A former Clark Atlanta University point guard and long-time assistant coach is coming home to help coach his former rival.
Alfred Jordan, 35, joined the Morehouse College basketball coaching staff as an associate head coach after two years as the lead assistant under former Clark Atlanta head coach and current University Arkansas at Little Rock head coach Darrell Walker. Jordan is coming home to the Atlanta University Center (AUC) for a number of reasons, one of which is family. His nine-year-old son AJ, a Twitter star due to all of the youth basketball videos Jordan posts during the season, attends school in Atlanta. “I wanted to come back home to be with my family,” said Jordan, who is originally from Harlem, New York. “It was one of those situations where I have been close to coach [Douglas] Whittler and the late coach [Grady] Brewer.”
Jordan brings a wealth of coaching experience to the Maroon Tigers, but not only that, he brings a knowledge of how to navigate the duality of being a student-athlete at the AUC mixed with what he picked up from the Division I level while working with Walker in Arkansas. “Being around coach Walker for all of those years [two seasons at Clark Atlanta before the two seasons at Arkansas at Little Rock] I found myself sounding like a parrot,” joked Jordan about repeating Walker-isms. “Everything he did was a build-up to something different.
“I learned that there was a lot of madness behind the methods.”
On coaching for the Maroon Tigers program after having played and coached in dozens of rival games throughout his career Jordan, a lifelong New York Knicks fan, has an interesting take on what that feels like. He shared a story of how this chapter of his life reminds him of the time in the early 1990s when Pat Riley left the New York Knicks to coach the Miami Heat. “It’s so funny, God has the best sense of humor,” he said. “He answered my prayers and had me back in Atlanta coaching my former rival.”
The recruiting that took place during Walker’s two seasons at Clark Atlanta was spearheaded by Jordan and led to a pair of runs to the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) tournament title. Morehouse, despite having some of the best teams in program history, failed to win the SIAC tournament during Walker and Jordan’s time together. That cloud changed with Jordan on staff and he understands that. “At CAU and at Little Rock we got a lot of city guys to come play for us,” said Jordan. “With coach Whittler being from Detroit and having that midwest connection, and my having my east coast connections, that combination is going to bring a different feel to Morehouse.”
There has already been a Division I transfer to the program.
Morehouse will participate in the Chris Paul HBCU Tip-Off November 22-23 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The Maroon Tigers will open the tournament against Winston-Salem State University before playing the winner of West Virginia State/Virginia Union in either the consolation or championship game a day later.
Jordan was next in line to become head coach at his alma mater before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to cancel the basketball season. Bo Bivens is currently serving as the Panthers interim head basketball coach.
The 2021-22 Morehouse basketball schedule has not been released yet, but what’s for certain is the Maroon Tigers and Panthers will play their annual home-and-home games. Jordan will have to celebrate his homecoming on the Morehouse bench.
