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Speaker 1: Hey, what up. Welcome ma. I'm Doug Gottlieb and you

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Speaker 1: are listening to All Ball, All Basketball all the time.

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Speaker 1: I think this part is hilarious. We're gonna get to

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Speaker 1: our special guest, Rick Croy, head coach at cal Baptist.

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Speaker 1: Amazing rise to prominence as he's taken cal Baptists from

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Speaker 1: a Division two program Division one. They were competitive first year,

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Speaker 1: middle of pack in the whack and uh, interesting guy.

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Speaker 1: He's actually married to a former elementary school classmate of mine.

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Speaker 1: So we'll talk to some cal Baptist St. Mary's and

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Speaker 1: West Coast hoops with Rick Roy. In mere moments I

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Speaker 1: saw this, a Lonzo ball admitted that, uh that the

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Speaker 1: big Bailer brand shoes fell apart. He said, Uh, can

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Speaker 1: I get a quarter in? We gotta switch them every quarter.

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Speaker 1: His shoes literally fell apart every quarter. And I'm telling

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Speaker 1: you that the the Lakers told him last year the

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Speaker 1: reason he hurt his ankle was because his shoes were

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Speaker 1: not well made. And it's one of these things that

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Speaker 1: we we do with athletes where we just assume you

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Speaker 1: take the biggest check and I get the idea of,

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Speaker 1: you know, when you're bidding something in your house. You

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Speaker 1: want to take the lowest bidder, the lowest bidders, the

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Speaker 1: lowest bidder for a reason. Well, in this particular case,

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Speaker 1: remember he had a chance to sign with Nike and

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Speaker 1: ultimately obviously did so this offseason. But I don't care

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Speaker 1: what shoe company you like, right if you're a Nike guy,

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Speaker 1: you're Adidas guy or somebody else guy. There is something

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Speaker 1: to the R and D that the big time shoe

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Speaker 1: companies spend on. They want to make sure that their

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Speaker 1: best athletes are in shoes that don't collapse. Obviously Zai

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Speaker 1: Williamson shoe is the exception to that. But it's interesting

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Speaker 1: to hear Lonzo Ball finally come clean to the big

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Speaker 1: baller brands they were shitty shoes, right like, yeah, no, dub,

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Speaker 1: that's the Lakers would say, that's why they haven't worked

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Speaker 1: out in Kobe's and then he had to play in

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Speaker 1: the big baller brand shoes, but he wouldn't want to.

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Speaker 1: It was his dad saying this was the way in

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Speaker 1: which they could sell shoes, and ultimately it derailed his

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Speaker 1: career with the Lakers, and probably one of the big

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Speaker 1: reasons he would end up being traded is the shoes crazy, right,

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Speaker 1: really crazy. Be sure to catch live editions of The

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Speaker 1: Doug Dot Leap Show weekdays in noon eastern three pm

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Speaker 1: Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.

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Speaker 1: All Right, I got one more thing for you, which

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Speaker 1: is I think kind of fun. Have you guys seen

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Speaker 1: some of the futures for NBA over unders for wins?

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Speaker 1: Do you guys see any of these? Yeah? Like, like

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Speaker 1: if you go online you can find some the you

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Speaker 1: know who doesn't like future lines and NBA futures are

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Speaker 1: interesting because there is this assumption that all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: now the Clippers are going to be the team. To

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Speaker 1: be right, the Clippers because of their personnel and look,

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Speaker 1: I think that the Clippers are ultimately going to be

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Speaker 1: a very competitive team and may well win an NBA championship.

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Speaker 1: But it should be pointed out that Paul George is

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Speaker 1: coming off of dual shortal surgery, Kawhile Leard wasn't right

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Speaker 1: in the finals, and he's coming off a season where

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Speaker 1: he only played sixty games. And they're also gonna have

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Speaker 1: two new stars on their team, which, let's be honest,

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Speaker 1: that's kinda hard to uh to to to deal with.

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Speaker 1: Now they have most of their core back. But the

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Speaker 1: fact is that you add two new pieces to that core,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be bumpy early on. They're over under his

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Speaker 1: fifty six and a half wins, and while that may

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Speaker 1: seem low, considering the two stars that they've added, I'd

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Speaker 1: actually think that's high. I would take the under why

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Speaker 1: Paul George is probably not going to be right until

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Speaker 1: what December? And the team is not gonna be a

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Speaker 1: cohesive until Jay you where your February And once you

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Speaker 1: get too late in the season, they're gonna be resting players. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: my guess is that the Clippers regular season is a

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Speaker 1: little bit more underwhelming than you would think. All right,

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Speaker 1: let's get to Rick Roy. He's the head coach of

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Speaker 1: cal Baptist. They've only been Division one for one season.

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Speaker 1: His rise of prominence is awesome. His perspective on coaching

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Speaker 1: basketball is really really interesting. Rick Roy, head coach of

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Speaker 1: cal Baptist, joins us Walnut Creek is the tough side

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Speaker 1: of the tracks up there where you grew up, Right, Um,

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Speaker 1: what division was north Gate High School? Because we we

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Speaker 1: graduated I think same year, right know, you graduate? But

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Speaker 1: nine you guys won the state title what division was that, Yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: graduated graduated. We were Division three at the time. So

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Speaker 1: who'd you beat in state championship? We beat Artija in

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Speaker 1: the what was then called the Oakland Colisseum where the

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Speaker 1: Warriors played. We beat a really good Artija team they had.

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Speaker 1: You'll probably remember these guys. Kevin Daley went to u c.

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Speaker 1: L A. I think finished it Nevada Kevin Day and

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Speaker 1: then yep, Kevin Day and he went to UCLI ended

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Speaker 1: up being ended up becoming one of the great Globe

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Speaker 1: trotters because ninety five was my year and they signed

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Speaker 1: Brandon Lloyd and they had the previous year as a

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Speaker 1: couple of my AU teammates g R. Henderson, Christan Johnson. Right,

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Speaker 1: those guys are freshman on the national championship team. Toby Bailey, Right,

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Speaker 1: those guys are nine. I forgot Kevin Daley. Okay, go ahead,

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Speaker 1: Kevin dale Then they have a big named Jonathan Nelson,

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Speaker 1: So those were there. He went to Oregon. Those were

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Speaker 1: their two best players. Um, this was before the shot clock.

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Speaker 1: We had a great point guard named Frank A. Locko Jr.

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Speaker 1: The son of our head coach, Um, and we we

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Speaker 1: did a great job using clock and UM had a

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Speaker 1: had a really good group. It was it was a

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Speaker 1: special time. The community was completely behind the journey that

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Speaker 1: our team was on. It was it was really like

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Speaker 1: a unique time when I look back on it. We

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Speaker 1: beat in the North Califinal. We beat Eddie House UM

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Speaker 1: who we We only had two losses that year. That

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Speaker 1: team was thirty four and two, and one of our

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Speaker 1: losses came at St. Mary's College. We got beat by

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Speaker 1: Eddie House's Hayward team and it was an incredible game.

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Speaker 1: He he did one of our games last year at

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Speaker 1: CVU with Fox Sports and we talked a lot about

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Speaker 1: that game and we were reminiscent. And the thing I

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Speaker 1: remember about that game was he hit like eighteen pull

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Speaker 1: up two point shots. He really wasn't a three point

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Speaker 1: shooter then. He was more of like a pull up guy.

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Speaker 1: Like one of the all time high school performances in

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Speaker 1: the Bay Area. But at that time, and I think

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Speaker 1: it's still the same now. If you if you got

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Speaker 1: beat in the Section final, you advanced. We got beat

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Speaker 1: by UH Domingus, so we advanced in the Boston State. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so we were able to get to compete against Hayward again.

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Speaker 1: A few weeks later and that's what we beat him

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Speaker 1: in the open colosseum and and kind of chance to

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Speaker 1: play our tees in the state final. Now, uh, Frank

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Speaker 1: a lock of the head coach, didn't he did he

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Speaker 1: then leave and go to De la Salle's right or

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Speaker 1: is that what happened he did? Yeah, it was. It

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Speaker 1: was an interesting move at the time because Dela sal

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Speaker 1: was one of our rivals. Um. You know, I know

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Speaker 1: you had Sean Farnham on a few weeks ago. I listened,

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Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of the podcast and um, Sean

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Speaker 1: was class of nineties six. But at the time we

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Speaker 1: were we were the public school beating Delasau and had

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Speaker 1: great games with them. So um, it was kind of

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Speaker 1: an unusual move for coach too to head over to Dalstal.

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Speaker 1: But we we really the players, the alums supported the move.

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Speaker 1: Coach A Locko was has been an incredible influence not

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Speaker 1: only for me, but so many guys that are coaching

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Speaker 1: collegiately now, Marcus Schroeder at St. Mary's, Greg St. Jeans

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Speaker 1: with the Lakers, I mean, just an incredible mentor life teacher. Um,

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Speaker 1: So we really supported his move to day lissal And

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Speaker 1: and and a bigger platform, and he went on to

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Speaker 1: win two state championships at Okay, so you finish up

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Speaker 1: and you go to San Francisco State, right, Um, Okay,

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Speaker 1: So San Francisco State. Who's that coach? Charlie Thomas who

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Speaker 1: played at Virginia Tech. He was a tough guy, demanding leader. Um.

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Speaker 1: It had a great experience at San Francisco State. We had,

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Speaker 1: you know, just a great group of guys and SS

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Speaker 1: states a unique university, kind of a commuter school. But

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Speaker 1: we we were able to form a tight knit group

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Speaker 1: and I look back with with a ton of fun

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Speaker 1: memories and really, you know, I talked to guys that

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Speaker 1: that played at bigger schools and they don't have the

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Speaker 1: same relationships. And we've got really got a tight group

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Speaker 1: that we still text all the time and try and

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Speaker 1: stay in each other's lives. And even you know, twenty

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Speaker 1: plus years later, where is San Francisco State. It's on

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Speaker 1: the back side of the city by it's actually almost

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Speaker 1: closer to Daily City than it is to downtown. But um,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have You're gonna have you nork how guys,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to describe it to the rest of

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Speaker 1: the world right Like you're like, oh, it's close to

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Speaker 1: Daily City. Like, oh, it's close to Daily City and

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Speaker 1: you know, fair fair enough, I'm a geographical challenge. So

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Speaker 1: you once you get over the bridge, you keep going

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Speaker 1: towards PACIFICA and you it's the last stop that's considered

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Speaker 1: San Francisco. So um so, like, so where where did

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Speaker 1: you live when you went to school there? Did you

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Speaker 1: live on campus? I lived on campus, uh for a year,

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Speaker 1: and then most of us moved off campus. And it

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Speaker 1: was it was one of those times where you know,

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Speaker 1: you shared a room with maybe one other guy if

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Speaker 1: you were lucky. I mean most of us were. It

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Speaker 1: was seven guys or six guys in a two bedroom

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Speaker 1: because that's even at that time the city was expensive

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Speaker 1: and you had to scrap it out. Um and again

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Speaker 1: it was it was it was a special time. But

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Speaker 1: for the golfers out there, it's um, it's right by

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Speaker 1: the Olympic States, right right by the Olympic Club where

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Speaker 1: they had the was it the p G A or

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Speaker 1: U S open a couple of years ago? Using it was? Yes?

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Speaker 1: So like how did those guys even live now? Like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how you I mean San Francisco's most

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Speaker 1: expensive stay in the country. Obviously the tech industry in

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Speaker 1: the mid nineties, and the tech industry now like the

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Speaker 1: city has is like ridiculous. Um, but I don't even

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Speaker 1: know how they function at So what was it? Was

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Speaker 1: D two? Right? Division two? We start when I got there,

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Speaker 1: we competed in what was the Northern California Athletic Conference

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Speaker 1: and the power at the time was MUC Davis, who

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Speaker 1: was coached by Bob Williams chap and they they won,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is sound good. They were They won

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Speaker 1: the nat Division two national championship without any scholarships, which

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Speaker 1: is I mean to think about that now having coached

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Speaker 1: the Division two level incredible, I mean unbelievable. So that

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Speaker 1: they were the power. And then eventually, um, San Francisco

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Speaker 1: State moved my senior year to the c C to A.

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Speaker 1: You know, that was at a time where a lot

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Speaker 1: of schools that were c C two A schools were

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Speaker 1: transitioning to Division one Cal Poly Sant Louis, Obispo North

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Speaker 1: three Age. Those were teams that were in the c

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Speaker 1: C two A and those transitions kind of create an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to make could one big conference where they kind

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Speaker 1: of combined all the schools from Northern California and Southern

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Speaker 1: California into one Division two conference and that's still a

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Speaker 1: great conference to this day. So you get done in,

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Speaker 1: what were your thoughts on your your future? Well, I knew,

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Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to coach. I had had such

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Speaker 1: a great experience um learning under coach Alacko and saw

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Speaker 1: the impact that he was able to have. And I

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Speaker 1: still remember I really didn't understand how college basketball worked

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Speaker 1: until I was in it. I remember, you know, seeing

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Speaker 1: the lifestyle that my college coach had assistant coaches. I

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Speaker 1: remember thinking, gosh, this this would be something I'd really

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Speaker 1: like to do, but I didn't know how the whole

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Speaker 1: thing worked. And started having conversations with coach Alacko and

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Speaker 1: started working camps the summer before my senior year. I

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Speaker 1: went and worked every camp, but I I worked UNLV's

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Speaker 1: camp for Bill bay No. Dave Rice was actually running

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Speaker 1: the camp and was really good to me. I worked

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Speaker 1: Superstar Basketball Camp. I worked camp for a guy named

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Speaker 1: Michael Lagarza, who's one of the great leaders and great

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Speaker 1: junior college coach of all time. So I was just

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Speaker 1: trying to get as many reps as I could, and

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Speaker 1: I thought maybe that would help you down the road,

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Speaker 1: and started doing the letter writing thing and it studied

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Speaker 1: Steve Lavin and things like that. But I wasn't having

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Speaker 1: a ton of luck. I think I got one interview

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Speaker 1: at the Division one level. One was telling me, you know,

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Speaker 1: you gotta get to Division one. I had one interview

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Speaker 1: in Macon, Georgia, at a school called Nurser. The head

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Speaker 1: coach's name was Mark Swannacker. I went up there and

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Speaker 1: I thought, I thought they were going to hire me.

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Speaker 1: And you know, you you think about how God blesses

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Speaker 1: the broken road. I mean, I don't I don't know

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Speaker 1: if I would have survived out there when I look

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Speaker 1: back on it. But thankfully they didn't hire me. And

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Speaker 1: I told my high school coach, I said, I just

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Speaker 1: want to you know, I want to be around excellent.

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Speaker 1: I want to be around the best leader I can.

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Speaker 1: I asked him, can I come back and work for you?

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Speaker 1: So I had graduated a semester early, so when basketball finished,

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Speaker 1: when my senior year finished, I went back and started

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Speaker 1: coaching at Dalyssau with him. Uh. He had a great

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Speaker 1: staff and he was great for me. He said, you

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Speaker 1: know he really believed in me as a leader. Uh

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Speaker 1: and said, Rick, I'm all good with you coming back,

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Speaker 1: but you gotta promise me that you're going to keep

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Speaker 1: your dream of coaching college basketball. That even if you

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Speaker 1: don't get an opportunity right away a year from now,

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Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta move you on. And you know,

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Speaker 1: at the time, it didn't seem like like that much

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Speaker 1: of a powerful state member. When I think about it,

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Speaker 1: he just had vision and and again that that great

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Speaker 1: belief in me, that that I could that I could

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Speaker 1: make the college basketball journey happen. And then and then

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Speaker 1: in August, um U C Riverside and John Macy called

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Speaker 1: me and said, hey, our grad assistant just left. He

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Speaker 1: was an Orange County guy named of Hopkins who I

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Speaker 1: saw a few weekends ago, a great guy. I played

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Speaker 1: at Santa Margarita and he was coaching. Hopkins was the

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Speaker 1: gratissist and at U c R. And his departure opened

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Speaker 1: the opportunity for me to head down in August. And

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Speaker 1: I really didn't want to leave the LA sal But

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Speaker 1: again coach Alacko came back and said, Rick, you gotta

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Speaker 1: go do this. You know, you gotta get in it

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Speaker 1: at an early age, and and that was just a

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Speaker 1: blessed opportunity for me. I mean working for for John Macy,

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Speaker 1: who you know, one of the great coaches over four

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Speaker 1: hundred fifty wins and just the kind of man that

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Speaker 1: he is to jump into a program like that right away,

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Speaker 1: and he gave me a lot of responsibility. And I

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Speaker 1: couldn't have asked for a better start. Okay, So you

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Speaker 1: get you get through UC Riverside there D two at

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Speaker 1: the time, right, it's like the it's the other kind

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Speaker 1: of u C school. Everybody thinks of u C l A.

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Speaker 1: Some people think if you see Santa Barbara, you c Irvine, Um,

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Speaker 1: there's the u C S d S. Obviously you see

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Speaker 1: Davis which had won a national championship. What was it

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Speaker 1: like to go from I mean, in really kind of

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Speaker 1: short order, you're playing at Division two level. Now you're

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Speaker 1: super young and you're coaching at the Division two level.

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Speaker 1: What was that like? It was great and it was

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Speaker 1: an exciting time. And you know, obviously I couldn't imagine

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Speaker 1: what I'd be doing now in in in a in

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Speaker 1: a transitioning divisional one program. But u C R at

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Speaker 1: the time was transitioning from Division two to Division one.

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Speaker 1: So my first year at u C Riverside in thousand,

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Speaker 1: we were D two and then the next year we

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Speaker 1: were Division one. And at that time you were considered

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Speaker 1: an independent, so you really weren't even in a conference

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Speaker 1: like we we didn't join the Big West Conference. We

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Speaker 1: were just playing against anyone that we could get a

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Speaker 1: game with. So it was kind of a crazy schedule.

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Speaker 1: This schedule at gaps In it the n C double a. UM,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't the transition wasn't as organized as it is

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Speaker 1: now now. Like for US at CBU, before we became

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Speaker 1: a Division one member, we had to be accepted into

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Speaker 1: a conference, so we you know, we got the invitation

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Speaker 1: from the Western Athletic Conference, and you know, all of

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Speaker 1: that was kind of a seamless process and and and

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Speaker 1: very very organized. So at u c R there was

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Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. UM coach Macy had built

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Speaker 1: a dominant Division two powerhouse. They had played in the

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Speaker 1: National Championship game against Southern Indiana. Bruce Pearl was the

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Speaker 1: head coach. UM, they had a great fan base, support

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Speaker 1: from the community, and it was an exciting time and

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Speaker 1: and and I was you know. I was just enjoying

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Speaker 1: it learning from all of the coaches. We had a

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Speaker 1: great coaching staff, and I just kind of jumped in

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Speaker 1: and and was trying to get better every day I did.

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Speaker 1: How did you guys play? We played motion offense. Coach

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Speaker 1: had had shaped the motion offense, and he was one

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Speaker 1: of the first coaches to really nationally to utilize the

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Speaker 1: three point shot. They had beat They had played in

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Speaker 1: the tournament in Hawaii, I believe in one of the

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Speaker 1: first years where the three point shot was um in

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Speaker 1: play and they made I don't remember the specific number,

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Speaker 1: but it was well over twenty threes to beat a

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Speaker 1: great IOWA team like Iowa was top five. D J. Armstrong,

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Speaker 1: Roy Marble, an incredible team. I watched I've watched the

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Speaker 1: film a few times, and but he was on the

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Speaker 1: he was on the forefront of utilizing the three point

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Speaker 1: shot and and relying on it and and recruiting to it.

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Speaker 1: So they played four out one in motion and they

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Speaker 1: took a ton of threes and then very very solid

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Speaker 1: man to man defense principles. Coach was Coach Mason, an

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Speaker 1: old school coach and ran a great practice. Loved being

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Speaker 1: in the gym. I loved mentoring young guys and and

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Speaker 1: and really knew how to build a program. You go

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Speaker 1: from there to Citrus College, and so for people who

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Speaker 1: aren't familiar with southern California, so UC Riverside and cow

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Speaker 1: Baptists where you are now, they're both in Riverside, Riversides

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Speaker 1: in the Inland Empire. That's they produced Reggie Miller obviously,

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Speaker 1: most recently Kawhi Leonard Um. It is a well spring

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Speaker 1: of talent, very blue collar. It's also very hot, smoggy,

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Speaker 1: kind of dusty. Citrus College is a little bit closer

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Speaker 1: to l A. It's in It's in Glendora, which is

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Speaker 1: I don't think it's not really in the Land Empire there, right,

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Speaker 1: that's like San Gabriel Valley there, I think. And that's

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Speaker 1: of course where Adam Jacobson, who you just hired as

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Speaker 1: your assistant at CBU. Tracy Murray of course famously played there,

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Speaker 1: so did all of the Jacobson brothers. Casey Jacobson was

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Speaker 1: an All American and went on to Stanford in the NBA.

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Speaker 1: UM what what was the decision like to go from

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Speaker 1: being a Division two to become Division one assistant coach

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Speaker 1: to becoming a junior college coach and it's Interest College

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Speaker 1: in Glendora. Well, to backtrack a little bit, you know,

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Speaker 1: just in terms of accuracy on the journey it was.

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Speaker 1: It was kind of crazy because I actually you Concordia first, right,

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Speaker 1: you went to you coach under Ken First. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: left UCR. I was I was the grad graduate assistant,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I really wanted to get out and

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Speaker 1: recruit and Ken was Ken Ammon was at a Zooza

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Speaker 1: Pacific and he got the Concordia job, his first head

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Speaker 1: coaching job. It was one of the best moves I

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Speaker 1: made because there's so many things that I do today

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Speaker 1: as a leader that I learned from Ken. You know,

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Speaker 1: you pick up so many things along the way. But

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Speaker 1: it was especial year we we taught. We titled that

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Speaker 1: year the End of the Innocence. It was like the

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Speaker 1: last year in coaching were the players didn't have cell phones.

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Speaker 1: We were in like our own little bubble and we

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Speaker 1: were just you know, trying to trying to figure things out.

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Speaker 1: And at the end of that year, it was probably

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Speaker 1: one of my first tough decisions in coaching because coach

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Speaker 1: Macy lost his top assistant, Reggie Howard, because Larry Reynolds

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Speaker 1: got the head coaching job at Long Beach State and said, hey, Rick,

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Speaker 1: I'd like you to come back. You know, you've got

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Speaker 1: great familiarity with the players, you recruited some of these

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Speaker 1: guys and you know, you know the program. Would you

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Speaker 1: would you come back? And you know, I started to

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Speaker 1: learn a little bit more how the coaching game worked,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, gosh, I better take this opportunity. So

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Speaker 1: I went back to UC Riverside was there for three

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Speaker 1: more years. And at that time we were in the

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Speaker 1: Big West and we had some good players. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: we we suffered some we went through some adversity. We

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Speaker 1: lost the Nate Carter was Big West freshman the year

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Speaker 1: he transferred to Oklahoma. That that was a setback. We

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Speaker 1: had a really good player of only Morton was Big

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Speaker 1: West Defensive player of the year. UM. And we you

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Speaker 1: know that when you're coaching mid major basketball, one of

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Speaker 1: the one of the most difficult things is to weather

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Speaker 1: adversity because it's very very difficult, I think, especially in

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Speaker 1: the journey UM, to to get depth. And we didn't

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Speaker 1: quite have enough depth to to create the kind of

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Speaker 1: success that uh, the athletic director thought we should have

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Speaker 1: at the time, and and and then the school made

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Speaker 1: a very very tough decision and um, so they let

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Speaker 1: our staff go. And it was one of those crucible

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Speaker 1: moments in coaching where I had a chance to potentially

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Speaker 1: stay on with with the guy, the coach that they

393
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Speaker 1: brought in, who was a guy named David Spencer, or

394
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Speaker 1: it was time to find another opportunity. And my wife

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Speaker 1: and I, Jamie, had our first baby on the way,

396
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Speaker 1: and there was a junior college opening at Spitcher's College,

397
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Speaker 1: but it paid like fifteen thou dollars was part time.

398
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Speaker 1: But I thought the opportunity to be a head coach

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Speaker 1: at that age, I think I was twenty seven, I

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Speaker 1: thought that was a pretty good opportunity. My wife was teaching,

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Speaker 1: we could we could make it work financially. Um wait,

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Speaker 1: how did you make it work financially? Well, she was

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Speaker 1: she was teaching, and she was the breadwinner and she

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Speaker 1: was getting it done. And um, you know, I took

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Speaker 1: the coaching stipend and the A D got me a

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Speaker 1: couple of classes to teach, and we scrapped it out.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was tough, but when I looked back

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Speaker 1: on it, that was I mean, probably one of the

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Speaker 1: best experiences I've ever had coaching, and I hired a

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Speaker 1: bunch of guys that had just gotten done playing, and

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Speaker 1: it was like it had to work, and we were

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Speaker 1: we were learning by doing, and you know, I had

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Speaker 1: a pretty good idea of how we wanted to guard

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Speaker 1: and how we wanted to play defensively, but you know,

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Speaker 1: offensively we were we were kind of a mess. Uh

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Speaker 1: you know we I thought, gosh, we just we need

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Speaker 1: to run sets because you don't have these guys for

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Speaker 1: very long. And I kind of got away from the

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Speaker 1: principles of how I grew up playing, going all the

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Speaker 1: way back to coach Alacko with you know, a player movement,

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Speaker 1: ball movement and just believing in the fundamentals. And my

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Speaker 1: second year, UM, this was kind of a really neat

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Speaker 1: part in the journey. UM I knew I needed to

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Speaker 1: get better, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

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Speaker 1: So I was I was thinking, gosh, who can I

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Speaker 1: bring in that I can really learn from? And Jim

427
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Speaker 1: Siah was the interim head coach at SC when a

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Speaker 1: crazy set of circumstances, it was like Henry Bibby then

429
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 1: Rick Mageris and Siah took over Um, it was like

430
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: Gabe Pruett, Nick Young, those guys those he was playing

431
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: those guys as freshmen. And and and Jim was Jim

432
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,200
Speaker 1: was out of the game. He was, you know, just

433
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: looking looking for an opportunity. And I called him up.

434
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,000
Speaker 1: I didn't know him that well, and I said, hey,

435
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,720
Speaker 1: would you would you come on board mentor me at Citrus.

436
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:09,119
Speaker 1: You know, you only got to come a couple of

437
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: days a week, and I just want to watch you,

438
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,199
Speaker 1: you know, put in some offense at Principles and teach me.

439
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: And that was big because it really helped me get

440
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:21,199
Speaker 1: back to believing in some of the things that that

441
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,840
Speaker 1: I originally believed in. And um, you know, we started

442
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: playing with great pace and then you know, kept getting

443
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: better defensively and we were able to we were able

444
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 1: to build a really strong program at Citrus. And you know,

445
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: you gained so much confidence, um, you know from having

446
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 1: to run practice every day and just getting to build

447
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,320
Speaker 1: a program. Yeah, and then you end up winning a

448
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: state championship in your third year. Uh. You got to

449
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: the regional finals, you got to the final four. Uh

450
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 1: in two thousand and ten year. Last year, by the way,

451
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: for people who don't know I've actually known your wife

452
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: way longer than I know. I grew up in the

453
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,200
Speaker 1: city of Orange, your wife and Jamie Shines. She was

454
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,000
Speaker 1: a stud athlete, right she was a She played volleyball

455
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: at at St. Mary's. Um. She actually went she went

456
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: to St. Mary's to play basketball, and then when she

457
00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: finished playing hoop she she played a fifth year of volleyball.

458
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: So there's yeah, she she reminds me off and uh,

459
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: you know where the athleticism in the family is for sure.

460
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,439
Speaker 1: But yeah, we've talked all the time about you know,

461
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:29,240
Speaker 1: the got leaves. The got Leaves should have been leading

462
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: the Almadena Boys to championships, but um, you know you

463
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 1: had to go over to Tustin and do it and

464
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: do your thing over there. Yeah, it was. It was

465
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. You know. My my brother was coached

466
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 1: by guy Tim, Tim Tiffnan and and Tim actually did

467
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 1: a really his senior year. They were awesome, Like I

468
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,119
Speaker 1: don't know, like I'm gonna say, like twenty eight and

469
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: two or three or something. They got upset early in

470
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 1: the tournament, um by Cohne. Weird thing. You're a top seed,

471
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: but and you get to buy and then you play

472
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,120
Speaker 1: her first game on the road and they got beat

473
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,439
Speaker 1: uh um, but it just El Medina. It's interesting that

474
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: she made it out of Almadina. My sister, you know,

475
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:08,640
Speaker 1: kind of made it out of my brother. You know. Uh,

476
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: there's some Robbie Gordon made it out of Almadina. There

477
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: was a lot of people. There's like a guy here there. Uh,

478
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 1: what's Saint Gibson because was the starting center for Tom

479
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,159
Speaker 1: Rodovich at USC. So there was guys, but there just

480
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,679
Speaker 1: wasn't like it wasn't really a sports school. And so

481
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,480
Speaker 1: when I stayed back, we tried to pick the best

482
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: public sports school. That's why we picked Tustin. And it's

483
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:34,719
Speaker 1: interesting that, you know, like I really it. It speaks

484
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 1: to me for guys who transfer, and even as a

485
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 1: guy myself who transfers and in college basketball in that

486
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 1: it's really different your relationship with your teammates if you

487
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: grew up with those guys, you know, like I, it

488
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: is something that I It took me several years of

489
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,879
Speaker 1: testing to feel connected to the guys I was played by.

490
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 1: My senior year, I was because we'd all kind of

491
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: played together, lost together, one together, whatever. But there were

492
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,640
Speaker 1: really three years where I wasn't really connected with those

493
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: because I didn't live in Tustin. Um, and it it

494
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: does speak to me for for transfers. Okay, so your

495
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: Citrus College, you won and twenty nine games, Um, and

496
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: you decide to go to stan back to St. Mary's

497
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: where she's an alum of to work under Randy Bennett. Why,

498
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,159
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a a myriad of reasons that

499
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,199
Speaker 1: number one I had to really think about. I had

500
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 1: applied for a few jobs at the four year level,

501
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:36,760
Speaker 1: you know, and that's where that's where coaching is tough.

502
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: Is it's a little bit that the platforms are are

503
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: slightly fractured, like even if you're I think this holds

504
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 1: true even more so today. Even then it didn't two

505
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: thousand and ten. If if you wanted to move up,

506
00:28:54,600 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: sometimes that success wasn't truly recognized. Um, you know there

507
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 1: was I think he really had to have n C

508
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: double a success and experience under your belt. So I

509
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: was applying for a few jobs, and um, you know,

510
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: I had to kind of assess, Okay, was I a

511
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:19,240
Speaker 1: realistic candidate? And so that was that was part of

512
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 1: the decision, was Okay, do I want to coach at

513
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: the community college level? I can keep having an impact.

514
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: I've had mentors that had done that and really enjoyed it.

515
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: Steve coach Amilio up at Diablo Valley College. I had

516
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: some conversations with him and uh, you know, he said,

517
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: you know, you kind of got to make that decision

518
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 1: early in your career, and I I desired to coach

519
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 1: at the Division one level. So it was it was

520
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: one of those crucial moments where I had to make

521
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 1: a tough decision and thankfully, um, I was able to

522
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: do it at an incredible in an incredible program like St.

523
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: Mary's College. Randy had built, you know, in a amazing

524
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: program and was able to step in there and learn

525
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: underneath him. Then the other reason I left was, you know,

526
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 1: the thing I love most about coaching is being on

527
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 1: the staff. And when you coach at the junior college level,

528
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 1: there's really only one guy getting paid, and that's the

529
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 1: head coach. And not that you're getting paid extraordinarily well, um,

530
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: but the assistance you just there's no benefits. There's basically

531
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: you know, stipend pay. And I really felt like, Ash,

532
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 1: we've got a great coaching staff. I'd love to be

533
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 1: in a situation where one day we could you know,

534
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: I have five six guys on on good salaries and

535
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 1: they could raise their families through this this passion. So

536
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 1: those were some of the reasons. And then the other

537
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: reason just being the amazing opportunity that was that was

538
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 1: presented UM to me from from Randy. All Right, see

539
00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 1: you get there and your first year you had uh

540
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,959
Speaker 1: Mickey McConnell, who was a stud right supposed to go

541
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: to New Mexico and when when that coaching job change,

542
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: he ends up going to uh, he ends up going

543
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 1: to St. Mary's. You have Delhi Delhi's only a sophomore

544
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: at the time, UM. And you also had Mitchell Young

545
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 1: Rob Jones as well, who was transferred in from San Diego. UM. So,

546
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 1: so what was like, all of a sudden you go

547
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: from up coaching all these other places and you appreciated

548
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 1: Randy knew what was it about those St. Mary's teams?

549
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 1: And I know you guys didn't win an nc A

550
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: tournament games when you were there, but those were great

551
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,480
Speaker 1: teams in a great conference against Gonzaga that I mean

552
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:47,479
Speaker 1: every year you guys were in the finals against Gonzaga. UM.

553
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: What was it like to step into St. Mary's after

554
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 1: being at the junior college level and the Division two level.

555
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,360
Speaker 1: There was great momentum. I mean they were coming off

556
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 1: Sweet Sweet sixteen appearance, the enthusiasm surrounding the program. I

557
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 1: think everyone knew Mickey was about to do something special

558
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: in his senior year. I don't know if anyone could

559
00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,800
Speaker 1: have predicted Delhi the kind of year that he was

560
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,840
Speaker 1: about to have. Mean, Mickey Mickey. His senior year, he

561
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: was m v P of the West Coast Conference. He

562
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 1: was sensational from start to finish. And then you know,

563
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:27,360
Speaker 1: you you just Delhi. You knew there was something special

564
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 1: happening with his leadership and his ability to make everyone

565
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: around him better. You know, it's interesting about Deli. So

566
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 1: I spoke at Randy's kickoff banquet the year before. So

567
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 1: this is in two thousand nine, and um, I think

568
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 1: that was right after Patty Mills left, right, and and

569
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 1: I remember he was I was like, all right, who's

570
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: the next one? Right? Because when I had gotten there,

571
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: it was like when I first started calling games, was

572
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:58,160
Speaker 1: Kicker and then you know, um there and then it

573
00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 1: became all Ofsse's right and pat E Mills and and

574
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: then you know it was and then Mickey and I

575
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 1: was like, who's the next one, And he's like that

576
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: guy right there, and and if you've ever seen Deli

577
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: Deli now in in in person is obviously an incredible shape.

578
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: But but then he was kind of built like a block.

579
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,960
Speaker 1: I just remember super thick, super hairy legs, right like

580
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:25,800
Speaker 1: super super hairy Harry Wolfman legs. And I was just like,

581
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: no fucking way, Randy, no way. And he's like, I'm

582
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: just telling you just watch him play like he just

583
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: he goes. He's tough as shit, he makes shots, he

584
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: runs a team, he goes. He just he doesn't have

585
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: to go buy anybody just reads a pick and roll.

586
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 1: He's gonna be so good. And even the first year

587
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: I saw, I was like, damn maybe, and he just

588
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: got better and better and and better. Did you when

589
00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 1: you showed up there, did you go like, oh, that

590
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:57,000
Speaker 1: guy is gonna be a pro? Probably not. I mean,

591
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, I mean, it's funny to look back

592
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: at some of the pictures. That's what you see now

593
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: is is a much cleaner version. Um he was. He

594
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:11,800
Speaker 1: was scrappy, but he had this will um that you felt,

595
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:16,360
Speaker 1: and he challenged you as a coach. We had a

596
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 1: new staff. I mean, it's we have so many great

597
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,200
Speaker 1: memories from from those coaching staffs. It was, but we

598
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:26,760
Speaker 1: were a new staff. It was our staff was myself,

599
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 1: Ron Gannat who was the head coach at Hawaii, Adam

600
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,120
Speaker 1: k Porn, who's an assistant for the Boomers Um the

601
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 1: Australian Olympic came now Tyler ogin In the associate head

602
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:40,839
Speaker 1: coach at Northern Arizona, and you know, the program had

603
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,919
Speaker 1: had so much success and we didn't want to screw

604
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:48,280
Speaker 1: anything up. So we were really learning from Mickey Uh

605
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:50,919
Speaker 1: and Delhi and Rob Jones. There were all these great

606
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 1: leaders that were in place, and we were just excited

607
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 1: to compete with those guys. But there was such a

608
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: chemistry uh, and it was just some of the things

609
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: that were going on around the country. You were you

610
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:08,560
Speaker 1: were in this bubble and Moraga where there was great appreciation.

611
00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: Guys were in the moment um. They were just enjoying

612
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 1: college basketball. So the professional thing that really wasn't the focus.

613
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: It was like, you knew Delhi wanted to play in

614
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: the NBA, but he was just trying to make Saint

615
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 1: Mary's better every day. And some of that stuff sounds cliche,

616
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 1: but when I think back about my to my experiences

617
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,719
Speaker 1: with him, that that's truly what it was. The guy

618
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: was if somebody, you know, criticized him in some area

619
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:38,640
Speaker 1: or said, hey, you know, I know one of the

620
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:40,359
Speaker 1: things early was, man, I don't know if he could

621
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 1: slide his feet. He got on this slideboard and we

622
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:48,359
Speaker 1: would we would finish lifting, and you know, everyone else

623
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: would head to the cafeteria and he would put in

624
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 1: like fifteen to twenty minutes of like this hyper focused

625
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 1: work on this slide board, and sure enough, a couple

626
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 1: of months later, no one could go by them. And

627
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,400
Speaker 1: he would do that in all these different areas, free throws,

628
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,880
Speaker 1: three points, shooting, um, you know, passing out of the

629
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,840
Speaker 1: pick and roll. He would just he would hunt down

630
00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 1: all these details at the game, and the longer you

631
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:15,440
Speaker 1: you spent around him, it was like, there's no way

632
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 1: he's not gonna make it, and he just won't be denied.

633
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:23,360
Speaker 1: And I remember watching that draft with my son, um

634
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 1: and daughter, and I fully believe that that somebody was

635
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,440
Speaker 1: going to recognize the excellence in the draft, you know,

636
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: even if it was in the second round. And I

637
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: remember my my son crying as the final pick was

638
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 1: announced and and Delhi one undrafted. But even in that moment,

639
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,160
Speaker 1: you're like, no, he's gonna get on a summer league

640
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: team and he'll do whatever it takes. He'll get in

641
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: somebody's training camp, he'll do whatever it takes. And um,

642
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,960
Speaker 1: you know, just just amazing story. Yeah, truly truly an

643
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 1: amazing story. What is it about? And and and some

644
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: of it is the Aussies they're just wired differently. I

645
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:03,760
Speaker 1: don't know how they do it at the Australian Institute

646
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 1: of Sport, but they do get guys to be in

647
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:09,839
Speaker 1: the moment, play for the team, play for each other, right,

648
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: Like is it's really the the Aussee thing is a

649
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:16,320
Speaker 1: real thing where they they and and and it's interesting

650
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:19,240
Speaker 1: that Ben Simmons hasn't necessarily been connected with it because

651
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:21,839
Speaker 1: he even though he does like to share the basketball,

652
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: he's not really liked those guys. How much of it

653
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 1: is their makeup? How much of it is Randy's coaching

654
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: that's allowed St Mary's to continue? Because I don't know

655
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,920
Speaker 1: if people understand like how big an upset it is

656
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: that um that they're continually successful, like they've redone the

657
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: mckennyan pavilion and made it nice. But it's still a

658
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:44,280
Speaker 1: tiny school, you know, and a beautiful part of the country,

659
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 1: but not one that they're like, they're not able to

660
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:51,040
Speaker 1: go and out recruit col Or Stanford right in northern California, right, Like,

661
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 1: how much of it is the Ausse's how much of

662
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: it is Randy that allows them to be successful? Yeah,

663
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:59,720
Speaker 1: Well to your point, Um, you know, Jim Shaw, he's

664
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: so hey coach at Washington's date and he's been a

665
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 1: great mentor to me. But he's he's been all over

666
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: the country. He's competed in you know, probably fifteen n

667
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: C Double A tournaments, Oklahoma, Washington, He's been at all

668
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 1: these Power five schools. He calls it the Miracle and

669
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 1: Moraga because you see St. Mary's College basketball on TV.

670
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:21,879
Speaker 1: But it's a different deal when you're when you're there,

671
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a small school, but there's just

672
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: you know, there's something Randy's built, something that's incredibly special.

673
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: I think it's a combination of both. It's a great

674
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 1: it's a great platform, um, you know, for for the Aussies,

675
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: for for their culture. Those guys would say, you know,

676
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,400
Speaker 1: they kind of draw the correlation or use the metaphor

677
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:47,919
Speaker 1: of growing up watching footie. You know, they're Aussie rules

678
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,719
Speaker 1: football compared to our football. You know. I think in

679
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: the NFL, you know, a guy scores a touchdown. Uh,

680
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 1: there's a lot of self glorification, you know, the celebrations.

681
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 1: It's all about you know, who put it over the

682
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 1: goal line. They would say that in their sport and

683
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:08,200
Speaker 1: footie a lot of times it's the hand pass, it's

684
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:12,320
Speaker 1: the assist. It's the hockey assist that lead to yeah,

685
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,839
Speaker 1: you know, the the guy kicking it through um and

686
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 1: scoring the points and the celebrations, you know, and being

687
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 1: over there this summer and getting to watch one of

688
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,839
Speaker 1: those games in person, it's real like there's there's not

689
00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: as much attention drawn to self. It is more about team.

690
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 1: There are so many people out on the pitch at

691
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 1: one time, the head coaches in the booth. It's the

692
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:41,800
Speaker 1: team culture I think is emphasized more at a younger age,

693
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:47,120
Speaker 1: the grassroots level. The attention of fundamentals um is more

694
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:52,320
Speaker 1: acute and it translates and these guys get to college

695
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: and they know what it means to be a teammate

696
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 1: and I think, um, you know how to work at

697
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:03,200
Speaker 1: it and not panic. Not panic if your freshman year

698
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 1: isn't going exactly the way that maybe you had built

699
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 1: it in your mind's eye. Yeah, well it's funny. So

700
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:14,080
Speaker 1: I my last one of my last big college basketball

701
00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:18,240
Speaker 1: shows at ESPN, and so this is in two thousand twelve.

702
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:20,919
Speaker 1: I was it was it was one of the days

703
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:24,399
Speaker 1: where a team it was where going. I think they

704
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: beat Gonzaga in the WCC finals, and um, I was

705
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:31,919
Speaker 1: on with a guy named Adrian Branch. Now Adrian Branch

706
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: is a great player and really really funny, and I

707
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:37,800
Speaker 1: haven't had a great relationship with him, but I was

708
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 1: trying to make the point about the miracle of Moraga

709
00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:42,799
Speaker 1: and like he actually cut me off, and I was like,

710
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 1: I don't think people understand what Randy Bennett took over.

711
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 1: The gym was terrible. The school's tiny, they won two

712
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 1: games the year before he got there. And I started

713
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 1: to go into the stats. He's like, why are you talking?

714
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,800
Speaker 1: Basically it was basically, why are you talking shit about St? Mary's?

715
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 1: And I was like, and I actually said, can you

716
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,440
Speaker 1: please stop talking? I'm not done right? And I was

717
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 1: and and for like I I we actually had like

718
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:09,480
Speaker 1: meetings about it, and I probably, you know, I just

719
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,000
Speaker 1: should have just kept going and I ended up still going,

720
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 1: But I shouldn't have said it that way. It was.

721
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: I was trying to relay just how amazing it was.

722
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 1: What about Randy? What if if you were to give

723
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:24,200
Speaker 1: one or two takeaways? Because I've said, you know, like

724
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,839
Speaker 1: one of the great things about my job is like

725
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,320
Speaker 1: I get to watch these practices and I'm gonna just

726
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,120
Speaker 1: tell you, like, I remember they were in I don't

727
00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 1: know if you were there, Um, you might have been there. Yeah,

728
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,520
Speaker 1: it was out in Hawaii and I was doing a

729
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:42,399
Speaker 1: game and we did the the Diamond Head Classic, And

730
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:44,760
Speaker 1: did you coach when you guys are in the Diamonad Classic.

731
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think what years that was. I think

732
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:51,440
Speaker 1: the year after I came down to Okay. So I

733
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 1: remember watching and I had done his clinics before, and

734
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: I had spoken to the camps before whatever, and I've

735
00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:00,359
Speaker 1: done his games before. But the way it we're there

736
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 1: was your land and you actually had maybe a two

737
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:05,759
Speaker 1: days of practice before you played, depending on where you

738
00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:08,719
Speaker 1: flew in from. Remember watching his practice and be like,

739
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:13,960
Speaker 1: I mean, I've seen two hundred teams practice. Okay, maybe

740
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,280
Speaker 1: not two hundred schools, but two hundred different coaches coach practice.

741
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:20,440
Speaker 1: Probably in fifteen years of broadcasting maybe, and I actually

742
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:24,960
Speaker 1: probably seen more. And of the most impressive practices Brad

743
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,359
Speaker 1: Stevens in Hawaii was the first time I saw it.

744
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: Brandy Bennett, Tony Bennett, UM, Tony Bennett, uh and and

745
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 1: Randy would be three of the end. What stuck out

746
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 1: to me was that the start of air practice was

747
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:43,440
Speaker 1: passing catching fundamentals as well as everything else. Right, but

748
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,880
Speaker 1: and and like we do operate in the assumption everybody

749
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 1: does it, but everybody doesn't do it? What what what

750
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,359
Speaker 1: about him as a coach? If you were to relate

751
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:54,640
Speaker 1: to other coaches to listen to this podect, like this

752
00:42:54,680 --> 00:42:57,880
Speaker 1: is the secret sauce other than getting those players from

753
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:01,439
Speaker 1: Australia who have those fund else but also are willing

754
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: to sacrifice themselves. Yeah, I would say a couple of things. Um, One,

755
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 1: you've already alluded to. Incredibly consistent, I mean the consistency

756
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 1: in his program, in his in his leadership and what

757
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 1: he brings to the table every day special special. And

758
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:33,440
Speaker 1: then um, he studied, he studied every detail of the profession,

759
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:42,280
Speaker 1: from scheduling to shooting, to building a culture, to team

760
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: building two down to the last detail graphics on the hallway.

761
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 1: He he wants to get better in every area every year,

762
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 1: and he's incredibly passionate about it. Then the last thing

763
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 1: I would is Greg Popovich has this line that says,

764
00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 1: you know, he coaching is like I can't remember what

765
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:14,480
Speaker 1: percent he used, but call it force of personality. And

766
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 1: you know, Randy has never tried to be anyone else.

767
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:25,960
Speaker 1: He's um. Maybe not the most charismatic or demonstrative, but

768
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 1: there's a force to his leadership and guys believe in it,

769
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 1: and there's an incredible consistency behind consistency behind it. He's

770
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 1: all about the team, he's all about the staff. UM

771
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 1: cares about his guys. You know, if you look at, uh,

772
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 1: the success of the assistant coaches that he's had moved on,

773
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's becoming, uh, you know, just a

774
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:54,719
Speaker 1: great tree. I think that's something he's proud of. And then,

775
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:58,400
Speaker 1: you know, I think within his personality, you can see

776
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: why he stayed where so many other guys when they

777
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: have that success at that at the mid major level

778
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 1: or in a conference like WCC they've left, and you

779
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:13,400
Speaker 1: know he's not He's not trying to be anyone else.

780
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:19,840
Speaker 1: He he knows who he is um, and he believes

781
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 1: in the way they do it. And I think the players,

782
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: the players feel that. Sat Mary's feels that, and and

783
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:32,200
Speaker 1: and he's constantly trying trying to improve. So it's it's

784
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:36,360
Speaker 1: really um you know that. I think the mastery in

785
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:40,279
Speaker 1: it is in the simplicity he just he doesn't get

786
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 1: knocked off balanced by anything, and he's you know, nothing,

787
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 1: nothing slips by him. He's going to be on top

788
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,120
Speaker 1: of everything. He loves to loves to watch film, loves

789
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: to scout, um, you know, loves to teach guys how

790
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:58,080
Speaker 1: to scout. So um it was. It was an incredible

791
00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 1: place to to study at. You know, I'm very very

792
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:05,359
Speaker 1: fortunate that that I had the opportunity to to lead

793
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 1: with him for for the three years that I did. Okay,

794
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 1: So how did the CBU job come to be? How

795
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:15,800
Speaker 1: did it happen? We were playing in the n c

796
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 1: A tournament. It was it was Mitch Young Delhi, those

797
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:25,840
Speaker 1: guys senior year, and we we beat Middle Tennessee in

798
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:31,359
Speaker 1: the playing game. Then we played Memphis in Detroit, and

799
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 1: we got beat real low scoring game. Both teams struggled

800
00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 1: to score points and we were flying back and I

801
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 1: had I had. I got a message UM from the

802
00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:50,240
Speaker 1: VP here at CVU, Kent Dakis, Who's who has become UM,

803
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:52,839
Speaker 1: you know, a great mentor of mine. And that's when

804
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:54,839
Speaker 1: I found out there was an opportunity here. It was

805
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:59,680
Speaker 1: interesting because when I was coaching at UC Riverside, I

806
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 1: had known about CBU, and I had been on the

807
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,040
Speaker 1: campus before coaching at Concordia, and and there was I

808
00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:09,560
Speaker 1: thought there was a great energy on this campus, UM,

809
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 1: and they were looking to improve their basketball program. So

810
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:16,200
Speaker 1: I flew down and when I flew down, I was

811
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:20,120
Speaker 1: blown away because the campus and everything going on at

812
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:23,200
Speaker 1: CVU had changed so much, and there were there were

813
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:25,359
Speaker 1: there have been so many improvements that have been made.

814
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,560
Speaker 1: And that's when I met the president. Here are President

815
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: Dr Ron Ellis, and I was able to spend some

816
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 1: time with him and and you know, really see get

817
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:39,279
Speaker 1: a chance to UM you know here here some of

818
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: the things that he had in store for CBU in

819
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 1: the years to come. And I just thought, man, what

820
00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 1: what an incredible opportunity to to build a basketball program.

821
00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 1: UM you know, we were transit. The school was transitioning

822
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:56,319
Speaker 1: from an AI to Division two. There were no promises

823
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 1: being made about Division one. There were no promises made

824
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 1: about the Giview Events Center that we're playing in now.

825
00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 1: But there were some things foreshadowed, forecasted. But you had

826
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 1: to you had to jump in on on the belief

827
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:11,399
Speaker 1: train that they were on, and I did. I mean,

828
00:48:11,719 --> 00:48:14,120
Speaker 1: I really felt the leadership. So that's kind of how

829
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: it came about. It happened very quickly, um, and before

830
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: I knew it, it it was time to get down here

831
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:23,360
Speaker 1: and start going to work. So you show up and

832
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:25,799
Speaker 1: you have kind of like a blank slate, So how

833
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:27,719
Speaker 1: do you decide? How do you how do you create

834
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:30,800
Speaker 1: a program? Like it's one thing to sell an adult

835
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:33,759
Speaker 1: who he's been a part of programs D two going

836
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,880
Speaker 1: to Division one, but a part of same. Mary's what's

837
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 1: the process like of selecting staff, of finding the players,

838
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:45,240
Speaker 1: and end of building it really from scratch? Yeah, that

839
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,360
Speaker 1: that was kind of some of the most enjoyable parts

840
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:51,400
Speaker 1: about the journey, where, um, some of the decisions that

841
00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 1: I had made prior to in my career, you know,

842
00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:58,920
Speaker 1: it was like everything was manifesting itself. So I just

843
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:03,359
Speaker 1: hired the same guys that that I was coaching with

844
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:08,919
Speaker 1: at Citrus, and um, I just felt like we could

845
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 1: lead together and we could build something. I had so

846
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:13,760
Speaker 1: much confidence in those guys they had when I left Citrus.

847
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:17,000
Speaker 1: They had gone other places to continue to prepare themselves

848
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 1: for an opportunity like we were about to undertake. And

849
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 1: so it didn't take long and we put our staff

850
00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:27,320
Speaker 1: together very quickly. And and you know, I think that's

851
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:30,319
Speaker 1: where getting the head coaching job at a young age

852
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 1: Citrus paid off, because ultimately, you you had the belief

853
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:40,919
Speaker 1: that you could run a practice, that you could get

854
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:43,920
Speaker 1: guys to believe in a vision um and you didn't

855
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: spend you didn't spend a lot of time worrying about

856
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:49,440
Speaker 1: some of the things that weren't in place. I mean,

857
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:52,480
Speaker 1: one of the first things that I was asked when

858
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 1: I when I was on campus at see if you

859
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:56,960
Speaker 1: at the time that we had the Van Dyne Jim,

860
00:49:57,000 --> 00:50:01,000
Speaker 1: which was a great old school venue. But they point

861
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: blanket you think you can win big with our current facility. Well,

862
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 1: my experiences coaching college basketball, we're all from at institutions

863
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:15,520
Speaker 1: where we didn't have the greatest resources or facilities. So

864
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:17,640
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, it has nothing to do with that.

865
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:21,280
Speaker 1: It's all about the people. Um. But I wasn't having

866
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:24,160
Speaker 1: to like talk myself into that or convince myself and that.

867
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:28,880
Speaker 1: My experiences were just they were that. So we just

868
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: jumped in and and and we were very blessed. There

869
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:35,960
Speaker 1: were there were seniors here that we're dying to be

870
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,520
Speaker 1: a part of something special, and they were all in.

871
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:43,479
Speaker 1: I mean there was they jumped all in from day

872
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 1: one and then and then we were able to there

873
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:49,280
Speaker 1: were a few guys that we were recruiting at St.

874
00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:53,240
Speaker 1: Mary's that, you know, the St. Mary's situation was so solid,

875
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,279
Speaker 1: and you know at that point you you were you

876
00:50:56,360 --> 00:50:58,399
Speaker 1: were only going on the best of the best. I mean,

877
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:01,000
Speaker 1: we were signing like the Ora and three time Player

878
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:02,840
Speaker 1: of the Year. So there were guys on our list

879
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 1: that that we're never gonna probably get offers at CVU,

880
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:09,840
Speaker 1: and we we were able to get a few of

881
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:12,880
Speaker 1: those guys on on visited CVU and speak to the

882
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:17,319
Speaker 1: enthusiasm that was that was in place and and kind

883
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:19,759
Speaker 1: of say, hey, here's our vision for what we're doing,

884
00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:22,839
Speaker 1: and we had a few guys jump in, and um,

885
00:51:23,200 --> 00:51:26,200
Speaker 1: we got we got it rolling right away, in large

886
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 1: part because of the buying of those seniors. Okay, so

887
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,799
Speaker 1: you fast forward to this year, right, yep, and this

888
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: year Novem's your first game as a full fledged member

889
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 1: Division one, right and you're playing at Oral Roberts. What

890
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,759
Speaker 1: what what do you remember about the experience of Is

891
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:48,919
Speaker 1: it any different knowing that you're a full fledged member

892
00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:50,839
Speaker 1: of Division one? Like I want to get to out

893
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,760
Speaker 1: the game ended, but just the walking out there having

894
00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:58,320
Speaker 1: been through the process, having a new arena, having built

895
00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:01,680
Speaker 1: a program from essentially from match what was that? Did

896
00:52:01,719 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 1: that game feel any different being a D one member?

897
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:08,080
Speaker 1: It did? It was surreal because I mean, you know,

898
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:12,280
Speaker 1: you competed for so long. There's the very few times

899
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:16,800
Speaker 1: as a competitor, um, are you gonna not deal with expectations?

900
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:19,520
Speaker 1: But you know, for a few years leading it up

901
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:22,479
Speaker 1: to our opportunity to compete at the Division one level,

902
00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,440
Speaker 1: we we were scrimmaging Division one teams and we were

903
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,800
Speaker 1: playing a x X exhibition games. But that's a different

904
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: deal because it's all a bonus type situation. You know,

905
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:36,200
Speaker 1: if you beat one of those teams that once this

906
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:38,840
Speaker 1: great job. Man, you guys, are you guys are building

907
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:41,560
Speaker 1: something special, but if you get beat, you kind of

908
00:52:41,560 --> 00:52:44,919
Speaker 1: get a pass. And so this was our first time

909
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:49,920
Speaker 1: competing where the scoreboard, you know, somebody was gonna somebody

910
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:51,719
Speaker 1: was gonna get a win and somebody was gonna take

911
00:52:51,719 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 1: an l It was gonna be on the bottom ticker.

912
00:52:55,200 --> 00:53:00,360
Speaker 1: We were representing CBU, which has a great product um

913
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:04,480
Speaker 1: and we've been blessed to be, you know, kind of

914
00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:07,319
Speaker 1: the front porch of the university in terms of representing

915
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:12,759
Speaker 1: the school nationally um athletically. So there was a lot

916
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:17,719
Speaker 1: on it. You did. It definitely felt different, And of

917
00:53:17,719 --> 00:53:19,759
Speaker 1: course you win on a half court shot, right like

918
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:22,719
Speaker 1: that's and and in a place at or Roberts where

919
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:24,440
Speaker 1: you know, it says in the floor, expect a miracle.

920
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,920
Speaker 1: You guys win your first Division one game, you win

921
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:32,239
Speaker 1: on a half court shot. What was that experience? Like? Oh,

922
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:35,840
Speaker 1: it was. It was amazing because we we played well.

923
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,200
Speaker 1: I think we only turned the ball over four times

924
00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 1: in the game. We we made some shots, we had

925
00:53:40,960 --> 00:53:44,520
Speaker 1: different guys step up. But as you know, competing on

926
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:47,160
Speaker 1: the road in college basketball, you gotta playoff, you gotta

927
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:51,240
Speaker 1: play a full forty minutes. And we had a probably

928
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:54,680
Speaker 1: the last, you know, three and a half minutes of

929
00:53:54,719 --> 00:53:59,040
Speaker 1: the game, we struggled to score. We gave up a

930
00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:01,920
Speaker 1: few threes, you know, and it looked it was coming

931
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:03,880
Speaker 1: down the wire. It looked like, guys, is one of

932
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:05,759
Speaker 1: those games where you play tough on the road, but

933
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,319
Speaker 1: you just don't maybe you just don't quite have enough

934
00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 1: to get it done. Um, And so we needed one stop.

935
00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:16,799
Speaker 1: I thought we played pretty good defense. They hit a

936
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:21,920
Speaker 1: contested three to go up to. We snap and outlet

937
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:24,680
Speaker 1: our guys inbounded. Our Our monstra for the year that

938
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 1: we had put in place was fearless, because that's how

939
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,400
Speaker 1: we wanted to end of the spirit of the season

940
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 1: was just fearless. You know, let's let's go into Let's

941
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:35,239
Speaker 1: go into every game, you know, believe when we can

942
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:38,200
Speaker 1: get it done. If we don't get it done, let's

943
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:40,200
Speaker 1: put everything into it. If we don't get it done,

944
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:42,839
Speaker 1: let's reset mentality. Let's go after the next one. So

945
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:46,479
Speaker 1: we snapped the outlet pass and our point guard, Melan

946
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:49,840
Speaker 1: Aquay I think, took one two dribbles and he shot

947
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 1: it like he was supposed to make it. I mean,

948
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:56,640
Speaker 1: he had a fearless mindset. And the ball goes in

949
00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:58,560
Speaker 1: and you're you know, it's just one of those moments

950
00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:01,560
Speaker 1: where you're like, oh my gosh, this is You couldn't

951
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:05,480
Speaker 1: descript it as any better. You guys, after that, you

952
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:07,279
Speaker 1: want to have a losing streak. You lost four in

953
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:10,960
Speaker 1: a row Tulsa obviously you stayed in Tulsa and lost

954
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:13,319
Speaker 1: a close game. You get smacked in Nevada. They were

955
00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:16,480
Speaker 1: an elite team with you know, older team. Uh, you

956
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:19,080
Speaker 1: lose it home to Pine Bluff and three O t s.

957
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 1: You lose to Howard. But then you start kind of

958
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:24,640
Speaker 1: reeling some off, including a win over cross Town. You know,

959
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:29,520
Speaker 1: cross not not really arrival. You see riverside um that

960
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:31,759
Speaker 1: that was kind of your season, right, going to winning streak,

961
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:34,000
Speaker 1: going to losing street, going to winning streak, going on

962
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 1: a losing streak at the mid and frankly low major level.

963
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,359
Speaker 1: How do you handle that? Like, you're a competitive dude.

964
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:43,280
Speaker 1: You won a lot of games at St. Mary's, at Citrus,

965
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,200
Speaker 1: you know, at other stops as well. How do you

966
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:49,120
Speaker 1: handle the fact that, like, look, you're gonna lose a

967
00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:51,520
Speaker 1: bunch of games. That's just gonna gonna happen. How do

968
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:53,320
Speaker 1: you not let it kind of bring you down and

969
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 1: get into a negative vortex. Yeah. And I think additionally,

970
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 1: we were, you know, we we were coming out of

971
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:05,240
Speaker 1: a really good run at the Division two level where

972
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:11,640
Speaker 1: our locker room expected to win, and I was, you know,

973
00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:15,040
Speaker 1: I was thinking going into the season and and really

974
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:18,960
Speaker 1: praying about it. Okay, is that is that something that

975
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:22,040
Speaker 1: can that can really be good for us, that winning culture?

976
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,080
Speaker 1: Or is that going to make what you're talking about

977
00:56:25,160 --> 00:56:29,200
Speaker 1: even tougher when when you do get beat, uh, you know,

978
00:56:29,320 --> 00:56:32,040
Speaker 1: or your trip you fall down, and you know, you

979
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:34,960
Speaker 1: go through a tough stretch. Are we gonna Are we

980
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:37,840
Speaker 1: gonna be able to keep our resiliency? And I think

981
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:41,399
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, um, it did pay

982
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:44,760
Speaker 1: off for us because we we were winning those games,

983
00:56:45,480 --> 00:56:48,719
Speaker 1: UM at the Division two level, because we had put

984
00:56:48,719 --> 00:56:52,640
Speaker 1: a huge emphasis on recruiting character. And I think you know,

985
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:55,040
Speaker 1: Dick Bennett talked about this a lot when they when

986
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:57,879
Speaker 1: they got the Washington State job, and I I've heard

987
00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:00,760
Speaker 1: it mentioned a little bit over the last two years.

988
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:02,800
Speaker 1: People have come back to this said, you know, you

989
00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:06,400
Speaker 1: gotta sometimes you gotta get guys that you can lose

990
00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 1: with first. And I think really what he's talking about

991
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:14,560
Speaker 1: is you've got to get character. And and we had good,

992
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:17,920
Speaker 1: really good character in our program. And we had a

993
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:22,120
Speaker 1: great leader, senior leader in Jordan's heading and his it

994
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 1: was we were kind of playing off his resiliency. You know,

995
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 1: he triple overtime loss to Pine Bluff. All right, let's go,

996
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:32,800
Speaker 1: let's go get something done. Let's let's see if we

997
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:35,600
Speaker 1: can go win at u C Riverside, you know, or

998
00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:39,640
Speaker 1: we went through a tough stretching conference. Okay, you know,

999
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:42,800
Speaker 1: there's there's great things available for us. You know, let's

1000
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:44,520
Speaker 1: go try and make the C B I or the

1001
00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:46,880
Speaker 1: C I T. Let's let's try and do it better

1002
00:57:47,120 --> 00:57:49,520
Speaker 1: than anyone's ever done before. We knew that, we knew

1003
00:57:49,560 --> 00:57:51,760
Speaker 1: the record for for wins of the Vision one level

1004
00:57:51,760 --> 00:57:55,320
Speaker 1: in the first year was fifteen, So we weren't afraid

1005
00:57:55,360 --> 00:57:58,640
Speaker 1: to talk about some of those tangible things. But I

1006
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:01,320
Speaker 1: think it's easier to talk about the tangible things when

1007
00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:03,600
Speaker 1: you when you do trust the character in the locker room,

1008
00:58:03,680 --> 00:58:07,840
Speaker 1: So that that paid off huge for us. You know,

1009
00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:11,320
Speaker 1: I think if we had put a bigger emphasis on

1010
00:58:11,520 --> 00:58:15,880
Speaker 1: just recruiting talent as we were making the transition, I

1011
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:18,520
Speaker 1: think we could have fallen victim to exactly the things

1012
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:21,080
Speaker 1: you're talking about, which are you're gonna take some bumps

1013
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:25,360
Speaker 1: and if you're just trying to get the best player

1014
00:58:25,440 --> 00:58:29,280
Speaker 1: you can possibly get, those guys have never lost. I've

1015
00:58:29,280 --> 00:58:31,080
Speaker 1: never been told all right, I got I haven't I

1016
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:33,880
Speaker 1: got like three more for you and then and then

1017
00:58:33,960 --> 00:58:35,400
Speaker 1: then we got you both. We both have to go.

1018
00:58:36,280 --> 00:58:41,360
Speaker 1: H greatest player of all time is who Michael Jordan's?

1019
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:48,440
Speaker 1: Why the ability to to own the moment? I saw

1020
00:58:48,560 --> 00:58:52,000
Speaker 1: some statistic that somebody was talking about the other day

1021
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:55,960
Speaker 1: that Jordan had like a some ridiculous stretch. This will

1022
00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:01,200
Speaker 1: require accountability, but some ridic he list stretch where he

1023
00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 1: never lost more than two NBA regular season games in

1024
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:09,520
Speaker 1: like a seven year stretch. I just think his the

1025
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:16,200
Speaker 1: individual ability combined with the fortitude to get his team

1026
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:22,520
Speaker 1: to compete at his level, second to none. Uh, greatest coach?

1027
00:59:23,000 --> 00:59:27,400
Speaker 1: You've the best coach you've ever coached against? Man, that's

1028
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: a great question. Um probably Gosh Mark few at Gonzaga.

1029
00:59:39,840 --> 00:59:41,920
Speaker 1: I mean the battles that we had with them when

1030
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:45,160
Speaker 1: I was at so Look, they got really good players.

1031
00:59:45,240 --> 00:59:50,320
Speaker 1: But why what about Fuey as a coach? Did you guys?

1032
00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:53,400
Speaker 1: Because there is a rivalry there. Same Area's guys and

1033
00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:55,640
Speaker 1: Gonzaga guys don't usually say nice things about each other.

1034
00:59:56,560 --> 00:59:58,080
Speaker 1: What is it about him as a coach that you

1035
00:59:58,120 --> 01:00:02,120
Speaker 1: think makes them special? I think their teams find a

1036
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:05,040
Speaker 1: way to keep getting better every year, like throughout the season.

1037
01:00:05,560 --> 01:00:09,600
Speaker 1: And I don't think people really realize how difficult that

1038
01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:13,880
Speaker 1: is to repeat year after year because it's such a

1039
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:17,040
Speaker 1: long season and we've made it longer. I mean, I

1040
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:18,400
Speaker 1: think the n C Double A has done a lot

1041
01:00:18,440 --> 01:00:23,240
Speaker 1: of great things with instituting the summer hours, um and

1042
01:00:23,360 --> 01:00:25,720
Speaker 1: you know, more work, more hours in the fall. We

1043
01:00:25,760 --> 01:00:27,919
Speaker 1: get four on the floor now, and I think those

1044
01:00:27,960 --> 01:00:29,920
Speaker 1: trends are great. I think that we should continue to

1045
01:00:29,920 --> 01:00:34,520
Speaker 1: build towards more time with our student athletes. But um,

1046
01:00:34,560 --> 01:00:36,880
Speaker 1: I think that the flip side of that is the

1047
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 1: season is longer, so to consistently each and every year,

1048
01:00:42,760 --> 01:00:46,600
Speaker 1: create a culture where your team is playing with tremendous

1049
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:55,160
Speaker 1: energy and buy in, um in, camaraderie and obviously execution. Um. Yeah,

1050
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:59,160
Speaker 1: when you compete again, when you compete against them, you

1051
01:00:59,160 --> 01:01:02,480
Speaker 1: you definitely feel it. Rick, this has been great stuff. Man.

1052
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see your team play. You know

1053
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:07,280
Speaker 1: you had your first practice yesterday. Milan is back as

1054
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:09,280
Speaker 1: a point guard. He had some huge nights the thirty

1055
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:11,880
Speaker 1: against New Mexico State that that that probably your biggest

1056
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:14,480
Speaker 1: win of your year. I really appreciate you joining us

1057
01:01:14,480 --> 01:01:17,439
Speaker 1: in the Elball podcast. Thanks for the time. A huge

1058
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:20,680
Speaker 1: fan of podcast and grateful to be on it. Be

1059
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:23,040
Speaker 1: sure to catch live editions of The Doug got Leap

1060
01:01:23,120 --> 01:01:26,840
Speaker 1: Show week days at noon eastern three pm Pacific. Wow,

1061
01:01:26,840 --> 01:01:30,240
Speaker 1: that was great stuff from Rick Croy Memories, head coach

1062
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:35,360
Speaker 1: at cal Baptist c b U. How did the riverside?

1063
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:39,680
Speaker 1: So as you're watching CBU, I think the Lancers you're like,

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Speaker 1: hi guy, rising star in the coaching profession. My thanks

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Speaker 1: to him, and of course if you want to listen

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Speaker 1: to The Doug Gotleap Show daily three to six seas

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Speaker 1: from TLAL Group Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app series x M two seventeen and two oh three.

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Speaker 1: You can also follow me on Twitter at Gottlieb Show.

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Speaker 1: Maybe next week will take some questions and I'll give

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Speaker 1: you some answer is on the pod. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: enjoy the hoops conversation and uh We'll continue to have

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Speaker 1: great guests I'm Doug Gottlieb in This is All Ball.