BEAUMONT, Texas — For 10 years, Sherron Wilkerson has worked toward one goal — to coach on the NCAA Division I level.

On Tuesday, the former Jeffersonville High School basketball star achieved that goal.

Wilkerson was named an assistant coach for the Lamar University men’s basketball team. The Cardinals’ head coach is former Indiana University player and assistant coach Pat Knight, the youngest son of ex-IU head coach and current Hall of Famer Bob Knight.

“I’m very, very fortunate,” Wilkerson said in a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon. “I’ve been chasing this opportunity for 10 years. It’s been a long road, but it was worth it.”

Ever since he ended his professional basketball career in Israel in 2004, Wilkerson has been working on his coaching career.

Wilkerson was the head coach at Herron Charter School in Indianapolis during the 2009-10 season, posting a 2-16 record.

Wilkerson then was an assistant coach for the IU Southeast men’s basketball team under head coach and former University of Louisville player Wiley Brown in the 2010-11 campaign. During that season, the Grenadiers posted a 21-11 record, won the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships and earned a berth in the NAIA Division II National Championship tournament.

Plus Wilkerson coached a handful of AAU squads in Southern Indiana the past several years.

Wilkerson and Pat Knight have known each other for several years. They were teammates at IU in the mid-1990s before Wilkerson ended his collegiate playing career at the University of Rio Grande (Ohio), a NAIA school.

They later crossed paths when Wilkerson played for Knight when the current Lamar boss was the head coach of the Wisconsin Blast of the International Basketball Association.

“It’s important to get people who are loyal and who you can trust,” Knight said in a statement. “Sherron was a great teammate and a great player for me in the minor leagues. He is hungry and wants to get into the college game and all that adds up to is a great hire.”

Wilkerson says his past relationship with Knight played a key role in him earning the Lamar assistant post.

“It was a huge factor,” Wilkerson said. “I leaned on Pat a lot as a player at IU. I’m familiar with him as a player when I played for him.”

Last season, Lamar posted a 23-12 record and earned an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament by winning the Southland Conference Tournament. The Cardinals lost to Vermont in an NCAA First Four game in Dayton, Ohio, 71-59.

With the graduation of several key players from last year’s squad, Lamar will have a young roster this season. But Wilkerson is optimistic the Cardinals will be competitive.

“We’re going to be young, but I think we’ll be really good,” Wilkerson said. “We have a tough nonconference schedule. But when conference comes around, we should be tough.”

Wilkerson says Pat Knight uses a motion offense and a man-to-man defense like his father did at IU. But Wilkerson mentioned that the younger Knight has implemented a few of his own personal wrinkles to his system.

“Along the way, he has done some things on his own,” Wilkerson said. “We have some fast, quick players. We’ve got some shooters and got some guys who can beat players off the bounce.”

Wilkerson was the leader of the 1993 state championship team at Jeffersonville. He currently ranks seventh all-time in scoring (1,140 points) and fourth in career assists (404) at Jeff High.

Wilkerson still holds single-season records in assists (217) and steals (86) at JHS. He set both marks during the historic 1992-93 season under Hall of Fame head coach Mike Broughton.