New basketball coach and athletic director born for the job

Given David "Dickey" Nutt's family background, it's no surprise coaching became his profession.

But as David Nutt and any coach would tell you, the coaching profession is often about relationships and connections that lead to unexpected opportunities.

That would be the case for David Nutt as his coaching career is coming full circle as the first-year Gaston College men's basketball coach and athletic director.

After all, an assist from a Gaston College graduate many years ago helped propel him to much of the success he has enjoyed.

A Little Rock, Ark., native, David Nutt grew up as the son of a standout basketball player (Houston Nutt, Sr.) who played for two of the biggest names in college basketball history - Adolph Rupp at Kentucky and Hank Iba at Oklahoma State.

Houston Nutt, Sr., had played two seasons at Kentucky for Rupp and two seasons at Oklahoma State for Iba before coaching and teaching for 31 years at the Arkansas School for the Deaf.

David Nutt and his brothers Houston Nutt, Jr., Danny Nutt and Dennis Nutt all followed their father into coaching careers, with David Nutt (Gaston College) and Dennis Nutt (Ouachita Baptist University) still active as college basketball coaches.

David Nutt also followed his father's footsteps as a player at Oklahoma State in the late 1970s.

After three seasons coaching high school basketball and one season as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State, David Nutt met the coach that would have an influence on the rest of his coaching life when he was among the first hires of Gaston College graduate Leonard Hamilton at Oklahoma State in 1985.

"He was an up and coming coach," David Nutt said of Hamilton, who came to Oklahoma State after being an associate head coach at Kentucky for Joe B. Hall. "He went right down the hallway and he asked me, 'What's your name?' I said, 'Dickey Nutt.' He said, 'That's not your name.' I said, 'Well, it's David but everybody calls me 'Dickey.'' And he said, 'Do you want to stay and work for me?' I said, 'I sure do.' "So I started at 25 years old working for Leonard Hamilton."

David Nutt was hired on Hamilton's first staff along with two other future NCAA Division I head coaches - Bill Self and Tim Carter.

And they slowly but surely began rebuilding the Oklahoma State program, even as Hamilton already had ideas that David Nutt's future would be elsewhere.

"After two years, he (Hamilton) came to me and said, 'They need you over at Arkansas State as a full-time assistant.'" David Nutt said.

David Nutt spent 21 years at Arkansas State, the first eight as an assistant coach and the last 13 as a head coach that won 298 games. He also earned Sun Belt Conference coach of the year honors in 1998, NABC District 9 coach of the year honors in 1998 and 1999 and in 1999 led Arkansas State to its only NCAA tournament appearance in school history. The 1998 team won a Sun Belt Conference regular-season title, the 2007 team won a Sun Belt Conference West Division regular-season title and the 1999 team won the school's only Sun Belt Conference tournament title.

Later hired at Southeast Missouri State, David Nutt spent six years as that school's head coach before moving on to Florida State. 

After three years at Florida State and one year at Stetson, Hamilton pushed for David Nutt to become an assistant coach at Cleveland State for longtime Florida State assistant coach Dennis Gates after Gates had gotten his first head coaching job.

In the 2020-21 season, Gates and David Nutt helped the Vikings win the Horizon Conference championship to advance to the NCAA tournament.

Meanwhile, a new challenge was on the horizon.

"When Gaston College started calling about restarting their program, I said, 'Well I've never been on a junior college level. I don't know what that's about,'" David Nutt said. "Then the more they called and the more I researched it and looked at it and saw the size of the school and the area being so close to Charlotte, I became interested. They wanted to build athletics. They hadn't had a program in 50 years. When I talked to (Gaston College president) Dr. (John) Hauser and heard him share with me his vision about wanting us to be the best in the country, I was like, 'I feel like with my experience and relationships I've made over the years with Leonard Hamilton, Bill Self, Roy Williams, Kelvin Sampson, John Calipari, Penny Hardaway - all those guys that I'm good friends with - I felt I could put together one of the best teams in the country."

David Nutt was hired in May 2021. By July, the school made the decision to restart its basketball program with the 2021-22 school year.

"Our original plan was to sit a year, recruit for a year and put everything in place and have a very competitive team in 2022 and 2023. But after I got here, Dr. Hauser asked, 'What about starting this year?'" "He asked me to think about it and asked me again about a week later and asked, 'Can you put together a team?' And I told him, 'I think that's something I can do if I got a good staff member in here.' I also wanted to be Division I so we'd be competing with the best of the junior colleges program."

David Nutt hired Jamie Rosser as associate head coach; Rosser had played for David Nutt at Arkansas State and coached with him at Southeast Missouri State.

The first-year Rhinos' men's basketball are competing in Division I of Region 10 in the National Junior College Athletic Association while operating with a major college mindset.

"I want to run it like a Division I program - and I know that we certainly have challenges - but Dr. Hauser had that mindset and vision that I shared," David Nutt said. "What we've done is put together a team that we think will be competitive."

After some October scrimmage games, the first Gaston College men's basketball team in 50 years will open its 2021-22 schedule on Nov. 5 at Charlotte's Johnson & Wales University before its home opener against Erskine College on Nov. 6 at Gastonia's Piedmont Community Charter School.