Local hoops product Tevon Saddler wants to draw from his previous stops as he begins leading the Nicholls State men’s basketball program at the age of 28 … and for good reason.
For starters, Saddler wants to run a program the same way St. Frances head coach Nick Myles does. Saddler played under Myles at St. Frances for his final two years of high school, earning Baltimore Sun Player of the Year honors and winning the MIAA A Conference title as a senior in 2012-13.
“I know St. Frances is only a high school, but if my program can be similar to how they run their program with the family atmosphere and just the relationship family base and the hard work, I’d be more than fine with that,” Myles said on Glenn Clark Radio May 3. “I know it’s two different levels, but I tell people all the time, ‘If I have the same impact on my kids that Nick Myles had on me, I think I’m running a heck of a program.'”
And secondly, Saddler wants to build a staff the same way Kevin Willard does. Saddler served as Willard’s director of basketball operations at Maryland during the 2022-23 season. He was one of three assistants to earn head coaching opportunities following the season, along with Grant Billmeier (NJIT) and Tony Skinn (George Mason). Plus, Saddler counts Maryland assistant David Cox as a mentor.
Willard’s staff helped orchestrate a turnaround season that ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I tell people all the time, ‘I want to form my staff like Willard’s,'” said Saddler, a native of Aberdeen. “We were all no-ego guys at the end of the day, but Coach would always listen. He would always take ideas. Some days it’d stick, some days it didn’t. So I think him putting that staff together and us just buying into the culture and the identity and the message he preached is where it mostly came from, but you can’t discredit those kids. Those kids worked at a high level. They bought in every day.”
Now Saddler is focused on applying what he learned from Myles and Willard at Nicholls State, where he played during the 2017-18 season to close out his college career. A 6-foot-6, 205-pound guard, Saddler averaged 15.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists to help the Colonels win their first Southland Conference regular-season title in 20 years.
Saddler’s coaching career began right after that. He was a graduate assistant at South Alabama in 2018-19, the director of basketball operations at Nicholls State from 2019-2021 and an assistant coach at McNeese State in 2021-22.
Saddler replaces Austin Claunch as the head man at Nicholls State. Claunch, 33, went 90-61 with the Colonels but left to be an assistant for Nate Oats at Alabama following the 2022-23 season. Saddler is the youngest head coach in Division I men’s hoops.
“When we talk about me being 28, I think I was kind of already groomed for this. I played for the youngest head coach in the country when I was in college and I worked for the youngest head coach in the country when I joined [coaching],” Saddler said, referring to playing for Wes Miller at UNC Greensboro from 2013-2015 and assisting Claunch at Nicholls State.
Nicholls State is located in Thibodaux, La., roughly 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. Now in his third tour of duty at Nicholls State, Saddler keeps being drawn back in by Thibodaux.
“It’s a special place and somewhere I can’t get away from. It’s one of those places where if you spend time here, you will understand why,” Saddler said. “I always tell recruits, ‘Just let me get you on campus.’ The town sells itself. They’ll do the rest of it. We have an unbelievable fan base. It’s beautiful out here. The town’s growing. The campus is growing. There are so many different things that are on campus now that when I was a student just four years ago that weren’t here.”
For more from Saddler, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Tevon Saddler