WEBVTT - Pt 2. 7-year NBA G Rex Walters on Rough Overseas Experience, Coaching Transition, DI HC Success/Failure, Future 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.200 Hey, well, I welcome in. I'm Doug Gadley. This is 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.560 All Ball, where this is part two of our talk 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.920 with Rex Walters. Rex, of course, was a star guard 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.800 at Northwestern, then he transferred to Kansas. We covered all 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:20.520 this in part one. If you missed it, it's great 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.160 and I mean his career is fascinating by the way. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.200 I think. Next All Ball we'll probably do um some 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.040 reaction to college basketball as of Christmas, and of course 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.120 the Christmas Day NBA games if they go off with 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:39.000 all the craziness that that's taking place. But the meantime, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.760 let's dig back in with Rex Walters. Okay, So when 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.680 we last caught up with him, um, he'd taken us 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.400 through his playing career, which of course spanned not just 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.720 high school and two colleges, but also the NBA A 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.320 sigh draft pick, and then he makes the league and 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.360 he bounces around and then then what how do you 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.520 how do you get into coaching? And how do you 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:01.840 go from playing to coaching to being a head coach 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:04.920 at such a young age at Florida Atlantic and then 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.720 why take the San Francisco job? And you're way tie 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.760 here he shares with us what it's like to get fired. 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.399 What he's done since, and how he watched his basketball 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.319 now and what's left for his basketball careers? Only fifty 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.480 one years sold. Alright, so let's tag back in. By 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.120 the way, if you like some of the stuff that 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.760 we do here, great way to listen is on a 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:29.280 daily basis. The Doug Olive Show airs from three to 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:32.479 six Eastern or twelve to three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:34.959 The I Heart Radio app Serious x M two SEV 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.000 two oh three. That's Dan Patrick's channel. It's not the 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.080 Fox Sports Challenge Acino a reminder to download, subscribe, rate, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.560 write a review. I write a nice review. I got 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.200 some mean reviews. Maybe we'll do a mean review, um pod, 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.680 that'd be fun. We could do it that one time. Anyway, 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.680 let's take back in. Here's Rex Walter's part two. Yeah, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.040 what was Spain like? Playing in Spain? Yeah, so I 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.080 go to Spain. I go there about a month after 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.960 I was released by the Heat. It was it was 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.800 bad for me. I didn't like it. I went to Leone, Spain. 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:12.840 It was really weird. Like, so you go to practice 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.079 in the morning, you practice, you know, nine o'clock. You 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.720 go for like three hours and You'll do a lot 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.320 of shooting, you do a lot of skill work. You 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.840 understand why international basketball is as good as it is 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.360 because and you have younger players, like high school kids 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.440 that are working out with NBA, you know, NBA professional players. 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.520 Your coaches are coaching you. So you practice for two 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.280 and a half three hours, a lot of shooting, a 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.600 lot of ball handling, a lot of skill work, and 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.760 then you'd have you know, from twelve to about five, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.040 they have this thing called siesta. Everything's closed down. So 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:45.600 you're coming out of practice. You know how it is 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:46.880 that you come out of practice, you want to get 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.760 some foods, you want to relax, maybe go then go 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.239 back to your apartment, take a nap, whatever, Like I 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.639 couldn't find a place to eat. And the other thing 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.440 is I didn't know I didn't speak Spanish, so you're 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.000 basically eating bad food Like mcdonald' you're going to mcdonale 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:01.480 is way too much. They had a t G I 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.520 F Fridays, you know in Grand Canary when I played 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.800 there and so but but basically everything is shut down 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.840 for like three hours. Nobody's working, nobody's out there, and 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.880 then you go back to practice at night, you go 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.679 from like five, like seven, seven thirty, and that's more 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:18.680 up and down. You're gonna play, you're gonna play half court, 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.359 you're gonna work on defense, and then the day's over 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.520 with and then it all starts over. And then when 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.200 you're playing in Spain and you're playing on a you know, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.280 not necessarily a good team, like we were a team 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.720 that only played one game a week, and so you play, 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.400 you one game, you win the game, and like it's 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.960 like m NFL football. Everybody loves you, you know, the 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:38.680 things that you can't read in the paper, but they've 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.280 got great pictures. You're smiling, but if you lose, you 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.880 gotta deal with you know, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:48.760 all the way to Saturday, where you know, people are 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.760 talking about you, killing you, and you don't even know 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.280 what they're saying to you because they don't speak your language. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.000 And I was a little paranoid. I'm American, I'm I'm 0:03:58.040 --> 0:03:59.960 in Spain. I'm trying to prey. And I played well. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.040 I mean it's not like I didn't play well. But 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.640 I remember one time walking in the locker room and 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.119 kind of the the guy that manages the team had 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.800 my passport, and I'm like, I cust the dude out. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.640 I'm like, don't you ever touch go into my bag, 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.520 grab my passport because you hear stories like hey, they're 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.040 gonna steal your passport. You can never leave, you know. 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.000 So I'm cursing this dude out and I'm just thinking 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.520 to myself, this dude understands me. Now he didn't understand 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.760 me before when I was speaking, but now all of 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:28.520 a sudden he can understand what I'm saying. And I'm 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.320 you know, m F and the dude. So that was 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.200 it was hard. You know, it was hard for me. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:37.839 My wife we had let me see, the first time around, 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.679 we had we had an apartment, we had two kids, 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:45.159 my wife was pregnant at the time. It was that 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.000 was a hard experience for me, and we weren't good. 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:49.839 We're trying not to get relegated, so there's a lot 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.159 of pressure. It's not like the NBA. You don't go 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.120 to the G League. If your team is in the 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.240 bottom two in your league and this league you go 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.400 down the league and it affects your sponsorships, it affects 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.800 your money in terms of that organization. You don't want 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.200 to be in the bottom too and get relegated to 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.400 the second division. So there's a lot of pressure. I 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.720 think we probably saw it ted Lasso with soccer. It's 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:12.679 the same way, like you don't want to go down 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:17.039 a level, and everyone is taught, especially with the Americans. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.760 If you're a guy, that's that's counted on. So that 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:22.800 was a big adjustment for me. The first time, I 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.559 ended up tearing my meniscus when I was over there 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.120 and I played about three games, and then I went 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.240 back again after playing the A B A for Kevin Pritchard. 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.039 I went back again and played about ten games and 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:40.200 then tore my calf. It was it was a nightmare. 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.600 It wasn't a great experience for me playing And now 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.800 now the body is starting to failure. Right now, it's 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.200 like things, So how old are you under time? H thirty? 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.120 I mean that you get to the point where you're 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.159 you're warm up is about like thirty to forty five 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.720 minutes right your workouts about an hour hour fifteen and 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.720 then you're going another thirty four to five minutes afterwards, 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.520 like you're spending three accwards to get an hour of working. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:06.480 You know what I'm saying, because you got. I got 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.000 torm niscus par my cab and the genitive this disease 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.680 at like thirty thirty one, and you start to see 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.960 the writings on the wall. Um, in your mind, are 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.039 you thinking I want to coach your mind? And thinking 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.920 I want to keep doing this, you know, and just 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.599 keep the body together, Like what's going on in your mind? 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.920 So we moved to Kansas City. I played two different 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.520 camps I played. I went to Toronto to playing weather 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.680 like free agent workout camps, and then I went to 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:41.080 Denver and played Summer League with them um and played well, 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.560 like I played well my last game. It's funny we're 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.840 playing against and again we talked about the confidence and 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.680 all that stuff. I'm playing against Tony Parker in one 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.840 of my last games and summer in summer league with 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:56.040 the with the Nuggets, and I'm just going at Tony. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.440 Tony is going at me, but I'm like, I'm not 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.240 letting some dude from France kick my butt. So I'm 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.240 talking to him, yapping at him, and they double t 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.040 me and I end up playing like twelve fourteen minutes 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.640 and so I should cut my last game of summer League. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.040 But that's again. When that when that aggressive, you know, 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:21.760 confident dude hurt himself. But after that I talked to Mark. 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:24.280 We're getting ready to training camp, and I say to Mark, like, hey, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.320 what what do we got? We got anything? I said, 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.760 I just want to a make good deal if I 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:30.040 can get to make good because I don't want to 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.960 go back to Spain. We talked about getting hurt twice 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:34.640 when I'm in Spain. Can I get him make good? 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:36.880 I played well in Toronto, I played well in Denver. 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.440 What's up? He's like, Rex, no one's gonna sign you 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.480 your You'd be an eight year veteran minimum, which is 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.120 a lot more than a than a younger player. So 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.760 at that point I just never forget this. I just 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.200 I'm on the phone. My wife's watching because she loves basketball, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.679 and I said, hey, I'm done. Then I'm gonna retire. 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.280 And you know, honestly, to be honest with you, Doug, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:07:59.800 for about a month, I was like, all right, I'm 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.240 gonn to play golf every day. I lived on a 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.120 golf course. I wanna play about thirty six holes day, 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:06.880 and by the time I get fifty, I'm gonna play 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.400 in the senior League, which I had no chance of doing. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.840 But you want to playing the senior to Yeah, I 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.000 want to play in the PGA Senior Tour at fifty 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.320 with a degenerative disc in your back? How are you 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.600 gonna do that? I'm gonna say I was still in 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.480 shape now, I'd still do my crunches. Like swinging a 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.320 golf clubs different than having to you know, make a 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.280 cut through a crossover, change directions like I'm gonna play 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.840 golf like I probably wouldn't have made it, and you're 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.520 right at the back. Probably would have caught up me 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.440 later on. But but anyway, I did that for about 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.719 a month. My WI wife's like, something's gotta stop. This 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:39.240 is ridiculous. You gotta get a job. And so I 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:41.960 called around, called all the people I know, Roy Williams, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.079 pat Riley, Standban Gundy, Mark Church and Mark Church and 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.839 helped me get a a UM what is it? A 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.880 volunteer assistant job at Imporious State University working for a 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.280 guy name you may know, the name David Mo. David Mo, 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.240 his father's Doug Mo, was a great be a coach 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.680 And I was driving two and a half hours every 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.200 day to be a voluntaire assistant Jeff Lender, who's now 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.079 Wyoming uh was was his assistant, and I would I 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:15.360 was there for about three months and then um, I 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.199 find out about Valpos situation. You know, Scott Drew goes 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.439 to Baylor they had the Patrick Denny he situation. Scott 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:23.320 Drew goes down there. I called Bryce and say, hey, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.920 what's going on? What's your father gonna do? And what's 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.760 Scott gonna do if he has any openings on his staff? 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.880 And Scott called me and said, would you like to 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.520 be a graduate manager? We only got eight guys on scholarship. 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:37.800 I know you can still play a little bit. Would 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:39.800 you like just come? You're allowed to play if you're 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.360 a graduate manager? And I said, well, Scott, I could 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.280 probably make more if I went back overseas. I don't 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.040 really want to do that. I want to coach. And 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.439 then right after I said that to Scott, about two 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:50.760 days later, Homer Drew called me and said, would you 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:52.839 like to interview for the job here at Valpo? And 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.600 that's how I got my foot in the door into coaching. 0:09:55.920 --> 0:10:01.280 So you get good to Valpo Indiana, which is um right, 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.400 I don't know what what feels perception of it is 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.160 like for me, it's like one of those towns. It's 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.280 like a truck stop. It feels like it's got like 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.160 Walmart like everything. It's just on the way to South 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:17.559 Bend right from Chicago. Um. Yeah, like you'd come down 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.280 a little bit off the NBA hive. You're playing overseas 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.520 and and doing the minor league thing, the A B A. 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.400 But you show up a Valpo and what's your first memories? 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.360 Homer Drew just how you're right, there's two exits. Basically, 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.480 there's two exits for Valpo. When you're on your little 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.920 freeway that you've got one exit, you got a second exit, 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.600 and then you're you're heading to South Bend. So you're 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.119 you're all right about that? Um. It was a Lutheran university. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.719 It was They really loved their basketball, Indiana basketball. It 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:46.800 is very important. They would they would get good crowds 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.880 for the games. Homer Drew was like super duper positive, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.600 like didn't really raise his boys, didn't want to get 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.360 on guys. Which was different for me because I played 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.880 for Wary Williams. I played for pat Riley played in 0:10:59.920 --> 0:11:03.080 the NBA, so that was different. The players were pretty good. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.240 I learned a lot like you know when you when 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:07.760 you played for a long time and then all of 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:09.160 a sudden, you coach, you think you got it all 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:11.000 figured out. You don't. There's a lot of things you 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:12.800 gotta learn. How to deal with players, how to deal 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.559 with levels. A little bit different level player than than 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.720 you know, maybe what I've been around, but just really 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.640 good man like great hearts. You can see why Scott 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.800 and Bryce have had success because they probably relate more 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.400 to the modern day player than a lot of guys do. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.040 They're very positive people. Um. He gave me my first shot, 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:34.800 who worked there for two years and went to the 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.319 NA Tournament. My first year, we won the conference tournament, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.800 played Gonzaga. My second year, we weren't quite as good 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.160 than Matt. Doherty gets sta f AU job. So Matt 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.920 gets it obviously, that's part of the You played for 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.199 him at Kansas. He was assistant Kansas, and he saw 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.839 a part of that family tree. He gets the job 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.839 and immediately called you. Did you called him? Did you 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.520 call coach Williams? How did it work? So? First I 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.439 was down in Florida visiting my in laws and I 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:05.840 found out about the f AU opening. I just drove 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:07.920 to f a U and I just sat in front 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.480 of the athletic director's door and said, hey, I want 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.120 to interview for this job. I've been at out for 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.800 the last two years and he and Craig Angelos was 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.120 the idea at the time. He was very nice, you know, 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:18.920 he said, well, you know, ask me questions, spent some 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.880 time with but that wasn't gonna happen at two years experience. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.400 And I when I go back to Valpo, Matt calls 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:26.880 me and says, hey, do you have a legit chance 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:28.760 at because if you do, I don't want to get involved. 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:30.400 And I said, I have no shot at this job, 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.880 like the guy just did a courtesy thing. I showed 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.400 up unannounced. He said, well, if I if I got involved, 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.480 would you come with me? And I was on my 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.480 treadmill and I'm like, yeah, if you get it, like 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.760 I'd love to do it. So that's really how it happened. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.000 I didn't call coach Williams. Coach Williams knew nothing about it, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.440 didn't call any of my MBA people. It was really, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.559 you know, Matt reaching out to me. We had had discussions, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:54.600 we had kept in touch. Obviously, when you lose a job, 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.120 in North Carolina, like you reach out to the people 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:58.559 you love and care about, Like he had two of 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:00.880 the best jobs you can get noted aime in North Carolina. 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.719 Like who gets jobs like that and then not to 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.160 have good success at Notre Dame to go to North Carolina, 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.640 has some good success and then get fired. Uh, you 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:10.480 know you reach out you always. I think I always 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.120 reach out to people when they're going through tough times. 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.120 Any coach or player that I have any kind of relationship, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.000 I'm gonna reach out. So basically he offered me the job. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.400 Um I was making like forty one grand to live 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.679 in Boca a Tone the we had a hurricane go 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.120 through the place that year. We ended up having a 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.800 winning season. When I think fifteen and thirteen learned a lot, 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.200 like Matt's a really detailed guy with recruiting, with how 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:34.440 he wants to play, and I think he was also 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:36.559 trying to find himself. He didn't want to run the 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.439 Carolina Kansas stuff. You wanted to break away from that. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.160 But uh, I learned an awful lot in just one 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.160 year working for him, and then he got the s 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.960 m U job. So then what you do? So Matt, 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.000 give me a really good advice and says, hey, um, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.439 stay stay in Boca and where the job. Like when 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.800 people see you that you want them to envision this 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.959 guy could be a head coach. This guy and if 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:03.920 you don't get it, you're gonna come with me to 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.559 s M you like, it's a pretty good Situation's like, 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.280 so just stay there, deal with that. They're gonna hear 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:10.880 here a lot of names. You're gonna hear a lot 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.960 of people they're supposed to get the job. Just stay there, work, 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.120 work with the players, you know, and and present an 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:18.839 image that you could be a head coach. And that's 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.440 exactly what I did. You know. You hear all kinds 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.560 of names, like stan Van Gundy's interested. He had just 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.400 been let go of the Miami Heats. I called Sam's like, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.160 are you really interested? And he's like, are you crazy? 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:29.480 You think I can want to coach at Florid Atlantic. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:31.680 There's no way in the world, Like, like, I just 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:33.760 got done coach with Miami Heat. Like they're just using 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.800 my name to try to bump up the job. He's like, 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.360 I have no interest in being a college coach, So 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.680 I I just I hung around. I hung around and 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.760 about three weeks into it, Craig Angelis and the president 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:47.120 called me in the office. They asked me if I 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.720 wanted the job, what I would do if I got 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:51.960 the job, how how I would lay this thing out? 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.000 And I really just said, hey, I want to continue 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.040 with Matt started. You know, We're gonna run a lot 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:57.800 of the same stuff. I'm gonna play the same way 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.840 we're gonna I want a lot. I believed in the 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.040 players he's recruiting. I helped recruit him, and I got 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:08.960 the opportunity. I was there for two years. I had 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.280 an interview at at at one place that I was 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.280 gonna take. I didn't at the end of the day. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.760 And then I remember this, and we had decent teams, 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.800 but as a young coach and uh, I still haven't 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.440 figured this one out. Like I had had some good players, 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.240 but we had all kinds of disciplinary issues and so 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.760 guys not going to class this, that and the other. 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.000 And probably hurt myself because my best player, you know, 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.960 suspended him ten games, spending another player, you know, five 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.120 to ten games, and we ended up having eight eight 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.080 fifteen my first year. I think we're two or three 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.280 games under five second year. But then Glenn Sugiyama from 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.440 DHR called me about the University of San Francisco, and 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.800 so that's how I got involved with that. Fox Sports 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.480 Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.720 Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.800 com and within the I Heart Radio app search at 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.200 that's our to listen live. So you've only been there 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.400 two years sans from calling, but it's it's home and 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.520 San Francisco. Now they put the money into it right 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.200 where they've redne it and the building is really nice. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.160 But then it wasn't um was it just I want 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.120 to go home? Was it? You know that there's just 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.200 a limit to for Atlantic and what you can do? 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.240 Was the thought process and leaving so uh so quickly. 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.840 So when I turned out, I turned out another job 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.600 and I called my a D and I said, hey, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.720 I got two more years on my contract. Uh, is 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:36.400 there in your way I can bump this up to four. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.280 I'd like to try to, you know, have some stability. 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.160 Players are gonna know I got four years on my contract. 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.400 They know I'm gonna be here a while. And the 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.960 idea at the time said, no, nobody's getting any kind 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.680 of extension. He's like I'm on a one one year deal. 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:52.480 Every year, I gotta do my job at a high 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.360 level to keep my job. And I said, well, if 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.720 you do that, it's gonna be really tough. I'm gonna 0:16:57.760 --> 0:16:59.480 have to keep looking. I'm gonna have to, you know, 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.880 be open to other jobs. And that's when San Francisco 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.680 cold and I said to them, I'm not interested. I 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.000 just turned down a job. My wife's been going through it. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.920 She doesn't want to leave. We have family down in Florida. 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.000 Why don't you talk to such and such? And I'm 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:16.720 giving names to people I think would be a good 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.440 fit at San Francisco that have some California ties, and 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.600 about a you know, two or three days later, the 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.200 search from calls me again and says, hey, we really 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:27.320 want to talk to you. We really want to get involved. 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.440 And I'm like, I'm good. My wife is like she 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.399 got steam coming out of her ears, like, no, we 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.359 don't want to go to California. We don't want to 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.720 go back. And then about the third time he said hey, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.879 the search from said, hey, we can get you in 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.159 the top three. You'll have a legitimate job chance at 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.320 the job, and just come out and check it out. 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.440 And so I did. But here's the thing. It was 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.119 really smart by them, it was really dumb by me. 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.240 I interview, and I interview at a hotel in Berlin. Game. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.359 I don't even go on campus. I don't see the facility. 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.480 I don't see the gym, I don't see the campus, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.840 none of it. It's just an interview, straight interview with 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.560 their with their search committee. Do a good job. I know. 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.919 Jim Bervelly and Jim Barelli gave me comfort. He had 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:14.920 recruited me when I was in California playing high school basketball, 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.960 so I had comfort with him. But I didn't know 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.600 the job, right, I didn't know the job. But but 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.600 I always say this. When I finished then interview, and 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.920 I thought it went, well, you fly, You're flying out 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.040 of San Francisco, and for whatever reason, this time, we 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.240 didn't fly over the Bay, right. We flew over the city. 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.440 And I remember the plane like turning and I'm looking down. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:38.960 I see Olympic Club and I see the Golden Gate 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.920 Bridge and I see downtown and like, this is really beautiful. 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.160 This is really cool. Like if they offering the job, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.159 I'll take it, you know. And I'm just saying this 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.080 to myself fly back Um. There was a lot of 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.000 issues with the administration at that time. When I took 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.680 the job, the a D wasn't a favorite because you know, 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.760 they went from Jesse Evans to Eddie Sutton to not 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.000 having a coach and the way it was handled, a 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.359 lot of the alums didn't like it. So the a 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.560 D actually comes out and one of my former agents 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.879