Scots in College: Sean Nealon-Lino on coaching in California

In this episode of Scots in College, I have a chat with Sean Nealon-Lino on life as an assistant coach with Fresno Pacific University in NCAA Division 2. Sean had an illustrious youth playing career himself, winning the 2018 EABL National Championship with Barking Abbey, as well as representing Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the age of 18. He joined Fresno Pacific University as a player after that tournament, redshirting his first year. In the 2020–21 season, he was instrumental in leading the Sunbirds to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. After injury curtailed his playing career, Sean transitioned into coaching, firstly at high school level, before joining his alma mater as an assistant coach in 2024.

How are you and how is the season been going so far?

"I'm doing well. Tired as always, but good. Our season's been a little bit of up and down, but right now I think we're starting to get into our stride. Guys are playing for each other instead of themselves. And, yeah, we're coming along well."

"I'll go back to when I was playing. During my college career, I was kind of unlucky. I had several surgeries so I didn't really play much. When I finished playing, I kind of took a year off and I went back to coaching high school basketball at a pretty good level, and then the opportunity came up where I could get my master's degree and coach at the university. So that's what I did last year. My role was recruiting prospective players for the following years, keeping in contact, talking to them throughout the season. Junior college players, high school players and then, towards the end of the season when seasons are done, transfers too. This year, my role has expanded. I do skill development, I'm more of the defensive coach in practice in games. So I look after that side of the ball and, of course, recruiting. This year my role is elevated into skill development coach, now that I've got a full-time job."

"Last year, I was just doing my masters, so I was on campus pretty much the whole time. Now I'm a teacher at a middle school during the day, so I only make practices in the evening. So, for example, we practice every day, of course, for 2 hours, an hour and a half. Whether I make practice or not, we have workouts most days. We've got something called Redshirts; either players that are injured and they're starting to get back into things, or players that aren't playing for the year and they're just working out. They're good players, but right now they don't fit, or they won't get minutes in our squad. So they have what we call a redshirt year, normally freshman, where it's just a year of working out and getting stronger so then the following year they have a chance. I'm doing those workouts probably three to four times a week; obviously I'll make practice, and then scout. I don't lead scout, but obviously I'll have my clips ready. I send them to the head coach and whenever we do scout, those clips are talked about. It's basically practice every day, workouts three to four times a week after practice, and games of course, and lifts twice a week but I'm not there because I'm teaching during the day."

"I don't like using injuries as a thing, but you also have to take into perspective when you create a team you have an idea of what the image is going to look like how we're going to play. When three out of your four best creators are injured, it kind of limits us. Offensively, we struggled a lot. We had guys doing things that we didn't expect them to do. They're having to play bigger roles and, it kind of hurt our team dynamics a little bit. Non-conference was tough, but I feel like it was good. It gave guys the opportunity to have bigger roles than they would have had. Now we're kind of getting to the stride of it. Our last eight games, I think were six and two in conference, playing similar level teams that we played non-conference. We're kind of finding our stride of getting our players back. It's not a full team, but we have everyone that's available this year playing. Instead of playing selfishly, we're kind of playing for the team and the common goal of winning. In terms of getting to that point, Christmas break was rough. We kind of just hammered the guys, made them self-aware and turn that self-awareness into self ownership. A lot of the guys were saying the right things, but then you go back to film and you didn't see it. I think all the guys have taken that well and the results have kind of shown that the past eight games."

"The good thing about Division 2 is anyone can beat anyone. Every game is a battle and again we're very talented. We got picked second in preseason conference. We have the players. Sometimes I just think, talent doesn't win you anything. Talent helps at times when you get to this level. But everyone's good. The reason we won five games in a row is we finally did what we told them to do. The players, again, they weren't about themselves, they were about the team. People had to sacrifice. It doesn't matter, if you're at your old school, you averaged 10 and five; at our school right now, we need you to rebound, run in transition, stand in the corner, and make threes and defend. If that's the role we need you to do, you have to do it for us to win. It's tough to adjust like that, but I think the guys have finally started to click and made it happen. In terms of our last two losses, it's basketball. You have your good days, you have your bad days, and when it's a close game, you need to make the right plays. And against Westmont we struggled. We beat them at home, we lost them away. And then against Jessup, we smoked that one away. But I guess that's just basketball. In terms of progress, I think we're progressing really well and we're starting to get into our stride, and hopefully we can carry that for the rest of the season and then hopefully into playoffs."

"Most definitely. We have a two guys out for the year, but we still feel like we have the team that can beat anyone, when we play our game and we play together. I think anyone in our own conference we can beat. In terms of goals, win PacWest conference. Right now, it's still possible for us to finish first. It's just unlikely, regardless, top six make the playoffs and once playoffs happen, it's anyone's game. Six can beat one. It's a really close conference this year. Our goals are to win. In terms of for the following few years, we actually have a young team. We have one guy graduating. Everyone else can come back, but college basketball's kind of changed now with the transfer portal. So we'll see. That's a thought for at the end of the season. But right now, we like our chances as long as we keep developing, if we keep being about the team. We're feeling optimistic towards our goals."

"During the season, both as a player and even more as a coach, it's just basketball. I teach, after that I go straight to practice and then by the time I get home it's 8:30, 9pm. I eat dinner. I spend a little bit of time with my wife and that's it. During the season it's basketball heavy. Postseason, we get summers off. We can work out our players towards the end of summer. It's California, so I like taking trips to SoCal, down to the central coast. I enjoy it. I get a small break, so when I get that break I enjoy life, but when it's basketball season it takes up most of your life. It's one of the sacrifices you make, and when people ask me what else you do is I literally tell people I teach, I coach basketball and I spend time with my wife. Those three things are the three things I spend most of my time on during the season."

"It's funny. If you asked me when I first came to Fresno, I would have told you, "No, I'm going to play college basketball here and then I'm leaving." But life happens. I plan on staying here for Fresno for the foreseeable future. I really like where I coach at. I'm lucky being an assistant coach. That can be rough. You get given tough tasks, but I get to do skill development, recruiting, and defense. I mean, as an assistant coach, that's the things I love doing. And right now I'm in a lucky spot, so I'm taking the most advantage of it. And in the future, if I leave, I leave. I'm grounded, and I'm going to continue staying being here."