Shawn Forrest Named To Men's Basketball Staff

LAFAYETTE – Shawn Forrest, a 14-year collegiate coaching veteran who spent the last four seasons at North Texas, has been named assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Louisiana. The announcement was made by men's basketball head coach Bob Marlin, and the hiring is pending approval by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors.

“We are happy to welcome Shawn into the Ragin' Cajuns basketball family,” Marlin said. “As we went through the search and tried to determine which candidate fit best in our program, Shawn's name kept coming to the top.

“Shawn’s experience as a coach and recruiter in the Sun Belt Conference should provide an immediate benefit to the program,” Marlin added. “The knowledge that he has gained as a coach at the Division I level over the last two decades will help us to achieve the level of success that we are working towards.”

While serving as an assistant coach at North Texas (2008-09 through 2011-12), Forrest worked with teams that averaged 21.3 wins per season. In 2009-10, the Mean Green went 24-9, won the Sun Belt crown and faced Kansas State in the first round of the NCAA Championship.

Forrest was instrumental in helping land the 2010-11 recruiting class of Tony Mitchell, Jordan Williams, Chris Jones, and Roger Franklin, which was ranked as high as No. 31 in the country.

Prior to moving to Denton, Texas, Forrest worked as an assistant coach at Arkansas State for six seasons (2002-03 through 2007-08). He helped the Red Wolves to multiple Top 100 recruiting classes, which included a pair of two-time All-Sun Belt Conference players, a Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year, a league-leading scorer, second-leading scorer and third-leading scorer in the conference.

A standout athlete at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Forrest joined the ASU staff in August 2002 after serving as the recruiting coordinator at Florida A&M.

While at FAMU (2001-02 season), Forrest helped the Rattlers to a fourth-place finish in the MEAC – the highest they had finished in 10 years. Forrest also recruited Terrance Woods, who was a two-time First Team All-MEAC performer. Woods holds the third and fourth best single-season three-point field goals made in NCAA?history and in 2004 won the NABC All-Star Three-Point Contest at the Final Four in San Antonio.

Prior to his stint in Tallahassee, Forrest was an assistant at Troy from the 1997-98 season through 2000-01. During that time he worked with recruiting, academics, scheduled travel and worked with the guards.

While at Troy, Forrest helped land four straight Top 100 recruiting classes, producing five all-conference players and two players of the year in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Forrest helped the Trojans to two regular season and one Atlantic Sun Conference tournament championship, one NCAA?Tournament appearance and one postseason NIT appearance.

Forrest received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 1998.