Neosho County promotes Gage Delimont to head men's basketball coach
Neosho County Community College kept its men’s basketball transition in-house, promoting Gage Delimont to head coach and adding Cory Crews as assistant on July 13, 2026. The move came after Taylor Shaffer departed following four seasons with the Panthers to take the head-coaching job at McCook Community College.
Delimont’s promotion gave Neosho a coach who already knew the roster, the recruiting map and the daily grind of junior college basketball. He spent last season on Shaffer’s staff, which meant the Panthers did not have to rebuild the program’s operating habits from scratch. In a level where transfers, late signees and freshmen can reshape a roster almost every summer, that familiarity carried real value.
Keeping Delimont also signaled that Neosho wanted continuity in the program’s culture and structure. The Panthers avoided the uncertainty that often follows a full external hire and instead kept a coach who had already worked through the locker room, the practice schedule and the recruiting pipeline. That kind of internal promotion can help preserve what a staff has built while still allowing a new head coach to adjust the tone and sharpen his own priorities.
Crews’ addition reinforced that plan. With another coach in the building, Neosho added help for player development, recruiting and the logistics that come with preparing a roster for the next NJCAA season. The staff change suggested the Panthers were not tearing down Shaffer’s foundation, but reloading it with familiar pieces and a little more depth on the bench.
For Neosho, the succession plan offered a practical answer to a common junior college problem. Head coaches move up, rosters turn over and every offseason demands quick teaching and constant recruiting. By pairing Delimont with Crews, the Panthers chose stability first and upheaval last, keeping the framework intact for a program that still has to win the recruiting battles and development races that define NJCAA basketball.