CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Off the court, Isaac Haney is pretty unassuming. Polite, yes-sir, no-sir type. Quiet, even. The kind of midwestern nice you might expect from West Plains, Missouri.
Once his feet hit the floor on a basketball court, though… that's when the brash, swaggy three-point machine comes out firing away from 25 feet and pursuing like a madman all across the court. That guy—Ice, the one whose mid-year emergence has been one of the defining catalysts for Austin Peay's surge up the ASUN standings—and the reserved persona Haney embodies off the court would seem to be a dichotomy, a Jekyll-and-Hyde for the hardwood.
For some, that switch flipping would be a by-product of the heat of competition, something they can channel but maybe not necessarily control. For Haney, separating those personas was a conscious act, going back to his days at Dora High School.
"My father has always done a really good job of separating life and basketball," Haney said. "At some point in high school, he just told me, 'Basketball is a game, you have to think of it as a game. You got to treat it as a game.' And he said create yourself a little character, whatever you have to do mentally. Because you're not who you are in basketball when the game's over and once the game starts, I'm not who I am in life."
It has been a long trip for Haney from West Plains to Clarksville, and every step has unlocked something new for him. Ten years younger than two sisters who played college ball, Haney got an early look at what upper-level basketball looked like and the dedication it takes to reach those heights, a lesson that's stayed with him every day—occasionally, he acknowledged ruefully, to his detriment.
"They would call me and say, 'Hey, we're flipping tires at 6am," he said of Andi and Tabitha, who both played at Harding. "And we have to make our mile in six minutes. So I'm seven years old, thinking I gotta do more than my sisters are doing in college already. Everybody's not ready for that. Years and years of doing that probably hurt me more than it helped me. But what it did give me was a mindset that you have to work for what you want and you have to stay with it and that consistency and resilience will win out most of the time. Coach Gipson was probably the first person that said to me, 'You might do yourself a lot of good to just relax.'"
Before long, he was traveling two hours both ways four times a week to work with the late Rob Yanders, a legendary figure in the Missouri youth basketball scene who worked with Haney beginning when he was 11 years old. As a senior, he transferred from Dora to Kickapoo High School in Springfield, in part to be closer to Yanders and in part to be closer to Missouri State, a 10-minute drive from Kickapoo and where Haney was a basketball commit.
Kickapoo went 26-2 in Haney's final season, where he teamed with current Gov Anton Brookshire and current Arkansas Razorback standout Trevon Brazile. Here, Haney got a good look at what it takes for a talented team to gel quickly and have success.
"A team has to be a family and there has to be buy-in," he said. "We had another great leader there in Coach Mitch McHenry, who did a great job of taking young men who didn't really know how to play together and making them see the bigger picture."
Year One at Missouri State was Haney's first year being coached by Gipson, then the Bears' associate head coach, who would go on to a one-year stint as the head coach at Northwestern State before returning to Austin Peay to coach his alma mater. The bond between Haney and Gipson, developed before Missouri State and deepened on their journey ever since, goes much deeper than basketball.
"We have a great bond, one that could not be achieved if Coach didn't understand the necessity of conflict," Haney said. "In life, you form relationships over many, many years, but head coach and a player coming into a university might be blessed to have three, four years together. So to expedite that process, we're not running away from conflict so we can grow through what we go through. That's why we're able to have a special bond."
Springfield was good to Haney on the court. He was an All-Freshman Missouri Valley Conference selection, seeing good minutes, but jumped at the opportunity to follow Gipson to Northwestern State and had an even better season as a sophomore, averaging 11.0 points and 4.1 rebounds as the Demons morphed into a 22-win juggernaut in Gipson's season at the helm, a 13-win improvement from the prior season.
Gipson, himself no stranger to a strong coach-player bond as a disciple of legendary Austin Peay head coach Dave Loos, calls his and Haney's relationship, "thicker than blood." It's clear Haney believes strongly in Gipson, his system, his style and his way of conducting himself because, after following him from Missouri State to Northwestern State, joining Gipson at Austin Peay would have meant, as a second-time transfer, Haney had to sit out a year.
A no-brainer, in his opinion.
"It didn't weigh on me like you might think it would," Haney said. "Because I'm trying to surround myself with people who grow me as a man, I knew that [coming to Austin Peay] was the right thing to do. And I firmly believe if you just do the next right thing, you'll never be disappointed in that."
And yet… here he is, on the court suiting up for the Govs, and thriving. In December, a West Virginia court issued an order against the NCAA from enforcing the multi-time transfer rule, granting Haney and others around the country immediate eligibility. Haney was excited, and ready.
Mostly.
"'Hope this ankle holds up,'" Haney said he was thinking as he took the court for the first time as a Gov. "'I can't believe I told Coach I was ready to go oh my gosh, I'm at about 50%, I hope I can keep someone in front of me.'"
Gipson had no qualms about Haney's preparedness, having seen the work he was putting in.
"So much goes on behind closed doors," Gipson said. "We saw what they [Haney and fellow mid-year eligible player Jordan Wilmore] brought to the table in practice, how they articulated in film, and how they made other people better just by their friction in practice on a daily basis. I don't want us to take credit away from Isaac's self-motivation. But at the same time, he also knows how to seek mentorship and he knows how to seek development because while yes, you can work on your own, you also have to work on your craft with others that have been around too."
In his first season as a Gov, truncated though it has been, Haney is tallying 11.0 points per night on 40.9% from the floor and 38.1% from three. He quickly kicked off any rust from his layoff, scoring 14 points in his second game as a Gov against Ohio, and was last spotted pouring in a career-high 32 against North Alabama. Haney has become a vital cog for the Govs. We may be quickly careening toward March and warmer weather, but there's still plenty of Ice on the way for ASUN foes.
