WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT SHANE BURCAR

Shane Burcar enters his seventh season as head coach of the Northern Arizona men's basketball program in 2025-26, coming off the program's first postseason appearance since 2014-15.

Burcar was named the 26th head coach in program history on March 25, 2020 after serving the 2019-20 season as the interim coach. Burcar initially joined the NAU men's basketball coaching staff in April 2018 as an assistant coach.

In his short time as head coach, Burcar has stressed the importance of academics and service in addition to success on the hardwood. NAU has earned the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Excellence Award in five of his first six seasons after having not received the honor in the first seven years of the recognition. Additionally, 13 different players have combined for 18 NABC Honors Court awards, including the program's first three-time honoree in Nik Mains, under Burcar's watch.

On the court, Burcar has coached seven different players to 10 All-Big Sky honors, including two-time first team selection Trent McLaughlin (2024, 2025). McLaughlin is one of two Lumberjacks, along with Cameron Shelton in 2021, to earn first team honors and both McLaughlin (2025) and Shelton (2021) earned NABC All-District Second Team distinction.

The 2024-25 season was a result of the program's ascension under Burcar, as the Lumberjacks won 18 games, their most as a program since NAU won a school record 23 games in 2014-15. Burcar guided NAU to a berth in the College Basketball Invitational, the program's first postseason appearance in 10 years.

Not only was the 2024-25 season a successful one for the team, but the Lumberjacks sported two of the nation's top players. Carson Towt led the nation in rebounding, ranking first in rebounds per game (12.4), total rebounds (423) and defensive rebounds per game (8.94). Additionally, Burcar coached Trent McLaughlin, the country's second-leading scorer. McLaughlin set single-season program records for points scored (752), scoring average (22.1) and field goals made (259), all of which led the Big Sky and ranked top 10 nationally. McLaughlin earned his second consecutive All-Big Sky First Team award and Towt was voted to the second team as well as the All-Defensive Team.

Both Towt and McLaughlin's seasons - and careers - left a mark on both the NAU and Big Sky record books. Towt, who finished his career as NAU's all-time leading rebounder with 1,078 boards, set both a program and conference all-time single-season record with 423 rebounds. His 1,078 career rebounds are sixth all-time in Big Sky history. McLaughlin graduated as NAU's fifth all-time leading scorer in just three seasons with 1,474 points and his 752 points are tied for seventh-most in a single-season by a Big Sky player.

The Lumberjacks posted a four-win increase from the 2023-24 season in which NAU went 14-19 overall and 7-11 in league play. During the non-conference season, NAU posted six Division I victories, which marked the program's most since 2010-11. McLaughlin became the first Lumberjack to receive All-Big Sky first team accolades in three years and Carson Basham earned second team honors in addition to a spot on the Big Sky All-Defensive Team.

The Lumberjacks nearly punched the program's first ticket to the NCAA Tournament in 2023 with a hot run in the Big Sky Conference Tournament in Boise. Entering as the No. 9 seed, NAU reached its first Big Sky Tournament Championship game since 2008 by winning three games, including a buzzer-beating upset of top-seeded Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals. Burcar coached Jalen Cone to his second All-Big Sky Third Team honor in 2022-23.

Burcar recruited Cone, a Virginia Tech transfer and four-star prospect out of high school, to NAU ahead of the 2021-22 season. Cone, a 2022 All-Big Sky Third Team selection, had one of the most prolific offensive seasons by a Lumberjack ever in his debut season, scoring the second-most points in a season (602) and ranking in the top 50 nationally in numerous categories including points and 3-pointers.

Cone's exploits followed a decorated season by Shelton the year prior in which he ranked 37th in the country in scoring on his way to All-Big Sky First Team and NABC All-District 6 Second Team honors. Shelton was the first Lumberjack since 2015 to earn a spot on the All-Big Sky First Team and All-District distinction.
 
A year after Burcar led the Lumberjacks to their best campaign in five seasons as NAU's interim head coach, he navigated the program through the COVID-19 challenged 2020-21 season that ended on a high note with NAU’s first conference tournament victory since 2015 with a win over Portland State in the first round.
 
Burcar served as NAU's interim head coach during the 2019-20 season and immediately led the Lumberjacks to their best campaign since 2014-15. The Lumberjacks finished 16-14 overall and 10-10 in conference play with both win totals serving as the program's most in five years. In fact, the 16 overall wins surpassed the program's combined total from the two previous seasons. Of 59 Division I programs that were led by new head coaches in 2019-20, NAU was in the top five in win improvement among programs that finished with a winning record as the 'Jacks went from 10 to 16 victories from 2018-19 to 2019-20.
 
Despite being named the interim head coach in June prior to the start of the season, Burcar, a 2019-20 finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award, presented annually to the top first-year coach in Division I college basketball, had the Lumberjacks in contention for a top five seed and first round bye in the conference tournament until the final week of the regular season. Picked eighth in the Big Sky Preseason Polls, NAU finished in a tie for fifth.
 
The 'Jacks posted their first five-game winning streak since the start of the decade in 2019-20 and also posted their best non-conference record (6-3) and first back-to-back non-conference road wins in nine years. NAU also claimed its first Big Sky road trip sweep in six years and posted its first victories over perennial conference contenders Montana and Weber State since 2014 and 2015 respectively. The former also occurred with Montana residing atop the conference in late February.
 
In addition to coaching Shelton, Brooks DeBisschop and Bernie Andre to All-Big Sky honors – the program's highest all-conference total in five years – Burcar also emphasized service (over 200 community service hours in Flagstaff) and academics (3.07 team GPA for fall 2019 semester). DeBisschop would go on to become the first NAU men's basketball First Team Academic All-American at season's end.
 
Burcar arrived in Flagstaff after a highly successful 12-year tenure as the head coach at Mesa High School in Mesa, Ariz. In his first season on the Lumberjack staff during the 2018-19 season, Burcar worked with NAU's offense and the 'Jacks immediately showed significant improvements.
 
Nationally, the Lumberjacks' scoring offense rose from 330th to 157th (65.6 to 73.0) and they saw similar jumps of 100-plus spots in field goal percentage, three-point percentage, three-pointers per game, assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio from the year prior.
 
During his time at Mesa High School, Burcar guided the Jackrabbits to a 277-110 record highlighted by winning the 2016 Arizona DI State Championship. His Mesa teams won seven regular season region championships, qualified for the state tournament on 10 occasions and made two Final Four appearances.
 
Burcar himself was a seven-time Region Coach of the Year and two-time State Coach of the Year while his 277 wins were the most in Mesa High School history. He consistently developed student-athletes who would go on to play at the Division I level and professionally including Lee Cummard (BYU) and Jahii Carson (Arizona State). Both Cummard and Carson were State Player of the Year awardees at Mesa before proceeding to earn conference Player of the Year honors in the Mountain West and Pac-12 respectively and onto professional careers with in the NBA Summer League and overseas.
 
Burcar, a well-respected coach in the Phoenix Valley, also previously had a one-year head coaching stint at Westwood High School in Mesa and assistant coaching stints at the JUCO level at Mesa Community College and Fort Scott Community College (Kan.) during his coaching career.
 
Originally from Hancock, Mich., Burcar resides in Flagstaff by his wife, Julie, and four children, Bella, Brisson, Brooklyn and Bennett.