Latest in a series of "Where Are They Now?" features on members of the Colgate athletics family. Click Here for previous profiles.
HAMILTON – When Tucker Neale '95 was pouring in the points for some of the best basketball teams in Colgate history, he always had a secret weapon on his side: a shot coach.
His father, Jim Neale, taught the Cleveland-area product how to shoot and shoot well. And whenever Tucker would have an off night, Jim would make the 5½-hour drive to Central New York and fix the shot right on the spot.
Now, Tucker Neale is selling the Shot Coach.
No, he's not selling his father. The Shot Coach is the hot new product Tucker invented that teaches players how to properly shoot the basketball.
"I started the Shot Coach 15 years ago in my basement," Neale said. "When doing individual lessons with kids, my biggest frustration is I would fix their shot for an hour and then they would go home and come back the next time doing the exact same things wrong.
"So I realized I needed something the kids could practice with at home and come back with the correct shot."
Neale said his first try was a product called Shot Lock. It had 10 different straps and users needed almost a Ph.D. to figure it out it was so complicated. He produced 500 of them and sold them out right away, but he wasn't really in the selling business.
"I was never trying to mass-produce anything."
NBA Player Liked What He Saw
So Neale paid back his small-business loan and shut the venture down. He kept five samples just so he could work with kids, then he gave one to his dad, one to a buddy and that was it.
Until …
"I pulled one out about two years ago to help the son of a former NBA player, Mike Miller," Neale said. "I was coaching his son and he saw it and said, 'That's pretty cool.' So we started talking about it, it got my juices flowing and I went to a partner here in Cleveland and said, 'Let's roll this thing out. What do you think?'
"And he was all in."
The new product was ready this summer and, since Neale also manages OhioBasketball.com – the largest provider of basketball tournaments in the world – he had a ready-made audience for shooting technique.
"Right away, we sold a couple of thousand within three weeks," Neale said. "We've got people around the country calling. Vivian Stringer, the hall of fame women's coach at Rutgers, saw it and she ordered five. She wants to use them on her kids at practice at the college level.
"The cool part – not just because it's mine – is they really do work."
NCAA Trip 'Truly Incredible'
The combo of Tucker Neale on the court and Jim Neale in the stands and behind the scenes sparked the Raiders to new heights on the hardwood. Tucker went on to score 2,075 points, a figure that still tops the Colgate career chart and stands 299 ahead of the No. 2 scorer, teammate Adonal Foyle.
Neale and Foyle played together just one season, 1994-95, but those Raiders went 17-11 overall, 11-3 in the Patriot League and won the conference championship for the first time in program history. They drew Kansas as a first-round NCAA opponent and battled the Jayhawks fiercely before falling, 82-68.
"Getting to the NCAA tournament was truly incredible," Neale said. "The year before we had come so close, losing 78-76 to Navy. But I'll never forget actually winning it (68-63).
"The crowd and how early they got there – it's the first time Colgate ever had a home championship game."
Even though the championship game was televised by ESPN, Cotterell Court was packed well before the opening tipoff.
"I remember 2½ hours before the game going out on the floor to get some shots in," Neale said. "They opened the door and people just rushed into the gym. We made Cotterell Court into a place where people wanted to come watch basketball.
"On my recruiting visit back in 1990 or 1991, it was like a ghost town. But by 1995, we had built something really cool."
'Etched in My Mind'
Neale remembers his first encounter with Foyle.
"The first time I saw Adonal Foyle he was learning how to shoot," Neale said. "There was Professor (Jay) Mandle reading out of a book and Mrs. (Joan) Mandel standing there with a broomstick."
Foyle's foster parents, Colgate professors at the time, were trying to teach him how to shoot.
"Here's a guy who ended up playing 11 years in the NBA, and he learned how to shoot from a book with a history professor and women's studies professor," Neale said. "Those are the things that are etched in my mind."
Neale keeps up with many of his former teammates.
"I sure do. There are quite a few I talk to regularly. I saw Timmy Bolen; I saw him all summer. His daughter actually plays in my tournaments now, so I had a week with him in Louisville, three days in Atlanta, we went to Boston – it's great to see him.
"Jimmy Maloney I still talk to quite a bit, Steve Benton has a son who's going to be a really good player, and it's cool to watch that next generation come through. It's been a lot of fun to keep tabs with everybody, and those are relationships you have your whole life."
Colgate Recollections Never Go Away
The tournament Neale mentioned in Louisville featured 66 courts under one roof. And Neale also directs Score More Athletic Club, an elite boys and girls AAU basketball operation that competes on a national level and has done so for the past 18 years.
He lives in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville, Ohio, with his wife, Crystal, and their three children: 14-year-old Tre', 10-year-old Kennedi and 3-year-old Trinidi.
From his shot coach to the Shot Coach, from 66 courts to learning how to shoot from a book – Neale always has been involved with basketball. His path through Colgate led to 2,075 points, 248 3-pointers and some of the best Raider hoop memories to date.
"Everything I can remember from my days at Colgate is positive," Neale said. "All the one-liners Coach (Jack) Bruen had. I coach kids and I still use his one-liners all the time. They'll never go away."
