After helping Gaston College restart its athletic program, David "Dickey" Nutt will return to NCAA Division I basketball coaching

When David "Dickey" Nutt came to Gaston College as athletic director and basketball coach, he had a chance to make an impact on a program that had been dormant for 50 years.

As Nutt resigns from Gaston College to return to NCAA Division I basketball coaching as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri, there's little doubt his impact on the program will be felt for years.

"Coach Nutt provided great leadership for the college and our community," Gaston College president Dr. John Hauser said. "He was instrumental in the development of our athletic program from its infancy stage to where we are now. His vast experience helped to guide our decisions as we planned our programs and established operating protocols for each of our programs. He worked across all disciplines on campus from student services to academics while focusing on student success.
"Coach Nutt helped to bridge the gap for our Trustees, faculty, and staff to understand why athletics are important to Gaston College. He provided excitement, energy and enthusiasm to all he did for us and that carried over to the basketball court as he led our first team to a high finish in Region 10."

Nutt's resignation signals a return to his long coaching roots.

A member of a coaching family from Arkansas, Nutt will again return to Division I coaching as an assistant coach to Dennis Gates at Missouri. It'll mark the third different school with which Nutt has worked with Gates, first when they worked as assistant coaches under 1968 Gaston College graduate Leonard Hamilton and most recently at Cleveland State where Gates got his head coaching start.

A native of Little Rock, Ark., David "Dickey" Nutt is 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., 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 the profession, with David Nutt and Dennis Nutt (Ouachita Baptist University) still active as college basketball coaches.

David Nutt's coaching career began at Stillwater, Okla., High School in 1982 after he played basketball at Oklahoma State.

After three seasons at Stillwater High and one season as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State in the 1985-86 season, he was hired by Hamilton as a member of a Cowboys' staff that included future two-time Kansas national championship-winning coach Bill Self and future South Carolina State head coach Tim Carter.

After three seasons with Hamilton at Oklahoma State, David Nutt spent the next 21 years at Arkansas State - eight as an assistant coach and 13 as a head coach.

During that head coaching tenure, he was Sun Belt Conference coach of the year in 1998, NABC District 9 coach of the year honors in 1998 and 1999 and led the school to its only NCAA tournament appearance in school history in 1999.

David Nutt also was head coach for six years at Southeast Missouri State from 2009 to 2015 before he was reunited with Hamilton at Florida State and worked alongside Gates from 2015 to 2018.

Following one season as an assistant at Stetson, David Nutt joined Gates' staff at Cleveland State where the Vikings won the 2021 Horizon Conference championship to advance to the NCAA tournament before coming to Gaston College.

"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 so I'm not interested,'" David Nutt said last fall. "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 Dr. Hauser and heard him share with me his vision about wanting us to the be the best in the country, I became very intrigued.

Hired in May 2021, David Nutt was involved in the process of finding coaches for his athletic program and players for his basketball team.

He hired Jamie Rosser as his associate head basketball coach and head women's cross country coach; Rosser had played and coached for Nutt previously. He also hired Shohn Doty as baseball coach, Rachel Noreika as beach volleyball coach and Mike Steuerwald as softball coach.

As Rhinos' head basketball coach playing in a Region 10 Division I conference with veteran rosters of third-year players due to a special COVID-19 exemption for this year only, David Nutt's Gaston College team went 19-10 overall, 8-6 in Region 10 to finish one game out of first place.

Playing at four different home courts, the Rhinos developed a "road warrior" mentality that resulted in a league-best 5-2 record in Region 10 road games.

Also, among the Rhinos' losses were an 85-70 defeat at eventual NJCAA national champion Northwest Florida on Nov. 20 in which Gaston College trailed by only two points in the middle of the second half.

"Coach Nutt helped establish very high standards for our basketball program on and off the court," Hauser said. "He set us up to be very successful with the hiring of (associate head coach) Jamie Rosser, who brought the same level of experience, knowledge, and energy to Gaston College.
"We will build upon the success Coach Nutt provided in our first year and we will continue to move forward. He will remain connected to our program and will forever be a Rhino. Coach Nutt's recruitment to the University of Missouri, a premier high major university, is a testament to the level of our athletic programs and aligns with our vision for helping student athletes get to the next level and in this case, a coach going to the next level."

David Nutt had glowing praise for his year at Gaston College.

"I have to say without hesitation, that Gastón college is one of my all time favorite places," he said. "I don't know that I ever fell in love quicker with a place like this one. Interacting with our GC staff as well as our students on a daily basis was truly a blessing for me.
"You have a president (Dr. Hauser) that gets it. He understands athletics and the impact it makes on young peoples lives. He has a visón that carries over to our staff and our students and it has created so much pride. You can absolutely feel it when you are here on this campus. This will be one of the premier Junior College Campuses in the country in matter of time if it isn't at this moment.
"I am most grateful to Dr. Hauser and the administration for having trust in me to be their Athletic Director. Specifically, I want to thank all our student-athletes and basketball players that decided to take a chance on me and our first-year program with not even a ball or gym to get started. To coach Jamie Rosser for bringing his family to Gastón College to help us, I want to say 'Thank you!'
"I will forever love the Rhinos."