Dave Hixon has been coach at his alma mater practically since his graduation. d3photography.com file photo

In his 38th season, David Hixon has led the Amherst men’s basketball team to a prominent spot in Division III that most programs at any level don’t get to experience.

Hixon’s Lord Jeffs have averaged 23 wins per season over the last 21 years. Taking over the head coaching position in 1977, Hixon has amassed a 725-259 overall record and a .737 winning percentage, which is foremost in the NCAA.

The 1975 graduate of Amherst has also taken the Jeffs to the NCAA Tournament 16 times, with nine trips to the Elite Eight, six to the Final Four and three to the finals. He has won two national championships (in 2007 and ’13) and seven New England Small College Athletic Conference titles.

So when the modern-day NESCAC lords of the manor start the 2014-15 season at 5-2, some eyebrows were raised and interest was garnered. Having lost their career points leader, Aaron Toomey, to graduation, the Jeffs are trying to find an identity as well as player leadership.

What has truly hampered this year’s team is the youth of the roster and the inexperience of the players. Hixon is starting four underclassmen, two of whom are freshmen (Jayde Dawson and Johnny McCarthy). The only upperclassman starter, Connor Green, is averaging 14.7 points per game, along with only two other players scoring in double figures.

Adding to the obstacle of the Jeffs’ youth is the schematic change of starting two bigs (sophomores David George and Jacob Nabatoff) in Hixon’s customary four-out one-in system.

As a man with nearly four decades’ worth of experience, Hixon has a reasonable perspective on the disappointing start, knowing that patience with a young team is the only path to success.

I spoke with David Hixon by phone last Wednesday.

D3hoops: What was the message at the beginning of the season and what is it now?
David Hixon: I don’t really think it’s changed. I laugh and I tell people that this past summer was my summer of my discontent ... because I spent most of the summer trying to figure out what we were going to do. ... We’d sort of run all of the water out of that sponge. In over two years, I won a national championship and [had] a Final Four team. You know we graduated ... really good players. Last year we didn’t have a lot of upperclassmen other than the [four] that we graduated. So I didn’t know what we’re going to have.

So the message was going to be “guys, we’ve got to learn fast. We’ve got to get used to each other fast. We’ve got to figure this stuff out as quickly as we can.” And I don’t think that’s really changed. I think we’ve given [the players] some proof that we weren’t as ready they probably thought we were. I think that when you’re a part of a winning program ... the assumption comes that you’re always going to be a Final Four team. I knew that we were going to have a lot of work to do.

D3: Given that you’re playing two bigs in a four-out one-in system, has that hampered the team’s shooting percentage or ability to make shots that the offense requires?

DH: I don’t know. We’re taking easier shots. ... We’ve got some good bigs and eventually they’ll make those shots. I love the three, but I also love the easy two. We’ve put some new stuff in to try and get us better looks at that. Has it hampered it? We probably haven’t shot as many threes as we would have, but we’re not shooting at a great clip. ... We’re in a change-mode.

D3: What were the circumstances around your appointment to the head coaching position?
DH: The head coach [Rick Wilson] had to retire, 65 was mandatory back then. ... I was not going to apply for the job. I had applied the year before for the head job up at Deerfield Academy, [and I] did not get it. ... One of the guys in the department said, “Hey, you ought to apply [for the Amherst head coaching position] because, if nothing else, it gives you experience of interviewing.” So I applied and they were very nice. They picked me as one of seven out of a pool of 175 candidates to come to campus for an interview. ... They brought three back and when they brought three back, I thought “OK, that was very nice of you guys to give me this interview experience, now, you know, don’t jerk me around.” ... I was surprised. I was genuinely surprised. I was naturally delighted. But that wouldn’t happen, most likely, today. 

D3: After nearly 38 years, what has sustained your interest in the coaching profession?
DH: I think the deep, and I emphasize deep, involvement with the student athlete. ... For me, we intimately know these students. We spend hours with them, we spend hours recruiting them when they get here, we spend hours trying to fit them into what we do. Growth is always painful, and so I love all that stuff. I love taking a guy and challenging him. So I think it’s that. ... That’s why I’m so excited about this year. I am so geeked up about this year because I know we got challenges ahead of us. And we’ve seen two of them already, or — put it this way — we’ve been exposed already, twice. This is a great challenge for me; and, boy at 62 years old, 38 years in, I’m so excited to be so excited. ... The challenges are the piece, and the intimate relationships with the kids are the pieces that keep me [interested]. You know for three hours a day, when I’m down in the gym, I’m in heaven.

D3: What makes Amherst so unique and thus what makes its basketball program unique?
DH: I’m going to say this, and naturally it’s not singular, but I think that we still truly ... have student-athletes. It truly is student-athletes. Most of the places I talked to [when offered other positions] were much more interested in winning and basketball was the bottom line. Do they want their kids to graduate? — Sure they do. But [academics] is secondary to winning basketball games. To me, I go back to where sport is a part of your education. It’s not your education, it’s a part. It might be the best part of your education because you get challenged in certain ways you can’t get challenged in the classroom. ... The challenge when kids get here from the academic side as well as the athletic, it’s a total picture that I still believe sport and the academy should be.

D3: We know that this year’s team is young or inexperienced. Is there a way in which the team’s youth or inexperience is an advantage for it?
DH: I think that Aaron Toomey was a dominant player for us certainly for the last three years if not four. So people learn to rely on [a player like that]. ... One of the reasons [this team] is exciting for me is I don’t really know how the pieces will fit. I don’t know who our guy is. So we’ve got a lot of questions. The youthful innocence that they’re going at [the game] with is, unfortunately, at this point, still youthful inexperience. ... It’s wide open. We’ve got, literally, probably for the first time in my career, ... 10 guys who can get out there and play. ... I think that you have to really be careful with the frustration [of a young team]. From a coaching perspective, you want to be tough on them, but you’ve got to be careful you don’t take away their confidence.

D3: Over the course of your career you’ve studied, coached, and been involved in basketball for a long time, and the sport has definitely changed — although it seems to be coming back around to old forms or embracing old forms now. How has your view of basketball, how you interpret the game changed over the years?
DH: I was here when the 3-point shot came in and that just revolutionized the game, of course. Then they put in a 45-second shot clock, which really made no difference at all. As a matter of fact, we held the ball one game against the No. 1 team in the country, Colby — took them into double overtime by holding the ball. ... They lessened that to 35, which I think is a great number, but it’s up-tempo. The game is a lot more fun to play now than it used to be to play. When I played, we’d very often run an offense for a minute and a half until we got a layup, running the old wheel. That’s all changed now. Kids really get out and play. Kids are multifaceted.