UT Martin Men’s Hoops Out To Prove Doubters Wrong In Year One Of Shulman Era

MARTIN, Tenn. – It is common knowledge around the realm of collegiate athletics that coaches don't put a lot of stock into preseason rankings. Whether it's the unknowns of the transfer portal, seeing how players fit into a new system or an offseason coaching change, it can be hard to accurately predict the result of a season before the first basketball is dribbled.

With that said, to see the University of Tennessee at Martin selected 10^th in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason men's basketball standings seemed to raise some eyebrows around the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center. As one of three defending league regular season champions reloading with a head coach with 346 wins and 11 conference championships in 12 seasons on his resume, the Skyhawks are out to earn some respect in 2024-25 in their first year under Jeremy Shulman.

"Our players definitely know our preseason ranking," said Shulman, who won nine conference Coach of the Year awards and won 76.4 percent of his games (346-107 record) as head coach at Eastern Florida State College before accepting the head coaching position at UT Martin on March 27. "Obviously we have a lot of great coaches and great teams in this league but let's just say it motivates us to work maybe a little bit harder every single day."

It's been a whirlwind seven months for Shulman since he took over a 21-win Skyhawk program from last season. He welcomed back senior forward David Kamwanga – UT Martin's lone returner after making four starts and playing 26 contests in 2024-25 – and recruited high and wide to find 16 newcomers and assemble a formidable coaching staff that has hit the ground running.

Not that that's anything new to Shulman, who was used to a revolving door of student-athletes and coaches at Eastern Florida State but still managed to average 24.7 wins over 14 wildly successful seasons.

"To have so many new pieces, trying to build our culture, get everybody aligned and connected on the same page has been the biggest challenge for us but we always had immense turnover at the junior college level so I'm used to it," Shulman said. "We have a lot of belief and a lot of confidence in what we do. We don't really talk a whole lot about wins and losses in our program – we talk about the things that can impact a game in every possession or in every sequence of a possession. We have small goals that we put together, whether it's being great at this possession or being great in this film session. I'm hoping that's a powerful message for our guys daily."

To build his first Skyhawk roster, Shulman mostly went the international route as 12 of UT Martin's 17 student-athletes hail from outside of the United States (13 if you count Puerto Rico). The dozen true international players are the most of any NCAA Division I men's basketball program in 2024-25 while the Skyhawks' 16 newcomers are tied with California, IU Indy and Louisville for the most in NCAA Division I men's hoops for this upcoming season.

What Shulman has found is a hungry group who has completely bought in to Shulman's system on both ends of the floor.

"We have guys that are here for one reason – they're here for basketball," Shulman said. "I can't say enough remarkable things about this place but nobody is here because they think that Martin, Tennessee is Los Angeles, California. So when we get guys from all over the world coming here – they're here to have a great basketball career and to get a degree. They want to work and they want to be coached. It's an unbelievable group of people who are pretty good at basketball as well."

Shulman was familiar with five student-athletes in his wave of signees as senior forward Vladimer Salaridze (OVC Preseason "Player to Watch" after posting 259 points and 178 rebounds over the last two seasons at UC Riverside), junior swingman Matija Žužić (all-conference honoree who averaged 12.4 points per game last season), sophomore wing Andrija Bukumirović (all-conference performer who averaged 9.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per outing in 2023-24), sophomore guard Afan Trnka (averages of 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per contest last season) and sophomore guard Carlos Cortijo (9.8 points, 4.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game in 2023-24) all played for him at Eastern Florida State.

The junior guard trio of Josué Grullon (OVC Preseason "Player to Watch" who was a NJCAA second team All-American at Daytona State College), Tarence Guinyard (Regional Player of the Year at Florida State College at Jacksonville) and AJ Hopkins (77 three-pointers made on a 41.6 percent clip at Florida SouthWestern State College) also boast experience against quality competition in the Sunshine State junior college scene.

The Skyhawks beefed up their frontcourt with a pair of 6-9 forwards in Lamine Niang (18 games as a true freshman at Cal State Northridge in 2022-23) and Stefano Faloppa (10.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game last season at Monroe College) while freshmen Pedro Santos (37 points with seven treys against Great Britain in the 2024 U20 EuroBasket event this summer) and Filip Radaković (20 points, five rebounds and four assists against Japan in the 2023 FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup) both stand at 6-7 and 200 pounds and bring high-level international experience to UT Martin.

Walk-ons Damjan Vukčević (7-1 center who played 15 games last season at Angelina College), Lucas Williams (sharpshooter from Prestige Worldwide Sports Academy in Florida), AJ Murphy (Johnson City, Tenn. product who was a two-time all-state guard at University High School) and Fabian Spee (6-9 forward who shot 55 percent at Life Christian Academy) will also push for playing time during their debut seasons in a Skyhawk uniform.

"We have a lot of versatile guys who can play up and down the spectrum," Shulman said. "It's a little too cliché but we've always tried to recruit and play positionless basketball – we like having that ability to have a lot of pieces you can move all over the chess board."

Those newcomers join Kamwanga, who wrapped up last season as the first post player off the bench. The 6-7, 220-pounder has proven to always be ready to make an impact, as evidenced by his career-highs of eight points and 10 rebounds in his second career start last season against eventual Final Four participant NC State.

"I joke with David all the time by calling him 'Mr. Martin'," Shulman said. "Just the fact that he won an OVC championship last year – I don't think that can be understated how valuable that's been for our guys with his mentorship and leadership. He's such an ambassador not only for the program but for the university and the city itself."

'Excited' is a word that you will hear a lot out of Shulman's mouth these days as UT Martin gears up for its season opener at Illinois State on Nov. 4. The Skyhawks will have 11 chances to prepare before officially beginning its OVC title defense on Dec. 19 with the first of 20 games (10 home-and-home series) on the OVC schedule in 2024-25.

"To have the opportunity to coach NCAA Division I basketball, especially at a phenomenal place like UT Martin in my home state is a dream come true," Shulman said. "It's true that right now we are the mysterious team with all of the international guys and a brand new coach. You look up and down every single roster in the OVC and there are some really good players – it's eye-opening how much talent there is in this league. It's going to be the little details that are going to determine the pecking order. When you see how hard this group has worked and how much they've improved since the summer, I'm excited seeing the trajectory of where we're going for sure."

UT Martin Men’s Hoops Out To Prove Doubters Wrong In Year One Of Shulman Era

Players Mentioned

Andrija Bukumirović

Carlos Cortijo

Stefano Faloppa

Josué Grullon

Tarence Guinyard

AJ Hopkins

David Kamwanga

AJ Murphy

Lamine Niang

Filip Radaković

Vladimer Salaridze

Pedro Santos

Fabian Spee

Afan Trnka

Damjan Vukčević

Lucas Williams

Matija Žužić

Related Videos