Former Saluki hired to fill out Southeast men's basketball staff

The Southeast Missouri State athletics department announced Tuesday that Stetson Hairston was hired to fill the final assistant coaching spot on men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt's staff for the 2014-15 season.

Hairston was a four-year starter at Southern Illinois and helped the Salukis to four Missouri Valley Conference championships and four NCAA Division I tournament appearances as well as a 104-28 record. He was a two-time all-conference and all-defense selection, scored more than 1,000 points and had more than 500 rebounds during his career.

Hairston spent the last two years as an assistant at the University of Southern Indiana under coach Rodney Watson, who was an assistant at SIU during Hairston's career. USI was 48-14 in those two seasons and reached the NCAA Division II tournament in 2013.

"We are extremely proud to announce that Stetson will be joining our staff," Nutt said in a news release. "Several factors played a role in choosing Stetson. First off, he was a super player and a tenacious defender, so I do believe he will bring that mentality to our program. Next, and probably the deciding factor, is that Stetson is from St. Louis. We feel like the talent pool in St. Louis is going to be very strong in the next three years and he provides our program with immediate exposure since he was a former player with outstanding teams like the St. Louis Eagles and Gateway of AAU."

He also was an assistant at the University of Montevallo during the 2011-12 season. The Falcons advanced to the NCAA Division II championship game, but lost to Western Washington University.

After graduating from SIU in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in university studies, Hairston began his coaching career at Lincoln Trail College. He spent two years there before coaching at Southwestern Illinois College from 2008-2010. He coached at Chipola College during the 2010-2011 season and helped the team to the Florida Community College Athletic Association championship.

Hairston joins new assistant coach Justin Argenal, who Southeast announced the hiring of in June, along with associate head coach Jamie Rosser and student assistant Will Holifield on Nutt's staff.