Nicholls’ Saddler often confused for being a player as youngest coach in Division I basketball

If not for the whistle around his neck, you might not be able to tell Tevon Saddler apart from his players.

At 6-foot-6 and a bit over his 215-pound playing weight, Saddler is often mistaken as being a player.

“Everyone thinks I still play,” said Saddler. “I feel like every time someone says that it’s a compliment. So yes, I do still get confused as a player. I think that’s a good thing. I think it’s a compliment. I think I do a great job of keeping myself, one in shape, and two, looking the part.”

Such is the life of the youngest head coach in men’s Division I basketball.

Saddler’s offseason hire as the new men’s basketball coach at his alma mater Nicholls came at age 28, which will make him the youngest head coach in country when his Colonels take the court for the 2023-24 season.

Getting a Division I head coaching job so quickly came as little surprise to Saddler.

“I definitely don’t think I’m ahead of my timetable. I think I’m right where I need to be at the right time,” said Saddler. “I always had a vision of being the youngest Power 5 assistant coach in the country or the youngest head coach in the country. I was following either one.

“I don’t think I would ever give up my program to be an assistant again. It’s nothing like running your own program.”

Saddler also said he doesn’t see his youth as any detriment.

“I think the beneficial part is I’m so close in age, I’ve been where they’ve been at before,” said Saddler, referring to his players. “I’ve played. I played at a high level. I did things at a high level. I’ve accomplished personal accolades. I’ve accomplished championships in college, so trying to build and trying to understand what they are and where they are mentally and where they are physically (is a relatable task).

“Especially here at Nicholls State, where I actually walked the campus, I think that makes it easier for me. I think that’s a great sales pitch, but I think it makes it more relatable and more understanding.”

Then, there is the flipside.

“I think the challenge may be, I guess some people say experience. I don’t really look at (lack of) experience as a challenge. I think it just depends on how you look at experience,” Saddler said.

The theme of Saddler and young coaches is one that has existed throughout his entire career, going back to when the Maryland native decided in 2013 to play college basketball for Wes Miller at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, who is now the coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

“I thought he was awesome coach, and the crazy part is when I committed to Wes, Wes was the same age I am now,” Saddler pointed out. “One of the reasons I committed to Wes was I had a lot of different schools offer, but Wes was so relatable then that he was young. I knew even though he was young, he was a hard-working man, first and foremost. Wes won the national championship (as a player at the University of North Carolina) in college.

“He did the things that I wanted to do, and that’s why it was so easy for me to choose UNCG.”

Saddler transferred from UNCG to Nicholls following the 2014-15 season. That was before the days of the transfer portal, so he had to sit out a year before being eligible to play for the Colonels for the 2017-18 season.

“I thought that was a year that slowed my life down to help me understand life more, Saddler reflected. “I got acclimated to the town in Thibodaux. I got acclimated with the people. I always say it’s great people here. I love to give the people that respect. There’s great people here. I had great people pour into me. I was able to pour into great people. I gained a lot of mentors, a lot of pillars in my life.”

Saddler led the team in rebounds, averaging 6.6 per game in his season with the Colonels. He was second on the team in scoring, averaging 15.8 points per game.

Nicholls went 21-10 that season as was the Southland Conference regular-season winner.

He played for Richie Riley, now the head coach at South Alabama. Riley was 32 years old and the second-youngest coach in the country at the time.

“I thought Richie Riley was a heck of a recruiter,” said Saddler. “With the vision that Richie sold me on, everything he sold me on, we delivered upon. Richie painting me a picture and us going through and executing the mission and the (timing) of everything, I just thought it was perfect.”

Saddler followed Riley to South Alabama as a graduate assistant. He then returned to Nicholls as the Director of Basketball Operations under Austin Claunch. Claunch was 29 when he became coach of the Colonels.

“It’s everything that goes into the scene that doesn’t get seen,” Saddler said of the job as a DOBO. “I feel like I’ve done every part of this program – travel, day-to-day logistics, equipment, academics, food, bus, transcripts, administration. You name it, I did it. That’s the stuff that goes into the DOBO world.”

After two years in that role, Saddler went to Southland Conference rival McNeese as a fulltime assistant.

“I decided to go to the other school up the street. I like to refer to McNeese as the other school down the street,” Saddler laughed. “I went to McNeese – did my year there with a good buddy of mine, John Aiken. Shout out to John for giving my first (fulltime) assistant start.”

After a year at McNeese, it was back to his native home of Maryland.

“I took my talents back home and joined Kevin Willard’s staff at the University of Maryland. It was phenomenal. I loved it, loved everything about it, loved being home, loved the XFINITY (Center), loved the people there with what they’re doing over there. It was very special. I am a big fan of Kevin Willard and so appreciative of the opportunity for allowing me to join what he had going That’s my family over there.  I’m really excited for what they have coming next,” said Saddler.

Then Nicholls called him back to his adopted home.

“When it feels right, it feels right – and it’s right,” Saddler said of taking the job as Colonels coach. “I think (Nicholls Athletic Director) Jonathan Terrell does a heck of a job of making hires. He does a heck of a job of evaluating people. He does a heck of a job of being prepared and knows what he wants.

“The conversations we had, the dialogue we had, the vision that we bounced off one another, the direction that we wanted to take the program in. Bouncing ideas that we’ve seen for the program off each other and things that work, things that we need to make work.”

Saddler appears to have his own vision.

“The standard at the end of the day is to win championships. Not only win championships, but to go dancing (making the NCAA Tournament),” he said.

It’s not just about winning, Saddler said, but how you get there along the way.

“The vision is always to win, but I think that’s everyone’s vision,” the new Nicholls coach said. “It’s how you do it and how you go about it. It’s more than just winning. I want to leave it as, ‘Coach Saddler did it the right way. He won the right way. He took his time out and loved and cared on his guys.’

“That would be my vision.”