At the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, the oversized black curtain separated basketball games for the final time in the 2023 Conference USA Tournament.
 
That notorious fabric, the backdrop of Louisiana Tech's court A battle versus North Texas, also closed on Talvin Hester's first season as head coach of the Bulldogs.
 
Final score – LA Tech 46, North Texas 74.    
 
Not a star moment at the Star. 
 
It was after that punched-in-the-mouth defeat at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility when Hester knew, really knew, that he needed a quarterback of his own … aka a point guard.    
 
"There are very few Super Bowl champions that won with a bad quarterback," said Hester.  "It is a position that you must start with when you build a team.  In basketball, it's the point guard position."
 
Instead of taking his usual front seat on the charter bus back to Ruston, he and assistant coach Darshawn McClellan drove to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.  Their destination … Lemoore, California.  Their reason … Sean Newman Jr.  
 
"We flew all night and went to see him play the next morning in the California Community College Final Four," recalled Hester.  "We wanted to see him before his season ended to show him how much we wanted him."
 
Newman Jr., a slender 6-foot-1, 160-pound point guard with a pencil mustache and business-like demeanor, was in the process of leading Fullerton College to a CCCAA state championship.
 
Long before he was being recruited to come to LA Tech, Sean was growing up in the entertainment capital of the world that is Los Angeles.
 
"I was about 15 minutes from the beach.  You did not have to go very far to find something to do.  I would see professional basketball players from time to time, like when me and my parents were out eating at a breakfast spot and saw Shaun Livingston.  My parents pointed him out, so I wanted to take a picture with him.  I feel bad now that I think about it.  He was with his lady just trying to eat some food.
 
"I was more of a home body though."
 
He admitted he was not a big fan of the beach as a kid.  Took a couple of trips to Disneyland though.  Visited the Santa Monica pier a few times.  Did make regular trips to In-N-Out, a California staple (his go to -- 3x3, grilled onions, with fries and lemonade).
 
Mostly though, Sean remembers spending time with his family and his other family at Calvary Chapel Inglewood.  And playing two-hand touch football and basketball in the streets, stopping games only to let cars go by. 
 
Car!  Game on!    
 
There was also playing hoops at nearby Darby Park, getting coached by his dad who he did NOT get his height from.
 
"My dad is 6-5, my mom is 5-7.  Pretty sure I took the height from my mom's side because her brothers and dad are all short.  I was probably like 5-9, 130 pounds playing in high school at Culver City.
 
"I have been a late bloomer my whole life.  Looking back there was no way I was ready to come straight out of high school and play Division I."
 
Instead, Sean took the 45-minute trek to Fullerton College (or an hour and a half depending on traffic because well, it's LA).
 
"My head coach at Fullerton named Perry Webster, he reached out to me and laid out a perfect plan.  It made the most sense.  I knew I did not want to go to prep school across the country.  I was not ready at that time in my life.  Really it was all God, working everything out for me."
 
After a shortened freshman season with the Hornets due to injury, Sean lost only once as a sophomore.  13.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game, and 32 wins.  Sixteen of those were in league play, resulting in the Orange Empire Conference regular season title.  The last victory was that over San Francisco in the CCCAA title game. 
 
"My pulse in Texas is really good because I am from there, but I spent time as an assistant at San Jose State," said Hester.  "California has been a part of the country where I have been able to find some recruits over the years.  When you go to major cities like Los Angeles, a lot of players get lost.
 
"When I saw Sean, he made all the right plays.  His team functioned at a high rate.  He was what made the team go."
 
Was coach worried about Sean's small stature?  Nope.  Was he concerned about Sean's lack of interest from other schools?  Not at all.  Was he hesitant about Sean being able to make the jump from juco to DI?  Negative.
 
The exact moment Hester knew he really wanted Sean as his point guard was when he went to see him play Orange Coast.
 
"They were up like 30 in the second half and there was a loose ball.  There was every reason that 99 percent of players in America would have just let the loose ball go out of bounds.  Sean dives on the floor, gets the loose ball, and starts a fast break for his team.  That was a winning play, even though they would win by like 50.  Those are guys you want.  He valued a possession that did not matter.  I knew at that point that he knew what it took to win." 
 
"Coach Hester was a great recruiter," said Newman Jr. who had never heard of Louisiana Tech before getting a call out of the blue with a scholarship offer.  "He laid out a perfect plan and everything made sense.  He came out to California twice to see me and that is not an easy trip to make.  That meant a lot to me."
 
What Sean discovered in Ruston was a small town with few distractions where he could work on his game and be around people that believed in him. 
 
And less traffic of course.  I-20 ain't exactly the 405.
 
Undersized, overlooked.  All Sean did in year one with the Bulldogs was help lead the team to a 22-win season and lead Conference USA in assists, earning him Honorable Mention All-CUSA honors.
 
Oh, and remember that game at Western Kentucky when he had 19 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists?  Peak Sean Newman Jr. in 2023-24.
 
Year two Sean has taken things to another level … as in leading not just the team and CUSA in assists, but the entire country with 108 dimes through 12 games. 
 
Fastest Bulldog ever to 100 assists in a single season.  Already has five games of 10+ assists, tied for the third most in program history.  Has a team-leading three double-doubles.   
 
Plus, we experienced a new peak Sean Newman Jr. this past Monday, going for a career-high 25 points as well as nine assists in a 74-66 win over WAC preseason favorite Grand Canyon.  Now the squad, which Sean stated "has not even come close to being the team we want to be or can be" is off to a 10-2 start, their best since 2015.
 
"Being away from home the first year, that is shocking for any kid and he in particular from across the country," said Hester on the growth from last season to this season.  "Now he is settled in.  His whole life, he did not get recruited, was undervalued.  You finally get to a place where people see his talent and see that he is that guy, I think his confidence has grown because of it."
 
Passed over by many in middle school, high school, and juco, Sean has most certainly made a name for himself in the other LA. 
 
"I could have easily given up many times," admitted Sean.  "A lot of the credit goes to my dad because he instilled a work ethic in me at a very early age.  I just always kept working, kept grinding because you never know how things will turn out."
 
Following the victory over GCU, Hester was posed with a question about Sean being underrated nationally. 
 
His quick reply … "He isn't underrated anymore."