Amy Mallon said she has had opportunities to be become a head coach over her 16 years as an assistant at Drexel, the last 13 as the Dragons’ associate head coach. None, though, were the right fit.
“I wanted to make sure that my first job was the right job,” Mallon said during a video conference Wednesday.
The “right job” cropped up last Friday when Mallon was promoted to head coach of the women’s basketball program at Drexel only a few hours after it was announced that Denise Dillon was leaving Drexel after 17 seasons to become Harry Perretta’s replacement at Villanova.
“I felt really good about where I was and I felt valued at Drexel throughout my time in the last 16 years,” Mallon said. “That was one of the things that knowing if an opportunity did arise where the job opened up, and it just seemed like it fell in place.”
Mallon is the sixth head coach since the women’s program moved to the Division I level in 1982.
“I think she is clearly the perfect candidate for the job,” Drexel athletic director Dr. Eric Zillmer said.
Zillmer called the transition “smooth and seamless.” Mallon has been by Dillon’s side from nearly the beginning and has a deep connection to the Philadelphia area as both as a player and as a coach.
She was the Big 5 Player of the Year as a senior at Saint Joseph’s in 1993 and also played a year with the Philadelphia Rage of the defunct American Basketball League. A member of the Big 5 Hall of Fame, Mallon spent a year as an assistant coach at Villanova, one at SJU and seven as the head coach at Episcopal Academy before joining Dillon’s staff at Drexel in 2004.
Mallon has been part of 319 wins during her time at Drexel, including at least 22 wins in each of the last four seasons and 20 victories in six of the last eight. The Dragons were 23-7 before the postseason was cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and 96-35 over the last four seasons, the best four-year stretch in program history.
She is credited with turning the Dragons into one of the top defensive teams in the country. Drexel ranked 17th in scoring defense (55.4) before the season was cancelled. The Dragons led the country in that category last season (50.5).
“The defense is always going to be a staple,” Mallon said. “That’s something I believe is that part of being a team everyone can be recognized for so that’s always going to be our staple. On the offensive end, my philosophy has always been that you have to work with the personnel. I think it changes year-to-year with who you have on the court and what they’re capable of doing. And that does change every year because different people step up. You learn that as they move up in age, responsibility and how they develop as players.
“My goal is team basketball. That’s my favorite part about the game is everyone be involved, but you’re also going to tailor to your strengths, whatever that may be.”
There will be changes. There always are with a new coach, but don’t expect those changes to be drastic.
“I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel,” Mallon said. “I think we’ve established something that’s pretty strong, and I think it’s about changing and changing with the type of players, but our main thing is competing. We think we can compete and we’ll continue to do that.”
