THE LONG ROAD TO THE TOP


It’s about time.

That was one coach’s response after hearing that friend and colleague Tom Schuberth had been hired at the University of Texas-Pan American. Others echoed those thoughts and a couple used more choice words to emphasize the point. After all it had only taken twenty-four years for Schuberth to land his first head-coaching gig.

“Luck, timing and help from others,” Schuberth said when describing his appointment at UT-Pan Am. “I have always been a believer in that you do the best possible job where you are and everything else will take care of itself. If you start worrying too much or planning for your next job, you won’t have your current job.”

Still twenty-four years is quite a wait.

Schuberth’s basketball career got off to a pretty good start. In his freshman year (1977) UNLV advanced to the Final Four. Schuberth would transfer to Mississippi State the following season, but that one season spent with Jerry Tarkanian planted the seed for his coaching tree.

Schuberth would go on to an excellent career in the Southeastern Conference, highlighted by his academic excellence. The Academic All-American earned his Master’s Degree in 1981 and began his coaching career the following year.

“When I was young I didn’t think I had all the answers, but I thought I had a lot of them,” laughed Schuberth. “I think when you are young there is a tendency to try to speed things up. You feel like you have to get somewhere in a hurry, but you aren’t sure where exactly that is. I am not ashamed to say that I made my share of mistakes, but I was fortunate in that I was able to learn from them.”

As a recruiter, Schuberth didn’t make many mistakes. After a one-year stint at North Alabama, Schuberth joined Mike Vining at Northeastern Louisiana (now known as the University of Louisiana-Monroe) and the years that followed were among the best in school history.

The Indians would win four Southland conference tournament championships and recorded three straight NCAA tournament appearances. Four times they recorded 20-plus win seasons, including a school record 25 wins in 1990-91.

It was clear that Schuberth could recruit. But it wasn’t clear as to why, after nine very successful seasons at NELA, Schuberth hadn’t been offered a head-coaching job.

“Again I was young so I didn’t know as much as I know now,” said Schuberth. “Maybe I tried to hard. Maybe I rushed things a little bit. I am not sure.”

One thing Schuberth didn’t do was whine about it. No matter the circumstances the day throws at him, Schuberth has always been able to let it just bounce off. Guaranteed if you run into him his coffee cup will always be half full.

One year after leaving NELA, Schuberth sipped from a cup that was filled to the rim.

After the 1992 season he joined Larry Finch’s staff at Memphis State and his impact was immediate. In 1993 recruiting guru Bob Gibbons was so impressed with the work that Schuberth had done that he tabbed Memphis State’s class as the No. 1 recruiting class in college basketball.

During his five seasons at Memphis, the Tigers enjoyed tremendous success. But despite that great success, Finch and his staff was unceremoniously let go. Officially Finch resigned, but those close to the situation knew better.

Still, Schuberth was fast gaining a reputation as a recruiter. At both Northeastern Louisiana and Memphis State, Schuberth had helped to significantly raise the talent level, through his efforts on the recruiting trail. And in both cases the program’s slipped somewhat after Schuberth’s departure.

Mike Vining continued to do an outstanding job at NELA, but there wasn’t the same level of success that had been witnessed when Schuberth was on board. And the agenda-driven move to get rid of Finch and his staff saw Memphis fall from the ranks of the nation’s better teams. Only in recent years has John Calipari been able to get the Tigers back on track.

Schuberth would go onto to be an integral part of Southeast Missouri State’s success, which saw head coach Gary Garner lead the program to the NCAA tournament where they had LSU beat in the first round. He would later help Murry Bartow improve the program at UAB and was a big part of Central Florida’s recent success under Kirk Speraw.

But all the notable accomplishments only left Schuberth with another year of experience as an assistant coach. In 1999 he did have an opportunity to be a head coach at the Division II level, but opted instead to stay the course and wait for his chance at the DI level.

“There were times, especially in the past few years, where I wasn’t sure if I would ever get a head coaching job,” says Schuberth. “I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me at times, but I always kept in mind that I had a job. All assistant coaches want to one day be a head coach, but there are also a lot of guys that want to first become a division I assistant coach. I had always thought about taking over a program that was in a rebuilding mode and just believed that opportunity would come one day.”

That day was April 21, 2006.

After two-plus decades of building an impressive resume and establishing a tremendous network of confidants, Schuberth didn’t waist any time in leaning on just about every one of them again. But instead of seeking advice on getting a job, he sought many opinions on how to succeed.

“One thing that is important to understand is that you are going to make mistakes,” says Schuberth. “Nobody in this profession is immune, but all of us have learned from the various mistakes we have made and I wanted to try and understand how other guys dealt with those things.”

The line between success and failure is often separated only by a willingness to learn. Those reluctant to ask questions don’t gain the knowledge that is often necessary to move forward. Despite having being a part of the game for over thirty years, Schuberth spent the days after his hire asking a lot of questions.

Murry Bartow (East Tennessee State), Dale Brown (former LSU head coach), Kermit Davis (Middle Tennessee), Tim Floyd (USC), Gary Garner (former Southeast Missouri State head coach), Frank Haith (Miami), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State), Lon Kruger (UNLV), Bob Marlin (Sam Houston State), Jerry Wainwright (DePaul) and Richard Williams (former Mississippi State head coach) were among those he tapped into for advice.

“I don’t think you can ever stop learning,” said Schuberth. “I wanted to get as much insight as I possibly could. Some guys I called were long time assistants. Some took over programs in a rebuilding mode. Some have had to deal with very difficult situations at one time or another. I felt that I could learn from all of their experiences in one way or another. I probably spoke with a few dozens coaching friends in the days after I was hired.”

That’s not surprising as the only thing that rivaled Schuberth’s time frame to become a head coach is the time it takes him to get from one end of the lobby to the other, at the Final Four. Using a scale of two feet equals two hours, you can get a pretty good idea of the time spent.

But that’s Tom Schuberth, a very personable and likeable guy, a guy that never whined about not getting a job and a guy that has enjoyed success on every stop of his long road to the top.