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AWAY FROM THE GAME - No Stats, Just Substance

HBCU coaches get few opportunities to move up the coaching ladder

When the 2009-10 Division I men’s basketball season begins, 29 schools will have new head coaches. Of the replacements, only three had connections as a player or coach at Historically Black schools – Ed Joyner, Jr., LeVelle Moton, and John Cooper. Not coincidentally, they got jobs at the three HBCUs (Hampton, North Carolina Central and Tennessee State, respectively) that were looking for new head coaches.

At a time when major Division I college football has a significant problem hiring any black head coaches, major college basketball suffers from a different type of bigotry – an inability to hire coaches from HBCUs to lead their programs. It is an issue that is current and longstanding – without much of an end in sight.

“It’s almost a dead end street,” said Jackson State head coach Tevester Anderson. “Unless you have experience at some other place, or a team that does really well every year, it’s hard to get one of the bigger conferences to give you a chance.”

Anderson is one of the coaches at HBCUs that have already had success away from Black colleges. As head coach at Murray State, Anderson was the fastest coach to amass 100 victories for the Racers and led the team to conference titles and NCAA postseason appearances.

After leaving the Ohio Valley Conference on his own accord for the environs of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Anderson has continued his success, leading JSU to a league championship, the NCAA tournament and several second-place finishes.

“I chose to come here,” said Anderson, who has been at JSU for five seasons. “If they didn’t want me, I could’ve gone somewhere else.”

But offers for a return engagement on bigger Division I stages haven’t been as strong for Anderson, despite his success.

“I’ve had some feelers from major colleges. But they were places where I was familiar with them and they were with me,” Anderson said.

If a coach who has had success wherever he has coached can’t move up from an HBCU, who can?

“It’s who you are and where you work, when it should be the style of play, which is not really different than a lot of the big conferences,” Anderson said.

James Green, who just finished his first year at Jacksonville State after leading Mississippi Valley State to a SWAC title and NCAA tournament appearance in 2008, said it is more about who you know and from where you know them.

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