A Schelling For Your Thoughts

MADISON — Since the start of his collegiate career and throughout his coaching career, change has been a common theme for Sharif Chambliss.

As he joins Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan‘s staff as video coordinator for the 2010-11 season, Chambliss hopes yet another change will be a step in the right direction toward his eventual goal of becoming a head coach.

“It’s a great situation,” Chambliss said. “And it’s an opportunity that I’m really excited for this year.”

An all-state and honorable mention all-America selection as a senior, Chambliss led his Racine St. Catherine’s squad to a surprising 23-1 record and a berth in the WISAA Division I state title game. With no offer from Dick Bennett and the Badgers, however, Chambliss spent the next three years with the Nittany Lions of Penn State.

After leading PSU in scoring for consecutive seasons, Chambliss transferred to Wisconsin to play for Ryan. Chambliss sat out a season before captaining the 2005 Elite Eight squad.

He continued his playing career for two seasons in Portugal, and Chambliss then took a job as an assistant for two years at UW-Milwaukee under former UW assistant Rob Jeter. After UW-Milwaukee, Chambliss spent a year at Francis-Marion University and last season, he was an assistant under Jeff Gard at UW-Platteville.

Though it was not an easy decision for Chambliss to leave the Division II level at Francis-Marion to join Gard’s staff at Platteville, a Division III school, Chambliss highly regards his time in the western part of the state.

“I got the call from Jeff Gard and it was kind of a tough decision because at a certain point you think the numeral behind the division is what’s going to make or break you, but it’s not,” Chambliss said. “Platteville was a great experience. It was more than I expected.”

Finally, after a year abroad, two years in Milwaukee, a year in South Carolina and another year in Platteville, Chambliss finds himself back in Madison, reunited with Ryan.

“We’re excited to have Sharif back as a Badger,” Ryan said in a press release. “We saw his dedication and commitment first hand when he decided to forego a scholarship and return to his home state to join our program as a walk-on for the last two years of his playing career. This is a natural progression in Sharif’s career development.

“He was a great role model as a player and will be a tremendous asset to our staff.”

Now, Chambliss will look to translate his current position into the kind of success others — including one of the Big Ten’s best — before him have had.

“It’s a really great experience to be with, and around, coaches at this level,” Chambliss said. “If you look at prior history, this is the way that young guys are getting into the coaching business at the high level.

“Coach Mike Brown, who was the Cleveland Cavaliers coach, he started out at a video coordinator. The coach for the Miami Heat, started as a video coordinator. Tom Izzo started as a video coordinator. This is the way that you get into the business and you’re able to learn a lot from the game by watching a lot of film and helping the coaches with their scouting reports.”