RICHMOND, Ky. — The Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team has typically been on the back burner in the basketball-crazy Bluegrass State, but the 2020-21 season was one like no other for the Colonels. Although EKU may never be on the same level as the Wildcats or Cardinals, third-year Head Coach A.W. Hamilton views his program as having one direction: forward.
What You Need To Know
- Colonels had record-setting season in 2020-21
- Head Coach A.W. Hamilton looks to change culture of EKU basketball
- Kentucky native says he loves his job and players
- Implemented "Fastest 40 Minutes in Sports" style of play
After five straight losing seasons, three under former coach Dan McHale and two under Hamilton, the Colonels turned things around in a significant way in 2020-21, posting a 22-7 overall record and a 15-5 record in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) -- the most conference wins in program history -- and were the fourth team in the country to reach 20 wins. The 22-win total is the third-best in program history. Hamilton was named OVC Coach of the Year in 2020, the first EKU head coach to receive the distinction since Mike Pollio in 1987, and he has been named a finalist for the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award this season, presented annually to the top Division-I mid-major coach in college basketball.
Behind its high-octane offense and pressure defense, which Hamilton, a former point guard, affectionately calls “The Most Exciting 40 Minutes in Sports,” the 2020-21 Colonels have been dubbed “the record breakers” after leading the OVC in scoring (81.8 points per game), steals per game (10.3), three-pointers per game (9.6), turnover margin (+6.3) and turnovers forced (19.1 per game).
EKU ranked in the top-25 nationally in 10 categories this season, including scoring (13th), steals-per-game (1st), three-pointers-per-game (21st), total assists (5th with 461), turnover margin (2nd), and turnovers forced (2nd).
As most coaches do, Hamilton, 40, credits his players for the team’s sudden turnaround, something sophomore Michael Moreno said is not entirely accurate.
“He’s the reason this is all happening,” said Moreno, a 6-foot 7-inch forward from Scott County High School. “You'll always give credit to the players and everybody around them, but it wouldn’t even be close to where it is if we didn’t have coach Hamilton. He’s the leader of it. He put it in motion for us, and for somebody like me, who wasn't sure what they wanted to do as far as basketball goes until two weeks before their senior year ended, he sure made me feel like I made the perfect decision for myself because he’s given me every opportunity to grow and get better. He's pushed me to limits I didn't even know I could be pushed to, and I’m grateful for that. He’s given me a new outlook on myself.”
Hamilton’s path to roaming the sideline at McBrayer Arena began as soon as his playing career ended. After graduating from Scott County High School in 1999, where he played on the Cardinals’ 1998 state championship team, Hamilton spent a year playing post-grad basketball at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., under head coach Kevin Keatts. Hamilton then took his talents to Wake Forest, where he played for a year and a half before a coaching change led to his transferring to Marshall University, from where he graduated in 2005.
Hamilton’s time on the Demon Deacons’ roster and subsequent decision to leave the program for the Thundering Herd provided him with a vital aspect of his coaching philosophy.
“I go to Wake Forest to play for Dave Odom, the coach that recruited me, and then he leaves and goes to South Carolina, and coach (Skip) Prosser comes in,” Hamilton said. “I loved coach Prosser, and we had a great relationship. Even after I left there, we always talked, and he was great to me. But you know what he was? He was honest, and that's the thing I take away. You learn something from everybody, and he was very honest with me. He said, ‘You can stay here if you want, but you’re never going to be a starter. I'm recruiting a guy named Chris Paul. I’m recruiting a guy named Justin Gray. We got to try to win a national championship. You’re not going to be the starting point guard on the national championship team.’ I admired that, so that's why I tell my guys all the time I'm always going to be honest. I'm never going to lie to them.”
Hamilton’s intent on being honest resonated with Moreno, who, like Hamilton, is from Georgetown and played for Billy Hicks at Scott County. He said he trusts Hamilton completely, and that helped him choose EKU over Evansville and Wofford.
“I trust him so much,” Moreno said. “There’s something about him. He's just got that makeup of a legendary coach, and he’s an amazing people person. He loves his family, loves his players, and he is passionate about Eastern Kentucky and building a new brand, and making sure we become relevant because he’s never going to take a back seat to anything. If there's any action, or any type of exciting things going on, he wants to be at the forefront of it. He tells all the time, ‘When I sat down your parents, I told them I'd never lie to you, that I would love you and I will take care of you.’ He's done every bit of that. We’re a product of his promise to our parents and the kids that need that structure and that ability to grow through mistakes, through love, through support, and having that great support system the coaches give us. You couldn't ask for much more as a player.”
After graduating from Marshall in 2005, Hamilton returned to Hargrave to work as an assistant for Keatts. In 2011, when Keatts took a job at the University of Lousiville, Hamilton was named head coach, a position he kept for the next six years. His time at Hargrave was highlighted by a two-year run from 2015-17, during which the Tigers went 90-3 overall and won the 2016 National Prep Championship. Hamilton was named National Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2016.
He joined the North Carolina State University men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant in 2017 after Keatts was named head coach of the Wolfpack.
“I was on a plane after our NCAA tournament game in 2018 and saw that EKU had fired its coach,” Hamilton said. “I went after it. When I saw this job was open, I thought, ‘Wow, I would give anything to be the head coach at Eastern Kentucky.’ I was at Hargrave for a long time. I was an assistant for five years, and I was a head coach for six. I was having the time of my life. In the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a Division I head coach. I worked the athletic director and everybody I knew, every connection I had. They were honest. They were like, ‘Look, we've had over 100 people apply for the job. We've got a list of names already. It's going to be tough for you to get this,’ and I told them just to meet me one time and let me come to campus, let me meet your search committee. A lot of luck played into it, too, but I had a great interview with the search committee and hit it off with them. We connected.”
Hamilton said he told the search committee he honestly thought a Kentucky native needed to lead the EKU men’s basketball program, which follows a trend in the state for head coaches with Hamilton, Preston Spradlin at Morehead State, Rick Stansbury at Western Kentucky University, and Darrin Horn at Northern Kentucky all being from Kentucky.
Being from Kentucky also means recruiting more in-state players, which Hamilton does purposely and is proud of that fact.
“If you look at our roster this year, I started four guys from the state of Kentucky, and those guys are good players,” he said. “I played at Scott County High School, and I always felt like the players in this state are underappreciated. There are so many good players in Kentucky. I feel like if you can get the right ones, you will be OK, and I think we've got the right ones here.”
Before speaking with Hamilton, Moreno did not consider EKU an option.
“When I started getting recruited by Eastern before coach Hamilton got here, I was like, ‘Eastern? OK, that's nice.’ It's not something I was entertaining, but he's made it exciting and relevant and fun to be a part of, and it's somewhere good players in the state are starting to consider and out-of-state players as well. We got Wendell Green, and he chose Eastern over Rhode Island, DePaul, and TCU -- that's just a shortlist of some of the teams that were going after him, and he decided to come to Richmond, Kentucky, to play basketball. So, that tells you we're building something really, really special here.”
Building a successful men’s basketball program reflects a university’s culture, and Hamilton said his team is growing and improving along with EKU.
“This campus is rocking right now,” Hamilton said. “Look at our leadership: President McFaddin is a superstar. Our athletic director, Matt Roan, and his vision for the athletic department is incredible. Our move to the Atlantic Sun Conference, I think, in five years, people will look back and say that move was the best thing that happened to this athletic department. I think it will have that type of effect. That's the vision they have around here. We have such an attractive place. There are new dorms, a new dining facility ready to open, all the restaurants on campus. It’s always been called ‘The Campus Beautiful,’ and that has never been more true than it is right now.”
EKU has been a sort of stepping stone school for basketball coaches in the past, with former head coach Travis Ford leaving for UMass after five seasons and Jeff Neubauer taking the head coaching job at Fordham after a decade in Richmond. But Hamilton said he sees the position differently, saying his tenure there could be compared to legendary EKU football coach Roy Kidd.
“I told my athletic director I want to be the next Roy Kidd,” he said. “My parents come to every single game. My two older brothers live in Georgetown, and my younger sister lives in Richmond. My kids play with their cousins every Sunday. My wife is from northern Kentucky. I love Kentucky. I tell my wife all the time I'm retiring here and to get used to this.”
EKU Director of Athletics Matt Roan praised Hamilton for returning the EKU men's basketball program to one of the OVC’s best.
“Having worked together previously and knowing him before I arrived, this is not at all surprising," Roan said. “He has engaged and energized our fan base, and he and his family have immersed themselves fully into the Richmond and EKU communities. He recruits high-quality, high-potential student-athletes, and he has surrounded himself with exceptional assistant coaches who support one another and develop the young men in the program. I am fired up to watch the growth and success of these teams for years to come.”
Hamilton’s contract at EKU currently runs through the 2023-24 season. He and his wife, Chelsea, have two daughters.