PHOTO COURTESY UTRGV ATHLETICS
Over the last month, UTRGV Athletics announced six new staff members for the Men’s Basketball Team.
The new head coach Brandon Chambers said he hired his staff based on loyalty and his relationships with them.
“Every one of them is a former player, but getting guys that I knew and had a relationship with, I’ve either coached or known them for a very long time … I think what that really allowed me to do is hire a staff that has true care and [is] built on relationships,” said Chambers, who was hired April 3.
Followed by Chambers, Joseph Anderson, former director of Player Development at North Carolina State University, joined the staff April 14 as assistant coach. Chambers said his relationship with Anderson goes back to when he coached him at the University of Nevada, Reno.
“I coached him at Nevada and, then, developed a strong relationship with him,” Chambers said. “When I
was at McNeese State University … I was able to hire him and co-sign for him at McNeese with our program for player development. Then, we took him to NC State. When I got this job, I told him, ‘Hey, I’d love to hire you as an assistant coach.’”
Hired a day after Anderson, Joey Rodriguez, former assistant coach for Florida International University, was announced also as an assistant coach. Rodriguez was the starting point guard for the Virginia Commonwealth University NCAA Final Four team in 2011.
Chambers said he knows him because he was the student manager for the VCU basketball team.
“He’s actually the first person who introduced me to college basketball,” Chambers said. “I became friends with Joey because he had come in the same year as me. And he just said, ‘Hey, you should try to be a manager for the basketball team.’ … He was my first call, and I told him, ‘Hey, man, there’s nothing more that I would want than the person that invited me into college basketball … as my first hire.”
John Jones, the new director of Basketball Operations, was brought on April 22 after spending three seasons at Texas Southern University as an assistant coach.
“John had finished his playing career and, then, had been hired on as an assistant coach at Texas Southern for his dad, so I got to work alongside him as well and saw his work ethic. Same stuff he showed as a player, just his determination, persistence, his reliability, and all that translate into a coaching realm.”
Associate head coach Shawn Forrest, who was hired April 27, has over 25 years of experience as a college coach; his last coaching position was at McNeese as an assistant.
“Shawn and I were together at McNeese State and, the two years that we were there, both years we won championships and built the program from the ground up.” Chambers said. “ So when I was at NC State and going through this process of getting hired here, you know, a big thing, again, for me [it] was just the type of people, loyalty. … There’s no better person in college basketball.”
The latest hiring, assistant coach Mitch Marquis, who was at Tyler Junior College for the last 12 years, came on board Tuesday.
“The relationship side of things, the care, just the love and passion for the players–it was a no-brainer for Mitch, but also to his family and the legacy that they’ve had, not just at Tyler, but in junior college basketball,” Chambers said. “His dad was just elected into the National Junior College Hall of Fame. Their last name actually means a ton in the state of Texas to a lot of people.”
The head coach said with the transfer portal and other factors, he and the new coaching staff are hard at work to have everything ready.
“Everything’s going to be set in stone,” Chambers said. “We said the next four to six weeks are going to determine whether or not we build a championship program and cut down nets next year. … We’re working overtime right now to make sure we have all the pieces in place where, when the players get here, that everything’s ready to rock and roll.”
