Alston Jones - Men's Basketball Coach

Alston Jones

Title:
Graduate Assistant

Alston Jones is in his first season as a graduate assistant on the University of Tennessee at Martin staff in 2022-23.

Jones joined the Skyhawks after an accomplished collegiate playing career on the hardwood. He saw playing time in 113 games from 2015-19, earning all-conference accolades in three different seasons. Overall, the point guard tallied 1,188 points and 475 assists over his career while his teams piled up 82 victories, a .631 winning percentage and a trio of conference championships.

A Kansas City, Mo. native, Jones began his playing career at Daytona State College under current Skyhawk head coach Ryan Ridder. He helped lead the Falcons to a combined 50-14 record and a pair of Mid-Florida Conference titles. As a freshman, he was an all-conference second team performer after shooting a career-best 50.8 percent from the floor. The following season, he was an All-Mid-Florida Conference first team selection, averaging a career-highs of 14.1 points and 5.5 assists per contest. He poured in a career-best 35 points (on 15-of-26 shooting) at Palm Beach State College on Nov. 22, 2016 and distributed a career-high 15 assists against Trinity Valley three days later.

Jones then transferred to the Division I level, where he was a part of NC Central’s run to the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18. He sank a career-best 84 percent of his free throw tries while playing in 23 games under head coach Levelle Moton, guiding the Eagles to four dramatic wins over the course of five days at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament.

Jones wrapped up his collegiate career under head coach Steve Ridder (Ryan’s father) at Embry-Riddle. He garnered Sunshine State Conference All-Newcomer accolades while averaging 13.7 points and a team-high 4.3 assists per outing. He scored at least 20 points on seven different occasions and handed out 13 assists against Rollins on Jan. 30, 2019 – the third-best single-game performance in school history.

Following his playing days, Jones spent two years working in the corporate field before pursuing his Master’s degree from UT Martin. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a degree in interdisciplinary studies in 2020 and has one son, Kruz.