After losing his senior season at UNLV, Matt Shaw eyes a brighter future

By Ryan Greene

Friday, Aug. 26, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Matt Shaw entered the Ford Center hallway en route to the UNLV locker room following a first-round loss to Northern Iowa in the 2010 NCAA tournament when the fear of getting caught set in.

Shaw quickly realized that he may have unexpectedly just played college basketball for the last time.

Moments earlier, just after the buzzer sounded to cap a wrenching 69-66 defeat in Oklahoma City, UNLV Associate Athletic Director Jerry Koloskie had pulled Shaw and two of his teammates to the side as they were exiting the floor and still wrapping their heads around the loss.

The three of them had been selected at random to take an NCAA-administered drug test immediately.

"I was already upset that we lost, then to have to worry about that at that point in time was pretty heavy for me," he said. "I definitely had some worries (about the results), because I knew I had done wrong."

For the next month, the worst possible outcome was constantly in the back of the 6-foot-8 senior-to-be's mind. He knew the rules. He knew the penalty if he was chosen and tested positive. He knew that not too long before UNLV appeared in its third NCAA tournament in four years, he'd made a bad decision in what he said was an isolated incident.

In late April, it caught up with him.

Shaw tested positive for marijuana, and the infraction carried with it an automatic one-year suspension. Since he'd redshirted during the 2008-09 campaign while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, he'd have to sit out his final year of eligibility. His college career, just like that, was over.

"I couldn't be mad at anyone but myself, because I was the one who caused it," he said. "I wasn't surprised (by the punishment) because I knew. It was a rule, written down and clear. They'll test you, and with the NCAA, it's a year. No ifs, ands or buts."

Shaw had set himself up for a potentially big senior season. The Rebels were going to return nine key members of a team that had just gone 25-9. As a junior, Shaw dealt with residual soreness and rust from his knee surgery and a mid-season ankle injury but still averaged seven points and 2.8 rebounds while averaging 15.2 minutes in 30 games. He was 27-of-60 from long range and led the team in 3-point field goal percentage (45.0). His big, 245-pound frame combined with the soft touch on his jumper made him a threat both inside and out, and when those shots were falling, he could spread an opposing defense and help clear things up for teammates.

Instead of preparing for one more shot at glory at UNLV, he was left to deal with the fallout from his mistake.

Shaw graduated following the 2009-10 season with a degree in university studies, focusing on both physical education and criminal justice and would take classes through the summer to complete his coursework. But all the while, wherever he went in town or on campus, he said, he felt eyes staring at him, judging him. For Shaw, though, that didn't even compare to the difficulty of having to break the news to his parents.

"I was devastated, honestly. I sat out one year with a knee injury and was looking forward to having a senior year. I wanted to have a Senior Night for my parents. I wanted to give UNLV a final goodbye. It ended abruptly for me.

"It probably took me almost a year to just fully accept what I did and understand the consequences for my actions."

During the 2010-11 season, UNLV struggled to consistently shoot the ball from the outside. The loss of Shaw, combined with resident sharpshooter Kendall Wallace suffering a torn ACL of his own late in the summer in a pick-up game, left the Rebels without a dimension key to its offensive attack.

A 24-9 record and another NCAA tourney appearance was respectable and all. But many times during the season, as UNLV struggled to consistently knock down threes and, at times, tried to hard to shoot its way out of slumps, onlookers wondered, "What if?"

Former coach Lon Kruger, who left UNLV after seven seasons this April to take the vacant post at Oklahoma, was without a doubt one of them.

"It's always easy to say that, but it would have been accurate," Kruger said. "Not only do you have the tangible shooting ability and scoring, but the intangibles of another senior and, leadership-wise, we missed that for sure."

In an era where players busted for offenses similar to or even more serious than Shaw's are docked simply a few games by their coaches, Kruger felt the same way many did — the NCAA's punishment for this particular slip-up was far too severe. But handling Shaw's issue was taken out of Kruger's hands completely, and there was no one for him to appeal to.

"Obviously, that's a rule put in to act more as a deterrent," Kruger said. "The whole thing was not representative of Matt, because he was a really good guy, has handled everything really well and his career ended on something that wasn't a fair representation of him. That's why I think the penalty was unjust. He didn't get a say in it to re-establish himself."

But in the aftermath of his unfortunate and premature departure from the UNLV program, Shaw never reached out for sympathy from anyone. He hid himself from the public eye as much as possible and got past it in relative silence.

Shaw laid low for much of the last year, spending most of his time at home in Los Angeles, but he made frequent trips up to Las Vegas. He stayed in regular contact with the guys he still considered teammates and took in a handful of UNLV games while trying as much as a 245-pound, 6-foot-8 man can to blend in with the crowd.

In terms of interest from professional teams both in the United States and overseas, Shaw got a few nibbles along the way but nothing firm enough to jump at. He remained serious with his training regimen and continued to try and build strength back in his knee.

Now, timing is once again a hurdle for him to clear.

Shaw is still pursuing an opportunity to play basketball overseas, but the market for American players looking to head to foreign lands is more saturated than ever. With the ongoing NBA lockout, many with more polished and accomplished résumés than Shaw's are gobbling up those spots.

"I don't know how long I will pursue it, but I definitely want to give myself an opportunity, because I definitely feel I can play somewhere," Shaw said. "I understand at the same time that you don't chase a dream forever. But I don't want to let it go without giving it a good shot."

Through a friend, he was set up with a trainer in Phoenix named Michael Johnson, who recently opened up his own gym — Training Room AZ. Shaw packed his stuff up in May and again moved to the desert. While there, he's not only working out, trying to stay in shape and hoping for an opportunity to play again, but he's also now training others as a member of the gym's staff.

He said that working as a trainer is one career path he could end up pursuing should basketball not pan out. Another possibility would also give him a chance to impart some of the wisdom he now feels he has to offer.

"I would love to coach one day on some level, start somewhere and work my way up," Shaw said. "I have a few things I can give someone. I feel I know the game pretty well. But, also, kids just need somebody who's been through a little something, someone to tell them to go in another direction (from trouble), stay focused and that it's not worth it. I love basketball, I love sports, and I feel it'll always be a part of me."

One reminder of his four years spent at UNLV now serves as a daily dose of motivation for Shaw. It's a tattoo he got on his left arm as a sophomore that reads, "I'm the master of my own fate."

Shaw can admit now that when he got the tattoo as a 19-year-old, he didn't fully grasp the power of the message he was getting permanently applied to his skin. And the path that led him to eventually understand it, in hindsight, certainly was not the one he preferred. He learned it the hard way.

Despite missing his swan song at UNLV, Shaw now believes he came out better because of it. Had he not been picked randomly for that test, he may not see things as clearly today or be as prepared for whatever lies ahead.

"I went into the real world unexpectedly, not ready for what was going on, and it just taught me that the decisions you make can really have serious consequences," he said. "I'm ready to move forward, whether I play basketball or not. But I'm all about forward progress. I'm not the same person I was back then, and I've learned a lot."