A few things stood out to Southern Indiana (5-0) men’s basketball Head Coach Rodney Watson when he was considering recruiting junior college transfer guard Gavin Schumann.
“He could score,” Watson said. “We needed scoring on the perimeter. We needed guys that could score and create shots and he could do that. The first time we saw him play, he scored 32 points. So we kept following him after that, and he kept doing well.”
Watson recruited the 6-foot-2, 160-pound guard from Sinclair Community College, where he was a 1,000-point scorer.
As with any transfer student, transitioning from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) to NCAA Division II basketball has been the most important obstacle, one he’s meeting smoothly.
“When you transfer into our league, I think it’s a little fast, a little stronger,” Watson said. “The people you’re playing against for the first time are keying on you in ways you haven’t been keyed on before. Those are the things you have to really come to grips with. Everything from the demands academically, to the demands of the conditioning and lifting and doing more individual workouts are different demands than what he’s used to.”
And so far, he’s proven himself. One of Schumann’s most successful games this year came against Indiana University Southeast, when he scored 25 points, including the game winning three-point shot during the final seconds of the game.
“He has very long arms. We knew he had the ability to be a good defenseman, which he’s really proven he could be,” Watson said.
Another challenge of moving from one division is playing with teammates of a different caliber, which is another obstacle Schumann has mastered.
“I think the (team) respects his strengths, and that’s the big thing. You want everyone to really come to grips with what everyone’s strengths are,” Watson said. “And you want to play to those strengths and once you have respect for the level of what you bring to the team, it’s just a matter of how each one of those guys use each other.”
One thing Schumann noticed about switching to Division II basketball is the amount of preparation before hitting the court.
“It’s different, harder. People are bigger in (Division II), and I have to lift weights and stuff now,” he said. “I think I adjusted pretty good. I’m finally getting used to it and finally getting more comfortable.”
As for what attracted him to USI’s program?
“I like to win.” And win, the Eagles do.
