January 29, 2025 • 28 mins
As the Director of Sports Performance for the Auburn men’s basketball team, Coach Damon Davis is a slam-dunk when it comes to getting Johni Broome, Dylan Cardwell and company conditioned and primed to fulfill their physical potential on the court.
The Petersburg, Illinois native is now in his 15th season on The Plains.
“I really just wanted to work with athletes,” said Davis. “I wrestled at Western Illinois University, so I have a background of being a division one athlete. That’s what got me interested in strength conditioning, because without being bigger and stronger, I wouldn't have been able to compete at that level.”
After graduating college, Davis interned with the Chicago Bulls in the early 2000’s.
“I really went there because of Al Vermeil,” explained Davis. “He's the only strength coach in professional sports to earn championships in both football and basketball, with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. He's really a true legend in our field.”
Davis, a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, spent four years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Iowa before heading to The Plains. When he first arrived at Auburn in 2008, Davis trained athletes in track and field, golf, tennis and baseball before moving to men’s basketball in 2012.
“A lot of people would be really interested in what all goes into it,” said Davis. “Technology has increased in the past 10 to 15 years, and it's obviously becoming more integrated with what we do to monitor player load.”
Auburn men’s basketball players wear accelerometers in their shorts during games and practices. These motion-sensing devices track and analyze player movement and gather data on speed, acceleration and changes in direction, providing insights into performance, training effectiveness and even injury risk. They also use jump plates that measure force – a valuable tool that gives Davis a deeper understanding into an athlete's power, strength and movement efficiency.
“Basketball is one of those sports that you need to be good in all three planes of motion,” explained Davis. “You’ve got to be good vertically, you’ve got to have good acceleration linearly to sprint down the court, and then you've got to be able to move multidirectional or laterally to play defense.”
With a grueling 30+ game 2024-25 season, Auburn men’s basketball is playing one of the toughest schedules in the nation. Intensity must remain high.
“We're training twice a week, playing twice a week, and on some level, the lifting and strength conditioning helps manage the fatigue,” said Davis. “The movement and the blood flow through strength and power training helps players recover.”
Without a doubt, Davis is a steady secret weapon for head coach Bruce Pearl.
“I'm blessed to work under such great leadership that has allowed me to be part of the success and have stability for such a long time,” said Davis. “Coach Pearl has done such a great job developing this program and building it tirelessly. We've had very little turnover. Our staff has been more consistent than any other college staff that I've ever witnessed.”
Davis is also quick to credit the Auburn Family as a big part of the team’s success this year.
“When you go to other places, it's not the same, the jungle is the jungle,” said Davis. “I love our fan’s enthusiasm and it's such an advantage.”
He relishes seeing the team’s hard work come full circle.
“When you get a group of guys all pulling in the same direction, I think you get what you're seeing right now,” said Davis. “You see the success, the brotherhood, and all these guys just having fun playing together, and they love each other. Yeah, it's special.”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to everything.
Auburn.
My name is Carter, andI am so glad that you're here.
Joining us today,my co-host, Dalton
Odom, is indisposed today.
He wasn't here, so I am runningsolo on the host duties.
That's alrightbecause I got another member
of the Auburn familyjoining us today.
It is Damon Davis.
You might know himbetter as the director
of sports performancefor Auburn basketball.
(00:32):
You also might know himbetter as coach D,
or maybe even betteras the Viking
that sits on the end of thebench during basketball games.
Welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, man.
Just glad you're glad you'rehere.
It's basketball, man.
It's been your lifefor quite the while.
You've been herefor 15 years, right?
This your 15th season?
(00:53):
We've done some research on you.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've been with BPsince he got here.
So when I was here,previous to Bruce getting here.
So I was, fortunateto kind of get, on the job
interview with him, and,you know, he, liked me
well enough to keep me around.
Well, that's good.
I'm glad you did. You did.
And you certainly dressedthe part. I'm glad to.
(01:13):
If there's any questionwhether or not where you work,
I can think I can deduce ittoday.
Great job about beinga, a strength coach.
You can wear shortsand t shirts to work every day.
There's not much dressing upin this profession.
So this is your this isyour business professional.
And I'm actually happywe don't wear
suits on the bench anymore.
As as isprobably the rest of the staff.
(01:34):
So I remember back when so alittle behind the scenes thing
I used to work for athletics,did a lot with basketball,
and gotten to witness many ofthe cool things that you do
that are very often behindthe scenes and not seen public.
Right. If you could,you used to get I don't
I assume you still do this.
(01:55):
I assume this is okayfor public consumption
I did videos on it, so I'msure it's okay to talk about,
you guys used to have, like,some really cool, like,
tech stuff.
It's not just like, liftthese weights.
It's really.
It's a lotmore involved than you.
I think the layperson wouldimagine. Sure.
What are some of those, like,processes that you go through?
I think a lot of peoplewould be really interested.
(02:16):
What goes into it.
Yeah, I think like a lot of,areas in sports,
you know, technologyhas increased in the past
10 to 15 years,and it's obviously becoming
more integrated with,what we do from,
you know, monitoring playerload through short.
You know, we wear, accelerometerin the shorts
(02:37):
for games and practices.
So you're getting lotsof different metrics
on accelerations, decelerationshow many jumps they do,
you know, kind of total load,if you will, over the course
of a practice or a game.
A lot of that's really foralmost return to play stuff.
So like for Johni right nowcoming back off, you know, as
(02:57):
he comes back off an injury,we could look back at,
you know, what a typicalpractice load for him is?
Because, you know, when you,you know, the first day back,
you don't want to put himat full load.
So you can say, okay,he's been at 600,
you know, in a typical practiceover,
you know, an hour and a half,we can say we want to do
half of thatso we can, you know, we can
we can monitor some of that.
(03:20):
You know,we also use dual force plates.
You know, we do a lot of jumpscanning with our guys.
So we're lookingat right, left asymmetries
between between legs.
We're kind oftracking performance
through those, those jump teststhat we're doing on
a weekly or bi weekly basis.
I'm trying to thinkwhat else you know, because I.
(03:41):
RememberI remember that was really cool
is because there's all thosewhen we come in and, you know,
I have a film degree,so I don't know what
any of this stuff is, you know,I know how to lift weights
like, that's up and down.
That's that's wheremy knowledge starts and ends.
Right.
But you had these like the,the jump plate, you can measure
like their force.
And you set all these coolbenchmarks
at the beginning of the yearis very individualistic. Yeah.
(04:04):
And there's just it'sso much more technical
than I probably wasten years ago
and probably will be, in fact,five years.
It's just so cool that there'sit's so individualistic
for every single athlete.
No. Yeah.
And it I imagineit behooves them as well
and gives you more information.
It's just I think it'sreally interesting.
(04:24):
It's really cool.
On top of the fact that like,you just don't like players
coming back from injury.
I know you and Clarkworked together.
Yeah a lot.
Clark, the athletic trainerfor basketball.
Yeah.
What's that relationship like?
Obviously you know you can'tI don't want to get like
specific specific injuriesand athletes and stuff.
But like ofof trying to get a player
who really desperatelywants to come back.
(04:47):
You know I mean you knowhow athletes are the worst
thing you can do is tellyou got to stop today right.
You knowpull them out of practice.
It's the worst. Yeah.
How do you kind of manageworking with that.
Because I'mit's for their benefit.
But it's so hard.
But you have all this datathat helps out. Sure.
Absolutely. Yeah.
You know, Clark, like myself,I've been doing this
a long time, and,we've been working together
(05:07):
for a long time as well.
So, you know, obviouslyhe handles more of the,
rehab coming back from apossible surgery or an injury.
And then there's going to bea little bit of overlap between
when they're fully clearedfor activity, full activities
in the weight room.
(05:27):
So there's kind of thismelding of,
you know, his area and my area.
So we got to be ableto communicate.
And you know he kind of lets meknow, maybe things to avoid
or things to modifybecause I think the last thing
is, you said you want to dowith an athlete is obviously
give them complete restbecause at the end of the day,
(05:47):
if a guy hurts his ankle,there's still a lot of
different things.
You can train, around thatankle.
That's true.
You know, you got the other leg.
You can do you can do some,some things
that don't actually involvethe ankle, like leg
extensions or leg curls,you know, so there's
there's various exercisesthat you can still
give them a training effectso they don't train during that
(06:08):
that time. Yeah. Like that.
That's a good that's a goodstrength coach term there.
Yeah d train d.
Training,which is a lot of what we try
and do withour in-season lifting. Right.
You know, we're training twicea week, playing twice a week.
So we're tryingnot to, you know,
we don't want to get weakeras the season goes on.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat we're going to be able
(06:30):
to build a lot of strength,because you got the fatigue
that happens from the games.
But on some level,the lifting allows you
to manage the fatiguebecause I think ultimately
movement, the movementand the blood flow
and the training of of,you know, strength
training, power training,helps them
recover on some level as well.
So, we work really hardthroughout the,
(06:51):
the summer periodand the early fall,
you know, training 4or 5 days a week.
And then once you kind ofget into the season,
you know, you taperthat off a little bit.
But we're still, you know,we're reducing the volume
that we do in the weight room.
But the intensity still hasto maintain a certain level
so you don't get weaker.
Sure. You know it'shard. It's a long season.
(07:12):
It tell me about it's 30some odd games and it's wild.
You know Novemberhopefully April.
That's the goalright? Right. 100%.
So I did want to shifta little bit though,
because I think there'sa couple interesting things I
want to talk about. First off,what got you
into so as a strength coach.
Right. Work performance. Right.
(07:33):
How much choice is there in likeso you've done basketball
pretty much your whole career.
A good amount of it. Yeah.
Started well.
So like I said, we've donesome research on you here.
Yeah, give it to me.
So, some time with the ChicagoBulls. Yep.
And then, you know, all the wayfrom India, Illinois?
(07:54):
Yeah.
I'm from Illinois, originally.
The Illinois, Chicago Bulls.
You've been here for.
I mean, you've been. Basketballhas been a lot of your life.
Yep. Basketball territoryyou grew up in.
So is it always been basketballor is that always been the goal
you wanted to work with or.
Not really.
I know I love workingwith basketball, but I never.
So when I got in the strengthconditioning,
I really just wanted to workwith athletes.
(08:15):
I was just my goal is,you know, a lot of people any.
Way you can.
Yeah, just, you know,I want to train athletes.
I wrestled in college.
I wrestled at Northern Illinois.
So I have a background ofbeing a Division one athlete.
That is what got me interestedin strength conditioning,
because withoutbeing bigger and stronger,
I probably wouldn'thave been able
to compete at that level.
(08:36):
So that's kind of wheremy interest in training began.
Even though I trainin high school.
But obviously, onceI got exposed to, hey, there's
guys in college that trainssports and trains teams,
eventually I realized that'swhat I wanted to do. So,
intern with the Chicago Bullsback in the early 2000,
(08:57):
2003, mainly, I was there with,you know, the Baby
Bulls, Eddie Curry, TysonChandler,
Jason Williams, Kirk Heinrich.
We werewe weren't very good, but it's.
Still pretty cool.
You know, kind.
Of the kind of the postJordan era.
But I really went there,to be honest.
I went there not because,they were the Chicago Bulls,
(09:18):
even though I'm from Illinoisand I grew up obviously
watching Michael Jordanand the Bulls in there
and their six championships.
But I went therebecause of Al Vermeil,
who was basically a legendin our field.
He's now retired from the Bulls.
He's probably I think I wasprobably in his 80s now,
but he's the only strengthcoach in professional sports
to have championshipsfrom football.
(09:38):
He won a championship with the40 Niners back in the mid 80s,
probably 84 I think,and then was with the White Sox
and the Bulls for a whileand then train the Bulls for 20
plus years.
So I really went to the Bullsbecause of Al, not because
they were the Bulls.
So it's a good resource though.
Yeah. No, he's he's reallya true legend in our field.
(10:00):
You know,just one of those guys that,
like a lot of us in this field,you know, there's
always something to learn.
You can always get better.
You know, the same thingwe teach to our athletes, right?
Like, you know, the same thingthat Coach Pro preaches.
Like, no matter how goodwe're playing,
we can always improve.
We can always get better.
So, yeah,I was a big influence in,
(10:21):
my development,and my, my career.
And that's ultimately whatled me into basketball.
But I've actually trained,you know, you know,
I was at the university.
I was about five years priorto coming to Auburn.
I train track and field,baseball, tennis, golf.
When I got to Auburn,I was on the Coliseum in 2008.
(10:45):
I originally started trainingall the track and field
men and women'sgolf, men and women's tennis,
and then did thatfor a couple of years.
Then I transitioned to baseballfor a couple of years
baseball, track and field,women's tennis.
And then I started trainingbasketball back in.
I believe it was 2012.
So. I'dlike to at least have one.
(11:07):
I think focus.
I think what makes my,my philosophy really
unique is the fact that I've,I've had exposure with sports
like track and field, whichare sports
where you're looking to peakat the right time of the year.
I've been able to takesome of that experience
with those sports andand take it into basketball.
Sure. A big part of that.
Because, you know, because whattrack and field, you know.
(11:28):
Yeah, the early meetsthey're important.
But it's really aboutbeing your best.
It SEC championshipsregionals and NCAA place.
So just like with our teamwe want to be our best
come March. Yeah.
So I've takenwhereas if you're a younger
strength coach and you sayI want to work
with basketball and footballand you just ingrain yourself
(11:48):
in that sport,I don't think you quite
get the the developmentand the exposure to different,
different sports,different athletes,
because I've, I've really takensome of my knowledge of
acceleration and speed trainingthat I've learned through track
and field and tried to apply itto basketball
or even a sport like tennis,which has a lot of lateral
(12:10):
movement similar to basketball.
So I mean, there's.
That makes sense.
You're findinga lot of similarities between
even a sport like golf.
You know, golf's about,you know, trans transit,
you know, transferring energyfrom the ground
into the club, into the ball,which requires lateral force.
So, basketballis one of those sports
that you need to be goodin all three planes of motion.
(12:31):
You got to be good vertically.
You got to be able to have,you know,
good acceleration linearly to,you know, sprint down the court,
obviously,and then you've got to be able
to move multidirectionalor laterally to play defense
and stay in front of guys.
Not to mention the way that,you know, Bpy likes to play,
which it's I mean,it's an exhausting sport,
(12:53):
but the aggression, especiallyon the defensive side, like
these guys got to be ready.
100. Percent.
And and you've heard it.
I think anybody who's Auburnbasketball fan has heard it
that BP, you know, caresif you can play defense.
You'll play 100%.
Being aggressive on defenseis so exhausting.
(13:13):
And to be able to playa 40 minute game
and still be not as tiredas the guy across from you,
I mean, that's it'sa lot of work that you,
you have to put into put the players
in, to be able to be ableto be their best.
Definitely.
Because, I mean, that's beenBP's entire thing here, right?
That it'sbeen a lot on your shoulders,
which is in the game.
(13:35):
I'm not going to be as tiredas as you're going to be.
Well,and also playing 9 or 10 guys.
So that also helps, you know,playing playing a bigger
rotation definitely helps.
It also helps on the sideof what I do in the weight
room, because if they play38 minutes a game, you know,
getting something out of thembetween two games
is a little more difficultthan when they're playing
(13:56):
28 to 32 minutes. So, and I alsothink that people don't realize
that, you know, if you say, oh,he played
34 minutes versus 30 minutes,I got that's only four minutes.
But over the course of 30games, four minutes adds up to
multiple, multiple more gamesyou've played in your legs than
someone else has.
And so I think the factthat we try and, you know, play
(14:17):
nine, ten guys and,you know, rotate in and out
and wear teams down, also helpswith our conditioning
because guys knowthey don't have to
they don't have to rest,you know, don't rest
because you're goingto get a breather, you know.
So you got someone coming offthe bench who, you know.
And as you can seewith our team,
we're not going to drop offmuch when
(14:39):
when the bench comes in either.
If it's true searcher.
So yeah, that'syou know, working with BP now
for 11 years.
It's it's just becomeone of those things where
I know what he's going to doat certain times of the year,
and he knows what I'm tryingto do
at certain times of the year.
And I thinkwe've got a really good
I feel really comfortable withour system that we've created,
to develop that.
(14:59):
In, in a long time,you know, here. And it's,
I imagine it gets veryfamiliar, very comfortable.
And you can.
Well, I mean, as you know,with, with SEC athletics
or any Divisionone athletics, like, you know,
there's a lot of turnover.
So, I mean, I think meand, the guy at South Carolina
probably got the longest tenurein the SEC,
where there's a lot of guyswho've only been in the SEC
(15:19):
for one two years, maybe,you know, because think about
all the new coaching hiresand the is a 3 or 4 years.
Yeah, it's a lot of workand it's it's a lot.
I think there'ssome crazy things that happen
working in athletics.
You know the the time is it'sa, it's a labor of love.
It is.
But yeah, I know that is crazybecause it is a lot of turnover.
You never know.
And the crazything about turnover is
(15:41):
it's like you knowyou got to move.
Yeah it's crazy.
And it's so it's so interestingthat you've been able
to been here be here so long.
Family's here.
Growing up likethis is like home.
This is home for sure. Yeah.
My son was one when we movedhere.
He's a junior in high schooland that's my.
My daughter was born here, so.
Yeah, it's,it's definitely home now.
(16:02):
And I'm,you know, just, I'm fortunate.
I'm blessed that,you know, to work
under such great leadershipthat, you know, has allowed me
to, to, you know, bepart of the success
and have stabilityfor such a long time because,
you know, that's rarelythe case in our profession.
You know, sometimesevery 4 or 5 years,
(16:23):
you're moving, looking,looking for a new a new job.
And, you know, and I'm I'ma creature of habit, you know?
Sure.
I don't like change.
I like, you know,I like routine and,
you know, so it's definitelybeen a blessing for me.
Wonderful.
I did want to see,you know, as a strength coach,
(16:44):
I would imagine you work outoccasionally.
I do not as much as I didwhen I was 30.
Probably. The.
Are you changed the emphasisa little bit
as you get a little bit older,a little bit.
What is a strength coach?
A strength routinelook like, you know,
because you really got to beable to, you know,
show it to the guysas they need it sometimes.
Yeah, I used to be able todo it a lot more.
You know, I could jump in andand lift with the guys
(17:05):
in previous years.
You know I'm 48.
So the, the amount of, trainingdays that I can tolerate
and recover from is decreased.
I probably, you know,switched, not switch,
but transitioned to a littlebit more, what you consider,
I guess, cardiovascular or,you know, more aerobics,
(17:26):
exercise stuff to make,you know,
make sure your heart is healthyand that,
you know, all areas of yourbody are functioning correctly.
Probably more mobility work,but, yeah, I still, you know,
I think maintaining strength iseven as you get older,
is is highly important.
You know, I actually,work a couple of days a week
with one of our foreign players,John Mingo, who's 75 years old
(17:46):
and still lifts weights.
birng it on, man.
Yeah.
You know, he's a retired,you know, his jerseys
hanging in Neville Arena.
So, he's a 75 yearold years old.
He's still competing, basically.
So, Yeah, I'm I'm tryingto be like him someday.
Just.
You think you're on your way?
(18:06):
I'd rather.
Well, you know,I saw one of my colleagues,
in strength conditioning,just had a surgery,
and I, you know, I,I text him and just said,
you know, rest up.
And he said, I'd.
I'd rather wear outthan rest out.
So just basically means, like,I'd rather, you know,
where, where things outthan just be stagnant and,
(18:27):
you know, rustbasically as you get older. So,
yeah, I still I still train,just not probably not
as, as frequently. Sure.
I think it's cool.
And then you just mentionedthat one thing
that's really coolabout working athletics
is there aren't many peoplewhere you're currently
at doing what you do.
I mean, there's a few handfulhere and there,
but there's a lot of peoplearound the country.
(18:48):
So you get to go traveland you get to meet
your colleagues and the peoplein the same position.
You get this really coolnetwork.
Yeah.
Of people in this kind of closeknit group.
It's it's such a it'ssuch a fun time to get to go.
It's like visitingyour friends, doing the travel.
You get togo visit your friends. It is.
Did want to ask you to putyou on the spot a little bit.
I don't want to out anybody.
But if anybody comes to mindthroughout,
(19:11):
you know, Auburn basketballfans,
we got a pretty good memoryof some players. Yep.
Anybody comes to mindthat is just really
was surprisinglyjust ridiculous in the gym
that just maybe, you know,because
we've seen it all before thissome guys
go in there and just gym andthen just they'll surprise you.
Yeah.
Biggest surprise.
(19:31):
Anybody come to mind?
I've had some really, like, KTHarrel was a really strong
dude. Yeah.
Probablyone of the strongest dudes
that I've worked with pound for.
Pound.
You know, and just,you know, to me, it's
just about the guys thatthat come in and do the things
they're supposed to do,even when they don't
feel like doing it,because there's a lot of times
where,you know, you're going to be
(19:53):
sore, you're going to be tired,whether that's in the off season
or the season from games.
And you're not always goingto want to come in
and do the thingsthat I ask you to do.
But you know, I believe thatsuccess leaves clues, right?
And I thinkif you look at the guys
that are stillplaying at a high level,
you know, you look atWalker Kessler, Jabari or Isaac
or Chuma, Jared or Bryce,whether it be in the NBA
(20:17):
or overseas, likethose guys were usually
my hardest workers.
Isaac's the one that I,I get to witness him.
And the first timeI saw him in the gym,
yeah, it was the first timeI saw I was like, oh,
so that's the guythat everyone's been talk about
makes, makes that makes sense.
Yeah. He was he was a freak.
Yeah.
But he but he also never restedon the fact that he was,
(20:38):
you know,even out of high school,
he was pretty physically,you know, put together.
You know, he had some reallygood physical qualities. But,
you know,those are guys just come in
and they do the workand they trust the process.
And you know, there's days, youknow, they just don't got it.
But they still find a way to,you know, push through fatigue
(20:58):
and, work hard.
And, you know, that's what I tryand I try and preach that to
our guys is that, you know,I've seen, you know,
I've seen those guys tryand I know
what their habits are.
They're notthey're not missing lifts.
They're not now,they may not always, you know,
you may have to make someadjustments day to day, but
(21:19):
they're going to get good inand give you their best effort
because ultimatelythey've got bigger goals.
You know they've got goalsto play at the next level.
And it takes what it takes,right?
Yeah, no, it definitely does.
It's a lot of work.
Just want to wrapthings up here as we're getting
look atmy watch here close to time.
Auburn Neville Arena.
Auburn arena is such a strength.
(21:42):
Hornibrook. Yeah absolutely.
And it's one thing to see iton TV.
It's as a single person.
And you get to sit on the benchand witness it and see how
it energizes the players.
You know what's it been,especially over the course
of your tenure here?
It's gone from,let's be honest, not great.
Not very.
Correct to probablyone of the hardest tickets
to score in the SEC.
(22:05):
Definitely.
What's it been like to watchand kind of experience
and get to see it dayin, day out and see what it does
to the team and the guys?
You know, I guessyou kind of get get used to it.
But, you know,when you go to other places,
you know, we went to Texas and,you know, obviously
they take their athleticspretty seriously too.
(22:26):
And, you know, it just it'sit's not the same, you know,
the, the jungle is the jungle.
Our fans, you know,the fact that they're out there
camping out before games or.
I still can't believekids are doing that now.
That's wild.
I never would have guessedthat Auburn would be a place
that people are out theredays early, standing in line,
getting tense.
(22:47):
Me neither. But here we are.
Yes. Great.
I mean, I just, you know,I love the
I love the fans enthusiasm.
And, you know, it's such, it'ssuch an advantage over,
you know, any place we play,you know
how excited our guys get when,you know, there's a big dunk,
you know, the benchesjumping up and down.
(23:07):
And I mean, you know, we'rearound it so much that maybe
you don't always appreciate itbecause it's just it's normal.
Right. Like that's your jobevery day. Yeah.
The craziness is justnormal now.
But, you know, the fact that,you know,
we're going to have anothergame day here on Saturday
versus Tennessee and,you know, I think it's,
what, five years in a row?
(23:29):
Yeah. Something like,just about that.
We've had College GameDay here.
Yeah.
It's just about I rememberI got to work the first time,
GameDay came back.
Probably Kentucky. Was Kentucky.
It was 2019, I believe itwas. Yep.
Almost got kicked outbecause they did not
like how aggressiveI was being with my camera.
But I remember it was likeI still got the,
(23:49):
like the beanie they give outthat looks like the hoop
in that. Yeah, that'ssitting on my desk right now.
I love it.
Yeah.
It's I mean, it's a lot of fun,you know, just coach Perles
energy coach, you know,just his, his competitiveness.
You know, from day one is,you know, I just he's he's done
such a great job of helphelping,
(24:09):
you know, just developingthis program and and building
building it tirelessly,you know, just and I
think we all kind of take a,a piece from him because, you
know, he works as hardas the players, if not harder.
You know, he's, you know,he watches film all the time
and, you know, it'sjust like sometimes
I got to encourage himto take some time for himself.
(24:32):
And hey, let's get outand get on the bike and go
because he gets so, so lockedin to watching games and
and doing things on my coach,you got to, you know,
you got to give yourselfa little bit of time for you
just for your health and just,you know,
it's a long season for him too.
So, it, you know, it's,it's been a lot of fun
to just be a part of.
Like I said, it's, you know, 11.
(24:54):
It's crazy.
It's been 11 years that this isyear 11 with with Bruce.
So it is it is truly crazyand and he just I know he just
became the winningest coachat Auburn as well.
Was just wildthat that's already happened.
And I don't knowit's been incredible
to watch himand I was very lucky
to spend a little bit of timewith you guys for a few years
there, which was a lot of fun.
Yeah.
(25:15):
Man, I miss it though.
It is a lot of fun. It is.
I've always loved basketball.
I always loved the waythat team, the way BP is built,
the team staff,the way you guys all were.
It's it'sjust a fun group to be around.
And we've been you know,we've been fortunate.
Just like keeping some ofthe players in the program.
We've kept a lot ofthe same staff in the program.
(25:35):
You know, guyshave probably had opportunities
to go other places.
But the fact that we've gotsuch continuity between,
you know, Coach Pruitt, StephenIan Berg, you know, we've IRA.
Yeah.
In fact, we've had very little,very little turnover.
So across the board is probablyone of the least that that staff
has been more consistentthan any other college staff
(25:57):
that I've ever that I've everwitnessed. Definitely. Yeah.
Yeah, that's that's true.
And you don't really thinkabout that.
It's not very commonthat you see that.
And I think there's a lot ofthat's like this place,
a lot of it's BP,a lot of it's the,
you know, the jungle.
It's just all of it.
Yeah. It's hard.
It's, you know,why would you want to leave?
I don't want to.
I left and came back.
(26:17):
I know you did.
I could can't keep me away.
Well, as we wrap up,I just want to say thank you.
You know, you do a thankless joband a job
that's behind the scenes.
That maybe not,but Auburn basketball
would not be the samewithout you.
I appreciate that.
It's been it'sbeen a lot of fun.
It's been a lot of fun.
You know I've had some,you know, great players and
(26:40):
you know guys that,you know ultimately
just they give themthey give their best every day.
And you know, that's reallyall I can ask for
is just guys that are,are willing to come in and,
and just workthrough the process
and come in every dayready to get better.
And, you know, if you getif you get a group of guys
kind of allpulling in the same direction,
(27:01):
I think you getwhat you're seeing right now.
You see, you know,you see success
and you know, brotherhoodand you see all these guys
that just they're having funplaying together
and they love each other. And,yeah, it's it's special.
But, you know,I think when you're in it
at this time of the year,you just you don't
you don't get a chance.
You don't reflect on itright now because
(27:21):
all you're worried aboutis what's next.
Like we got Tennesseecoming up this weekend.
You know we got at LSUand then we're on the road.
So it's a greatno there's no there's
no time to reflect right now.
And then when the seasongets over will reflect on it.
And then you get back to work.
What was the thing fromdo you ever watch The Office?
Yeah.
What's the the thing Andy says.
And that I wishthere was a way to know
(27:43):
the when you're in the glorydays.
I wish there was a way to knowthe glory days
when you're in them. Yeah.
But. Well,thank you for joining us.
Thanks for taking the time.
Good luckthe rest of the season.
You know, I'msure you guys are going to keep
having fun and doing well, but,thank you for joining us.
And thank you for joining us.
(28:03):
We'll be back again next month,hopefully with Dalton as well.
He'll be back from injury.
We'll be back againwith another wonderful
guest of our Auburn family.
Visit our podcast hub visits,listen to some of our older
episodes, seewho else we've chatted with,
and we'll see you againnext time.
My name is Carter War Eagle.
Get a war eagle fromyou, War Eagle. Heck, yeah!
Welcome to everything.
Auburn.
My name is Carter, andI am so glad that you're here.
Joining us today,my co-host, Dalton
Odom, is indisposed today.
He wasn't here, so I am runningsolo on the host duties.
That's alrightbecause I got another member
of the Auburn familyjoining us today.
It is Damon Davis.
You might know himbetter as the director
of sports performancefor Auburn basketball.
(00:32):
You also might know himbetter as coach D,
or maybe even betteras the Viking
that sits on the end of thebench during basketball games.
Welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, man.
Just glad you're glad you'rehere.
It's basketball, man.
It's been your lifefor quite the while.
You've been herefor 15 years, right?
This your 15th season?
(00:53):
We've done some research on you.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've been with BPsince he got here.
So when I was here,previous to Bruce getting here.
So I was, fortunateto kind of get, on the job
interview with him, and,you know, he, liked me
well enough to keep me around.
Well, that's good.
I'm glad you did. You did.
And you certainly dressedthe part. I'm glad to.
(01:13):
If there's any questionwhether or not where you work,
I can think I can deduce ittoday.
Great job about beinga, a strength coach.
You can wear shortsand t shirts to work every day.
There's not much dressing upin this profession.
So this is your this isyour business professional.
And I'm actually happywe don't wear
suits on the bench anymore.
As as isprobably the rest of the staff.
(01:34):
So I remember back when so alittle behind the scenes thing
I used to work for athletics,did a lot with basketball,
and gotten to witness many ofthe cool things that you do
that are very often behindthe scenes and not seen public.
Right. If you could,you used to get I don't
I assume you still do this.
(01:55):
I assume this is okayfor public consumption
I did videos on it, so I'msure it's okay to talk about,
you guys used to have, like,some really cool, like,
tech stuff.
It's not just like, liftthese weights.
It's really.
It's a lotmore involved than you.
I think the layperson wouldimagine. Sure.
What are some of those, like,processes that you go through?
I think a lot of peoplewould be really interested.
(02:16):
What goes into it.
Yeah, I think like a lot of,areas in sports,
you know, technologyhas increased in the past
10 to 15 years,and it's obviously becoming
more integrated with,what we do from,
you know, monitoring playerload through short.
You know, we wear, accelerometerin the shorts
(02:37):
for games and practices.
So you're getting lotsof different metrics
on accelerations, decelerationshow many jumps they do,
you know, kind of total load,if you will, over the course
of a practice or a game.
A lot of that's really foralmost return to play stuff.
So like for Johni right nowcoming back off, you know, as
(02:57):
he comes back off an injury,we could look back at,
you know, what a typicalpractice load for him is?
Because, you know, when you,you know, the first day back,
you don't want to put himat full load.
So you can say, okay,he's been at 600,
you know, in a typical practiceover,
you know, an hour and a half,we can say we want to do
half of thatso we can, you know, we can
we can monitor some of that.
(03:20):
You know,we also use dual force plates.
You know, we do a lot of jumpscanning with our guys.
So we're lookingat right, left asymmetries
between between legs.
We're kind oftracking performance
through those, those jump teststhat we're doing on
a weekly or bi weekly basis.
I'm trying to thinkwhat else you know, because I.
(03:41):
RememberI remember that was really cool
is because there's all thosewhen we come in and, you know,
I have a film degree,so I don't know what
any of this stuff is, you know,I know how to lift weights
like, that's up and down.
That's that's wheremy knowledge starts and ends.
Right.
But you had these like the,the jump plate, you can measure
like their force.
And you set all these coolbenchmarks
at the beginning of the yearis very individualistic. Yeah.
(04:04):
And there's just it'sso much more technical
than I probably wasten years ago
and probably will be, in fact,five years.
It's just so cool that there'sit's so individualistic
for every single athlete.
No. Yeah.
And it I imagineit behooves them as well
and gives you more information.
It's just I think it'sreally interesting.
(04:24):
It's really cool.
On top of the fact that like,you just don't like players
coming back from injury.
I know you and Clarkworked together.
Yeah a lot.
Clark, the athletic trainerfor basketball.
Yeah.
What's that relationship like?
Obviously you know you can'tI don't want to get like
specific specific injuriesand athletes and stuff.
But like ofof trying to get a player
who really desperatelywants to come back.
(04:47):
You know I mean you knowhow athletes are the worst
thing you can do is tellyou got to stop today right.
You knowpull them out of practice.
It's the worst. Yeah.
How do you kind of manageworking with that.
Because I'mit's for their benefit.
But it's so hard.
But you have all this datathat helps out. Sure.
Absolutely. Yeah.
You know, Clark, like myself,I've been doing this
a long time, and,we've been working together
(05:07):
for a long time as well.
So, you know, obviouslyhe handles more of the,
rehab coming back from apossible surgery or an injury.
And then there's going to bea little bit of overlap between
when they're fully clearedfor activity, full activities
in the weight room.
(05:27):
So there's kind of thismelding of,
you know, his area and my area.
So we got to be ableto communicate.
And you know he kind of lets meknow, maybe things to avoid
or things to modifybecause I think the last thing
is, you said you want to dowith an athlete is obviously
give them complete restbecause at the end of the day,
(05:47):
if a guy hurts his ankle,there's still a lot of
different things.
You can train, around thatankle.
That's true.
You know, you got the other leg.
You can do you can do some,some things
that don't actually involvethe ankle, like leg
extensions or leg curls,you know, so there's
there's various exercisesthat you can still
give them a training effectso they don't train during that
(06:08):
that time. Yeah. Like that.
That's a good that's a goodstrength coach term there.
Yeah d train d.
Training,which is a lot of what we try
and do withour in-season lifting. Right.
You know, we're training twicea week, playing twice a week.
So we're tryingnot to, you know,
we don't want to get weakeras the season goes on.
That doesn't necessarily meanthat we're going to be able
(06:30):
to build a lot of strength,because you got the fatigue
that happens from the games.
But on some level,the lifting allows you
to manage the fatiguebecause I think ultimately
movement, the movementand the blood flow
and the training of of,you know, strength
training, power training,helps them
recover on some level as well.
So, we work really hardthroughout the,
(06:51):
the summer periodand the early fall,
you know, training 4or 5 days a week.
And then once you kind ofget into the season,
you know, you taperthat off a little bit.
But we're still, you know,we're reducing the volume
that we do in the weight room.
But the intensity still hasto maintain a certain level
so you don't get weaker.
Sure. You know it'shard. It's a long season.
(07:12):
It tell me about it's 30some odd games and it's wild.
You know Novemberhopefully April.
That's the goalright? Right. 100%.
So I did want to shifta little bit though,
because I think there'sa couple interesting things I
want to talk about. First off,what got you
into so as a strength coach.
Right. Work performance. Right.
(07:33):
How much choice is there in likeso you've done basketball
pretty much your whole career.
A good amount of it. Yeah.
Started well.
So like I said, we've donesome research on you here.
Yeah, give it to me.
So, some time with the ChicagoBulls. Yep.
And then, you know, all the wayfrom India, Illinois?
(07:54):
Yeah.
I'm from Illinois, originally.
The Illinois, Chicago Bulls.
You've been here for.
I mean, you've been. Basketballhas been a lot of your life.
Yep. Basketball territoryyou grew up in.
So is it always been basketballor is that always been the goal
you wanted to work with or.
Not really.
I know I love workingwith basketball, but I never.
So when I got in the strengthconditioning,
I really just wanted to workwith athletes.
(08:15):
I was just my goal is,you know, a lot of people any.
Way you can.
Yeah, just, you know,I want to train athletes.
I wrestled in college.
I wrestled at Northern Illinois.
So I have a background ofbeing a Division one athlete.
That is what got me interestedin strength conditioning,
because withoutbeing bigger and stronger,
I probably wouldn'thave been able
to compete at that level.
(08:36):
So that's kind of wheremy interest in training began.
Even though I trainin high school.
But obviously, onceI got exposed to, hey, there's
guys in college that trainssports and trains teams,
eventually I realized that'swhat I wanted to do. So,
intern with the Chicago Bullsback in the early 2000,
(08:57):
2003, mainly, I was there with,you know, the Baby
Bulls, Eddie Curry, TysonChandler,
Jason Williams, Kirk Heinrich.
We werewe weren't very good, but it's.
Still pretty cool.
You know, kind.
Of the kind of the postJordan era.
But I really went there,to be honest.
I went there not because,they were the Chicago Bulls,
(09:18):
even though I'm from Illinoisand I grew up obviously
watching Michael Jordanand the Bulls in there
and their six championships.
But I went therebecause of Al Vermeil,
who was basically a legendin our field.
He's now retired from the Bulls.
He's probably I think I wasprobably in his 80s now,
but he's the only strengthcoach in professional sports
to have championshipsfrom football.
(09:38):
He won a championship with the40 Niners back in the mid 80s,
probably 84 I think,and then was with the White Sox
and the Bulls for a whileand then train the Bulls for 20
plus years.
So I really went to the Bullsbecause of Al, not because
they were the Bulls.
So it's a good resource though.
Yeah. No, he's he's reallya true legend in our field.
(10:00):
You know,just one of those guys that,
like a lot of us in this field,you know, there's
always something to learn.
You can always get better.
You know, the same thingwe teach to our athletes, right?
Like, you know, the same thingthat Coach Pro preaches.
Like, no matter how goodwe're playing,
we can always improve.
We can always get better.
So, yeah,I was a big influence in,
(10:21):
my development,and my, my career.
And that's ultimately whatled me into basketball.
But I've actually trained,you know, you know,
I was at the university.
I was about five years priorto coming to Auburn.
I train track and field,baseball, tennis, golf.
When I got to Auburn,I was on the Coliseum in 2008.
(10:45):
I originally started trainingall the track and field
men and women'sgolf, men and women's tennis,
and then did thatfor a couple of years.
Then I transitioned to baseballfor a couple of years
baseball, track and field,women's tennis.
And then I started trainingbasketball back in.
I believe it was 2012.
So. I'dlike to at least have one.
(11:07):
I think focus.
I think what makes my,my philosophy really
unique is the fact that I've,I've had exposure with sports
like track and field, whichare sports
where you're looking to peakat the right time of the year.
I've been able to takesome of that experience
with those sports andand take it into basketball.
Sure. A big part of that.
Because, you know, because whattrack and field, you know.
(11:28):
Yeah, the early meetsthey're important.
But it's really aboutbeing your best.
It SEC championshipsregionals and NCAA place.
So just like with our teamwe want to be our best
come March. Yeah.
So I've takenwhereas if you're a younger
strength coach and you sayI want to work
with basketball and footballand you just ingrain yourself
(11:48):
in that sport,I don't think you quite
get the the developmentand the exposure to different,
different sports,different athletes,
because I've, I've really takensome of my knowledge of
acceleration and speed trainingthat I've learned through track
and field and tried to apply itto basketball
or even a sport like tennis,which has a lot of lateral
(12:10):
movement similar to basketball.
So I mean, there's.
That makes sense.
You're findinga lot of similarities between
even a sport like golf.
You know, golf's about,you know, trans transit,
you know, transferring energyfrom the ground
into the club, into the ball,which requires lateral force.
So, basketballis one of those sports
that you need to be goodin all three planes of motion.
(12:31):
You got to be good vertically.
You got to be able to have,you know,
good acceleration linearly to,you know, sprint down the court,
obviously,and then you've got to be able
to move multidirectionalor laterally to play defense
and stay in front of guys.
Not to mention the way that,you know, Bpy likes to play,
which it's I mean,it's an exhausting sport,
(12:53):
but the aggression, especiallyon the defensive side, like
these guys got to be ready.
100. Percent.
And and you've heard it.
I think anybody who's Auburnbasketball fan has heard it
that BP, you know, caresif you can play defense.
You'll play 100%.
Being aggressive on defenseis so exhausting.
(13:13):
And to be able to playa 40 minute game
and still be not as tiredas the guy across from you,
I mean, that's it'sa lot of work that you,
you have to put into put the players
in, to be able to be ableto be their best.
Definitely.
Because, I mean, that's beenBP's entire thing here, right?
That it'sbeen a lot on your shoulders,
which is in the game.
(13:35):
I'm not going to be as tiredas as you're going to be.
Well,and also playing 9 or 10 guys.
So that also helps, you know,playing playing a bigger
rotation definitely helps.
It also helps on the sideof what I do in the weight
room, because if they play38 minutes a game, you know,
getting something out of thembetween two games
is a little more difficultthan when they're playing
(13:56):
28 to 32 minutes. So, and I alsothink that people don't realize
that, you know, if you say, oh,he played
34 minutes versus 30 minutes,I got that's only four minutes.
But over the course of 30games, four minutes adds up to
multiple, multiple more gamesyou've played in your legs than
someone else has.
And so I think the factthat we try and, you know, play
(14:17):
nine, ten guys and,you know, rotate in and out
and wear teams down, also helpswith our conditioning
because guys knowthey don't have to
they don't have to rest,you know, don't rest
because you're goingto get a breather, you know.
So you got someone coming offthe bench who, you know.
And as you can seewith our team,
we're not going to drop offmuch when
(14:39):
when the bench comes in either.
If it's true searcher.
So yeah, that'syou know, working with BP now
for 11 years.
It's it's just becomeone of those things where
I know what he's going to doat certain times of the year,
and he knows what I'm tryingto do
at certain times of the year.
And I thinkwe've got a really good
I feel really comfortable withour system that we've created,
to develop that.
(14:59):
In, in a long time,you know, here. And it's,
I imagine it gets veryfamiliar, very comfortable.
And you can.
Well, I mean, as you know,with, with SEC athletics
or any Divisionone athletics, like, you know,
there's a lot of turnover.
So, I mean, I think meand, the guy at South Carolina
probably got the longest tenurein the SEC,
where there's a lot of guyswho've only been in the SEC
(15:19):
for one two years, maybe,you know, because think about
all the new coaching hiresand the is a 3 or 4 years.
Yeah, it's a lot of workand it's it's a lot.
I think there'ssome crazy things that happen
working in athletics.
You know the the time is it'sa, it's a labor of love.
It is.
But yeah, I know that is crazybecause it is a lot of turnover.
You never know.
And the crazything about turnover is
(15:41):
it's like you knowyou got to move.
Yeah it's crazy.
And it's so it's so interestingthat you've been able
to been here be here so long.
Family's here.
Growing up likethis is like home.
This is home for sure. Yeah.
My son was one when we movedhere.
He's a junior in high schooland that's my.
My daughter was born here, so.
Yeah, it's,it's definitely home now.
(16:02):
And I'm,you know, just, I'm fortunate.
I'm blessed that,you know, to work
under such great leadershipthat, you know, has allowed me
to, to, you know, bepart of the success
and have stabilityfor such a long time because,
you know, that's rarelythe case in our profession.
You know, sometimesevery 4 or 5 years,
(16:23):
you're moving, looking,looking for a new a new job.
And, you know, and I'm I'ma creature of habit, you know?
Sure.
I don't like change.
I like, you know,I like routine and,
you know, so it's definitelybeen a blessing for me.
Wonderful.
I did want to see,you know, as a strength coach,
(16:44):
I would imagine you work outoccasionally.
I do not as much as I didwhen I was 30.
Probably. The.
Are you changed the emphasisa little bit
as you get a little bit older,a little bit.
What is a strength coach?
A strength routinelook like, you know,
because you really got to beable to, you know,
show it to the guysas they need it sometimes.
Yeah, I used to be able todo it a lot more.
You know, I could jump in andand lift with the guys
(17:05):
in previous years.
You know I'm 48.
So the, the amount of, trainingdays that I can tolerate
and recover from is decreased.
I probably, you know,switched, not switch,
but transitioned to a littlebit more, what you consider,
I guess, cardiovascular or,you know, more aerobics,
(17:26):
exercise stuff to make,you know,
make sure your heart is healthyand that,
you know, all areas of yourbody are functioning correctly.
Probably more mobility work,but, yeah, I still, you know,
I think maintaining strength iseven as you get older,
is is highly important.
You know, I actually,work a couple of days a week
with one of our foreign players,John Mingo, who's 75 years old
(17:46):
and still lifts weights.
birng it on, man.
Yeah.
You know, he's a retired,you know, his jerseys
hanging in Neville Arena.
So, he's a 75 yearold years old.
He's still competing, basically.
So, Yeah, I'm I'm tryingto be like him someday.
Just.
You think you're on your way?
(18:06):
I'd rather.
Well, you know,I saw one of my colleagues,
in strength conditioning,just had a surgery,
and I, you know, I,I text him and just said,
you know, rest up.
And he said, I'd.
I'd rather wear outthan rest out.
So just basically means, like,I'd rather, you know,
where, where things outthan just be stagnant and,
(18:27):
you know, rustbasically as you get older. So,
yeah, I still I still train,just not probably not
as, as frequently. Sure.
I think it's cool.
And then you just mentionedthat one thing
that's really coolabout working athletics
is there aren't many peoplewhere you're currently
at doing what you do.
I mean, there's a few handfulhere and there,
but there's a lot of peoplearound the country.
(18:48):
So you get to go traveland you get to meet
your colleagues and the peoplein the same position.
You get this really coolnetwork.
Yeah.
Of people in this kind of closeknit group.
It's it's such a it'ssuch a fun time to get to go.
It's like visitingyour friends, doing the travel.
You get togo visit your friends. It is.
Did want to ask you to putyou on the spot a little bit.
I don't want to out anybody.
But if anybody comes to mindthroughout,
(19:11):
you know, Auburn basketballfans,
we got a pretty good memoryof some players. Yep.
Anybody comes to mindthat is just really
was surprisinglyjust ridiculous in the gym
that just maybe, you know,because
we've seen it all before thissome guys
go in there and just gym andthen just they'll surprise you.
Yeah.
Biggest surprise.
(19:31):
Anybody come to mind?
I've had some really, like, KTHarrel was a really strong
dude. Yeah.
Probablyone of the strongest dudes
that I've worked with pound for.
Pound.
You know, and just,you know, to me, it's
just about the guys thatthat come in and do the things
they're supposed to do,even when they don't
feel like doing it,because there's a lot of times
where,you know, you're going to be
(19:53):
sore, you're going to be tired,whether that's in the off season
or the season from games.
And you're not always goingto want to come in
and do the thingsthat I ask you to do.
But you know, I believe thatsuccess leaves clues, right?
And I thinkif you look at the guys
that are stillplaying at a high level,
you know, you look atWalker Kessler, Jabari or Isaac
or Chuma, Jared or Bryce,whether it be in the NBA
(20:17):
or overseas, likethose guys were usually
my hardest workers.
Isaac's the one that I,I get to witness him.
And the first timeI saw him in the gym,
yeah, it was the first timeI saw I was like, oh,
so that's the guythat everyone's been talk about
makes, makes that makes sense.
Yeah. He was he was a freak.
Yeah.
But he but he also never restedon the fact that he was,
(20:38):
you know,even out of high school,
he was pretty physically,you know, put together.
You know, he had some reallygood physical qualities. But,
you know,those are guys just come in
and they do the workand they trust the process.
And you know, there's days, youknow, they just don't got it.
But they still find a way to,you know, push through fatigue
(20:58):
and, work hard.
And, you know, that's what I tryand I try and preach that to
our guys is that, you know,I've seen, you know,
I've seen those guys tryand I know
what their habits are.
They're notthey're not missing lifts.
They're not now,they may not always, you know,
you may have to make someadjustments day to day, but
(21:19):
they're going to get good inand give you their best effort
because ultimatelythey've got bigger goals.
You know they've got goalsto play at the next level.
And it takes what it takes,right?
Yeah, no, it definitely does.
It's a lot of work.
Just want to wrapthings up here as we're getting
look atmy watch here close to time.
Auburn Neville Arena.
Auburn arena is such a strength.
(21:42):
Hornibrook. Yeah absolutely.
And it's one thing to see iton TV.
It's as a single person.
And you get to sit on the benchand witness it and see how
it energizes the players.
You know what's it been,especially over the course
of your tenure here?
It's gone from,let's be honest, not great.
Not very.
Correct to probablyone of the hardest tickets
to score in the SEC.
(22:05):
Definitely.
What's it been like to watchand kind of experience
and get to see it dayin, day out and see what it does
to the team and the guys?
You know, I guessyou kind of get get used to it.
But, you know,when you go to other places,
you know, we went to Texas and,you know, obviously
they take their athleticspretty seriously too.
(22:26):
And, you know, it just it'sit's not the same, you know,
the, the jungle is the jungle.
Our fans, you know,the fact that they're out there
camping out before games or.
I still can't believekids are doing that now.
That's wild.
I never would have guessedthat Auburn would be a place
that people are out theredays early, standing in line,
getting tense.
(22:47):
Me neither. But here we are.
Yes. Great.
I mean, I just, you know,I love the
I love the fans enthusiasm.
And, you know, it's such, it'ssuch an advantage over,
you know, any place we play,you know
how excited our guys get when,you know, there's a big dunk,
you know, the benchesjumping up and down.
(23:07):
And I mean, you know, we'rearound it so much that maybe
you don't always appreciate itbecause it's just it's normal.
Right. Like that's your jobevery day. Yeah.
The craziness is justnormal now.
But, you know, the fact that,you know,
we're going to have anothergame day here on Saturday
versus Tennessee and,you know, I think it's,
what, five years in a row?
(23:29):
Yeah. Something like,just about that.
We've had College GameDay here.
Yeah.
It's just about I rememberI got to work the first time,
GameDay came back.
Probably Kentucky. Was Kentucky.
It was 2019, I believe itwas. Yep.
Almost got kicked outbecause they did not
like how aggressiveI was being with my camera.
But I remember it was likeI still got the,
(23:49):
like the beanie they give outthat looks like the hoop
in that. Yeah, that'ssitting on my desk right now.
I love it.
Yeah.
It's I mean, it's a lot of fun,you know, just coach Perles
energy coach, you know,just his, his competitiveness.
You know, from day one is,you know, I just he's he's done
such a great job of helphelping,
(24:09):
you know, just developingthis program and and building
building it tirelessly,you know, just and I
think we all kind of take a,a piece from him because, you
know, he works as hardas the players, if not harder.
You know, he's, you know,he watches film all the time
and, you know, it'sjust like sometimes
I got to encourage himto take some time for himself.
(24:32):
And hey, let's get outand get on the bike and go
because he gets so, so lockedin to watching games and
and doing things on my coach,you got to, you know,
you got to give yourselfa little bit of time for you
just for your health and just,you know,
it's a long season for him too.
So, it, you know, it's,it's been a lot of fun
to just be a part of.
Like I said, it's, you know, 11.
(24:54):
It's crazy.
It's been 11 years that this isyear 11 with with Bruce.
So it is it is truly crazyand and he just I know he just
became the winningest coachat Auburn as well.
Was just wildthat that's already happened.
And I don't knowit's been incredible
to watch himand I was very lucky
to spend a little bit of timewith you guys for a few years
there, which was a lot of fun.
Yeah.
(25:15):
Man, I miss it though.
It is a lot of fun. It is.
I've always loved basketball.
I always loved the waythat team, the way BP is built,
the team staff,the way you guys all were.
It's it'sjust a fun group to be around.
And we've been you know,we've been fortunate.
Just like keeping some ofthe players in the program.
We've kept a lot ofthe same staff in the program.
(25:35):
You know, guyshave probably had opportunities
to go other places.
But the fact that we've gotsuch continuity between,
you know, Coach Pruitt, StephenIan Berg, you know, we've IRA.
Yeah.
In fact, we've had very little,very little turnover.
So across the board is probablyone of the least that that staff
has been more consistentthan any other college staff
(25:57):
that I've ever that I've everwitnessed. Definitely. Yeah.
Yeah, that's that's true.
And you don't really thinkabout that.
It's not very commonthat you see that.
And I think there's a lot ofthat's like this place,
a lot of it's BP,a lot of it's the,
you know, the jungle.
It's just all of it.
Yeah. It's hard.
It's, you know,why would you want to leave?
I don't want to.
I left and came back.
(26:17):
I know you did.
I could can't keep me away.
Well, as we wrap up,I just want to say thank you.
You know, you do a thankless joband a job
that's behind the scenes.
That maybe not,but Auburn basketball
would not be the samewithout you.
I appreciate that.
It's been it'sbeen a lot of fun.
It's been a lot of fun.
You know I've had some,you know, great players and
(26:40):
you know guys that,you know ultimately
just they give themthey give their best every day.
And you know, that's reallyall I can ask for
is just guys that are,are willing to come in and,
and just workthrough the process
and come in every dayready to get better.
And, you know, if you getif you get a group of guys
kind of allpulling in the same direction,
(27:01):
I think you getwhat you're seeing right now.
You see, you know,you see success
and you know, brotherhoodand you see all these guys
that just they're having funplaying together
and they love each other. And,yeah, it's it's special.
But, you know,I think when you're in it
at this time of the year,you just you don't
you don't get a chance.
You don't reflect on itright now because
(27:21):
all you're worried aboutis what's next.
Like we got Tennesseecoming up this weekend.
You know we got at LSUand then we're on the road.
So it's a greatno there's no there's
no time to reflect right now.
And then when the seasongets over will reflect on it.
And then you get back to work.
What was the thing fromdo you ever watch The Office?
Yeah.
What's the the thing Andy says.
And that I wishthere was a way to know
(27:43):
the when you're in the glorydays.
I wish there was a way to knowthe glory days
when you're in them. Yeah.
But. Well,thank you for joining us.
Thanks for taking the time.
Good luckthe rest of the season.
You know, I'msure you guys are going to keep
having fun and doing well, but,thank you for joining us.
And thank you for joining us.
(28:03):
We'll be back again next month,hopefully with Dalton as well.
He'll be back from injury.
We'll be back againwith another wonderful
guest of our Auburn family.
Visit our podcast hub visits,listen to some of our older
episodes, seewho else we've chatted with,
and we'll see you againnext time.
My name is Carter War Eagle.
Get a war eagle fromyou, War Eagle. Heck, yeah!
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