NSU men’s basketball Head Coach Gary Tuell is no stranger to the game of basketball. Tuell is a native of Louisville, Ky. and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Louisville in 1973. That same year, he became an assistant coach for Louisville and has been on a collegiate coaching staff ever since.
Tuell just completed his ninth season here at NSU when the Sharks lost to number 25 Eckerd College in the first round of the Sunshine State Conference tournament on March 8. This season, Tuell led the Sharks to a 15-12 record overall and a 7-9 record in the SSC.
NSU senior forward Iran Hollis said, “In previous years, he wanted to do what he could to help us get better and win games, but this year I took it more upon myself to help myself and my teammates. Once I did that, I saw that it relieved some pressure off of Coach. He had more time for game plans and to study other teams when he realized that we were working hard and doing things on our own.”
In Tuell’s tenure at NSU, he has a combined record of 133-120 for a .526 winning percentage. Throughout his time at NSU, the Sharks have had both their ups and their downs. Although the 14-15 record may not show it, Tuell’s most successful season was 2006-2007. That season, the Sharks’ non-conference schedule was ranked number one in degree of difficulty by the NCAA, in which they beat three teams that ended up going to the NCAA National Championship tournament.
During his time with the Sharks, Tuell has taken recruiting seriously and has chosen players that ultimately helped the team. In the 2010-2011 season, he led senior Alex Gynes to All-SSC Second-Team honors. He has also helped Brian Cahill win SSC Freshman of the Year in 2010, Tim Coenraad earn All-SSC Second-Team and South Region honors and, last season, helped Rob Huntington earn NCAA Scholar All-American honors.
Sharks’ senior guard and forward Sean Mullan said, “You have to make sure that there is compatibility to my personality and the personality of the coaches. I went up to the first person that had success here that I knew well, which was Alex Gynes, and the way he spoke of Coach Tuell reflected on how I wanted an experience at Nova.”
Prior to coming to NSU, Tuell was the head coach at Augusta State University — now called Georgia Regents University Augusta — for seven years, where he had an overall record of 114-89. He led Augusta State’s Jaguars to numerous titles, including five Peach Belt Conference North Division titles and two Peach Belt Conference championships. Tuell also twice helped the team qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championship tournament, and was awarded Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2002 by the PBC.
Before his time at Augusta State, Tuell was the head coach at St. Thomas University in Miami, Fla., where he led the team to three Florida Sun Conference championships and two NAIA Division II tournaments. Previous to St. Thomas, Tuell spent one year as the head coach at Milligan College in Tennessee and four years as the head coach at Cincinnati Christian University.
