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We hope you are ready for a season unlike any other: testing, distancing, and bubbles, oh my! Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or whether anything actually will happen…but in the meantime we will try to restore some order with season previews featuring the best players/coaches/administrators in the country. We continue our coverage with Wright State head coach Scott Nagy. After setting a Delta State school record with 549 career AST, made the 1989 Final 4 as a graduate assistant at Illinois under Lou Henson, made the postseason during each of his final 5 seasons as coach at South Dakota State, and has won 20+ games during each of his 1st 4 years as coach of the Raiders. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Nagy about being ranked #1 in the country and working alongside his father.
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 ball and pass it to our scorers. I was not really “dominant” but I broke the record for most games started and also had a good GPA.
During your junior year you went 24-9 and made it to the Final 4: how close did you come to winning a title? We won 8 of those games in OT but were not a great team: we did not even win our conference and 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 with 549 career AST: 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 longevity as 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: 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 dad/fellow assistant Dick: what made Henson such a great coach, and what was it like to work with your dad? Coach Henson probably knew more about X’s and O’s then anyone I have ever been around and his focus on defense/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 1996 NCC title: how were you able to come in as a young coach and have so much success so quickly? 1 thing that helped me during my 1st year was that I still had the 3 seniors who I had recruited as an assistant coach: they knew me and bought into what we were selling. We dominated the league behind 2 great guards.
What are your memories of the 1997 NCAA Regional tourney (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 I have ever seen on our campus.
In 1998 you started 21-0, 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 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? 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 of my years there I only applied for 1 other job because I liked it there and my kids grew up there.
You previously coached barefoot to raise money and awareness about the earthquake disaster several years ago 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.