Bigger Than Basketball

Former Minnesota State men's basketball guard
Cam Hodges is a player development coach with the NBA's
Philadelphia 76ers (76ers photo)

Cam Hodges, a Minneapolis native, spent the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons with the Minnesota State men’s basketball team where he averaged 6.5 points and 3.9 rebounds as a junior and 13.7 points and 4.8 rebounds as a senior. His junior season almost didn’t happen because of a military commitment. He has since been honorably discharged from the military.

Under the guidance of veteran head coach Matt Margenthaler, Hodges and the Mavericks finished the 2010-11 season with a 28-5 record. Named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Hodges enjoyed a stellar senior season, earning Second-Team All-NSIC honors. The 6-foot-5 guard helped lead Minnesota State on a memorable run through the NCAA tournament which led all the way to the NCAA DII Final Four in Springfield, Mass.  The Mavericks eventually fell to second-ranked Bellarmine in the national semifinals, but Hodges was playing his best basketball, tallying a career-high 24 points and grabbing seven rebounds in the loss to the Knights.

Following his collegiate career, Hodges played professionally in Romania, Hungary, Luxembourg and Slovenia.

Stemming from an internship with the National Basketball Association's G League that he competed in 2015, Hodges knew that he wanted to coach in some capacity.

“I knew I wanted to coach once I was done playing, I just wasn't sure at what level,” Hodges said. “I kind of found my path once I did an internship in the NBA G League and the rest is history,” he said.

And he did just that, becoming an assistant coach under one of the NBA’s legendary coaching minds, Gregg Popovich.

Hodges spent three seasons with Popovich and the Spurs, serving as a player development assistant during the 2018-19 season, where he worked under shooting coach Chip Engelland, who took over as San Antonio’s head of player development after Brett Brown left to take the head coaching job with the Philadelphia 76ers.

After three seasons with the Spurs, Hodges was hired as a player development coach with the Sixers, where he currently works individually with three players.

“Day-to-day, I'm in charge of the development of three players on our roster. It's usually some on-court development work followed by some individual film sessions with those players to identify areas we are excelling in and areas we can improve in,” Hodges said.

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Hodges gives a lot of credit to Margenthaler and the rest of the Minnesota State coaching staff for putting him in the position he is in today. 

“The impact that the coaching staff at Minnesota State had on me was huge,” Hodges said. “I realized that coaching wasn't about the X's and O's. At the core of it, it's all about relationships. They brought out the best in me on the court and helped me develop into a better man off the court because of the time and energy they invested in me as a human being before a ball player. So naturally I wanted to have a career that would allow me to serve others,” he said.

Another trait that Hodges carries over from MSU to his career is accountability.

“I think the biggest lesson I learned from my time at MSU was being able to hold myself accountable day in and day out,” Hodges said. “If for one second Coach thinks you're slacking, you will be called out in front of the group. Being able to hold yourself accountable every day and perform your job the best you can was the mindset and that has carried over into my coaching career and my personal life,” he said.

When asked what his favorite part of his career is, Hodges gave a simple but incredibly important answer that he learned from his time with the Mavericks.

“The relationships,” Hodges said. “Investing my energy into another person to help them get to where they are trying to go in life and their career. In sports, we are all trying to accomplish something greater than ourselves and being able to play my role in doing so I find very fulfilling,” Hodges said.

Looking into what the future may hold for him, Hodges isn’t concerned about it as he focuses on his time with the Sixers.

“Honestly, I really try not to think about the future too much,” Hodges said. “I try to focus on learning and developing myself every day and life will come together like it should,” he said. 

Contributed by Collin Wilmes, Minnesota State Athletic Communications Intern

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Riding the Wave

It was a simple question.

"What effect does the Minnesota State men's basketball success this year have on MSU and the community?"

Under the guidance of head coach Matt Margenthaler, the Mavericks had just completed their 2010-11 season having advanced to the semi-finals of the NCAA Division II Elite 8 national championship tournament held in Springfield, Mass.

Over the course of the year MSU had crafted a 28-5 record and captured the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular-season title before hosting the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament. The Mavericks won three straight games in claiming the regional title in earning their first-ever trip to the Elite 8. Margenthaler was NSIC and Region Coach of the Year. Senior forward Jefferson Mason was All-NSIC, All-Region and All-American. Senior forward Cameron Hodges was the NSIC Defensive Player of the Year and along with senior guard Marcus Hill, was also an All-NSIC selection.

As the season extended deeper into the season, attention continued to grow. The local media entities provided extensive coverage with KEYC featuring Maverick players and Coach Margenthaler as in-studio guests on a regular basis. The Mankato Free Press and the MSU Reporter provided their regular coverage during the season, but both entities devoted additional resources as the postseason evolved including printing comprehensive tabs for the eight-team NCAA Regional held in Mankato. And when the Mavericks went to Springfield for the championship tournament, so did personnel from both publications. Radio Mankato carries every Maverick men's basketball live with MSU Hall of Famer Casey Lloyd courtside on the mic. Casey called both Elite 8 games and while people tuned in on the radio, many others caught the broadcast via the world wide web streaming audio.

And the Twin Cities took notice as well with WCCO coming down for a feature and Margenthaler in demand for interview requests from KFAN and several other media outlets throughout the upper midwest. Margenthaler became the feature of a story in his hometown newspaper and the players were the subjects of stories in their hometown publications, as well. The Associated Press, the Minnesota News Network and the major newspapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul did pieces. The Mavericks were the subjects of innumerable postings on blogs, Facebook and Twitter feeds and Youtube videos.

At the Elite 8, MSU's quarterfinal win over Alabama-Huntsville was streamed live on NCAA.com and in addition to a couple of hundred students and staff watching the game on the big screen in Taylor Center, watch parties in bars and restaurants around town were overflowing with patrons. Same thing for the semi-final game against Bellarmine in which the Mavericks fell to the eventual national champions.

When we host a regional, as we have the past two years, people from all over come to Mankato to watch the games and they, as well as the seven other teams attending the tournament, stay in local hotels, partake at our restaurants and visit River Hills Mall.

"What effect does the Minnesota State men's basketball success this year have on MSU and the community?" Short term....see above. The long term answer is somewhat more complicated.

With the women's basketball team capturing a national championship two years ago and the men's team advancing to the Final Four, the University derives publicity and notoriety from coast to coast. Same thing when the other teams at MSU do well, too. While we're unsure exactly how many column inches, television features, blog postings, Youtube video uploads, Facebook and Twitter mentions these successes have generated, we can assume the public relations effect has been massive. Not only do our students currently attending MSU follow along with pride, but we can be assured that a large many of our 90,000 alums are proud to be associated with our teams as well.

What does it mean? Student-athletes want to compete and win, so the easy answer is that we've proven we can do that with these programs at Minnesota State. Recruiting is extremely important to the success of any collegiate team and when our coaches can tell potential student-athletes that not only can you come here and play in an unbelievably great facility like Taylor Center, they can also come here and have an opportunity to be a part of teams that will have a chance to compete for not only conference and regional championships, but national championships, as well. Pretty powerful stuff.

And, of course, there are other implications such as fundraising in that people want to be associated with successful entities. So, in theory, this should help us in our developmental activities. With our corporate partners, with our sponsors and advertisers, with those who purchase season and single-game tickets and with our alums who so generously give back to their alma mater.

The reality is that MSU has been to the NCAA postseason seven straight years and broke through to make the school's first appearance at the Elite 8 this year. While we pause to revel in this season's achievements for a moment, my sense is that the Minnesota State men's basketball program is still ascending.

Thanks for the wonderful ride, fellas - it's great to be a Maverick!