The Hype Behind Josh Schertz

As the N.C. State coaching search unfolds, many folks wonder why Josh Schertz has been identified as one of State’s top targets. Especially with an alum like Justin Gainey being brought up at Tennessee.

I am completely sold on Josh Schertz being the right pick to lead State back into the upper echelon of college basketball. Many folks that follow the sport closely also feel this way, and that’s not by accident.

Josh Schertz’s journey into basketball is an incredible one. A former tennis prodigy, at one point homeless, Schertz turned to basketball in an unlikely moment in his life and excelled, as a player and also as a basketball mind. (Would highly recommend this Athletic article on his story.) 

The feel good nature of the current Saint Louis coach’s background isn’t the driver of his status as a top tier candidate, though. Clicking into his Wikipedia page, you’ll see a ridiculous run of championship seasons. Schertz has amassed 16 regular and tournament championships as a coach at Lincoln Memorial, Indiana State, and Saint Louis, and multiple national championship appearances with LMU.

More impressive is the jump in team quality on display before and after his hiring. Before being hired at Division 2 LMU in 2009, the program had one winning season this millennia. All Schertz did there was go 337–69 and turn one of the smallest schools in Tennessee into a basketball power house.

Josh Schertz took over Indiana State in 2022, and they finished 204th in BartTorvik with an 11-20 record. Two seasons later, his team finished 42nd, going 32-7. After being hired away to Saint Louis, Indiana State cratered back to 196th and 208th in 2024 and 2025.

A similar story unfolds with Schertz at SLU: The year prior to Schertz’s arrival, the Bilikens finished 176th in Torvik. They’ve climbed each year since. This is a perfect picture of the impact of coaching:

If you want an even more enjoyable stat to nosh on, Saint Louis finished higher than N.C. State this year in KenPom and BartTorvik adjusted efficiency with a ~third of the NIL budget that W*** was working with. We saw this team smack Georgia in Round 2, before hanging with National Title contender Michigan for 30 minutes in the round of 32.

A clear indicator of a good coach and program CEO is one that inherits poor results, wins a ton, and then sees that program dip once he’s gone. That is up and down the resume of Schertz.

One of the major features that has made Schertz’s teams so good is his “organized chaos” offensive approach. Rather than running halfcourt sets every possession, he coaches his teams on a set of principles that dictate what an optimal possession should look like. “Triggers” like spacing, how a defense responds to cuts and screens, their structure, and more tells the players what they should be doing. Schertz summarizes this well on a podcast with Curry Sage Hicks: 

“It’s really teaching guys how to play and not plays. It’s like rhythm, not patterns.”

This offensive approach has led to some truly wild outcomes for his teams. This stat is absurd: in his last four seasons as head coach, every one of his teams have finished with a top 12 effective field goal rate nationally.  That includes a #1, #2, and #4 overall finish. It can’t be understated how insane this is. He’s not a one trick pony either: his teams clean up the defensive glass at an elite rate (something we groaned about in the second half of the year) and his Saint Louis team finished 3rd nationally in defensive effective field goal rate.

This is an incredible statistical profile for any team, let alone a mid major working with the resources SLU had last year:

Implementing an offensive system as difficult as this one is almost single-handedly reliant on a coach being able to communicate and instill these principles in his players well. Another mark of an incredible coach.

There is a reason that basketball media, coaching circles, and agents alike speak of Schertz as the next big name in college basketball. There is a reason he is a name linked to programs in a different tier than N.C. State, like Michigan and Arizona, should they open. He’s a damn good coach. He wins at a high level, and he’s got an awesome personality that would fit incredibly well in Raleigh. 

Justin Gainey is a beloved alum who could come here and do incredible things. I will certainly rally behind him if he is the guy, and he’s an appealing candidate in his own right. There is perceived safety and stability in hiring an alum, and that is appealing after what just happened to this program.

But I do not want this decision - that aligns with UNC, and potentially Duke, looking to make coaching decisions of their own - to come from a place of fear. We mock UNC for “the Carolina Way” and prioritizing people in the family which has crushed their position since Roy’s retirement. Gainey's public job links this cycle have been to Georgia Tech and College of Charleston. If State's admin is prioritizing Schertz as the “1” in the search, there’s a reason for it. 

The worry about Schertz leaving for another job in the future is commonly repeated. In that case, you’re getting a large buy out - if we do this correctly - and he’s likely leaving State in a much better place. There’s no guarantee that Gainey, who has never been a head coach, would stay in Raleigh once Rick Barnes retires. These are all hypotheticals that may or may not happen.

This would be an absolute slam dunk hire of a guy who:

• Has flipped each program he's run, and won big in the process

• Has a unique system that leads to elite offensive output without compromising defensive effectiveness

• Is consistently labeled a rising star, and under consideration for programs like Michigan and Arizona

Recent comments from Saint Louis officials make it seem like their confidence in retaining Schertz is waning. It apperas it's more about where he ends up than if he goes:

I hope that destination is Raleigh, because with the NIL influx we're hearing about, this could be the hire that pushes State back into the top tier of the ACC. This is an important decision, and I'm hopeful the Pack can make this happen.