On May 6, ETSU announced Jason Shay as the new head coach for men’s basketball, after former coach Steve Forbes agreed to become Wake Forest University’s new head coach.
Shay has been an assistant coach under Forbes for the past five years, so he knows the program and what it is like to work with the team.
“The transition has been fairly smooth,” Shay said. “Obviously I had a big voice in the last five years under Coach Forbes. Those guys have listened to me in the past, they know I’ve had a lot of input, especially in tight ball games. The transition has been fairly smooth because they know me, they know who I am, they know how I coach, they know my temperament.”
Since his promotion, Shay has been adding to the team and his staff with new assistant coaches Turner Battle, Greg Heair and Matt Wise, as well as new Director of Operations Chad Donley.
Shay has also recruited Truth Harris (Mount Vernon, New York), point guard Marcus Niblack (Leesburg, Florida), University of Maryland transfer Serral Smith Jr. (St. Petersburg, Florida) and Richard Amaefule (London), making for some strong recruits.
“The expectation every year is to win the championship,” said Shay. “We’re trying to compete for a regular season championship, a [Southern Conference] tournament championship and go to the NCAA tournament, and those will continue to be the expectations.”
Shay said practices have had a heavy focus on defense, which is a work in progress. With the start of school he plans to add more things like set plays, work against zone, under out of bounds, side out of bounds, full-court pressure and more.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Shay said. “But I like the progress that we’ve made, and we will continue to forge forward.”
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