Georgia Southern women’s basketball coach Rusty Cram sat in the stands to watch Charlton Young play for the Eagles.
This year, Young has parked himself in Hanner Fieldhouse to watch Cram’s team and strolled into the veteran coach’s office for advice or to share a laugh.
“It’s kind of like having a former player come back and coach with you,” Cram said. “He’s probably the best point guard we’ve had come through here. And he’s brought that same energy back.”
Young has returned to his alma mater as a head coach for the first time in his life.
On the other bench tonight in Hanner Fieldhouse will be John Shulman who had Young as his associate head coach during his first year at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Mocs (8-6, 0-1) will tipoff against the Eagles (3-12, 0-2) at 7.
“It’s going to be like playing against your brother in the backyard,” said Young, who played at GSU from 1989-93. “You love each other but you always want to beat other. And when its over, there’s mutual respect. As long as we’re in this business together, he and I will always be friends.
“We don’t want one game to come between us.”
Young made a name for himself in college basketball coaching circles as a stellar recruiter and during the 2004-05 season, he recruited the pillars of UTC’s 2009 graduating class.
That championship group included Nicchaeus Doaks and Khalil Hartwell who led the Mocs back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since Young left for Georgia Tech.
“I’d known him for years as a great recruiter, but I really didn’t know how well he can coach,” said Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who added that Young played a critical role in recruiting likely one-and-done forward Derrick Favors.
“He was a great point guard himself and he really helped develop our guards did a fantastic job with our players,” Hewitt said before UTC played Tech this year. “He is a fantastic coach and will do a great job at Georgia Southern.”
The job has been tough through the first 15 games of the year. But as the ever-positive Young said, they’ve got two more thirds of the season to play — SoCon and tournament.
“I think I was to the first figure out that he’s a heck of a coach,” Shulman said. “I was probably the first guy who said, ‘Don’t go out recruiting because I need you here coaching.’
“All he talked about that year was that we were a team of destiny and I didn’t believe it until we beat Greensboro.”
With Young coaching the guards at UTC, point guard Casey Long had the most productive season of his career despite being a sophomore. But one night, a poor first half by Long almost brought Shulman and Young to blows in a hallway outside the UTC lockerroom.
“I forgot what game it was, but he wanted to kill him and he wanted to kill me,” Shulman said. “He told me, ‘I’ll get you a point guard who can come off a ball-screen,’ and I said, ‘I want him now.’ Charlton came back and said, ‘I can’t get him now.'”
But he did help the Mocs get two Southern Conference championships — one as an assistant and one as a recruiter.
“I was coming off a tough time when Coach Shulman took a chance and hired me,” Young said. “I’m blessed that he did. He and I will get old together and be hanging out one day as NBA scouts.”