Aug. 18, 2017
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State men's basketball head coach Brian Dutcher has completed his coaching staff with the addition of Jay Morris as the program's director of player development. Morris fills the void left by Tim Shelton, who was elevated to the position of assistant coach in May.
Morris comes to SDSU from Long Beach State where he was also its director of player development. In his one season at LBSU (2016-17), he was responsible, in part, for the development of an off-court curriculum focused on developing skills and relationships that would assist student-athletes after basketball.
Prior to his time at the Big West school, Morris spent the 2015-16 campaign at Nevada. In that one season, Morris helped the Wolf Pack to a 24-14 record, which was a 15-win improvement over the previous year, and to a CBI championship. On the recruiting trail, Morris was the lead recruiter for several signees, leading to national recognition by a number of recruiting sites.
Before moving to Reno, Morris was rooted at CSUN, a school he spent five seasons at as an assistant coach. While in the San Fernando Valley, Morris led the recruiting efforts for the 2012 Big West Freshman of the Year and number of Division I transfers. On the floor, he was instrumental in the development of the team's perimeter and interior players, and while assisting the Matador offense in 2013-14, CSUN ranked in the top 10 nationally in free-throw percentage (1st), free throws made (2nd) and free throws attempted (8th).
Morris got his Division I start at Long Beach State where he spent two seasons as the director of operations. In his position, he was responsible for coordinating team travel, film exchange, serving as camp director, maintaining the program's recruiting database and monitoring academic progress. During his time at LBSU, the 49ers had the 10th-best recruiting class among mid-majors in 2009 and made the title game at the 2010 Big West tournament.
A member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), Morris received his coaching start at his high school alma mater, Westchester High in Los Angeles where he was an assistant basketball coach and strength coach for three seasons. During his stint at the prep level, Morris coached six players who went on to play Division I basketball.
Morris joins a San Diego State program that in 2017-18 is set to return three starters, including an all-conference backcourt of Trey Kell and Jeremy Hemsley, and five players overall (Montaque Gill-Caesar, Hemsley, Max Hoetzel, Kell, Malik Pope) who saw action in the starting lineup a year ago. The Aztecs also add Devin Watson to the roster after he sat out last season following his transfer from San Francisco where he averaged 20.3 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore in 2015-16, and Kameron Rooks, who is a graduate transfer from California. In addition to Watson and Rooks, SDSU will welcome four-star athletes Jalen McDaniels (redshirt freshman) and Jordan Schakel (true freshman), and three-star players Matt Mitchell (true freshman) and Adam Seiko (true freshman).