In this episode, Doug explains why he doesn't think the idea of allowing a Coronavirus redshirt for seniors is realistic. His guest is Wyoming Head Coach Jeff Linder who discusses playing against Chauncey Billups while growing up in Colorado, finding Damian Lillard as an assistant at Weber State, building a winning Northern Colorado program, and his plans to turnaround Wyoming. Make sure you download, rate and subscribe here to get the latest All Ball Podcasts!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, welcome in Doug olib here, and you are listening
to all ball, all basketball all the time, no hoop games,
whop games talked about. So Jeff Linder is gonna join us.
He's the new head coach of Wyoming, was the head
coach Northern Colorado. Check out his journey. I think you're like,
it's some good stories along the way. That's just a
couple of minutes away. Um, really quickly. I've discussed a
(00:27):
lot of people and I put out on Twitter when
everything was first canceled. Are we open to the idea
of seniors getting a year back? I think now that
we've had a chance to catch our breath, that's been
two weeks since everything has been canceled, and the thought
in my mind is this. I think it's a great idea.
I'm bummed that everybody's missing the n c A tournament.
I'm missing the n c A Tournament, but half of
(00:48):
college basketball's seniors had played their last game. Matter of fact,
all of them had played their last regular season game.
So we're talking about postseason. I know they're gonna vote
on it, and I know that social media will try
and put pressure on the n c A and say,
you gotta do what's right, but what really is right?
It sucks that the kids won't get to play in
the tournament. I don't know if I don't believe having
(01:11):
them all be able to come back is the right
thing unless it's the right thing in perpetuity. Everybody gets
that year back? Are we doing that? Everybody gets five years,
gets a fifth year to play? Why not? I'd actually
be okay with that. I would Um, you get a
fifth year if you stay at the same school for
(01:31):
four years, how do you do? I don't know. My
My other thought is this for the NBA. I do
wish the NBA with a come back. You would do
pool play into tournament format, and I don't mind if
everybody qualifies for the tournament. Um or you have only
the top you know, three teams in a four team
pool qualified for the tournament. But you play around robbing
(01:53):
and play everybody twice. That way you get some games
up and going, and then you do it. We have
to realize that if the end BA comes back in
the summer, how much things are going to change. It
comes back and plays and they play until August. You're
not starting to season until late now puts next year's
Olympics into question now probably eliminates the w NBA season,
Big three season probably gone again. This doesn't have anything
(02:15):
to do with the NBA Summer League's gone draft changes.
A lot of things changing. This is a crazy, crazy time. Um,
I'm gonna do some more pods hopefully this week into
next week. We'll just keep pumping them out. Guys who
love basketball content love this stuff. I thought we'd catch
up with Jeff Lindner for a myriad of reasons. He
wasn't a visual one player. He comes from a different
(02:37):
kind of basketball family or families, uh than some of
the guys that we've had on. He's done a really
good job as a head coach other Colorado. They very
much taken offensive minded and their defense approach is unique.
And where he gets his offense from. We'll talk about that.
He just got the job, boy only it's a challenging job,
but not an impossible one, right. We've seen We've seen
(02:58):
the two of their last four coaches do a tremendous
Larry shy I did a great job there and Steve
McClain did a good job there. You can get players,
you can win there. You just gotta be inventive about
it and how the style and buy into it. You're
the only Division one school in the state. So without
further ado, let's catch up with a new head coach
of the Wyoming Cowboys. Be sure to catch the live
edition of the Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m.
(03:20):
Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. All right, let's welcome in. He's the
new head coach of the Wyoming Cowboys. So I don't
know how far I drive that is from Greeley, Colorado
to a Laramie, Wyoming. Jeff Linda joins us on the
All Ball Podcast. How far is it from Greeley to
(03:43):
UH to Laramie, Doug, Depending on the h the weather,
which is first and foremost, you can either cut through
four column and go up to eighties seven. The weather
is nice, it's probably about an hour twenty minutes. You
don't want to fight the one lane road. Then you
go up by I've had across I eight It takes
you about an hour hour thirty five minutes. But it
(04:04):
all depends on the weather. Yeah, I know, I've I've
actually made both of those drives. When I did a
game I did Wyoming, Oregon State earlier this year. I
made that. That was two eighty five. I made that drive,
which is it's beautiful and desolate all at the exact
same time. Right, You're like, if if I pulled off
the road and drove like five hundred yards in and died,
(04:25):
I'm not sure with the exception of following the birds,
I'm not sure where anyone would would find me. On
the other hand, um it's it's much prettier than driving
kind of the interstate. Um so, so Greely is close
to Fort Like, how far from Fort Collins? Is it
door to door? Like to you to get to downtown
Four Collins? Well, depending on yes, they kind of where
(04:46):
you're at. But from Greeley of Four Colins, if you're
looking to downtown to c S, you know you're looking
thirty minutes. Yeah, it's not bad. Four Collins really cool town.
I've never been to Greeley. What's it like. Greeley's actually
really grown. I Mean the thing about Colorado with the
growth is there's there's not a lot of room to
grow on the west side of Interstate five, and so
now everything's getting pushed out to the east. And Uh,
(05:10):
you know, one of the I think the fourth largest
oil reservoir in the country sits underneath really Colorado, and
so you've had a big, a big boom in the
oil and natural gas. And so it was a good
time in my four years being at un See and
having grown up in Colorado and Havant had been a
really many times for Bronco training camp back in the
day before they moved there, moved the operation down south. Uh,
(05:34):
it has changed a lot, and it has changed for
the better. Um, and it's allowed it to be a
pretty good job at the level of that you mentioned
growing up in Colorado. That's fascinating to me because there's
really like two basketball players during my era that I
remember from Colorado, right John's everybody knows Chauncey. And then
I play with Pat Garrity when I was in Notre Dame.
(05:54):
He's a dear friend of mine. What was what was
your basketball existence like growing up? Well, came up the
same year as Chauncey did. I can remember the uh,
the first time seeing Chahnpsy when you're playing club basketball
back on the day, which you know, you know back
then it didn't start. So you're about six or seventh grade.
Now it starts when you're four or five years old.
(06:15):
But when you saw Emergensty and Shahns for the first
time at Cherry Creek High School and we were about
to play UH Skyland Skyland Rex then, which was a
team that he played on, And when he walked into Jim,
You're like, so that guy is a sixth grader. You
just knew from right then and there that you know
he was just different and uh and obviously but the
best player that has ever come out and State at Colorado. Uh.
(06:37):
And then Jack Garry I remember playing at UH at CSUCU.
CSU was recruiting really hard back when he was kind
of junior. He kind of came on the scene a
little bit later. He wasn't really highly recruited up until
probably the end towards his junior year. And um, he's
a guy who you know saw at CSU, played against
a team camp and obviously a guy that went on
to have a great career Notre Dame and in the NBA. Okay,
(06:59):
so you went to Mason's State out of high school? Correct? Yeah,
I went to Mason State out of high school and
probably a lot like you'd be in a point guard
who thought he had all the answers and um, you know,
thought he knew everything about the game. Kind of get
humbled a little bit. Um. Had some run ins with
you know, coach Scottill at the time, and started as
(07:19):
a true freshman, but didn't make my way through the
entire season, and lo and Behold ended up at Western
State for Bob Hoffman, who who's had a two has
two course named after him in Colorado, one at the
University of Colorado at the Practice Center where he played,
and then at Fort Louis College, where he finished up
after he was done coaching me at Western. So I
was fortunate across paths with him because he was a
(07:40):
guy that for no offensive standpoint, Um, it was kind
of really ahead of the game. And he's a team
you know, his team's we always shot a lot of three's,
usually led the country and three point field goal attempts
at three point field goals made every season. And so
that's where I got my appreciation for the three point
shot that continues to this day. Yeah. So okay, so
(08:00):
when what Western State? How good were you guys? Uh,
we were good. Tough job. I mean, you don't have
in division two. You have Temple's scholarship, and I'm not
sure if we had five at that time. Actually, going
back to my freshman year, we played maybe one of
the best D two teams of all time. Fortey State
went undefeated back in nineteen ninety six for the Long
(08:23):
of Gold since Rick Sims sent him me. They had
some dude. I mean, I was back in the day
when D two had some real guys. That guy that
didn't qualify academically out of junior college. Um, and so
that was that was the best team to play against.
But we were good. Um. That was a good player,
kind of like you. I mean, let the league assist deals.
Wasn't a great shooter, um, but it was a good experience.
(08:45):
I love the fish, I love the outdoors. One of
the best places to be in the country if you
like to do those things. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Okay,
So you get done, and what was the what was
the decision like to go into coaching? Like was it
was there? Did you always wanted to be a coach?
Like what what? What? What made you want to be
a basketball Yeah? I mean I was basketball goal all
I've ever known and all I've ever done, and um,
(09:07):
you know, Coach Hoppin said, that's that's the direction need
to go. And for me, having grown up in North
Denver near Boulder, coach coach Hoppin put a phone call,
having been a former player, to Ricardo Paton at the time,
and basically Ricardo just let me kind of hop on
board and basically be a volunteer assistant. After I graduated,
I was back in two thousand, two thousand and one,
(09:29):
and uh, you know, I was able to kind of
live at home, but I got my foot in the door,
and then I shared offices with David Moe, who was
the son of Doug Mo, the former Dever Nuggets head coach,
and that later that year he actually got a Division
two jobs at Emporia State University, and so he decided, hey, man,
you're gonna come with me, and so I went with
(09:49):
him to uh Emporia State, and uh kind of started
the journey that way. Okay, So, so Doug Mo is
famous in basketball from from this is what I know
of him. The uh, the true passing game passing cut right,
no screening, passing cut. That's that the that's the Dug
Mo passing. When you guys went to Emporio's state. David Moe,
(10:11):
his son is that what you ran nip passing game.
Every every every practice start the same. We do three
on oh and then we do five on oh and
and the beauty of and And for me, uh, you know,
having been under him, you just saw it in such
a different way. I mean, his dad saw the game
in a different way. And I was actually fortunate because
kind of going back to my childhood. Um, I was
(10:33):
a ball boy for the Denver Nuggets for five years,
and so I had the opportunity, you know, to see
coach most teams play you know a lot of games
and then you have you know, the Paul west Head
era and then my last year was really year that
the Nuggets beat George carl and the Sonics of the
eight seed, and so um I gotta see it firsthand
and then to see him coach it, which you know,
(10:53):
there's you have to give. You have to have guys
who can understand how to play, because ultimately it's just
playing and hooping and reading acting. But passing game is
just whatever you want to make it to be. I mean,
your guy who wants to pass and cut, pass and cut,
your guy that wants to pass in the screen away,
pass the screen away. It's just a lot of just
I said, just motion, but more cutting than screening. And
so for me, it allowed me just to see the game.
(11:15):
And a lot of what I took with me later
on is especially when I went to Poise State and
Coach Rice put me in charge thee often, um, just
allowing guys to play, teaching guys how to play, because
as you get to a certain level, and now as
you're seeing in the NBA, it's easy to take away
set place. Um, it's eat especially late in the season.
But you know, if you can teach guys how to play,
how to play in space, which a lot of guys
(11:37):
talk about, but there's very few guys that can really
teach it, um. And so I was fortunate that I
had that that education with coach Mo and UM. And
then from there, UH kind of made the jump to
Midland Junior College where Grant mccaslan, who is now the
head coach in North Texas got the job and UH
asked me to come down there with him, and and
(11:58):
so at a young age, I mean it was probably
the time were seven took over Middle Junior College, which
is one of the top the top junior college jobs
in the country. I mean Spud Webb may mean back
in the day, Mookie Blaylock. I mean there was some real,
real dudes rolling around in the Whackjack and um what
it is a great junior college job and the six
thousand and Sea a random It's just everything over the
(12:20):
top of Grant And I was with him for two
years there and then knowing at the time it's kind
of with being with Coach Moe going back to Paris
State when he was an assistant, you know, and I've
been very fortunate to kind of be this kind of
Stanley that I kind of I've been, you know, linked
into with Coach Mo. Was when Coach MO was assistant
in Colorado, the guy that he ran with as when
he was an assistant was Mark s Keew, Leon Rice
(12:43):
pad Boyle, Mark Turgeon. And so I was able to
get into that group of guys. And then when that
when I went to Middland Junior College, Tad was close
to getting the job. Also, Randy Ray was close to
getting a Division one head job, and I just knew
by making that move to Midlands make me a lot
more attractive to VAM. Having recruited nationally. Haven't been at
the top junior college program having co inter nationals ties,
(13:05):
and so that allowed me to get that next job
that we were stayed with Randy Ray. Um, okay, so
give me, give me your best, give me your best. Uh,
Midland junior college story can be about recruiting a player,
a phone call at night, a run in, Like, it's
because I was watching have you watched Cheer? You watched
this in Netflix? Cheer? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've watched
(13:28):
and pieces yeah. Oh yeah, it's about Navarro Navarro Junior College,
which is also into And I was right, and I
was trying to explain to my family. I was like, look,
this is what all junior college sports are. Like they're like,
what do you mean. I was like, everybody's there for
a reason. Nobody really wants to be there for good,
you know, and you're just you're there to try and
get a scholarship to get the hell out of there, right,
(13:49):
Like that's really the and you know, you go to
these big ones to try and win a championship or whatever.
And I was like, you know, these while it seems
like these these crazy terrible back stories that these kids,
it's come from our unique like they are unique, but
it's kind of like go to go to the basketball side,
and I we started to watch the football the uh
what is the football version? Like why my blanking on
(14:10):
the name? Yeap, yes, it's a little too real for
my my family, like right between the language and whatever.
And I was like, just trust me. Anyway, My point
is I look, I I was, Uh, I gray shirted
at a junior college. I you know when when we
were Oaklaham State coach used to invite for junior college
(14:32):
into play. You know, uh, two days in a row,
we'd recruit those guys. When are Tyler was one of them,
west Ark was one of them, we'd have somebody from
Kansas come down and they would play. So anyway, I
need I need some junior college. Give me, give me,
give me the junior class from now there's where to start.
So um without mentioning names, Remember, we had to drive
(14:52):
from Midland to DFW Airport to pick up a kid
at Division one transfer kids. So that drive from Midland
the DFW about four or four and a half hours
and we're actually gonna pick up a couple of kids
and the first kid that comes in, UM be one transfer,
we had to wait a little bit, probably another hour
hour and a half before the other kid's flight came in.
So we're sitting around like, okay, let's go to the mall.
(15:15):
Let's go uh you know, let's going to Barnes and
Nobles kill some time, we can walk around do whatever.
Well as uh as I'm kind of walking in with them,
about to walk into Barnes and Nobles, the kid turns
and said, coach, you know, did uh did my coach
tell you that, you know, kind of sunlight some of
my problems? And I'm like, um no, and he's like, wow, yeah,
I got you know, I got some issues, bipolar issues.
(15:37):
This okay. He's like, I really need a smoke right now,
and I'm like smoke. He's like yeah, because I really
I'm like all right, man, like I just saw, I
just met me. They do what you gotta do? Go
you mean, go smoke a cigarette that dry, I mean
in the in the parking lot, do whatever you need
to do. I I called Grant. I called Grant up,
and Grants like I tell him and he's like, you know,
(15:57):
just that's just you know, a day in the life.
And Junior aug and luckily for Luckily for us at Midland,
because we were at the cream of the crop in
terms of junior colleges, we could kind of get a
little bit different guy. Um, but that was probably the
my introduction to junior college was, you know, the guy
having to go go get a smoke to calm his
nerves before we could go in the Barns and Nobles.
(16:21):
It's amazing. It's amazing that he did mean cigarettes, right.
I just want to make sure there's there's a there's
a there's a there's a there's a high major assistant coach.
I won't name his name. He's a very good player
in college and my first time I met him. Might
remember the Remember the NBA Summer League used to be
a long beach state and they'd also have these free
(16:42):
They also had the free agent teams, right, and uh
so I was playing with the Lakers, but my dad
had a free agent team, and so we had guys
me Miles Simon, I think Tony Gonzalez played with some
of our old day you guys we played together, and
then we'd have these other guys from around the country.
So I got to pick up one of these dudes
at the airport and he's really good player, and he's like, yo,
(17:02):
g what you know about some trees around here? And
I was like, um, trees, Like we got eucalyptus trees
like that are big in Orange County. It's from Australia's
And I started like going into the like I'm not
really a horticulturist, but I was like, you know, we've
got palm trees. Obviously there's different kinds. It's like no, no, no, no,
(17:22):
my man, I need some trees. And then he makes
it like the smoke thing. I was like, oh, yeah,
I don't know. I don't don't There wasn't there was no,
there was no trees. But no, it was just the
old fascist needed a figurette best player you had at Midlands. Well,
so we were, I mean back in you know, junior
(17:44):
college is definitely kind of change in terms of the
talent pool, especially with the prep schools that's come around,
but so we were. We lost Grant's first year as
the head coach, my first year's assistant. We lost in
the semifinals of the National Junior College Tournament HUD. We
lost on a tipping at the Buzzer to uh College
of Southern Idaho. We were up one and they jacked
(18:06):
up his three and the ball bounced just in the
right direction, and big dude, I think we ended up
going to usc Your Baylor big African kid tipped it
in at the buzzer. But uh, I mean our starting
five in Midland and our starting point guard, Timmy Crowell
went to the University of Cincinnati. Are starting to J D.
Lewis went in the University of Texas. Tristan Martin, who
was at the three, went in the University of Houston.
(18:26):
Uh Mamory Diallo, who played the five, force and actually
came off the bench, went to Gonzaga. Amania Colisson went
to Purdue, who played force at the four, and then
Ivrey Clark actually started force at the four, who went
on to play at Washington State for Tony Bennett, who
had a really good career at Washington States. The one
guy maybe that caused Brandon Roy the most problems of
his career defense, And you go back and look at
(18:47):
Brandon Roy's games against Washington State against Divary Clark, he
struggled mightily. And so we had some really really good
players and then I was fortunate enough to bring uh
two or three of those guys with me a Weabre
state where when we got the job, we were with
coach Ray and we were picked dead last and the
Big Sky by the media and the coaches brought in
(19:08):
ten new guys and uh actually ended up winning the
league that you're one of. The Big Sky won the
Big Sky Tournament and they ended up losing to u C.
L A in the first round the n s A
Tournament with Collins Santa follow Russell Westbick. I think it
was a freshman at the time, but you know what
have been Hound's really good teams. I think ended up
losing in the in the National Championship game or final four.
(19:28):
That was the team I think that came back and
beat Gonzaga, right, they were down bad to Gonzaga. Yep, yeah,
um okay. So here's here's a hard question. So when
Rick Ray, who you had known, gets the Weber job,
was it, Hey, I'm gonna I can only hire if
you bring dudes with you. Was it unspoken like how
(19:50):
did that actually work at the time. You know what's funny,
coach Coach Ray and I we go back a long
ways actually recruiting when he was an assistant C s U. Uh,
they had recruited me a little bit and then just
had a relationship with the kind of before because he
was one of those guys and he was just here
and everything he got and hearing it the right way.
He had a scratching clab. He was one of the
you know, if you ask guys around like who are
(20:10):
some of the better assistant in the country, Uh, you know,
his name would come up. I mean for what he
did for you know, for stud more at at that
c s U and then on the Utah State and
then to Utah for Ray Jack Coletti, and so we
always stayed in contact. You always wanted to make sure
that you know, I was you know the guys I thought,
we're gonna have a chance to become Division one head coaches. Uh,
and then we're gonna do it the right way. And
(20:31):
now he's relying with mine and his was definitely one
of them. But it was never it was never about
you know, players. But I knew too if if I
stayed in the poor of State that if Randy Ray
or Tad Boyle were to get a job that you know,
they're probably still gonna hire me. But now maybe it's
in that second or third spot where now I'm at
Midland and I got a couple of dudes, and I
know a couple of those dudes are then come with me,
and that makes it a little bit different. So, um,
(20:52):
it was never hey, you gotta bring guys. But you know,
it was funny because at the same time, Um, when
coach Ray got the job of Weaver, Tad was at
Wichita State. In Wichita State was making that run in
the n c A Tournament and Tad, you know, I
think he was he was looking at a couple of
jobs that were open at the time, U T s
A being one of them before Brooks Thompson got it
and then U n C, which Tad's from Greeley. And
(21:15):
I had to call Tad as he was actually walking
to shoot around for I think the Sweet six team
game in the m c I Center and washing d
C and say, list coach coach Ray just got the job.
Uh you know we were State, which for people who
know basketball, is a great basketball job. I mean it's
a place that has a lot of traditions, there's won
a lot of championships, has been a lot of ant terms.
Is like, I'm not sure what you're gonna do. But
(21:36):
at the same time, I can't turn this down. And
so that's how to make that phone call to Tad.
And then Lowe Behold made my way dog in Utah.
It's funny Tad so I first met Tad um So.
I sat out nineties six, nineties seven at Golden West College.
And I went to Golden West because my my high
school coach for my freshman year, UM Tom McClusky, was
(21:59):
the head coach going West. So I got to practice
for the team and then I would like coach, being
assistant coach during games and and not play to save
my year. So I visited Oregon and Darren Kayliss was
one assistant. He had he had been a AU coach
with team of VS. I've known him forever. Mark Turshan
was another assistant, and Tad Boyle, who Mark had pulled
(22:20):
out of like the financial world right to to be
a to be assistant coach like that was their staff
under Jerry Green High school coach. Exactly one first game,
my first game as a high school sophomore on varsity
was Tad's first game as a high school varsity basketball
coach at Long One High School. That's crazy that's crazy.
(22:41):
That's really interesting. It's it's it's a he's got a
fascinating I gotta get him on. He's got a fascinating
personal story as well. Obviously I haven't played at Ku
and everything. Um okay, so then how did how did
how did you decide to leave to go to Boise
and and we're feleon well so now, but it's got
a backtrack on my My claim to same is that
you know, my after our first year, we had a
(23:02):
great year weaver you know, now a lonvill hole I
go and Coach Ray was very good friends with the
and a you coach in Oakland named Raymond Young who
ran the Oakland Rebels. So for guys that know, I
mean there's the Oakland Soldiers, which is a big night
Yeau team, and then you know the Oakland Rebels were
kind of just you know the hodge Pods group that
um just kind of we went and played in random
(23:22):
local terms where Coach Ray to staff, you know, that's
the really good relationship Rayan, He's like, hey, you can
come out with one of these, you know, one of
my guards. And so go out during the spring period
in April, and uh, I forget where it was I
think it was actually got Houston at the Kingwood when
I used to be the Kingwood down there, and so
there's this, you know, there's so there's this guard. You know,
I'm in his back gym. There's this. There's guards probably
(23:45):
about five and eleven a time, about hundred fifty five pounds,
but had freakish long arms. And you could just tell
me he could he could pass, handle and shoot and
and lo and behold, I see Damian Lillard and so
basically come back and it's time. Nobody knew who Damian
Lillard was. Hed Get actually a transferred high schools from St.
Joe's to Oakland High after his sophomore year, and was
(24:09):
wasn't on anybody's radar, but I just saw something in
him and row and behold. We decided to offer him.
And so we were the first school to offer Lillard
after the spring period. And he didn't blow up until
probably the last game of July in Vegas, going you know,
summer of his senior year, where he was playing against E. B.
O who had like Luke Babbitt armand Johnson um a
(24:31):
bunch of dude. I'm not sure if de Sean Stevens
was on that team or not. But he basically goes
like forty eight in front of every coach in the
Western United States, and I'm like, God, yeah, man, you're
sitting there just like, uh, this is all all, all
this work is for not but which carries onto this day.
He is such a unique person in a unique player.
(24:51):
And what he is, he's he's as loyal as loyal
can be. And what he could also do is he
could sniff out bs like he knew guys, guys who
told him what he wanted to hear, he just would
basically cut you off. And I was kind of one
guy for whatever reason, maybe it was smart or maybe
not smart, as like, hey, we're not gonna promise you anything.
He's just gonna promise an opportunity. And he had seen
what his older brother had gone through when he went
(25:14):
to junior college for football and didn't play right away,
and he saw how miserable he was. So he knew
he wanted to be someplace where he knew he could
maybe come in and play right away, and he wanted
to be around the right people. He wanted to get
out of Oakland and and so we Brave basically he
visited St. Mary's Um and then he visited us, and
then we got him. We got him committed. And if
(25:36):
you would ever told me that he would have turned
into the player that he turned into. Now, I thought
he was, you know, when you were crazy, I thought
he'd be a really really good player, a big skuy
type player of the year as this sophomore than the
guy that played overseas. But I mean, now he's turned
himself into one of the ten best players in the world. Yeah,
it's funny. A lot of people might Greg. Obviously, my
brother was a cow and Greg's like he was a
two guard, you know, he's a five eleven two guard
(25:59):
and you know, like we just the big schools had
trouble seeing him, like can you play at that size?
At the two in in the Pack twelve? And it's interesting.
I think a lot of these guys they do outthink themselves,
you know, Kawhi Leonard. Why didn't anybody in the Pack
twelve off from a scholarship like, Wow, he's a big
guy who's five four and kind of like, who cares?
The guy could really really play? Um. Whereas when you're
(26:22):
when you're at we were, you just go and if
you can play, you know, you don't necessarily maybe you
don't carry the same um. Well you have you have
to check a couple of boxes in order to play
for us. Is that is that fair? No? No, that's
that's definitely fair. But I think he was a guy
that we knew um and that's and that's kind of
how I got to where I got to because it
just I think that's what helps you too as a coach,
(26:44):
when you've had to coach at different levels to where
you could kind of understand and you have to kind
of see some things that other guys don't. So for me,
haven't been a Division two, haven't been ejinior college and
and then having to go you know, go to Weaber
State and you see different levels and you see, okay,
who can you know? Who you recruit? Who can't you
recruit because so many guys, so many assistant coaches, they
just waste time recruiting guys that they can't get and
(27:06):
so then they missed on the guys that they should
be recruiting. And then you got to bail to see
you know, the forest through the trees and maybe see
that like Damien, he didn't turn eighteen until July after
he graduated from high school. Same thing when I recruited
Chandler Hutches in the Boise State. He was a guy
that when he was playing at the junior in high school,
he was six ft three. He was playing JV the
(27:27):
first semester of his high junior year of high school
and then lo and behold. By the time he's a
senior in high school, he goes from a JV player
in a year's time, he goes to six seven, six eighties,
the top one D player in the country. And you know,
you just gotta you know some of those things that
some of other guys can't see or some of the
bigger schools, you know, when you're in the pack twelve
not you can't. You can't roll the dice on that
(27:48):
unless you're really confident in your ability to see things.
And there's a lot of assistant coaches that just don't
have that. Okay, so you're you're at Now you're at well,
I actually I go to So funny story is so
Rex Walters, you know formergo's yeah, yes, so he you know,
so me and him get really close because he ends
(28:09):
up after he's done playing in the NBA and then
he kind of made a stop overseas and then made
his way to uh UM playing in like the USBL.
I think because he played for Kevin Pritchard in Kansas
City and a b A and so he was living
in South Kansas City, he was living in Olasa, and
so he decides, you know, after he's done playing, I
want to get into coaching. And so he basically becomes
(28:30):
our grad system at Emporious State and so me and
him for four or five four or five months, I
mean just spend every day with each other, get really
really close. Um he never got to never got to
the Seisling because then um coach Drew. I think that's
when Scott got the Baylor job, and so Bryce so
Homer had a spot opening his staff and so uh
(28:52):
Rex left kind of like in September to go to Valpo.
And so while was at Weaver, so he goes from
So Rex goes from Valpo of Florida Atlantic, where ends
up working through Matt Doherty. Matt Dohorty gets you know
the job there, turns it around two years, gets you
some huge job. Now Rex becomes the coach of flori Atlantic.
So Rex and I being as close I was, hey,
I want you to come to be my associate coach,
I mean, be my right hand guy. Let's go. I'm like, well,
(29:15):
I just you know, we just signed Lillard and but
Rex is my guys, let's go. So wife and I
were down in Boca rat Owned about to buy a house.
The market was crazy at that time. It's Wednesday. Um,
next day, we're gonna put an offer on the house.
A long Behold. The Search from running the Search for
San Francisco calls and says, hey, listen, wants to fly in. Rex,
(29:35):
being from santurs Day originally is like, come interests. I'm like, Rex,
I just played San Francisco twice that year. It's an
absolute train wreck. It's the worst job in the country. Um.
And that's when your former coach was came in there
for a few games and just I mean it was
just a tough, tough job. And so but Rex goes
in decides to take the job Lo and Behold. I'm like,
oh man, I mean I just went went from Boca
(29:56):
rat Own to San Francisco. And now coach Ray walks in.
He's like, hey, you don't have to go because Lo
and Behole. Lillard had just called at seven o'clock in
the morning. We had never called. Coach Rays like, is
it true that coach Linder's going to San Francisco and
being a Bayerry guy. I've been across the bridge at Oakland.
Coach Rays like, and you make my life a lot
of easier of you stay. And I'm like, don't worry.
You're talking about the one guy in the world that
(30:16):
won't leave in Lillards. So uh so make my way
to USF and started that. That process helped Rex turn
that around. And then lo and behold, Uh, you realize
quickly those WCC jobs are really really hard. Uh, when
you're playing for third or fourth place every year and
you're playing to play in the c I to the
c d I because Gonzaga is Gonzaga. All those presidents
(30:37):
A d s they want to compete with Gonzaga. They
don't realize they're twenty years behind Gonzaga. And I just
knew after we finished in third place my second year there,
I was like, man, this is just it just is tough.
And so Leon gets the job at Boisey State, UM,
and I decide, hey, I'm probably taking a step back
because I was the associated coach of San Francisco Dave Woji,
(30:58):
who ends up being the head coach of San Jose State.
Leon brings him in as the associate coach. So now
I take a step back in terms of pay entitled,
but I just knew in the end it could be
a much better job, especially with boys moving into the
Mountain West. And then that's when we start the Boise
State journey. Um, what so Leon gives you the offensive
coordinator role? What was that like? He said, So, yeah,
(31:22):
the way Leon is is very unique in terms how
he handles. And Leon is a basically an NFL head coach,
the CEO. Mean, he he knows what he's good at,
he knows what he's not good at, and he has
no issues delegating everything and giving you total Tommy like,
And we're sitting there is I'm I'm the offensive coordinator.
We're sitting there playing Dayton in the in the m
(31:42):
State Tournament against day at Dayton and you know we
got time out. I was there, by the way, Yeah
you were there. And it's say, I'm the one sitting
there drawn up to play and he just sits there
and he doesn't say he doesn't bad and eye and
so we knew when we got the job, UM and
we had a transition year where we're gonna have one
year in the whack, and then we were making the
(32:04):
move to the Mountain West, you know, and I know
how good the Mountain West was back and then UM
and we knew that we couldn't get better athletes than
San Diego State un l V, New Mexico. And so
our thing was, we can't beat him the air. We're
gonna have to beat these dudes on the ground. And
so that's where we recruited guys one through five that
could pass down the street because knew if boys do,
(32:25):
we could recruit good guards. It's a lot easier recruit
good guards than it is to find the six ten
and six eleven guys. That's the pro that's protecting the
rim and you know, the Alex Kirks of the world
and the guys that those guys had at that time
un l V. And so that's why we recruited Nick Duncan.
That's why we recruited James Webbing. So now are fours
and five are bringing your guys away from the basket.
Now we've got a guy in Derek Marks, who's the
(32:46):
best guard in the league. Now he's you know, beat there.
We could create switches, create mismatches. Now we created space.
And so that's from an offensive standpoint, how it kind
of things the ball I thought we were. We knew
that we couldn't we couldn't beat him with Vaska less
and we had it being with skills. So that from
I really a two thousand and ten eleven really started
diving into Europe, really watching a lot of European basketball,
(33:06):
not just watching the EuroLeague, but you know, talking to
European guys, some of the guys in the NBA that
we're from Europe, and say, hey, give me some of
the teams that you know, because Barcelona, Real, Madrid, you know, Fenderbos,
I mean, those those guys have the best, the best.
Now let me find the guys that are gonna kind
of be like us who don't have the best players.
But from a syschematic standpoint, are you know, ahead of
the game. And so everything we started doing was coming
(33:29):
from Europe and then lo and behold, now you know
the Spurs win the championship in fourteen fifteen, and then
it just catches fire. Well, we were always three or
four years ahead of trying to teach that system. And
so that's kind of how evold offensively, that's what made
us really hard to guard and um, something that carried
you with me to U n See and now to Wyoming. Okay,
let's let's get to the UNC job. Obviously Tad had
(33:51):
taken it from a you know, no one ever talked
about Northern Colorado. Uh, you guys were able to be
one of the premier programs in the Big Sky Conference.
How did you how did you come about you you're
at Boise. How did you get the job? Well, I
mean it's May, which you know, I mean that's usually
a month month behind everything else. In the previous coach
(34:12):
that was Tad's former assistant. Um, you know, got in
some trouble with the n C A A and a
lot of trouble. And so now I'm looking at a situation,
well you know, here, stay here, boys, or at some
point I'm gonna have to roll the dice. And I
knew the job, I knew the league. Haven't grown up
in the area, haven't been at Weaber States, like you know,
it's a place where you can win at because you know,
and I know there's three hundred fifty three Division one
(34:32):
jobs or how many there are now, and there's a
lot of them where John Wooden couldn't win at, and
they're just bad jobs. And I thought that, uh um,
it was a job that you could win at. And
even though I knew that I was gonna walk into
a situation we were probably gonna be getting the postseason ban,
even maybe two postseason banned ross of scholarships. And so
you know, for the four years I was there, this
last season, the first time we had thirteen full of scholarships.
(34:53):
We were at nine scholarships year one, we were at
ten year two, and then we were eleven in a
year three. But what I did was I was fortunate
enough to hire a really good staff, and then we
just never really made any excuses about our situation. We
had a postseason banned the first year, US fortunate and
hired a really good guard. The previous staff were recruited
in Jordan Davis, who end up becoming the Big Skuy
player of the year. I read shirted two seniors that
(35:15):
first year, knowing that they were going to play in
the postseason. Added Andrea Spite, who ended upsetting the Big
Sky single season all time scoring record with nine hundreds
fifty some points in the seasons who came from Arizona State,
and so just built it that way. Um made a
lot of threes, and then defensively we decided, you know what,
we're not gonna let teams make threes. And we've been
(35:37):
number one in the country the last three years and
not letting teams attempt threes. I think sometimes people get
fooled when they want to look at three points still
goal percentages, whether you're not you're a good defensive team
or not. Well, I mean, if you're making two three
a game and on four attempts and you're shooting fifty percent,
I don't care if you shoot fix percent, because now
you just made two threes, you just scored six points.
We make ten or eleven threes, we're gonna put a
(35:58):
lot of pressure on you to beat us of twos.
And so that's kind of how the system evolved offensively
to defensively to where you know a lot of the
same things will do here, Why don't Okay, So so
let's let's let's get to those threes. Okay. So I mean,
is that just but so many other teams are just
loading up on the basketball, right, They're just that's really
the style making you making you throw skip passes, uh, putting.
(36:21):
You know, some guys call it three on the ball
or whatever. How does your defense work work that you
take away so many threes? You know, it's uh, you
know for us and and and no, and it would
be a little bit different, probably a few adjustments, you know,
kind of coming up a level. But we also put
a lot of Mountain West teams and bigger schools and
the U n c UM but especially the Big Sky
(36:42):
that we just feel like there was guys that could
beat you at the rim with two um. You know,
you've seen them, You've seen as much basketball as anyone,
and there's not a lot of guys that are even
at the power five levels that are great finishers at
the rim. And so for US, UM it was okay,
in our league, we knew there would be a lot
more guys that could shoot uh. And so then okay,
let's take that away. And then as we kept going
(37:04):
into it, Okay, now we're gonna be really good at
not fouling. So not just the fact that okay we're
not letting you shoot threes, we'll also not let you
get in one. So I mean we work diligently at
not foiling and walling up and and understanding where our
rotation is gonna come from in terms of at the
rim when we wall and crack on guys and then
we're gonna limit shoot the one shot. I mean that
habits that you know that we built from a defensive
(37:26):
reboant bounty standpoint, where we've been top twenty five in
the country the last four years. Uh, in defensive remounting percentage.
We're going gonna give you one shot, and so we
put a lot of pressure on you over the course
of the game, uh to try to make you know,
try to make layups at the rim. Four. What you
do is you forced a lot of dumb teams into
shooting non paint two's pull up twos, which just allows
us to get out and run and go okay. So
(37:51):
so now, um the wyoming job. I mean, I mean
everybody in the kind of the area knew that Allen
was in trouble. I mean I I saw him in
the year. I knew the contract situation. I was like
this this, and it's a it's a tough league because
even though the top of the league is not what
it was back when you were at Boisse, right when
New Mexico was rolling, Vegas was pumping out one and
(38:12):
Dunes and San Diego State was a top ten team.
Sandy States back bears to be back for a while.
I think New Mexico is getting close. Um. I think
UNLV is much more stable now than it's been and
maybe the last five years. And we'll see what t
J does. In year two. You toss State, you know,
I don't know what happens with that run, you know,
losing your best player and probably losing thema Cada. But
(38:33):
they've gone from a team that that couldn't compete, you know,
stepping up from the Big West, to one that won
the Mountain West the year before and then won the
conference tournament. Obviously this year the league in the middle
is really good. I mean now Colorado State I think
is really well coached. Boise is really well coached. And
you're starting to get Once you get continuity with those coaches,
you start to the teams on the front range are good. Man,
(38:53):
so um taking over the wyoming job, Like, what take
me through the where are you in the process. I
know you've hired two of your sister in so far. Well,
my third one was hired today, Sundance Sundance Wicks, who
was the head coach at Missouri Western State College, done
a true fantastic job there. I mean, after I guess
probably coach Musselman, he might be the second most famous
(39:13):
college coach on Twitter. But a guy that's you know,
really good was from Wyoming. Um, a guy that's gonna
bring you know, a lot of juice, a lot of
energy to the program. But for me, it was, you know,
we had played him three times and we had beaten
the last three years here in Wyoming. Uh. It's a
job where I felt like I didn't have to change
anything that I did at you and see, uh, in
(39:36):
terms of recruiting, in terms of anything, just because I
knew now that we're gonna be recruiting to a better
conference with better facilities, better resources, which ultimately is gonna
equal better players. I mean, our final ranking this year
in Ken Palm was seventy fifth in the country, or
our net was you know, like ninety nine. Uh, And
so we were doing the right things. I just think
that there's just some of those other things that you
(39:57):
know from visit it up here. Uh. Mom was a
tough job. It's a tough job because you're you're geographically
there's there's not a lot of players around you. But
if you can get them to campus, our facilities, not
just the the arena, the weight room at in the arena,
locker room, but just the student athlete, the cafeteria, the
training table, all the other things in the facilities are
(40:18):
a top three job in the Mountain West. Uh. And
I really, I really believe that. So if you can
get guys here, which is which is the hard part,
you know, get them here to see it, then you
can get them. And then you're gonna get get guys
for the right reason. And if you've got guys who
who really want to get better, uh, they're gonna be
able to get better. And that's I think that's the
thing that excited me. And then you add it's one
(40:41):
of the few jobs in the country where people still
really care about the university. They care because nowadays the TV,
watching games on the phone, watching games on on the internet. Uh,
that just there's not as many people come to the games.
But you know, I remember when we were playing against
Larry Nance, Josh Adams and Larry Shytt and those guys.
Back when we're at Boisey, I mean, this place was
(41:02):
rocking and rolling. So now you get the passion and
pride that existing. Why don't because you are the one state,
you know, the only team in the state. Now you
get the people behind you, and I think that's just
such a unique situation that allows you to create a
job that could be even that much better than what
it is. Are you gonna do some of that stuff
that Leon does, like walking across the river, you're gonna
(41:24):
like you're gonna get anna out. Yeah, I'm not sure
if I'm gonna give them. I'm not sure if I'm
gonna get on back as a horse, you know, and
and and do the bucking Bronco or or across the
Boise River like Leon did. But uh, I'm sure there'll
be a few things out there. But I just think
it's it's for me. It's the right job, it's the
right sit um. You have to build it like you
(41:44):
did at Boisey, which is, you know, you have to
go out and find some different guys that other guys
maybe bus lines. You have to go fishing different ponds.
You can't you can't fish. There's no pond in your backyards.
You've gotta go in some different ponds. But my assistants
will know what exactly what they're looking for. They know
not to bring anybody to the table that can't shoot. Um,
and then we'll just kind of developed it and build
it from here, because I do think we we we
inherited a core group of guys as we saw and
(42:07):
made a run the Mountain West tournament. Um, that can
compete and help you win games. Just now we've got
to add a few more guys after those guys. Yeah,
it's interesting point. And you can't shoot, it's the it's
become the number one skill. And I would say, I
would say shooting and then and then passing even more
than dribbling. Right, Um, Like you know that the passing
(42:28):
skill is is a hard one. If you don't have it,
it's really really hard to kind of develop it at
this stage. And then defensively, it really is more about
toughness and buying than is necessarily about pure athletic ability, right.
I mean, like, if you can shoot, and you're and
you're tough, and you've got good habits and you can pass,
(42:48):
like we can we can find it. We can find
a way to hide your weaknesses. Yeah, there's no question,
and that's what we that's what we did at you
and see. And there's a lot of times when we'd
walk on that floor and the other team would look down,
are like, these guys, really, this is the team that's
won twenty games. Uh, you know, you go to West
Virginia where we did this year, the guys colver and
those guys are probably looking down. Coaches tell us, we've
(43:09):
gotta be worried about these guys. Well, then low and behold.
Now you're in a dogfight because guess what. All these
guys they can pass, handling, shoot, And these guys from
a defensive standpoint, they know the game plan and over
the course of you know, seventy to seventy five defensive
possessions in the game, they're not going to break down
and make mistakes. And when you when when you have
those type of guys that that really do have a
(43:31):
steel for the game and understanding the game. Um, I
just think there's there's a lot of stupid in college basketball,
and you can't exploit stupid. And and that's what we're
gonna try to do, is is men my stupid and
and make sure that Uh, you know, we just don't
beat ourselves because a lot of teams, if you let them,
they'll beat themselves. I I agree. All right here, here's
a lot to do, real quick to to to sum up, Um,
(43:52):
give me one thing that either funny story or interesting
thing about the coaches that you've coached under Ricardo Patton.
Give me give me something, because here's what I know
about Ricardo Patton. Everybody liked the guy. I was told
he was a black belt and like a scratch golfer, right,
so great, so great story coach pats so being a
(44:16):
great golf just true black belt golfer. So especially when
I was younger and the four or four kids, I
mean each kid probably added two strokes to my handicap.
But I was close to scratch golfer coming out of college.
And so in the summertime, we went out the Border
Country Club, coach Mo Ricardo, myself, Lonnie Lonnie Porter, longtime
coach at Regious University. I was best friends at the cards.
(44:36):
We went out and played and uh, you know I
kicked Ricardo's ask that day and uh he comes in,
you know the next day he's like, we're plying. I'm like,
what I mean, I'm I'm the peon, I mean on
the staff. He's like, get your clubs. We're going back
out playing, and I'm like, oh boys, this is not good. So,
I mean, he was so competitive and he was so
mad that I beat him that day that you know,
(44:58):
he just couldn't sleep. And so now Lomba and I
gotta go back there and coach Moe, we're we're on
the eighteenth hole and we're in this match, and he's like,
I got this put I got a birdie put to
to basically win the match. And he's like, you know,
I'm not gonna tell you to miss that putt, but
you might want to miss that putt. And lo and behold,
I missed it even though I was trying to make it.
But that was That was the one golf story with
(45:19):
with Ricardo Patton, who was a hell of a golfer
and gave you the best advice of any coach that
I had worked for when he had said at the
end of the day, I don't need tricky plays, I
just need tricky players. Yeah, yeah, I liked it. I
liked it. I've I've heard, I've heard I've heard a
different like there are No, I've heard that there are
no trick plays. I've heard that that that expression for
um uh, let's see here, give me something about Lee
(45:42):
David Mo. David Mo is a unique of of a
coach that there's out there and my guy coach Mo.
This was during the during the internet, you know, Texas
hold him gambling era, um, when it was at the
very beginning, and he would basically at his office, he'd
(46:02):
have a blank, blank you know what, you know, the
dry race board and the only thing would be on
it would be a number of either red or black
up on the right hand side of the corner, and
everybody would walk in the honesty like, there's nothing on
the board, what's what's that number? Well, that was where
he was at in terms of his his winnings or
what he's been losing playing Texas hold of online. It's amazing,
(46:24):
that's amazing. That's really he did. Literally he knows it
was it was. It was sharks and minnows. Okay, what
about what about wreck? Uh? No, grant grant uh. In
terms of just best friend, I mean, the best human
being you'll ever come in contact with. UM, just understands
people at the highest level. Um, you know, my friendship
(46:47):
with him is one that will last a lifetime and
just very fortunate to uh strip cross paths with him. Okay,
give me, uh let's go to Rex. Rex so for time.
So Rex gets done playing and I'm still fairly young.
We're an emporious state. So it's lunchtime. It was like, hey,
let's go down, you know, let's go down place and
(47:08):
one on one. You know, this is a guy that's
a eight year NBA bed, a hell of a player,
and h you were playing one on one, two or
three dribble limit. The first time we check up, you know,
he kind of brings the ball up up over his
head and I just pop him in the nose. And
then right then and there he's like, Okay, this guy's
not this guy's not scared me. He doesn't care that
I'm Rex Walters and stuff. From that point on, we
just you know, that's that's what probably you know, allowed
(47:30):
her friendship and in relation to grow so much, because
everybody's you know, but if everyone's scared of Rex, and
lo and behold, I was the one guy that wasn't
scared of him, which is probably way I liked you
so much. Uh uh, you just what you see is
what you get, and just the that just consists and
see every day, and just the toughness and the chip
on your shoulder mentality, but also to just how he
(47:54):
just how he relates to players and just gets the
best out of him. But he's a guy that UM
gave me my first opportunity Division one lines and UM
allowed me to you know, basically get to get a
foot in the door. And can't thank him enough. All Right,
now you're up in the front range. What is the
most like country thing? Because like, as much as you're
from Colorado, you're still, you know, a basketball guy. You're
(48:14):
still a suburb guy. You're not a country dude, right,
But Greeley's Greeley is kind of like right there boardline
between you're out in the sticks and being a bit
of a suburb. Now you're in Wyoming, Laramie. You know,
it's it's pickup trucks, it's boots, uh in engines. Give
me the most country thing that you've done as a
head coach you never thought you would ever do before.
(48:36):
That's a good question I happen to actually have to do.
Two men. Greeley is actually a vault where it's not
too country. Um can't. And that's that's a good question.
I did not not anything to country yet. I just
I love the outdoors. My my fishing partner is uh,
you know, former Gonzaga assistant Slash USD head coach now
Colorado assistant Billy Greer, and so um, I enjoyed the
(48:59):
summertime being Billy going up into the to the mountain
fly fishing. And I'm sure that Billy will be making
a lot more trips up to to Lawyer Me because
there's a lot of great a lot of great fishing
holes up in those neck of the woods, and so
I'm sure I'll see Billy a lot more up and
Lawyer Me. Um. Then I even do see him down
in Boulder. What's what's a reasonable expectation for you? Guys?
You have no idea and your roster obviously there's this
(49:20):
is such a weird time. We'll wrap on this. What's
a reasonable for you personally? What's reasonable to expect? Is it?
Is it wins and losses? Is it competitiveness? What's reasonable
for your first year? H No, that is you know,
the beauty of getting the job. There's there's no beauty
of getting the job during the coronavirus. But the one
thing that not having to do a real press conference
(49:42):
and and how that kind of takes up your time.
I just went up there last Tuesday, signed the contract
and did a little social media release and then what
I did was I just got in the car and
drove to see Hunter Thompson who lives in Cheyenne. Hunter
Maldonado is down in Colorado Springs, Kuan Marble and Kenny
Foster and went and really solved before guys and got
in front of them, uh, and knowing that what their
(50:03):
strengths and weaknesses are. Since I've played in the last
three years, I knew exactly who they were at and
hadn't and they had recruited some of those guys at
Northern Colorado and just basically just sell them the vision
on hey, listen and well then and Coach Edwards. I mean,
Alan Edwards is as good of a human beings you'll
find a college basketball and there's not one personal say
that thing about Alan Edwards. Um. I just try to
go in there and just say, listen, we're gonna maintain
(50:24):
the family like atmosphere that Allan created, but we're gonna
do some things different from an offense and defensive standpoint,
I think can really you know, help you guys. And
I'm you know, we're not We're not gonna lose. Uh.
And I do think with those four guys, and I
think with this virus being that there's a lot of
uncertainly here late, I think you can go out and
if you're you're in the right place at the right time,
you can steal some guys right now. From a recruiting standpoint,
(50:47):
and so we can add three or four guys to
that core group of guys. I'm expecting us to to
to win and compete in the Mountain West next year.
Awesome stuff. Congrats on the move. I know there's a
bunch of other stuff to get and uh, well that
maybe we'll have to do one of these shows while
fly fishing. I got learn how fly fish. In the meantime, Uh, enjoy,
enjoy whatever you're doing in terms of the move, because
(51:09):
it's the most you'll probably ever be involved with with
with the move. Well, you know, it was funny before
you called him. Between phone calls my four kids and
my four year old, she wanted me to, you know,
play Prince Eric while she was on an Elsa in
the lane of avalor so I just know this. Hopefully
we'll figure out a cure or vaccine here pretty soon,
(51:31):
because the whole you know what's gonna happen is there's
gonna be a bomb that figures out of back seat
here in the next probably to seventy two hours, so
that every momb right now in the country is absolutely
losing their minds and rightly so, no question about it.
And teachers there's tither. Teachers are not even have to
ask for a raise when they come come back in
all right, enjoy for the Frozen two exploits and playing
(51:53):
Eric I want video that. Congrats on the job and
thanks for joining me. Thanks Doug, I appreciate it. What
a great time. Com very interesting on how he's bounced around,
how he's got these jobs. Now he has a plan
for how to turn around winowing basketball. Alright, any of
your thoughts are comments, feel free to tweet me at
Gottlieb Show also on I g At Gottlieb Show. The
(52:14):
Doug Gotlip Show airs three to six eastern every day
on Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Radio dot com, the
I Heart Radio app. You can download the podcast of
that as well. We talked hoops, we talk all sports
as well. Twelve to three Pacific time, three to six Eastern. Anyway,
thanks so much for downloading. Hoped you subscribed, and don't
forget to rate us, review us, say something nice. I
think it helps me in my pocket in the meantime,
(52:37):
enjoy being uh trapped in your home but listening to
a ball
Hey, welcome in Doug olib here, and you are listening
to all ball, all basketball all the time, no hoop games,
whop games talked about. So Jeff Linder is gonna join us.
He's the new head coach of Wyoming, was the head
coach Northern Colorado. Check out his journey. I think you're like,
it's some good stories along the way. That's just a
couple of minutes away. Um, really quickly. I've discussed a
(00:27):
lot of people and I put out on Twitter when
everything was first canceled. Are we open to the idea
of seniors getting a year back? I think now that
we've had a chance to catch our breath, that's been
two weeks since everything has been canceled, and the thought
in my mind is this. I think it's a great idea.
I'm bummed that everybody's missing the n c A tournament.
I'm missing the n c A Tournament, but half of
(00:48):
college basketball's seniors had played their last game. Matter of fact,
all of them had played their last regular season game.
So we're talking about postseason. I know they're gonna vote
on it, and I know that social media will try
and put pressure on the n c A and say,
you gotta do what's right, but what really is right?
It sucks that the kids won't get to play in
the tournament. I don't know if I don't believe having
(01:11):
them all be able to come back is the right
thing unless it's the right thing in perpetuity. Everybody gets
that year back? Are we doing that? Everybody gets five years,
gets a fifth year to play? Why not? I'd actually
be okay with that. I would Um, you get a
fifth year if you stay at the same school for
(01:31):
four years, how do you do? I don't know. My
My other thought is this for the NBA. I do
wish the NBA with a come back. You would do
pool play into tournament format, and I don't mind if
everybody qualifies for the tournament. Um or you have only
the top you know, three teams in a four team
pool qualified for the tournament. But you play around robbing
(01:53):
and play everybody twice. That way you get some games
up and going, and then you do it. We have
to realize that if the end BA comes back in
the summer, how much things are going to change. It
comes back and plays and they play until August. You're
not starting to season until late now puts next year's
Olympics into question now probably eliminates the w NBA season,
Big three season probably gone again. This doesn't have anything
(02:15):
to do with the NBA Summer League's gone draft changes.
A lot of things changing. This is a crazy, crazy time. Um,
I'm gonna do some more pods hopefully this week into
next week. We'll just keep pumping them out. Guys who
love basketball content love this stuff. I thought we'd catch
up with Jeff Lindner for a myriad of reasons. He
wasn't a visual one player. He comes from a different
(02:37):
kind of basketball family or families, uh than some of
the guys that we've had on. He's done a really
good job as a head coach other Colorado. They very
much taken offensive minded and their defense approach is unique.
And where he gets his offense from. We'll talk about that.
He just got the job, boy only it's a challenging job,
but not an impossible one, right. We've seen We've seen
(02:58):
the two of their last four coaches do a tremendous
Larry shy I did a great job there and Steve
McClain did a good job there. You can get players,
you can win there. You just gotta be inventive about
it and how the style and buy into it. You're
the only Division one school in the state. So without
further ado, let's catch up with a new head coach
of the Wyoming Cowboys. Be sure to catch the live
edition of the Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m.
(03:20):
Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. All right, let's welcome in. He's the
new head coach of the Wyoming Cowboys. So I don't
know how far I drive that is from Greeley, Colorado
to a Laramie, Wyoming. Jeff Linda joins us on the
All Ball Podcast. How far is it from Greeley to
(03:43):
UH to Laramie, Doug, Depending on the h the weather,
which is first and foremost, you can either cut through
four column and go up to eighties seven. The weather
is nice, it's probably about an hour twenty minutes. You
don't want to fight the one lane road. Then you
go up by I've had across I eight It takes
you about an hour hour thirty five minutes. But it
(04:04):
all depends on the weather. Yeah, I know, I've I've
actually made both of those drives. When I did a
game I did Wyoming, Oregon State earlier this year. I
made that. That was two eighty five. I made that drive,
which is it's beautiful and desolate all at the exact
same time. Right, You're like, if if I pulled off
the road and drove like five hundred yards in and died,
(04:25):
I'm not sure with the exception of following the birds,
I'm not sure where anyone would would find me. On
the other hand, um it's it's much prettier than driving
kind of the interstate. Um so, so Greely is close
to Fort Like, how far from Fort Collins? Is it
door to door? Like to you to get to downtown
Four Collins? Well, depending on yes, they kind of where
(04:46):
you're at. But from Greeley of Four Colins, if you're
looking to downtown to c S, you know you're looking
thirty minutes. Yeah, it's not bad. Four Collins really cool town.
I've never been to Greeley. What's it like. Greeley's actually
really grown. I Mean the thing about Colorado with the
growth is there's there's not a lot of room to
grow on the west side of Interstate five, and so
now everything's getting pushed out to the east. And Uh,
(05:10):
you know, one of the I think the fourth largest
oil reservoir in the country sits underneath really Colorado, and
so you've had a big, a big boom in the
oil and natural gas. And so it was a good
time in my four years being at un See and
having grown up in Colorado and Havant had been a
really many times for Bronco training camp back in the
day before they moved there, moved the operation down south. Uh,
(05:34):
it has changed a lot, and it has changed for
the better. Um, and it's allowed it to be a
pretty good job at the level of that you mentioned
growing up in Colorado. That's fascinating to me because there's
really like two basketball players during my era that I
remember from Colorado, right John's everybody knows Chauncey. And then
I play with Pat Garrity when I was in Notre Dame.
(05:54):
He's a dear friend of mine. What was what was
your basketball existence like growing up? Well, came up the
same year as Chauncey did. I can remember the uh,
the first time seeing Chahnpsy when you're playing club basketball
back on the day, which you know, you know back
then it didn't start. So you're about six or seventh grade.
Now it starts when you're four or five years old.
(06:15):
But when you saw Emergensty and Shahns for the first
time at Cherry Creek High School and we were about
to play UH Skyland Skyland Rex then, which was a
team that he played on, And when he walked into Jim,
You're like, so that guy is a sixth grader. You
just knew from right then and there that you know
he was just different and uh and obviously but the
best player that has ever come out and State at Colorado. Uh.
(06:37):
And then Jack Garry I remember playing at UH at CSUCU.
CSU was recruiting really hard back when he was kind
of junior. He kind of came on the scene a
little bit later. He wasn't really highly recruited up until
probably the end towards his junior year. And um, he's
a guy who you know saw at CSU, played against
a team camp and obviously a guy that went on
to have a great career Notre Dame and in the NBA. Okay,
(06:59):
so you went to Mason's State out of high school? Correct? Yeah,
I went to Mason State out of high school and
probably a lot like you'd be in a point guard
who thought he had all the answers and um, you know,
thought he knew everything about the game. Kind of get
humbled a little bit. Um. Had some run ins with
you know, coach Scottill at the time, and started as
(07:19):
a true freshman, but didn't make my way through the
entire season, and lo and Behold ended up at Western
State for Bob Hoffman, who who's had a two has
two course named after him in Colorado, one at the
University of Colorado at the Practice Center where he played,
and then at Fort Louis College, where he finished up
after he was done coaching me at Western. So I
was fortunate across paths with him because he was a
(07:40):
guy that for no offensive standpoint, Um, it was kind
of really ahead of the game. And he's a team
you know, his team's we always shot a lot of three's,
usually led the country and three point field goal attempts
at three point field goals made every season. And so
that's where I got my appreciation for the three point
shot that continues to this day. Yeah. So okay, so
(08:00):
when what Western State? How good were you guys? Uh,
we were good. Tough job. I mean, you don't have
in division two. You have Temple's scholarship, and I'm not
sure if we had five at that time. Actually, going
back to my freshman year, we played maybe one of
the best D two teams of all time. Fortey State
went undefeated back in nineteen ninety six for the Long
(08:23):
of Gold since Rick Sims sent him me. They had
some dude. I mean, I was back in the day
when D two had some real guys. That guy that
didn't qualify academically out of junior college. Um, and so
that was that was the best team to play against.
But we were good. Um. That was a good player,
kind of like you. I mean, let the league assist deals.
Wasn't a great shooter, um, but it was a good experience.
(08:45):
I love the fish, I love the outdoors. One of
the best places to be in the country if you
like to do those things. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Okay,
So you get done, and what was the what was
the decision like to go into coaching? Like was it
was there? Did you always wanted to be a coach?
Like what what? What? What made you want to be
a basketball Yeah? I mean I was basketball goal all
I've ever known and all I've ever done, and um,
(09:07):
you know, Coach Hoppin said, that's that's the direction need
to go. And for me, having grown up in North
Denver near Boulder, coach coach Hoppin put a phone call,
having been a former player, to Ricardo Paton at the time,
and basically Ricardo just let me kind of hop on
board and basically be a volunteer assistant. After I graduated,
I was back in two thousand, two thousand and one,
(09:29):
and uh, you know, I was able to kind of
live at home, but I got my foot in the door,
and then I shared offices with David Moe, who was
the son of Doug Mo, the former Dever Nuggets head coach,
and that later that year he actually got a Division
two jobs at Emporia State University, and so he decided, hey, man,
you're gonna come with me, and so I went with
(09:49):
him to uh Emporia State, and uh kind of started
the journey that way. Okay, So, so Doug Mo is
famous in basketball from from this is what I know
of him. The uh, the true passing game passing cut right,
no screening, passing cut. That's that the that's the Dug
Mo passing. When you guys went to Emporio's state. David Moe,
(10:11):
his son is that what you ran nip passing game.
Every every every practice start the same. We do three
on oh and then we do five on oh and
and the beauty of and And for me, uh, you know,
having been under him, you just saw it in such
a different way. I mean, his dad saw the game
in a different way. And I was actually fortunate because
kind of going back to my childhood. Um, I was
(10:33):
a ball boy for the Denver Nuggets for five years,
and so I had the opportunity, you know, to see
coach most teams play you know a lot of games
and then you have you know, the Paul west Head
era and then my last year was really year that
the Nuggets beat George carl and the Sonics of the
eight seed, and so um I gotta see it firsthand
and then to see him coach it, which you know,
(10:53):
there's you have to give. You have to have guys
who can understand how to play, because ultimately it's just
playing and hooping and reading acting. But passing game is
just whatever you want to make it to be. I mean,
your guy who wants to pass and cut, pass and cut,
your guy that wants to pass in the screen away,
pass the screen away. It's just a lot of just
I said, just motion, but more cutting than screening. And
so for me, it allowed me just to see the game.
(11:15):
And a lot of what I took with me later
on is especially when I went to Poise State and
Coach Rice put me in charge thee often, um, just
allowing guys to play, teaching guys how to play, because
as you get to a certain level, and now as
you're seeing in the NBA, it's easy to take away
set place. Um, it's eat especially late in the season.
But you know, if you can teach guys how to play,
how to play in space, which a lot of guys
(11:37):
talk about, but there's very few guys that can really
teach it, um. And so I was fortunate that I
had that that education with coach Mo and UM. And
then from there, UH kind of made the jump to
Midland Junior College where Grant mccaslan, who is now the
head coach in North Texas got the job and UH
asked me to come down there with him, and and
(11:58):
so at a young age, I mean it was probably
the time were seven took over Middle Junior College, which
is one of the top the top junior college jobs
in the country. I mean Spud Webb may mean back
in the day, Mookie Blaylock. I mean there was some real,
real dudes rolling around in the Whackjack and um what
it is a great junior college job and the six
thousand and Sea a random It's just everything over the
(12:20):
top of Grant And I was with him for two
years there and then knowing at the time it's kind
of with being with Coach Moe going back to Paris
State when he was an assistant, you know, and I've
been very fortunate to kind of be this kind of
Stanley that I kind of I've been, you know, linked
into with Coach Mo. Was when Coach MO was assistant
in Colorado, the guy that he ran with as when
he was an assistant was Mark s Keew, Leon Rice
(12:43):
pad Boyle, Mark Turgeon. And so I was able to
get into that group of guys. And then when that
when I went to Middland Junior College, Tad was close
to getting the job. Also, Randy Ray was close to
getting a Division one head job, and I just knew
by making that move to Midlands make me a lot
more attractive to VAM. Having recruited nationally. Haven't been at
the top junior college program having co inter nationals ties,
(13:05):
and so that allowed me to get that next job
that we were stayed with Randy Ray. Um, okay, so
give me, give me your best, give me your best. Uh,
Midland junior college story can be about recruiting a player,
a phone call at night, a run in, Like, it's
because I was watching have you watched Cheer? You watched
this in Netflix? Cheer? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've watched
(13:28):
and pieces yeah. Oh yeah, it's about Navarro Navarro Junior College,
which is also into And I was right, and I
was trying to explain to my family. I was like, look,
this is what all junior college sports are. Like they're like,
what do you mean. I was like, everybody's there for
a reason. Nobody really wants to be there for good,
you know, and you're just you're there to try and
get a scholarship to get the hell out of there, right,
(13:49):
Like that's really the and you know, you go to
these big ones to try and win a championship or whatever.
And I was like, you know, these while it seems
like these these crazy terrible back stories that these kids,
it's come from our unique like they are unique, but
it's kind of like go to go to the basketball side,
and I we started to watch the football the uh
what is the football version? Like why my blanking on
(14:10):
the name? Yeap, yes, it's a little too real for
my my family, like right between the language and whatever.
And I was like, just trust me. Anyway, My point
is I look, I I was, Uh, I gray shirted
at a junior college. I you know when when we
were Oaklaham State coach used to invite for junior college
(14:32):
into play. You know, uh, two days in a row,
we'd recruit those guys. When are Tyler was one of them,
west Ark was one of them, we'd have somebody from
Kansas come down and they would play. So anyway, I
need I need some junior college. Give me, give me,
give me the junior class from now there's where to start.
So um without mentioning names, Remember, we had to drive
(14:52):
from Midland to DFW Airport to pick up a kid
at Division one transfer kids. So that drive from Midland
the DFW about four or four and a half hours
and we're actually gonna pick up a couple of kids
and the first kid that comes in, UM be one transfer,
we had to wait a little bit, probably another hour
hour and a half before the other kid's flight came in.
So we're sitting around like, okay, let's go to the mall.
(15:15):
Let's go uh you know, let's going to Barnes and
Nobles kill some time, we can walk around do whatever.
Well as uh as I'm kind of walking in with them,
about to walk into Barnes and Nobles, the kid turns
and said, coach, you know, did uh did my coach
tell you that, you know, kind of sunlight some of
my problems? And I'm like, um no, and he's like, wow, yeah,
I got you know, I got some issues, bipolar issues.
(15:37):
This okay. He's like, I really need a smoke right now,
and I'm like smoke. He's like yeah, because I really
I'm like all right, man, like I just saw, I
just met me. They do what you gotta do? Go
you mean, go smoke a cigarette that dry, I mean
in the in the parking lot, do whatever you need
to do. I I called Grant. I called Grant up,
and Grants like I tell him and he's like, you know,
(15:57):
just that's just you know, a day in the life.
And Junior aug and luckily for Luckily for us at Midland,
because we were at the cream of the crop in
terms of junior colleges, we could kind of get a
little bit different guy. Um, but that was probably the
my introduction to junior college was, you know, the guy
having to go go get a smoke to calm his
nerves before we could go in the Barns and Nobles.
(16:21):
It's amazing. It's amazing that he did mean cigarettes, right.
I just want to make sure there's there's a there's
a there's a there's a there's a high major assistant coach.
I won't name his name. He's a very good player
in college and my first time I met him. Might
remember the Remember the NBA Summer League used to be
a long beach state and they'd also have these free
(16:42):
They also had the free agent teams, right, and uh
so I was playing with the Lakers, but my dad
had a free agent team, and so we had guys
me Miles Simon, I think Tony Gonzalez played with some
of our old day you guys we played together, and
then we'd have these other guys from around the country.
So I got to pick up one of these dudes
at the airport and he's really good player, and he's like, yo,
(17:02):
g what you know about some trees around here? And
I was like, um, trees, Like we got eucalyptus trees
like that are big in Orange County. It's from Australia's
And I started like going into the like I'm not
really a horticulturist, but I was like, you know, we've
got palm trees. Obviously there's different kinds. It's like no, no, no, no,
(17:22):
my man, I need some trees. And then he makes
it like the smoke thing. I was like, oh, yeah,
I don't know. I don't don't There wasn't there was no,
there was no trees. But no, it was just the
old fascist needed a figurette best player you had at Midlands. Well,
so we were, I mean back in you know, junior
(17:44):
college is definitely kind of change in terms of the
talent pool, especially with the prep schools that's come around,
but so we were. We lost Grant's first year as
the head coach, my first year's assistant. We lost in
the semifinals of the National Junior College Tournament HUD. We
lost on a tipping at the Buzzer to uh College
of Southern Idaho. We were up one and they jacked
(18:06):
up his three and the ball bounced just in the
right direction, and big dude, I think we ended up
going to usc Your Baylor big African kid tipped it
in at the buzzer. But uh, I mean our starting
five in Midland and our starting point guard, Timmy Crowell
went to the University of Cincinnati. Are starting to J D.
Lewis went in the University of Texas. Tristan Martin, who
was at the three, went in the University of Houston.
(18:26):
Uh Mamory Diallo, who played the five, force and actually
came off the bench, went to Gonzaga. Amania Colisson went
to Purdue, who played force at the four, and then
Ivrey Clark actually started force at the four, who went
on to play at Washington State for Tony Bennett, who
had a really good career at Washington States. The one
guy maybe that caused Brandon Roy the most problems of
his career defense, And you go back and look at
(18:47):
Brandon Roy's games against Washington State against Divary Clark, he
struggled mightily. And so we had some really really good
players and then I was fortunate enough to bring uh
two or three of those guys with me a Weabre
state where when we got the job, we were with
coach Ray and we were picked dead last and the
Big Sky by the media and the coaches brought in
(19:08):
ten new guys and uh actually ended up winning the
league that you're one of. The Big Sky won the
Big Sky Tournament and they ended up losing to u C.
L A in the first round the n s A
Tournament with Collins Santa follow Russell Westbick. I think it
was a freshman at the time, but you know what
have been Hound's really good teams. I think ended up
losing in the in the National Championship game or final four.
(19:28):
That was the team I think that came back and
beat Gonzaga, right, they were down bad to Gonzaga. Yep, yeah,
um okay. So here's here's a hard question. So when
Rick Ray, who you had known, gets the Weber job,
was it, Hey, I'm gonna I can only hire if
you bring dudes with you. Was it unspoken like how
(19:50):
did that actually work at the time. You know what's funny,
coach Coach Ray and I we go back a long
ways actually recruiting when he was an assistant C s U. Uh,
they had recruited me a little bit and then just
had a relationship with the kind of before because he
was one of those guys and he was just here
and everything he got and hearing it the right way.
He had a scratching clab. He was one of the
you know, if you ask guys around like who are
(20:10):
some of the better assistant in the country, Uh, you know,
his name would come up. I mean for what he
did for you know, for stud more at at that
c s U and then on the Utah State and
then to Utah for Ray Jack Coletti, and so we
always stayed in contact. You always wanted to make sure
that you know, I was you know the guys I thought,
we're gonna have a chance to become Division one head coaches. Uh,
and then we're gonna do it the right way. And
(20:31):
now he's relying with mine and his was definitely one
of them. But it was never it was never about
you know, players. But I knew too if if I
stayed in the poor of State that if Randy Ray
or Tad Boyle were to get a job that you know,
they're probably still gonna hire me. But now maybe it's
in that second or third spot where now I'm at
Midland and I got a couple of dudes, and I
know a couple of those dudes are then come with me,
and that makes it a little bit different. So, um,
(20:52):
it was never hey, you gotta bring guys. But you know,
it was funny because at the same time, Um, when
coach Ray got the job of Weaver, Tad was at
Wichita State. In Wichita State was making that run in
the n c A Tournament and Tad, you know, I
think he was he was looking at a couple of
jobs that were open at the time, U T s
A being one of them before Brooks Thompson got it
and then U n C, which Tad's from Greeley. And
(21:15):
I had to call Tad as he was actually walking
to shoot around for I think the Sweet six team
game in the m c I Center and washing d
C and say, list coach coach Ray just got the job.
Uh you know we were State, which for people who
know basketball, is a great basketball job. I mean it's
a place that has a lot of traditions, there's won
a lot of championships, has been a lot of ant terms.
Is like, I'm not sure what you're gonna do. But
(21:36):
at the same time, I can't turn this down. And
so that's how to make that phone call to Tad.
And then Lowe Behold made my way dog in Utah.
It's funny Tad so I first met Tad um So.
I sat out nineties six, nineties seven at Golden West College.
And I went to Golden West because my my high
school coach for my freshman year, UM Tom McClusky, was
(21:59):
the head coach going West. So I got to practice
for the team and then I would like coach, being
assistant coach during games and and not play to save
my year. So I visited Oregon and Darren Kayliss was
one assistant. He had he had been a AU coach
with team of VS. I've known him forever. Mark Turshan
was another assistant, and Tad Boyle, who Mark had pulled
(22:20):
out of like the financial world right to to be
a to be assistant coach like that was their staff
under Jerry Green High school coach. Exactly one first game,
my first game as a high school sophomore on varsity
was Tad's first game as a high school varsity basketball
coach at Long One High School. That's crazy that's crazy.
(22:41):
That's really interesting. It's it's it's a he's got a
fascinating I gotta get him on. He's got a fascinating
personal story as well. Obviously I haven't played at Ku
and everything. Um okay, so then how did how did
how did you decide to leave to go to Boise
and and we're feleon well so now, but it's got
a backtrack on my My claim to same is that
you know, my after our first year, we had a
(23:02):
great year weaver you know, now a lonvill hole I
go and Coach Ray was very good friends with the
and a you coach in Oakland named Raymond Young who
ran the Oakland Rebels. So for guys that know, I
mean there's the Oakland Soldiers, which is a big night
Yeau team, and then you know the Oakland Rebels were
kind of just you know the hodge Pods group that
um just kind of we went and played in random
(23:22):
local terms where Coach Ray to staff, you know, that's
the really good relationship Rayan, He's like, hey, you can
come out with one of these, you know, one of
my guards. And so go out during the spring period
in April, and uh, I forget where it was I
think it was actually got Houston at the Kingwood when
I used to be the Kingwood down there, and so
there's this, you know, there's so there's this guard. You know,
I'm in his back gym. There's this. There's guards probably
(23:45):
about five and eleven a time, about hundred fifty five pounds,
but had freakish long arms. And you could just tell
me he could he could pass, handle and shoot and
and lo and behold, I see Damian Lillard and so
basically come back and it's time. Nobody knew who Damian
Lillard was. Hed Get actually a transferred high schools from St.
Joe's to Oakland High after his sophomore year, and was
(24:09):
wasn't on anybody's radar, but I just saw something in
him and row and behold. We decided to offer him.
And so we were the first school to offer Lillard
after the spring period. And he didn't blow up until
probably the last game of July in Vegas, going you know,
summer of his senior year, where he was playing against E. B.
O who had like Luke Babbitt armand Johnson um a
(24:31):
bunch of dude. I'm not sure if de Sean Stevens
was on that team or not. But he basically goes
like forty eight in front of every coach in the
Western United States, and I'm like, God, yeah, man, you're
sitting there just like, uh, this is all all, all
this work is for not but which carries onto this day.
He is such a unique person in a unique player.
(24:51):
And what he is, he's he's as loyal as loyal
can be. And what he could also do is he
could sniff out bs like he knew guys, guys who
told him what he wanted to hear, he just would
basically cut you off. And I was kind of one
guy for whatever reason, maybe it was smart or maybe
not smart, as like, hey, we're not gonna promise you anything.
He's just gonna promise an opportunity. And he had seen
what his older brother had gone through when he went
(25:14):
to junior college for football and didn't play right away,
and he saw how miserable he was. So he knew
he wanted to be someplace where he knew he could
maybe come in and play right away, and he wanted
to be around the right people. He wanted to get
out of Oakland and and so we Brave basically he
visited St. Mary's Um and then he visited us, and
then we got him. We got him committed. And if
(25:36):
you would ever told me that he would have turned
into the player that he turned into. Now, I thought
he was, you know, when you were crazy, I thought
he'd be a really really good player, a big skuy
type player of the year as this sophomore than the
guy that played overseas. But I mean, now he's turned
himself into one of the ten best players in the world. Yeah,
it's funny. A lot of people might Greg. Obviously, my
brother was a cow and Greg's like he was a
two guard, you know, he's a five eleven two guard
(25:59):
and you know, like we just the big schools had
trouble seeing him, like can you play at that size?
At the two in in the Pack twelve? And it's interesting.
I think a lot of these guys they do outthink themselves,
you know, Kawhi Leonard. Why didn't anybody in the Pack
twelve off from a scholarship like, Wow, he's a big
guy who's five four and kind of like, who cares?
The guy could really really play? Um. Whereas when you're
(26:22):
when you're at we were, you just go and if
you can play, you know, you don't necessarily maybe you
don't carry the same um. Well you have you have
to check a couple of boxes in order to play
for us. Is that is that fair? No? No, that's
that's definitely fair. But I think he was a guy
that we knew um and that's and that's kind of
how I got to where I got to because it
just I think that's what helps you too as a coach,
(26:44):
when you've had to coach at different levels to where
you could kind of understand and you have to kind
of see some things that other guys don't. So for me,
haven't been a Division two, haven't been ejinior college and
and then having to go you know, go to Weaber
State and you see different levels and you see, okay,
who can you know? Who you recruit? Who can't you
recruit because so many guys, so many assistant coaches, they
just waste time recruiting guys that they can't get and
(27:06):
so then they missed on the guys that they should
be recruiting. And then you got to bail to see
you know, the forest through the trees and maybe see
that like Damien, he didn't turn eighteen until July after
he graduated from high school. Same thing when I recruited
Chandler Hutches in the Boise State. He was a guy
that when he was playing at the junior in high school,
he was six ft three. He was playing JV the
(27:27):
first semester of his high junior year of high school
and then lo and behold. By the time he's a
senior in high school, he goes from a JV player
in a year's time, he goes to six seven, six eighties,
the top one D player in the country. And you know,
you just gotta you know some of those things that
some of other guys can't see or some of the
bigger schools, you know, when you're in the pack twelve
not you can't. You can't roll the dice on that
(27:48):
unless you're really confident in your ability to see things.
And there's a lot of assistant coaches that just don't
have that. Okay, so you're you're at Now you're at well,
I actually I go to So funny story is so
Rex Walters, you know formergo's yeah, yes, so he you know,
so me and him get really close because he ends
(28:09):
up after he's done playing in the NBA and then
he kind of made a stop overseas and then made
his way to uh UM playing in like the USBL.
I think because he played for Kevin Pritchard in Kansas
City and a b A and so he was living
in South Kansas City, he was living in Olasa, and
so he decides, you know, after he's done playing, I
want to get into coaching. And so he basically becomes
(28:30):
our grad system at Emporious State and so me and
him for four or five four or five months, I
mean just spend every day with each other, get really
really close. Um he never got to never got to
the Seisling because then um coach Drew. I think that's
when Scott got the Baylor job, and so Bryce so
Homer had a spot opening his staff and so uh
(28:52):
Rex left kind of like in September to go to Valpo.
And so while was at Weaver, so he goes from
So Rex goes from Valpo of Florida Atlantic, where ends
up working through Matt Doherty. Matt Dohorty gets you know
the job there, turns it around two years, gets you
some huge job. Now Rex becomes the coach of flori Atlantic.
So Rex and I being as close I was, hey,
I want you to come to be my associate coach,
I mean, be my right hand guy. Let's go. I'm like, well,
(29:15):
I just you know, we just signed Lillard and but
Rex is my guys, let's go. So wife and I
were down in Boca rat Owned about to buy a house.
The market was crazy at that time. It's Wednesday. Um,
next day, we're gonna put an offer on the house.
A long Behold. The Search from running the Search for
San Francisco calls and says, hey, listen, wants to fly in. Rex,
(29:35):
being from santurs Day originally is like, come interests. I'm like, Rex,
I just played San Francisco twice that year. It's an
absolute train wreck. It's the worst job in the country. Um.
And that's when your former coach was came in there
for a few games and just I mean it was
just a tough, tough job. And so but Rex goes
in decides to take the job Lo and Behold. I'm like,
oh man, I mean I just went went from Boca
(29:56):
rat Own to San Francisco. And now coach Ray walks in.
He's like, hey, you don't have to go because Lo
and Behole. Lillard had just called at seven o'clock in
the morning. We had never called. Coach Rays like, is
it true that coach Linder's going to San Francisco and
being a Bayerry guy. I've been across the bridge at Oakland.
Coach Rays like, and you make my life a lot
of easier of you stay. And I'm like, don't worry.
You're talking about the one guy in the world that
(30:16):
won't leave in Lillards. So uh so make my way
to USF and started that. That process helped Rex turn
that around. And then lo and behold, Uh, you realize
quickly those WCC jobs are really really hard. Uh, when
you're playing for third or fourth place every year and
you're playing to play in the c I to the
c d I because Gonzaga is Gonzaga. All those presidents
(30:37):
A d s they want to compete with Gonzaga. They
don't realize they're twenty years behind Gonzaga. And I just
knew after we finished in third place my second year there,
I was like, man, this is just it just is tough.
And so Leon gets the job at Boisey State, UM,
and I decide, hey, I'm probably taking a step back
because I was the associated coach of San Francisco Dave Woji,
(30:58):
who ends up being the head coach of San Jose State.
Leon brings him in as the associate coach. So now
I take a step back in terms of pay entitled,
but I just knew in the end it could be
a much better job, especially with boys moving into the
Mountain West. And then that's when we start the Boise
State journey. Um, what so Leon gives you the offensive
coordinator role? What was that like? He said, So, yeah,
(31:22):
the way Leon is is very unique in terms how
he handles. And Leon is a basically an NFL head coach,
the CEO. Mean, he he knows what he's good at,
he knows what he's not good at, and he has
no issues delegating everything and giving you total Tommy like,
And we're sitting there is I'm I'm the offensive coordinator.
We're sitting there playing Dayton in the in the m
(31:42):
State Tournament against day at Dayton and you know we
got time out. I was there, by the way, Yeah
you were there. And it's say, I'm the one sitting
there drawn up to play and he just sits there
and he doesn't say he doesn't bad and eye and
so we knew when we got the job, UM and
we had a transition year where we're gonna have one
year in the whack, and then we were making the
(32:04):
move to the Mountain West, you know, and I know
how good the Mountain West was back and then UM
and we knew that we couldn't get better athletes than
San Diego State un l V, New Mexico. And so
our thing was, we can't beat him the air. We're
gonna have to beat these dudes on the ground. And
so that's where we recruited guys one through five that
could pass down the street because knew if boys do,
(32:25):
we could recruit good guards. It's a lot easier recruit
good guards than it is to find the six ten
and six eleven guys. That's the pro that's protecting the
rim and you know, the Alex Kirks of the world
and the guys that those guys had at that time
un l V. And so that's why we recruited Nick Duncan.
That's why we recruited James Webbing. So now are fours
and five are bringing your guys away from the basket.
Now we've got a guy in Derek Marks, who's the
(32:46):
best guard in the league. Now he's you know, beat there.
We could create switches, create mismatches. Now we created space.
And so that's from an offensive standpoint, how it kind
of things the ball I thought we were. We knew
that we couldn't we couldn't beat him with Vaska less
and we had it being with skills. So that from
I really a two thousand and ten eleven really started
diving into Europe, really watching a lot of European basketball,
(33:06):
not just watching the EuroLeague, but you know, talking to
European guys, some of the guys in the NBA that
we're from Europe, and say, hey, give me some of
the teams that you know, because Barcelona, Real, Madrid, you know, Fenderbos,
I mean, those those guys have the best, the best.
Now let me find the guys that are gonna kind
of be like us who don't have the best players.
But from a syschematic standpoint, are you know, ahead of
the game. And so everything we started doing was coming
(33:29):
from Europe and then lo and behold, now you know
the Spurs win the championship in fourteen fifteen, and then
it just catches fire. Well, we were always three or
four years ahead of trying to teach that system. And
so that's kind of how evold offensively, that's what made
us really hard to guard and um, something that carried
you with me to U n See and now to Wyoming. Okay,
let's let's get to the UNC job. Obviously Tad had
(33:51):
taken it from a you know, no one ever talked
about Northern Colorado. Uh, you guys were able to be
one of the premier programs in the Big Sky Conference.
How did you how did you come about you you're
at Boise. How did you get the job? Well, I
mean it's May, which you know, I mean that's usually
a month month behind everything else. In the previous coach
(34:12):
that was Tad's former assistant. Um, you know, got in
some trouble with the n C A A and a
lot of trouble. And so now I'm looking at a situation,
well you know, here, stay here, boys, or at some
point I'm gonna have to roll the dice. And I
knew the job, I knew the league. Haven't grown up
in the area, haven't been at Weaber States, like you know,
it's a place where you can win at because you know,
and I know there's three hundred fifty three Division one
(34:32):
jobs or how many there are now, and there's a
lot of them where John Wooden couldn't win at, and
they're just bad jobs. And I thought that, uh um,
it was a job that you could win at. And
even though I knew that I was gonna walk into
a situation we were probably gonna be getting the postseason ban,
even maybe two postseason banned ross of scholarships. And so
you know, for the four years I was there, this
last season, the first time we had thirteen full of scholarships.
(34:53):
We were at nine scholarships year one, we were at
ten year two, and then we were eleven in a
year three. But what I did was I was fortunate
enough to hire a really good staff, and then we
just never really made any excuses about our situation. We
had a postseason banned the first year, US fortunate and
hired a really good guard. The previous staff were recruited
in Jordan Davis, who end up becoming the Big Skuy
player of the year. I read shirted two seniors that
(35:15):
first year, knowing that they were going to play in
the postseason. Added Andrea Spite, who ended upsetting the Big
Sky single season all time scoring record with nine hundreds
fifty some points in the seasons who came from Arizona State,
and so just built it that way. Um made a
lot of threes, and then defensively we decided, you know what,
we're not gonna let teams make threes. And we've been
(35:37):
number one in the country the last three years and
not letting teams attempt threes. I think sometimes people get
fooled when they want to look at three points still
goal percentages, whether you're not you're a good defensive team
or not. Well, I mean, if you're making two three
a game and on four attempts and you're shooting fifty percent,
I don't care if you shoot fix percent, because now
you just made two threes, you just scored six points.
We make ten or eleven threes, we're gonna put a
(35:58):
lot of pressure on you to beat us of twos.
And so that's kind of how the system evolved offensively
to defensively to where you know a lot of the
same things will do here, Why don't Okay, So so
let's let's let's get to those threes. Okay. So I mean,
is that just but so many other teams are just
loading up on the basketball, right, They're just that's really
the style making you making you throw skip passes, uh, putting.
(36:21):
You know, some guys call it three on the ball
or whatever. How does your defense work work that you
take away so many threes? You know, it's uh, you
know for us and and and no, and it would
be a little bit different, probably a few adjustments, you know,
kind of coming up a level. But we also put
a lot of Mountain West teams and bigger schools and
the U n c UM but especially the Big Sky
(36:42):
that we just feel like there was guys that could
beat you at the rim with two um. You know,
you've seen them, You've seen as much basketball as anyone,
and there's not a lot of guys that are even
at the power five levels that are great finishers at
the rim. And so for US, UM it was okay,
in our league, we knew there would be a lot
more guys that could shoot uh. And so then okay,
let's take that away. And then as we kept going
(37:04):
into it, Okay, now we're gonna be really good at
not fouling. So not just the fact that okay we're
not letting you shoot threes, we'll also not let you
get in one. So I mean we work diligently at
not foiling and walling up and and understanding where our
rotation is gonna come from in terms of at the
rim when we wall and crack on guys and then
we're gonna limit shoot the one shot. I mean that
habits that you know that we built from a defensive
(37:26):
reboant bounty standpoint, where we've been top twenty five in
the country the last four years. Uh, in defensive remounting percentage.
We're going gonna give you one shot, and so we
put a lot of pressure on you over the course
of the game, uh to try to make you know,
try to make layups at the rim. Four. What you
do is you forced a lot of dumb teams into
shooting non paint two's pull up twos, which just allows
us to get out and run and go okay. So
(37:51):
so now, um the wyoming job. I mean, I mean
everybody in the kind of the area knew that Allen
was in trouble. I mean I I saw him in
the year. I knew the contract situation. I was like
this this, and it's a it's a tough league because
even though the top of the league is not what
it was back when you were at Boisse, right when
New Mexico was rolling, Vegas was pumping out one and
(38:12):
Dunes and San Diego State was a top ten team.
Sandy States back bears to be back for a while.
I think New Mexico is getting close. Um. I think
UNLV is much more stable now than it's been and
maybe the last five years. And we'll see what t
J does. In year two. You toss State, you know,
I don't know what happens with that run, you know,
losing your best player and probably losing thema Cada. But
(38:33):
they've gone from a team that that couldn't compete, you know,
stepping up from the Big West, to one that won
the Mountain West the year before and then won the
conference tournament. Obviously this year the league in the middle
is really good. I mean now Colorado State I think
is really well coached. Boise is really well coached. And
you're starting to get Once you get continuity with those coaches,
you start to the teams on the front range are good. Man,
(38:53):
so um taking over the wyoming job, Like, what take
me through the where are you in the process. I
know you've hired two of your sister in so far. Well,
my third one was hired today, Sundance Sundance Wicks, who
was the head coach at Missouri Western State College, done
a true fantastic job there. I mean, after I guess
probably coach Musselman, he might be the second most famous
(39:13):
college coach on Twitter. But a guy that's you know,
really good was from Wyoming. Um, a guy that's gonna
bring you know, a lot of juice, a lot of
energy to the program. But for me, it was, you know,
we had played him three times and we had beaten
the last three years here in Wyoming. Uh. It's a
job where I felt like I didn't have to change
anything that I did at you and see, uh, in
(39:36):
terms of recruiting, in terms of anything, just because I
knew now that we're gonna be recruiting to a better
conference with better facilities, better resources, which ultimately is gonna
equal better players. I mean, our final ranking this year
in Ken Palm was seventy fifth in the country, or
our net was you know, like ninety nine. Uh, And
so we were doing the right things. I just think
that there's just some of those other things that you
(39:57):
know from visit it up here. Uh. Mom was a
tough job. It's a tough job because you're you're geographically
there's there's not a lot of players around you. But
if you can get them to campus, our facilities, not
just the the arena, the weight room at in the arena,
locker room, but just the student athlete, the cafeteria, the
training table, all the other things in the facilities are
(40:18):
a top three job in the Mountain West. Uh. And
I really, I really believe that. So if you can
get guys here, which is which is the hard part,
you know, get them here to see it, then you
can get them. And then you're gonna get get guys
for the right reason. And if you've got guys who
who really want to get better, uh, they're gonna be
able to get better. And that's I think that's the
thing that excited me. And then you add it's one
(40:41):
of the few jobs in the country where people still
really care about the university. They care because nowadays the TV,
watching games on the phone, watching games on on the internet. Uh,
that just there's not as many people come to the games.
But you know, I remember when we were playing against
Larry Nance, Josh Adams and Larry Shytt and those guys.
Back when we're at Boisey, I mean, this place was
(41:02):
rocking and rolling. So now you get the passion and
pride that existing. Why don't because you are the one state,
you know, the only team in the state. Now you
get the people behind you, and I think that's just
such a unique situation that allows you to create a
job that could be even that much better than what
it is. Are you gonna do some of that stuff
that Leon does, like walking across the river, you're gonna
(41:24):
like you're gonna get anna out. Yeah, I'm not sure
if I'm gonna give them. I'm not sure if I'm
gonna get on back as a horse, you know, and
and and do the bucking Bronco or or across the
Boise River like Leon did. But uh, I'm sure there'll
be a few things out there. But I just think
it's it's for me. It's the right job, it's the
right sit um. You have to build it like you
(41:44):
did at Boisey, which is, you know, you have to
go out and find some different guys that other guys
maybe bus lines. You have to go fishing different ponds.
You can't you can't fish. There's no pond in your backyards.
You've gotta go in some different ponds. But my assistants
will know what exactly what they're looking for. They know
not to bring anybody to the table that can't shoot. Um,
and then we'll just kind of developed it and build
it from here, because I do think we we we
inherited a core group of guys as we saw and
(42:07):
made a run the Mountain West tournament. Um, that can
compete and help you win games. Just now we've got
to add a few more guys after those guys. Yeah,
it's interesting point. And you can't shoot, it's the it's
become the number one skill. And I would say, I
would say shooting and then and then passing even more
than dribbling. Right, Um, Like you know that the passing
(42:28):
skill is is a hard one. If you don't have it,
it's really really hard to kind of develop it at
this stage. And then defensively, it really is more about
toughness and buying than is necessarily about pure athletic ability, right.
I mean, like, if you can shoot, and you're and
you're tough, and you've got good habits and you can pass,
(42:48):
like we can we can find it. We can find
a way to hide your weaknesses. Yeah, there's no question,
and that's what we that's what we did at you
and see. And there's a lot of times when we'd
walk on that floor and the other team would look down,
are like, these guys, really, this is the team that's
won twenty games. Uh, you know, you go to West
Virginia where we did this year, the guys colver and
those guys are probably looking down. Coaches tell us, we've
(43:09):
gotta be worried about these guys. Well, then low and behold.
Now you're in a dogfight because guess what. All these
guys they can pass, handling, shoot, And these guys from
a defensive standpoint, they know the game plan and over
the course of you know, seventy to seventy five defensive
possessions in the game, they're not going to break down
and make mistakes. And when you when when you have
those type of guys that that really do have a
(43:31):
steel for the game and understanding the game. Um, I
just think there's there's a lot of stupid in college basketball,
and you can't exploit stupid. And and that's what we're
gonna try to do, is is men my stupid and
and make sure that Uh, you know, we just don't
beat ourselves because a lot of teams, if you let them,
they'll beat themselves. I I agree. All right here, here's
a lot to do, real quick to to to sum up, Um,
(43:52):
give me one thing that either funny story or interesting
thing about the coaches that you've coached under Ricardo Patton.
Give me give me something, because here's what I know
about Ricardo Patton. Everybody liked the guy. I was told
he was a black belt and like a scratch golfer, right,
so great, so great story coach pats so being a
(44:16):
great golf just true black belt golfer. So especially when
I was younger and the four or four kids, I
mean each kid probably added two strokes to my handicap.
But I was close to scratch golfer coming out of college.
And so in the summertime, we went out the Border
Country Club, coach Mo Ricardo, myself, Lonnie Lonnie Porter, longtime
coach at Regious University. I was best friends at the cards.
(44:36):
We went out and played and uh, you know I
kicked Ricardo's ask that day and uh he comes in,
you know the next day he's like, we're plying. I'm like,
what I mean, I'm I'm the peon, I mean on
the staff. He's like, get your clubs. We're going back
out playing, and I'm like, oh boys, this is not good. So,
I mean, he was so competitive and he was so
mad that I beat him that day that you know,
(44:58):
he just couldn't sleep. And so now Lomba and I
gotta go back there and coach Moe, we're we're on
the eighteenth hole and we're in this match, and he's like,
I got this put I got a birdie put to
to basically win the match. And he's like, you know,
I'm not gonna tell you to miss that putt, but
you might want to miss that putt. And lo and behold,
I missed it even though I was trying to make it.
But that was That was the one golf story with
(45:19):
with Ricardo Patton, who was a hell of a golfer
and gave you the best advice of any coach that
I had worked for when he had said at the
end of the day, I don't need tricky plays, I
just need tricky players. Yeah, yeah, I liked it. I
liked it. I've I've heard, I've heard I've heard a
different like there are No, I've heard that there are
no trick plays. I've heard that that that expression for
um uh, let's see here, give me something about Lee
(45:42):
David Mo. David Mo is a unique of of a
coach that there's out there and my guy coach Mo.
This was during the during the internet, you know, Texas
hold him gambling era, um, when it was at the
very beginning, and he would basically at his office, he'd
(46:02):
have a blank, blank you know what, you know, the
dry race board and the only thing would be on
it would be a number of either red or black
up on the right hand side of the corner, and
everybody would walk in the honesty like, there's nothing on
the board, what's what's that number? Well, that was where
he was at in terms of his his winnings or
what he's been losing playing Texas hold of online. It's amazing,
(46:24):
that's amazing. That's really he did. Literally he knows it
was it was. It was sharks and minnows. Okay, what
about what about wreck? Uh? No, grant grant uh. In
terms of just best friend, I mean, the best human
being you'll ever come in contact with. UM, just understands
people at the highest level. Um, you know, my friendship
(46:47):
with him is one that will last a lifetime and
just very fortunate to uh strip cross paths with him. Okay,
give me, uh let's go to Rex. Rex so for time.
So Rex gets done playing and I'm still fairly young.
We're an emporious state. So it's lunchtime. It was like, hey,
let's go down, you know, let's go down place and
(47:08):
one on one. You know, this is a guy that's
a eight year NBA bed, a hell of a player,
and h you were playing one on one, two or
three dribble limit. The first time we check up, you know,
he kind of brings the ball up up over his
head and I just pop him in the nose. And
then right then and there he's like, Okay, this guy's
not this guy's not scared me. He doesn't care that
I'm Rex Walters and stuff. From that point on, we
just you know, that's that's what probably you know, allowed
(47:30):
her friendship and in relation to grow so much, because
everybody's you know, but if everyone's scared of Rex, and
lo and behold, I was the one guy that wasn't
scared of him, which is probably way I liked you
so much. Uh uh, you just what you see is
what you get, and just the that just consists and
see every day, and just the toughness and the chip
on your shoulder mentality, but also to just how he
(47:54):
just how he relates to players and just gets the
best out of him. But he's a guy that UM
gave me my first opportunity Division one lines and UM
allowed me to you know, basically get to get a
foot in the door. And can't thank him enough. All Right,
now you're up in the front range. What is the
most like country thing? Because like, as much as you're
from Colorado, you're still, you know, a basketball guy. You're
(48:14):
still a suburb guy. You're not a country dude, right,
But Greeley's Greeley is kind of like right there boardline
between you're out in the sticks and being a bit
of a suburb. Now you're in Wyoming, Laramie. You know,
it's it's pickup trucks, it's boots, uh in engines. Give
me the most country thing that you've done as a
head coach you never thought you would ever do before.
(48:36):
That's a good question I happen to actually have to do.
Two men. Greeley is actually a vault where it's not
too country. Um can't. And that's that's a good question.
I did not not anything to country yet. I just
I love the outdoors. My my fishing partner is uh,
you know, former Gonzaga assistant Slash USD head coach now
Colorado assistant Billy Greer, and so um, I enjoyed the
(48:59):
summertime being Billy going up into the to the mountain
fly fishing. And I'm sure that Billy will be making
a lot more trips up to to Lawyer Me because
there's a lot of great a lot of great fishing
holes up in those neck of the woods, and so
I'm sure I'll see Billy a lot more up and
Lawyer Me. Um. Then I even do see him down
in Boulder. What's what's a reasonable expectation for you? Guys?
You have no idea and your roster obviously there's this
(49:20):
is such a weird time. We'll wrap on this. What's
a reasonable for you personally? What's reasonable to expect? Is it?
Is it wins and losses? Is it competitiveness? What's reasonable
for your first year? H No, that is you know,
the beauty of getting the job. There's there's no beauty
of getting the job during the coronavirus. But the one
thing that not having to do a real press conference
(49:42):
and and how that kind of takes up your time.
I just went up there last Tuesday, signed the contract
and did a little social media release and then what
I did was I just got in the car and
drove to see Hunter Thompson who lives in Cheyenne. Hunter
Maldonado is down in Colorado Springs, Kuan Marble and Kenny
Foster and went and really solved before guys and got
in front of them, uh, and knowing that what their
(50:03):
strengths and weaknesses are. Since I've played in the last
three years, I knew exactly who they were at and
hadn't and they had recruited some of those guys at
Northern Colorado and just basically just sell them the vision
on hey, listen and well then and Coach Edwards. I mean,
Alan Edwards is as good of a human beings you'll
find a college basketball and there's not one personal say
that thing about Alan Edwards. Um. I just try to
go in there and just say, listen, we're gonna maintain
(50:24):
the family like atmosphere that Allan created, but we're gonna
do some things different from an offense and defensive standpoint,
I think can really you know, help you guys. And
I'm you know, we're not We're not gonna lose. Uh.
And I do think with those four guys, and I
think with this virus being that there's a lot of
uncertainly here late, I think you can go out and
if you're you're in the right place at the right time,
you can steal some guys right now. From a recruiting standpoint,
(50:47):
and so we can add three or four guys to
that core group of guys. I'm expecting us to to
to win and compete in the Mountain West next year.
Awesome stuff. Congrats on the move. I know there's a
bunch of other stuff to get and uh, well that
maybe we'll have to do one of these shows while
fly fishing. I got learn how fly fish. In the meantime, Uh, enjoy,
enjoy whatever you're doing in terms of the move, because
(51:09):
it's the most you'll probably ever be involved with with
with the move. Well, you know, it was funny before
you called him. Between phone calls my four kids and
my four year old, she wanted me to, you know,
play Prince Eric while she was on an Elsa in
the lane of avalor so I just know this. Hopefully
we'll figure out a cure or vaccine here pretty soon,
(51:31):
because the whole you know what's gonna happen is there's
gonna be a bomb that figures out of back seat
here in the next probably to seventy two hours, so
that every momb right now in the country is absolutely
losing their minds and rightly so, no question about it.
And teachers there's tither. Teachers are not even have to
ask for a raise when they come come back in
all right, enjoy for the Frozen two exploits and playing
(51:53):
Eric I want video that. Congrats on the job and
thanks for joining me. Thanks Doug, I appreciate it. What
a great time. Com very interesting on how he's bounced around,
how he's got these jobs. Now he has a plan
for how to turn around winowing basketball. Alright, any of
your thoughts are comments, feel free to tweet me at
Gottlieb Show also on I g At Gottlieb Show. The
(52:14):
Doug Gotlip Show airs three to six eastern every day
on Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Radio dot com, the
I Heart Radio app. You can download the podcast of
that as well. We talked hoops, we talk all sports
as well. Twelve to three Pacific time, three to six Eastern. Anyway,
thanks so much for downloading. Hoped you subscribed, and don't
forget to rate us, review us, say something nice. I
think it helps me in my pocket in the meantime,
(52:37):
enjoy being uh trapped in your home but listening to
a ball
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