Jesse Shaw enters his fourth season as an assistant on head coach Bob Sundvold's staff.
During the 2018-19 season, Shaw helped the Tritons to a 20-9 record, marking the program's first 20-win season since 1990-91. The Tritons finished 11-7 in GLVC play, the second most wins by UMSL in a GLVC season and earned the sixth seed in the league's annual postseason tournament.
Shaw came to UMSL from Pratt Community College, an NJCAA Division I junior college in Kansas, where he spent eight seasons, including the last five as head coach.
Shaw took over the men’s basketball program at Pratt in May of 2011. The previous season, the Beavers were the only team in the region that didn’t qualify for the Region VI Tournament.
Three years later, Shaw’s Beavers were the only team left standing after the region tournament’s final buzzer sounded, qualifying for the national tournament for just the fourth time in the history of the school. For his efforts, Shaw was named NJCAA Region VI Coach of the Year and the KBCA Junior College Men’s Coach of the Year.
Â
The rebuilding process began in his first year as head coach, as Pratt jumped one spot in the conference standings while getting back to the region tournament. In his second year, it was another jump, with two more overall wins and climbing two more spots in the conference standings. Then the breakthrough came in year three, a three spot jump in the conference standings to finish third in the Jayhawk West, with a 22-13 overall record, and going on to win the Region VI championship.
In 2014-2015, Shaw’s Beavers followed up their region championship season with another 20-win season, another top-four finish in the Jayhawk West and another trip to the semifinals of the region tournament. For the first time in the century, Pratt accomplished those three feats in back-to-back seasons.
In Shaw’s final season (2015-16), Pratt finished second overall in the 14-team Jayhawk Conference, won 22 games and finished with the best record in the East Division of the conference, a feat that had not been accomplished at Pratt CC since the 1988-1989 season.
During Shaw’s three years as an assistant at Pratt under Trevor Rolfs, the Beavers enjoyed a pair of 18 win seasons. Pratt had 11 players sign NCAA Division I letters of intent, while Shaw helped recruit and coach 13 all-conference selections and nine all-region performers. Six of his Beaver alumni have been offered contracts to play professionally overseas, while nine former players were offered professional contracts altogether.
Prior to his stint at Pratt, Shaw was a graduate assistant coach at Emporia State under head coach David Moe. While at Emporia State, the Hornets enjoyed a 16-0 start and a No. 7 national ranking, both school records. He helped coach Emporia State to the only MIAA Tournament championship game in school history and a trip to the NCAA DII National Tournament for just the second time in school history.
Shaw spent his collegiate playing days at Northwest Missouri State University under former UMSL head men’s basketball coach Steve Tappmeyer, where he graduated as the second winningest player in program history, playing on the only two teams to reach the NCAA DII Elite Eight. To accompany those two regional championships, the Bearcats won two MIAA Tournament championships and one regular season conference championship. Two of the teams Shaw played on have been inducted into Northwest Missouri State’s Hall of Fame.
Born and raised in Lincoln, Neb., Shaw was an all-state basketball performer and helped lead Lincoln East High School to its only state championship in boys’ basketball in the last 40 years during his senior campaign. Shaw’s parents, Larry and Rita, still reside in Lincoln, as well as his brother, Thomas, and his sister, Monica.
Shaw is married to the former Hannah Bell, and the couple is raising their beautiful daughters, Harmony and Avery, in the St Louis area.
