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Williford is one of the most highly-regarded assistant coaches in college basketball, bolstering Georgetown's efforts at recruiting local prospects.
Jason Williford, who has spent the last 16 years as a coach at the University of Virginia (UVA) and most recently was their associate head coach, will join the Georgetown University men’s basketball coaching staff, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 reported April 30.
Williford, a 2019 NCAA champion at UVA, comes from a program with a pedigree of winning and developing championship players. In a 2020 poll, ACC assistant coaches ranked Williford the best assistant in the conference.
Williford will fill former assistant Kenny Johnson’s spot after Johnson’s departure to join Darian DeVries’ staff at the University of Indiana. Johnson’s deep ties with Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia-area high school basketball, especially the Team Takeover (TTO) organization, helped the Hoyas seal commitments from transfers this offseason.
Two players from last year’s roster — sophomore guard Malik Mack and first-year guard Caleb Williams — were TTO players, and incoming transfers Isaiah Abraham and DeShawn Harris-Smith also played for TTO. Johnson was instrumental in recruiting Abraham and Harris-Smith from the portal. After Johnson’s departure, speculation emerged that Georgetown’s TTO recruiting pipeline was gone.
Williford also has connections to TTO and basketball in the area. His son, Austin Williford, played for TTO and is now committed to Saint Joseph’s University. Williford’s ties may help seal the recruitment of four highly ranked prospects from the D.C. metropolitan area who are entering their senior year of high school.
The Hoyas have been in pursuit of rising high school seniors Jordan Smith, Qayden Samuels, Prince-Alexander Moody and Latrell Allmond throughout the past season. Smith is a five-star recruit and ESPN’s fifth-best recruit in the country. Samuels, Moody and Allmond are all highly-touted recruits as well.
Allmond goes to John Marshall High School in Richmond, Williford’s alma mater and where he coached in the 1999-2000 season. Smith, Samuels and Moody all played with Williford’s son at TTO.
Williford played guard at UVA before a brief international professional career. He then made his first foray into coaching at the high school level, before taking assistant coach positions at American University and Boston University.
In 2009, he returned to UVA to join Tony Bennett’s staff. In 2017, Bennett promoted Williford to associate head coach. As part of UVA’s 2019 staff, Williford won a national championship. When Bennett retired suddenly before this season, Williford was one of UVA’s two options for interim head coach, but the Cavaliers opted instead to fill the role with Ron Sanchez.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.