Published on June 3, 2022 at slamonline.com as a part of the Black Coaches Association Series.
Five days after the news dropped that he’d be taking over as just the 10th head coach in Alabama A&M men’s basketball history, Otis Hughley is in the gym surrounded by the blows of whistles and screeches of bright colored kicks striking the court, taking part in a process he learned long ago to master: preparation.
It’s a Sunday afternoon and Hughley is scouting a 6-9 French prospect who just recently committed to the Bulldogs and Hughley’s vision of the HBCU program. He can shoot, the coach adds.
“I’m probably a stranger to sleep and just casual rest. That’s obsolete now,” Hughley later says over Zoom with a chuckle. “When you get into this, you already feel like you’re behind, especially when you know what it takes. And by God’s grace, my experience has taught me the hard way, how to know mostly what it takes.”
Hughley shares the same tutelage and passion of the program’s past historic coaches—including the great L. Vann Pettaway—by bringing over 30 years of experience across the entirety of the coaching landscape. His resume is more than extensive, it’s outrageously detailed and traveled.
As a 19-year-old college football player, Hughley learned early on “that proper preparation prevents poor performance.” After transferring and graduating from the University of West Alabama, he began his coaching career as the head men’s and women’s coach for Wallace Community College – Selma, before spending a season at both Wright State and Liberty University as an assistant. A year after the turn of the century, he studied under legendary coach Ben Jobe, who has amassed 500 career wins, as an associate head coach at Southern University. (READ THE FULL STORY HERE.)