Another Radford, Va., native is coming home as Shane Nichols, the older brother of Darris Nichols, joins the Radford men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach.
S. Nichols has been an assistant coach at Murray State the last six seasons. He was a part one of the greatest periods of program history that includes three-straight OVC regular season championships (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20) and two OVC Tournament titles (2017-18, 2018-19).
In the 2018-19 Season, MSU had 28 wins, marking the 10th time in 94 seasons that Murray State posted 25 or more victories. MSU was regular season OVC champions for 26th time & made their 17th NCAA appearance. The Racers was No. 12 seed and defeated No. 5 Marquette for the Racers’ fourth all-time win in the tournament. In the 2017-18 season, the Racers were 26-6 and won the OVC regular season championship at 16-2.
A big part of the tournament run was Ja Morant, which S. Nichols was an instrumental part in bringing him to campus and played a vital role in his success. Along with the OVC consensus All-America selection, Morant, S. Nichols has also coached OVC Player of the Year and Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention selection Jonathan Stark and OVC Defensive Player of the Year, Shaq Buchanan and All-OVC selections Tevin Brown and KJ Williams.
“I appreciate Coach Nichols for everything he’s done for me,” 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year, Ja Morant said. “He always kept it real and held me accountable. He played a big part in my progression and was one of the reasons I made that big jump my sophomore season. He’s one of a kind and I know any player would love to have him as a coach.”
Before Murray State, S. Nichols was assistant coach at Hofstra under coach Joe Mihalich for two seasons including a 20-win 2014-15 campaign. He also assisted Mihalich in the 2012-13 season at Niagara.
Prior to his move to Niagara, Nichols served as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Wofford, where the Terriers advanced to the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Nichols was a quick study under great coaches Mike Young at Wofford and Joe Mihalich at Hofstra and Niagara.
As a player at Wofford, he scored 1,482 points in his career and was a multiple All-Southern Conference selection. He earned a degree in sociology from Wofford in 2008 where he was a three-year starter.
Prior to Wofford, S. Nichols played high school ball at Radford with his brother, Darris. S. Nichols scored over 1,800 points at Radford High School, earning All-State honors as a junior and senior. He was listed as a Top 15 player in the state of Virginia coming out of high school. He was Radford’s second all-time leading scorer and was a three-time All-District and All-Region selection coming out of high school.
Shane Nichols joins his brother’s staff at Radford
