Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
Allison McNeill serves as the Ducks’ associate head coach in her fourth year with the program. After serving as an assistant coach in the 2001-02 season, she was promoted to her current role in July 2002.
McNeill, 44, played with coach Bev Smith at Oregon from 1979-81. Before re turn ing to her alma mater, she was the head coach at Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C., for 13 years, compiling a 363-79 (.821) record.
And, in October 2001, McNeill was appointed the head coach of the Canadian National Team, which she guided to a bronze-medal finish at the FIBA Americas Olympic Qualification Tournament and a fourth-place mark at the Pan American Games in 2003.
“We’re good friends both on and off the floor,” Smith said. “Allison is a tremendous teacher and a coach. She has the best winning percentage in Canadian history at the university level. She is a real important part of our team."
One of the top coaches in Canadian collegiate basketball history McNeill also was the head Canadian Junior National Team coach in 2000, leading it to a fifth-place finish at the World Qualifying Tournament.
At Simon Fraser, she earned NAIA/ Kodak Regional Coach of the Year honors following the 2000 campaign.
After the 1995-96 and 1997-98 seasons, she was awarded the Pacific Northwest Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. In 1992, she received perhaps one of her greatest honors in being selected the NAIA Converse/WBCA Coach of the Year. McNeill also captured NAIA Conference Coach of the Year accolades after the 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998 seasons.
In addition, she coached Canadian juniors and club teams from 1983 to 1987. She also has spent time in Germany, coaching two girls club teams in Monheim from 1983 to 1984.
McNeill’s coaching career has come full circle as she began as an assistant at Oregon in the 1981-82 season. She spent the following year as an assistant at Portland State.
As a player, McNeill (Towriss) transferred to Oregon after leading Laurentian University to two national championships. A two-year starter for the Ducks, she led the team in assists and ranked second in steals during her senior season in 1980-81. Her 72 steals that year remains as the ninth-best single-season mark in UO history.
McNeill, the team captain her final year, helped lead Oregon to a No. 11 national ranking. She also became the first recipient of the Jackson Award in 1981, recognizing the school’s top female student-athlete.
A native of Salmon Arm, B.C., she graduated from Salmon Arm Secondary, one year before Smith, in 1977. She is married to Mike McNeill, also an assistant coach with the Ducks.
She was born Sept. 26, 1959, in Princeton, B.C.
