CARBONDALE — Southern Illinois University Carbondale has named Scott Nagy the 15th men’s basketball head coach in the program’s history.
With nearly three decades of head coaching experience at Wright State and South Dakota State, Nagy has a career 577-332 (.635) record and ranks No. 18 in wins among active Division I head coaches.
SIU will introduce Nagy to the public on Friday, March 29 in the Charles Helleny Pavilion of the Banterra Center. Voice of the Salukis Luke Martin will host the event, with comments from Coach Nagy, Chancellor Austin A. Lane, and Director of Athletics Tim Leonard.
“I’m extremely excited to welcome Coach Nagy to Saluki Nation,” Leonard said. “His record speaks for itself. He is a winner in every sense of the word and will be a perfect fit for our program, the campus community, and the region.”
In eight years at Wright State, Nagy was named Horizon League Coach of the Year three times, led the Raiders to 20-plus wins in five seasons, and tallied 18 wins in the shortened 2021 campaign. He guided WSU to three Horizon League regular-season championships, two Horizon League tournament championships, a pair of NCAA Tournament berths, and one NIT bid.
In his first season at Wright State in 2017, he led the program to its first 20-win season since 2008. Building on that success in his second season, Nagy took the Raiders to their first NCAA Tournament in a decade and earned his first Horizon League Coach of the Year Honor.
Nagy repeated as Coach of the Year in year three, taking the Raiders to the NIT after tying for the league’s regular season title.
In 2019, he won a school-record 25 games on his way to WSU’s first outright League title in program history, while earning his third-consecutive Horizon League Coach of the Year award.
He led Wright State to a Horizon League tournament championship in 2022 – with wins over No. 1-seeded Cleveland State and No. 3 Northern Kentucky. The Raiders won their First Four game in Dayton over Bryant before falling to No. 1 Arizona. The win over Bryant marked the first NCAA Tournament win for WSU in the history of the program.
Nagy spent 21 seasons at South Dakota State and guided the program’s transition to Division I. He led the SDSU to 20-win seasons in eight of nine seasons while at the Division II level, including eight postseason appearances.
During that time, Nagy recorded an overall record of 410-240 (.631). After SDSU moved to the Summit League in 2007, Nagy’s teams went 175-119 (.595), earning berths in the NCAA tournament in 2012, 2013 and 2016, and an NIT berth in 2015.
In his final season at SDSU, he led the Jackrabbits to a 26-8 record, winning the Summit League regular-season and post-season tournament championships.
Nagy and his staff recruited and developed several all-league, academic all-league, and all-newcomer team members during his time at SDSU. Perhaps his best-known player was Nate Wolters, who garnered a host of honors, including being named Third Team All-America as a senior in 2013. He was drafted in the second round by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Nagy is a 1988 graduate of Delta State, where he helped lead the team to three Division II tournament appearances in his four years. In addition to setting career records for games played and assists, he also excelled in the classroom, earning Gulf South All-Academic honors three times. He was inducted into the Delta State Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
After graduating, Nagy joined the staff at the University of Illinois under hall-of-fame coach Lou Henson. In his two seasons on staff, the Illini advanced to the NCAA tournament both years, including a trip to the Final Four in 1989. He also got to coach alongside his dad, Dick, who was a longtime assistant under Henson.
Nagy and his wife Jamie have five children: Nick, Tyler, Anthony “TJ”, Natalie, and Naika.
A 2014 Southern Illinois graduate, Tim McCaughan joined Saluki Athletics in August 2022 and is the primary contact for SIU basketball and baseball.
He spent the previous six years at Indiana State as assistant director of athletic communications serving as the primary sport contact for several Sycamore programs, most recently with Sycamore basketball, cross country, golf, spirit squad while also serving as a member of the ISU Hall of Fame committee. He spent five years working with the Sycamore baseball program -- promoting the team during a pair of NCAA postseason appearances, three years as the primary football contact while spending his first two years in Terre Haute working with ISU’s volleyball and women’s basketball programs.
He has promoted student-athletes and coaches to several postseason awards during his time at Indiana State, most notably linebacker Jonas Griffith, who earned six All-American honors during his career as well as Ryan Boyle who was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Newcomer of the Year. He also saw Sycamore head football coach Curt Mallory be named the MVFC Coach of the Year as well as a finalist for the STATS FCS Eddie Robinson award, which honors the National Coach of the Year. McCaughan played a role in the first Academic All-American award for Indiana State baseball since 2009 when catcher Max Wright earned the honor following the 2019 season as well as promoting Geremy Guerrero to a program-record five All-American honors during the 2021 baseball season.
McCaughan covered a nationally ranked Sycamore baseball team in 2019 that picked up its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance after securing the No. 2 seed at the Nashville Regional following a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship -- the first in over 20 years for the program. After knocking off both McNeese and Ohio State, the Sycamores advanced to the regional final against No. 1 ranked Vanderbilt, falling to the eventual National Champion Commodores. He also promoted the MVC Newcomer of the Year in Collin Liberatore as well as the League’s Defensive Player of the Year in Jake Means.
