Georgia Southern University Athletics

George Neilson enters his third season at Georgia Southern and was elevated from director of basketball operations to assistant coach while retaining his operations duties in 2024, and elevated to assistant coach ahead of the 2025-26 season.

The Eagles improved by eight wins during the 2024-25 season, winning their first-round game in the Sun Belt tournament as the nine seed. The squad once again broke the team record with 313 threes and 912 attempts and finished top five in the following statistics in program history: field goal attempts (3rd, 2063), rebounds (4th, 1234) and held opponents to the sixth-lowest three-point percentage against in team history. Under Neilson's watch, Adante' Holiman was named All-Sun Belt Third Team after leading the conference in points per game and Tyson Brown broke the single-season field goal percentage record, minimum 100 attempts. In the team's first season in the new Jack & Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center, the Eagles had an 8-3 record, also closing Hanner Fieldhouse with a perfect 3-0 record.

He arrived in Statesboro by way of Texas Tech, where he spent two seasons as the director of scouting.

Neilson headed to Lubbock after spending the previous two seasons as the video coordinator at Cincinnati following serving three seasons as director of men’s basketball operations at Santa Clara. He worked as the Tech video coordinator in his first season with the program. 

Neilson assisted at Arizona State for two seasons as the video coordinator (2014-15) and a graduate assistant (2013-14). He earned a master’s degree in liberal studies from Arizona State in 2014.

Along with experience with collegiate programs, Neilson spent the 2015-16 season as basketball operations assistant with the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, creating personnel reports and video edits on opponents while assisting in player development workouts. 

A Tuscaloosa, Alabama native, earned a degree in physical education from Alabama in 2011 while serving as a student manager his final two years. He worked as a volunteer assistant video coordinator with the Crimson Tide during the 2011-12 season and as a graduate assistant at Drake in 2012-13. 

He married Michelle Belleville in August 2019. The couple has one child, Grace Kaylyn, born on July 6, 2021.