Speaker 1: Hey, want to welcome in. I'm Doug Godlig.
Speaker 2: This is All Ball and with the Chris Crutchfield head
Speaker 2: coach in Nebraska Omaha upcoming. In the meantime, we do
Speaker 2: have some actual basketball gan at basketball, but a gigantic
Speaker 2: trade in basketball to start with. Chris Crutchfield is my
Speaker 2: signature guest for the next two All Balls. He's the
Speaker 2: head coach of Nebraska Omaha. It's his alma mater. A
Speaker 2: really interesting kind of mer curial journey back to a
Speaker 2: place that he once played. And you'll hear about the
Speaker 2: changes at Nebraska Omaha going to Vision one and all
Speaker 2: the other things upcoming.
Speaker 1: I think you'll love it.
Speaker 2: But Damian Loward is now Milwaukee Bucka. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: With Drew Holliday.
Speaker 2: What's fascinating to me about this trade is a couple
Speaker 2: of things. And please excuse the language, but this feels
Speaker 2: like a big old fashioned fuck you from Portland to
Speaker 2: both Lillard and Miami Heat, because the reports are the Heat.
Speaker 1: Whatever you think of.
Speaker 2: Their offer or what you thought their offer was with
Speaker 2: Tyler Hero that they were picks. There were players and
Speaker 2: pretty good picks and pick swaps for the players, but
Speaker 2: it feels like it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like it just seems like it is.
Speaker 2: Although I don't want to take what is being reported
Speaker 2: as the absolute truths, I think it's more likely than
Speaker 2: not to have happened the way in which it's reported,
Speaker 2: because again, some of the reporting is from people that
Speaker 2: have ties to either side, and you painted in the
Speaker 2: rosier tones for whomever gave you the information. So here's
Speaker 2: what's fascinating to me about the f you to both
Speaker 2: Lillard and the Heat. Think about it your Portland Now,
Speaker 2: it looks very vindictive, right, doesn't it. It looks vindictive
Speaker 2: that Portland would say, hey, oh, if it's not Miami,
Speaker 2: you want to come back. No, we don't want you back.
Speaker 2: That's what's been reported. But again, look at it from
Speaker 2: Portland's perspective. Wait, you force your way out of Portland
Speaker 2: said you wanted to trade that you don't want to
Speaker 2: be a part of rebuild, but only for the Miami Heat.
Speaker 2: And Jimmy Butler can go on social media and say
Speaker 2: it's tampering, but man, that is not a great look
Speaker 2: for the Heat. And again, if you're poor and you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: this was an inside job with the Heat and Damian
Speaker 2: Lillard's saying he wants to play for a winner, but
Speaker 2: if it only if it's the Miami Heat, that doesn't
Speaker 2: that feels very personal or maybe it was a lifestyle decision.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: That's the part to where I go. I can't say
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. But here is the one thing that well, first,
Speaker 2: I actually like that.
Speaker 1: It's ape. If you're running a basketball team, you have
Speaker 1: to do what's in the best interest in the basketball team.
Speaker 2: And I will tell you I think that ultimately they'll
Speaker 2: end up better. Deandrean's a good player. You got to
Speaker 2: pay somebody because with the salary cap, you not just
Speaker 2: have a ceiling the befloor and oh yeah, by the way,
Speaker 2: you got to put some sort of team out there.
Speaker 2: And though I don't believe you can win a championship
Speaker 2: with Laton because he's not really a defender, but he
Speaker 2: is a big time scoring five man, like he'll be fine.
Speaker 2: And Phoenix was trying to get rid of that contract
Speaker 2: ever since they signed that contract, having to match the
Speaker 2: deal when.
Speaker 1: He was restricted free agent. I think with in the end.
Speaker 1: But the big part to this is that the Milwaukee
Speaker 1: Bucks will absolutely be better because they have Damianlonton. I've
Speaker 1: been thinking about it.
Speaker 2: They're now the odds on favorite to an NBA championship,
Speaker 2: and I understand they've been very good even without him
Speaker 2: as a more of a defensive minded team. And they
Speaker 2: did win a championship going back a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: and they did so with Giannis, you know, scoring fifty
Speaker 2: in the deciding game. And the thought is that they
Speaker 2: didn't have Middleton and then they didn't have Giannis for
Speaker 2: two of the games against the Heat this year. If
Speaker 2: they have Giannis for the whole series, they beat the
Speaker 2: Miami Heat. And none of this is even a question.
Speaker 2: And this is not necessarily a shot at Damian Lillard,
Speaker 2: but we can all he's not a great or even.
Speaker 1: Maybe good defensive player. So you're changing the entire construct
Speaker 1: of your team. You don't just at some point in
Speaker 1: your thirties decide, hey, I'm going to become a high
Speaker 1: level defender, you know, and it's taken.
Speaker 2: Have the Golden State Warriors won two championships with Steph
Speaker 2: Curry as their best player? They have, they have, but
Speaker 2: it's been hard because he's constantly attacked in the postseason, constantly.
Speaker 1: Why I'm not saying attacked. I'm not saying get Bayless
Speaker 1: or people like me or Steven A. Smith.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about at the defensive end. He's the focal
Speaker 2: point of what you want to do offensively. And Drew Holliday,
Speaker 2: though there's a drop off as a shooter, I think
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday is as good a ball a handler, probably
Speaker 2: a better passer, and a far superior defender, even if
Speaker 2: he's not the shooter scorer of Damian Lillard. So I
Speaker 2: just they're a completely different team with Damian Lillard as
Speaker 2: opposed to Drew Holliday.
Speaker 1: And oh yeah, by the way.
Speaker 2: You know, you lose a pretty good six or seventh
Speaker 2: man off the bench as well as part of the deal.
Speaker 1: So I do I like what Portland did. Yes, I
Speaker 1: frankly like what Phoenix did you know?
Speaker 2: Spreading that money around to a and get Nurkis, who's
Speaker 2: not the overall player of Ayton. But they don't need
Speaker 2: anybody who needs to score on that team. They have
Speaker 2: plenty of scoring. Now they still need a point guard,
Speaker 2: but they have plenty of scoring. What they needed is
Speaker 2: somebody who will just play defense role, you know, score
Speaker 2: when the ball is given to them and not say
Speaker 2: a word and never have a play run and that's
Speaker 2: what Nurkicch is and then they kind of filled out
Speaker 2: their roster with some other decent pieces off the bench.
Speaker 2: So I really like it for Phoenix, I understand it
Speaker 2: for Portland, and I don't dislike it for Milwaukee because
Speaker 2: at some point you're like that.
Speaker 1: But I don't think Milwaukee was that far off.
Speaker 2: Giannis is healthy, and maybe they let Giannis guard Jimmy
Speaker 2: Butler and none of this ever happens. Instead, you go
Speaker 2: from a defensive juggernaut who just shuts off people's fladder
Speaker 2: to a team that should be good defensively, but you know,
Speaker 2: now you're most of your best players are in your thirties,
Speaker 2: although Drew is in his thirties, dude, but not great
Speaker 2: defenders and a really more of an offensive minded guard
Speaker 2: substituting for Drew Holliday who's a great shooter, great shooter score,
Speaker 2: but hasn't played deep in the playoffs and has never
Speaker 2: shown a ferocity defensively.
Speaker 1: And again, one other part about Dame and.
Speaker 2: If you go back and track even back to when
Speaker 2: he was drafted, I've always been a huge Damian Lillard
Speaker 2: fan and proponent. But if we're honest about Dame, even
Speaker 2: if he's on the I'm a big team a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago, he wasn't great in that setting, and
Speaker 2: he wasn't great.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was the pressure of it.
Speaker 2: I think it's the fact that he's small and he
Speaker 2: wasn't the focal point of what they were doing, and
Speaker 2: that's not what he's used to.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: If he's a focal point of what they're doing, then
Speaker 2: why would you take the ball out of Ganis's hand?
Speaker 1: And then he becomes more of just a shooter. He's
Speaker 1: a great shooter, but he's used to.
Speaker 2: Being ball dominant and he's used to not having to
Speaker 2: play defense, and all this is going to change.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to part one.
Speaker 2: This is Chris Crushfield, good friend of mine, awesome human being,
Speaker 2: really really good human being, who, by the way, just
Speaker 2: so happens to be a talented head coach at his
Speaker 2: ala water the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Speaker 1: Here's the beginning of his journey.
Speaker 2: Crutch your first memory of playing basketball is You're how old?
Speaker 1: And where is it?
Speaker 3: Ooh? I'm probably about eight, maybe maybe nine, and I'm
Speaker 3: on the outside court right up the street from my
Speaker 3: house AND's where all the big boys was playing at.
Speaker 3: And you had to wait till the end to get on.
Speaker 3: And I really never got on until I was about
Speaker 3: eleven or twelve, So so I just hung around and
Speaker 3: just shot the ball and shot the ball and stayed
Speaker 3: up there for three or four hours. And at the end,
Speaker 3: all when all the good players was tired and done,
Speaker 3: I jumped home.
Speaker 2: Some idea was my dad would take me to a
Speaker 2: park YEPS, Milescript Park in Found Valley, California, and the
Speaker 2: early guys played like I think it was like seven am,
Speaker 2: and so we get there like six forty five, and
Speaker 2: you know, like you got a call game, and so
Speaker 2: there might be fourteen guys there.
Speaker 1: I was like fourteen, but I would have the fourth game.
Speaker 2: Because dudes would call game like, well you got your five, like, no,
Speaker 2: my five are coming, and they would rather pick guys
Speaker 2: off the court than pick me because I was so little.
Speaker 2: So he would stay with me and make sure that
Speaker 2: I got my game YEP, and then I play. And
Speaker 2: then usually after you play one game, like when you're decent,
Speaker 2: you can.
Speaker 1: You know, stay on.
Speaker 2: But that's how my dad would it and then he'd
Speaker 2: leave me five bucks. I'll come back and get you whenever,
Speaker 2: you know, and they all day well, because there was
Speaker 2: different there was different waves, right. There was like the
Speaker 2: early wave, there was like the lunchtime way, it was
Speaker 2: like the afternoon waves.
Speaker 1: And when I was a kid, like, I.
Speaker 2: Had no idea what got why guys were going back
Speaker 2: to their car in.
Speaker 1: Between games, right.
Speaker 2: Like I thought they were just they had like food
Speaker 2: in there or something like that. And you know, guys
Speaker 2: drinks and a couple of drinks come back out and
Speaker 2: who you know. And so when you get that those
Speaker 2: afternoon guys, uh, the tempers could get a little get
Speaker 2: a little much. I actually I actually broke my nose.
Speaker 2: My nose was broken right before my first day of
Speaker 2: high school. Kind of saying that I was playing in
Speaker 2: the afternoon and I hit a shot and some dude
Speaker 2: was you know, some guy my team was talking trash
Speaker 2: to him because I.
Speaker 1: Was not yet in high school, right, I was skinny,
Speaker 1: little kid.
Speaker 2: Oh, and then I hit a couple of shots in
Speaker 2: the guy and some guy you know, kind of came
Speaker 2: down the lane and intentionally got me.
Speaker 1: Where'd you go to high school?
Speaker 3: Small town Hopinsville, Kentucky. Okay, yep?
Speaker 1: Was it Hopsinsville High School?
Speaker 3: Hopkins Field High School? Yep? Yep?
Speaker 1: Who's who's your coach?
Speaker 3: Daryl Hallmark?
Speaker 1: What was he like?
Speaker 3: He was hard? He was hard, We pressed, we ran. Uh.
Speaker 3: He wanted to make sure he was in shape, so
Speaker 3: we ran a lot. We had a good team, won
Speaker 3: state championship as a sophomore, finishing the quarterfinals as a junior.
Speaker 3: And it's funny. We had the number one team in
Speaker 3: the state and got the first round of our district
Speaker 3: as a senior. Wow, yeah out yeah, yeah no. It's
Speaker 3: a couple of guys that was probably was the third best.
Speaker 3: A couple of guys went to play at Austin P
Speaker 3: and Murray State.
Speaker 1: Who what's your names?
Speaker 3: Wendell Qualls and Lamont Ware. Lamont played at Austin P.
Speaker 3: Wendle played at Murray.
Speaker 1: How'd you decide to go to Omana?
Speaker 3: I actually went to JUCO first. I went to Noka
Speaker 3: Ramsey Community College up in Minnesota, and uh, and this
Speaker 3: it all worked out. Doug. It's funny because I was
Speaker 3: supposed to go to Austin P. But I was a
Speaker 3: prop forty eight. This is first year of prop forty eight.
Speaker 3: I was the eighty seven graduate of high school. So
Speaker 3: the assistant coach, Steve Hill was putting me and my
Speaker 3: teammate at Austin P. We're gonna hide you guys up
Speaker 3: in this juco up in Minnesota for two years. Then
Speaker 3: we're gonna bring you guys back to Austin P because
Speaker 3: we both were non qualifiers. Hey Lake, Kelly, I don't
Speaker 3: know if you remember the late Lake Kelly Sure, Lake
Speaker 3: was the head coach at Austin P. So late get fired.
Speaker 3: Going into our sophomore year at junior college. Whole staff
Speaker 3: gone blown, the whole thing up, and we're out there
Speaker 3: just trying to figure it out, and the thing kind
Speaker 3: of fell apart. Recruiting kind of took a different route.
Speaker 3: I end up coming to Omahall Division two because, uh,
Speaker 3: it's the only offer that I had really that in
Speaker 3: Saint Cloud.
Speaker 2: Well it's junior college like in Minnesota for you, I mean,
Speaker 2: Kentucky's not it gets cold, but not like Minnesota.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, it was totally different. It was a
Speaker 3: culture shock for me. Now, trust me out in October
Speaker 3: it never snows in Kentucky in October. So in Minnesota
Speaker 3: it's snowed a lot. First time I ever seen it.
Speaker 3: Lightning and snowing at the same time.
Speaker 2: What lightning and snow Yeah, yeah, you know that.
Speaker 3: Was part It's possible.
Speaker 1: Who'd you play for in juco?
Speaker 3: God by name of Alfonso scandret and Alfonso was the
Speaker 3: New York guy, had been around for a long time
Speaker 3: coaching the junior college rankings, coach Division two, end up
Speaker 3: being an administrator. Uh was the a d at assistant
Speaker 3: ady at Texas Tech and Buffalo a bunch of places.
Speaker 3: Now he's retired.
Speaker 1: But yeah, how'd you guys play there?
Speaker 3: I was a little more controlled half court half court offense.
Speaker 3: He he wanted call sets, so we ran a bunch
Speaker 3: of sets, which is a typical of junior college basketball.
Speaker 2: Sure, right, like how you played in high school? It
Speaker 2: seems like how most teams played exactly how you playing?
Speaker 2: How you playing junior college? Like at any point in
Speaker 2: this journey, were you like, man, I want to coach.
Speaker 3: No, no, not until I got out of college.
Speaker 2: So we'll get to that to say, so you get
Speaker 2: to Omaha, yep, right now, Omaha. Now, obviously Division one
Speaker 2: facilities have changed, you know, massive investments the stuff.
Speaker 1: But what was it like that.
Speaker 3: Small, small time basketball. We played on a tartan floor. Uh,
Speaker 3: the league was really good. North Central Conference was really good.
Speaker 3: And all those schools are now in the summit, which
Speaker 3: was North Dakota State, South Dakota State, North Dakota, and
Speaker 3: South Dakota. Northern Colorado was in the league back then.
Speaker 3: School called Morningside in Iowa, Augustana in South Dakota which
Speaker 3: is now still Division two, a really good Division two program,
Speaker 3: but it was it was US and uh those schools
Speaker 3: I just mentioned, and it was a really really good league.
Speaker 3: Did you bus everywhere everywhere except it's up to Northern Colorado?
Speaker 1: Right? What is the bus rides in that league? Like
Speaker 1: you're in college.
Speaker 3: It's hard. It was hard, you know why because it
Speaker 3: was cold everywhere you went, doug right, right, and then
Speaker 3: you got humidity inside the windows, so it's starting to
Speaker 3: create ice on the inside of the windows. That's how
Speaker 3: coldy was in North Dakota.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is this is like early nineties. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 2: so early nineties, I guess you would have you'd have
Speaker 2: the probably the Sony Walkman, Yeah on the bus YEP,
Speaker 2: YEP and and a mixtape. So Chris Cutchfield in college
Speaker 2: with one of those waterproof yellow Sony Walkman, what was
Speaker 2: on the what was what was in your years?
Speaker 1: What was on the mixtape?
Speaker 3: Said? I'm probably had some Rob bass. Uh oh, that's
Speaker 3: a long time ago. Man, you're making me go back now.
Speaker 3: I know for sure, Rob Man.
Speaker 2: I just wondered what a Kentucky what a Kentuck what
Speaker 2: a Kentucky boy would listen to when you're on the road,
Speaker 2: like you know, I remember I would? I mean I
Speaker 2: think that was not yet that was probably that was
Speaker 2: like the in California.
Speaker 1: That was like the nw A era.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: So you had you had the beginning to short too short.
Speaker 2: I was a big too short cut huge too short,
Speaker 2: gut too short. Actually he toured with Stipid Dog in
Speaker 2: the summer. I was like, man, how did I miss
Speaker 2: that one? That was that's right up my alley?
Speaker 3: You did see you in California.
Speaker 1: No, the day that he was out, he was near me. Actually,
Speaker 1: this is a true story.
Speaker 2: My first concert, my first concert I ever went to,
Speaker 2: was with my parents in Vegas. My dad was coaching
Speaker 2: my brother or some team in Vegas, and we went
Speaker 2: to Jeffrey Osborne in Vegas. Me, my mom and my
Speaker 2: dad like Jeffrey Osborne anyway, so so uh and then
Speaker 2: but my first concert without a parent was Miles Simon
Speaker 2: and I went to Bobby Brown and Tony Tony Tony
Speaker 2: in San Ana.
Speaker 1: It was it was, it was.
Speaker 3: Subject it was wild, wild days.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, thank thankfully I never went backstage.
Speaker 4: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
Speaker 4: the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
Speaker 4: dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
Speaker 4: listen live.
Speaker 1: How good were you guys when you played.
Speaker 3: Probably five hundred, probably on the back end of my
Speaker 3: head coach's career. Just so, we were just okay, got
Speaker 3: the first round of our regional tournament. But I had
Speaker 3: a lot of fun. I had fun. I also played football. Here.
Speaker 2: I know you're a two sport athlete. I was like, so,
Speaker 2: but did you play football and junior college?
Speaker 3: Yep? Yep?
Speaker 1: Well position receiver? So what what was what was that?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: So did you touch a ball during the fall? Like,
Speaker 1: how did you? How did that all work?
Speaker 3: After practice? I would go into the gym because it
Speaker 3: was right next to each other. And I was going
Speaker 3: and shoot around, mess around a little bit. But I
Speaker 3: did in high school. I did in high school. And
Speaker 3: when I got to Juco, they asked me to come
Speaker 3: and play and I said, okay, I ain't doing anything.
Speaker 3: I go play and uh and I end up playing. Man,
Speaker 3: it was. It's the weirdest thing. But back then you
Speaker 3: could do that. Like now, even at Division two, you
Speaker 3: couldn't do it now because it's a year around sport,
Speaker 3: both football and basketball.
Speaker 1: What were you Which were you better at?
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's pretty pretty hard man thinking. But
Speaker 3: this way when I got here, there was thirsty games
Speaker 3: where I scored four touchdowns. You probably like you lying.
Speaker 1: You bush. There has to be records. I tell me
Speaker 1: what ran four or four? I was like, well, I was.
Speaker 2: I won't say his name, but I once hurt the
Speaker 2: radio show with a guy who said he ran a
Speaker 2: four four and I said, my man, you ran a
Speaker 2: four four.
Speaker 1: You would not be sitting next to me right now.
Speaker 3: No, I was four six, but I was six three
Speaker 3: six three one ninety. Wasn't that many big receivers?
Speaker 1: Like why did you play back? Why did you? I know,
Speaker 1: why did you keep playing basketball? Why?
Speaker 3: Growing up growing up in Kentucky. That was your first love. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was the first love. And I was good at it.
Speaker 3: And that's the only reason I did it.
Speaker 1: That's that's every that's every football player wants to be
Speaker 1: a basketball player. I know all of them want to
Speaker 1: play basketball.
Speaker 3: Players, no doubt.
Speaker 1: They all do.
Speaker 2: You go to the student rec center, there's always football
Speaker 2: players and they beat you up, correct, correct, and and
Speaker 2: dribbling like they're ripling on their with their elbows.
Speaker 1: What. Okay, So how did you guys play at u
Speaker 1: n o uh?
Speaker 3: We played? It was it was fast. It was fast. Well,
Speaker 3: I also ransom some motion, ran a lot of motion.
Speaker 3: That's the four round one error. And you know you
Speaker 3: were just it was freelance basketball.
Speaker 2: You get done playing, okay, now what what was what
Speaker 2: in your mind?
Speaker 1: What did you think? And then what actually happened?
Speaker 3: So when I got done playing, I had my degree
Speaker 3: in criminal justice. Right, So I did this internship with
Speaker 3: juvenile probation here in Omaho, and they actually gave me
Speaker 3: a bunch of cases. Right, I'm doing the internship and
Speaker 3: they give me twenty four cases. I got my own
Speaker 3: kids that I have to go see and maintenance, right,
Speaker 3: and I do this for six months, Doug, and finally
Speaker 3: I realized. I said, I can't do this anymore. I
Speaker 3: can't help these kids because I saw what they was
Speaker 3: going back to. Right, A couple of them you had
Speaker 3: to take back home. And once you realize, like, because
Speaker 3: I always want to help kids, and I said, no,
Speaker 3: this is not the right error. So I'm walking through
Speaker 3: our rec center one day playing noon ball, right, I
Speaker 3: run into a coach. He said, Crutch, you ever thought
Speaker 3: about being a GA? I said, no, what's the GA?
Speaker 3: He said, a graduate assistant coach. I was like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I never thought about that. I said,
Speaker 3: I'm doing juvenile probation right now. I'm not liking that
Speaker 3: very much. But he said, come and see me tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about it. So I go into the office
Speaker 3: talk to him. This is what a GA is. So
Speaker 3: I just got married, right, So my wife wanted to
Speaker 3: know how much money did it pay? I said about
Speaker 3: eight dollars a month, but you get free tuition. He
Speaker 3: was like, hell, no, we're not doing that. But we
Speaker 3: end up doing it and the rest is history.
Speaker 1: How did you turn it from hell no to this
Speaker 1: is what we're doing.
Speaker 3: Well, I just told her. You know, I got to
Speaker 3: give us a shot, because what I'm doing now, I
Speaker 3: know I don't want to do for a career, and
Speaker 3: I know I didn't want to be a police officer.
Speaker 3: So I said, I got to give it a shot.
Speaker 3: If it don't work out. I mean, we're young enough.
Speaker 3: I was twenty three years old. We can gonna do
Speaker 3: something else. She had and she was a school teacher,
Speaker 3: and uh it worked out.
Speaker 1: How'd you guys meet.
Speaker 3: Here in college? On campus?
Speaker 1: She was just walking and you went up and all that.
Speaker 3: Actually, actually we was in this. It was a it
Speaker 3: was a bowling alley that in the night time we
Speaker 3: turned into a club. So so I saw her in this,
Speaker 3: in this in this lounge, slash bowling alley, slash club.
Speaker 3: And I can't remember the host. I think I asked
Speaker 3: her to dance, and we end up dancing. Next thing,
Speaker 3: you know, we was dating. Three years later married. We
Speaker 3: was married three years later.
Speaker 1: I did you ask her married?
Speaker 3: She she kind of forced me into a corner. She
Speaker 3: told me, we go get married and we're gonna break up.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's there's it's not not dis similar to
Speaker 2: recruiting tactic, right.
Speaker 1: Right, We got we got other dude. We got other
Speaker 1: dudes that want to take the scholarship.
Speaker 3: Now you had to commit.
Speaker 1: You had to commit, or we got to move on
Speaker 1: down the road.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: That's that's what happened with me and Notre Dame. I was.
Speaker 1: I was like on the fence and like, look, Jeff
Speaker 1: Billett is that Christian Brothers.
Speaker 2: Academy in New Jersey. It's a Catholic school. He's a
Speaker 2: Catholic kid. He wants the scholarship. So you got three
Speaker 2: weeks otherwise he's going to visit. He's gonna take it.
Speaker 2: And we got to like week two and a half.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'll take it. I'll take it. So
Speaker 2: I I understand, I understand your wife's tactic.
Speaker 1: And it clearly worked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, worked for both of us, didn't it? Yes?
Speaker 2: So okay, So what was the experience like of being
Speaker 2: a GA because you had just got done playing?
Speaker 3: Right? Did you?
Speaker 1: Did you? Would you hop in practice with coach usual
Speaker 1: on the on the scout team?
Speaker 3: Nope? Nope, we had enough guy, And what I would do?
Speaker 3: We did all the scouting ports back then, we had
Speaker 3: to write them all up. You know, it wasn't it
Speaker 3: wasn't no diagrams on the computer. So you wrote up
Speaker 3: all the scouting ports and you have to do the
Speaker 3: VHS clips the play and Paul's play. Paul's play. That's
Speaker 3: how you made the clips back then with the old
Speaker 3: JVC VHS machines. You remember that, And uh, it's a
Speaker 3: lot of time watching film. But I really learned a
Speaker 3: lot about the game that I thought I knew until
Speaker 3: I started clipping clips out and putting together edit take
Speaker 3: for the team, and you started seeing the game for
Speaker 3: what it was really really worth as you did that.
Speaker 3: So and that gave me the passion that really really
Speaker 3: wanted to coach.
Speaker 1: What was the decision?
Speaker 3: Like Lee? It was easy. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: remember Tim Carter. Tim Carter was was here, Uh four years.
Speaker 1: He got the the UTSA job, right.
Speaker 3: Yes he did. And the next year he brought me
Speaker 3: to UTSA with him.
Speaker 1: But then you were but you were on staff though
Speaker 1: you weren't. You were in a GA. No.
Speaker 3: I was on staff as an assistant coach back then
Speaker 3: it was the restricted earning position. You did everything. You
Speaker 3: just couldn't go on the road recruiting. And uh, I
Speaker 3: was there for a year with him. Then I left
Speaker 3: with Kyle Keller to go to Tyler Junior College to
Speaker 3: his assistant because I needed recruiting experience. And I was
Speaker 3: with Kyle for two years. Kyle goes up on the state,
Speaker 3: I get the head coaching job at Tyler. This is
Speaker 3: ninety nine and uh then then I'm there for two
Speaker 3: years as the head coach.
Speaker 2: Okay, so now what was the biggest adjustment you had
Speaker 2: youth or what was the what was most I don't
Speaker 2: know the interesting takeaway when you go from UNO Division
Speaker 2: two level two U T s A.
Speaker 1: What was what was that adjustment?
Speaker 3: Like I think basketball was the same, Doug. It was
Speaker 3: just you. You was dealing with a different caliber athlete.
Speaker 3: You know, the guys was I mean, the whole team
Speaker 3: was athletic. Guys was bigger. They all came from different places.
Speaker 3: We had a bunch of guys from Chicago, and our
Speaker 3: teams gots from from Birmingham, Alabama. They were small over
Speaker 3: the country in San Antonio. So you got a chance
Speaker 3: chance to really really see better athletes, better players.
Speaker 1: What was it like to be on staff?
Speaker 2: But what it was obviously different, you know from being
Speaker 2: a GA when you're cutting up tape when you restrict
Speaker 2: your earrings, how'd your rule check?
Speaker 3: It was? It was fun because I was on the road.
Speaker 3: We still did scout reports. Was I was in charge
Speaker 3: of all their own campus recruiting, so when all the
Speaker 3: kids brought them on campus, I was in charge of
Speaker 3: the dinners, the visits, the campus tours, and all that
Speaker 3: kind of stuff, which gave me some hands on experience.
Speaker 3: And I worked with Kyle Keller. He was one of
Speaker 3: the assistants, Jeremy Cox. What's the other assistant coach? And
Speaker 3: it was myself and and didn't coach Carter.
Speaker 2: So so you go to Tyler. So now you've been
Speaker 2: in junior college. But Texas junior college different than Minnesota
Speaker 2: junior college. Yep, what's that experience like?
Speaker 3: Oh, there's two different levels of basketball. I mean, Minnesota
Speaker 3: was a bunch of form kids playing playing community college basketball.
Speaker 3: At Tyler, it was it was the best of the
Speaker 3: best that couldn't go to Vision One. All the guys
Speaker 3: that that didn't go D One, that was don qualifiers,
Speaker 3: they all came to the best junior college and Tyler
Speaker 3: was one of them. I mean, you talk about that league,
Speaker 3: it was Tyler, Trendy Valley Kilgore Parish, who's won national
Speaker 3: championships Like it was. It was the best of the best.
Speaker 3: I here talking about guys like Sean Kemp that came
Speaker 3: through Trendy Valley, Robert Pack that came through Tyler, all
Speaker 3: these guys that pla in the NBA, Sam Caselle that
Speaker 3: played at Saint Jack. I mean, it was just so
Speaker 3: many guys that came through Larry.
Speaker 2: Larry Johnson was Larry Johnson was was yeah, yeah, well
Speaker 2: now what was keep an eye on the kids?
Speaker 1: The guys like right? Oh oh.
Speaker 3: I stayed in the dorms every night till about nine thirty.
Speaker 3: I would leave my office, I go hang out in
Speaker 3: the courtyard in the dorms. When they come back from
Speaker 3: eating dinner, I'm right there with them and we're just
Speaker 3: shooting the ship, watching TV. And I'll leave at nine
Speaker 3: thirty to go home.
Speaker 1: I'm sure your wife like that.
Speaker 3: Like I didn't do it every night, but three out
Speaker 3: of four nights I was up there with him.
Speaker 2: I mean, when things go wrong, what did what did
Speaker 2: you guys do that? How was your what was your
Speaker 2: what was the way when Kyle handle it?
Speaker 3: It was a lot of early morning runs. What made suspensions.
Speaker 3: We didn't. We didn't suspend many guys if I can't remember,
Speaker 3: but but it was a lot of running. I knew
Speaker 3: a lot of running, and a lot of a lot
Speaker 3: of stadium stairs, a lot of stairs being ran.
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite guy from Tyler who you felt like
Speaker 1: the whole thing changed his life? Like he ended up?
Speaker 2: He was one guy coming in and then you know,
Speaker 2: now look at him now, he's.
Speaker 3: A great question. Probably Demetrius Kilgore.
Speaker 1: Tell me about him.
Speaker 3: He's from West Lafayette, Indiana, non qualifying of high school.
Speaker 3: Six ' five guard, it was about six eleven wingspan,
Speaker 3: could really play and really shoot it. Big time athlete.
Speaker 3: So end up going back to Purdue, going to Purdue,
Speaker 3: played for coach Katie for two years, ended up getting
Speaker 3: his degree. And now he lives in Dallas and he's
Speaker 3: the the CEO of a charter school and he has
Speaker 3: his own school and he's doing a really, really good job.
Speaker 3: And he's one of those guys that you know, had
Speaker 3: it been a different junior college than Tyler, I don't
Speaker 3: know if he had survived.
Speaker 2: It, why what what what were you guys? What'd you
Speaker 2: guys specifically do that allowed him to be successful.
Speaker 3: Well, I think Cayle cal his whole culture was about
Speaker 3: the players. It was about making sure sure they got
Speaker 3: their AA degree to move on. And he was big
Speaker 3: on pushing academics. He was big on being holistic as
Speaker 3: a as a player and a person and as a student.
Speaker 3: And I think guys like that. I think guys they
Speaker 3: get there, they don't know, they have no idea what's
Speaker 3: really all about until you getting doctrinated into that culture
Speaker 3: and realize that, you know, I could be more. I
Speaker 3: mean he didn't. He didn't think he was a high
Speaker 3: major player even when he got there. But we knew, like,
Speaker 3: this kid is really talented, and it worked out for him.
Speaker 3: But it's so many stories like that, Doug, especially in
Speaker 3: the junior college ranks. I mean, brang up Emanuel McElroy
Speaker 3: who grew up in Port Arthur, Texas. That was poor.
Speaker 3: The kid came to college with a garbage bag of
Speaker 3: stuff that was his stuff and he ended up playing
Speaker 3: for Bobby Huggings at Cincinnati and played overseas for fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Some mark garbage bags. No no, no, nor no, my.
Speaker 3: Rong garbage bags. But it's a shocking thing. You've seen this.
Speaker 3: I drive down to pick him up for school. Right,
Speaker 3: and that's back in the old big suburbans. Right. We
Speaker 3: drive down to pick him up. He comes out of
Speaker 3: the house with two black garbage bags and Kyle looks
Speaker 3: at me and says, that's just all this stuff and uh.
Speaker 3: He gets in the car and we drive back to
Speaker 3: Tyler and the rest is history.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about the day your name head coach?
Speaker 3: Oh? It was word how it happened? Because you're like
Speaker 3: this thory because you're connected with some of these people. Hey,
Speaker 3: Kyle leaves right and takes the job at you mean
Speaker 3: at Tyler. Yeah, at Tyler. Cayle leaves takes the job
Speaker 3: at Oklahoma, stay with coach Sutton. Right, Sure, Scott Sutton
Speaker 3: gets the or Robbers job at the same time. So
Speaker 3: Scott has wanted me to come up be as assistant. Right.
Speaker 3: So I go up interview for the job. I tell
Speaker 3: Scott give me a couple of days because I'm trying
Speaker 3: to figure out I can get the head coaching job
Speaker 3: at Tyler. Right, So I wait around way around the ad.
Speaker 3: Don't ever say anything to me if I'm getting the job.
Speaker 3: Just be patient, Crutch, be patient, be patient, I said,
Speaker 3: I gotta tell coach Sutton something here pretty soon. Now
Speaker 3: I'm gonna lose this opportunity. Now I'm not gonna have
Speaker 3: a job at all. Right, So the next day the
Speaker 3: president call said can you come over and talk to me.
Speaker 3: I went over to see the president at Tyler Junior College.
Speaker 3: Bill Crow was his name, and we talked for fifteen
Speaker 3: minutes and he comes. His last question was do you
Speaker 3: want to be our head coach? I said yes. He said, well,
Speaker 3: he looked at his watch. He said, can you go
Speaker 3: home and put on a suit and be back up
Speaker 3: here in two hours? We got a press conference. That's
Speaker 3: how it happened, just like that.
Speaker 1: What'd your wife say?
Speaker 3: She was happy when she worked on campus in the
Speaker 3: Career Career Assessment building, and I went over and told her.
Speaker 3: On my way back to my office, I stopped and
Speaker 3: told her what had just happened, jumped in the car,
Speaker 3: went home, got dress, came back and did the press conference.
Speaker 1: What's that like to now you're calling the shots first
Speaker 1: time in your career, first time in your life. Now
Speaker 1: you're putting together not just a roster, but I actually
Speaker 1: coaching kind of every game. What's that experience like?
Speaker 3: It was fun. It was fun because you know, at
Speaker 3: that time, I hadn't had that much experience Doug right,
Speaker 3: and my experience was watching Tim Carter, you know, watching
Speaker 3: Kyle Keller and h and being around you know, Coach
Speaker 3: Sutton as much as I was around Coach Sutton and
Speaker 3: just watching him working those camps and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: So I had That's the only experience I had as
Speaker 3: a head coach. So I mean, I didn't know what
Speaker 3: I was doing. I just kind of copied some of
Speaker 3: the things that Kyle did, added my own flavor to it,
Speaker 3: and we end up winning twenty one games that first
Speaker 3: year in junior college.
Speaker 2: One of the remarkable things about you as a friend
Speaker 2: but as kind of an outsider is like, you know
Speaker 2: how guys get when they had some success, You win
Speaker 2: twenty one games their first year, and they get, well
Speaker 2: we used to call it the Natesmith complex.
Speaker 1: Yep, yeah, well they think they think they invented the game.
Speaker 2: But You've always had this a way about you where there's.
Speaker 1: A lack of e go.
Speaker 2: What was that like, like you'd never done this before.
Speaker 2: Now you win twenty one games. How were you able
Speaker 2: to keep your ego in check?
Speaker 3: Because I didn't know. I was so naive and what
Speaker 3: twenty one games meant back then, I really didn't know.
Speaker 3: Like twenty one games, Okay, he won most of your games, Okay.
Speaker 3: Then we got to beat second round of our tournament
Speaker 3: by Sam Jack, who ended up winning the national championship
Speaker 3: that year, and go to Hutch like the ultimate goal
Speaker 3: was to get the Hutch to the national tournament. Right.
Speaker 3: We didn't make it, So in my mind, it wasn't
Speaker 3: a successful year. Right, But for your first year as
Speaker 3: a head coach, I now know you won twenty one games.
Speaker 3: That's a pretty good deal, right. But the next year
Speaker 3: I came back, I think we won seventeen.
Speaker 1: What what was the decision like to go to New Mexico State?
Speaker 3: It was easy. It was easy. I just had my
Speaker 3: second kid and we needed the financial boost and worked
Speaker 3: for a Hall of Famer coach like Lou Henson who
Speaker 3: had so.
Speaker 1: Like what so, so what were you making at Tyler?
Speaker 3: Uh? Probably forty five?
Speaker 2: And then and then your wife worked there too, So
Speaker 2: then when you when when you get to New Mexico
Speaker 2: State job, were you able to get that as far
Speaker 2: as the package or she because she had her second one,
Speaker 2: she was gonna work.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, she she ended up working. She ended
Speaker 3: up working. So she got a job at the school
Speaker 3: at the school district in Las Cruises, And Uh, I
Speaker 3: was there working.
Speaker 1: For lou What's what was coachession?
Speaker 3: Like unbelieved, unbelievable, great basketball mine. Uh could walk into
Speaker 3: any room and win it over in the first ten minutes. Man,
Speaker 3: he was the first guy that I saw that was
Speaker 3: as was a coach and a politician. I mean, he
Speaker 3: just had that knack for being able to go and
Speaker 3: talk to people, win people over. He was so likable
Speaker 3: and I learned the business of coaching right there under him. Uh.
Speaker 3: Just the way he maneuvered and the way he did things.
Speaker 1: Well did he did he? Did he tell you these things?
Speaker 2: Or you just like what did he call you in
Speaker 2: and you talk about it you talk about on the
Speaker 2: road or is it just something things that you had
Speaker 2: to pick up on.
Speaker 3: You just had to pick up on. You just had
Speaker 3: to be aware of everything that was happening. And at
Speaker 3: that time, now I was I was young. Mean, I
Speaker 3: was not even thirty years old, and I was just
Speaker 3: trying to like, Wow, if I really want to do this,
Speaker 3: I got to learn how to do this like guys
Speaker 3: like him. I got to watch this guy really close,
Speaker 3: and myself and coach Stubblefield Tony was on the same
Speaker 3: staff together and we just we just watched and observed
Speaker 3: and took notes and you'd be surprised what you learned
Speaker 3: in four years being around a guy like that.
Speaker 1: No question, no question. And then you left he retired, Yep, yep?
Speaker 1: Did he did? He give you the heads up like,
Speaker 1: how did that?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, going into that that last year, he
Speaker 3: got sick, he got really sick and was in a wheelchair.
Speaker 3: You know, he decided he was coaching from a megaphone
Speaker 3: in the wheelchair for the last part of the season.
Speaker 3: And at the end of the year where a new
Speaker 3: a d come in and it was time. It was
Speaker 3: just time and we we all knew. And uh they
Speaker 3: brought in Reggie Theis that year, and Uh, I was
Speaker 3: lucky enough to get on at at UH at TCU
Speaker 3: with Neil Doherty uh and and Tony. Tony Stubblefield was
Speaker 3: one of my best friends. He ended up staying with
Speaker 3: with Reggie for that next year. But it was a
Speaker 3: good time as one of my one of my best jobs.
Speaker 3: I tell people this outside of Oklahoma. Last cruises was
Speaker 3: one of my one of my best jobs. Why is
Speaker 3: that just at the time, you know, we had two
Speaker 3: young boys and the weather was great. It was a
Speaker 3: great time. It was wasn't a high pressure job at all,
Speaker 3: and we had a lot of friends that was on
Speaker 3: the football staff that was had tied to Nebraska, so
Speaker 3: we just had a chance to hang out with a
Speaker 3: lot of people that we had knew already and working
Speaker 3: for Lou was the best.
Speaker 2: All right, that's it for part one of Chris Crutchfield
Speaker 2: doing In a part two, why did he decide to
Speaker 2: leave Oklahoma and go to Arkansas? And then from Arkansas
Speaker 2: he took a Division two job? And then why leave
Speaker 2: a Division two head coaching job to get back into
Speaker 2: Division one? And how did he become the head coach
Speaker 2: in his own money? All that's upcoming. Thanks so much
Speaker 2: for listening. Remember to download, subscribe, review, and rate. I'm
Speaker 2: Doug Gottlieb. This is Oval