Cam Gliddon: Auckland Tuatara Head Coach on the NBL season, upcoming match against the Canterbury Rams

The Auckland Tuatara are riding high as we head into the final two games of the NBL season. 

They’re sitting at the top of the table after claiming victory over the Manawatu Jets last night, winning 108-91. 

The team is now set to face the Canterbury Rams tomorrow afternoon, so Head Coach Cam Gliddon joined D’Arcy to preview the match and discuss the season to date. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk sedb Aukland.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
To a Tata riding high as where reached the final
couple of games of the NBL season. You're at the
top of the table. They defeated the mone or two
Jets last night one eight and ninety one. Pretty short
turn around though. On the plane off to take on
the Canterbury Rams tomorrow afternoon. Cam Glidden is the head
coach of the Tour of Tata Tour Tata. He is

(00:33):
with us SNAW. Good morning Cam, Yeah, good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
How you doing mate?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I'm doing very well as I treating you as a
head coach, what second year into it, and plainly you're
doing pretty well. You're flirting with the top of the table,
so you're feeling pretty positive about what the Tour Tata
have put down so far.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah, very happy, enjoying the coaching journey and we're in
a pretty good spot on the ladder at the moment.
But it's the business end of the of the season
so stress kind of raises a little bit and making
sure we're doing everything we can to be the best
on the weekend. So yeah, definitely not content with where
we're at yet.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
How does that stress manifest itself as a coach?

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, so, I mean that's a great question. Man Like,
as a player for so long, it looks a bit different.
I think as coaches, all you can do is prepare
the best you can during the week and leave it
up to the players on the weekend. And yeah, having
very little control in a way on the weekend can
kind of stress you out. And you probably saw that
last weekend against the Nuggets. I was pulling my hair

(01:34):
a little bit. But yeah, I guess just do my
best throughout the week to prepare the boys, and then
it's up to them to do their thing on the weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
You got a philosophy around coaching because you are really
doors only in the mid thirties pretty much just hang
out your plum souls and you're there coaching. What do
you bring to that role? What's your philosophy?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
I guess my philosophy is just making it a great culture,
making it a great place every day to come in
and work, and I think building great relationships. In the end,
I think the best teams are the ones that trust
each other the most and really want to play hard
for each other. So I think that's the main thing
I try to do. I think I'm pretty good with

(02:11):
the x's and o's stuff, but I think relationship building
and giving guys confidence and making it a great workplace
every day is what will get you over the line
in the end.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I think, is it a help or a hindrance that
you're not so out of far out of playing the
game you want to those guys go, well, I would
have done this. How does that work because of some
of the guys that you're coaching and not too far away,
you've probably played with a few of them. Does that
work or not?

Speaker 3 (02:36):
One hundred percent? Oh, it's a help. Any hindrance, I
guess like retiring and then coaching straight away. Obviously straight
away I was coaching Roblow, who was one of my
best mates that I played with for years, and I
haven't had the time to put in to learn how
to be a coach, learn how to do a lot
of the admin that goes with coaching, which is a lot,

(02:57):
And yeah, I guess learning on the fly. But at
the same time, I'm still so in touch with the
players and what they need and how the evolution of
the games kind of progress. So yeah, I guess it's
a help in a way being so close to the
players in age and just being having retired only a
couple of years ago. But the hindrance is, you know,
I've got a lot to learn in such a short

(03:19):
period of time. Going straight into a head coaching role
is something that a lot of people don't get the
chance to do, and I'm lucky I got the chance,
but it definitely comes with its challenges.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Kim Glyndon, are you a dictatorial coach or you an
open book and you're willing to take information from the players.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
I'm definitely willing to take information. I have a lot
of chats with Tommy V and Rob being a guard
my whole life, I didn't even worry about the bigs,
you know. I didn't think about their job or how
hard it is or what the best way to do
things are. So I definitely lean on those guys for
their expertise, for sure.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's good to hear. Now we're at the point of
any of the competition. As you said, how much of
advantage is this because top two in the league they
get a bit of a break, and the next four
to three through sex they got to fight it out
in the elimination round. So is that a clear and
present advantage for those top two teams?

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Oh, it definitely is mate getting that home semi final
and not having to worry about the one and done
playing game we saw last year. I think the fifth
the Fire, whether they were fifth or sixth, they got
the first win and made it to the semis and
knocked out third or fourth, I can't remember what place
it was, but strange things can happen and the lower
seed can definitely win. So we definitely want to secure

(04:32):
seed number one or seed number two. But we're on
a nice, nice nine game or eight game winning streak
and we lose one and we dropped straight back to second.
So the league's very close and you can't have any
hiccups in the journey to the end.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
You're away from home. Are going to visit my mob
and the Rams? What do they bring to.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
The floor, Oh, just a winning culture, discipline. I'd say
they're probably the most disciplined team in the league. Sort
Of easy to scout because you know what they're going
to do, but they're so good at doing what they
do that it's never an easy job to try to
stop them. So and against the Rams, you have to
play at full forty minutes. They're not going to give in.

(05:10):
They're not going to give up at any time in
the game. They're gonna they're going to keep coming and
keep swinging. So just just a very disciplined team that
knows how to how to win is what we're facing
this Sunday.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
This is an absolute classic case. We know exactly what
they do and what they're going to do and how
they're going to do it. But stopping them it's a
whole another story. That is a quality team. One last thing,
Cam gloddin how much do you change your rexes and
O's how much do you change what you're doing in
face of the opposition or are you like, no, we're
doing what we do bug O the rest of them.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I think it's more of the latter, you know,
like we have established who we are and what we
like to do and where we get find our success.
But I guess the one thing that is a little
change with that is we lost Chris Johnson, who was
a huge part of our team just recently, one of
our starting big men. So we do have to shift
things a little bit in order to maximize our personnel,

(06:08):
but we'll also you know, ninety percent of our stuff
will remain the same and we'll just try to try
to win the way we have been winning.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Wish you the absolute best in this fight for the
top two spots. Head coach of the Auckland Turtata, Cam Glidden,
thanks for yours.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
I appreciate it mate.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
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