We are still about 5 weeks away from the tip-off of the college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to prepare for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi head coach Jim Shaw, who talked about being hired last March and his expectations for this season.
You were born/raised in Texas: how has the basketball vs. football dynamic changed in the Lone Star State from your childhood until now? The Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) has become more prominent/prevalent. There is more specialization in sports now and the TABC promotes camps and allows coaches to work with their teams during the summer. There is more education and a sense of community: it has increased at least tenfold and helped develop better players. There were a number of draft picks last summer from the state of Texas and AAU ball has increased tremendously with some great grassroots coaches.
You played college basketball at Grinnell where your team won 4 straight D-3 scoring titles: what is the secret to having a great offense? Coach David Arseneault put in “The System”. It helps to have 4 shooters on the court at all times so you have to recruit good shooters. We would substitute in players to keep everyone fresh and play fast by pressing on defense.
You earned a degree in economics at Grinnell and a master’s in business administration from UTEP: how much importance do you place on academics? Getting a college degree is very important: over the last 2 academic years our program has had a GPA over 3.0 and won some academic awards. We have study hall/tutoring/academic advising and we put a lot of resources into it. We even have an academic advisor come on road trips, which is a bit unheard of on this level.
You spent the past 2 years as an assistant to Steve Lutz with the Islanders: what makes him such a great coach, and when are we going to see Western Kentucky on your schedule? He worked really hard and is highly organized and emphasizes both sides of the ball without cheating either 1. We scored 80 PPG (top-20 in the country) by giving our guys confidence in a pace-and-space offense, and we led the league in turnovers forced by being a more aggressive team that imposed its will on our opponents. He recruits players who are good people and has great synergy with his staff so that we are all pushing in the same direction. WKU is supposed to come back and play a home-and-home so it might happen in a couple of years.
Take me through the 2023 NCAA tourney:
In the 1st 4 you beat Southeast Missouri State: how big a deal was it to get the 1st NCAA tourney win in school history? It was an unbelievable experience. We had 11 returning players from our 2022 NCAA tourney team so they did not want to fall short again. We were missing a few players including Terrion Murdix but we were able to overcome his injury. It was big for the community/alumni base: there were watch parties throughout the city and it gave us priceless advertising.
In the 1st round you lost to Alabama: what did your team learn from that loss that you think will help them this year? You have to be ready to go from the tip despite the quick turnaround from Tuesday to Thursday. You have to rebound at a high level and take away the 3-PT shot: they put us in a hole early and showed the importance of closing out shooters.
Later that month you were named head coach: why did you take the job, and how is it going so far? It is the opportunity of a lifetime and I always wanted to be a D-1 head coach. Without football here the administration has given us a lot of resources to be successful so I think that it is 1 of the best jobs in the Southland. It is going well so far. We had to sign 10 new scholarship players so I was on the phone every day trying to recruit guys who would be a good fit. It was “speed dating” recruiting but most of them were here during the summer so we could develop their skills step by step. We just had our 1st official practice yesterday: we are a “builder of teams” and quickly put the new parts together by creating a level of chemistry.
You lost each of your top-6 scorers from last year (Trevian Tennyson/Isaac Mushila/Terrion Murdix/Ross Williams/Jalen Jackson/De’Lazarus Keys): how will you try to replace all of that offense? 1 of our players (Owen Dease) has been in the program for a couple of years. He has been bitten by the injury bug early on but he has the skills to be a true wing despite standing 6’8”. With good health/opportunity I think that he can be 1 of the more talented players in our league. Stephen Giwa was trending up last year until he tore his ACL and he will be a traditional back-to-the-basket post as we look for him to make the jump. We have a # of transfer players and 5th-year seniors as well.
Your roster includes 10 players who transferred from other schools, 4 from the state of Texas, and 1 freshman: what sort of recruiting philosophy do you have? With so many roster spots available last spring we just went with the best available players/people. You try to get 3 guys and 3 post players and even them out with a bunch of players who can shoot. We are a destination university so even though we try to get the best players in Texas we recruit nationwide. We brought in a # of junior college players who turned into all-league players and will also try to bring in 1-2 high school players who can come in and contribute immediately. We got a couple of older transfer portal guys from within the Southland and a couple from the WAC.
You had a birthday earlier this week: what did you do for the big day? We had a 2-hour workout, which was the highlight of the day. I made some recruiting calls, fielded some birthday texts, and then watched Justin Verlander throw 8 great innings for the Astros!
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? The goal is to win the conference tourney and get back to the NCAA tourney. We will have some growing pains and probably the toughest schedule that we have ever had here but it will prepare us for conference play in January. If we stay healthy then we have enough talent to compete in the Southland.