SE: Shane Southwell’s K-State Career Comes Full Circle in Sweet 16 Battle with Kentucky
Mar 22, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
ATLANTA — Shane Southwell was playing the best basketball of his life when K-State head coach Bruce Weber sent him a text.
Seeing a text from Weber was not unusual, Southwell said.
"He's always done a great job of keeping tabs on his former players," said Southwell, a native of Harlem, New York.
This message from Southwell's former coach, sent in late March of 2017, was different. It was more than a check-up. It was an offer.
"This time he text me, 'I have an opening as a graduate assistant (student manager),'" Southwell said on Wednesday morning, cracking a smile on the third floor of the Atlanta Hilton, where K-State had just finished watching film on Kentucky. "He always knew I wanted to be a coach."
At the time, however, Southwell was in his first professional season in Europe. He was averaging more than 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists a game for Winterthur in Switzerland's professional league, the Swiss LNA. Contract offers were pouring in from all across Europe.
So Southwell's initial reaction to Weber's offer was simple: No thanks.
"At first, I said no because I was playing so well," Southwell said, "and at 25 years of age you think, 'I got a lot more left.'"
Weber refused Southwell's initial answer. He told Southwell to give it a week, think about it and then come to a decision. Southwell took two weeks. He analyzed his options countless times. At one point, he made a pros and cons list. Eventually, he said, "It just hit me."
"I called him back and said I think that's what's best for me and what I want to do for my career. Coach (Weber) has done a great job of preparing and letting me grow in this role," Southwell said, as ninth-seeded K-State (24-11) prepares to face No. 5 Kentucky (26-10) in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 at Philips Arena on Thursday at 8:37 p.m. on CBS. "So far it's working out. It's been a special journey and now I just don't want it to end."
School and Hoops
Seven or eight years ago, the idea of leaving professional basketball to return to school would likely not have appealed to Southwell. Admittedly, education was low on his priority list when he arrived at K-State in 2010.
"To be honest, it was not important," said Southwell, a top 150 recruit who came into K-State the year after it advanced to its first Elite Eight since 1988. "When you go to this level, a high major school, and you see all the accolades that Jacob Pullen had, Curtis Kelly, Michael Beasley, Bill Walker, you're thinking, 'Maybe I can be that next guy.'
"When you're young like that, you don't really think about how everything's so interconnected, where how you handle basketball is how you handle school, and how you handle school is how you'll handle basketball."
Southwell played in 30 games and started 17 as a freshman, averaging only 1.8 points and 12.6 minutes. As a sophomore, he played in 30 but started only two. His minutes increased to 16.8 a game and his point production raised slightly, to 3.2 a game.
In hindsight, Southwell knows that his up-and-down play stemmed from his inconsistencies in the classroom.
"Later in my career I started to pick it up in class and I started to pick it up on the court, so it all connected," he said. "I was just one to never really be a fan of school and then it started to hit me. That's when I became a better student and I became a better player and a better person."
Between his junior and senior seasons, Southwell averaged 9.1 points and 2.6 assists. K-State won a Big 12 Championship his junior season. By the end of his senior year, he had won 92 games and graduated with a bachelor's degree in communication studies.
There was no academic epiphany-like moment when it all came together for Southwell, either.
There was time and the maturity that came with it. Southwell points to end of his sophomore year and the transition of Weber taking over the program as two pivotal points.
"I think it was a gradual process," Southwell said. "Some of it was the fact that Coach Weber came in. That new energy and that new change where you now have to look in the mirror and realize your faults, and you have to start making your own improvements and your own assessments on yourself, I think the change within that, with the coaching change, helped. I really, honestly believe that."
There was also Liane Fowler, academic counselor for the men's basketball team, constantly pushing Southwell and reminding him "basketball is not forever."
"Liane did an amazing job of just trying to drill that into my head. In that early age I couldn't get it but that's a testament to her," Southwell said. "But that happens when you're 18, 19 and in your early 20s. You kind of think you have all the answers."
Now, Southwell is a thriving student en route to a master's degree in student services in intercollegiate athletics. He even finds himself helping others in class, and reminding K-State's players of the same things Fowler used to tell him.
"It's day and night," Southwell said of his approach to academics. "I see it all as a process of getting better, learning more and using it to help me in basketball."
Coach Southwell
Southwell is far from the average graduate assistant student manager.
He experienced four NCAA Tournaments as a player for K-State, where he ranks 10th in program history for games played (126) and assists (271). He's also played professional basketball in Mexico, Australia, China and Switzerland.
"He brings a lot to this team, honestly," senior Mason Schoen said. "Being a former player, he can connect with us really well and knows what we're going through, both mentally and physically."
"He's brought a basketball mind to us, a real basketball mind, someone you can really rely on to know offense and defense," junior Dean Wade added, "and somebody that works hard. He's big for us."
Weber said Southwell's basketball knowledge and passion has been evident since he was a player. Now, Southwell is able to combine both with his ability to relate well to K-State's current team.
"It's great to have a former player. When I get after somebody, he can quietly (talk to them), and I've even said it to him several times, 'Shane, go talk to him.' Then he grabs him on the sideline and says, 'Hey, you're OK. This is what he's talking about,'" Weber said. "He wants to coach. I knew it all along. I think he'll be a great coach, kind of like what Chester (Frazier)'s done, Brad Korn's done and Coach (Chris) Lowery's done it as a former player. You can kind of tell which guys are motivated and dedicated, and I think he'll be a great coach down the road."
This season, Southwell said he's grown tremendously as a coach. He's begun to understand "the bigger picture" and how it relates to every small situation. Then there's the expected knowledge he's soaked up on the sidelines, from play calls to motivational tactics to scouting.
"I laugh with Coach Weber and Coach Lowery all the time because those guys know I was a historian of the game but what I was watching was garbage. I would watch the dunks, the highlights, the crossovers, just like a normal basketball player would," Southwell said. "But now I'm watching play calls. I'm watching from the sidelines to see tendencies and I'm getting better and better."
'Still in the Game'
K-State's run to the Sweet 16 has not been surprising to Southwell. But it has been especially thrilling for him, considering his four NCAA Tournament teams never made it out of the first weekend. He's reminded K-State's current team of this more than once in the last week.
"I played on special teams. I played on teams that have been in the rafters and played with guys whose jerseys are going to be in the rafters, and I told those guys that I never got past that weekend. Some of our key players that you've known and loved have never gotten past that weekend, so it's a big feat, it's a big deal and it's just a special moment," Southwell said. "As a coach right now, especially in my first year helping out, it's definitely something that you smile about, but you can't get too overwhelmed about it because it's not over. You have more games left, hopefully, and you have a big one Thursday night."
Facing Kentucky, for multiple reasons, only adds to the meaning of Thursday night's game.
A self-described "college basketball historian," Southwell loved facing off with the game's Blue Bloods as a player. He faced Kansas at least twice a year, while also playing against Duke and Kentucky, the last of which ended his career in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
What does Southwell remember from that 56-49 loss to Kentucky?
"Besides the fact that they ended my college career," Southwell said, "just that it was a great environment, a chance to play against a historic university."
Now, the team's he's helped develop has a chance to return the favor.
"I never thought about it but it comes with the territory," Southwell said of the rematch. "Once we saw the draw, we dreamed of being in the Sweet 16 and Kentucky was obviously a team that was probably going to get to this point. I'm proud of our guys for getting here and it's going to be tough, but we have a chance to do something really special."
Regardless, Southwell knows he made the right decision a year ago to return to K-State.
Does he miss the game? As odd as it might sound, not really, Southwell said. Mostly because he feels like he never really left it. He's just in it in a different way now.
"It's kind of weird. I tell my friends all the time, I've probably had only five or six instances when I really wanted to jump out there and put on a jersey, but I still feel like I'm in the game with coaching," he said. "Coaching, you still get that rush. You still get those butterflies before the games. You still get that excitement, so I'm still in the game. I'm happy."
ATLANTA — Shane Southwell was playing the best basketball of his life when K-State head coach Bruce Weber sent him a text.
Seeing a text from Weber was not unusual, Southwell said.
"He's always done a great job of keeping tabs on his former players," said Southwell, a native of Harlem, New York.
This message from Southwell's former coach, sent in late March of 2017, was different. It was more than a check-up. It was an offer.
"This time he text me, 'I have an opening as a graduate assistant (student manager),'" Southwell said on Wednesday morning, cracking a smile on the third floor of the Atlanta Hilton, where K-State had just finished watching film on Kentucky. "He always knew I wanted to be a coach."
At the time, however, Southwell was in his first professional season in Europe. He was averaging more than 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists a game for Winterthur in Switzerland's professional league, the Swiss LNA. Contract offers were pouring in from all across Europe.
So Southwell's initial reaction to Weber's offer was simple: No thanks.
"At first, I said no because I was playing so well," Southwell said, "and at 25 years of age you think, 'I got a lot more left.'"
Weber refused Southwell's initial answer. He told Southwell to give it a week, think about it and then come to a decision. Southwell took two weeks. He analyzed his options countless times. At one point, he made a pros and cons list. Eventually, he said, "It just hit me."
"I called him back and said I think that's what's best for me and what I want to do for my career. Coach (Weber) has done a great job of preparing and letting me grow in this role," Southwell said, as ninth-seeded K-State (24-11) prepares to face No. 5 Kentucky (26-10) in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 at Philips Arena on Thursday at 8:37 p.m. on CBS. "So far it's working out. It's been a special journey and now I just don't want it to end."
School and Hoops
Seven or eight years ago, the idea of leaving professional basketball to return to school would likely not have appealed to Southwell. Admittedly, education was low on his priority list when he arrived at K-State in 2010.
"To be honest, it was not important," said Southwell, a top 150 recruit who came into K-State the year after it advanced to its first Elite Eight since 1988. "When you go to this level, a high major school, and you see all the accolades that Jacob Pullen had, Curtis Kelly, Michael Beasley, Bill Walker, you're thinking, 'Maybe I can be that next guy.'
"When you're young like that, you don't really think about how everything's so interconnected, where how you handle basketball is how you handle school, and how you handle school is how you'll handle basketball."
Southwell played in 30 games and started 17 as a freshman, averaging only 1.8 points and 12.6 minutes. As a sophomore, he played in 30 but started only two. His minutes increased to 16.8 a game and his point production raised slightly, to 3.2 a game.
In hindsight, Southwell knows that his up-and-down play stemmed from his inconsistencies in the classroom.
"Later in my career I started to pick it up in class and I started to pick it up on the court, so it all connected," he said. "I was just one to never really be a fan of school and then it started to hit me. That's when I became a better student and I became a better player and a better person."
Between his junior and senior seasons, Southwell averaged 9.1 points and 2.6 assists. K-State won a Big 12 Championship his junior season. By the end of his senior year, he had won 92 games and graduated with a bachelor's degree in communication studies.
There was no academic epiphany-like moment when it all came together for Southwell, either.
There was time and the maturity that came with it. Southwell points to end of his sophomore year and the transition of Weber taking over the program as two pivotal points.
"I think it was a gradual process," Southwell said. "Some of it was the fact that Coach Weber came in. That new energy and that new change where you now have to look in the mirror and realize your faults, and you have to start making your own improvements and your own assessments on yourself, I think the change within that, with the coaching change, helped. I really, honestly believe that."
There was also Liane Fowler, academic counselor for the men's basketball team, constantly pushing Southwell and reminding him "basketball is not forever."
"Liane did an amazing job of just trying to drill that into my head. In that early age I couldn't get it but that's a testament to her," Southwell said. "But that happens when you're 18, 19 and in your early 20s. You kind of think you have all the answers."
Now, Southwell is a thriving student en route to a master's degree in student services in intercollegiate athletics. He even finds himself helping others in class, and reminding K-State's players of the same things Fowler used to tell him.
"It's day and night," Southwell said of his approach to academics. "I see it all as a process of getting better, learning more and using it to help me in basketball."
Coach Southwell
Southwell is far from the average graduate assistant student manager.
He experienced four NCAA Tournaments as a player for K-State, where he ranks 10th in program history for games played (126) and assists (271). He's also played professional basketball in Mexico, Australia, China and Switzerland.
"He brings a lot to this team, honestly," senior Mason Schoen said. "Being a former player, he can connect with us really well and knows what we're going through, both mentally and physically."
"He's brought a basketball mind to us, a real basketball mind, someone you can really rely on to know offense and defense," junior Dean Wade added, "and somebody that works hard. He's big for us."
Weber said Southwell's basketball knowledge and passion has been evident since he was a player. Now, Southwell is able to combine both with his ability to relate well to K-State's current team.
"It's great to have a former player. When I get after somebody, he can quietly (talk to them), and I've even said it to him several times, 'Shane, go talk to him.' Then he grabs him on the sideline and says, 'Hey, you're OK. This is what he's talking about,'" Weber said. "He wants to coach. I knew it all along. I think he'll be a great coach, kind of like what Chester (Frazier)'s done, Brad Korn's done and Coach (Chris) Lowery's done it as a former player. You can kind of tell which guys are motivated and dedicated, and I think he'll be a great coach down the road."
This season, Southwell said he's grown tremendously as a coach. He's begun to understand "the bigger picture" and how it relates to every small situation. Then there's the expected knowledge he's soaked up on the sidelines, from play calls to motivational tactics to scouting.
"I laugh with Coach Weber and Coach Lowery all the time because those guys know I was a historian of the game but what I was watching was garbage. I would watch the dunks, the highlights, the crossovers, just like a normal basketball player would," Southwell said. "But now I'm watching play calls. I'm watching from the sidelines to see tendencies and I'm getting better and better."
'Still in the Game'
K-State's run to the Sweet 16 has not been surprising to Southwell. But it has been especially thrilling for him, considering his four NCAA Tournament teams never made it out of the first weekend. He's reminded K-State's current team of this more than once in the last week.
"I played on special teams. I played on teams that have been in the rafters and played with guys whose jerseys are going to be in the rafters, and I told those guys that I never got past that weekend. Some of our key players that you've known and loved have never gotten past that weekend, so it's a big feat, it's a big deal and it's just a special moment," Southwell said. "As a coach right now, especially in my first year helping out, it's definitely something that you smile about, but you can't get too overwhelmed about it because it's not over. You have more games left, hopefully, and you have a big one Thursday night."
Facing Kentucky, for multiple reasons, only adds to the meaning of Thursday night's game.
A self-described "college basketball historian," Southwell loved facing off with the game's Blue Bloods as a player. He faced Kansas at least twice a year, while also playing against Duke and Kentucky, the last of which ended his career in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
What does Southwell remember from that 56-49 loss to Kentucky?
"Besides the fact that they ended my college career," Southwell said, "just that it was a great environment, a chance to play against a historic university."
Now, the team's he's helped develop has a chance to return the favor.
"I never thought about it but it comes with the territory," Southwell said of the rematch. "Once we saw the draw, we dreamed of being in the Sweet 16 and Kentucky was obviously a team that was probably going to get to this point. I'm proud of our guys for getting here and it's going to be tough, but we have a chance to do something really special."
Regardless, Southwell knows he made the right decision a year ago to return to K-State.
Does he miss the game? As odd as it might sound, not really, Southwell said. Mostly because he feels like he never really left it. He's just in it in a different way now.
"It's kind of weird. I tell my friends all the time, I've probably had only five or six instances when I really wanted to jump out there and put on a jersey, but I still feel like I'm in the game with coaching," he said. "Coaching, you still get that rush. You still get those butterflies before the games. You still get that excitement, so I'm still in the game. I'm happy."
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
K-State Men's Basketball | Postgame Press Conference at Colorado
Thursday, February 26
K-State Men's Basketball | Postgame Press Conference at Texas Tech
Sunday, February 22
K-State Men's Basketball | Haggerty and Johnson Historic Night vs Baylor
Thursday, February 19
K-State Men's Basketball | Interim Head Coach Driscoll Press Conference vs Baylor
Wednesday, February 18
