Coach Shelby Lindley is currently serving as an assistant coach for the Coyote men’s basketball program. Coach Lindley has had unprecedented success at multiple stops and levels during his coaching career. You can follow him on Twitter @Shelby_2Ray

1. Tell me about your coaching journey, how did you get to where you’re currently at?

I started as a student assistant at Northwest Nazarene University under Tim Hills and Brandon Rinta. From there I went to Idaho State University for 1 season under Dean Martin as the Graduate assistant. As Martin was let go, I went to Central Wyoming College as an assistant coach and was given the opportunity to be the Interim Head Coach for one season at 24 years old. I was the youngest Head Coach in the country at the time. We had a great year, winning 23 games and had 6 players move onto 4-year universities. We had a new AD during my time, and he wanted to hire an older guy, so we parted ways and I went to East Mississippi Community College for two seasons working under Mark White. We had two very successful seasons and I was offered a job at The College of Southern Idaho. It was a great opportunity for me to get back out west. I coached at CSI for two seasons and then took 1 year away from coaching and was a high school Athletic Director at Emmett High School. I loved being in on the administration side but getting the opportunity from Colby Blane to come to The College of Idaho. I could not pass that up and will be going on year 3.

2. Who has had the biggest impact on your coaching career?

Mark White at East Mississippi has the biggest impact on me as a coach. He taught me how hard you have to coach the kids and how hard you have to love them at the same time. Always tell them the truth, they won’t like it at the beginning, but they will in the end.

Bret Campbell is like a father figure to me. He always gives me advice when I need it most. He was a former division 1 head coach and has coached for a long time. He understands the business side of the game and is always helping me through it.

3. You’re known as a winner in the industry, having had success at Central Wyoming CC, East Mississippi CC, CSI, and the College of Idaho. What are some winning values you have gained and maintained throughout your career?

Recruit, Recruit, Recruit! Great players make great programs! I think the first thing I pride myself on is recruiting and not listening to the so called “scouts” or recruiting reports. Mark White taught me when I went to East Mississippi trust your gut don’t fall for all the reports.

I think the next thing is making sure the student-athletes have a great experience, whether they are the best player on the team or a walk on that never gets time. I think as you do that as a coach your culture becomes stronger and stronger.

The last thing I try and pride myself on is being truthful with the kids we coach. I have found many lies are told in our business to get kids to do certain things or even in recruiting. The truth hurts but, in the end, if you tell it up front the kids appreciate it in the end.

4. What was the most important lesson you learned from being a volunteer assistant at Northwest Nazarene and being a graduate assistant at Idaho State University? 

Being a volunteer assistant for Northwest Nazarene I learned the importance of the little things away from the X’s and O’s and that all jobs in the program matter. In my first year I kept the score clock and always wiped up the sweat off the floor. That was my job every day in practice. I remember Coach Rinta telling me one thing you can do every practice is clap the whole practice to bring energy for the team.

At Idaho State University I learned from coach Martin when he took over halfway through the year that the basics matter in the game and that keeping it simple is so important. I think as coaches we are always trying to outsmart ourselves and make it to complicated. I learned from him the importance of simple and always making sure the players health and mind is first. He coached a lot in the G-league so understood the importance of rest for the players.

5. You were one of if not the youngest head coaches in the nation during your time as the interim head coach at Central Wyoming. How did that season help you become a great assistant coach?

I had the opportunity to be the youngest head coach in the country with no assistant coaches. I had two redshirts that would take stats for me during the games and help with the box scores at halftime. I learned the importance of making sure the players are happy and play hard. Coach Colby Blaine was an assistant coach at CSI and I remember him calling me when I got the job and he said, “Get them to play hard for you and everything else will take care of itself.” I think as an assistant coach your job is to make sure the head coach knows how each individual on the team is doing physically and mentally. I think I learned there are so many issues to deal with as a head coach that as the assistant now I want to try and take as many things off my head coaches plate each day. As an assistant coach you need to know what kind of head coach you are working for. Some like to recruit, some like to deal with only the practices and X’s and O’s. As the assistant your job is to offset and balance your head coach in the program.

6. Culture is often talked about at the College of Idaho. In your opinion, how can a coach build and maintain a strong culture? 

I truly believe we have the best culture in the country and it starts with recruiting the culture. We are always trying to sign good basketball players but better people. As a coach EVERY DAY your culture is challenged. You have to maintain it in practice, through team meetings and individual meetings. Our program has one rule – we go to class and we do not miss class unless we are sick. I think programs that place way to many rules in front of the student-athletes just creates more issues throughout the year. We do a lot of team activities as a program to get to know one and other, whether it be a video or a book we read as a team. I think coach Blaine during this Covid-19 has done a great job of keeping our culture strong through Microsoft team meetings online and keeping everyone in the loop with what’s going on. We have given our team different projects and meet twice a week.

7. What are three qualities you look for in a potential recruit? 

Character, Skill, Toughness.

The character has to match our College and our basketball programs culture. We want good student-athletes that are serious about the classroom and want to win games.

Skill is position based and what we need for that class, but we try and find different skilled players at our level that fit our motion offensive system.

Toughness is a HUGE thing in our program we are always trying to be the toughest, nastiest team on the floor every night.

8. How has coaching for Select Basketball helped you become a better coach?  

Coaching for Select allows you to be your own head coach for the spring and summer. It allows you to try new offensive and defensive concepts that you might use the following season as a college coach. It allows you to find your voice as a head coach also. Sometimes as the assistant you might not get to coach during the game or do certain things. I think it gives us great experience to be ready when we get the opportunity to be a head coach.  For us it allows us to be around some of the best Idaho, Montana and Wyoming student-athletes and it’s a huge recruiting tool for our program.

9. What advice do you have for aspiring collegiate basketball coaches?

It’s a grind, and no job is too small for any coach. I would advise most young guys getting into the game to start at a smaller lever D2, NAIA or Juco. I think at those levels you get to see the entire program and can do a lot more jobs than starting as a manager at the Division 1 level. The last thing is to network as much as possible meet as many coaches as you can.