coaching staff inherited a 13-17 squad and went 17-7 in 2020-21.

The Lopes staff was charged with replacing GCU's two leading scorers heading into their second season. Behind the development of Jovan Blacksher Jr. and the addition of Holland Woods II, the Lopes posted a 92 NET for the top mark in program history with a 23-8 mark in 2021-22. GCU's best win by metrics in its D-I program history came on Dec. 18 in the Colangelo Classic as GCU topped previously undefeated San Francisco.

In 2022-23, GCU made an improbable run through the 2023 WAC Tournament by winning four games in four days as the No. 5 seed to become the lowest seeded team to win the WAC Tournament since 2001. The Lopes made their second ever NCAA Tournament appearance and were paired up against Gonzaga.

Prior to GCU, Walker was a member of the staff at Illinois, where he spent the last eight seasons under head coaches John Groce and Brad Underwood. During the transition from Groce to Underwood, Walker served as the Illini interim head coach for the 2017 National Invitational Tournament, picking up a pair of wins on the home floor over Valparaiso and Boise State to advance Illinois to the quarterfinals.

Called a "future college head coach" by Underwood, Walker most recently served as an assistant to the head coach and defensive coordinator. Illinois went 21-10 in 2019-20 and was a projected NCAA tournament team.

"I am so excited to be joining Bryce Drew's staff and the GCU community," Walker said at the time of his hiring. "Coach Drew is committed to not only developing great basketball players but also helping them to strengthen in their faith and grow into young leaders. These are core values that I strongly believe in. I look forward to building a program with him and the rest of the staff."

Illinois recorded 15 top-25 wins during Walker's tenure in Champaign including top-10 victories over No. 10 Gonzaga, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 1 Indiana (2012-13), No. 9 Michigan State (2018-19), No. 5 Michigan and No. 9 Penn State (2019-20).

Walker joined the Illinois staff and helped lead the program to a pair of 20-win seasons in the first two years. Walker and the Illini staff built a top-25 defense in 2013-14, limiting opponents to 62.2 points per game. In 2014-15, the Illini were the nation's best free-throw shooting team at 79.4%. Illinois ranked fifth nationally in turnovers forced in 2017-18. In his final year in Champaign in 2019-20, Walker and the Illini were one of the nation's top rebounding teams, ranking 11th with a +7.5 rebounding margin.

Prior to his stint in Champaign, Walker was an assistant coach at Ball State for two seasons and Ohio for three seasons. He also has an Arizona connection after spending a year as the director of basketball operations for Sean Miller at Arizona.

Walker spent the 2008-09 season at Ohio before leaving to join the staff at Arizona for a year before returning to Ohio for two years. In his final year with the Bobcats, Walker helped lead the team to a program-best 29-8 record and a trip to the Sweet 16 after NCAA Tournament wins over Michigan and South Florida. Ohio's season came to a close with an eight-point defeat at the hands of North Carolina. The Bobcats had a suffocating defense that ranked third in steals and fifth in turnover margin.

Walker's first four years on a D-I bench came at three different places in Ball State, St. Louis and Murray State.

Walker was a four-year guard at St. Louis, leading the Billikens to an NCAA tournament appearance in 1998. He racked up 350 career assists, a top-10 mark in St. Louis history.

"Jamall brings many years of Big Ten experience with him to GCU," Drew said. "Through his years as a player and coach, he has developed a great feel for the defensive end of the court. Recruiting has always been one of his strengths as he has signed many high-level players in the last few years."