Temple College men's basketball assistant coach Alex Nixon was selected by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches as the 2025-2026 Men's Basketball Junior College (JUCO) Assistant Coach of the Year.
He will receive the award during the TABC Clinic in San Antonio May 7-9.
The award is his second TABC award, having earned the prestigious Don Coleman TABC Coaches Award for Outstanding Small Private School Boys Coach in 2010 and was district Coach of the Year at Wichita Falls Notre Dame Catholic High School for his outstanding coaching achievements and leadership during that same season.
"There has been so much that has happened since then," Nixon said. "That was a fun year. It was my "unintended" last year at Notre Dame, and wasn't trying to leave considering I was from Wichita Falls. Head Coach Grant McCasland, who is now at Texas Tech and was at Midwestern State at the time, he and I joked if we had a great year that I should into college basketball at some point. That is how the college experience started. Getting the award in 2010 was like this one: unexpected and shocked."
Being a longtime TABC member for many years, it is an honor that means a ton to Nixon.
"I have been a TABC member for nearly 20 years," Nixon said. "It was an amazing honor back then, and it is now. It was an amazing honor back then, just as it is now. These are always unexpected, because these are like team awards. It is based off the success of our program. Both awards."
The first award helped Nixon make his jump into the competitive world of college basketball coaching. Nixon's first tenure with Temple College men's basketball was as an assistant under legendary head coach Kirby Johnson from 2010-2015.
"From going to the private high school in Wichita Falls, Texas, to coaching Division I junior college basketball," Nixon said. "I got my first opportunity when Temple College head coach Kirby Johnson took a chance on me, thanks to Coach McCasland.
He also spent time in retail management with Nike.
Before joining Dr. Clifton Ellis for a second stint with Leopards' men's basketball, Nixon was an assistant coach at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton from 2019-2024 in legendary head coach Ken Deweese and head coach Clif Carroll, who is now at East Texas A&M.
"I got the chance to learn from Coach Ken Deweese for a year, and then coached under another great head coach in Clif Carroll. I learned a ton from those guys, and then having the come back to Temple College for the opportunity to coach with Cliff Ellis has been amazing. Temple College is home and where it all started."
When it comes to building a team, many that follow college athletics know that the transfer portal has changed the way players are recruited and rosters are formed. On the junior college level, you have Name Likeness and Imaging (NIL) funds and the ability to offer full athletic scholarship. In NCAA Division III, they do not offer athletic scholarships, just academic.
"When dealing with Division III, I did not have to worry about athletic scholarships. I love building rosters for head coaches. It has something that I have been drawn to for 15 years now, which helping Coach Johnson, Coach Deweese, Coach Carroll, and now even Coach Ellis," Nixon said. "That has just been my thing. Tailoring teams to what the coaches like is a challenge, even at the Division III level. Not having the athletic scholarships, it is a tricky thing. We want to find student-athletes that are high academic. You want to make sure you have your program guys, and also look in the transfer portal, which has blown up in the last ten years. Now, coming back over to this (JUCO) side, you are changing your roster every year. It is awesome to build a lineup each year."
In the world of JUCO basketball, it is about building a new team virtually every year. It is the challenging landscape that coaches deal with, and one that Nixon loves.
"We have nine sophomores that we are trying to find places for, and nine positions that we are trying to fill," Nixon said. "That challenge is always fun for me. It's always fun to find players that will fit our program and go from there."
A unique flair to Temple College teams over the past several years was the incorporation of experienced international players onto the Leopards roster.
"It was something was something that we kicked around while I was at UMHB, but it wasn't something that we could do. We are always conscious of affordability and at the end of the day, and you don't want to put a kid in so much debt just to play college basketball. We have to do right by the student-athlete."
With the combination of Ellis and coaching players overseas, Temple saw an opportunity.
"When I came over here, Coach Ellis had an international background having coached overseas a couple of U20 teams," Nixon said. "It was an awesome change. It opens up so much more. With the connections I have obtained over the past ten years, the international game is huge now, even when you look at the Final Four and the University of Illinois. Coach Ellis and I joked that we were going to named our squad "Team United Nations." And we stuck with it, we love, and if you look at our conference, you can see the uptick in each school now. It provided exposure for our guys to things that it never could."
Nixon was a key contributor in seven Leopards basketball players garnering North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference postseason honors in 2025-2026.
"The team chemistry is phenomenal," Nixon said. "I have never been part of a chemistry like I have seen over the last two years. This year was a great year. We talk about roster turnover every year. (TC women's basketball coach" Amber Taylor and I constantly talk about it. We had nine sophomores on this roster and it was easy to put together. This roster that I am working on now is a little trickier. There are more gaps. Having nine guys returning, at any level, is amazing. You have guys that understand what Coach Ellis likes, what I like, and they get what our program is about. It helps bring the new guys on."
With receiving the second TABC Don Coleman Award 16 years after the first one, Nixon and his wife, Elizabeth, have three children that can enjoy the award with him: Jayden, Jayley, and Jordan.
"This one hit different this time around," Nixon said. "Obviously, I was excited and a younger coach. That was the high school level. This time it's college. My family was quick to point out that there are sixty-plus junior colleges in the state of Texas. Every one has at least one assistant, with the bigger programs having at least two. Being selected out of 60 is incredible enough as it is. The other factor is that wife and I were dating at the time of winning the first one. Now, I have my kids who are there to see it. So, it's different for sure. Being in college basketball, I have so many coaches that have reached out to me, texted, called, direct messaged is insane. The gratitude is overwhelming, and I can't thank people enough. The people on the committee reached out to congratulate me, starting with Coach Ellis. Blinn head coach Scott Schumacher is someone that I have looked up to for years first gave me the news. This one is more special because I get to share it with more people this time around, which includes Temple College where I got my start in college basketball."