MARTIN, Tenn. – University of Tennessee at Martin head coach Jeremy Shulman has revealed his first coaching staff as John Aiken, Mark White, Selle Hann, Truman Moore, Jawaan Holmes and Nick Johnson have joined the Skyhawk men’s basketball program as assistant coaches.
“I am elated to announce our coaching staff,” said Shulman, who was hired as the 13th head coach in UT Martin men’s basketball history on March 27. “We have brought in six great men who boast coaching experience at various collegiate levels. John and Mark have combined for 16 years as collegiate head coaches and have Ohio Valley Conference experience while Selle, Truman, Jawaan and Nick have earned their first full-time NCAA Division I opportunity. We are so fortunate to land these six gentlemen and we can’t wait to get to work.”
Aiken returns for his second stint on the Skyhawk sidelines as he was also an assistant under Heath Schroyer from 2014-16. Aiken most recently spent five years at McNeese in Lake Charles, La., including his last two seasons as head coach (2021-23) after serving as associate head coach under Schroyer for his first three years. Despite a literal rebuilding process left from Hurricanes Laura and Delta, he led McNeese to its first Southland Conference Tournament victory since 2015 while winning games in the league tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a dozen years. During his final season at the helm, he guided the Cowboys to the Southland tournament semifinals before falling to eventual NCAA Tournament participant Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He coached two-time All-SLC honoree Christian Shumate and Johnathan Massie, the 2021-22 SLC Freshman of the Year.
Before joining McNeese, Aiken was the top assistant at Nicholls for two seasons under head coach Richie Riley. The Colonels collected 35 victories and a 22-14 mark in the Southland Conference during that span, capped off with a 21-11 record and a regular season league championship with a 15-3 record in 2017-18. That marked the program’s first winning season since 2008-09, aided by a unit that ranked in the top-five in the nation in steals and turnovers forced to go along with a top-25 national scoring offense. Aiken recruited three All-SLC honorees, two SLC All-Defensive Team performers and the 2017-18 SLC Newcomer of the Year.
Aiken’s first stint at UT Martin included the biggest turnaround in school history and fourth-largest in the NCAA Division I ranks in 2014-15 (13-win increase) and back-to-back postseason appearances in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. The Skyhawks won 20 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1981-83 and the school’s first four postseason victories at the NCAA Division I level. UT Martin topped the nation with 12 road wins in 2014-15 before capturing its first-ever OVC West division title and advancing to the program’s first OVC Championship finals appearance in Aiken’s final season on the Skyhawk bench. Three UT Martin representatives nabbed All-OVC accolades while the Skyhawks landed a pair of OVC All-Newcomers in Aiken’s two seasons.
Prior to joining UT Martin in 2014, Aiken was head coach for two seasons at Belhaven – a NAIA university located in Jackson, Miss. He amassed 30 overall wins and a 22-16 record in Southern States Athletic Conference play as head coach. In 2013-14, he directed the Blazers to a 14-6 SSAC mark and a spot in the NAIA Division I National Tournament. He was the lead assistant for four seasons at Belhaven before taking over the head coaching reins, making two more trips to the NAIA national tournament (2010 and 2012). The Blazers went 24-10 during the 2009-10 campaign, earning a spot in the national tournament for the first time since 1972. All in all, he coached four honorable mention All-Americans, six all-division honorees and nine all-conference selections during his tenure at Belhaven.
Aiken’s first collegiate gig was as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of New England, a NCAA Division III school located in Biddeford, Maine. He helped the Nor’easters reach the 2008 Eastern College Athletic Conference New England Regional championship game after posting a 17-12 record.
A Portland, Maine native, Aiken additionally served as an assistant coach at Cheverus High School and Greater Portland Christian School in Maine before spending the last 17 seasons at the collegiate level.
Aiken earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Southern Maine in 2008 and completed his Master’s degree in sports leadership at Belhaven in 2013.
White brings 35 years of coaching experience to the Skyhawk program, including a dozen years of head coaching experience at the junior college level. That includes four seasons at Tallahassee Community College and eight years at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, Miss. – where he hired Shulman for his first collegiate coaching job as his assistant.
A Russellville, Ky. native, White has coached in nine different states during his distinguished career. He has accounted for 260 career wins across 17 seasons as a head coach at the junior college and high school level, including a 241-99 record (.709 winning percentage) in junior college. He also spent six years as a NCAA Division I assistant, including five seasons (2002-07) under head coach Rick Stansbury at Mississippi State – winning the 2003-04 Southeastern Conference regular season championship with two SEC West division titles while coaching eight All-SEC honorees and four eventual NBA Draft picks (Mario Austin, Derrick Zimmerman, Lawrence Roberts, Jarvis Varnado).
White went 80-33 as head coach at Tallahassee Community College, engineering a remarkable turnaround for an Eagle program that was coming off five consecutive years without a postseason appearance. He quickly ended that drought with back-to-back postseason berths in his first two seasons in charge, including a state championship game appearance in his debut campaign. By his fourth season, he had TCC ranked as high as No. 4 in the NJCAA poll.
At East Mississippi, White inherited a program that was 36-109 over its previous six seasons with just one division victory in its last two years. He accounted for a complete transformation of the program, generating a 161-66 record – highlighted by a sweep of Region 23 championships, District 15 titles and NJCAA Tournament appearances in four consecutive years from 2008-12. That included a remarkable .845 winning percentage (60-11) in his final six years in division play. He was in charge of a school-record 27 victories (against just seven losses) in 2009-10 and was named district and region Coach of the Year four times each, mentoring five NJCAA All-Americans.
Overall, White produced 48 players who signed NCAA Division I scholarships and graduated 96 percent (52 of 54) of his student-athletes as a junior college head coach.
White was part of the arguably the greatest run in Mississippi State men’s basketball history as the Bulldogs went 106-54 (.663 winning percentage) while claiming three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and a NIT semifinal berth in his five seasons in Starkville. During Mississippi State’s record-setting run in 2003-04, the Bulldogs were 26-4 overall, claimed the No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional of the NCAA Tournament and nabbed a No. 8 final ranking in the Associated Press poll.
White got his first NCAA Division I job at Georgia Southern in 1993-94 as an assistant under head coach Frank Kerns. He has also spent time as an assistant at North Idaho College (1996-2000), Jacksonville College (1995-96), Barton Community College (1994-95), Wabash Valley College (1992-93) and Pikeville College (1990-92).
White helped North Idaho College to a 30-6 record in his first season, working under head coach Hugh Watson. The Cardinals posted a school-best fourth-place finish at the 1997 NJCAA Tournament. He also served as an assistant under head coach Pat Smith in his stops at Jacksonville, Barton and Wabash Valley. White was part of incredible success at all three stops alongside Smith as they led Wabash Valley to a ninth-place team finish at the 1993 NJCAA Tournament before coaching a No. 3 nationally ranked squad at Barton and achieving a No. 7 national ranking at Jacksonville.
White has also served as head coach at four different high schools in his career, receiving his first head coaching opportunity at Central Hardin in Cecilia, Ky. from 2000-02. He then led Grace Christian Academy in Knoxville, Tenn. to a TSSAA Elite 8 berth during the 2019-20 season before leading Whitley County (Williamsburg, Ky. in 2020-21) and Hickman County (Clinton, Ky. in 2023-24). He was also an assistant at Bath County High School in Owingsville, Ky. for the 2022-23 campaign.
This will be White’s second run through the OVC as he was a graduate assistant and volunteer assistant at his alma mater, Austin Peay. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1988 and a Master’s degree from the university in 1989, coaching alongside Stansbury during the 1988-89 season where the Governors advanced to the OVC Championship finals.
Hann is also a familiar face for Shulman as the two worked together at Eastern Florida State during the 2020-21 season. Hann has spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater Vanguard University, a NAIA program located in Costa Mesa, Calif., which is also where he received his first collegiate opportunity that kickstarted a seven-year career as an assistant.
Hailing from Dakar, Senegal, Hann has coached for five total seasons at Vanguard under head coach Rhett Soliday. During his first stint, he helped the Lions post 19 wins in 2015-16 before rejoining the program from 2018-20. In his second stint with Vanguard, he was part of a squad that went 25-9 with a 13-5 mark in Golden State Athletic Conference play in 2018-19, allowing the Lions to enjoy a long stay in the national top-10 rankings while cracking the top-five in the poll twice.
Hann then worked under Shulman at Eastern Florida State for one season as the Titans managed an 18-5 record and a Southern Conference championship after going 14-2 against league foes.
A stop at Life University in Marietta, Ga. was next for Hann, who worked as the lead assistant coach under Kevin Easley (a Trenton, Tenn. native who spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Skyhawks). He was part of the NAIA powerhouse program for the 2021-22 season before returning to Vanguard for the next two seasons.
Hann was also the head coach at Orangewood Academy in Garden Grove, Calif. in 2016-17, coaching and developing Uriel Batista to league Most Valuable Player accolades. He additionally served as head coach of the OC Select (based out of Irvine, Calif.) and Dream Vision Adidas Gauntlet (based out of Orange County, Calif.) AAU programs and also gained AAU experience as an assistant coach with the West Coast Elite UAA squad out of Los Angeles, Calif.
As a player, Hann was a four-year member of the Vanguard program under Soliday. The Lions averaged 21 wins per season during Hann’s playing days and won the 2014 NAIA national championship with a school-record 33 victories. Vanguard swept the GSAC regular season and tournament titles that season, resulting in the program’s first league championship in 25 years. He was also chosen to compete on the Senegal U18 National Team, traveling to Oregon to play in the prestigious 2008 Nike Global Challenge event.
Hann graduated from Vanguard with a bachelor’s degree in international business in 2020.
Moore comes to UT Martin after serving as an assistant coach under Shulman at Eastern Florida State in 2023-24. Moore also is familiar with Aiken as he was on his McNeese staff as video coordinator in 2021-22 after playing one season for the Cowboys.
A Gilbert, Ariz. native, Moore was part of a Titan program that dialed up a 27-5 overall record and a 14-2 mark in conference play, which was good enough for a Citrus Conference championship. He coached four all-conference recipients, including NJCAA Division I first team All-American and Florida College System Activities Association Player of the Year Owen Aquino.
Moore spent the 2022-23 campaign as a graduate assistant at Utah Valley, members of the Western Athletic Conference located in Orem, Utah. He was on staff for the Wolverines’ historic run in 2022-23 under head coach and two-time NBA champion Mark Madsen as Utah Valley went 28-9, won the Western Athletic Conference outright regular season championship and advanced all the way to NIT Final Four. The 28 victories and 15 WAC wins (against just three losses) were both school records. A post player during his collegiate days, Moore worked closely with center Aziz Bandaogo, who was WAC Newcomer of the Year, WAC Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-WAC honoree.
Moore’s one season as McNeese’s video coordinator came two years after he logged 29 games on the hardwood for Schroyer in 2019-20. Moore transferred to McNeese after two seasons at Snow College, a junior college located in Ephraim, Utah. In his final season as a Badger, he was an All-Scenic West Athletic Conference first teamer and an Academic All-American under head coach Robert Nielson, averaging 11.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.5 blocks over 32 contests. He helped Snow post a 26-7 record, claim its first regular season conference championship since 1970, win the Region 18 tournament and advance to the NJCAA Tournament in 2018-19.
A three-time all-state honoree who was named by USA Today as the No. 13 player in the state of Arizona coming out of Gilbert High School, Moore originally signed with Utah Valley but elected to take part in a two-year mission trip to Canada.
Moore graduated from McNeese with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication in 2021.
Holmes joins the Skyhawks from Florida Tech, a NCAA Division II program in Melbourne, Fla. He wrapped up his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Panthers under the program’s all-time wins leader Billy Mims in 2023-24. Florida Tech became nationally ranked and finished .500 or better in each of Holmes’ four years on staff – including a combined 35-23 record over the past two seasons where the Panthers boasted the top defense in the Sunshine State Conference in back-to-back campaigns. That included a 19-11 record in 2022-23 as the 19 victories were the most for the program since 2011-12.
Hailing from Shepherdstown, W.Va., Holmes began his coaching career with the semi-pro Winchester Storm out of the American Professional Basketball League. He was an assistant coach at Jefferson High School (his alma mater) before serving as head coach at Cocoa Beach High School in Florida, delivering 10 wins in his rookie campaign after the program had combined to win just eight games in the previous three seasons. For his efforts, he finished second in the Space Coast Conference Coach of the Year voting. He followed that with a playoff victory in his second and final year at with the Minutemen program in 2019-20.
Coming out of high school, Holmes ultimately spurned several basketball scholarship offers to play baseball at Fairmont State in West Virginia – where he garnered All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors and All-Conference Academic accolades. He eventually went on to play professional basketball with the Georgia Prowl of the American Basketball Association.
Holmes graduated cum laude with a degree in business administration and management from Fairmont State in 2008.
Johnson, who will also serve as director of basketball operations with the Skyhawks, was a member of Shulman’s staff at Eastern Florida State. Johnson served as an assistant coach alongside Moore for the past two seasons in Melbourne, Fla. During that time, the Titans pieced together a 49-15 overall record and went 25-6 against conference competition. That included a 27-5 record and 14-2 mark in Citrus Conference action in 2023-24, leading to the program’s 11th league title in the last 12 seasons.
Before Johnson accepted the position at EFSC, he spent one season as a graduate assistant under head coach Gabriel Rutledge at Webber International, a NAIA program located in Babson Park, Fla. Johnson helped with many aspects of the Warrior program, including recruiting, practice, filming and scouting.
Johnson was a student assistant for four seasons at North Florida, working under head coach Matthew Driscoll – the program’s all-time winningest coach. In his four seasons (2017-21) as an undergraduate, the Ospreys combined for 59 victories and a 35-23 record (.603 winning percentage) in Atlantic Sun Conference action. That included a historic 21-win campaign in 2019-20 as North Florida went 13-3 in league play to capture the ASUN regular season title with Martin native (and eventual Skyhawk men’s basketball coaching staff member) Garrett Sams on the roster. The Ospreys led all of NCAA Division I men’s basketball with 391 three-point field goals made per game and received a postseason invitation before the season was cancelled in March.
A Merritt Island, Fla. native, Johnson has coached at basketball camps put on by ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas Basketball Camp and Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey.
Johnson graduated from North Florida in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in sport management.
