Vanderbilt is well-known as an awesome academic institution but Shan Foster showed that they can play a little basketball as well. He made the Sweet 16 in 2007, was named an All-American/SEC POY in 2008, and finished his career as the school’s all-time leader in PTS/3PM. In the summer of 2008 he was drafted by Dallas and later played pro basketball for several years in the US and overseas. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Shan about beating Kentucky by 41 PTS and being a great scorer. Today is Shan’s 35th birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!
You received scholarship offers from several great schools like Kansas/Notre Dame: what made you choose Vanderbilt? Vandy is the best academic school in the SEC. I grew up watching the SEC and wanted to make a name for myself in that league.
You shot 44.5 3P% as a freshman and finished your career with a school-record 367 3PM: how were you able to come in and contribute right from the start, and what is your secret for making shots from behind the arc? There is no substitute for hard work: you just need to get in the gym by yourself. I spent countless hours making shot after shot until I built up the muscle memory needed to be an elite shooter.
Take me through the 2007 NCAA tourney:
You scored 20 PTS in a 4-PT 2-OT win over Washington State: what are your memories of what Coach Kevin Stallings later called “1 of the best college basketball games I have ever been involved in”? That game was a nail-biter the whole way. They played great fundamentally-sound defense and made very few mistakes offensively: they had a very well-coached team. I remember our team being relentless in our preparation before this game. That level of focus was hard for the Cougars to overcome as we broke away in OT.
You scored 16 PTS in a 1-PT loss to Georgetown: do you think Jeff Green traveled before he made the game-winning shot with 2.5 seconds left (www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbDn3yoYNw), and where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? Jeff Green definitely traveled…which is why it was the most devastating loss of my career.
As a senior you won your 1st 16 games (the best in school history) before scoring 17 PTS in a 6-PT 2-OT loss at Kentucky on January 12, 2008: how much confidence did your team have entering OT after overcoming a 16-PT deficit in the 2nd half, and what went wrong in the 2nd OT when your team combined to score a single point? We entered that game with tremendous confidence because our family atmosphere and level of personal accountability was at an all-time high. Playing at a high level helped us become who we were.
Exactly 1 month later you scored 20 PTS in a 93-52 win over Kentucky that was the Wildcats’ worst conference loss ever: were you out for revenge after they ruined your perfect season, and what was the feeling like heading to the locker room at halftime with a 41-11 lead? We definitely wanted payback but it was just another game. We always wanted to win at home at all costs: you have to protect your home court.
After missing your 1st 6 3-PT attempts in your final home game on March 5, 2008, you ended up with a career-high 42 PTS by making your final 9 shots from 3-PT land including the game-winner with 2.7 seconds left (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUQyS6M2DAA) in a 1-PT OT win over Mississippi State to give the Commodores their 1st undefeated season at Memorial Gymnasium in 15 years: how were you able to go from ice-cold to red-hot, and did it eventually reach a point where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? I had great teammates who continued to encourage me to keep shooting. Eventually the percentages would even out and that night they did again. Once I got into a rhythm it seemed like anytime I could see the basket my shot was going up and going in.
In 2008 you were named All-American/SEC POY: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding honors? It was an amazing accomplishment and 1 that I was on a serious mission to attain. To be considered as 1 of the best is an honor.
Your 2011 career PTS remains the most in school history: did you realize at the time how prolific a player you were, and do you think that anyone will ever break your record? Records are meant to be broken and I look forward to the day when we have a player performing at that level. I did realize that I was playing at a high level but my goal was to not stay there but to get better: settling was never an option.
After getting drafted by Dallas in 2008 you spent a few years playing overseas before retiring in 2013: what is the biggest difference between the NCAA and pro ball overseas, and why did you decide to retire? The biggest difference is that pro basketball is a business: who gets to play and gets opportunities are not always decided by who is the best player. I fell in love with the game and not the business, which is why I retired.
You later accepted a position with the YWCA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee as director of MEND, an initiative dedicated to ending violence against women and girls by engaging men: how big of a problem is such violence, and what did MEND do to help fix the situation? Tennessee is 6th in the nation when it comes to the number of men killing women. 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence and every 20 minutes the police department responds to a domestic violence call so I would say that the problem is pretty big. Our goal is to make Nashville the safest city in the nation for women/girls. We will accomplish this by engaging men and educating boys to change the culture that supports violence.