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There are about a dozen D-1 coaches who have been at their current school for 20+ years, and Scott Nagy is 1 of them. This year he will try to guide South Dakota State to its 5th straight postseason appearance and its 3rd NCAA tourney since 2012. Having guided the Jackrabbits during their leap from D-2 to D-1, he is on pace to win his 400th career game this season as he tries to win the Summit League regular season title for the 3rd time in 4 years. He was only 29 years old when he took over the program in the 1990s, and he seems to be getting better with age. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Nagy about setting school records working for Lou Henson.
You played basketball at Delta State, where you were named Gulf South Freshman of the Year, and as a senior you were named Gulf South Athlete of the Year: how were you able to come in and contribute so quickly, and how were you able to continue to dominate during your career? I was fortunate to walk into a situation with really good players so all I had to do was take care of the basketball and pass it to our scorers. I was not really dominant but I did break the record for most games started and had a good GPA.
During your junior year you went 24-9 and made it to the Final 4: did you think you would win the title, and how close did you come to winning it all? We won 8 of those games in OT but were not a great team: we did not even win our conference. Had we not won those 8 games then we would have been a sub-.500 team. We ran into Kentucky Wesleyan in the tourney who was a great team that killed us.
You still hold the school record for career AST with 549: did you realize at the time how prolific a player you were, and did you ever think about playing pro basketball? I kind of knew that college was where my playing career would end and I had planned on going into coaching. The 549 AST are due to my longevity: I played about 120 straight games.
You also earned Gulf South All-Academic honors for 3 straight years: how important are academics to you, and how did your intelligence help you on the court? I think that academics and athletics go hand-in-hand: kids who are good in the classroom are generally easier to teach on the floor. It was important for me to do well in school because I was a business major so I just tried to do my best.
You became a graduate assistant at Illinois under Lou Henson, and made it to the Final Four in 1989 alongside your fellow assistant/dad Dick: what made Henson such a great coach, and what was it like to be coaching with your dad? Coach Henson probably knew more about X’s and O’s then anyone who I have ever been around and his focus on defense and rebounding was key. It was fun to coach next to my dad because I learned a lot from him.
Despite being just 29 years old when you became head coach at South Dakota State, your team went 24-5 and won the NCC title: how were you able to come in as a young coach and be so successful so quickly? 1 of the things that helped me during my 1st year was the 3 seniors that I had recruited as an assistant coach, so they knew me and bought into what we were selling. We dominated the league behind a pair of great guards.
What are your memories of the 1997 NCAA Regional tourney (when your team made it all the way to the Elite 8)? My best memory was playing our regional championship game at home and beating #2-seed Fort Hays State in our gym. It was 1 of the best atmospheres that I have ever seen on our campus.
In 1998 you started 21-0 and were ranked #1 in the country, finished with a school-record-tying 26 wins: what did it mean to be the best team in the nation, and did it reach a point where your team just expected to win every single game they played? When you have a streak like that you win some games that you probably should not have won. To be #1 for the 1st time in school history was fun but it also carried a lot of pressure with it. We put a lot of good teams together throughout the years and that team was the recipient of our past success.
You won 3 straight NCC titles from 1996-1998 and were named NCC COY 5 times in an 8-year span (1996-1998, 2002-2003): what makes you such a great coach, and did you ever consider coaching elsewhere ? What makes anyone a great coach is having good players: that is just all there is to it. You have to organize them and remain consistent, but any coach who thinks they are great because of what they teach is ridiculous! In all my years here I only applied for 1 other job, but I like it here and my kids have grown up here so I do not want to move my family.
In the past you coached barefoot to raise money and awareness about the earthquake disaster in Haiti (where your adopted daughter is from): why did you choose to do that, and what were you able to accomplish? I chose to do it because I am tied to Haiti through my daughter. I had been in Haiti before the earthquake so I cannot imagine how bad it is now. Anything simple like not wearing shoes to help raise some money for people who need help is always worth it.