CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Austin Peay athletics department held a teleconference with the media Tuesday to introduce Nate James as the university’s 13th head men’s basketball coach in school history.
“I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity,” James said. “I’m just really looking forward to getting with my guys and doing something special here that everyone can be proud of.”
It’s the first head coaching job for James in his career.
“It was very surreal,” James said of the welcome event inside the Dunn Center. “It was a very joyous moment for me. Actually when I came in for the interview initially, butterflies really started churning in my stomach and I just saw this place as somewhere that I could lead young men and do some great things. … I was just so ecstatic that I could potentially be the head coach and walk up and down the sideline. Then to actually walk around and to see it, feel it and have all the excitement, I was almost like a kid. I couldn’t stop smiling.”
Previous stops
James joins the Governors after a nine-year stint with Duke men’s basketball where he served as associate head coach under the legendary Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Current Austin Peay Athletics Director Gerald Harrison spent 10 years at Duke himself before coming to Austin Peay.
“Well to be honest, I’ve known Gerald,” James said on one of the reasons that sold him on the vacancy. “I knew what type of man he was. I understood how he groomed people, the vision he had and things he believed in what an AD should do in order to provide the type of atmosphere for their student athletes to grow a program. That’s one of the things that made me really excited about Austin Peay.”
Playing career
The Washington, D.C., native was involved in three of Duke’s five national titles, including one as a player for Coach K (Krzyzewski) in 2001.
James shared that he learned a lot during his time under Krzyzewski and plans on incorporating certain lessons in his own head coaching philosophy.
“Coach has always been a player’s coach,” James said. “He gave us players amazing freedom to use our instincts. Obviously that freedom is earned, but I learned from him that you let your players play. I also learned that you have to be prepared. I mean we worked really hard at Duke. We had a thing where no one was going to work harder than us or be more together. Those are some of the things along with accountability and consistency that I will try to bring to my group.”
The now 43-year-old James played professional basketball from 2002 to 2007, winning league titles in both the Netherlands and Hungary. James also had a training camp stop back in 2004 with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
“Well, I love the game,” James said on what he learned the most about himself during the journey. “Sometimes guys from Duke are looked at as country club kids or something. I’m a blue collar guy and just love the game. I always had a passion to play it and teach it.
“Going overseas, I played in places like Bosnia and Croatia where it’s not the most lavish destination spots if you will. As long as I had an opportunity to play and get my passport stamped, I enjoyed it. That was a chapter in my life that I experienced and I wouldn’t change again.”
Clean slate
The hiring of James was made official on Friday after Matt Figger resigned from the same position to coach at Texas-Rio Grande Valley a few days prior.
James will be working with a relatively clean slate roster wise after the exit of two-time OVC Player of the Year Terry Taylor and the suspected transfer of former OVC Freshman of the Year Jordyn Adams to Lamar University.
“I want to continue to study and analyze the roster,” James said. “Obviously when you lose a player like Terry, you lose the player of the year. He’s done some amazing things in this conference. You have to bring in maybe a few guys to make up the impact that he had, but ultimately, I need to learn these guys and find out what they can and can’t do. Luckily, I have a little bit of time before the semester is over to conduct individual workouts and things of that nature.”
Austin Peay had an underwhelming 2020-21 season, finishing fifth in the conference with a (14-13, 10-10 OVC) record.
“We have to be in great shape,” James said on what he expects to see from his team. “If you’re not in good shape, then you can’t do the things I want to do. We have to pressure the ball. If you can do that, you can control the head of the snake. It makes it a challenge for any team to run their offense. I also want deflections. If we have active hands and are talking in practice, then that carries over to the game.”
James holds a number of causes off the court near and dear to his heart, but plans on raising awareness for each in his everyday routine rather than creating any specific initiatives once settling in on campus.
“You’re always striving to do things the right way, setting the right examples and fighting for the things that you believe,” James said. “I think you do that on a daily basis rather than shouting it from the rooftop. You just live it. My ultimate goal is to just be a great coach, a great mentor and help these young men that I’m in charge of to enjoy their college experience and maximize who they are as student athletes.”