October 29, 2025 • 32 mins
Trying to rebuild a program? Then this is a must listen! Clancy has rebuilt two programs from the ground up to compete for championships. Culture and competition very important to the DNA of his coaching philosophy. Can Arizona take the next step and make the Elite 8? I think so!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, I bring toyou today episode number 18, and
I'm bringing you the head coach at Arizona, Clancy Shields.
Clancy welcome on. Thanks for having me on.
Clancy, how are we doing today? How's how's life down there in
sunny Arizona? Yeah, I was just thinking today
(00:23):
how great we have it and everyone else is starting to
hunker down for the winter and it's 82° and life is good out
here in Arizona. You can say that again.
I'm I still live in Knoxville and for the first time on one of
these episodes, I'm I'm wearing a a zip up here.
So it's starting to get chilly. Look, first of all, if you don't
(00:47):
know Clancy, I I think one thingthat I would like to say off the
bat is he's gone into two programs recently and completely
turned them around. The first program was at Utah
State as the head coach, the second program being Arizona.
I'm talking no wins to making school records, Sweet Sixteens,
(01:10):
winning conference championships, just just an
entrepreneur of college tennis is how I would like to describe
it. My simple question to you,
Clancy, or maybe not simple, buthow do you do it?
You've turned around two programs.
You've got them on the national scale, right?
You've you've got them to the NCAA tournament.
You are winning titles. How?
(01:34):
How have you turned those programs around?
I think a lot of people want to know that.
And I mean, First off, there's never any substitute for hard
work. And that's just, that's always,
you start there. That's number one.
And I think everybody in our program works incredibly hard.
And you know, I always meet withour seniors when they leave and
one of the things that they talkabout is how difficult it is to
(01:57):
be a part of the program, but how rewarding it is looking back
on their time here of all the things that they've
accomplished. So we kind of start there and
then, yeah, I just think being around competitive people, I
mean, we're going to compete in everything that we do.
Whether we, you know, we wake up, we're going to play beach
volleyball later today. We're going to get on the court
and we're going to compete. You know, we'll go on the road
trips and we're getting we're playing chess.
(02:18):
We're competing. I think think it we're going to
compete in everything that we do.
And I think that's important in your program because I don't
care what you're doing, try to be the very best at it that that
you can be. And I think we do kind of a
competitive matrix here. I, I stole this from North
Carolina coach Anson Durants andI was reading his book and I was
seeing how, you know, he, he structured his program and all,
(02:42):
the, all the competitive things that they did there to play.
And I said, OK, let's bring thatinto our programs.
And so, you know, from the second you, you walk on the
tennis court, we're keeping track of the score and we're
keeping track of the points and how you're doing.
And, you know, if you're doing and, and honestly, I never
designed it to be, Hey, this would be our lineup, but it's
almost every year it, it mirrorswhat your lineup should be.
(03:04):
And it's like your GPA is recorded, your community service
hours, your, how many teams of, you know, are you going to other
teams events, how many matches you're winning?
You know, we've kind of crafted it over the years to make it
more dialed in to, Hey, if you're getting ranked wins, it's
more points. But you know, I remember my
first year at Utah State, we crafted this up and the teams
were, you know, they were off playing UTR tournaments before
(03:26):
UTR tournaments existed. They were playing matches on
their own because they saw the value of kind of climbing in
this competitive matrix. And just wanted our our players
to want to compete all the time to get after it.
And you know, it's your boy Ben Moss used to say, you know, out
hustle out, work out, compete. And that was kind of a little
bit of our model here. Wow, But by the way, again,
(03:48):
these are great for people to listen to, but it's also I can't
tell you how enjoyable is for meas well.
Like what you just said there about everything is competing
and you know, you walk in the door like it's just I, I think
it's great to hear. Anyway, Arizona, you didn't win
a conference match for the firsttwo years, right?
(04:10):
I have the stats pulled up in front of me.
Like did you at times during those first two years, were you
like, wow, I mean, this is, you know, you maybe you're
questioning what you're doing. Did you ever look in the mirror
and say, look, this is this is, is this good?
Right? Like, am I going to fix this?
Like, how was it in that time where where you really struggled
before you really turned it around?
(04:32):
Yeah, I remember, I think lost 17.
We were on 19 to start my tenurehere in the PAC 12 and we were
playing at a Washington team andwe end up losing 4, three and a
match came down. I think we were up five, three
in the third. I remember one of the players
kind of in tears was like, oh, we're doing everything right.
Like you're doing, we're doing everything you're asking us to
do. And like, it's we're not winning
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matches. And yeah, I mean, deep down you
don't have the answers for that.Are we going to be able to turn
this around? But in your heart, you're like,
well, you know, you're recruiting, you're going to
recruit better and better each year.
And sometimes, I mean, coach Patton used to say this, you're
not going to win the Derby on the back of a donkey.
I, I don't want to say it in that way, but like you have to
have a certain level of talent to win.
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And so I feel like starting off here, there was a, a lower level
of talent, but we were making upthe gap, kind of putting the
foundation in place of, hey, thework ethic, the camaraderie
amongst the teams. And those are always some of my
favorite teams. I mean, some of the stories that
probably came out of for the first two years are absolute
comical. And maybe these guys for the
(05:36):
rest of their lives, 30-40 yearsare going to be talking about
our fitness test and some of thecrazy things that we did.
Board pushes. I mean, I didn't know what, you
know, I was 29 years old. They hired me and I was trying
to turn around a losing program and I would try anything that
worked. But I'll, I'll promise you
those, those teams are the toughest teams I've ever been
around. I mean, they, they went through
an absolute gauntlet of work, yeah.
(05:59):
This is great. This is great stuff.
And then a Utah State, you took over a team, you didn't have the
greatest record in the first year.
Then second year, I think I remember, I remember this
because my old teammate was yourassistant at the time, Ben
Mullis. You know, you beat BYU for the
first time. I think on the road you you get
the most wins in school history.Is that a same mentality?
(06:23):
Like you just think you're just constantly thinking of how you
can make the program as competitive as it can possibly
be in all areas. Is that right?
Yeah. Look, when I started off there,
we were Owen 50 versus BYU and Imean that was like Owen 50.
And then we beat them I think two or three times in a row.
(06:44):
And I think it was one of these type of things that's like we
would talk about, dude, I don't subscribe to this narrative that
like we're the bottom team. You know, I don't subscribe to
it at Utah State, even though wehave never been a good program.
And and I never subscribed to itwhen I came to Arizona.
Like we're in the PAC 12. Why why can't we beat Stanford?
Why can't we beat UFCUCLA? And you know, when you would dig
(07:06):
into the records and you'd see what we're 2 and 77 versus USC,
we're 2 and 80 versus UCLA. You know, and you, you just kind
of started thinking, well, I guess some people bought into
that. And they were like, well, we're
not supposed to beat these teams.
And I just felt like my whole life has been, you know, I grew
up in a small town in Colorado, no indoor courts.
(07:27):
We shoveled the snow off the courts to play.
We were never supposed to. My brother and I were never
supposed to be great tennis players, but we were tough.
And we never thought we couldn'tbeat the California kids or the
Florida kids. We just felt like any kind of
stuff on the court, you believe you're going to win.
And I see that a lot nowadays. Kids walk on the court and they
already think they're going to lose, you know, whether it's a
UTR or whether they're playing ajersey or some number something.
(07:51):
And it's like we just never subscribed to that.
And it took, as you said, it took us maybe 20 matches for the
team to fully believe that. But once we started gaining some
traction, I mean, I think our record over the California
schools is like 10 and two in the, you know, in the last, you
know, three years that we've played and, and before that it
was probably like 6 and 200. The best players that you've
(08:13):
coached, what characteristics dothey bring?
Obviously they're good tennis players, right?
They know how to play tennis. But there has to be other
elements that you've noticed as a coach, which separates them
and gets them to the next level.Yeah.
Well, I've been super blessed atColton Smith for four years and
now he's, you know, 1:30 in the world.
(08:34):
I think the thing for him, his frustration tolerance was unlike
anybody I've ever met. I mean, I've never had a player
come over and tell me to, you know, coach, it's going to be OK
life's going to be OK. Like it's OK that we lost a
match. I mean, he was just one of those
guys that always kind of kept things in perspective.
You know, he would lose a tough first set and I would go
overheated. Like I can't wait what he's
(08:55):
going to say to me. And he's just like, if the guy
can play this well for two, two sets straight, then it's just
too good. And I'm like, you know, I just
he would just put things in perspective.
He always thought about things really logically and, and not
emotionally. His frustration tolerance was
awesome. He also would, you know, we kind
of get wrapped up in this world like college tennis is our life.
And he would talk about, Hey, I need to go hunting for a week or
(09:18):
I'm going fishing on my day off on Monday.
And I'm just can't trying to keep this college tennis thing
in perspective that it's if I put them all my eggs into this
basket, I'm not going to perform.
And it started kind of, you know, now that I have a family
and different things, trying to trying to have a little more
balance. I thought he was really, really
good with that Jay Jay friend, obviously, who won't all
(09:39):
American this year. I mean, the the kid that just
absolutely loves just he has a big smile on his face.
He loves to compete. And those two guys were so
different because Colton was a little more professional, a
little bit more day-to-day. He took care of his discipline,
things he needed to do. And Jay is one of these type of
(10:01):
guys for, you know, probably didn't have a dynamic warm up,
didn't really do a lot of the things right, but nobody better
when it came to the big point. He always was going, taking his
swings, going for his shots. He never backed down from a
fight. And so, you know, we essentially
maybe we've had two of the better players in college tennis
the last two years and they're completely opposite.
And so I think in a lot of ways,one size doesn't fit all for the
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for the players that are going to be great.
And I and I think the coach has to realize that too.
You're going to coach each and all of the players on the team
different. And so for me, I've got 11 guys
on our team. I coach all 11 of them
differently. We manage them differently, the
way we talk to them and differently.
And I think that's what's so funabout this job.
It's not like you're carrying three or four players around.
(10:46):
You got 11 different chapters you're writing in each and every
day. And maybe you do an individual
at the 8:00 AM slot and then the9:00 AM slot rolls around and
you flip, flip the script because you got to start talking
to the kid the way they need to hear it.
You know, we've, we, we've had all, I mean, I had a kid,
Phillip Mobosik, like the toughest kid I ever, ever coach.
I remember going in and recruiting them and he told me,
(11:09):
yeah, I played a tournament on abroken hand.
And I was like, Yep, I want you.I I offered him right there.
And it was honestly, it was honestly one of those things
where he he was just a tough kid.
And the way you talk to him on the court was you just like help
him find the hate. You'd be like, are you really
going to lose to this guy? Or, you know, you're just
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constantly trying to push a button for him to like, find
that like deep, like hatred inside of himself to compete.
And he was unbelievable when youdid that.
And there's other players that you, you know, you, you just try
to push certain buttons. And you've been doing this a
long time. I mean, a lot of our job as a
coach is pushing buttons. And I talked to our players
like, hey, I'm going to push allof your buttons when you get
here. And I just need you to
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understand like, it's because I love you and I care about you
and I'm trying to pull somethinggreat out of you.
And once the players understand that you're not being an
asshole, you're just like, hey, I'm trying to extract something
out of you. The relationship changes.
And it's sometimes it takes a couple months for these new kids
when they show up to realize that, hey, you're trying to
just, you got their back. You love them.
You're, you're going to take care of them.
(12:11):
But I in order to extract the greatness you want out of them,
you're going to have to push a few buttons.
I love it. Well, again, Arizona, under
Clancy's leadership, won the last PAC 12 championship in.
They actually beat Stanford in the final there.
They won the first Big 12 they competed in, they've won five
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conference titles in the last four years and they've made 4
Sweet Sixteens in the last five years.
One thing that you you've spokento me about before is people
versus talent in maybe in your recruiting or what you're
looking for and and players thatjoin your program.
What exactly do you mean by that?
(12:56):
One of my favorite players all time in our program is Connor
Olson. We call him Corndog Olson.
And we actually have a a pictureof him with a quote he had a
couple years back and he was in the huddle and he said if you
don't want to work the doors right there.
And it's one of like the first things you see in our program,
like you walk in the door and it's like Connor Olson, if you
don't want to work the doors right there.
(13:17):
And he was one of these 3-4 starplayers came in tough kid from
Minnesota, But like the the amount of impact he had in our
program is maybe higher than anybody who stepped on the court
for our team because he allowed us to establish our foundation.
And and our kind of our saying here is culture wins.
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Well, we're probably not going to out recruit a lot of the
teams that we be. And you know, we're, we're, we
might not have the nicest facilities and we might not have
the most money and we might not have all all those things that
maybe people think about when they, they think about winning.
But what we do have is we have our culture and we have our
heart and the, and the team that's kind of bought into that.
And man, I'll tell you a story about Connor.
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I remember at a practice, I was telling the guys, Hey, guys, we
need to up the intensity next drill.
He's moving so fast that he, hisfeet slip out from under him.
He falls down, he breaks his wrist, and then, you know, we're
playing a match the next week and I'm like, Connor, you're
playing. And he's like, but I broke my
wrist and I was like, you can still hit that slice back hands,
right? Yeah, I got you, Coach.
(14:19):
He goes out there, he's playing the match and trying to run
around and hitting four hands like the one of the worst
sprained ankles I've ever seen. He's still playing the match.
And it's all guts, you know, andthe whole team's watching them
play. And you're thinking to yourself,
or at least you got to be thinking that some of the
players are like, why is this kid playing?
He's got a broken wrist. He sprained his ankle.
We're playing some throwaway match.
(14:40):
But it's in those moments that Ireally felt like our culture was
established. The building blocks in the
framework for this program are established.
And all of those guys have so much time for they're all on a
group chat with me and we probably talk every week because
the, the respect that we all have for each other and the work
that they put in is, is, is unbelievable.
I I call my Mount Rushmore players of of Arizona tennis.
(15:02):
It has nothing to do with how many wins you had here.
Well, this may be a good thing or a bad thing, and it also
doesn't, but you are revealing your secret to turning away,
turning around programs. And that is culture, that is
character, that is, that is the people that is in your program.
And I completely, completely agree.
(15:24):
So looking at recruiting, right,Are you looking for a specific
level? Like, yes, you want great
people, right? You want kids that will say
please and they'll say thank youcoach and they will, they will
work just do whatever and they'll work so hard and they'll
they'll lead the team and all that stuff.
But at the same time, is there acertain level you're looking
(15:44):
for? Yes, UTR maybe junior ranking
like has your has has your standards now that you are an
elite program as your standards in recruiting and gone up or
stayed the same. Yes, it's obviously gone up.
I also believe in this like whenyou come in the program, if the
(16:05):
current is super strong, it's sohard to come and fight the
current. Like you got, you come into a
program and you got 10 guys all all swim in the same direction.
The coaches and when the currentis so strong and a player comes
in and maybe they have, you know, things that need to get
better or fixed, you're not going to be able to fight
against the current very long when when your program and your
(16:26):
culture is in that certain way. And so we've relaxed some of the
things that we've looked at in recruiting of Hey, this kid, we
need this talent. Maybe there's some of these
things that we know that we're going to have to to fix.
But certainly, yes, I mean, we've had some top recruiting
classes in the past couple years.
Our talent level has gone up a little bit.
But certainly I think with each kid that we that we, that we
(16:49):
recruit, we kind of want to answer a couple questions.
Questions number one, do you love the game?
I mean, honestly, like if you love the game, you're going to
do incredibly well here, right? And you're going to find that
out really, really quick when you talk to them.
And then, hey, who's your favorite player?
You know, hey, what are you like, what's your favorite
tennis like memory #2 like finding people who are
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competitive. You know, we talk about it like
tell me, like tell me about a competitive moment in your life.
Like I want to hear about your competitive spirit.
And then then obviously like being coachable, like if you can
get better and there's some coaches I have so much respect
for in this game, I'm like, man,if that kid goes to that
program, they're going to get way better and they're going to
be elite. And there's some other players,
I'm like, if they go to that program, they'll probably be
(17:32):
average. But if you can be coachable,
then, you know, that's so important.
And then, you know, you're probably not here unless you
have a great work ethic, but certainly, you know what, trying
to answer some of those those basic questions, Hey, does this
kid kind of fit like our OK G like our kind of guy?
And if they do fit that, then they then we want him here.
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Certainly with everything changing in the last couple
years with NIL and everyone chasing money and everything,
like we haven't really played inthat space too much.
And that, and part of it is like, if you're motivated by
money, then I don't, I don't know if I don't know if these
other things that we talk about motivate you.
And ultimately, at the end of the day, if you know, I'm sure
Colton's gonna be doing just fine and, you know, making money
(18:15):
because he came in here and he worked his butt off and he
developed. And I think, I think Jay will be
doing the same thing. And it's like, hey, if you come
in here and you're good enough, money will follow you later in
your life. But if you're just chasing the
paycheck here, that stuff is that stuff.
It that it, that might be fleeting at any moment.
And then what are you left with?So we haven't built, we haven't
built our program on that foundation.
(18:36):
We built it on substance. And certainly, you know, maybe
they'll come back to bite us. But right now, you know, we've,
we've, we've had a few successful years strung
together. I don't know about anyone else
listening, but I'm starting to get fired up so I appreciate
that Clancy. Maybe I'll go for a run after
this. Clancy, you have made 4 sweet
(18:59):
sixteens, what is the next step?What is the difference?
Is there something that you think needs to flip in order to
to get on to the final site, Final Four championship and and
really go for the big ticket? What do you think?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, obviously Athens is the
(19:19):
final site. So that's, that's everything in
our program right now is talkingabout the Elite 8.
And how do we take one step further and create history
within our program. And I think for us this summer,
our coaching staff was like, let's look at every little thing
in our program. What are we doing well?
What are we not doing well? And let's focus on our process
and OK, we're doing this well, let's keep this, this is not so
(19:41):
good. Well, let's make that better.
And so I think we just had to take an inventory of everything
in our program. What is our process like on in
this space and how do we make itbetter?
And that was kind of our mentality.
And maybe it won't work, but at least, hey, we at the end of the
year, all of us coaches can say,hey, we, we, we plotted a course
of action and where we want to go.
(20:04):
We, we gave our very best at it.And at the end of the year, we
did everything that we could. But certainly we've looked at
some things and said, hey, we need to do these things better.
We're not doing this very well. And maybe this will be the
secret sauce that gets us over the top.
Everyone's really good. And if you look back in our last
four times in the Sweet 16, it'sprobably been 3 or 4 points has
(20:25):
been the difference. You know, on a four three loss
or a tough four two loss, I mean, you, you, you know this
when you get to the end of the year, the margins are so small.
And I think that's been nice to talk about in our locker room
when you know, somebody gives less than their best effort for
a few minutes in practice. And it well, that that may have
cost us going to the elite 8. And we tried to talk about the,
(20:45):
the little, the little gaps thatwe need to be great in.
And certainly I don't know if it's going to happen this year
and we got a lot of work to do, But I, I will promise you, hey,
our mission is to get beyond where we've been the last few
years. I think it's been fun in over
the last few years where people,we got to the Sweet 16 and
everyone thought, OK, Arizona tennis is going to go back to
being mediocre. And we've just had these
(21:07):
unbelievable guys in the locker room, like, screw that, we're
going to keep this thing going. And I think it's the same thing.
Like I challenge our guys with this, like, is this the year
where we fall off? Is this the group that, you
know, where, where we, where we fall back to being mediocre?
And, you know, over the last four or five years, the guys
been like, not on my watch, coach, you know, maybe the next
team not, not on my watch. And so I'm, I'm hoping there's
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that resiliency in our in our locker room of it's not
happening on my watch. Well, I'll say three things on
that, and the first thing is I'll never forget playing
against Virginia in the semis, and the biggest thing I remember
was how loose those guys were under pressure.
They were so free, they played so simple and you could see in
(21:51):
their eyes that they believed they were going to win these
massive points. That's something that I always
wondered, and I actually said toPedroso at the time that I don't
know how he installs that, that that belief in those biggest
moments. The second thing is double S,
obviously double S and the thirdthing that I think maybe
sometimes overlooked, and this is my next question for you, I
(22:13):
don't know, I'm not saying you've overlooked it at all.
I just I'm curious as to what itlooks like.
It's schedule. You obviously play in a great
conference. What's your mindset towards
scheduling outside of your conference?
Yeah, we're, we'll play anyone, any place, anytime.
Yeah, we want to play the, we want to play the best teams.
I mean, look our our home records like 86 and five in the
(22:34):
last five years. But our then I look at our Rd.
record and we win just as much on the road.
I mean, like our teams on the road are incredibly are, are
incredibly good. And so I just kind of feel like
this, like if you got the team who is competitive and they have
a play with the chip on their shoulder, they like going on the
road, they want to go on the road and, and, and ink out a
(22:56):
tough Rd. win. So we're, you know, we're trying
to put together as many Rd. matches as we can.
You know, IA couple years ago weplayed Ohio State in the Sweet
16 on their courts and it was the same thing.
They'd won like 200 matches in arow.
I swear that team, they didn't give two hoots about that.
They were like, we're going to go in here, we're going to beat
these guys. And I think that's something you
(23:16):
just you got to you got to instill that belief in them.
But certainly, yeah, we'll go anywhere at any place, anytime
and, and try to play a team that's going to help us, you
know, host, host for the NCAA Tournament and and and for the
lead 8. One thing in your career is
sorry for this, all the questions, Clancy, but I'm
actually thoroughly enjoying this is you've taken risk.
(23:38):
You've taken risk. You've gone from Boise to Utah
State to Arizona, both programs not doing well at the time,
right? What's your advice to young
coaches out there that are maybeassistant coaches that are
unsure or they're afraid to takethat jump to go maybe take a
lower job to then maybe move up?You know what I mean?
(24:00):
Like, what's your advice to those coaches who are
considering risk like you've done in your career?
Yeah, well, First off, I remember when I got offered the
job at Arizona, that AD told me I had an hour to decide.
You know, so life is just like this.
You know, you, you have an hour to decide.
I just bought a house in Utah. I was like planning to be there
(24:21):
forever. Life is just a has a funny way
of like throwing, throwing curveballs at you.
And I just think just be ready for whatever and trust your
instincts and go. And then, you know, when I got
the job here, look, I thought wewere going to, I thought we were
going to dominate that first year.
Like I just backed myself that much.
Like, Hey, we're like, I believein what I'm doing.
(24:42):
I believe in like our culture. I believe in, in who we are.
And like, you have to have kind of an unshakeable belief in what
you're doing. And the losses that we took,
dude, you're, you're Dang right.Like we took a loss to Stanford
a couple years ago. And I sat in my office till like
midnight just looking at the film.
And I was like, I was like, God,I'm way too psychotic for this.
But it was just one of those things where like, I hate
(25:03):
losing, you know, and it's like every coach, every coach knows
that. I mean, and it was one of those
like 4-3 Colton lost like a nailbiter to Machesh.
But I'm sitting in here like, and I, I remember writing this
note to myself. I was like, let's see if you can
coach now, you know, because like when you're winning, you're
like, everything's good. But like you take a loss, then
you like remind yourself, let's see if you can coach now, you
(25:24):
know, and like those kind of like pick me UPS of like when,
when stuff hits the fan, like are you just going to like, you
know, hang dog it a little bit or do you have any bounce back
ability? And and certainly I think our
teams always get a little nervous when we take a few a
loss or two because like it's just something in like, all
right, you take a loss and I think you'd understand this and
(25:46):
some other a handful of other coaches.
But once you take a loss, there's just something inside of
you. They're like, we're going to
enact change to the NTH degree because losing's no, isn't
tolerated here. And I think the team starts to
kind of get that, that mentalityand, and look, sometimes you
look at it, we lost this match because of this, this and this.
Sometimes we lost it because of the, the team played too well,
(26:08):
whatever. But I most times when you take a
loss, there's a there's something that we're going to
make the biggest adjustment, probably bigger than any other
team because we just don't tolerate that around here.
And I take that, I take that square on the chin like we take
a loss. Get ready.
Get ready for some fireworks. That's some that is great
advice. I'm getting even more fired up
(26:28):
Clancy as well. I have to ask you, you are
hosting APTT event here coming up.
You've done this a couple of years now.
You know you, you do this time of year as well.
Why? What's the benefit to you?
What's the benefit to your program?
What's the benefit to your players having this event on
campus? Yeah, well it was awesome last
year. It actually replaced our pre
(26:49):
season and you know, in the preseason you have these guys
playing what challenge matches and they're like you, you never
get that full intensity. Maybe that full fight.
I remember last year we had a itwas like it was 6 all in a set
and it was like 1413 and a breaker.
(27:09):
And these guys, they're just andit was our guys playing each
other and they were, they were going at it like it was the
Super Bowl. And I remember looking over to
our staff and I just said, there's just no way we could
have recreated this had it just been, you know, our pre season
because there's there's obviously a lineup spot maybe on
the line, there's money on the line.
(27:30):
There's you know, you it's, it's, you know, maybe there's
just a lot of things that are onthe line.
But just to see these kids fighting for it.
It was the last match of the day.
It was like 9:00 PM at night. It the day had run long and I
was like, there was no way that we could have possibly gotten
this competitiveness out of our group.
Have we not had this tournament?And so obviously we want to make
(27:51):
it a yearly thing, maybe more. But certainly, you know, the
more matches that you play, the better.
You know, I love the training aspects and the training blocks,
but there's nothing like walkingon the court and putting it on
the line and, and seeing how youmeasure up.
And hey, maybe you walk away from that tournament with five,
six matches in hand and, and youget them all in video and you
(28:11):
get to go back and watch it and say, hey, this is where I I did
well. This is what I didn't do well,
and this is what I got to work on.
Let's go. I love it.
What's it like working for Arizona being in the department
athletic department? You know, if if you ask someone
random about Arizona, they probably say basketball, right?
Just just that's the, the, the revenues for it and obviously
(28:34):
they've had tons of success, butwhat's it like being a part of
that athletic department? Is there anything you can share
maybe fans of the program that listen, they're like, wow,
that's really cool about about the department or so and so or
the AD or anything like that? Well, OK, I I'll start this
right now. Obviously I'm biased, but I go
to campuses kind of like I want to see every campus and I want
(28:55):
to see the energy. And we'll go on campuses and
it's like our team will be like,this place sucks.
And I and, and like we don't have, by all means, we don't
have the nicest facilities. I mean, we got good facilities.
But I'll tell you what, the energy on campus at the
University of Arizona, you just walk on it and people are happy,
You know, palm trees, good weather, people are smiling.
(29:17):
There's just an energy to it. And I've been to a lot of
campuses and there's very few that I can say, man, I walked on
that campus and I've been on ourcampus and this place competes
it, it, it certainly has that, that life force to it.
I think part of it's the weather.
I think part of it's the people,but like, it is a, it's a fun
place to go to school. There's a it's a very vibrant
campus. And then the athletic
department. I mean, I think the cool thing
(29:39):
here is all of our coaches are housed in this, you know, kind
of this building and we all collaborate.
My, I share a wall with our basketball coach who, you know,
I play pickleball with two or three times a week.
We, we ended up playing the Bryan brothers and the, and the
Jensen brothers in a, in a pickleball exhibition.
But that I think everybody here is invested in each other and
we're not off all off on our silos doing this.
(30:01):
I mean, I think that's importantbecause when you see him in the
hallways, like it'd be like you and I like you're trying to
disperse life and energy to eachother of like go kick some butt
today. Like, you know, and we're
watching and, and also the teamsthat are successful, everyone's
trying to one up each other. Who's gonna, who's gonna win the
conference? You know, who's gonna go, go win
a national championship? And I, I never had that at let's
(30:22):
say Boise State or, or Utah State until I walked into this
building. And then everyone, you know, you
got gold medalists, you know, lifting next to your team,
you've got elite coaches, you'vegot NBA draft players, you know,
they're going to be in the NBA. You know, you got, you know, our
football team finished eleven inthe country a couple years ago.
I mean, everywhere you look, there was kind of like it was
(30:42):
motivating to kind of feel that greatness.
And I think I, I, I genuinely think Arizona and I'm biased.
I'm, I'm going to say this is 1.It'd be one of now if I was a
1718 year old kid and I said I want to go to a place where I'm
going to feel good about my experience and have a
well-rounded experience athletically, academically,
socially. I think this place sells itself.
(31:05):
And on that, the last question to anyone listening, players out
there, you know, maybe players that you're targeting or the
future of the program, What's your, what's your final message
about this? I mean, I, I, I'm listening
today and I'm going, OK, I know exactly why this program is
turned around. But what's your, what's your
message to players that are listening?
(31:26):
Just just as a final goodbye, I shall say.
Yeah. I mean, simply, I mean, you come
to Arizona to win championships.Yeah.
I mean, you know, and if you don't want to, if you're not in
it to win it and to be the very best, this isn't the place for
you. But you know, as you and I are
looking, I'm looking at our fiveconference championships in the
last four years. And I'm thinking, you know, we
(31:47):
said that from day one that hey,this is the ultimate thing that
we're going to be winning championships here.
Well, if you want to come to Arizona, you know, you're coming
here to win championships. And that would be kind of be my
message for for anybody that's considering this place.
Well, I now I now see it. So Clancy, I really appreciate
your time. I've I've got some some big
(32:11):
goals for you and your and your team this year.
I think you guys are going to doa great job, but I appreciate
your time. Thank you for being a great
partner of UTR and all the best this season.
Thanks for having me on, appreciate it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I bring toyou today episode number 18, and
I'm bringing you the head coach at Arizona, Clancy Shields.
Clancy welcome on. Thanks for having me on.
Clancy, how are we doing today? How's how's life down there in
sunny Arizona? Yeah, I was just thinking today
(00:23):
how great we have it and everyone else is starting to
hunker down for the winter and it's 82° and life is good out
here in Arizona. You can say that again.
I'm I still live in Knoxville and for the first time on one of
these episodes, I'm I'm wearing a a zip up here.
So it's starting to get chilly. Look, first of all, if you don't
(00:47):
know Clancy, I I think one thingthat I would like to say off the
bat is he's gone into two programs recently and completely
turned them around. The first program was at Utah
State as the head coach, the second program being Arizona.
I'm talking no wins to making school records, Sweet Sixteens,
(01:10):
winning conference championships, just just an
entrepreneur of college tennis is how I would like to describe
it. My simple question to you,
Clancy, or maybe not simple, buthow do you do it?
You've turned around two programs.
You've got them on the national scale, right?
You've you've got them to the NCAA tournament.
You are winning titles. How?
(01:34):
How have you turned those programs around?
I think a lot of people want to know that.
And I mean, First off, there's never any substitute for hard
work. And that's just, that's always,
you start there. That's number one.
And I think everybody in our program works incredibly hard.
And you know, I always meet withour seniors when they leave and
one of the things that they talkabout is how difficult it is to
(01:57):
be a part of the program, but how rewarding it is looking back
on their time here of all the things that they've
accomplished. So we kind of start there and
then, yeah, I just think being around competitive people, I
mean, we're going to compete in everything that we do.
Whether we, you know, we wake up, we're going to play beach
volleyball later today. We're going to get on the court
and we're going to compete. You know, we'll go on the road
trips and we're getting we're playing chess.
(02:18):
We're competing. I think think it we're going to
compete in everything that we do.
And I think that's important in your program because I don't
care what you're doing, try to be the very best at it that that
you can be. And I think we do kind of a
competitive matrix here. I, I stole this from North
Carolina coach Anson Durants andI was reading his book and I was
seeing how, you know, he, he structured his program and all,
(02:42):
the, all the competitive things that they did there to play.
And I said, OK, let's bring thatinto our programs.
And so, you know, from the second you, you walk on the
tennis court, we're keeping track of the score and we're
keeping track of the points and how you're doing.
And, you know, if you're doing and, and honestly, I never
designed it to be, Hey, this would be our lineup, but it's
almost every year it, it mirrorswhat your lineup should be.
(03:04):
And it's like your GPA is recorded, your community service
hours, your, how many teams of, you know, are you going to other
teams events, how many matches you're winning?
You know, we've kind of crafted it over the years to make it
more dialed in to, Hey, if you're getting ranked wins, it's
more points. But you know, I remember my
first year at Utah State, we crafted this up and the teams
were, you know, they were off playing UTR tournaments before
(03:26):
UTR tournaments existed. They were playing matches on
their own because they saw the value of kind of climbing in
this competitive matrix. And just wanted our our players
to want to compete all the time to get after it.
And you know, it's your boy Ben Moss used to say, you know, out
hustle out, work out, compete. And that was kind of a little
bit of our model here. Wow, But by the way, again,
(03:48):
these are great for people to listen to, but it's also I can't
tell you how enjoyable is for meas well.
Like what you just said there about everything is competing
and you know, you walk in the door like it's just I, I think
it's great to hear. Anyway, Arizona, you didn't win
a conference match for the firsttwo years, right?
(04:10):
I have the stats pulled up in front of me.
Like did you at times during those first two years, were you
like, wow, I mean, this is, you know, you maybe you're
questioning what you're doing. Did you ever look in the mirror
and say, look, this is this is, is this good?
Right? Like, am I going to fix this?
Like, how was it in that time where where you really struggled
before you really turned it around?
(04:32):
Yeah, I remember, I think lost 17.
We were on 19 to start my tenurehere in the PAC 12 and we were
playing at a Washington team andwe end up losing 4, three and a
match came down. I think we were up five, three
in the third. I remember one of the players
kind of in tears was like, oh, we're doing everything right.
Like you're doing, we're doing everything you're asking us to
do. And like, it's we're not winning
(04:53):
matches. And yeah, I mean, deep down you
don't have the answers for that.Are we going to be able to turn
this around? But in your heart, you're like,
well, you know, you're recruiting, you're going to
recruit better and better each year.
And sometimes, I mean, coach Patton used to say this, you're
not going to win the Derby on the back of a donkey.
I, I don't want to say it in that way, but like you have to
have a certain level of talent to win.
(05:15):
And so I feel like starting off here, there was a, a lower level
of talent, but we were making upthe gap, kind of putting the
foundation in place of, hey, thework ethic, the camaraderie
amongst the teams. And those are always some of my
favorite teams. I mean, some of the stories that
probably came out of for the first two years are absolute
comical. And maybe these guys for the
(05:36):
rest of their lives, 30-40 yearsare going to be talking about
our fitness test and some of thecrazy things that we did.
Board pushes. I mean, I didn't know what, you
know, I was 29 years old. They hired me and I was trying
to turn around a losing program and I would try anything that
worked. But I'll, I'll promise you
those, those teams are the toughest teams I've ever been
around. I mean, they, they went through
an absolute gauntlet of work, yeah.
(05:59):
This is great. This is great stuff.
And then a Utah State, you took over a team, you didn't have the
greatest record in the first year.
Then second year, I think I remember, I remember this
because my old teammate was yourassistant at the time, Ben
Mullis. You know, you beat BYU for the
first time. I think on the road you you get
the most wins in school history.Is that a same mentality?
(06:23):
Like you just think you're just constantly thinking of how you
can make the program as competitive as it can possibly
be in all areas. Is that right?
Yeah. Look, when I started off there,
we were Owen 50 versus BYU and Imean that was like Owen 50.
And then we beat them I think two or three times in a row.
(06:44):
And I think it was one of these type of things that's like we
would talk about, dude, I don't subscribe to this narrative that
like we're the bottom team. You know, I don't subscribe to
it at Utah State, even though wehave never been a good program.
And and I never subscribed to itwhen I came to Arizona.
Like we're in the PAC 12. Why why can't we beat Stanford?
Why can't we beat UFCUCLA? And you know, when you would dig
(07:06):
into the records and you'd see what we're 2 and 77 versus USC,
we're 2 and 80 versus UCLA. You know, and you, you just kind
of started thinking, well, I guess some people bought into
that. And they were like, well, we're
not supposed to beat these teams.
And I just felt like my whole life has been, you know, I grew
up in a small town in Colorado, no indoor courts.
(07:27):
We shoveled the snow off the courts to play.
We were never supposed to. My brother and I were never
supposed to be great tennis players, but we were tough.
And we never thought we couldn'tbeat the California kids or the
Florida kids. We just felt like any kind of
stuff on the court, you believe you're going to win.
And I see that a lot nowadays. Kids walk on the court and they
already think they're going to lose, you know, whether it's a
UTR or whether they're playing ajersey or some number something.
(07:51):
And it's like we just never subscribed to that.
And it took, as you said, it took us maybe 20 matches for the
team to fully believe that. But once we started gaining some
traction, I mean, I think our record over the California
schools is like 10 and two in the, you know, in the last, you
know, three years that we've played and, and before that it
was probably like 6 and 200. The best players that you've
(08:13):
coached, what characteristics dothey bring?
Obviously they're good tennis players, right?
They know how to play tennis. But there has to be other
elements that you've noticed as a coach, which separates them
and gets them to the next level.Yeah.
Well, I've been super blessed atColton Smith for four years and
now he's, you know, 1:30 in the world.
(08:34):
I think the thing for him, his frustration tolerance was unlike
anybody I've ever met. I mean, I've never had a player
come over and tell me to, you know, coach, it's going to be OK
life's going to be OK. Like it's OK that we lost a
match. I mean, he was just one of those
guys that always kind of kept things in perspective.
You know, he would lose a tough first set and I would go
overheated. Like I can't wait what he's
(08:55):
going to say to me. And he's just like, if the guy
can play this well for two, two sets straight, then it's just
too good. And I'm like, you know, I just
he would just put things in perspective.
He always thought about things really logically and, and not
emotionally. His frustration tolerance was
awesome. He also would, you know, we kind
of get wrapped up in this world like college tennis is our life.
And he would talk about, Hey, I need to go hunting for a week or
(09:18):
I'm going fishing on my day off on Monday.
And I'm just can't trying to keep this college tennis thing
in perspective that it's if I put them all my eggs into this
basket, I'm not going to perform.
And it started kind of, you know, now that I have a family
and different things, trying to trying to have a little more
balance. I thought he was really, really
good with that Jay Jay friend, obviously, who won't all
(09:39):
American this year. I mean, the the kid that just
absolutely loves just he has a big smile on his face.
He loves to compete. And those two guys were so
different because Colton was a little more professional, a
little bit more day-to-day. He took care of his discipline,
things he needed to do. And Jay is one of these type of
(10:01):
guys for, you know, probably didn't have a dynamic warm up,
didn't really do a lot of the things right, but nobody better
when it came to the big point. He always was going, taking his
swings, going for his shots. He never backed down from a
fight. And so, you know, we essentially
maybe we've had two of the better players in college tennis
the last two years and they're completely opposite.
And so I think in a lot of ways,one size doesn't fit all for the
(10:26):
for the players that are going to be great.
And I and I think the coach has to realize that too.
You're going to coach each and all of the players on the team
different. And so for me, I've got 11 guys
on our team. I coach all 11 of them
differently. We manage them differently, the
way we talk to them and differently.
And I think that's what's so funabout this job.
It's not like you're carrying three or four players around.
(10:46):
You got 11 different chapters you're writing in each and every
day. And maybe you do an individual
at the 8:00 AM slot and then the9:00 AM slot rolls around and
you flip, flip the script because you got to start talking
to the kid the way they need to hear it.
You know, we've, we, we've had all, I mean, I had a kid,
Phillip Mobosik, like the toughest kid I ever, ever coach.
I remember going in and recruiting them and he told me,
(11:09):
yeah, I played a tournament on abroken hand.
And I was like, Yep, I want you.I I offered him right there.
And it was honestly, it was honestly one of those things
where he he was just a tough kid.
And the way you talk to him on the court was you just like help
him find the hate. You'd be like, are you really
going to lose to this guy? Or, you know, you're just
(11:29):
constantly trying to push a button for him to like, find
that like deep, like hatred inside of himself to compete.
And he was unbelievable when youdid that.
And there's other players that you, you know, you, you just try
to push certain buttons. And you've been doing this a
long time. I mean, a lot of our job as a
coach is pushing buttons. And I talked to our players
like, hey, I'm going to push allof your buttons when you get
here. And I just need you to
(11:50):
understand like, it's because I love you and I care about you
and I'm trying to pull somethinggreat out of you.
And once the players understand that you're not being an
asshole, you're just like, hey, I'm trying to extract something
out of you. The relationship changes.
And it's sometimes it takes a couple months for these new kids
when they show up to realize that, hey, you're trying to
just, you got their back. You love them.
You're, you're going to take care of them.
(12:11):
But I in order to extract the greatness you want out of them,
you're going to have to push a few buttons.
I love it. Well, again, Arizona, under
Clancy's leadership, won the last PAC 12 championship in.
They actually beat Stanford in the final there.
They won the first Big 12 they competed in, they've won five
(12:32):
conference titles in the last four years and they've made 4
Sweet Sixteens in the last five years.
One thing that you you've spokento me about before is people
versus talent in maybe in your recruiting or what you're
looking for and and players thatjoin your program.
What exactly do you mean by that?
(12:56):
One of my favorite players all time in our program is Connor
Olson. We call him Corndog Olson.
And we actually have a a pictureof him with a quote he had a
couple years back and he was in the huddle and he said if you
don't want to work the doors right there.
And it's one of like the first things you see in our program,
like you walk in the door and it's like Connor Olson, if you
don't want to work the doors right there.
(13:17):
And he was one of these 3-4 starplayers came in tough kid from
Minnesota, But like the the amount of impact he had in our
program is maybe higher than anybody who stepped on the court
for our team because he allowed us to establish our foundation.
And and our kind of our saying here is culture wins.
(13:37):
Well, we're probably not going to out recruit a lot of the
teams that we be. And you know, we're, we're, we
might not have the nicest facilities and we might not have
the most money and we might not have all all those things that
maybe people think about when they, they think about winning.
But what we do have is we have our culture and we have our
heart and the, and the team that's kind of bought into that.
And man, I'll tell you a story about Connor.
(13:58):
I remember at a practice, I was telling the guys, Hey, guys, we
need to up the intensity next drill.
He's moving so fast that he, hisfeet slip out from under him.
He falls down, he breaks his wrist, and then, you know, we're
playing a match the next week and I'm like, Connor, you're
playing. And he's like, but I broke my
wrist and I was like, you can still hit that slice back hands,
right? Yeah, I got you, Coach.
(14:19):
He goes out there, he's playing the match and trying to run
around and hitting four hands like the one of the worst
sprained ankles I've ever seen. He's still playing the match.
And it's all guts, you know, andthe whole team's watching them
play. And you're thinking to yourself,
or at least you got to be thinking that some of the
players are like, why is this kid playing?
He's got a broken wrist. He sprained his ankle.
We're playing some throwaway match.
(14:40):
But it's in those moments that Ireally felt like our culture was
established. The building blocks in the
framework for this program are established.
And all of those guys have so much time for they're all on a
group chat with me and we probably talk every week because
the, the respect that we all have for each other and the work
that they put in is, is, is unbelievable.
I I call my Mount Rushmore players of of Arizona tennis.
(15:02):
It has nothing to do with how many wins you had here.
Well, this may be a good thing or a bad thing, and it also
doesn't, but you are revealing your secret to turning away,
turning around programs. And that is culture, that is
character, that is, that is the people that is in your program.
And I completely, completely agree.
(15:24):
So looking at recruiting, right,Are you looking for a specific
level? Like, yes, you want great
people, right? You want kids that will say
please and they'll say thank youcoach and they will, they will
work just do whatever and they'll work so hard and they'll
they'll lead the team and all that stuff.
But at the same time, is there acertain level you're looking
(15:44):
for? Yes, UTR maybe junior ranking
like has your has has your standards now that you are an
elite program as your standards in recruiting and gone up or
stayed the same. Yes, it's obviously gone up.
I also believe in this like whenyou come in the program, if the
(16:05):
current is super strong, it's sohard to come and fight the
current. Like you got, you come into a
program and you got 10 guys all all swim in the same direction.
The coaches and when the currentis so strong and a player comes
in and maybe they have, you know, things that need to get
better or fixed, you're not going to be able to fight
against the current very long when when your program and your
(16:26):
culture is in that certain way. And so we've relaxed some of the
things that we've looked at in recruiting of Hey, this kid, we
need this talent. Maybe there's some of these
things that we know that we're going to have to to fix.
But certainly, yes, I mean, we've had some top recruiting
classes in the past couple years.
Our talent level has gone up a little bit.
But certainly I think with each kid that we that we, that we
(16:49):
recruit, we kind of want to answer a couple questions.
Questions number one, do you love the game?
I mean, honestly, like if you love the game, you're going to
do incredibly well here, right? And you're going to find that
out really, really quick when you talk to them.
And then, hey, who's your favorite player?
You know, hey, what are you like, what's your favorite
tennis like memory #2 like finding people who are
(17:10):
competitive. You know, we talk about it like
tell me, like tell me about a competitive moment in your life.
Like I want to hear about your competitive spirit.
And then then obviously like being coachable, like if you can
get better and there's some coaches I have so much respect
for in this game, I'm like, man,if that kid goes to that
program, they're going to get way better and they're going to
be elite. And there's some other players,
I'm like, if they go to that program, they'll probably be
(17:32):
average. But if you can be coachable,
then, you know, that's so important.
And then, you know, you're probably not here unless you
have a great work ethic, but certainly, you know what, trying
to answer some of those those basic questions, Hey, does this
kid kind of fit like our OK G like our kind of guy?
And if they do fit that, then they then we want him here.
(17:53):
Certainly with everything changing in the last couple
years with NIL and everyone chasing money and everything,
like we haven't really played inthat space too much.
And that, and part of it is like, if you're motivated by
money, then I don't, I don't know if I don't know if these
other things that we talk about motivate you.
And ultimately, at the end of the day, if you know, I'm sure
Colton's gonna be doing just fine and, you know, making money
(18:15):
because he came in here and he worked his butt off and he
developed. And I think, I think Jay will be
doing the same thing. And it's like, hey, if you come
in here and you're good enough, money will follow you later in
your life. But if you're just chasing the
paycheck here, that stuff is that stuff.
It that it, that might be fleeting at any moment.
And then what are you left with?So we haven't built, we haven't
built our program on that foundation.
(18:36):
We built it on substance. And certainly, you know, maybe
they'll come back to bite us. But right now, you know, we've,
we've, we've had a few successful years strung
together. I don't know about anyone else
listening, but I'm starting to get fired up so I appreciate
that Clancy. Maybe I'll go for a run after
this. Clancy, you have made 4 sweet
(18:59):
sixteens, what is the next step?What is the difference?
Is there something that you think needs to flip in order to
to get on to the final site, Final Four championship and and
really go for the big ticket? What do you think?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, obviously Athens is the
(19:19):
final site. So that's, that's everything in
our program right now is talkingabout the Elite 8.
And how do we take one step further and create history
within our program. And I think for us this summer,
our coaching staff was like, let's look at every little thing
in our program. What are we doing well?
What are we not doing well? And let's focus on our process
and OK, we're doing this well, let's keep this, this is not so
(19:41):
good. Well, let's make that better.
And so I think we just had to take an inventory of everything
in our program. What is our process like on in
this space and how do we make itbetter?
And that was kind of our mentality.
And maybe it won't work, but at least, hey, we at the end of the
year, all of us coaches can say,hey, we, we, we plotted a course
of action and where we want to go.
(20:04):
We, we gave our very best at it.And at the end of the year, we
did everything that we could. But certainly we've looked at
some things and said, hey, we need to do these things better.
We're not doing this very well. And maybe this will be the
secret sauce that gets us over the top.
Everyone's really good. And if you look back in our last
four times in the Sweet 16, it'sprobably been 3 or 4 points has
(20:25):
been the difference. You know, on a four three loss
or a tough four two loss, I mean, you, you, you know this
when you get to the end of the year, the margins are so small.
And I think that's been nice to talk about in our locker room
when you know, somebody gives less than their best effort for
a few minutes in practice. And it well, that that may have
cost us going to the elite 8. And we tried to talk about the,
(20:45):
the little, the little gaps thatwe need to be great in.
And certainly I don't know if it's going to happen this year
and we got a lot of work to do, But I, I will promise you, hey,
our mission is to get beyond where we've been the last few
years. I think it's been fun in over
the last few years where people,we got to the Sweet 16 and
everyone thought, OK, Arizona tennis is going to go back to
being mediocre. And we've just had these
(21:07):
unbelievable guys in the locker room, like, screw that, we're
going to keep this thing going. And I think it's the same thing.
Like I challenge our guys with this, like, is this the year
where we fall off? Is this the group that, you
know, where, where we, where we fall back to being mediocre?
And, you know, over the last four or five years, the guys
been like, not on my watch, coach, you know, maybe the next
team not, not on my watch. And so I'm, I'm hoping there's
(21:29):
that resiliency in our in our locker room of it's not
happening on my watch. Well, I'll say three things on
that, and the first thing is I'll never forget playing
against Virginia in the semis, and the biggest thing I remember
was how loose those guys were under pressure.
They were so free, they played so simple and you could see in
(21:51):
their eyes that they believed they were going to win these
massive points. That's something that I always
wondered, and I actually said toPedroso at the time that I don't
know how he installs that, that that belief in those biggest
moments. The second thing is double S,
obviously double S and the thirdthing that I think maybe
sometimes overlooked, and this is my next question for you, I
(22:13):
don't know, I'm not saying you've overlooked it at all.
I just I'm curious as to what itlooks like.
It's schedule. You obviously play in a great
conference. What's your mindset towards
scheduling outside of your conference?
Yeah, we're, we'll play anyone, any place, anytime.
Yeah, we want to play the, we want to play the best teams.
I mean, look our our home records like 86 and five in the
(22:34):
last five years. But our then I look at our Rd.
record and we win just as much on the road.
I mean, like our teams on the road are incredibly are, are
incredibly good. And so I just kind of feel like
this, like if you got the team who is competitive and they have
a play with the chip on their shoulder, they like going on the
road, they want to go on the road and, and, and ink out a
(22:56):
tough Rd. win. So we're, you know, we're trying
to put together as many Rd. matches as we can.
You know, IA couple years ago weplayed Ohio State in the Sweet
16 on their courts and it was the same thing.
They'd won like 200 matches in arow.
I swear that team, they didn't give two hoots about that.
They were like, we're going to go in here, we're going to beat
these guys. And I think that's something you
(23:16):
just you got to you got to instill that belief in them.
But certainly, yeah, we'll go anywhere at any place, anytime
and, and try to play a team that's going to help us, you
know, host, host for the NCAA Tournament and and and for the
lead 8. One thing in your career is
sorry for this, all the questions, Clancy, but I'm
actually thoroughly enjoying this is you've taken risk.
(23:38):
You've taken risk. You've gone from Boise to Utah
State to Arizona, both programs not doing well at the time,
right? What's your advice to young
coaches out there that are maybeassistant coaches that are
unsure or they're afraid to takethat jump to go maybe take a
lower job to then maybe move up?You know what I mean?
(24:00):
Like, what's your advice to those coaches who are
considering risk like you've done in your career?
Yeah, well, First off, I remember when I got offered the
job at Arizona, that AD told me I had an hour to decide.
You know, so life is just like this.
You know, you, you have an hour to decide.
I just bought a house in Utah. I was like planning to be there
(24:21):
forever. Life is just a has a funny way
of like throwing, throwing curveballs at you.
And I just think just be ready for whatever and trust your
instincts and go. And then, you know, when I got
the job here, look, I thought wewere going to, I thought we were
going to dominate that first year.
Like I just backed myself that much.
Like, Hey, we're like, I believein what I'm doing.
(24:42):
I believe in like our culture. I believe in, in who we are.
And like, you have to have kind of an unshakeable belief in what
you're doing. And the losses that we took,
dude, you're, you're Dang right.Like we took a loss to Stanford
a couple years ago. And I sat in my office till like
midnight just looking at the film.
And I was like, I was like, God,I'm way too psychotic for this.
But it was just one of those things where like, I hate
(25:03):
losing, you know, and it's like every coach, every coach knows
that. I mean, and it was one of those
like 4-3 Colton lost like a nailbiter to Machesh.
But I'm sitting in here like, and I, I remember writing this
note to myself. I was like, let's see if you can
coach now, you know, because like when you're winning, you're
like, everything's good. But like you take a loss, then
you like remind yourself, let's see if you can coach now, you
(25:24):
know, and like those kind of like pick me UPS of like when,
when stuff hits the fan, like are you just going to like, you
know, hang dog it a little bit or do you have any bounce back
ability? And and certainly I think our
teams always get a little nervous when we take a few a
loss or two because like it's just something in like, all
right, you take a loss and I think you'd understand this and
(25:46):
some other a handful of other coaches.
But once you take a loss, there's just something inside of
you. They're like, we're going to
enact change to the NTH degree because losing's no, isn't
tolerated here. And I think the team starts to
kind of get that, that mentalityand, and look, sometimes you
look at it, we lost this match because of this, this and this.
Sometimes we lost it because of the, the team played too well,
(26:08):
whatever. But I most times when you take a
loss, there's a there's something that we're going to
make the biggest adjustment, probably bigger than any other
team because we just don't tolerate that around here.
And I take that, I take that square on the chin like we take
a loss. Get ready.
Get ready for some fireworks. That's some that is great
advice. I'm getting even more fired up
(26:28):
Clancy as well. I have to ask you, you are
hosting APTT event here coming up.
You've done this a couple of years now.
You know you, you do this time of year as well.
Why? What's the benefit to you?
What's the benefit to your program?
What's the benefit to your players having this event on
campus? Yeah, well it was awesome last
year. It actually replaced our pre
(26:49):
season and you know, in the preseason you have these guys
playing what challenge matches and they're like you, you never
get that full intensity. Maybe that full fight.
I remember last year we had a itwas like it was 6 all in a set
and it was like 1413 and a breaker.
(27:09):
And these guys, they're just andit was our guys playing each
other and they were, they were going at it like it was the
Super Bowl. And I remember looking over to
our staff and I just said, there's just no way we could
have recreated this had it just been, you know, our pre season
because there's there's obviously a lineup spot maybe on
the line, there's money on the line.
(27:30):
There's you know, you it's, it's, you know, maybe there's
just a lot of things that are onthe line.
But just to see these kids fighting for it.
It was the last match of the day.
It was like 9:00 PM at night. It the day had run long and I
was like, there was no way that we could have possibly gotten
this competitiveness out of our group.
Have we not had this tournament?And so obviously we want to make
(27:51):
it a yearly thing, maybe more. But certainly, you know, the
more matches that you play, the better.
You know, I love the training aspects and the training blocks,
but there's nothing like walkingon the court and putting it on
the line and, and seeing how youmeasure up.
And hey, maybe you walk away from that tournament with five,
six matches in hand and, and youget them all in video and you
(28:11):
get to go back and watch it and say, hey, this is where I I did
well. This is what I didn't do well,
and this is what I got to work on.
Let's go. I love it.
What's it like working for Arizona being in the department
athletic department? You know, if if you ask someone
random about Arizona, they probably say basketball, right?
Just just that's the, the, the revenues for it and obviously
(28:34):
they've had tons of success, butwhat's it like being a part of
that athletic department? Is there anything you can share
maybe fans of the program that listen, they're like, wow,
that's really cool about about the department or so and so or
the AD or anything like that? Well, OK, I I'll start this
right now. Obviously I'm biased, but I go
to campuses kind of like I want to see every campus and I want
(28:55):
to see the energy. And we'll go on campuses and
it's like our team will be like,this place sucks.
And I and, and like we don't have, by all means, we don't
have the nicest facilities. I mean, we got good facilities.
But I'll tell you what, the energy on campus at the
University of Arizona, you just walk on it and people are happy,
You know, palm trees, good weather, people are smiling.
(29:17):
There's just an energy to it. And I've been to a lot of
campuses and there's very few that I can say, man, I walked on
that campus and I've been on ourcampus and this place competes
it, it, it certainly has that, that life force to it.
I think part of it's the weather.
I think part of it's the people,but like, it is a, it's a fun
place to go to school. There's a it's a very vibrant
campus. And then the athletic
department. I mean, I think the cool thing
(29:39):
here is all of our coaches are housed in this, you know, kind
of this building and we all collaborate.
My, I share a wall with our basketball coach who, you know,
I play pickleball with two or three times a week.
We, we ended up playing the Bryan brothers and the, and the
Jensen brothers in a, in a pickleball exhibition.
But that I think everybody here is invested in each other and
we're not off all off on our silos doing this.
(30:01):
I mean, I think that's importantbecause when you see him in the
hallways, like it'd be like you and I like you're trying to
disperse life and energy to eachother of like go kick some butt
today. Like, you know, and we're
watching and, and also the teamsthat are successful, everyone's
trying to one up each other. Who's gonna, who's gonna win the
conference? You know, who's gonna go, go win
a national championship? And I, I never had that at let's
(30:22):
say Boise State or, or Utah State until I walked into this
building. And then everyone, you know, you
got gold medalists, you know, lifting next to your team,
you've got elite coaches, you'vegot NBA draft players, you know,
they're going to be in the NBA. You know, you got, you know, our
football team finished eleven inthe country a couple years ago.
I mean, everywhere you look, there was kind of like it was
(30:42):
motivating to kind of feel that greatness.
And I think I, I, I genuinely think Arizona and I'm biased.
I'm, I'm going to say this is 1.It'd be one of now if I was a
1718 year old kid and I said I want to go to a place where I'm
going to feel good about my experience and have a
well-rounded experience athletically, academically,
socially. I think this place sells itself.
(31:05):
And on that, the last question to anyone listening, players out
there, you know, maybe players that you're targeting or the
future of the program, What's your, what's your final message
about this? I mean, I, I, I'm listening
today and I'm going, OK, I know exactly why this program is
turned around. But what's your, what's your
message to players that are listening?
(31:26):
Just just as a final goodbye, I shall say.
Yeah. I mean, simply, I mean, you come
to Arizona to win championships.Yeah.
I mean, you know, and if you don't want to, if you're not in
it to win it and to be the very best, this isn't the place for
you. But you know, as you and I are
looking, I'm looking at our fiveconference championships in the
last four years. And I'm thinking, you know, we
(31:47):
said that from day one that hey,this is the ultimate thing that
we're going to be winning championships here.
Well, if you want to come to Arizona, you know, you're coming
here to win championships. And that would be kind of be my
message for for anybody that's considering this place.
Well, I now I now see it. So Clancy, I really appreciate
your time. I've I've got some some big
(32:11):
goals for you and your and your team this year.
I think you guys are going to doa great job, but I appreciate
your time. Thank you for being a great
partner of UTR and all the best this season.
Thanks for having me on, appreciate it.
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