SMITHFIELD — The interest was mutual and the negotiations were seamless.
Bill Smith had a candidate in mind when the Bryant men’s basketball head coaching position opened. Jamion Christian was always a target for Smith, Bryant’s Vice President of Athletics, as a potential bench boss for the Bulldogs.
Smith and Christian crossed paths when the new Bryant coach was an upstart leader for Mount St. Mary's University for six seasons. Bryant, then playing in the Northeast Conference, saw Christian lead the Mount to the NCAA Tournament in 2017.
Smith was smitten by Christian’s teams, known for 3-point shooting and havoc defense. And, thankfully for Bryant, Christian was equally as intrigued by the Bulldog opening. Christian texted Smith quickly after the news spread that former coach Phil Martelli Jr. was departing for Virginia Commonwealth University.
After a quick hiring process, Smith introduced Christian as the 10th head coach in program history on Friday morning in the Quinlan/Brown Academic Innovation Center.
“The second text I got was from [Christian],” Smith said. “I was pumped up because I’ve always had my eye on him. I've always told him that he does great things to the program and really great things for the young men. You have to have hope and you’ve got to rebound real quickly and in this case, I knew that we already had one incredible candidate and that candidate was already strongly interested in the job.”
Christian is currently coaching the Pallacanestro Trieste of the Italian Professional Basketball League. The 42-year-old will finish out the season in Italy’s top league before joining Bryant full-time.
“It's an opportunity that you just don't know if it's going to present itself,” Christian said of Bryant. “And when that sort of thing presents itself, we’ve got to go all in and that's what we tried to do with this opportunity. It feels surreal because two days ago I was going to practice in Italy and today I'm here having a press conference, and I'll go back on Sunday.”
John Ruppert, Bryant’s Deputy Director of Athletics, assisted Smith in the hiring process. The team of two identified Christian and advanced with an interview.
“This is one of those situations where you have to move quickly given the time of the year, and the men's basketball portal being open,” Smith said. “[Ruppert] knows what I'm thinking and I know what he’s thinking, so we've done this a number of times with each other. We went to work to try to ...
