Latest / The Student Athlete Sessions / These D3 Allstars Just Barnstormed Around Europe

Transcript

These D3 Allstars Just Barnstormed Around Europe · The Student Athlete Sessions

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of Student Athlete Sessions.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Today we are joined by a double feature of D3 athletes.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: One current, one former.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: We got Adam Brazel at Hampton City College.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we have Nate Schaefer, former Swarthmore basketball student-athlete, now balling abroad in Europe.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Gentlemen, how's it going?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: All good on my end.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's going good, Carl.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're happy to be here.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: we typically start things off letting the student athlete or former student athlete
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: give a little,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: high level intro of themselves where you're at now.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, just to give a good listener, some context on where you're coming from.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: So feel free, whoever wants to take that.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go first.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, like Carl said, I'm a former Swarthmore basketball player.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I graduated from Langley High School,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: which is in Northern Virginia,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: in McLean,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: in 2016,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: and headed straight to SWAT,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: a program which I guess,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Carl,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: you had graduated from two or three years beforehand,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: and showed up at SWAT.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We were a good team,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: for sure,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: when I first got there,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't think the accomplishment had panned out.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: But yet,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: my first year on campus was Coach Landry Kosmolsky's first year with the entire
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: roster being players that he had recruited.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that was a big part in the fact that,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: once I showed up,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: things really did start to pick up speed as far as the on-paper accomplishments.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So my freshman year was the team's first conference championship victory.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: first national tournament appearance and we got our first national tournament win.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And throughout the course of my preceding three years,
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: we continued to have some really good success,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: both in the regular season,
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: both in the conference tournament and in the national tournament,
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: including my junior year,
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: we made an appearance in the national title game.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And my senior year was cut short by COVID, but we were ranked first in the country all year.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we were set to appear in the Elite Eight, if I'm not mistaken, something like that.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: But then once COVID hit, graduation happened.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the months leading up to that,
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I had set in stone plans to go to Ireland to join a program called the Victory
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Scholarship Program,
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: which is something that a former teammate of mine,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Zach Yonda,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: that Swarthmore had done,
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: and a former coach of mine,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan Ansell,
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: who you guys might know as Davidson fans.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: He would have been somewhere back there in the Davidson rosters.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Manager extraordinaire, yeah.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Manager extraordinaire, yeah.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely back there somewhere doing good things because that's all he does is good things.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the two of them were former Victory Scholar athletes, which is a program that recruits –
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: largely D3 athletes,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: but basketball players of any pedigree to come to Ireland,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: places them in a university somewhere in the country,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: places them with a pro club,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: alongside that university and gives you all that experience for free in exchange
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: for a lot of your time dedicated to volunteer work.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they'll get you in local schools and with local youth clubs,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: coaching,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: spreading the sport of basketball.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It has a much
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: much weaker foothold I guess in Ireland basketball is at the top of the totem pole
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: here whereas over there a basketball gym class in high school or a varsity
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: basketball practices we're working on layups and we're learning what a ball screen
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: is like it's it's a lot more rudimentary so even as a guy with basically no real
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: coaching experience I could go over there and teach a lot of fundamentals to a lot
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: of kids that are really excited to learn a new skill so
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I showed up in Ireland fall of 2020.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: That season didn't follow through with all the restrictions and whatnot.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I finally got my first pro experience in Ireland in the fall of 21 in a club
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: called Carlo,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: a town called Carlo.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I had a plan for the club there.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was a great year.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was lucky enough to follow it up.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: with two seasons in the same league in Belfast.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to head north playing in the same league.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: We actually did get promoted my first year.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So another successful accomplishment in that regard,
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: just getting to play with a bunch of really good guys and getting to win some fun
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: games as well.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll pause you there.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: We definitely want to keep going on that.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: We'll dive in more into your Euro career so far.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: But Adam, Nate was talking about ending his career with COVID.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: You started your career with COVID and you're back on that campus now for this call
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: back at Hampton-Sydney,
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: fresh off a 6 a.m.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: lift.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm in my fifth year of college,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: all of which in Hampton,
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Sydney,
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I went to,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Davidson day school in Davidson,
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: North Carolina,
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: which is,
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: also where Carl grew up.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So represent and, uh, won a state championship there my senior year, which was a month before COVID hit.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we won in February COVID hits in March.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And, uh,
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the first two years of my college experience were heavily impacted by COVID.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: came in and I played five games my freshman year.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then by the time my sophomore year rolled around,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think we had three games canceled my sophomore year for COVID.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: But we went two and four my freshman year.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: We went 14 and 11 my sophomore year.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then we started to kind of pick up the pace and we had five returning starters
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: and a bunch of key bench pieces.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we kind of started to build something special.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we went 22 and seven, finished second in the conference behind Randolph-Macon.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: and then went to our first NCAA tournament appearance since I think 2013.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: So 10 years.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we beat Emory in the first round before losing to the eventual national champions,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Christopher Newport.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: we really burst onto the scene that year by beating CNU earlier in the season when
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: they were ranked number one,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: which is when kind of everyone started to pay attention to us in the ranking world,
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: which was really new to us and like really fun.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, then you kind of start to realize that the rankings don't really matter.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like, oh, you're just focused on yourself and the progress.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so we...
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Same group of guys that we had basically my freshman year and sophomore year with
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: me all the way through my senior year.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: We had three guys take a fifth year.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: We had six seniors last year.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so we had a very old team, very experienced team.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Got off to a strong start.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Finished the year 31-3.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: We won the ODAC championship.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: We were ranked number one in the country most of the year, which was cool.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Mostly because...
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: The cool part was that we got everybody's best shot,
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: which was a lot of fun,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: so there was a lot of good games.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Then we made a really strong run in the NCAA tournament before losing in the
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: national championship,
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: which is an experience my buddy Nate shares as well.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was still an incredible experience making it to the Final Four, playing in Fort Wayne in front of
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think the biggest crowd in D3 national championship history, which was really, really fun.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: yeah,
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: so I decided that I was going to take my fifth year basically like my freshman or
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: sophomore year.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I just knew that Hampton-Sydney was right for me, and if I had an extra year, I'd use it here.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm excited to come back for one more year.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And as you mentioned, we just finished up a 6 a.m.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: lift this morning, so we're back in the swing of things, which is fun.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: And,
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: and it seems like the,
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: the unfortunate loss in the national championship for both y'all is not the only career,
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: parallel.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's a lot of,
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if you guys got a chance to talk about it when you were together recently,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: but like Nate,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: you talked about where the program was when you joined,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: it had definitely come a long way,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: but
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like where you guys were heading into COVID and now,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Adam,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: where you guys have gotten post-COVID is very similar.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Can you guys just talk about if you had to put your finger on a couple things that
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: either your coaches have done,
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: your teammates have done.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Adam, you talked about the experience and the guys you brought back for that run last year.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: What are one or two things that really you feel like helped
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: solidify like maybe some progress into actual like,
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: excellence and,
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: and that got you to the national championship game.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I think one thing that pushed our team over the edge was our culture,
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: which is founded on the idea that we call SOE.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like standard of excellence is what we call it.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And basically what that means is that you're trying to be the best version of
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: yourself each and every day.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: we're going to be the standard of excellence in division three basketball.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so that comes in a lot of ways,
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: but mostly what it looks like is that,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: you're trying to get better each and every day and you make excellence like a habit.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so we,
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: something we talk about is that,
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: we were ODAC champions before we actually like held up that trophy.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we were,
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was,
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say I was an all American before they named me an all American or something
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: like that.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so like our,
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: our habits that we do on a daily basis,
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: the habits that we create,
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: the elite routines is what we call,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: those things that take place on a daily basis lead us to where we go.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the understanding of that and the collective buy-in to that idea is
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: what separates us from the rest.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I also think maybe on the core and more specifically,
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think our defense and our rebounding is what separates us the most.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I have a couple of stats.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: My coach told me this yesterday, but I,
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: we pride ourselves like on our offensive rebounding.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we always crash the O board and we got 41% of our field goal attempts last year or our misses.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So like back on offense, another possession, 41% of the time.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, that was number one in the nation.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we love rebounding and we love defense.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we were definitely among the top, I think three defenses in the country.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the things we hang our hat on and our commitment to that across the
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: board is what makes us good.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: At the risk of sounding redundant, I'd say Adam really hit the nail right on the head there.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: The defense and the rebounding obviously is very important,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: but something that I really noticed on our trip and just spending almost two weeks
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: there with Adam and one of his teammates,
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: hearing them talk sort of the same talk that they would,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I presume,
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: amongst their team and their program and their day-to-day at Hampton-Sydney,
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: the things that they're saying about how we're going to conduct ourselves as a team,
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: how we're going to approach certain challenges,
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: just the way that you're going to be,
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: not really as a basketball player,
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: but as a member of a team.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was very cool to hear that caliber of leadership and
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a deliberate approach to your mentality when it comes to basketball,
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: because I did get a heavy dose of that at Swarthmore and I haven't gotten as much
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: of it since Swarthmore.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of like a breath of fresh air to be around guys that that hold
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: themselves to those standards of excellence to piggyback on on Adam's phrase there.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I can't say enough about the importance of the buy-in and keeping up that
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: culture every day and having that mentality that you're all on the same page,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: you're all in the same boat.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to say,
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was very lucky that even though I joined a basketball program at Swarthmore that
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: didn't necessarily have a big laundry list of accomplishments,
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: all of those things
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: that we're just now talking about, they were there.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: The foundation was built.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I got to walk into a culture that was phenomenal.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I take pride in the fact that I helped maintain that culture.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept it at the level that I found it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I did everything I could to follow through on that mission.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the fact that I got that blessing is a big part of the reason that
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: the program's achievement went through the roof during my first four years and the years following.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: I really do want to get to this trip that you referenced because I feel like that's
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: where I saw this picture of you guys together and I was like,
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: I got to figure out the backstory of this.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: But before I do...
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: uh i want to ask both you what is the motivator right you talk about like wanting
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: to maintain these standards of excellence but like is that intrinsic is that for
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: your teammates like what for you you know when you were sick or when you're had a
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: bad like academic result and you're you're down on yourself or you shot poorly or
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: you guys take a big loss like what helped you
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: personally continue to adhere to those those soes those standards of excellence i
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: would say uh you have a team of a bunch of guys that are they're very competitive
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: and everybody wants to win and that's a big part of it but uh the way you go about
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: it isn't you know you don't
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: You don't say, oh, we're going to win the national championship.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you talk about that every day and you show up at practice and say,
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: did we win the national championship today?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's just a ridiculous and impossible way to measure success and measure
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: achievement on a day-to-day basis.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd say the motivator isn't that big golden trophy at the end of the row.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what you're thinking about every day.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: You got to reframe the mentality and have it be more about
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: like day-to-day goals on how you're going to operate as a group.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we had some very simple ones,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: but it would be something like,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: if,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: if there's a challenge,
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: you're not going to,
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: you're not going to separate and deal with it internally as an individual,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: you're going to go to your teammates.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to work on it together.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: That would be one example of a goal that we would have.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so,
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: It would be those sorts of goals and accomplishing those sorts of goals on a daily basis.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: That would be a really big motivation for keeping that culture and like helping you
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: measure your success on a smaller scale.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: but just like,
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: it's really about,
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: about the guys that you're there in the room with,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: it's just,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: it's being together and holding each other accountable on a daily basis.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: and all moving towards those process goals, so to speak.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's absolutely true.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Something we talk about in our program is this idea of a cracked pot versus a pot
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: that has no cracks in it.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you pour in all this water, AKA time, energy, effort,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: money and sacrifice.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: You pour in all this into a pot, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: But your pot has cracks in it, right?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: The pot will never fill up.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: You'll never feel fulfilled.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so those cracks might look like, you know, prioritizing yourself over the team.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It might look like,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: this is common in maybe not in D3,
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: but it's common in just like the normal college basketball arena kind of now where
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: you just kind of transfer up.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: You're always thinking about you.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: How can I, how can I move up a level?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: How can I move up?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's, there's tons of ways you can have a cracked pot, but like,
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about it in individual ways where the individual is focused on themselves over the team.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: We always have to prioritize the team over ourself.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's a dozen of other things in ways to have your cracked pot.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if you're only thinking about minutes or stats or such and such when
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: we're in the weight room as opposed to lifting a guy up,
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: pushing yourself till failure,
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: correcting a guy's form,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: holding guys accountable.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the things that a fulfilled pot will look like, a pot with no cracks.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: A pot with no cracks is all about everybody else.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about the people around you.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Pouring into the people around you, oftentimes you'll find that your pot itself begins to fill up too.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's not why you pour in to people around you so that you can be fulfilled,
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: but it does happen that way a lot of times.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: I also think that
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: particularly with like the SOE stuff, it, uh, it lasts like a lifetime.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I know for me that when I'm practicing discipline and sacrifice and all
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: these things,
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: like on a daily basis,
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: I try to see them in a big picture and they're like,
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: they're going to carry over long after my playing days are over.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And, um,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's a real motivator for me.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to have bad days,
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: but progress isn't a linear thing where it's just going up like this on a graph.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: You're going to have days where you go up,
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: across,
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: down,
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: across,
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: down,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: and then you'll shoot up eventually.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: You can't expect progress to be linear.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's going to be bad days in there.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes on your bad days, that's when you grow the most because you stayed determined throughout.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: You just trust the process throughout and makes you into a tougher individual,
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: makes you a grittier individual.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, those are some of the things I like to focus on that keep me consistently motivated.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for that.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: And thanks for, thanks for indulging me.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: I just,
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: it is,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: it's always,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's easy to get caught up in and just talking about culture,
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: but then hearing the motivators,
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: hearing like what it takes,
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: as you both pointed out to like maintain on a daily basis,
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: even when you might dip or even when like something's going on,
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone wants to make it to the national championship game,
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Nate,
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: but how do you focus on the day-to-day,
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: keep that in perspective?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's helpful for me to hear still,
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: definitely for recruits to hear who are trying to play at the next level.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said earlier,
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: definitely want to pivot now to this trip and this picture of what was,
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: a D3 plus all-star team.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: We had some high academic guys on there.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'll just go down the list.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: SWAT, Yale, Dartmouth, Emory, Johns Hopkins.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: You all need another Hopkins.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Two from Hampton, Sydney.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you guys were over in Europe playing.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: So how did that come about?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: And what were both of you trying to get out of the trip?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it actually came out pretty organically for me.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I heard about this trip from one of my assistant coaches.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I'm speaking about a different trip right now before we get to this trip.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I heard about this opportunity to play in a –
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: um d3 jamboree in uh in washington dc in um late june of this past summer and the
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: coaches could not be involved whatsoever in it and so the captain of the team had
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: to like get the group together find uh find uniforms for you guys to wear that are
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: not you know school affiliated there's so much stuff that goes into it so you don't
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: break the laws of the ncaa but
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: basically we decided me and I think eight,
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: eight or nine other guys decided to make a drive from,
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I live in Charlotte,
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: right?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So Davidson area.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: so that's about six hours to DC,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: but I picked up some guys along the way and we carpooled up there and had some guys
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: that live in Richmond.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: We stayed in Richmond one night and we went up to DC and we play in this tournament, right?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: We play against some really good teams playing against Catholic hood, Hopkins and Macon.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, wow, this is awesome.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: We get to expose a lot of our new freshmen and maybe some guys who haven't played as much to a, um,
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: to some really good teams, some really good ball.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And before we play Macon,
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: The last game that we played,
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Arthur Jackson comes up to me,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: and he's the one who put on the entire jamboree.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we'd been in communication throughout the week.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: He actually helped us find some jerseys to wear.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: He washed those jerseys for us in between the days and provided us with towels so
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: that we could shower and then drive home instead of play a game and then drive six
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: hours in a car,
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: which would have been brutal.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so he helped us out a lot, which was really, really nice.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: I could tell that he's just like a genuine guy.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: He comes up to me and he's like,
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: hey,
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm bringing a team to Europe later this summer if you're interested.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Immediately, I was like, that sounds like a dream.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to do that really badly.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Before the summer, I wanted to do that, but no opportunities came about until then.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, he chose me out of, I think there were eight teams there.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, I see you and I like you.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, wow, that actually means a lot because there's a lot of other really good players here.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we kept in contact throughout July.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then I guess we had kind of a roster set already.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then another big guy got hurt.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: My friend and roommate and teammate, Shane Fernald, he got the call to come join the trip too.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it came about for us to go, which is just so awesome and so exciting.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: He actually got the call when we were in the car together.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, dude, you have to go.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be so much fun.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it came about for me.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was really, really cool.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: On the timeline,
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think my recruitment would be right in between Adam and Shane's as far as how it
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: came to be that I would join this trip.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't through Arthur Jackson, the guy who organized the whole trip.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the brainchild of his.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually the other chaperone, so to speak, that we had on the trip, Bruce Kelly.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: He served as our coach for the trip.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So he'd be the guy at the end of the bench there.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: calling the shots,
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: but when he's not gallivanting around the Netherlands in Belgium,
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: he's the head coach at Bullis high school,
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: which is a really,
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: really prestigious basketball program in Potomac,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maryland.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually have met him kind of by happenstance,
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: similar to Adam's story with,
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: with Arthur Jackson there.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: I met him at a three on three tournament at my local high school, five minutes down the road.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: he was there watching and he noticed me playing and we got to talking and he ended up,
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: this was last fall.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up inviting me to come up to his high school practices and work out with
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: his team and practice with his team as a way for me to stay in shape in between,
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: in between pro skins.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a symbiotic relationship from the back.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Cause I got to play with really, really talented guys that he coaches a lot of,
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: future division one basketball players showing up in the same gym,
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: not something that I got at my high school for sure.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got the benefit of playing alongside those guys.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, they got the benefit of playing alongside me.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think I might not be able to
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: shoot as well or run as fast or jump as high as basically any of them.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I did get to show them what it was like to have,
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: uh,
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: an elite college mindset and,
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: and,
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: and habits and behaviors in a practice.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And from what I'm,
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: from what I'm told,
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: coach Kelly said,
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: it was a,
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: a very beneficial experience for them as well,
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: just to have me in the gym.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that was flattering.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And, uh,
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where was I going with this?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh,
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Coach Kelly,
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: he called me maybe a month before the trip and said,
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: similar to what Adam was talking about with the shame,
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: they just had a guy that was committed to the trip who then got hurt,
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: and all of a sudden they had no frontcourt players.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Coach said, oh, I know a guy.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see if he's available to show up.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I got the call, and it was an easy decision.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: A lot like Adam had said, I knew right away this was something I wanted to do.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I had at that point played in Ireland for several seasons,
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: which don't get me wrong,
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: was a lot of fun,
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm eager for a new challenge.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this was the perfect chance for me to get my feet wet and try something new in a different country.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a perfect opportunity for me.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I ended up joining these guys on a trip.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: and it sounds like,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean,
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: we talked before we got on this call,
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: and it sounds like you guys both got context,
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: right,
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: which is a rare thing.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think when I'm talking to recruits,
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: I always encourage them to,
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: like,
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: go find kids in their area who they know are playing.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, for instance, Nate, in your area, DMV, get kids, you know,
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: who you know are going to be Division I talents, play against them.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: All right, you rank yourself.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm probably not there, but I can compete.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I can play in college.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Adam,
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: in your neck of the woods,
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: you probably could go down to North Meck,
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: where I went to high school,
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: and your Davidson Day guys would figure out that there may be a run below for a
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: public school ball,
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: but that's a different story.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, hold on now.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hold on now.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I played with a couple of real good D1 guys on my team.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just messing with you.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: Davidson Day has definitely had some good players, some high-level talent.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: But, no, it's good to get that context.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like,
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: Nate,
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: with you already having some years under your belt abroad,
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: it was extra helpful,
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: Adam,
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: for you coming out of school,
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: going back into school for a fifth year.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably just like a nice –
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: way to get a sense of the lay of the land over there.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: And like, um, yeah, I don't know.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: What did you guys walk away with a sense of Nate,
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: you maybe some future opportunities,
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: Adam,
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: um,
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: a path for you to,
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: after you focus on this fifth year,
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: maybe have an opportunity that you weren't thinking you would have,
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: previously abroad.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um,
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was an interesting mix of – just on the basketball part,
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: it was an interesting mix of,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: oh,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: yeah,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: I can definitely play over here.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And, like –
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: a huge wake up call on what I need to work on.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so it left me feeling extremely motivated to address the things I need to work
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: on so that I can get back to,
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: or so that I can reach that level consistently because we played six games and,
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: there wasn't a game.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Actually,
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: there was one game that I felt like I didn't belong,
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: but there were five games in which I was like,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: not only do I belong,
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: but like I can,
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: I can control the game out here for at least my team.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we competed in most of the games we were in and even won a game.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so,
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: when you have a group of guys,
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: only one of which who's on a full ride for an athletic scholarship,
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: and you are together for three practices,
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: and then you go play together when,
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: like,
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: nobody knows each other.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: No sets, really.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: No defensive principles.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just...
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: for the love of the game and you go play against a pro team full of,
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: possibly division one Americans and extremely advanced,
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: fundamentally skilled,
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: smart,
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: with really good size Europeans who practice year-round and run sets and are really
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: thorough to even win a game and even be competing in these games was just like
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: phenomenal like the more I look back at it I'm like how did we win that game like
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: we had no business that the team that we beat had guys that went to Vanderbilt Utah
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: and Duquesne that was the team we beat and so it was like
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: it was just an awesome,
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: an awesome,
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: um,
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: an awesome experience in which I learned that I needed to work on.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: I need to address my strength and my skin, my, and my, uh, athleticism, uh, continually.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I needed to,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: continue to push my shooting to another level,
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: and my,
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: use of the ball screen.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Cause that's just so prominent over there.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it left me with a lot to work on, left me very motivated, um,
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: right before we head into our preseason.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so I have a lot to work on, not just for this season, but for after, which is nice.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it also made me very happy that I was able to compete against professional
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: players over there in the top league in Belgium and the Netherlands.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would say a similar reaction to the trip was Adam.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was definitely a learning experience.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think Adam might even be underselling the degree of adversity that we faced in some of these games.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: We played really, really, really good competition.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: I knew going into the trip that the teams we were going to be playing against were
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: going to be better than what I'd seen in Ireland.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the status of the leagues.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ireland's probably among the lowest teams
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: pedigreed league in in europe and the netherlands just won a gold medal i'm pretty
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: sure in three on three at the olympics so there's there's a discrepancy there to be
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: sure and my suspicions were proven correct almost immediately uh we played a game
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: the day that we landed after a transatlantic flight in a two-hour bus ride we
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: warmed up for 15 minutes and strolled out there onto a court with
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: what had to have been half a dozen division one basketball players,
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: former D1 basketball players that have had season pro careers.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we stuck it out with a lot of these teams.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was really proud of the group that I was with.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was kind of unsure, like being the only pro, the only guy with pro experience.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I sort of had a sense that we'd be in for a really tough challenge.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know whether or not
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: especially a lot of the D3 guys on the group that were used to being big fish.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: there's some really good programs,
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: D3 programs represented,
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: a lot of guys that are used to winning games between Hopkins and Hampton-Sydney.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was unsure whether or not these guys were going to show up and know how to handle themselves.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: because it was going to be such an uphill battle.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: it's just,
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: it's a completely different set of circumstances to be such an underdog,
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: both physically and from a talent perspective and from a team perspective.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a huge adjustment for me to leave Swarthmore and suddenly not
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: have the support of a culture and a perfectly polished offensive system and a dozen
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: teammates that knew exactly what I wanted and I knew what they wanted,
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: you're really just thrown out there.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so to face that adversity and still play well as a group and to be able to find
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: success as an individual,
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: I felt really good.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: And with a little bit of luck, I might actually get
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: a deal over there,
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: not with any of the teams that we faced,
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: but just with some of the connections that I was able to make over there,
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: particularly through Arthur Jackson.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: He helped, like we said, schedule the trip, and he played a bunch over there.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: So,
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: like I said,
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: with any luck,
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: I might be playing in the Netherlands by this time next week,
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: or I might be thinking back on this trip one day and saying,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: wow,
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: we played some good teams.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like from the conversations I've had,
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: for guys and gals who want to go from Division III level and play professional
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: basketball in Europe,
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: it is all about those trusted personal connections.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Adam, you talked about when you
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: When you met Richie at the Jamboree, you could just tell he was a good person.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: You had this context behind him getting you guys jerseys, making sure they were clean, all that.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: These trusted people that then also have connections abroad, that's how you get your first step.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Nate, you mentioned you got promoted from a lower league to a higher league in Ireland.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's similar to this guy, Will Hanley, that I talked to a couple years ago now.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: Went to Bowdoin.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Started, I think, third division Spain.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Got his team promoted to the second division.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then all of a sudden, because he had played well, they didn't make the playoffs.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: He got poached to a first division team in Spain.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: So he was playing in the ACB a year after.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: landing over there just because he had played well on one team um and and knew knew
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: the right people so i think the way you guys are handling it if you want to
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: continue to play abroad seems like it's the way to do it and i think just take
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: notes for anyone who's listening who's currently playing division three basketball
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: and is like i want to follow in these guys footsteps it's all about putting
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: yourself out there and saying yes to an opportunity regardless of you know maybe
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: how
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: last minute or crazy it is when it pops up.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: So.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Those,
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: those personal connections are invaluable and any chance that you can,
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: you can find them,
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: you got to mine them.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just go after anybody that tells you they played pro, just hear how and where and why and all that stuff.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've gotten a lot of those interactions,
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: especially since becoming a pro and sort of always fishing for my next team and
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I haven't hired an agent.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's all who do you know and who's going to talk to you.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: At some point,
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: it might turn into an agent situation,
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: but the personal connections will get you a long way.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think quickly,
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: just going forward,
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: would you,
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: first of all,
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: just yes or no,
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: quick,
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: would you recommend this trip to someone else who's trying to do what you're doing?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: And in what we just talked about,
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: we,
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: we practiced with this team for three days and then we,
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: we traveled for,
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: I guess,
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: just a little over a week,
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: maybe nine or 10 days.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: And,
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: um,
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: the connections that I've,
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: that I've made and the friendships and the relationships I've built with everyone from,
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: from Arthur and Bruce to,
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Tanti and Charlie and,
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: and,
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: uh,
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nate, there's so many guys in that team.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: Every single one of them I'll think fondly of for as long as I know them.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: If they need a favorite for me, I'll be the first to help them out.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was just so much fun bonding with these guys.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was such an awesome experience to see places like Den Helder and Leiden and
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Brussels and Amsterdam and to play against teams like Antwerp and even the Den
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Helder sons who
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: I won't speak of what they did to us, but they were really, really good.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's close it out here.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: Get back to where our feet are the day-to-day.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: Adam, you are entering your fifth year at Hampton-Sydney, as you mentioned earlier.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: As you go into this year,
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: what are you trying to leave behind in terms of not wins and losses,
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: not,
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: not outcomes in the season,
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: but,
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: if you could hand this program off to the next generation,
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: what,
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: what,
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: what do you want people to remember,
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: your legacy as,
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: as your contribution?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good question.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's, it's definitely something I've thought about a lot.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, like willingly taking my fifth year here and, um,
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: just like we don't have a grad program here, right?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: So me being here, I'm trying to make the most out of it, both academically and athletically.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when I think about the basketball program, I think we lost eight guys last year to graduation.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have a very young team.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: We have a very inexperienced team in a lot of ways.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: We've also got a very talented team and a team that's very committed to our
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: standards and our values right now.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so if I can leave behind a legacy for people to look up to and look over to,
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: to be like,
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: yeah,
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: this guy was the SOE.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if people can just learn from my experiences of...
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Started two and four.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Struggled my entire sophomore year, which is really my first full season.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: But really struggled my entire sophomore year with confidence issues and just me
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: being the size I was to me figuring out that it's all about your elite routines.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: I added weight, gained a lot of strength, improved my game year after year after year.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like...
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: it's as simple as just getting better every day and being a great teammate.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope I leave those things behind for the next generation.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: And Nate,
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: maybe slightly different question,
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: but,
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: but as a current pro,
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: you,
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: you mentioned you followed in Zach,
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: your teammate,
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: Zach Yonda's footsteps to find this victory scholars program.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: And after Ryan Ansel,
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: like how do you want to build a bridge,
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: I guess,
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: for the next generation of guys,
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: whether it be Swarthmore,
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: centennial conference,
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: now that you have some,
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: you know,
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: some of these Hopkins connections or,
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: or the Emory,
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: like how do you want to build that next generation to help other guys do what
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: you're doing now overseas?
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a tricky question.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: I really believe in the experience that I've had and the value that it,
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: that it brings to the table.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's pretty standard for,
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: for a college athlete not to have that luxury of taking a semester abroad and
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: seeing somewhere new and a different culture and getting to be out of your comfort zone like that.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I've done has given me that that luxury and also getting to show up
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: into a new country and getting put onto a team.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're kind of you're kind of guaranteed to just make a whole whole new batch of really close friends.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been blessed with that as well.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: so the experience i think is really valuable and i i can't say that i can i can
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: give you a great answer off the cuff as to how i can grease the wheels for the next
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: set of guys that that might be coming from where i was coming from in a d3 program
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: and that might want to end up where i've been there are there are a lot of programs
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: that can help you do that sort of thing but
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: that's some that's some soul searching i guess i'll have to do is like how can i
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: impact the next wave of guys that will want that will want the things that i've
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: gotten and how can i help how can i help make that a reality yeah something to
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: think on hopefully on your flight over to uh to the netherlands when you sign that
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: pro deal time will tell we'll see all right last question for each of you how we
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: always close out uh
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_02: You can think about it as a conversation with your 18-year-old self,
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: 17-year-old self on the verge of playing college athletics or just a recruit nowadays.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: One sentence of advice,
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: what would you go back and tell that person on how to make the most of college athletics?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: I always think about a piece of advice that my AAU coach gave me when I was heading
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: into my senior year of college,
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: which would be equally applicable to somebody getting ready to play college sports.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: And really the message was don't blink because it goes so fast.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: And especially as your college career goes on,
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: your perception of that time continues to speed up.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, as a freshman, you're kind of living day to day, just everything is new.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then as you gain more experience, those moments can slip by so much quicker.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I feel really lucky to have gotten that advice and taken it to heart and really,
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: really often just make a deliberate point of enjoying just basking in those little
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: moments
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: whether you're in the locker room getting ready for practice or walking to dinner
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever dumb little thing that happens to be at the top of your docket for that day,
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: to go out of your way to enjoy that stuff.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because as I said earlier, my senior year got cut short.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even get all that I was promised as far as basketball and as far as time
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: on campus with my teammates.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I at least can take solace in the fact that I did
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: squeeze every drop out of what I was given.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the one thing I would want everybody to remember.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: I would kind of stick with something I've already hit on, but...
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: Get better every day, be a great teammate, and trust the process.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: I see so many kids, they want to rush the process and give up on it.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: Just believe in it.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really trust it.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you get better every single day,
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: I truly believe,
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: if you get better every single day,
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: the process will take care of itself.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like you were saying earlier, Nate,
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like when great teams and great players are process oriented,
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: they're not thinking,
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: they're not waking up thinking about the goal every single day.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: They get lost in the process.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so like when I say trust the process, not everything's going to go according to your plan.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: Not everything – you might get injured.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: You might go scoreless in a big game to end your season.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Something really seemingly mind-numbingly bad might happen to you.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: You might miss – for me,
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: it was my junior year when I missed three free throws down the stretch of our
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: semifinal game against Guilford in the ODAC tournament.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then a guy hits a 38-foot buzzer beater three in front of my face to beat us by one.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was like that hit me so hard.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, why would this happen?
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like, am I even the player that I think I am?
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like, oh, back to work.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just get back to work and then it'll work out.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: You have to get better every single day and be a great teammate and trust the
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: process and things will work out the way you want it.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: I really believe that.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Great advice there, guys.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: Great advice throughout.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um,
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: yeah,
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: tons of takeaways for,
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: for people who are trying to follow after you,
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: whether that's playing,
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: playing college,
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: playing D3 or playing,
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_02: uh,
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: playing abroad, exploring those opportunities.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you both for joining.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone follow along as Adam takes a ride through his last season.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you all have a fun non-conference slate.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then the ODAC is always exciting.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: And Nate, we will be posting updates whenever they come out.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: So everyone listening, stay tuned for that.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: Guys, any last thoughts, closing thoughts?
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Swarthmore-Hanson-Sydney season opener.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's Swarthmore.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Should be coming up here in a month, right?
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's November.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is it maybe the 5th or something?
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty early.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the 8th.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm excited.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: It should be fun.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be easy cheering against you.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to cheer against me.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's the crazy part.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: All right, guys.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Breaking barriers here.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: This trip has changed you all.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks again, guys.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: This has been another episode of the Student Athlete Sessions signing off.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: As always, you can find our previous episodes on Apple, Spotify, wherever else you listen.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: And stay tuned on Twitter and Substack for more updates.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you next time.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: Cheers.