Basketball fans, today marks the eighth week of the HoriZone PC series, which is a tribute to every current Horizon League coach in the style of video games. This week, we are featuring Cleveland State third-year assistant coach Jay Shunnar.
High school days: In 2008, Shunnar graduated from Huron High School in Ann Arbor, MI. As a junior, he averaged 13 points and 3 rebounds per game and received Second Team all-Huron League honors. As a senior, he averaged 15 points and six rebounds per game on his way to earning 1st-Team all-Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) and all-Huron League honors.
Toledo Rockets: Shunnar arrived at the University of Toledo, where he was a Biomedical/Medical Engineering major. There, he walked onto the basketball team and played his first two seasons under head coach Gene Cross.
Freshman season: In the 2008-09 season, Shunnar only played in two games: January 14 at Western Michigan and January 17 at home vs. Eastern Michigan. In both of those games combined, he played a total of 4 minutes, grabbed a rebound, and committed a turnover. As a team, Toledo finished at the very bottom, tying for 5th with Northern Illinois in the Mid-American Conference West Division at 5-11 in conference play and a 7-25 overall record for their second straight losing season.

Sophomore season: We find Shunnar in NCAA Basketball 10 on the PlayStation 3, which is his only video game appearance. During his second year in a Rockets uniform, he found himself in the regular rotation. He played in 30 of the team’s 32 games, averaging 1.9 points in 11.8 minutes per game while shooting 28.2 percent from beyond the arc (11-of-39). His breakout game came on December 10, 2009 in the team’s one-point home win against IPFW in which he played 29 minutes off the bench, scored 16 points, dished out 5 assists, had a steal, and shot 6-of-10 from the field.
As a team, Toledo finished with the worst record in school history by going 4-28 overall and 1-15 in conference play. At one point in the 2009-10 season, they lost a school-record 19 consecutive games. After the season, Coach Cross resigned from Toledo and took a job as an assistant for the Utah Flash of the NBA D-League.
Shunnar’s ratings in NCAA Basketball 10
• OVRL (overall): 64
• FG (field goals): 47
• 3PT (3-point): 50
• FT (free throw): 69
• DUNK: 36
• STL (steals): 63
• BLK (block): 38
• OREB (offensive rebounds): 63
• DREB (defensive rebounds): 42
• PASS (passing): 73
• OFF (offense ability): 59
• DEF (defense ability): 57
• SPD (speed): 81
• QUICK (quickness): 86
• VERT (vertical): 57
• DRB (dribble): 86
• STRGTH (strength): 73
• DUR (durability): 76
• RNG (shooting range): 20
• STAMINA: 89
• INS. SCR (inside scoring): 47
NCAA Basketball 10
Junior season: In the 2010-11 season, Toledo had a new head coach in Tod Kowalczyk, who came over after spending the last 8 seasons in Green Bay and leading them to back-to-back appearances in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). As a junior, Shunnar found himself as the team’s starting point guard as he played all 32 games and started 20 of them. He averaged career-highs of 5.1 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 23.2 minutes of action per game. Shunnar also reached double-figure scoring 8 different times, shot 30.3 from beyond the arc (23-of-76) and 69.4 percent on free throws (50-of-72).

Shunnar scored 17 points in 28 minutes off the bench on December 8, 2010 in a 13-point loss at IPFW. But later on near the end of the season, the best game of his entire career would come on March 1, 2011 in a 12-point loss at home against Central Michigan, which is when Shunnar scored 20 points in 37 minutes (both career-highs) and shot 8-of-9 from the field.
However, Toledo finished with identical overall and conference records like the year before. In Shunnar’s sophomore and junior years combined, the Rockets lost 31 consecutive games on the road.
First time at the University of Michigan: After spending 3 seasons of basketball at Toledo, Shunnar transferred out of Toledo and left basketball altogether to apply to the University of Michigan’s college of engineering in his hometown of Ann Arbor. At the time, Michigan had the sixth-best ranked school of engineering in the country according to the U.S. News and World Report. Shunnar was not only accepted into the program, but ended up graduating from there in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in Material Science.

Coaching start: While going through grad school at Michigan, Shunnar started his coaching career with Common Bond – an AAU program for boys ages 15 through 17 throughout southeast Michigan – and coached nine of his players to collegiate scholarships. While with Common Bond, Shunnar also spent three seasons as an assistant coach for Ann Arbor Skyline High School (2012-15). Later on, he returned to his alma mater of Huron High School and was their assistant boys basketball coach for the 2015-16 season before getting promoted to the head coaching duties when he was just 26 years old. In Shunnar’s two seasons in charge of Huron, he led the squad to an impressive 34-11 record.
Return to the University of Michigan: Shunnar eventually returned to the University of Michigan as a graduate assistant on the basketball team for the 2018-19 season under legendary head coach John Beilein with a squad that featured future NBA players Ignas Brazdeikis, Colin Castleton, Jordan Poole, and Zavier Simpson. That season, Shunnar helped the Wolverines to a 30-7 overall record, a 3rd-place finish in the Big Ten (15-5 in conference play), and a trip to the NCAA Tournament before they lost to Texas in the Sweet 16. Shunnar went to graduate from Michigan that spring with a master’s degree in Higher Education and Post-Secondary Education.
NBA: Shunnar then followed Beilein to join the Cleveland Cavaliers and spent the 2019-20 season with the wine and gold. Unfortunately, the Cavaliers ended with the league’s second-worst record at 19-46 before the season was suspended after March 11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 19, 2020, Beilein resigned as the head coach following a 14-40 record and was replaced by J.B. Bickerstaff.

Butler University: After spending one season in the NBA, Shunnar went back to the college ranks and spent two seasons as the Butler Bulldogs’ Director of Basketball Operations under head coach LaVall Jordan (2020-22). In both of those seasons combined, the Bulldogs went 24-34 and 14-26 in Big East play.
Cleveland State University: Following his stint in Indianapolis, Shunnar returned to the city of Cleveland to be an assistant for the Cleveland State Vikings under head coach Daniyal Robinson, where he still is today and currently in his third season with the squad. Under the duo of Shunnar and Robinson, Cleveland State has recorded back-to-back 21-win seasons with consecutive trips to the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and are currently winners of 13 straight games, which is the third-longest active winning streak in the country.