Anthony Stewart, head men’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee at Martin, has increased his support staff by three members for the upcoming 2018-19 season. Stewart announced the additions of AJ Maxwell (director of operations), Andrew Manas (video coordinator) and Brandon Ewing (director of player personnel).
Maxwell comes to the Skyhawks after a successful two-year stint as an assistant coach at UT Permian Basin, a NCAA Division II program located in Odessa, Texas. Serving under head coach Andy Newman, Maxwell helped guide the Falcons to a 26-7 record, the No. 2 seed in the South Central Region and a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18. UT Permian Basin was nationally ranked throughout the season and capped off its banner year with a pair of victories in the NCAA Tournament (the first two in school history).
In 2016-17, Maxwell was part of a UT Permian Basin program that went 26-6, captured the Lone Star Conference championship and earned the No. 2 seed in the South Central Region of the NCAA Tournament – the first-ever appearance in program history.
Maxwell also spent the 2012-13 season as an assistant coach at Centralia College in Centralia, Wash., as the Trailblazers posted a 21-10 record – the program’s best mark since 1985.
A Spanaway, Wash. native, Maxwell played collegiately at Centralia College before finishing his playing career at Central Washington University. He graduated from Central Washington with a degree in psychology in 2016.
Manas joins UT Martin from Bowling Green State University, where he worked as a student manager under head coaches Chris Jans (2014-15) and Michael Huger (2015-18). He generated shot charts, tracked statistical data, worked daily with video software, assisted the coaching staff with player development and oversaw 17 student managers in his tenure at the Mid-American Conference school.
A native of Parlin, NJ, Manas served for three years as an elite recruiting coordinator with Hoop Group, a worldwide leader in basketball instruction. He also assisted Jae Kim – currently a basketball data analyst with the Los Angeles Lakers and then the director of basketball analytics at the University of California – with a NBA Pre-Draft analytics project in 2016.
Since 2015, Manas has coached at various Division I camps across the country, including Duke, SMU, Mississippi State, Dayton and Columbia. He graduated from Bowling Green with a degree in sport management in 2018.
Ewing joins the Skyhawks after a prolific collegiate and professional playing career. The Chicago, Ill. native was a four-time All-Mountain West Conference honoree at the University of Wyoming, where he played under Stewart for four years while he was an assistant coach.
Donning the Cowboy uniform from 2005-09, Ewing still ranks in the program’s top-3 in free throws made (697, first), scoring (2,168 points, second), assists (471, second), three-pointers (193, second) and steals (161, third). He even left a mark on the NCAA record book, as his 697 free throws made rank 24th all-time in collegiate history.
Ewing led the MWC in scoring in three consecutive seasons (2006-09) and was one of only two players in Wyoming history to lead the program in scoring in four different seasons, tossing in 17.2 points over 126 career games.
Following his 2009 graduation with a degree in communications from Wyoming, Ewing played professionally in Israel, Switzerland, Greece and in the NBA G League. In addition, he worked as a basketball trainer for two years.
