Burcar elevated to full-time coach at Northern Arizona

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Shane Burcar will be Northern Arizona’s full-time basketball coach.

The school announced Wednesday that Burcar will have the interim tag removed after leading the Lumberjacks to 16 wins last season.

“Despite very broad interest from outstanding coaches throughout the western United States and beyond, at the end of the day, Shane Burcar exhibited the most impassioned and thoughtful vision for Lumberjack Basketball,” NAU athletic director Mike Marlow said in a statement. “I could not be more excited to announce that Shane emerged as our top choice.”

Burcar was elevated to interim coach last June after Jack Murphy left to become associate head coach under Sean Miller at Arizona, his alma mater. Burcar spent one season on Murphy’s staff after a 12-year tenure as the head coach at Mesa High School.

Northern Arizona’s win total in 2019-20 was more than the two previous seasons combined and the Lumberjacks had their first five-game winning streak in a decade early in the season.

Burcar was named a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award, given to the top first-year coach in Division I college basketball.