Ali Ton
Assistant Men's Basketball Coach

THE Ton FILE

Profile:

Ali Ton is in his first season with Radford as an assistant coach. He joined the Highlanders in the spring of 2007 as the third assistant hired by Brad Greenberg.

A former standout guard for Davidson, Ton is responsible for assisting with all aspects of the Radford program, including recruiting, game and practice preparation, scouting and player development.

He came to Radford after spending two years as an assistant at Binghamton. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach with the Turkish National 20 & Under Team. He helped guide that team to the European Championship in 2005.

Ton started his coaching career at his alma mater, spending one year at Davidson, helping guide the Wildcats to the 2004 Southern Conference South Division regular season title. Ton then moved to serve as a graduate manager at Western Carolina while working on his master’s degree.

Ton was named All-Southern Conference while at Davidson, holding the school’s all-time assists record upon graduation. He ranked third on the Southern Conference all-time list and was among the nation’s Top 10 in assists twice. He started at the point guard position for three of his four years, tallying 646 career assists. Ton averaged 7.6 assists per game (third in the nation) as a senior. He also finished with 222 career steals to place him second at Davidson and fifth in the SoCon all-time. He also holds Davidson’s single-game steals mark with 11, set against Tufts during the 1997-98 season. It was the best single-game steals mark in all of Division I basketball that season.

Ton’s success led Davidson to the NIT in 1996 and a Southern Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament berth in 1998. He was a First Team All-Conference selection as a senior. In addition, he was given the Tommy Peters Award as the top senior male athlete at Davidson.

Prior to moving into the coaching ranks, Ton played professional basketball for four years in his native Turkey. He began his professional career in the first division’s Mydonose Kolej in Anakara. That season, he ranked among the league’s top 10 in assists and steals. The following year, Ton played for Turk Telekom, also in Anakara. He led that Turk Telekom team, who had finished ninth the previous year to the championship game of the Turkish Cup and advanced on to the semifinals in the first division. The next season, Turk Telekom placed fourth and reached the Turkish Cup semifinals. While with Turk Telekom, he had the opportunity to participate in several European tournaments, most notably the Korac and Saporta Cups. That provided him the opportunity to face off against former NBA players like Acie Earl, David Rivers, Keith “Mister” Jennings and J.R. Reid. Ton’s final year of professional play was spent with one of the biggest sports clubs in the world, Galatasaray.

Ton earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Davidson in 1999. He currently resides in Radford with his wife Elizabeth.