Four Questions with Corey Gipson

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'It's all about being selfless'

Many college hoops fans might think Northwestern State's season peaked when it beat then-No. 15 TCU on Nov. 14. But that wouldn't capture the totality of the Demons' season.

And that's just how first-year coach Corey Gipson likes it.

The former Missouri State assistant has the Demons at 18-8 on the season, and tied for the Southland Conference lead with Texas A&M CC at 10-3. He's got some familiar faces leading the way — tri-captains Demarcus Sharp, Ja'Monta Black and Isaac Haney all played at Missouri State when he was there — along with a couple of impact freshmen and Jalen Hampton and Greedy Williams.

It's a nice start, but there's more to be done. He talked with me about it for the latest Four Questions.

Q: You’re not a big team, but you’re among the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation (the Demons grab 34% of their missed shots). Is that focus, or just a benefit of having a freshman like Jalen Hampton, who can clean up when your other guys get to the rim? It's impressive to see the mix of experience with two seniors, a sophomore and a couple freshmen.

Corey Gipson: It's a little of both. You have to have some innate features, and you have to have some emphasis to go along with it. Take the University of Houston. If you were to ask Kelvin Sampson, how do they do it, he heavily emphasizes it, and he recruits guys that go get it. Then they work on it a lot in practice. So it's a combination, but you also have to have some chemistry, and symmetry. It's one thing to go get it, but when certain guys shoot the basketball, you gotta know where the ball is going.

It's all about being selfless, and having a selfless mentality, and serving somebody else. We preach selfless and serving all the time. It's creed we actually live by, not just in-between the lines, but outside of the lines. And so when something is a way of life, then it becomes second nature, and it just infuses everybody in the organization — not just the players, not just the coaches. It becomes a way of life with everybody in the circle.

Q: Describe for people what having a 1-2 punch of Demarcus Sharp and Ja’Monta Black does for your team. Watching their physical play that sets tone is impressive.

Corey Gipson: We actually have tri-captains: Sharp, Black and Isaac Haney. We're blessed to have three guys share that title, and that's not something that we throw around loosely. I was raised in a profession that when you deem somebody captain, that really meant something. When you play for us, we hold you to a standard, and all three of them have gone above and beyond. But they're selfless people. And when you have tri-captains who are selfless, who postpone immediate gratification for the betterment of the team, then that warrants people around them to follow. We have great leaders and we have great followers. None of it works without all of it. It doesn't do any good to have great leaders if we don't have people to follow. So we're blessed to have both to go hand in hand.

Q: For the guys who came with you from Missouri State, what were those conversations like? The Bears were coming off a 23-win season that included a trip to the postseason, so I imagine it wasn’t necessarily an easy one for those guys.

Corey Gipson: What I can tell you is that there was a high level of familiarity when those names went into the portal. There was no guesswork. I knew what those guys were. There was no guesswork to be done. Those are things that you have to sniff out in the recruitment process. It's like when you decide to get married. You better know that person before you marry them. You can't realize things about that person after you married them. It's the same as the portal. Once you realize something after after the fact, instead of the work beforehand, it's too late.

Q: When you were hired, you spoke about the history and tradition of Northwestern State. A program with one of the great NCAA Tournament wins as a 14 seed in 2006. And you’re now the first African-American coach in school history. Have you thought about these much as a first-year coach?

Corey Gipson: I was raised by some wise people. And I was fortunate in that sense, to know that there's a big difference between perspective and truth. Oak. And some people think that our perspective is the truth, OK? Truth outweighs perspective every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. We operate on truth around here. If we operated on perspective, then we would have paid attention to how our preseason predictions were, and our guys would have played to the level of not having any preseason all-conference selections. When this season ends, we still may not have all all-conference selections, but we're gonna stand on truth. We have our own inner perception on the inside.

I've never been a 30-under-30 or 40-under-40 or anything like that. A lot of times that doesn't come to people from the perceived lower levels of college coaching. I feel blessed. I feel blessed about having this opportunity from coming from a program like Missouri State because most of the time, the Power Five assistants are the one who get the jobs. There are so many coaches that are capable, that are in smaller conferences, but people don't take the time to see what those guys are doing. And I'm very thankful that the administration here in Northwestern State took time to research and to give a guy like me and the staff an opportunity.

There are some great assistant coaches in the Southland that could go be head coach in other places. There's some great assistant coaches in the SWAC, in the MEAC, in the Missouri Valley, in the OVC, assistant coaches that could be head coaches at other schools. I want to advocate for those people, and I think it's time that we start getting out behind closed doors and seeing what these people are doing at the grass roots level at the division one level.

Northwestern State hosts Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday.