Alan M. Major (born June 21, 1968) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of

Patriots BBC Patriots Basketball Club, also known as Patriots, is a professional basketball club based in Kigali, Rwanda. Established in 2014, it plays its home games at Amahoro Indoor Stadium. The team is a four-time champion of the Rwanda Basketball League ( ...

of the

Basketball Africa League The Basketball Africa League (BAL) is the premier men's basketball league in Africa. Founded in 2019, the league was established and is co-organized by NBA Africa and the FIBA, International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Each season typically r ...

(BAL). He was the head coach at the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...

from 2010 to 2015. Before being named coach of the

Charlotte 49ers The Charlotte 49ers are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina. The 49ers compete at the Nati ...

, Major spent nine years working with

Thad Matta Thad Michael Matta (born July 11, 1967) is an American college basketball coach who is currently in his second stint as head coach of the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team, having been head coach of the Bulldogs for the 2000–01 season. Fro ...

at Ohio State and Xavier universities. Born in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, he is a 1992 graduate of

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

. Major took an indefinite medical leave of absence due to multiple health issues in January 2015, and was replaced on an interim basis by his associate head coach,

Ryan Odom Ryan Odom (born July 11, 1974) is an American men's college basketball coach who is the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball, Cavaliers men's basketball team since March 21, 2025. He has previously c ...

. As of mid-2016, Major has a clean bill of health. He returned to the sidelines in 2016 as Director of Player Development back at Ohio State from 2016 to 2017. During his time away from coaching, Major traveled the U.S. to visit dozens of successful college and

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

teams. He also assisted several overseas tour teams to China, Israel, and the Philippines. Major served as a student manager under

Gene Keady Lloyd Eugene Keady (born May 21, 1936) is an American Hall of Fame basketball coach. He is best known for his 25 years serving as the head men's basketball coach at Purdue University in Indiana. In his tenure leading the Boilermakers from 1980 t ...

during his undergraduate tenure at Purdue. After graduating in 1992, Major became an assistant coach at Cal Lutheran, a Div. III school, and then spent three years working under all-time Big West Conference wins leader

Bob Thomason Robert Lesley "Bob" Thomason Jr. (born March 26, 1949) is a retired American college basketball coach. He coached the University of the Pacific Tigers men's basketball team for 25 seasons from 1988 to 2013. In 25 years at Pacific, Thomason has ...

at University of the Pacific. He spent one season, 1998–1999, on the staff of fellow Purdue alumnus Bruce Weber before returning to Pacific. In 2001, he became an assistant coach at Xavier under

. He followed Matta to

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

in 2004 where he worked as an assistant coach for six seasons. On April 12, 2010, he was named the head coach of Charlotte. Major coached two No. 1 overall picks in the NBA draft during his time as an assistant. At Pacific, Major worked with

Michael Olowokandi Michael Olowokandi (born 3 April 1975) is a Nigerian former professional basketball player. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in London, he played collegiately for the Pacific Tigers in Stockton, California. Nicknamed "the Kandi Man," Olowokand ...

who was the top pick in the 1998 draft. At Ohio State, Major was the big men coach when

Greg Oden Gregory Wayne Oden Jr. (born January 22, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player. Oden, a 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) center (basketball), center, played college basketball for the Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball, Oh ...

came to the school. Oden was the number one pick in the

2007 NBA draft The 2007 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2007, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was broadcast on television in 115 countries. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amate ...

. Following the conclusion of the 2014–15 season, it was announced that Major would step down as head coach in order to fully recover and re-energize himself. His record as 49ers head coach was 67 wins and 70 losses with the program attaining an overall record during his tenure of 75–81. Significant milestones included winning the 2012 Great Alaska Shootout and 2013 Puerto Rico Tip-off tournaments and victories over #7 ranked

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, #10 ranked

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

, and previous National Championship runners-up, #14 ranked

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. In April 2021, Major signed as head coach of the Rwandan club

to coach the team in the first-ever

(BAL) season. He was also an assistant coach on the

Nigeria national basketball team The Nigeria men's national basketball team represents Nigeria in international basketball, and it is governed by the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF). In March 2021, the global governing body FIBA ranked Nigeria as Africa's top men's bask ...

during

AfroBasket 2021 FIBA AfroBasket 2021 was the 30th edition of the FIBA AfroBasket, a men's basketball continental championship of Africa. The tournament was hosted by Rwanda for the first time. It was originally scheduled to take place between 17 and 29 August 20 ...

Head coaching record

*''Alan Major took an indefinite leave of absence due to medical reasons on January 6, 2015. Charlotte's record at the time was 6–7 (0–1 C-USA).''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Major, Alan 1968 births Living people Basketball coaches from Indiana Charlotte 49ers men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball coaches Pacific Tigers men's basketball coaches Purdue University alumni Southern Illinois Salukis men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Indianapolis Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coaches Basketball Africa League coaches