Nice read. Sorry Athletic but thanks for the great content. Article from a few months ago. Excited for Coach Schertz to get to work!
https://theathletic.com/5238989/2024/01/31/josh-schertz-indiana-state-basketball/
How Indiana State basketball’s Josh Schertz rose from ‘anonymity’ to coaching star
CJ Moore
The 12-year-old boy held the ball in his left hand as he prepared to serve. It was another weekend, another national tournament, this one at Miami’s Junior Orange Bowl, one of the world’s most prestigious junior events.
A rustling sound behind him caught his attention. He turned – and to his chagrin – spotted his father, struggling to hold onto a branch of the tree he had climbed to sneak a glimpse of his son on the court.
Once when Josh Schertz missed an easy overhead at match point, his father banged his head against the plexiglass in front of him, cracking the glass and leaving a gash on his forehead. Tournament officials removed him. It was not the first time.
Back in Miami, Schertz’s dad had broken the rule they had agreed upon; he was no longer welcome at these events. It had become too much.
Nine years earlier, Paul Schertz put a sawed-off tennis racket in his toddler’s hands, and Josh was exceptional from the start. By age 10, he was ranked in the state of New York. Then came a regional ranking, then national. When Josh was 12, Paul paid to move his son to Haines City, Fla., to train with Rick Macci, who tutored Jennifer Capriati and the Williams sisters. He traveled the country every weekend playing tournaments.
Josh’s success in tennis was intoxicating for his father, who played collegiately at Long Island. But it came at a price.
Tennis was never fun anymore. Winning was a relief. No victory could be too lopsided. Where they had dinner, the mood in the house, everything, was dictated by how Josh played.
“I remember wanting to be my brother because he was getting all of the attention,” his younger brother, Michael, says. “He would say that he would want to be me, who would just be left alone.”
To Josh, his life felt scripted. He’d missed out on a childhood. “I’m Jewish,” he says. “I didn’t have a bar mitzvah.”
As time went on, Josh began to realize his dream — or, really, his father’s — was probably not coming true. He was 5-foot-6 when he was 12, and he was 5-foot-6 when he was 15. He was in the top 100 in his age group, but closer to 100 than 1.
By the fall of his freshman year, Josh hit his breaking point. After another uncomfortable ride home from yet another tournament, he mustered the courage to approach his dad.
I’m done with tennis.
His father, eating grapes and mozzarella sticks in the kitchen, was taken aback. He pushed back. This was not a good decision, he said.
Josh was unrelenting. This was not a break. Not a sabbatical. This was not an impulsive decision. He wanted to do something different with his life. He exited to the garage, surrounded by all of his tennis gear, and his father followed. Josh worried it might turn violent.
If he was going to quit, Paul told him, he wasn’t going to stay there. This was not a place for quitters.
Josh gathered his things and went to a friend’s house.
Just like that, the millionaire’s son was homeless.
Today, Indiana State’s Josh Schertz is one of the most respected mid-major coaches in college basketball. After turning Lincoln Memorial, one of the worst Division II programs in the country, into one of the best over 13 seasons, he took the worst job in the Missouri Valley three years ago and already has the top team. His Sycamores are the best shooting team in college basketball. College coaches rave about his modern offense. Indiana State, 18-3, is on pace to have its best season since Larry Bird was on campus.
So how did Schertz — who never played high school basketball — end up a college basketball player and coach?
“I’ve lived a majority of my life in anonymity,” he says. “My path is definitely not linear or even probably expected.”
Schertz laid down a sweatshirt for some padding on the tile floor next to the duffel bag full of clothes he’d use for a pillow. It was the fall of 1991, he was 15, and he was out on his own. Most nights he’d sleep on friends’ couches, but some nights it was this tile floor. He’d sneak into one of two local schools in Boca Raton and hide out until sunrise in the boys bathroom.
He was lost. His safety net was gone. The former straight-A student was skipping school regularly. He fell in with the wrong crowd. Eventually, he quit school altogether. He’d lay there and worry. He figured he was headed toward a life much like his mom’s.
Kathi Cook was a nurse when she met Paul Schertz. His buddy wanted to take her out, but he didn’t have a car. Paul did. They married, and Paul bought a department store in Montauk, N.Y., a town on the East edge of the Hamptons. One of Paul’s best friends would host big parties every Saturday for their volleyball team in the Hamptons. It was at those parties, he says, that Cook’s drug use began.
When Josh was 6, he went into his parents’ room midday, and Cook looked to be sleeping. He reached out and touched her. She felt balmy; she wasn’t breathing. He screamed for his dad. She was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. She survived, but that was the end of their nuclear family.
Cook got nothing in the divorce. She moved to Brick, N.J., and started waitressing and cleaning houses. She still helped take care of the boys; mostly Michael, as Schertz was usually off training. He remembers her working long days, coming home to make sure the boys had what they needed. Then she’d lock herself in her room with a bottle of Almaden wine and a pack of Marlboros. Schertz can still picture her comforter, dozens of burn holes in it from falling asleep with the TV on and a lit cigarette.
Once Schertz moved to Florida, he’d go years without seeing his mom. But now, he considered the possibility that he was about to be her, working menial jobs and battling his own demons.
“I just didn’t see where the hope was,” Schertz says.
His grandpa saved him.
When Seymour Schertz found out that Schertz was without a home, he immediately moved Josh in with him in Delray Beach. He enrolled him to get his GED; Schertz went to night school to satisfy requirements. Then he enrolled at Palm Beach Community College and worked part-time at a carwash and a drug store.
He still had a competitive drive, but he wasn’t stepping foot on a tennis court. He tried basketball and loved it. He found pickup games and started playing in leagues. “Being part of a team was so cool,” he says.
Opportunity arrived in a chance meeting.
Jack Martin, the longtime coach at County College of Morris in New Jersey, was visiting a friend in Boca Raton in the summer of 1994 when Schertz caught his eye during a rec game at the Athletic Club. Martin knew a player when he saw one. He asked Schertz if he ever thought about playing college basketball.
Schertz, then 17, had never given it a thought.
He explained he hadn’t graduated and hadn’t even played high school basketball. Wouldn’t be a problem, Martin told him.
Martin invited him up to New Jersey for a tryout. He proved worthy, and Martin offered him a spot — with his tuition paid for and a place to live, with the former mayor in town.
His father thought he was crazy. He figured he was going to be the team manager. “What do you do with that?” Paul asked him. “Why would you want to do laundry?”
He never imagined a 5-foot-8 Jewish kid could be a college basketball player, but Schertz was a backup point guard on a team that made the quarterfinals of the national tournament. He also joined the tennis team just for fun and went undefeated until the regional final.
That spring Schertz started reaching out to small, four-year schools and found a taker in Webber College, an NAIA school in Babson Park, a tiny town in the middle of Florida. He was a backup guard again, and it was there where he met a girl. In November, his girlfriend, Anna, got pregnant. He was 19. And he did what sounded right; the two married in May. Most of his family objected. His mom and Michael were the only family members to attend the ceremony.
Anna had one year of school left to get her psychology degree, and Schertz decided to give up basketball. The newlyweds rented a double-wide. Their son Jordan was born in August. Schertz went to school in the morning, worked at the Vanguard School in the afternoons, supervising children with emotional disabilities, and then worked a night job as a security guard until 4 a.m. He missed basketball, and that spring he started reaching out to schools to see if he could continue his playing career. Piedmont Bible College in Winston Salem, N.C., offered him a spot. Schertz was a starter for the first time in his college career, and the free-wheeling system fit him perfectly.
That year he read John Feinstein’s “A Season Inside,” which chronicled the 1987-88 college basketball season, cover-to-cover twice. Schertz realized that coaching could be a real profession.
His dad was skeptical. “I told him it was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard,” Paul says. But Paul knew some people in leadership at Florida Atlantic and reached out to see if there were any opportunities for Schertz. The Owls, coming off a 5-22 season, had a graduate assistant spot.
His coaching career had begun. He was a student assistant on the 1998-99 FAU basketball team.
“He was very confident,” then-assistant coach Brian Lane says. “He had the gift of gab. He could talk to the players and talk to the coaches. Sometimes when you’re young, you open your mouth and stupid falls out. I never got a sense that he didn’t know a really high level of basketball.”
Soon after that season, FAU fired coach Kevin Billerman, and Billlerman helped Schertz land a spot as a volunteer assistant at Division II Lynn University. He thrived in that role, so much so that his second season they made him recruiting coordinator and paid for his graduate school.
“My grandpa changed my trajectory by believing in me,” Schertz says. “It changed the way I saw myself. I went from a guy that was a high school dropout to a guy that has a master’s degree.”
In the spring of 2004, Schertz felt like he’d arrived. Three years earlier, Queens coach Bart Lundy hired Schertz as a full-time assistant. In his second season there, Queens made the Division II Final Four. Then Lundy got hired at High Point and made Schertz his associate head coach. They went 19-11 in their first season, the first time since joining Division I the program had a winning record. They made the Big South Conference tournament championship game, with a chance to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Paul drove to Lynchburg, Va., for the final. The Panthers lost by 45, but Paul called his son afterward and left a voicemail: “I always thought this was one of the dumber ideas you’ve ever had, but I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never been more proud of you. And I’m happy to tell you that I’m glad you never listened to me.”
He’d earned his father’s respect, but another pitfall was around the corner. In August, Schertz and Anna got divorced.
“It was hard,” Schertz says. “In this business, you always feel like you’re sacrificing something and it was hard going from one day a house filled with people to the next day everything was gone. Furniture was gone. Kids are gone. It was just me and a cat, a couch and a bed. It was pretty empty. Pretty lonely.”
Three months later, he met Natalia, his wife of 16 years.
Schertz spent five seasons at High Point. He was desperate to become a head coach, and in 2008, he got an offer from Lincoln Memorial in Harrogate, Tenn. Since joining Division II in 1999, the Railsplitters had just one winning season. Small town. Small student population. No diversity. No good restaurants. “Middle-of-nowhere, Tennessee,” Schertz says.
“We were flat, dead on our butts,” says Pete DeBusk, chairman of LMU’s board of trustees.
Schertz saw the potential in the place. The arena was nice. Cincinnati and Louisville were both three hours away; Atlanta was four. He knew he could recruit and evaluate. Previous coaches had tried to win with transfers. He planned to recruit high schoolers and redshirt every recruit, so he’d have them five years.
“We did the opposite of what they had always done,” Schertz says.
His first year, LMU went from winning one conference game to eight. The next season his boys decided they wanted to live with him, and his ex-wife signed over custody. The program won 20 games for the first time in 21 years. The third year, LMU made its first NCAA Tournament and won its first South Atlantic Conference title, starting a run of eight straight tournament appearances and seven conference titles.
He was the star of the town. Everyone knew him and he got to know everyone. And he found a second father in DeBusk, who made sure he had everything he needed, whether it was a practice facility, or in 2013, borrowing DeBusk’s private plane to go get his mom.
Cook had been living in skilled nursing facilities since suffering a brain aneurysm in her mid-40s. Doctors didn’t think she’d survive the aneurysm; she surpassed all expectations. Then on Sept. 13, 2013, she was diagnosed with liver cancer. Soon after, her femur broke because the cancer had reached her leg. That’s when Schertz got on DeBusk’s plane and brought his mom home with him. Doctors gave her months to live. She lived another two years.
Twice a week Schertz would take his mom to her favorite spot, Applebee’s. She introduced him to everyone as the boss of LMU.
“All that time I missed as a kid, I wasn’t able to get it back,” Schertz says. “It was a different lens and time in my life. That’s where I learned that two things can be true, right? I think people tend to paint somebody with a brush. ‘She’s an addict, so she’s a terrible mother or terrible person.’ It wasn’t like that at all. … She was a great person.”
On Sept. 13, 2015 — exactly two years after her cancer diagnosis and on Paul’s birthday — Schertz slept that night on a mattress next to his mom’s bed because they knew the end was near. In the middle of the night, he woke up and went to her bedside. He told her how much he appreciated her and enjoyed the previous two years. It was the most time they’d ever spent together. He told her he loved her. And then he watched her take her last breath.
“The deeper you love somebody and more you care, the more painful the grief is when they’re gone. That is the price we pay,” he says. “The alternative is to not care about anyone or love anybody deeply and you don’t experience any pain, but you also don’t get the incredible moments and memories that you experience when you love people.”
Last summer Schertz visited Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May, his friend of five years, in Boca Raton. The plan was to talk some ball in the morning, grab some food and meet a friend for pickleball. Ten hours in, both realized they were starving and hadn’t left the office.
May says his friend is “as good as there is” as a coach, noting his “obsession with learning and growing.” After his first season at LMU in 2009, Schertz spent a week with Bill Self’s Kansas program. When it was time to meet with Self, the Jayhawks coach got pulled into a meeting and handed Schertz his playbook. “You couldn’t have given me the Torah and it’d have been any better,” Schertz says. He frantically took notes the next two hours.
Running Self’s high-low offense, he made five straight Division II NCAA Tournaments at Lincoln Memorial. In 2014-15, his team went 30-3. The next September, he visited Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics. He believed the five-out systems in the NBA were where the game was going. He scrapped his entire offense in October. “My staff thought I was crazy,” he says.
LMU won 34 games and made the national championship. Now in his third year at Indiana State, the Sycamores are likely headed for their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2011, and Schertz’s five-out attack is the most efficient half-court offense in college hoops.
Though Schertz and his father had a complicated past, he inherited his dad’s willingness for reinvention. Paul was a millionaire twice — first running a drug store in the Hamptons, then later in commercial real estate in Florida — and lost it all twice. “It’s my special gift,” says Paul, who texts with Josh every morning.
Much of how Schertz leads, he says, he learned what not to do from his father. He never wants his players to feel the pressure he once felt.
“I want our guys to have an enjoyable experience and not carry the weight of the world on their shoulders every single time they take the floor,” he says. “It’s important to never lose the joy of competing and playing.”
Schertz sees it as his job to instill confidence — much in the way his grandfather did for him — and then put his players in position to succeed.
He did not keep any mementos from his childhood. No pictures. No trophies. No newspaper clippings. But he holds onto the lessons.
“Sometimes you get wounds and you just move past them,” he says. “Sometimes you get wounds that never heal, and those are scars. And the scars just remind you how strong you are.”
Check my history man, I’ve said it was always Schertz from the beginning and I’ve stuck by that. It’s the external forces ie Louisville, ISU and any other schools that have popped up. I believe it’s been done for awhile and as of 5:43am I still think that’s the case. Doesn’t mean the rumors haven’t worn me down.
FYI, these are the recruits Schertz signed in the fall. The 6-11 kid sounds intriguing. Looking at his current roster, a rim protector coming off the bench would be a valuable addition.
Alderink was the 2023 Holland Sentinel Basketball Player of the Year and named as one of the 2023 Division 1 Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan's Best. In the 2023 season, Alderink averaged 19.3 PPG and 7.1 RPG. The forward is in his high school record books, holding the single-game points record with 42.
Coach Schertz spoke about Alderink:
"Merritt is a perfect fit for us both systematically and culturally. He has great size, toughness, physicality, and an extremely high motor that all great competitors possess. He can score the ball in a variety of ways in the halfcourt and brings a toughness and maturity far beyond his years to our program. He's an exceptional student and young man that our fans will love to watch compete."
Robert "Sean" Birmingham | 6-8 | Forward | Njardvik, Iceland | Concord Academy
Birmingham, originally from Iceland, attends Concord Academy out of North Carolina. In 2023 he became a member of the AAU team, Team Curry. In his junior year at Cannon School, the second-ranked prIvate school in the state, Birmingham averaged 14 PPG, 7 RPG, and 2.5 blocks-per-game. He also was named to the CISAA All Conference Team. From 2020-2022, Birmingham was a member of the prestigious basketball academy in Vitoria, Spain – Baskonia.
Coach Schertz spoke about Birmingham:
"Sean is an elite shooter with great size but he's much more than just a shooter. Sean has great feel which allows him to be a playmaker for others, coupled with a high basketball IQ that drives self-awareness allowing him to do what he does best all the time while bringing out the very best in his teammates. Sean is also a fantastic student and as high character and mature a young man as I have recruited. We are thrilled he's a Sycamore!"
Christian Nitu | 6-11 | Forward | Uplay, Canada | Fort Erie International Academy
Nitu comes from our neighbors to the north. Nitu participated in the NBA's Basketball Without Borders Global Camp; the camp has featured current NBA-standouts like
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Joel Embiid. Nitu also competed for Team Canada in the u17 World Cup and was on the Biosteel All-Canadian Team.
Coach Schertz spoke about Nitu:
"Christian is one of the most unique players I have ever seen, his combination of size, skill and mobility is incredibly rare. On top of that he's a ferocious competitor who is obsessed with the game of basketball, so he's a perfect for our Indiana State basketball culture. Christian has a level of versatility on both ends of the floor that will provide us with incredible flexibility as we see him as someone who can play with another big or operate as a standalone big himself. He's a special talent with huge ambitions and a work ethic to match, and I can't wait to partner with him to help him reach his ceiling."
The band has been told via email the AD expects to make an announcement regarding the new men's basketball coach between Tuesday and Thursday of this week upcoming. Take that for what it is.
I listened to the Opening Drive and the last two segments of today's show, and I don't know what you are upset about, unless it is the other two segments.
Frank stated he talked on the phone to several people actively involved with the search. He stated Schertz has talked directly (not through his agent) to Dr. Chaifetz, Fred P, Chris May and Joe Conran. Apparently Schertz won't accept any job until his team is out of the NIT. He is still in the running for other jobs.
Frank asked Dr. Chaifetz if he 'was your guy'. Chaifetz reportedly said, "We are talking to other coaches, some who are coaching in the NCAA Tourney." The only other name that Frank and Rammer talked about was Bryce Drew. Bob commented that Grand Canyon has several Dr. Chaifetz level backers.
Corey Tate, as current Interim Coach, goes to the office each day. So does Harriman. Jimerson is interested in staying, but hasn't committed. (He apparently likes Coach Tate.)
Parker has heard from quite a few P6 schools.
Outside of the SLU talk, the story on the Iowa lineman was interesting. This football player originally committed to Iowa but flipped to Alabama on signing day. At the beginning of the Jan portal, he transferred to Iowa. Now, 3 months later, he is transferring back to Alabama.
I’m interested in your reaction. Where was the meltdown mode as I missed it.
Yeah so many bad takes
I'm afraid to win because we might lose a coach?!
ISU is better of today than they were before Schertz. He showed the world that ISU can win the MVC, be ranked and get national attention. He got boosters involved and willing to pony up money for NIL. That raised their profile with perspective coaches, players, media, the community. They can hire McCollum, Ahearn basketball Jesus and win again. Rebuilds are 1 to 2 year propositions now.
SLU is way better off today. If IU wants Schertz in 3 years that means we've won some games likely in the NCAA tournament. Then we go poach McCollum and SMS cries. Win win win
1.86....
Usually 2.6 or higher is great
2 is good
The top 5 assist people this year range from about 2.5 to 2.75
Yuri came in at 2.23.
This is not one of my favorite stats...You could be a great passer generating lots of assists and you could be bad at holding onto the ball which has nothing to do with passing.
Bottom line ...He was doing better all around and had potential to be something in the coming years. He may have left because he feared the new coach would bring in new guards. Again, as I pointed out in an earlier post, it usually makes sense to meet the new guy and see what the situation is before you give up your roster spot and scholarship.
I’ll leave it up to Schertz (assuming he gets the job) to determine which players on the roster he can use in his system. For me, there isn’t a single player on the roster that is a MUST keep. If he can use Gibby and Ezewiro, I think they’re both A10 quality. Parker seems too selfish for Schertz’s system.
If SLU does indeed hire Schertz for the job, we 100% need to get Nickelodeon on the line to do a "Salute Your Schertz" night / Nickelodeon kids TV broadcast from Chaifetz Arena. Bring in Michael Bower aka Donkeylips to do color commentary. You're welcome fellow 90s Nick kids / Billiken fans.
I mean I don't think he's necessarily way off. We kind of suck and we are pretty irrelevant nationally. A10 is meh. I want Schertz but I definitely think he could go p5 if he wanted. Just depends what he is looking for.
We shall see.
I keep calling the SLU atheltic department asking for Travis Ford. They keep telling me "Travis Ford doesn't work here anymore." After the 4th call the woman asked me why I keep calling. I told her I just like hearing it.
Regardless of SLU results, heard this weekend Ford is gone at season’s end. Per an assistant coach at another program I am personal friends with. He said the SLU assistants have been working their networks trying to land their next moves.
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Bizziken liked a post in a topic by majerus mojo in End of a (mediocre) era. Travis Ford is out.