As much as Shane Burcar would like his Northern Arizona Lumberjacks to ignore his job status, they canβt.
Burcar was named interim head coach in June, when Jack Murphy resigned to become Sean Millerβs top assistant coach at Arizona. NAU athletic director Mike Marlow said then that the team would undergo a βthorough review of the program at the conclusion of the 2019-20 campaign,β giving Burcar the full season to prove himself.
But Burcar hasnβt spoken of it to his team.
βI donβt want to put that kind of pressure on them,β Burcar said. βTheyβre not playing for me. Theyβre not playing for me to get the job. Theyβre playing for themselves and their school.β
Sure, tell them that.
βItβs definitely in the back of my head,β junior forward Bernie Andre said. βAs players, we talk about it β weβre playing for us and were playing for him. Weβre brothers, and he is a part of our family, too. Weβre going to war for him.β
The Lumberjacks are playing with a renewed sense of urgency, but thatβs not because the Sword of Damocles hangs over their head coach, a man who joined Murphyβs staff in 2018 following 12 seasons as the head coach at Mesa High School.
Burcar has simultaneously preached playing with a heightened sense of immediacy, but has resisted tying it into his job status.
Instead, Burcar said, the message has been on playing β and attempting to win β each possession as if it was a game itself.
βI do want them to play like thereβs no tomorrow,β Burcar said. βWe need to play like every play matters.β
That kind of intensity has been emphasized on a daily basis, Andre said.
βPractice has been going really well for us,β he said. βIt was hard at first adjusting. Every day if you think youβre doing well, the level keeps on going up. Our coaches donβt allow that feeling of enough. They talk about raising the bar. If we think we had a good day, it wasnβt good enough.β
Andre himself will take the lead in setting that standard. He led the Lumberjacks with 13.8 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game last season, earning Big Sky newcomer honors. Heβll be joined by fellow returning starters Ted McCree (10.7 ppg), Cameron Shelton (8 ppg, 4.1 rpg) and Brooks DeBisschop (7 ppg, 5.9 rpg) and the teamβs best shooter, Luke Avdalovic, who hit 49% of his 3-point attempts last year. NAU does lose its best facilitator in Carlos Hines and his 3.9 assists per game.
The Lumberjacks open the season with their stiffest test: Theyβll travel to Arizona on Nov. 6 before returning to Flagstaff to face Sagu American Indian College and Benedectine University at Mesa.
After improving from five to 10 wins last season β and from two conference wins to eight β the Jacks believe theyβre heading in the right direction.
If Burcar can prove it, he might just earn a full-time gig. Heβs shared that fact with his players, even if he wonβt dwell on it. The Michigan-born man plays it to them straight. With one year to prove it, whatβs the point in sugarcoating anything?
βThat was one of the reasons I decided to stay,β Andre said. βI knew what I was going to get from Burcar. Heβs a straight-forward guy. Regardless of interim or not, he was going to be honest with us anyway. We have something to prove to everyone, not just to NAU (administrators). We have something to prove to everyone.β