director of operations Director of Operations
Bill Phillips Year at JMU: First Hometown: Collegeville, Pa. College: Saint Joseph’s 2001 Bill Phillips is in his first season as director of operations after JMU head coach Matt Brady announced his hiring in June of 2011. “I am excited about Bill joining our staff,” commented Brady, who coached Phillips as an assistant during his playing career at Saint Joseph’s. “He has a wealth of basketball experience and great knowledge of the game. He was an outstanding student-athlete both at William and Mary and Saint Joseph’s and helped Saint Joe’s reach new heights while playing there.” In his role as director of basketball operations, Phillips will be involved in all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the program, including team travel, academics, dining contracts, alumni relations and on-campus recruiting. “I’m really excited to be at JMU and be part of this program,” added Phillips. “It’s great being reunited with Coach Brady, and I think the program is poised for great things in the near future.” Most recently, Phillips spent the 2010-11 season as an assistant coach with Division II Philadelphia University, which faced JMU in an exhibition game before the season. The Rams went 15-12 with Phillips working primarily with post player development. He also worked with player strength and conditioning as well as game scouting. An accomplished college player at William and Mary and later Saint Joseph’s, Phillips went on to play eight seasons of professional basketball at the international level. He began his career in the NBA Summer League in 2002, where he played alongside Caron Butler and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez. His international experience included stops with 10 different teams in France, Greece, Spain, Italy and Germany. Phillips was inducted into the Saint Joseph’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. With his three seasons in Philadelphia, he currently ranks 47th on the school’s scoring chart with 1,007 points in 93 games. He also sits fifth with a .527 career field goal percentage and 22nd in rebounding with 686. As a senior playing alongside Jameer Nelson and Delonte West, he captained the 2001-02 squad that went 19-12 and reached the second round of the NIT. He averaged 11.6 points and a team-best 7.6 rebounds per game while establishing a school record for three-point accuracy with a .495 percentage (52-105). As a junior, he helped the Hawks reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a win over Georgia Tech before bowing to Stanford. He averaged 11.6 points and a team-high 8.9 rebounds to go with career-high totals of 111 assists, 151 blocks and 42 steals. Phillips was named Second Team All-Conference in the Atlantic 10 as well as Second Team All-Big 5 in both his junior and senior seasons. As a sophomore in 1999-2000, he averaged 9.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
His three stellar seasons in Philadelphia came after Phillips earned All-Rookie honors at William and Mary for the 1997-98 season. He averaged 8.0 points per game and was second on the team with 5.7 rebounds per game while averaging 21.7 minutes as the Tribe posted a 20-7 overall record. A high achiever in the classroom as well, Phillips was honored as a two-time Academic All-American, second team in 200102 and third team in 2000-01. He was named the Atlantic 10’s Student Athlete of the Year in both years. Phillips graduated Cum Laude from Saint Joseph’s with a bachelor’s degree in finance in 2001 and went on to acquire his master’s degree in financial services in 2002 while completing his career.
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