Chris Shumate was named an assistant coach on May 5, 2016.
Shumate has been instrumental in Northern Kentucky’s rise to one of the nation’s top mid-major programs. NKU has gone 30-10 against Horizon League opponents in the last two years, the highest win percent in the league, won two league titles - 2017 tournament and 2018 regular-season - and have participated in both the NCAA Tournament (2017) and NIT (2018) with Shumate on the Norse bench.
Shumate is a native of the Bluegrass State with strong ties to the Commonwealth and the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region.
He spent the 2015-16 season at Western Kentucky, which followed stints at both Tennessee and Southern Miss. Following a sensational playing career at Murray State from 2000-04 that culminated with two years of professional basketball in the NBA D-League, Shumate was hired by his former college coach Mick Cronin at Cincinnati.
At UC, Shumate served as the director of basketball operations for two years prior to being named the director of student-athlete development, a role in which he held for four seasons.
During his playing days at Murray State Shumate earned two Ohio Valley all-conference selections. His name litters the Racers’ record books, ranking in the top-25 in scoring (1,207, 24th), three-pointers (170, 8th), steals (125, T-10th), assists (252, 14th), blocks (37, 15th) and field goals made (459, T-20th).
Shumate graduated from MSU in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in business. He and his wife Meredith have three children – Addison, Chloe and Gates.
