UCA welcomed its new men’s basketball head coach John Shulman during an Estes Stadium Hall of Fame room news conference March 27.

Brad Teague welcomed the audience and introduced Shulman and his family.

“We had a lot of worthy candidates, but John Shulman was the one that really stuck out,” Teague said.

Shulman said he fell in love with Conway when he first arrived. 

“The city is beautiful,” he said. “Thank you for welcoming the Shulman family.”

During his speech, Shulman said he was thrilled to be a part of the UCA Bears.

Throughout his 14 years as a head coach, Shulman has been to the postseason tournament seven times between Division I and Division II level programs.

Shulman led the Chattanooga Mocs to the NCAA Tournament twice as head coach of in 2004 and 2008. 

“In 2009 when I was with Chattanooga, we went to the NCAA Tournament and Stephen Curry did not,” Shulman said. “I have one-upped Steph Curry.”

He coached for five seasons at Alabama Huntsville with a career record of 112 wins and 39 losses.

Shulman said cutting down the nets, a basketball tradition where a coach or player takes the net off of the backboard after winning a game, was his main goal. One of the reasons he wanted to coach at UCA was the struggles the program has had, he said.

“UCA has had one winning season in the past 18 years,” Shulman said. “That is why I wanted this job.”

“I thank Dr. Brad Teauge and President Houston Davis for hiring me, and I have a debt to pay them,” Shulman said. “That debt is putting the name Central Arkansas in the March Madness bracket.”

“I am a coach that is used to winning,” he said. “We are going to have a lot of fun and we are going to play a really fun style on both sides of the ball. When it comes to fan support, my goal is to remove the black wall that blocks some seats because we want more people to go to the games and see a fun and winning team.” 

Shulman’s first season with UCA starts this fall.