Terry Nooner got an assist from Bett Shelby to start his college coaching career.
It’s something the Kansas associate head coach will never forget.
It was 2011, and Shelby — now Arizona’s special assistant to the coach — was leaving her post at Southern Illinois. On her way out, she put in a good word for Nooner, a former Kansas men’s player. Nooner ended up replacing her.
Shelby provided another assist in 2015, and Nooner joined Shelby on coach Brenda Frese’s Maryland staff.
“For me, Bett being a person who could vouch for me and helped me get two of the jobs that I’ve had — that speaks volumes for developing in my career,” Nooner said.
Nooner and Shelby developed a quick trust when he was an AAU coach for the Missouri Phenom and Shelby was recruiting one of his players, Azia Washington, to Southern Illinois.
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“She’s got this North Carolina accent that is real welcoming,” Nooner said. “She was always honest and upfront about the progam. We connected really fast.”
Nooner and Shelby will be on opposite benches Thursday, when Kansas (7-0) plays No. 12 Arizona (7-0) at McKale Center.
Nooner played for Kansas’ men’s team from 1997-2000. Former Jayhawks coach Roy Williams tried to get him into coaching, but it didn’t take. But when a family member asked Nooner to coach his daughter, who was in sixth grade at the time, Nooner found his calling. (That young woman, Kayla Middlebrook, is now on staff with him at Kansas.)
Nooner said Shelby helped shape his recruiting philosophy.
“She knows everything about the kids that she recruits,” Nooner said. “She connects with the student-athletes in a way that’s not basketball-related. It’s not going to always be basketball with her because she understands the total person. As athletes, there’s more to them than just their sport, and the fact that she can connect with them on so many other levels outside of basketball, I think is her biggest skill.”
Shelby said Nooner was always willing to watch a kid play when he was an AAU coach.
Terry Nooner
“I always appreciated that,” she said. “I wasn’t a big-time assistant at the time and he always took time for me. That meant a lot to me. He didn’t have to do that.
“He always helped me get players on the phone or get them on my campus at Southern Illinois. Carbondale, Illinois, is a really hard place to recruit to and he always went out of his way to help me. I just think when you’re a younger assistant you remember those people who help you and he did those things for me at a high level. I will always be grateful for that.”
It made it easy, she said, to recommend Nooner for jobs.
“I just sang his praises because he’s phenomenal,” Shelby said. “He’s just a really good person, and you just you don’t always just come across those. He’s really caring. He’s really genuine; he’s loyal. You can trust hm. And I’ve just always appreciated that about Terry. He’s always had my back.”
Shelby and Nooner teamed up at Maryland, helping lead the Terrapins to multiple Big Ten Conference regular-season and tournament championship. Along with fellow assistant Shay Robinson, the “Dream Team” of assistants helped Maryland land two top-five recruiting clashes.
Nooner and Shelby say they’re happy at their current schools.
“Clearly I want us to come out on top,” Shelby said. “I will pull for the Jayhawks every other day of the year but Thursday, because I want Terry to always have success. Games like this I feel like are fun because you have so much respect for the person on the other sideline. … I wish him the best of luck the rest of the year.”
Rim shots
Arizona is No. 18 in the first NET rankings of the season. The NCAA will release updated rankings as the season goes on. The NET rankings are just one piece of the equation that the NCAA selection committee uses to determine the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament and their seedings.
Esmery Martinez and Lauren Fields both have had Kansas’ number over the last two years. While at West Virginia, Martinez averaged 24 points in four games against KU. Fields averaged 15.5 points in four games against the Jayhawks while playing at Oklahoma State.
