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Queens’ Culture and Rebounding Philosophies · A Quick Timeout

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0:48
SPEAKER_00: Excited today to be joined by Coach Adam Short,
0:50
SPEAKER_00: assistant coach at Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Prior to his time there at Queens,
0:55
SPEAKER_00: he served as director of player development at both Texas and Ole Miss
0:59
SPEAKER_00: under Coach Chris Beard, now entering his third year in the Queen City.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Coach, thanks for fitting this in amongst all of the responsibilities recruiting
1:08
SPEAKER_00: and otherwise that you have.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, Coach, thank you for having me.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, got a lot of respect.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: For you,
1:15
SPEAKER_01: and obviously your program,
1:17
SPEAKER_01: new to the Carolinas, this will be going on my third season.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Before I got out here, I didn't realize how many colleges were all in the vicinity.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: And obviously knowing the type of program you guys run,
1:29
SPEAKER_01: the high quality program and stuff,
1:31
SPEAKER_01: and then obviously what you do on Twitter,
1:32
SPEAKER_01: I have the utmost respect for you and thank you for having me on your show today.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate the kind words.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: First, congrats on the season, champions of the ASUN tournament.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that I mentioned this to you,
1:43
SPEAKER_00: but I actually saw you guys in person back in November against Furman.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: It was the game.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: You guys kind of got off to a slow start,
1:50
SPEAKER_00: but came storming back in the second half, and I knew...
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Just having been around them a lot, like Furman was going to be good.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: So when I saw that game, I thought, man, they're going to be really good too.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Did you go into last season feeling like tournament was a possibility?
2:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes, because I thought we did a really good job.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: And the whole organization will say the same thing, that we did a great job recruiting.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: We recruit the right pieces, the right people, and the guys that fit for Coach Grant Leonard.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: And Coach did a great job of scheduling a very, very tough non-conference schedule.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: And Furman's a real team, a real program, real coaches over there.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: They do a great job.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: We didn't play particularly well there.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: But as the season progressed,
2:35
SPEAKER_01: December rolled around,
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SPEAKER_01: and then when conference hit, we knew we had a chance to be special.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: And Coach does a great job of keeping everything big picture, big picture.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: Was our culture intact?
2:44
SPEAKER_01: Was our bench acting right?
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Was our body language good?
2:47
SPEAKER_01: And we had evidence of that all season.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: So when we cut down the nets in Jacksonville,
2:52
SPEAKER_01: we weren't surprised because the organization knew the character of our guys
2:57
SPEAKER_01: and knew what we had going on.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned in the intro player development at Texas and Ole Miss and
3:01
SPEAKER_00: then now they're at Queens.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a heightened pressure to win quickly with the transfers and even
3:08
SPEAKER_00: the incoming freshmen who maybe you only have for seven months.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Has that done anything or changed anything for you about how you think about
3:18
SPEAKER_00: or even do things with player development?
3:20
SPEAKER_01: No, like I think the most important thing you have to do is that you have
3:24
SPEAKER_01: to build real relationships.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: With your players, you have to build real relationships.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: You have to get to know them.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: You have to become the expert of them.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that changes whether,
3:36
SPEAKER_01: you know, pre-portal, portal right now, pre-NIL, NIL, it doesn't matter.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: The investment in your players is still the same.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: And getting to know them is so important.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: And then building a real relationship with them that they allow you to coach them At
3:53
SPEAKER_01: the highest level.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Because let's be honest, man, it's a long season.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: They're long days.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: If you practice in the morning, you'll have weights.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: You'll have a real practice.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: And then those guys will go on in classes and live like college students.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: And then you're expecting them to come back later at night when they're tired,
4:11
SPEAKER_01: when they're sore.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: And that's when the real relationships come in.
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SPEAKER_01: Like if they trust you,
4:16
SPEAKER_01: if they know that you have the best interest,
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SPEAKER_01: then you can get a full 30 to 40 minute workout that's a real workout.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: And I think that comes from having real relationships with them and being able
4:28
SPEAKER_01: to really coach them when they're not going full speed,
4:31
SPEAKER_01: like when they're kind of going through the motions.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I heard around the coaching community this year,
4:37
SPEAKER_00: and especially at the NABC convention in April,
4:40
SPEAKER_00: coaches talking about your team's style of play.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: How do you guys prep in those small group workouts,
4:48
SPEAKER_00: guys, to be able to have success in the team setting?
4:51
SPEAKER_01: We do a really good job before practice when we break down in small groups.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: So about 15 minutes before practice,
4:59
SPEAKER_01: and sometimes the guys will stay at the baskets,
5:01
SPEAKER_01: and then sometimes the guys will rotate.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: But we do a really good job of just teaching our concepts.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: We do a really good job of our guys going full speed.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: Coach talks about it all the time.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Our standard is our standard.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: So when the guys hit the floor after working out, those guys are ready to go.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: But we do a really good job of Preparing for what teams are going to run defensively
5:21
SPEAKER_01: against us.
5:22
SPEAKER_01: And we break it down in the most simple concept and rep it,
5:27
SPEAKER_01: whether that's before practice,
5:29
SPEAKER_01: whether that's in their individual skills, we are constantly working on that.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: Our guys love it, but we set the tempo and the pace at practice.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: In this era of positionless basketball,
5:43
SPEAKER_00: and especially the way that you all play,
5:45
SPEAKER_00: do you do similar or different when it comes to workouts for bigs and for guards?
5:53
SPEAKER_01: Is a separator.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: So we try to recruit guys that can shoot the basketball and obviously get guys in
6:01
SPEAKER_01: the gym to work on that.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: But every player is different.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: Coach Beard used to talk about game shots.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: Like players,
6:07
SPEAKER_01: you can watch players clips on Synergy,
6:10
SPEAKER_01: watch all their makes,
6:10
SPEAKER_01: all their misses, and you can pick up two or three game shots.
6:13
SPEAKER_01: Shots that they like to shoot and it's unique to everybody.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: Some people might have the same game shots, but everybody is unique.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: So then, you know, like you dive deep into your player.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: You dive deep before they get to campus.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Okay, hey, this is their game shot right here.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: We're going to continue to work on that.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: And then you work on the areas that maybe like they need work on and you work on
6:32
SPEAKER_01: that too as well.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: And then maybe their turnovers,
6:35
SPEAKER_01: like you study how they turn the ball over and you try to eliminate that.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: You try to work on those, like you try to make it as much game-like.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: In their, you know, individuals, in their pre-practice workouts.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: And everybody's different.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: So, like, everybody's workouts will be tailor-made to them.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: And then when you get them in the group setting,
6:51
SPEAKER_01: then you kind of work on more generalized, you know, stuff.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: Like if we're working on the bigs and we're working on a short roll,
6:57
SPEAKER_01: catch and see for half a second,
6:59
SPEAKER_01: look opposite, then you're making reads and trying to finish.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: We're constantly working on shooting every single day,
7:05
SPEAKER_01: whether it's,
7:06
SPEAKER_01: you know, in the team setting or the assistant coaches down on the floor.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Our guys have to be able to shoot threes.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: Our guys have to be able to play through a jumper.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: Coach, that's a big, that is a huge statement.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: Coach is always saying, play through your jumpers.
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SPEAKER_01: So we're always constantly working on our guys,
7:22
SPEAKER_01: playing through the jumpers, and then everything else is secondary.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Kind of a side question here.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a target for the number of threes you want to get up in a game?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: No, but I mean, just keep shooting them.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: When you're open, shoot them.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: We're very analytically driven.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't before I got the job, so I was starting to
7:42
SPEAKER_01: really dive deep into it.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: I can't look at things different anymore with it.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: But no, like coaches just shoot the right ones.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: So if we shoot 66 threes in a game, but they were good ones, then we're going to shoot them.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: We're going to shoot them.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: We had guys, we had guys that played through their jumper.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: You know, last year, obviously, Chris Ashby, you know, Carson Schweiger, my band.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: So, you know,
8:04
SPEAKER_01: everybody,
8:04
SPEAKER_01: like even Jordan Wofford,
8:05
SPEAKER_01: because he got in the gym every single day, he was playing through his jumper.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: He was a threat.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: But side note,
8:11
SPEAKER_01: I think the best thing we do when it comes to,
8:13
SPEAKER_01: you know, working on shooting is coach's ability to develop confidence in our guys.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I heard Coach Leonard talk about some of the small-sided games that you guys use.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: Anything stick out,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: maybe like a favorite for using to teach something in particular or just something
8:29
SPEAKER_00: that you enjoy?
8:30
SPEAKER_01: What I really enjoyed is we just preached the fundamentals.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: We preached our terms every single day.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: Maybe if I had a favorite one,
8:41
SPEAKER_01: maybe it's a step-up ball screen in the middle third of the floor,
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SPEAKER_01: and then you have a tag guy on either corner and you're playing off that.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: Because the short roll,
8:49
SPEAKER_01: and the short roll guy has to catch and see,
8:51
SPEAKER_01: work on catch and see, then he's going to make the right roll.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: And then on defense, you're working on the tag over.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: I think you kill multiple birds with one stone with that drill.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: But I don't think there's a very magic formula.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: I think what we did a really good job of was, like I said, we coached those guys.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: We worried about the discipline.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: We worried about our passes.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: We worried about getting the ball out quickly.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: And then Grant just coached them.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: And then held them to the standard.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: So there's not really a favorite one,
9:22
SPEAKER_01: but my favorite thing was how we coached the fundamentals every single day.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: Nothing was ever too complicated.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: It was simple and short,
9:31
SPEAKER_01: and obviously the result at the end of the season,
9:33
SPEAKER_01: cutting down the nets, holding the trophy.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: Coach did a really good job, and Dan Bailey, of constantly coaching the fundamentals.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that you said that that way because coaches are often looking
9:43
SPEAKER_00: for this magic drill or small-sided game that's going to turn the corner
9:47
SPEAKER_00: for their program.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: But you can hear it even in the way that you all play and what I saw.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: It's more about emphasizing the fundamentals and you create a game based
9:58
SPEAKER_00: upon what you're trying to get out of it.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be complex.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: It can be something as simple as that.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: And then, too,
10:05
SPEAKER_01: I think what Coach did a really good job of was like
10:09
SPEAKER_00: we would – I mean,
10:10
SPEAKER_00: say we're
10:10
SPEAKER_01: going in a,
10:12
SPEAKER_01: you know,
10:12
SPEAKER_01: the ball's on the left wing,
10:13
SPEAKER_01: you have somebody in the left side corner and it's a drag ball screen.
10:17
SPEAKER_01: The one thing that I like that coach did was that like he would give
10:20
SPEAKER_01: the defense every time different options of how to guard it
10:23
SPEAKER_01: and we wouldn't even tell them.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes we'd come off a hard hedge and then like the It would be,
10:28
SPEAKER_01: you know,
10:29
SPEAKER_01: they would turn the ball over,
10:30
SPEAKER_01: but we would rather have that than,
10:32
SPEAKER_01: you know, okay, hey,
10:33
SPEAKER_01: now you're going to come over and throw the hook pass and,
10:35
SPEAKER_01: like, there's no defense, there's no read and react.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: But one time somebody might,
10:38
SPEAKER_01: you know,
10:39
SPEAKER_01: read a hard hatch,
10:39
SPEAKER_01: have to get it out,
10:40
SPEAKER_01: and then the next time they come off,
10:42
SPEAKER_01: you know,
10:42
SPEAKER_01: like they might go against a drop or they might be guarded to where they have
10:46
SPEAKER_01: to reject the ball screen so they got to read and react it.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: So, you know,
10:50
SPEAKER_01: I thought that was something that Coach did a really good job of was having
10:54
SPEAKER_01: the defense,
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Sean Evans,
10:56
SPEAKER_01: one of the best big men,
10:58
SPEAKER_01: Defensive screeners or hedge guys in the country,
11:01
SPEAKER_01: he would do a great job of giving our guys different reads and our guys had to think
11:04
SPEAKER_01: on the dime and make the right play every single time.
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11:57
SPEAKER_00: Now,
11:57
SPEAKER_00: when you and I were going back and forth about what we were going to talk about,
12:01
SPEAKER_00: you mentioned rebounding,
12:02
SPEAKER_00: which is great because this is something that I want to talk about with coaches in
12:07
SPEAKER_00: the offseason in hopes that my team can get better at this.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: But let me start with this before you get to You're listed on the website as
12:15
SPEAKER_00: the rebounding and culture coordinator.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: And I love that Coach Leonard has decided not just to have
12:21
SPEAKER_00: the common offensive coordinator,
12:23
SPEAKER_00: defensive coordinator, but he split up other areas that matter for your program.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: I saw there was like a game plan specialist, defensive analyst.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming that putting a name to those really helps you as a staff member embrace
12:39
SPEAKER_00: that role even more.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and coach does an absolute great job of allowing you to be a star in your role,
12:50
SPEAKER_01: whatever that is.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: So like you said, a rebounding coordinator and culture coordinator.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about the culture one first.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: So I work for the very best when it comes to building a culture
13:02
SPEAKER_01: and Coach Chris Beard, the absolute best.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he's the best coach in college basketball, in my opinion.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: But the one thing that the one of many things that I took away from him was the culture aspect.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: And again, like the culture aspect has to tie into your specific team.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: It's different for everybody.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: So you can't.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: The one culture won't work for a different program, work for a different program.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: So we found what works best for us at Queens.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: But it has a heavy influence on what we did there.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: But just like with offense and defense,
13:33
SPEAKER_01: you have the film on huddle and you can cut it up using the sports code.
13:37
SPEAKER_01: Some people cut up the offense and cut up the defense.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, I was in charge of cutting up culture.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, if, you know, bad body language, like we were a no palms up organization.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: Like if you throw the palms up in basketball or in life,
13:51
SPEAKER_01: you're playing the victim and we don't want to be the victim.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: You know,
13:54
SPEAKER_01: like there's nothing that bad in life or the game of basketball where you had
13:58
SPEAKER_01: to throw palms up.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: So like we would show that players,
14:01
SPEAKER_01: coaches,
14:02
SPEAKER_01: anybody,
14:02
SPEAKER_01: managers, trainers, if you had the palms up, we're trying to eliminate that.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: So we would show that.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: Helping teammates off the floor, are you first to the floor?
14:11
SPEAKER_01: And a big one is bench energy, is the bench energy.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: And coach used to say this all the time,
14:18
SPEAKER_01: and I took this from him,
14:20
SPEAKER_01: that if a team is watching your bench during a game,
14:26
SPEAKER_01: and if ESPN would cover up the score, could they tell if you're up 20 or down 20?
14:32
SPEAKER_01: And they shouldn't be able to because your culture remains the same.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: And I alluded to this earlier.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: When we played Auburn, our first game after Christmas break, we got beat by maybe 35 or 40.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: And there were three clips that we showed throughout the year.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: When we were down by 40,
14:50
SPEAKER_01: somebody scored,
14:50
SPEAKER_01: Jordan Wofford scored, I think Isaiah Henry, and maybe McBann hit a three.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: And we're down 40.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: But our bench is obnoxious.
14:58
SPEAKER_01: Our bench is holding the standard.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: Again, we're down 40.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: And after the game, I said it, and I would always tie it into it.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: It was that we are going to win the A-Sun.
15:09
SPEAKER_01: And people in the organization can say it because of these clips right here
15:12
SPEAKER_01: because it didn't matter if we were up 40 or down 40.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: Our standard, our bench energy, our culture was still the same.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: And among other things,
15:20
SPEAKER_01: that's why we think or we know that why we won the A-Sun Championship this year.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: I love that kind of stuff.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Giving me some ideas for next year.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: So with the rebounding,
15:32
SPEAKER_00: talk about even the responsibilities,
15:34
SPEAKER_00: just like you did with the culture,
15:35
SPEAKER_00: because I'm interested in this and I may create a position for this within my staff.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: So we had some guys come in and talk about rebounding to our staff.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: And again, this is the first year we did it.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: And just like anything,
15:49
SPEAKER_01: trial and error, it grew from, you know, like it changed throughout the year.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: But what I would do is that I would watch just like anybody with offense
15:58
SPEAKER_01: and defense, I would watch the opponents three games and you watch it.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: And then every time a shot goes up on the offensive end, you're going to see.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Who's crashing and who's not?
16:08
SPEAKER_01: So, like, we broke it down into three categories.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: Is he a crasher?
16:12
SPEAKER_01: So he's crashing every single time from the wing.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: And, like, not 100% of the time because, like, it is basketball.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: So, like, if somebody's crashing over, like, 70% of the time, they're a crasher.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: So a crasher, a rando.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: So a rando is sometimes they go.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, Cam Hunter at Central Arkansas, elite-level player.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: Every time he would drive the paint and kick it out, he would become a crasher.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: So he wasn't really crashing from the perimeter,
16:38
SPEAKER_01: but if he got in the paint and kicked it out, he was going to crash.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes he would crash from the perimeter.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: We would talk about that.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: And I never picked up on that type of stuff until I started really watching it,
16:51
SPEAKER_01: until I really started to scout it.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: And then the get-back guys.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: So crashers, randos, get-back guys.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: And we would show different categories.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Hey, this is a team identity.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Maybe when the starting lineup's in,
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they have four crashers,
17:08
SPEAKER_01: and you show that, hey,
17:09
SPEAKER_01: it's starting lineup,
17:10
SPEAKER_01: four crashers,
17:12
SPEAKER_01: four crashers,
17:13
SPEAKER_01: and then,
17:14
SPEAKER_01: you know,
17:14
SPEAKER_01: or you could say, hey,
17:15
SPEAKER_01: you know,
17:16
SPEAKER_01: there's three crashers on the floor,
17:18
SPEAKER_01: one rando,
17:19
SPEAKER_01: like a Cam Hunter,
17:20
SPEAKER_01: one rando,
17:21
SPEAKER_01: when he gets in the paint only and kicks it out,
17:24
SPEAKER_01: he rebounds,
17:25
SPEAKER_01: and he rebounds his own miss,
17:27
SPEAKER_01: so he's a rando,
17:28
SPEAKER_01: or you can call him a crasher,
17:29
SPEAKER_01: whatever,
17:30
SPEAKER_01: and then one get-back guy,
17:32
SPEAKER_01: and then So, like,
17:34
SPEAKER_01: we would scout that,
17:36
SPEAKER_01: you know,
17:36
SPEAKER_01: and then, like,
17:37
SPEAKER_01: when we're going scout team, like,
17:38
SPEAKER_01: we would be like, hey,
17:39
SPEAKER_01: you know,
17:40
SPEAKER_01: like our defensive coordinator, Bobby,
17:41
SPEAKER_01: would say, all right, hey, these are the five guys, you know, number 11, number 12.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Well, then I would try my best,
17:48
SPEAKER_01: like, amongst with G and other coaches, hey, number 11 and number 21 are crashers.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: Number 11 and 21 are crashers.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: 13 is a rando.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: And then you would tell that scout kid, hey, sometimes crash, sometimes don't.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: And then the two...
18:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, get-back guys.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: And then we'd break it down further.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you're guarding a get-back guy, what can you do?
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can always go rebound down.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: And, like,
18:13
SPEAKER_01: we would talk about, like,
18:15
SPEAKER_01: if I could draw, like,
18:16
SPEAKER_01: a mini three-point line,
18:18
SPEAKER_01: you know,
18:19
SPEAKER_01: on the baseline up,
18:20
SPEAKER_01: like, and it has to go through the A-Sun or, like, where the Big 12 has the SEC.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: Like, you can't run deep in there because a long miss, you're not going to get it.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: So you almost got to run to, like, the A-Sun Are you with me on that line?
18:34
SPEAKER_01: And like your feet almost got to be there as like a shortstop.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: So like the ball is right there.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: So if you're guarding a get-back guy, you can always rebound down.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Nasir Mann was the best rebound down in the country.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: I might call it the Nasir Mann rebound moving forward because he was elite.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: So you can go rebound down or you can always go double box out.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: So then like if you're in the scouting heart, hey,
18:59
SPEAKER_01: you know,
19:00
SPEAKER_01: number 11 is a crasher from the perimeter or he's a big guy,
19:03
SPEAKER_01: he's always in the paint, man.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: Like he's,
19:05
SPEAKER_01: like he,
19:06
SPEAKER_01: you know,
19:07
SPEAKER_01: like we can go one-on-one or we can double box out so
19:10
SPEAKER_01: then he can always go double box out.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: And then you show them clips of that.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: And then obviously, we would talk about different types of box outs, like an A-Sun box out.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: If we made the A-Sun box outs like this, then we're going to win the A-Sun.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: And that's a good one-on-one box out, face box out.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: No back box outs.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: When the shot goes up and you turn around, no.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: If you see that on film,
19:36
SPEAKER_01: seeing that practice, you don't demoralize them, but you make that a big deal.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: No face box outs.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: Think about it, Coach.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: I really studied it, so I really got to know this stuff.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: But think about how many times that when you guys give up an offensive rebound,
19:50
SPEAKER_01: I guarantee you somebody just turned around and they tried to face box outs.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: So we try to take those out.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: And then we try to complement them with an A-Sun box out.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: When is an A-Sun box out?
20:03
SPEAKER_01: We're winning that possession.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: And then we had a wedge box out,
20:06
SPEAKER_01: so if the guys are in front of you trying to wedge,
20:08
SPEAKER_01: like a rotational box out,
20:10
SPEAKER_01: like if the goalie went down and the safety,
20:12
SPEAKER_01: that's what we call them,
20:13
SPEAKER_01: goalie safety,
20:14
SPEAKER_01: then they sprint down and they could go wedge box out a big guy or maybe the corner.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: And then we did the double box outs and then the rebound down.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: So it was something that,
20:24
SPEAKER_01: again, it was the first year that any of us had done it, and it's still growing.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: It still has to get better.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: But for the most part, it was good.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: And then I think what you still have to do, you can scout the rebounding.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: We were the best scouted rebounding team in the country.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, because we did a really good job of scouting that.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: And I think our guys really enjoyed it because it was different.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: It was a different deal.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: But you still have to be able to go get the rebound.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: You can scout.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: You can classify all the randos, all the crashers, all the get back.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: Asun box out, rotational box outs, you still have to go get the basketball.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the improvements that we want to make this year as
21:12
SPEAKER_01: an organization is especially finishing off possessions with not even team rebounds,
21:17
SPEAKER_01: you know what I'm saying, going and getting them.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: No, it was good.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: It was good.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: That's one of those things where I feel like we oftentimes,
21:24
SPEAKER_00: rebounding especially,
21:26
SPEAKER_00: the technique is the most important thing to us as coaches and the pursuit and
21:31
SPEAKER_00: the effort.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: That's needed to actually go get the rebound is forgotten.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, anything that helps with something like that.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming that this is very similar to how you guys do everything else
21:42
SPEAKER_00: where this isn't like, all right, let's six minutes go rebound.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it's more like with five on five and emphasis and that kind of thing.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like we would do like a lot of drills like and like you can kill,
21:52
SPEAKER_01: you know, kill two birds with one stone, like where you can go like a slot drive.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: And the goalie slides over, and you just get in the habit of that safety going down.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you could put a big man down there,
22:03
SPEAKER_01: or sometimes you could have, like, the weak side corner.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: And the weak side corner's a crash guy.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: And you're telling those guys before the drill, hey, guys, this is number 11.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: Their best crasher from the perimeter.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: So, you know,
22:14
SPEAKER_01: so that goes up for a layup,
22:16
SPEAKER_01: the goalie goes over,
22:17
SPEAKER_01: and then he's got to turn and sprint
22:19
SPEAKER_01: and pretty much rotational slash wedge box out underneath the basket.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: So it's just, you know, or sometimes a big's down there.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: You know,
22:27
SPEAKER_01: and then we worked on like bigs going the honey hole and you have to box out
22:30
SPEAKER_01: in front of the rim and rebound down.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: But like you just, you know, that we had four minute drills.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: So you got to be able to coach it quick and explain it, but just different rotations.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: And I thought our guys got a lot better with the rotations,
22:44
SPEAKER_01: you know, this year because we touched base on it every single day.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: But then just always try to incorporate a box out drill at the end of it.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Anything statistically during games that you focus on or communicate
22:55
SPEAKER_00: to Coach Leonard regarding rebounding?
22:57
SPEAKER_01: No, because he does such a good job of, like, knowing, you know, like, he's a numbers guy.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: He's smart.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: He's sharp.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: So, like, he'll know.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: He'll, like, look at, like, hey, like, that's eight offense rebounds.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: That's nine offense rebounds.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: So, he's always, you know.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: But then again, like,
23:14
SPEAKER_01: I think we always came down to,
23:15
SPEAKER_01: you know,
23:17
SPEAKER_01: We should have got that dirty rebound or we had the hand on the basketball
23:19
SPEAKER_01: and we just didn't finish possessions.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: Because again,
23:21
SPEAKER_01: our rotations towards the end of the year, our guys were putting bodies on people.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: There were less and less back box outs.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Guys were face boxing out, but then we just wouldn't come up with the basketball.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: So then after,
23:34
SPEAKER_01: towards a while,
23:34
SPEAKER_01: but then after the games,
23:36
SPEAKER_01: the next morning at film session, I would just show the dirty rebounds.
23:39
SPEAKER_01: These are the ones we won and these are the ones that we lost.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: And So Coach wanted to know that percentage after the fact of the game.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: But no, just from the naked eye, looking at the naked eye, what are we doing better?
23:53
SPEAKER_01: What do we need to improve on?
23:55
SPEAKER_01: So those are the type of things we talk about in halftime.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to assume that going back to the splitting up responsibilities,
24:02
SPEAKER_00: that when you do that,
24:03
SPEAKER_00: that allows for you to be able to focus on those things,
24:06
SPEAKER_00: both in games and practices,
24:08
SPEAKER_00: whereas when those things are not distributed,
24:11
SPEAKER_00: everybody just kind of gives their random thoughts about everything,
24:15
SPEAKER_00: and some things may get overlooked.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: And I think this,
24:19
SPEAKER_01: because I've done it both ways,
24:21
SPEAKER_01: so there's right and wrong, right and different for every single one of them.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: But I think if you're going in a scout and you're doing the whole game,
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Are there going to be parts that maybe slip or maybe someone doesn't really look
24:34
SPEAKER_01: at their press package as much as they should or their zone package?
24:39
SPEAKER_01: But when you do offense and culture and special teams,
24:45
SPEAKER_01: you're not going to miss anything on that because that's all you're focusing in on.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: And then I think you just take away a special knack of Like,
24:55
SPEAKER_01: I will always look at who's crashing.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: Like, the shot goes up on the offensive end.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: How many crashers are they sending?
25:02
SPEAKER_01: And then, like, you'll start to see, like, a pattern.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: It's neat.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Start looking at it.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Like, when you start watching NBA teams or, like,
25:07
SPEAKER_01: you know,
25:07
SPEAKER_01: especially college, start looking at it because, like, you'll start to see.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Like, you'll start to see, like, a pattern.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: But no, it's good.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: You mentioned the special situations.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: I think that more coaches are putting more emphasis on this
25:19
SPEAKER_00: or they're realizing just simply because of the amount of close games
25:22
SPEAKER_00: that people are finding themselves in.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: And you guys did a great job with special situations.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Just talk about the emphasis placed upon that there and how you guys go about doing that.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Special situations can mean a thousand different things to a thousand different coaches.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for you guys?
25:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think like special teams.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So like my job was based on a sideline and a bounce.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: End of the game, after
25:46
SPEAKER_00: timeouts, after free throws.
25:48
SPEAKER_01: But just getting to know, becoming the expert of the other team.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: Having a frequency of what they run throughout the whole year,
25:56
SPEAKER_01: non-conference too, because you'll find a pattern of what teams do.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: And then, okay,
26:02
SPEAKER_01: if you run a zone,
26:04
SPEAKER_01: or if you switch,
26:05
SPEAKER_01: or if you don't switch,
26:06
SPEAKER_01: or if you have the five-man on the ball,
26:09
SPEAKER_01: Then like watching all those teams clips and see what they do against
26:12
SPEAKER_01: that particular defense.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people like we ran a matchup zone zone and people were trying to,
26:20
SPEAKER_01: you know,
26:21
SPEAKER_01: screen it and then slip on the backside or,
26:23
SPEAKER_01: you know, like against that switch and stuff.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: So, like,
26:25
SPEAKER_01: I thought we did a really good job as an organization
26:28
SPEAKER_01: of picking out what teams were going to run against our defense and taking
26:32
SPEAKER_01: that away.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: And same thing with sideline out of bounds,
26:37
SPEAKER_01: but just kind of have an idea of what a team is going to run late game and then
26:42
SPEAKER_01: after timeouts and after free throws.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: And then special situations,
26:46
SPEAKER_01: this is the first time of any organization I've ever been a part of,
26:49
SPEAKER_01: we really emphasize and work on special situations every single day,
26:55
SPEAKER_01: four-minute games at the end of practice.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: And You know, sometimes it's really, really good.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Every once in a while, the guys are, you know, not focused, and it can be really, really bad.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: But again,
27:06
SPEAKER_01: we had championship-level kids,
27:10
SPEAKER_01: so we got a lot out of the four minigames, and obviously it showed late in games.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: But, you know,
27:16
SPEAKER_01: like Coach would put different situations on board,
27:18
SPEAKER_01: maybe keep the score,
27:20
SPEAKER_01: or like maybe make a team down by eight, you know, with eight minutes to go.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: But then our guys really started to learn,
27:26
SPEAKER_01: you know,
27:26
SPEAKER_01: and then Coach would do a great job of,
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Just letting them learn on the fly, and then at the end, clean up any mistakes.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: But it goes back to that, where you have to, you got to learn.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: You got to make reads.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: You got to make real live reads on defense and on offense.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: But that's something definitely among many, many, many other things.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: I'll take away from coach special situations and doing it every day.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: So you know how it is as coach.
27:53
SPEAKER_01: You think you need to do a million different things.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: You know what, I'll put the special situations.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, when in reality,
27:59
SPEAKER_01: That's the most important thing,
28:00
SPEAKER_01: so you've got to try to touch base on it every single day.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: My philosophy has been to make special situations as unspecial as possible.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: I want them to be – the funny thing is – I think coaches think special situations,
28:18
SPEAKER_00: I need to have even more control over this.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: And what I found with doing what you guys do is when you play them so commonly like
28:26
SPEAKER_00: that, I do give them specific things to do.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: We got into a couple of years ago where we had like five games
28:33
SPEAKER_00: where we were like buzzer beater or one point in the last.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: And I can count maybe one time
28:39
SPEAKER_00: that we actually did something super specific play wise or something like that.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: It was just guys making plays.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: But they, again, were just so used to that, that it became something that became common to them.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, yeah, no, no, for sure.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: And then just like even like falling off three,
28:57
SPEAKER_01: you know, like you got to teach them when and where, like what parts of the floor.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: No, I just think it's like when it's anything as a coach,
29:05
SPEAKER_01: like you get what you emphasize, like you get what you put in.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: And if you're making special situations like you guys do a priority,
29:14
SPEAKER_01: then maybe not right away,
29:16
SPEAKER_01: but just like anything,
29:17
SPEAKER_01: like you plant that seed and then you'll start to,
29:20
SPEAKER_01: like you start to reap the benefits.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: I found, too,
29:23
SPEAKER_00: that there's an infinite number of possibilities that could happen
29:26
SPEAKER_00: that I will probably over, I'll miss.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: But when I play four-minute segments or even less than that,
29:33
SPEAKER_00: those situations naturally present themselves and maybe even present something
29:37
SPEAKER_00: that I hadn't thought of before.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 100%.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: So you are now,
29:43
SPEAKER_00: you've been at one place for a while now in a role that has exposed you to a lot
29:47
SPEAKER_00: of different things.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'll leave you with this.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Going forward,
29:52
SPEAKER_00: kind of the maybe one or two things that you're trying to address either personally
29:57
SPEAKER_00: or you guys as a staff.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
29:59
SPEAKER_00: it could be something related to the kind of transient nature of college sports now
30:03
SPEAKER_00: and connected to your systems or what is going to be kind of
30:07
SPEAKER_00: the focus here this summer?
30:09
SPEAKER_01: Attention to detail.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: Trying to repeat as champions.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to shy away from that.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: The expectations are the expectations and you want to You know,
30:21
SPEAKER_01: like you don't want to win one, you want to win multiple ones.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: So, like,
30:24
SPEAKER_01: I think attention to detail,
30:26
SPEAKER_01: you know,
30:26
SPEAKER_01: like we're going to get everybody's best shot,
30:28
SPEAKER_01: you know, and so it's attention to detail.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: It's continuing to do everything right.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: It's continuing to have our standard,
30:37
SPEAKER_01: you know,
30:37
SPEAKER_01: be the standard to get better every single day,
30:40
SPEAKER_01: 1% better every single day, but really attention to detail and laser focused.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I found that and I think it's going to be the case
30:47
SPEAKER_00: with most college basketball programs that are going to have success.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: The ones that have a really strong culture, really strong core value, know exactly who they are.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it's going to be as easy as just plug and play the next group that comes there.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: But I think they're going to have a whole lot easier time in plugging
31:04
SPEAKER_00: in these one year players or two year players.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And You all seem like a program who, like,
31:11
SPEAKER_00: you know who you are and you know what matters,
31:14
SPEAKER_00: and it doesn't matter who's coming in.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: The standard's going to be the standard, and if they buy into it, you guys will be just fine.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, like, I think this goes back to way before I was here.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: You know, like,
31:26
SPEAKER_01: what Coach and Coach Lundy had when they were the best Division II program in
31:31
SPEAKER_01: the country.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, think about it.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: The standard has stayed the same.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: It has not changed,
31:37
SPEAKER_01: you know,
31:37
SPEAKER_01: from the – From the powerhouse division two days to cutting down
31:40
SPEAKER_01: the nets this past March, the standard has not changed.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: And yeah,
31:45
SPEAKER_01: like when you have that,
31:46
SPEAKER_01: it might take a little slow to get the guys just going,
31:50
SPEAKER_01: learning the system, learning each other.
31:52
SPEAKER_01: But when you have the culture intact, long-term consistency beats short-term intensity.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: And eventually your culture shows up and you're playing the best basketball at the right time.