When Kim English looked at the job opening at George Mason, he saw a no-brainer opportunity to start his head coaching career.
The symbolism was there — English had been an assistant coach Tennessee the past two seasons under Rick Barnes. Barnes’ first head coaching job also was at George Mason, in 1987-88, when he went 20-10 and was named the Colonial Athletic Association co-coach of the year.
Also, English is a Baltimore native, so — after stints around the country and abroad between his playing and coaching career — shifting to George Mason would return him to the DMV.
Just one week after the school announced it parted ways with coach Dave Paulsen after six years, GMU said that it hired English.
The 33-year-old refurbished the Patriots’ roster with transfers after an exodus that followed the coaching change. He’s building an identity around toughness — strong defense and rebounding — heading into his first season in Fairfax.
People are also reading…
George Mason opens at home against Stony Brook on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“We’re just really excited,” English said.
After earning Baltimore Sun All-Metro recognition at Randallstown (Md.) High School and playing a postgraduate season at Notre Dame Prep (Fitchburg, Mass.), English — a 6-6 guard — went on to a successful career at Missouri from 2008-12. With the Tigers, English scored 1,570 points. That’s still 13th in school history. He’s tied for the program record in games played (141) and helped Missouri to 107 wins, part of the winningest class in program history.
He was chosen in the second round, 44th overall, by the Pistons in the 2012 NBA draft. He played in 41 games with Detroit the next season, and went on to play professionally in Italy, France and Venezuela.
English’s first collegiate job came at Tulsa, where he served during 2015-17, first as director of player development, then as an assistant coach. Then he was an assistant coach for two years at Colorado and for two more at Tennessee.
George Mason went 95-91 overall, 47-57 in Atlantic 10 play, under Paulsen. But the Patriots failed to make an NCAA tournament appearance in his tenure. The program’s last trip was 2011.
The school announced its split with Paulsen on March 16. The program lost a significant chunk of its core to transfer in the aftermath, including guard Jordan Miller (Miami), guard Javon Greene (USF), guard Tyler Kolek (Marquette) and forward AJ Wilson (South Carolina).
But English restocked in part with a player he coached at Colorado (guard D’Shawn Schwartz) and a player he coached at Tennessee (guard Davonte Gaines). Also DeVon Cooper (Morehead State), Joel Kabimba (Stetson) and Blake Buchanan (Wake Forest). Cooper, a 6-1 201-pounder, averaged 12.5 points and 4.9 rebounds at Morehead State last season.
English also got talented GMU forward Josh Oduro to return. Oduro had entered the transfer portal after a breakout sophomore season last year. Oduro was sold in part on the mentality English is pushing for the program.
“He’s really big on player development,” Oduro said of English. “Then I would also say the guys that he’s bringing in, and the culture that he’s cultivating. It’s somewhere that I want to play, somewhere I want to get better and somewhere that I’m trying to better myself every single day.”
English has made defense and rebounding focal points of the Patriots’ work each day.
On defense, forced turnover or not, English wants his players to be disruptive. George Mason ranked ninth in the A-10 last year in scoring defense (69.9 points per game allowed) and field goal-percentage defense (43.8).
“We want to force our opponents into tough, contested 2-point shots,” English said. “And we want to limit them to one shot.”
And while there’s talent on offense, too, the Patriots are eschewing the idea of a “go-to player.” Rather, they’re viewing the go-to guy as the open man.
“And our guys will play with an incredible amount of unselfishness passing the ball and moving their bodies around the court,” English said.
The Patriots were picked to finish eighth in the A-10’s preseason poll, but English feels confident in what the Patriots could do.
Schwartz said he can see GMU trending upward. English is ready to get rolling.
“We’re really excited to get this thing started,” English said. “ … And the guys, the community, the university — everything’s been great seven months in,”