Just a few months after a history-making hire at Nebraska, Shannan Lum is moving to the next level.
Lum, who joined the Huskers as the team's recruiting coordinator in May, has accepted a position on the Dallas Mavericks' staff.Â
Her position in Lincoln will be filled by Athan Katsantonis, who was previously serving as an NU graduate assistant.
When Lum was hired in late May, she became the first woman of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent to hold the title of recruiting coordinator at a Power Five program, and the second woman to be in such a role.
In an interview with the Journal Star in June, Lum recalled reading about San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon, and Natalie Nakase, an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers G-League team.
"I want it to get to a point where I'm not digging through to find information about them, and it's just a normal press release," Lum said.
People are also reading…
"And it doesn't even have to be just women. Men or women, but it's the right person for the right job, is what I'm hoping for. I think there's a lot of women out there who are just as qualified and deserve the opportunity. Hopefully, we can make society kind of see a more open-mindedness."
Lum was clearly the right person for the Mavericks and made an impression in her short time working on Fred Hoiberg's staff in Lincoln.
"Shannan’s been awesome. You give her a project, and it’s usually back on my desk within an hour. So she’s been great. We’ve given her a lot of things to do. It’s a very important position with the recruiting coordinator spot that she has," Hoiberg said earlier this year. "She’s done a good job getting us edits, educating the staff on players that we have coming in, making edits for everybody. So she’s done a phenomenal job."
Lum interviewed for and accepted the position at Nebraska without ever stepping foot in Lincoln, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She had spent the previous two seasons as the director of video for the Cal women's program. Before that, she was an intern for Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer at Stanford for one season.
She graduated from St. John's in 2018, where she worked for the men's basketball program and got to know current Nebraska assistant Matt Abdelmassih and staff member Luca Virgilio.
Those connections paid off in getting Lum to Lincoln, where Nebraska created the recruiting coordinator position for her as she continued her quick rise through the coaching ranks.