HBCU basketball power at crossroads with coaching search

HBCU basketball power Texas Southern is looking for its next men’s basketball coach, but the bigger question may be who is shaping the search.

Texas Southern has hired DHR Global to assist in its search for a replacement for Johnny Jones, according to its release. Jones left the program this spring to return to LSU as an assistant coach under Will Wade.

That move created one of the biggest current openings in HBCU basketball. It also exposed a department that has been moving through major transition behind the scenes.

Texas Southern men’s basketball has been one of the most stable brands in the SWAC for more than a decade. Mike Davis won big there. So did Johnny Jones. Both coaches took the program to the NCAA Tournament and helped keep TSU in the national conversation each March.

Now the school is trying to replace Jones in June with an interim athletic director, a search firm and a program that has not had this much uncertainty around it in years.

That makes this search more than a routine coaching change.

It is an early test of how Texas Southern will make major athletics decisions during a period of administrative transition.

Texas Southern basketball built a standard

Texas Southern has not been just another SWAC basketball job.

The program has become the league’s most consistent national representative in men’s basketball. Its location in Houston, recruiting footprint and postseason history have made it one of the most attractive jobs in HBCU athletics. That rise was built with a measure of stability.

Dr. Charles McClelland, now the SWAC commissioner, was Texas Southern’s director of athletics when Mike Davis was hired. Davis elevated the program with SWAC titles and NCAA Tournament trips. McClelland was also in place when Johnny Jones was hired after Davis left for Detroit Mercy. Kevin Granger, a former Texas Southern basketball standout, was part of that athletics structure at the time.

Granger later became the full-time athletic director. He served in that role for the duration of Jones’ run at Texas Southern, giving the program another layer of administrative continuity.

Athletic success at the HBCU level often depends on more than the head coach. It depends on alignment and administrative support. It depends on whether the people making decisions understand the sport, the league and the realities of recruiting at this level.

For years, Texas Southern had that structure in men’s basketball. Now much of that structure has changed.

Granger is no longer the athletic director. His final months at TSU included a suspension after he was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Granger denied the allegations through his attorney, and HBCU Gameday previously reported that his attorney said the university’s Title IX review did not substantiate the most serious claims.

Texas Southern later moved forward with Dr. Paula Jackson as interim athletic director.

That leaves Jackson in charge of a department facing its most visible hire in years. But the word “interim” matters. It raises a natural question: how much authority does the interim AD have in a search this important?

That question becomes even more relevant when looking at Texas Southern’s last major coaching search.

Texas Southern’s football search after the 2023 season did not appear to be a simple athletic department hire.

The school eventually hired Cris Dishman, a former NFL standout with Houston ties. Before that decision, Fred McNair was viewed by many as a strong candidate after his successful run at Alcorn State. Then another name surfaced.

Andre Johnson, the former Houston Texans star, was inserted into the conversation before Texas Southern ultimately moved forward with Dishman.

The point is not whether Dishman was the right hire. The point is that the football search showed how high-profile names, local ties and board-level influence can become part of major athletics decisions at Texas Southern. That history gives the basketball search a different feel.

Although DHR Global will be part of the process, the search is not viewed by everyone around the program as a simple matter of an athletic director hiring a firm to find the best candidate.

There is a school of thought that some power brokers would like to see Texas Southern make another well-known name hire. There is also belief that some may have preferred candidates through personal or professional relationships. That does not mean the search firm is meaningless. It also does not mean the process is broken.

But it does mean the search firm may be only one piece of a larger process. For Texas Southern, that distinction matters.

Continuity or a bigger name?

Shyrone Chatman is currently serving as interim head coach.

Chatman is not new to Texas Southern. He has been with the program since 2017 and has helped maintain continuity after Jones’ departure. In a normal timeline, a school could evaluate him quickly, decide whether he fits the long-term plan and move forward. This is not a normal timeline.

The calendar has already moved into June. The transfer portal has reshaped rosters across the country. Summer workouts, scheduling, recruiting and staff decisions are all part of the job before the first official practice. That leaves Texas Southern with several options.

It could elevate Chatman and choose continuity.

It could use DHR Global to conduct a full national search and hire a permanent coach before the 2026-27 season.

Texas Southern could also take a longer approach, use Chatman for the year and revisit the search after the season.

Each path carries risk.

Continuity could stabilize the roster and reward a coach who already knows the program. A national search could bring fresh energy and outside interest. Waiting a year could give Texas Southern more time, but it could also leave the program in limbo.

Texas Southern basketball is still a powerful brand. The job still has value and the program still has history. The SWAC has run through Houston more often than not.

But the program is no longer operating with the same administrative foundation it had during the Davis and Jones eras. That is what makes this moment fragile.

HBCU faces a defining hire

Jones leaving for LSU was the headline. DHR Global entering the search became the update. The bigger story is that Texas Southern is trying to decide what kind of basketball program it wants to be next, while the power structure around athletics continues to shift.

This hire will say plenty about the next coach.

It may say even more about the people making the decision.

Texas Southern has been able to sell itself as a destination job inside HBCU basketball because the program has won consistently. That winning has created expectations. It has also created pressure.

The next coach will inherit a brand with NCAA Tournament history, a strong recruiting location and a fan base that expects to compete for SWAC championships. He will also step into a department still sorting through leadership change.

The combination makes the process important.

For a program that has represented HBCU basketball on the national stage for more than a decade, this hire is about more than replacing Johnny Jones. It is about whether Texas Southern can protect the stability that made the job matter in the first place.

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