Latest / A Quick Timeout / Coaching Strategies from Jim Larranaga
Transcript
- 0:05Today's guest is a former National College Coach of the Year
- 0:08Award winner.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: Over the course of his career,
- 0:11SPEAKER_00: he won more than 700 games,
- 0:13SPEAKER_00: including leading two separate programs to the Final Four.
- 0:16SPEAKER_00: Coach Jim Laranega, welcome to the show.
- 0:18SPEAKER_01: Hi, Tony.
- 0:19SPEAKER_01: How are you?
- 0:20SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to be on your show.
- 0:22SPEAKER_00: It's great to have you on here.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: This is final four and national championship weekend.
- 0:27Was there anything going through that first final four run with
- 0:31George Mason that
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: caused you to do differently the second time around with Miami?
- 0:37SPEAKER_01: You know,
- 0:37I think the unusual thing about the two teams that we took to
- 0:42the final four,
- 0:44SPEAKER_01: our tallest starter at George Mason was only six foot seven.
- 0:49SPEAKER_01: So the starting lineup was six feet, 6'2", 6'4", 6'5", 6'7".
- 0:57SPEAKER_01: And our Miami team was even shorter.
- 1:01SPEAKER_01: Our tallest starter was 6'5".
- 1:04So we had small teams that had to play a certain way to
- 1:10accomplish what we did
- 1:11because we were playing against teams that were often much
- 1:16bigger than us.
- 1:17SPEAKER_01: In 2006, we had to beat Michigan State, who was much bigger.
- 1:23SPEAKER_01: Carolina with Tyler Hansborough, much bigger than us.
- 1:28SPEAKER_01: And then Wichita State and Connecticut, and Connecticut was gigantic.
- 1:34SPEAKER_01: Their starting front court was 6'9", 6'10", 6'11".
- 1:39SPEAKER_01: But the way we played the game allowed us to score very efficiently
- 1:46And then we just had to bust our tail on defense and,
- 1:50and figure out a way to help each other.
- 1:52SPEAKER_01: And that took a great team effort as well.
- 1:55SPEAKER_00: I know the final four week itself comes with media obligations,
- 1:59SPEAKER_00: ticket requests,
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: other distractions.
- 2:02SPEAKER_00: How did you keep the team's practice habits where they needed to be?
- 2:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really a challenge.
- 2:09SPEAKER_01: And I'm, I'm a man with a lot of routines and our team
- 2:14SPEAKER_01: we had 52 routines that we followed.
- 2:18SPEAKER_01: 52.
- 2:19And then you get to the NCAA tournament and all those routines
- 2:24are shot out the window.
- 2:27SPEAKER_01: And so you have to make adjustments.
- 2:29SPEAKER_01: You have to prepare your team for it.
- 2:32SPEAKER_01: And one of the most difficult things we found is during the Final Four,
- 2:41SPEAKER_01: the trip from the court to the
- 2:44SPEAKER_01: Locker rooms take forever, but halftime is 20 minutes instead of 15.
- 2:52SPEAKER_01: So you're constantly making adjustments.
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: And,
- 2:57SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 2:57SPEAKER_01: the fact of the matter that we lost in the semifinals both times,
- 3:01SPEAKER_01: maybe I didn't make good enough adjustments.
- 3:03SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: That week,
- 3:05how much do you prepare for the first opponent versus looking
- 3:11forward a little bit
- 3:13SPEAKER_00: and preparing yourself,
- 3:14SPEAKER_00: either you as the coaching staff or even also your players as well?
- 3:19SPEAKER_01: No, we take everything one game at a time during the regular season.
- 3:24SPEAKER_01: When we're playing in a multi-team tournament,
- 3:28SPEAKER_01: we concentrate on just the opponent that we're getting ready to face.
- 3:33SPEAKER_01: After that game,
- 3:34SPEAKER_01: even in the NCAA tournament,
- 3:37when we beat Michigan State on a Friday night and we played
- 3:41Carolina on Sunday
- 3:42SPEAKER_01: afternoon,
- 3:43SPEAKER_01: we really only had the one day Saturday to prepare.
- 3:48But you have to rely on all your fundamentals and all of your
- 3:51routines to prepare
- 3:53SPEAKER_01: you well for that opponent.
- 3:55SPEAKER_01: And we did.
- 3:56A lot has been made about Dusty May bringing his guys outside
- 3:59and the sight lines
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: of playing in a bigger arena.
- 4:02SPEAKER_00: How different was it for your guys,
- 4:04or did they mention even anything about playing in a football
- 4:07stadium versus
- 4:08SPEAKER_00: playing in a basketball arena?
- 4:10That was one of the things that required a lot of adjustments
- 4:13on our players' parts
- 4:14SPEAKER_01: and even my coaching staff,
- 4:16SPEAKER_01: because as a coach,
- 4:18SPEAKER_01: you're standing up on the court,
- 4:21SPEAKER_01: which is not unusual for me,
- 4:22SPEAKER_01: but your whole team is below you.
- 4:26because you're on that portable court in the middle of a
- 4:29football stadium.
- 4:30For the players,
- 4:31I remember very well walking out onto the court in 2006 for the
- 4:37first time.
- 4:38SPEAKER_01: It was the day before our game with Florida.
- 4:44SPEAKER_01: I was walking with Foller and Campbell,
- 4:46SPEAKER_01: our starting guard,
- 4:49SPEAKER_01: and when we took the arena together,
- 4:51SPEAKER_01: he looked up and around,
- 4:53SPEAKER_01: And he said to me, oh, my, this place is gigantic.
- 4:59And there were,
- 5:01you know,
- 5:01maybe 30 or 40,000 people there just to watch practice.
- 5:05SPEAKER_01: So it's a spectacular environment.
- 5:09It has to be in tonight's game or this weekend's games,
- 5:14you know,
- 5:1575,000,
- 5:1680,000 people on hand.
- 5:19SPEAKER_01: So it's a very different environment than what you used to.
- 5:24You mentioned the Friday practices,
- 5:25the open practices,
- 5:27different teams use those differently.
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: How did you approach that?
- 5:32SPEAKER_01: Well, what we did is try to get comfortable with the court.
- 5:36SPEAKER_01: So it was very much drill work, getting up and down.
- 5:41We didn't scrimmage,
- 5:43but we scheduled a time at a local high school or a local
- 5:47college
- 5:49SPEAKER_01: to get some additional work in.
- 5:51SPEAKER_01: And that's where we did our game preparation.
- 5:55SPEAKER_01: But we have a lot of drills that we do.
- 5:58SPEAKER_01: One of the funny things is when we got to the Final Four in Houston,
- 6:05the players begged me in our last practice to play just a
- 6:10two-minute scrimmage.
- 6:12SPEAKER_01: And I relented.
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: I really did not want to do that.
- 6:16SPEAKER_01: But we scrimmaged for two minutes and one of our players,
- 6:19SPEAKER_01: Fava Iray,
- 6:21SPEAKER_01: fouled one of our starters,
- 6:24SPEAKER_01: Wuga Poplar,
- 6:25SPEAKER_01: and knocked him to the ground.
- 6:27SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking to myself,
- 6:28can you imagine you get one of your players hurt at your shoot
- 6:33around the day
- 6:34SPEAKER_01: before the game?
- 6:36It doesn't matter whether it's in the final four or the weekend
- 6:39leading up to that.
- 6:41You've got that 48-hour window where you play the game on a
- 6:46Friday and then have to
- 6:47SPEAKER_00: play again on a Sunday or Thursday,
- 6:49SPEAKER_00: Saturday.
- 6:50SPEAKER_00: How did you navigate those 48 hours to prep for that next opponent?
- 6:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
- 6:56that's where you have to really rely on your fundamentals and
- 7:00you have to really
- 7:00SPEAKER_01: rely on your assistants.
- 7:04SPEAKER_01: who have done all the scouting and preparation prior to it.
- 7:08SPEAKER_01: Unlike a lot of,
- 7:09SPEAKER_01: of coaches,
- 7:10SPEAKER_01: I spend most of my time in game preparations,
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: just analyzing players.
- 7:17SPEAKER_01: So I watch more.
- 7:20What are the tendencies of all the top players so that when we
- 7:23played Tyler
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: Hansborough in 06,
- 7:26I was really just watching how he scored and how we could slow
- 7:30him down in,
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: um,
- 7:33SPEAKER_01: 2023,
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: we were looking at,
- 7:36SPEAKER_01: and I'll use the example,
- 7:38SPEAKER_01: we played Indiana in the round of 32,
- 7:43SPEAKER_01: and we had to try to stop Trace Jackson Davis.
- 7:47And I spent all my time looking at highlights of him,
- 7:52how he scored,
- 7:53what he liked to do.
- 7:55SPEAKER_01: And we had several different players who guarded him.
- 7:58SPEAKER_01: We had Norshad O'Meara, who started the game, but he got in foul trouble.
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: And despite the fact that Trace Jackson Davis is like 6'10 and 250,
- 8:09SPEAKER_01: we put Jordan Miller on him,
- 8:11SPEAKER_01: who was 6'4 and a half and about 200 pounds.
- 8:14SPEAKER_01: And we just worked at trying to deny him the ball.
- 8:19SPEAKER_01: The fewer times he touched it, the better off we were.
- 8:24SPEAKER_01: And that really was a major part of our game plan and how we beat them.
- 8:28How much of the information that you get actually makes it to
- 8:32the players?
- 8:34SPEAKER_01: In terms of a percentage, I'd say 20%.
- 8:38One of the things that I believe is you don't want to overload
- 8:42your players with thought.
- 8:45The best way to play is with freedom,
- 8:48to feel free of stress,
- 8:51to feel free of thinking.
- 8:53SPEAKER_01: And you know the expression that Nike uses, just do it.
- 8:57that's kind of the message that we had for our players we've
- 9:02already played over 30
- 9:03games we've done this so many times before and we're going to
- 9:09continue to do what
- 9:11we do well and we're going to try to prevent them from doing
- 9:15the things that they
- 9:17SPEAKER_01: do well and why they've had so much success so
- 9:22SPEAKER_01: Denying a big man the ball, that was a part of our strategy.
- 9:26SPEAKER_01: Maybe double teaming a point guard,
- 9:28SPEAKER_01: coming off a ball screen,
- 9:30SPEAKER_01: making him a passer rather than a penetrator.
- 9:33SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of strategy that goes into it.
- 9:36SPEAKER_01: But for example,
- 9:38SPEAKER_01: in our game against UConn in the Elite Eight,
- 9:43SPEAKER_01: which led us to the Final Four,
- 9:45SPEAKER_01: we ran the same play,
- 9:48SPEAKER_01: one play,
- 9:50From the 15-minute mark of the second half all the way through
- 9:54the overtime,
- 9:54SPEAKER_01: we never changed at all.
- 9:57SPEAKER_01: We just told our players, just read and react to their defense.
- 10:03SPEAKER_01: Make good decisions and everything will turn out okay.
- 10:07SPEAKER_00: Now,
- 10:07I know that you've coached that way and maybe even more so
- 10:10towards the end of your
- 10:11SPEAKER_00: career where it was more out of concepts,
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: just teaching the players how to play.
- 10:16I saw a comment made by somebody today that doesn't know as
- 10:20much about basketball.
- 10:21SPEAKER_00: I think they were kind of using it as a slight...
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: saying about a particular coach,
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: this coach isn't necessarily an X's and O's coach,
- 10:30almost meaning they're not going to drop a lot of cool plays
- 10:33and run cool plays.
- 10:34SPEAKER_00: How early did you go away from the, I'm going to call a play constantly.
- 10:39SPEAKER_00: Instead, I'm going to teach them how to play.
- 10:42And then we're going to just kind of give them the reins and
- 10:45let them figure it out.
- 10:47SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 10:47So you might not know this name,
- 10:49but one of the great sports psychologists,
- 10:53SPEAKER_01: known worldwide is Dr. Bob Rotella.
- 10:57And he writes,
- 10:58he's must written a dozen or more bestselling books on golf.
- 11:05SPEAKER_01: But he works with all kinds of athletes.
- 11:07SPEAKER_01: And he's one of my best friends.
- 11:09SPEAKER_01: He's helped me throughout my career since 1979.
- 11:14SPEAKER_01: And when I became a head coach, I was a maniac.
- 11:18SPEAKER_01: I was on the sideline.
- 11:19SPEAKER_01: I was crazy.
- 11:20SPEAKER_01: My wife would say to me,
- 11:23SPEAKER_01: why do you coach every dribble,
- 11:24SPEAKER_01: every pass,
- 11:25SPEAKER_01: every shot,
- 11:26SPEAKER_01: call,
- 11:26SPEAKER_01: every play?
- 11:27SPEAKER_01: That's just the way I was early in my career.
- 11:31SPEAKER_01: But I started really learning things from Dr.
- 11:36SPEAKER_01: Rotella that helped me kind of adjust and edit my coaching style.
- 11:42SPEAKER_01: I've always seen myself as a teacher first.
- 11:46So I spent all my time in practice basically teaching
- 11:50fundamentals and teaching
- 11:51SPEAKER_01: guys how to play.
- 11:54How to pass the ball,
- 11:55how to move the ball,
- 11:56how to move without the ball,
- 11:57how to set a screen.
- 12:00And all the different concepts that a player needed to learn so
- 12:05that he could make
- 12:06SPEAKER_01: good decisions on the court.
- 12:09SPEAKER_01: And the same thing was true defensively.
- 12:12SPEAKER_01: We played a style...
- 12:14that gave the players a lot of freedom to trap and switch and
- 12:19front and do a lot of
- 12:21SPEAKER_01: things that worked effectively against different styles of offense.
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: And so Dr. Rotella really started working with me in 1979.
- 12:34SPEAKER_01: I only became a head coach in 1986,
- 12:36SPEAKER_01: so I didn't listen to him very well from 1986 to 1991 or two.
- 12:44SPEAKER_01: And that's when I began my metamorphosis to become much calmer,
- 12:50much more of a leader instead of a manager where I was managing
- 12:56and micromanaging
- 12:57SPEAKER_01: everything that was going on on the court.
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- 13:50SPEAKER_00: I've actually had Chris Caputo on the show before,
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: and he talked a lot about the responsibilities that he had defensively.
- 13:59How did you use your assistants and how did you allow them to
- 14:02be able to help with
- 14:03different aspects of the X's and O's and the systems that you
- 14:06had in place?
- 14:08SPEAKER_01: When I was a young head coach, I was 36 years old.
- 14:11SPEAKER_01: I had a very young staff.
- 14:13SPEAKER_01: They were just out of college.
- 14:15SPEAKER_01: And so I did everything.
- 14:18SPEAKER_01: I mean, they kind of helped me, but I was making all the decisions.
- 14:21SPEAKER_01: I was not delegating at all.
- 14:25SPEAKER_01: And then in 1993,
- 14:27I met with my brothers and they were basically advising me to
- 14:34read more books on
- 14:35SPEAKER_01: leadership.
- 14:37SPEAKER_01: And so I started reading Dr.
- 14:39SPEAKER_01: Stephen Covey,
- 14:39SPEAKER_01: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and John C.
- 14:44SPEAKER_01: Maxwell and his books on teamwork and leadership.
- 14:48SPEAKER_01: And what I found was to be successful as a leader of an organization,
- 14:55SPEAKER_01: you have to learn to delegate responsibility.
- 14:58And so I decided to identify each coach with a very specific
- 15:04role and responsibilities.
- 15:07SPEAKER_01: And I termed it like a head football coach does.
- 15:11I've got an offensive coordinator,
- 15:13a defensive coordinator and a scout team coordinator.
- 15:17SPEAKER_01: And the great part about that is in preparation for games,
- 15:21SPEAKER_01: when I really wanted to focus on my mind on offense,
- 15:26SPEAKER_01: I would talk to the offensive coordinator and tell him,
- 15:29SPEAKER_01: this is what I'm thinking.
- 15:30SPEAKER_01: What do you think about this?
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: Suppose we run these sets of plays.
- 15:35SPEAKER_01: We called it a package.
- 15:37SPEAKER_01: So these four or five things I think will work.
- 15:39SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
- 15:40SPEAKER_01: And then he would give his input and feel like he was contributing to
- 15:44SPEAKER_01: And then once the game began, we were on the same page.
- 15:48I would do that with the defensive coordinator and do the same
- 15:52thing defensively.
- 15:53SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about trapping ball screens tonight.
- 15:56SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about switching ball screens.
- 15:59SPEAKER_01: I'm switching.
- 15:59SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about fronting the post.
- 16:01I'm thinking about double teaming the post four or five
- 16:05trapping their low postman.
- 16:07SPEAKER_01: Whatever my thoughts were, I share it with my, my, uh, uh,
- 16:12defensive coordinator and he would be telling me coach I've
- 16:16looked at this team
- 16:17really well I don't think we can switch because they got a
- 16:21great guard and if our
- 16:22big guys switch he's going to torch them and so we would go
- 16:26back and forth really
- 16:27determining what our scouting report offered and then of course
- 16:32I would go to the
- 16:33SPEAKER_01: scout team a coordinator and I'd say look at in practice
- 16:37SPEAKER_01: Here are the things I want you to do offensively,
- 16:39SPEAKER_01: and here are the things I want you to emphasize defensively.
- 16:43SPEAKER_01: So we'd be preparing for the opponent's offense.
- 16:45SPEAKER_01: We'd be preparing for the opponent's defense.
- 16:48SPEAKER_01: And we started to do that mostly starting in 1993.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: Dan Hurley's UConn team,
- 16:55SPEAKER_00: a different team,
- 16:56SPEAKER_00: but same staff,
- 16:57SPEAKER_00: same program that your Miami team played in 2023.
- 17:02what was it like preparing for Dan Hurley's teams,
- 17:05especially their offense?
- 17:07SPEAKER_01: I'm a big fan of Danny Hurley's.
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: He's a crazy man, but wild, but happy wild.
- 17:14SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: he's really high energy,
- 17:19SPEAKER_01: high intensity,
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: but just like his dad,
- 17:23who I've known since I was a young assistant coach and a young
- 17:28division two head
- 17:28SPEAKER_01: coach,
- 17:29SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 17:29SPEAKER_01: Bob Hurley was,
- 17:31SPEAKER_01: legend with his St.
- 17:33Anthony's teams and all the great players he was producing and
- 17:36state champions he
- 17:37SPEAKER_01: was producing.
- 17:38SPEAKER_01: And Danny has a lot of that in him.
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: He's really a technician.
- 17:47SPEAKER_01: He totally understands offense and defense.
- 17:52SPEAKER_01: His defense, I think, has put him in the Final Four.
- 17:55The way they came back on Duke and the way they controlled the
- 17:58game against Illinois was
- 18:00SPEAKER_01: Very, very impressive.
- 18:02SPEAKER_01: And his offense is very sophisticated.
- 18:06You see a lot of what I would describe as Euroball,
- 18:11a lot of screens away from the ball.
- 18:15SPEAKER_01: Americans,
- 18:15the way we play in AAU that our American players are really
- 18:21comfortable with is
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: ball screens,
- 18:23SPEAKER_01: handling the ball,
- 18:24SPEAKER_01: dribbling the ball to death,
- 18:26SPEAKER_01: right?
- 18:27SPEAKER_01: And creating offense off of dribble penetration.
- 18:31SPEAKER_01: Connecticut has a great balance.
- 18:33SPEAKER_01: They do handle the ball and dribble,
- 18:35SPEAKER_01: but they really do a great job of sharing the ball,
- 18:38SPEAKER_01: moving without the ball,
- 18:40screening away from the ball and creating shots for their three
- 18:43point shooters.
- 18:45SPEAKER_01: And can you believe Caravan is playing tonight?
- 18:49SPEAKER_01: How long has the guy been at UConn?
- 18:51SPEAKER_01: We played against him.
- 18:52SPEAKER_01: He killed us in 2023.
- 18:54SPEAKER_00: I was talking to someone recently about the mid majors.
- 18:58Anytime that I think about mid majors,
- 19:01your team comes to mind there at George Mason.
- 19:04SPEAKER_00: Specifically,
- 19:05I was commenting to the person that I'm not sure that that kind
- 19:08of thing can happen
- 19:09SPEAKER_00: again with the current environment of college basketball.
- 19:13SPEAKER_00: How do you feel about that?
- 19:15SPEAKER_01: I agree.
- 19:16I think once we,
- 19:17we became a professional where we were paying all the players,
- 19:23the,
- 19:23um,
- 19:24Schools with the most money are probably going to produce the
- 19:28best teams.
- 19:28SPEAKER_01: Now,
- 19:28it doesn't mean because you pay a bunch of players a bunch of
- 19:32money that you're all
- 19:32SPEAKER_01: of a sudden going to have a great team.
- 19:34SPEAKER_01: The coaching really comes into it then of how to organize your team,
- 19:39SPEAKER_01: how to discipline your team,
- 19:41SPEAKER_01: how to motivate your team and inspire them to play team basketball.
- 19:46Obviously,
- 19:47the two teams that are playing for the national championship,
- 19:49Dusty May
- 19:51SPEAKER_01: He was in the Final Four in 2023 with FAU.
- 19:56SPEAKER_01: Whoever thought FAU would be in the Final Four with San Diego State?
- 20:00I mean,
- 20:01those are two teams you would never think going to be in the
- 20:04Final Four.
- 20:06SPEAKER_01: But they were there.
- 20:08SPEAKER_01: Dusty May is a tremendous coach.
- 20:10SPEAKER_01: He's done an incredible job of building Michigan.
- 20:14SPEAKER_01: And so it'll be a tremendous game by two
- 20:18Young coaches,
- 20:19in my mind,
- 20:19because I'm one of the old coaches,
- 20:22retired now,
- 20:23they say.
- 20:24SPEAKER_01: But,
- 20:25SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 20:26SPEAKER_01: for someone who is a lifelong fan of college basketball,
- 20:32SPEAKER_01: I like watching these two guys.
- 20:34They bring a lot of energy to the game,
- 20:37a lot of what I would call street smarts.
- 20:41SPEAKER_01: Those teams play a really good brand of basketball.
- 20:45SPEAKER_00: Along those same lines, it is the eve of the transfer portal.
- 20:50SPEAKER_00: How happy are you that you are not having to deal with that?
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: You know,
- 20:55SPEAKER_01: several of my former assistants and my former point guard,
- 20:59SPEAKER_01: Tony Skin at George Mason,
- 21:00SPEAKER_01: Chris Caputo at George Washington,
- 21:02SPEAKER_01: Eric Conkle at Tulsa,
- 21:04SPEAKER_01: just won 30 games and lost in the NIT championship,
- 21:09SPEAKER_01: and Adam Fisher at Temple.
- 21:11SPEAKER_01: I'm following them and trying to figure out
- 21:14SPEAKER_01: How are they going to be able to afford a good team?
- 21:19SPEAKER_01: No, these guys, they got to go out and raise money now.
- 21:24SPEAKER_01: I had to do it for two years.
- 21:26I didn't enjoy that aspect of it where I was trying to recruit
- 21:32players in the
- 21:33SPEAKER_01: portal while trying to raise money to give them.
- 21:35SPEAKER_01: That was a more complicated and frustrating for me.
- 21:40SPEAKER_01: But I think the teams with the most money
- 21:42SPEAKER_01: Like you see now, they're going to be in the Sweet 16.
- 21:46SPEAKER_01: They're going to be in the Elite Eight.
- 21:47SPEAKER_01: They're going to be in the Final Four.
- 21:49One of those young coaches who is doing a great job with it,
- 21:52Coach Lucas there at Miami.
- 21:54Your thoughts about the season,
- 21:56his first season,
- 21:57and the program going forward?
- 21:59Well,
- 21:59I thought he did a tremendous job from the very beginning,
- 22:03putting together a great staff.
- 22:05SPEAKER_01: And that staff gets along extremely well.
- 22:08SPEAKER_01: They've got very good chemistry.
- 22:09SPEAKER_01: They've got very good basketball minds.
- 22:11SPEAKER_01: They've got a lot of experience.
- 22:13SPEAKER_01: And then they found the right personnel.
- 22:17SPEAKER_01: You know, the starters, if you look at Trey Donaldson, he's from Florida.
- 22:23SPEAKER_01: Malik Renu, he's from Miami.
- 22:26SPEAKER_01: And then Ernest Duda, he's from Orlando.
- 22:29SPEAKER_01: And then Dante Allen from Coral Gables.
- 22:32SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's from right here.
- 22:34And then you add in a Shelton Henderson,
- 22:38who basically grew up with Jay Lucas.
- 22:42SPEAKER_01: So he was able to find a starting unit that worked very,
- 22:46SPEAKER_01: very well together,
- 22:47SPEAKER_01: very unselfish,
- 22:49SPEAKER_01: very team-oriented,
- 22:51SPEAKER_01: very defensive-minded,
- 22:54SPEAKER_01: maybe not the best three-point shooting team,
- 22:57SPEAKER_01: but great at getting into the paint and making things happen.
- 23:02SPEAKER_01: And
- 23:03SPEAKER_01: Very good listeners.
- 23:05SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jay Lucas is a terrific on the court and in practice coach.
- 23:11SPEAKER_01: And those guys,
- 23:11SPEAKER_01: I've attended some of their practices and was very,
- 23:16very impressed with his coaching and their listening and then
- 23:19following his
- 23:20SPEAKER_01: instruction.
- 23:21There is this negative feeling right now towards college sports
- 23:25in general,
- 23:26but you just talked about several things that made you excited
- 23:31and that brought a
- 23:31SPEAKER_00: smile to your face in regards to college basketball.
- 23:35SPEAKER_00: Is college basketball in a good place right now?
- 23:39SPEAKER_01: Okay, you have two different categories.
- 23:42SPEAKER_01: The first category is quality of play.
- 23:46SPEAKER_01: And it's extremely high.
- 23:48SPEAKER_01: These two teams that are playing tonight,
- 23:50SPEAKER_01: the four teams in the final four,
- 23:52SPEAKER_01: you throw in the top 10 teams in the country throughout the season.
- 23:56SPEAKER_01: You look at the top leagues, the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the SEC.
- 24:02SPEAKER_01: Those teams were playing at a very, very high level.
- 24:06So the quality of play in college basketball,
- 24:09I think,
- 24:10is at an all-time high.
- 24:11SPEAKER_01: The other category is the quality of the culture.
- 24:16SPEAKER_01: The culture is not very good.
- 24:19SPEAKER_01: The way we're emphasizing money and not education,
- 24:23the way kids are transferring from school to school without
- 24:27education in mind,
- 24:29SPEAKER_01: it's just,
- 24:29SPEAKER_01: hey,
- 24:30SPEAKER_01: I can make more money at the next stop.
- 24:32SPEAKER_01: No one's blaming them for that.
- 24:34SPEAKER_01: But I think that the reason that's happening is
- 24:37SPEAKER_01: There are no rules to prevent it or encourage kids to stay.
- 24:42SPEAKER_01: In my mind,
- 24:43I think we have to go to the professional model where we have a
- 24:50collective
- 24:50SPEAKER_01: bargaining agreement and it really becomes professional basketball.
- 24:56SPEAKER_01: It's not the NBA.
- 24:57SPEAKER_01: It's the level below the NBA.
- 25:00And if we did that and we had more rules about like the NBA,
- 25:04you can't just
- 25:06switch teams every year right you sign a contract maybe it's
- 25:10for two years maybe
- 25:11it's for five years but whatever the length of that contract is
- 25:14you're there for at
- 25:15least a while so that the organization can plan on you either
- 25:20being there or being
- 25:22gone right now college coaches are hitting the portal tomorrow
- 25:27not knowing how many
- 25:28SPEAKER_01: players they're going to even have back in jay lucas's case
- 25:33He had to replace all 13 players,
- 25:36either because of graduation or transfers.
- 25:39SPEAKER_01: And I had to bring in 10 in my last year.
- 25:42SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to coach 10 new players.
- 25:45SPEAKER_01: I didn't like the idea that we had no veterans who were showing the way.
- 25:51SPEAKER_01: I have a very simple teaching method.
- 25:54SPEAKER_01: explanation, demonstration, imitation, correction, and repetition.
- 25:58And I explain,
- 26:00and then the veterans demonstrate,
- 26:02and then the newcomers imitate.
- 26:04SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't have veterans to demonstrate.
- 26:07SPEAKER_01: We didn't have anybody back.
- 26:09SPEAKER_01: We had to build a whole new team and it takes longer and more difficult.
- 26:14SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know those players.
- 26:16SPEAKER_01: They were not totally sold on the Miami way.
- 26:20SPEAKER_01: They were more sold on how much money can I make?
- 26:25SPEAKER_01: So for me, that's why I stepped away.
- 26:28SPEAKER_01: And for some of these coaches, they're doing a fantastic job with it.
- 26:32SPEAKER_01: But in the end, I think we need more and better rules.
- 26:36SPEAKER_00: I'll get you out on this.
- 26:37SPEAKER_00: Your final prediction for tonight's championship game is what?
- 26:41SPEAKER_01: I actually think Michigan,
- 26:43SPEAKER_01: for one reason,
- 26:44SPEAKER_01: and really only one reason,
- 26:47SPEAKER_01: is I think the Big Ten has had the best season it's had in many a year,
- 26:52SPEAKER_01: maybe in the last 25 years.
- 26:55SPEAKER_01: With that in mind,
- 26:57SPEAKER_01: and knowing that Connecticut,
- 26:59SPEAKER_01: as good as it's playing in the tournament,
- 27:01SPEAKER_01: as good a coach as Danny Hurley is,
- 27:03SPEAKER_01: They didn't win the Big East regular season or tournament.
- 27:07SPEAKER_01: They had a great run and actually, I think, got very lucky against Duke.
- 27:12SPEAKER_01: That was like a miracle.
- 27:14SPEAKER_01: I'm watching the game as it ends.
- 27:17SPEAKER_01: And after they won, I'm saying to myself, why didn't they foul?
- 27:20SPEAKER_01: There was like eight seconds to go.
- 27:23SPEAKER_01: What is the coach saying?
- 27:24SPEAKER_01: We're down two points.
- 27:25SPEAKER_01: What should we do?
- 27:26SPEAKER_01: And they didn't foul.
- 27:27SPEAKER_01: They didn't foul Cam Boozer.
- 27:28SPEAKER_01: They didn't foul the return pass the Tsar.
- 27:33SPEAKER_01: And then they didn't foul Caden Boozer.
- 27:36SPEAKER_01: And they end up working out all right.
- 27:38SPEAKER_01: They get the steal and they hit the three.
- 27:40SPEAKER_01: Mullins is the hero.
- 27:41SPEAKER_01: It was unbelievable.
- 27:43SPEAKER_01: So hats off to Danny Hurley and the UConn Huskies.
- 27:48SPEAKER_01: Dusty May, he had to the final four in 2023.
- 27:51SPEAKER_01: I think it's his turn to win a national championship.
- 27:54SPEAKER_00: Awesome stuff, Coach.
- 27:55I really appreciate you taking some time out of your day to
- 27:57make this happen.
- 27:58SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Tony.