Thanks.

Interview Conducted 11/5/2008

AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli

University of Rhode Island head coach Jim Baron has spent his entire career developing his players both on the basketball court and in the classroom.

His attention to athletic and academic success dates back to his four years as a student-athlete at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, N.Y.

Baron, who was named co-captain his senior year, helped lead the Bonnies to the 1976-77 NIT title. His 3.9 assists per game were a team high that season.

Before commencement, Baron was selected by the University Committee as the Ideal Bonaventure Student. The school gives this award yearly to a student or students who exemplify the spirit of St. Bonaventure and the ideals of St. Francis through community service and academic excellence.

He later earned his master’s degree at St. Bonaventure in 1988.

Baron served as an assistant coach at Notre Dame from 1981-87. He learned from Head Coach Richard “Digger” Phelps how to create an infrastructure which allows basketball players to maximize their potential as both athletes and students.

BARON: “We graduated every one of our players. We had Academic All-Americans. We had tremendous student athletes. I’ve taken that equation every place I’ve been.”

In 1987, Baron accepted the Head Coaching position at St. Francis (Pa.). The Red Flash were a historically moribund program. Baron recruited the best available talent who fit his student-athlete mantra. By his fourth season, he led the Red Flash to their lone NCAA Tournament bid in school history.

During his five-year tenure at St. Francis, Baron graduated 100 percent of his players. One of those student-athletes was Mike Iuzzolino, whom the United States Basketball Writer’s Association recognized as the 1991 Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. A 5’10″ guard, Iuzzolino later played two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks.

When St. Bonaventure offered Baron their head coaching position in 1992, he was excited to return to his alma mater.

Once a proud program that boasted a Final Four appearance in 1970 and an NIT Championship during Baron’s senior year in 1977, the Bonnies had fallen on hard times. The team had won just 53 games in their last six seasons.

BARON: “Everyone said, ‘Oh the Bonnies, you’re not going to win.’ In three years, we turned it around. We won 18 games in one of the toughest years in the Atlantic-10 [1994-95].”

Baron graduated 95 percent of his athletes during his nine-year tenure, which included an NCAA tournament appearance and two NIT bids.

He left his alma mater in 2001 to accept the head coaching at the University of Rhode Island. In their previous two seasons, the Rams had won a combined total of 12 games.

Two seasons later, Baron led the Rams to a 20-11 record and the second round of the NIT, mostly with players recruited by previous head coach Jerry DeGregorio.

BARON: “The nice part about it was that I was fortunate to take the guys who were there and try to transform them into an exciting group.”

“You’ve got to have a positive attitude and you got to look at what is and what isn’t. I have always been a coach of looking at what is. I value being part of the transition and solution.”

“To me, that is true coaching. I take ‘what is’ and try to transform that in the short term so that I can gain some consistency down the road in the long term.”

When new recruits enter the University of Rhode Island, Baron provides them with a booklet of six rules, 10 goals, and 16 expectations as student-athletes.

BARON: “If you want to graduate and you want to develop into an outstanding basketball player, those are my expectations.”

Parfait Bitee, Will Daniels, and Joe Mbang, the three scholarship seniors from the 2007-08 season, all received their diplomas on time.

Every senior for this upcoming season is scheduled to graduate either early or on time.

While Baron has provided the infrastructure for his players to succeed, he credits them for their own personal athletic and academic success.

BARON: “The players do it. My staff and I just try to develop them.”

Jim Baron Links:

Official Biography: University of Rhode Island Rams

StatSheet.com: Year-By-Year Coaching Record for Jim Baron

Coach Jim Baron’s One-Minute Ad for URI Basketball

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/28/2008

Princeton Athletics

Before the 1988-89 college basketball season, the NCAA considered removing automatic NCAA Tournament bids of teams from small conferences.

These teams were generally non-competitive in the first round against their opponents, who were #1 and #2 seeds.

The #16 seed Princeton Tigers of the non-scholarship Ivy League forever changed the thinking of the NCAA hierarchs.

Led by Ivy League Player of the Year Bob Scrabis, the 1988-89 Princeton Tigers nearly pulled off a monumental upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against the #1 team in the nation, the Georgetown Hoyas.

The final regular season game before the NCAA Tournament seeding was the Big East Conference Championship between Georgetown and Syracuse. The Princeton Tigers watched the game on television waiting for the selection show. The Hoyas’ won 88-79 with a pressing defense that overwhelmed Syracuse.

SCRABIS: “When the selection show started, the first game they showed was Georgetown and us. I think we were excited and me being the only senior and captain of the team, I had to sort of keep my composure.”

During practices leading up to the tournament, Head Coach Pete Carril instructed Princeton’s second team to mimic Georgetown’s pressing defense against the starters.

SCRABIS: “They were told just to press us all over the place. We were having all kinds of trouble getting our offense to function against our second team. We knew we had a tough game ahead of us.”

Princeton held their final practice at the Providence Civic Center, home to the tournament game the next day.

SCRABIS: “The Providence Civic Center’s floor had so much spring on it. I remember the night before shooting from way beyond the pro three point line and having unbelievable spring. It just felt like something special was going to happen.”

Carril emphasized to the Tigers that they weren’t just playing in the game to make a good representation of the Ivy League. He told them not to change anything they did on either the offensive or defensive ends just because they were playing Georgetown.

Still the reality of the situation was the Tigers were 23-point underdogs and would have to face the Hoyas’ star freshman center Alonzo Mourning.

Ebullient ESPN analyst Dick Vitale was so sure of a Georgetown victory, he famously remarked before the game, “If Princeton can beat Georgetown, I am going to hitchhike to Providence which isn’t that far from here. I’m going to be their ball boy on their next game and then I’m going to change into a Princeton cheerleading uniform and lead all the cheers.”

Princeton did not show any fear of Mourning. The Tigers’ first four baskets were all right over him.

SCRABIS: “Just taking it at him was how we had to do it. If he blocks our shot, he blocks our shot. You got to do what got you there.”

Princeton extended their lead to 15-10 with 7:51 to go in the first half.

SCRABIS: “As we got into the first half, we realized we could play with these guys. We were amazed we were able to run our offense with the ease we did. We got a bunch of backdoor layups, we were making our shots, and they weren’t pressing [us] yet.”

Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson called a timeout with Princeton ahead 19-14 at the 4:12 mark to settle his team down.

SCRABIS: “I don’t think they were taking us too seriously, but they realized towards the end of the first half that they were in for a game.”

“I could see in their eyes they were pressing. Mark Tillmon was pressing. Charles Smith was pressing. Jaren Jackson was pressing.  You could see there was fear. Once they knew they were in for a game, you could see the infighting and the nervousness.”

Georgetown turned on their full-court press defense to no avail.

SCRABIS: “We were just sitting there waiting for their press. We saw them destroy Syracuse with it. Syracuse turned the ball over so much against it.”

“When they put the press on, nothing changed. We brought the center to the frontcourt and Alonzo Mourning wouldn’t follow him, so we had no problem getting the ball up the court.”

At halftime, Princeton took a 29-21 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, Alonzo Mourning almost single-handedly willed the Hoyas back into the game. He finished the game with 21 points, scoring seven of Georgetown’s final nine points, and hitting crucial free throws. On the defensive end, he blocked seven shots and altered others.

The game remained close the entire second half, with Princeton continuing to get good open shots in the paint.

Princeton Leads 49-47 with 1:41 to go. Photo/Joe Shlabotnik

With 15 seconds to go, Princeton was down 50-49. Carril called timeout when the Tigers crossed halfcourt. He wanted the ball in Scrabis’s hands on the last possession.

Scrabis, who led all Princeton scorers with 15 points, launched a three-pointer from the key with five seconds remaining. The shot was blocked by Mourning.

SCRABIS: “You dream of it as a kid and when you are on your driveway or in the playground, you don’t go inside until you make that shot. Then again, you don’t have 6’11″ guys jumping out of the bushes to block the shot. It always goes in at the end.”

In a scrum for the loose ball, Georgetown’s Sam Jefferson stepped on the out of bounds line with one second to go.

Princeton had one final chance on a side-out throw in.

SCRABIS: “We’re all scrambling. There’s about a second left and [Matt] Lapin is waiting to receive the ball. Alonzo Mourning is playing in front of Kit Mueller and there’s nobody behind him. So if Matt Lapin could lob it over Mourning’s head, we would have had a layup to win the game.

“He sees this and he’s trying not to tip off anybody and the ref is just about to give Matt the ball. You hear the Georgetown bench yelling. The ref pulls the ball back, and they yell at him to play behind Kit Mueller.”

“That split-second coaching move by the Georgetown bench saved the game.”

Lapin threw an inbound pass to Mueller who had Mourning posted up on the right elbow of the court. Mueller took a turnaround shot that was blocked by Mourning.

Many Princeton basketball fans and other basketball aficionados insist twenty years later that Kit Mueller was fouled on the final shot.

Scrabis remains diplomatic.

SCRABIS: “There was no way the [referees] would call that. I could understand why they wouldn’t.”

Condensed video of the game between
#16 Seed Princeton against #1 Georgetown

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/27/2008

Robert Beck/SI

Lorenzo Romar, entering his seventh season as head coach of the Washington Huskies, has been able to influence many lives through the game of basketball, whether it be through sports ministry or coaching.

Romar and his family grew up in Compton, California, one of the most dangerous cities in America. Street gangs, violent crime, and abject poverty are all prevalent.

Romar and his brother Wayne were able to avoid the allure of street life for teens growing up in Compton.

ROMAR: “Between my parents and sports, those two things kept me from getting involved in anything like that. We just wouldn’t come home if we did something dumb and our parents found out about it. It wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience.”

“Our sports meant too much to my brother and I to get involved in anything that was going to take away from us or not allow us to be as good as we can be.”

Romar received a basketball scholarship to two-year Cerritos College. Wayne signed to play basketball with Sterling College, an NAIA school in Kansas.

Lorenzo Romar in College

After graduating from Cerritos, Romar transferred to the University of Washington in 1978. He started both seasons at the point guard position for the Huskies and was selected team captain for his senior year.

The Golden State Warriors took a seventh round flier on Romar in the 1980 NBA Draft. He was the only pick from that round to play in the NBA.

Not only did he make the Warriors, Romar logged almost 15 minutes a game his rookie season backing up John Lucas and World B. Free.

ROMAR: “By the grace of God, I was able to get an opportunity, and once I was there, they saw I was going to be the hardest worker and had the biggest passion out there.”

“They felt that I had a great attitude. I was happy to have that opportunity. I didn’t feel like they owed me anything and I was a decent ball player.”

“When you put all of that together, I think they felt that I could develop as a player, and while I was developing, give them zero problems. I was a low-maintenance guy.”

Romar had his best season with the Warriors in the 1982-83 season, averaging 7.6 points per game and 5.5 assists. He didn’t miss a game all season, and started 64 of them.

He was waived during the start of the 1983-84 season by the Warriors, and played in 65 games the rest of the year for the Milwaukee Bucks.

He was cut twice in 1984-85, appearing in a combined nine games for the Bucks and Pistons.

Romar received a summer tryout offer the following season by the Indiana Pacers. At the same time, he learned more about Athletes in Action, an evangelical sports ministry whose stated mission is to build spiritual movements everywhere through the platform of sport.

ROMAR: “I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the [Pacers] or not, but Athletes in Action provided me the opportunity to play basketball and use it as a platform to share my faith in Jesus Christ to all who wanted to listen.

Romar became a Christian on Sept. 10, 1983 when he asked Christ to take over his life.

ROMAR: “I grew up thinking if I was a good person, I’d be okay in God’s eyes and that’s what I set out to do. When I was reading the Bible, I realized that was my opinion. I didn’t create myself, so I had to go to the one who created me, and that was God.”

“I realized that being good enough wasn’t going to get me into heaven, because none of us are good enough on our own. That’s why God sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us so we wouldn’t be punished because of the wrong we had done.”

“I had read and begun to understand that and realize that I was separated from God because of this. I may not have been a criminal, but I was going to do what I wanted to do and not the way God wanted me to live. The Bible calls that sin, and there’s a price that had to be paid for that and it was Jesus Christ’s death. So I asked Christ to come into my life.”

Romar was a member of Athletes in Action for seven years. At that time, they generally played 30 exhibition games each fall against Division I schools. During halftime or at the end of games, each player shared their personal stories of coming to Christ.

In addition to playing exhibition games against Division I schools, the Athletes in Action basketball team played in countries throughout the world, ran summer camps in the United States, and played in prisons and jails.

By 1992, Romar was a player-coach for Athletes in Action. He decided to take an assistant job offred by then UCLA Head Coach Jim Harrick. Romar recruited many of the players on the 1995 UCLA National Championship team.

In 1996, Romar accepted the Head Coaching position at Pepperdine. He later moved on to the St. Louis Billikens in 1999.

When his alma mater came calling in 2002, Romar accepted the Head Coaching position.

Romar is 119-72 in six years at Washington and has taken the team to two Sweet Sixteens.

In 2006, Romar received what he deemed one of the most special awards in his life. He was presented with the “Keys to Life Award,” an annual honor given to a member of the college or professional basketball community who lives out Coach Wooden’s seven-point creed, which was given to him as a child by his father.

Coach Wooden’s “Keys to Life” are:
1. Be true to yourself.
2. Help others.
3. Make each day your masterpiece.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

ROMAR: “What John Wooden was about was character and obviously, in my opinion, the greatest coach ever. It was more important to him that he possessed character and did things right.”

“For someone to recognize you in that regard is really special. If someone acknowledges you have good character, that transcends every part of your life.”

Lorenzo Romar Links:

Official Biography: University of Washington Basketball

Lorenzo Romar: Career NBA Statistics

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/21/2008

AP/Isaac Brekken

Steve McClain, now in his second season as Colorado’s Associate Head Coach, has not been a stranger to success throughout his coaching career.

McClain compiled a 157-115 overall record in his nine seasons as Head Coach at Wyoming from 1998-2007. He led the Cowboys to one NCAA Tournament appearance and three NIT bids.

He was noted for his ability to recruit talented out-of-state players to a school that a Chicago Tribune sportswriter once referred to as “The Siberia of Division-I college basketball.”

Larimie, Wyo. is a remote town of just over 27,000 residents. Laramie has long, cold winters and is over 100 miles from Denver, the nearest large city. None of these factors were conducive to landing highly-touted recruits. In addition, few Few Division-I basketball recruits hail from the state of Wyoming.

MCCLAIN: “We tried to go find kids who had a great desire to get a college degree, but were more worried about how they could become a better basketball player, how they could develop the goals they wanted to reach, and they weren’t worried about how big the city was or how the night life was.”

“We had to focus on getting kids that were serious about getting an education and who wanted to play college basketball on the highest level. We didn’t sugarcoat it. We told them exactly how it was, because you’re not going to trick a kid.”

“Once we got a player to Wyoming, we knew we had as good of facilities as anyone in the country. If we could get them on campus, we’d have a great shot to get them.”

McClain’s contract was terminated on March 12, 2007.

When former Denver Nuggets and Air Force Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik accepted the Colorado job in April 2007, he hired McClain as his top assistant.

MCCLAIN: “We coached against each other being in the same league. We had the best games in the Mountain West Conference. Our games with Air Force were always the best games and Jeff had respected what I had done at Wyoming for nine years.”

“When everything happened and he got the job, we sat and talked. There wasn’t any question that I wanted to come aboard and he wanted me to come aboard.”

McClain, well known for his intensity and animated demeanor on the sidelines during his over 25 years of coaching, has a lot to offer Bzdelik and the Colorado Buffalo players.

MCCLAIN: “My style has always been high-energy and trusting the guys I work with, whether as a head coach or an assistant coach and be the same way. I get [the players] to love what they are doing and do it to the best of their ability. That’s how I coached at Wyoming and that’s what I hope I’m bringing to Colorado.”

“One thing about me is that I can walk into any practice and add something, even if I don’t know what you’re doing. I believe your job as an assistant coach is to get guys to go harder and have some enthusiasm.”

With Bzdelik and his staff inheriting a team with little depth, Colorado went 12-20 in 2007-08.

They are again predicted to finish last in the Big 12 2008-09 Men’s Preseason Basketball Poll.

MCCLAIN: “We came in with a realistic idea that this wasn’t going to change overnight. Not in this league. You’re not going to jump from twelfth to second in this league in a year or two. It’s a process.”

This is not the first time McClain has been involved in a rebuilding process. When legendary coach Billy Tubbs accepted the Texas Christian University Head Men’s Basketball job in 1994, he added McClain, who had just won a national NJCAA title as Head Coach of Hutchinson Community College, to his staff.

MCCLAIN: “When we walked into that program, it was about as low as it could be. Four years later, we were in the NCAA Tournament.”

“One of the biggest things I learned from Billy is that you’ve got to go out and recruit great players. You’ve got to have the ability to get them to play hard and to make them believe they are better than they are.”

McClain said that Colorado is putting together a solid 2009 recruiting class and are ahead of schedule for the Classes of 2010 and 2011.

MCCLAIN: “Things are going to happen good around here.”

He offers several selling points to potential recruits.

MCCLAIN: “Let’s be honest, I’m working for a guy who spent 18 years in the NBA. If a kid’s really got the dream of playing in the NBA, then its easy for me to sit there and say ‘why won’t you come play for Jeff Bzdelik?’”

“We’ve got a great campus, we’ve got great academics, and we sit in a beautiful part of the country, and we play in one of the best leagues in the country.”

“All we needed was to upgrade our basketball facility, and there’s no question that the Chancellor [Bud Peterson] and [Athletic Director] Mike Bohn made a commitment to do that. I think the dollar number we’ve spent in almost a 14-month period is $2.5 million in upgrading the facilities.”

“We moved into new offices. They put in a new permanent floor this summer in our arena, We’ll break ground on a practice facility in several months.”

McClain said that he is looking for high-intellect recruits who are both students of the game and fit Coach Bzdelik’s style of offense, a hybrid between the Princeton Offense and sets that he ran as Head Coach of the Denver Nuggets.

MCCLAIN: “We’re going to get this program turned around and it’s something we’re really excited about. Hopefully, in the next two or three years, we’ll have something going at Colorado.”

The last minute of Wyoming’s Opening Round Upset
of #6 seed Gonzaga in the 2002 NCAA Tournament

Steve McClain Links:

University of Colorado: Official Bio

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/21/2008

Bentley Historical Library

Few athletes can lay claim to having an arena or stadium affectionately named in their honor. Cazzie Russell is one of them.

A legendary basketball prodigy from Chicago’s Southside, Russell arrived onto the city’s basketball scene when he led Carver High School’s Junior Varsity program to the Chicago city JV Title in 1960.

By his senior year, Russell paced Carver High School to the Chicago city title in 1962, averaging over 25 points a game.

As one of the most coveted senior prospects in the country, Russell received offers from over 50 college basketball programs. He narrowed his choices to UCLA, Marquette, Cincinnati, and Michigan.

Cincinnati sent Oscar Robertson, by then an NBA star with the Cincinnati Royals, to Carver High School to visit with Russell.

RUSSELL: “I had a tough decision because Oscar Robertson came to my high school. I idolized the way he played of course because we were the same size.”

Russell visited Michigan in the spring and developed a friendship with his tour guide, freshman Bill Buntin.

RUSSELL: “I was comfortable with Bill Buntin who was my host. As a young player coming out of high school, it was important to feel comfortable with [another] guy being from a predominantly black area.”

Russell ultimately chose Michigan because the basketball program was in a rebuilding stage.

RUSSELL: “It was basically a football school, so there probably wouldn’t be a lot of pressure. That was one of my major decisions.”

Russell led Michigan to three Big 10 titles, averaging 27.1 points per game in his career. He was a three-time AP All American.

The Wolverines made it to the NCAA Finals against UCLA in 1965 behind the tandem of Buntin and Russell, but ultimately lost 91-80. Russell scored 28 points in the game.

The following season, Russell was named AP College Basketball Player of the Year. He averaged 30.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

During Russell’s three years, tickets to Michigan games at Yost Field House, were difficult to obtain. Yost Field House, which was a small multi-purpose gymnasium built in 1923, could not accommodate the crowds who wanted to see Russell play.

Michigan’s athletic program decided to break ground on Crisler Arena in 1965, which holds over twice as many fans as Yost Field House. It opened two seasons after Russell finished his career at Michigan. The Arena is unofficially referred to by Wolverine fans as “The House That Cazzie Built.”

Crisler Arena: "The House That Cazzie Built"

The 1966 NBA Draft was the first year that the league did away with their prior system of territorial picks, which allowed franchises to forfeit their draft pick so they could select a local player to boost attendance.

Instead, the teams with the worst record in each conference had a coin flip to determine who would have first choice.

RUSSELL: “It was a coin toss between the Pistons and the Knicks, Dave Debusschere [then a Piston] called tails and it fell on heads. New York got the first pick.”

The Knicks selected Cazzie Russell with the first overall pick.

The 1966 NBA Draft was hardly a spectacle like today. No tailor-made suits, no television cameras, and no Green Room. In fact, there was no meeting place for draftees.

RUSSELL: “I heard the coin toss on the phone, and that was about it. New York won it. There was no platform, no dressing up, and no hats and suits.”

Though some athletes find the city of New York as an overwhelming fishbowl, Russell loved it right away. He refers to it as “The Mecca of Basketball.”

RUSSELL: “I thought it was great. The people were very knowledgeable about the game, of course the newspaper coverage was something to behold, and there was Madison Square Garden. I got my first taste of it when Michigan played Princeton and there was 19,500 people and I was in awe. Now here I was to be blessed to play pro in New York to make a living.”

Russell played five seasons in New York. As an integral player off the bench averaging 11.5 points per game, he won an NBA World Championship as a reserve for the 1969-70 Knicks.

In 1971, Willis Reed was injured and Head Coach Red Holzman needed a post player. He traded Russell to the Golden State Warriors for future Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas.

RUSSELL: “I thought [Golden State] was a great match. I enjoyed playing for Al Attles. San Francisco was really my kind of area. New York can kind of close you in at times.”

“The weather was great in San Francisco. I lived down in San Mateo and golfed a little bit.”

“I enjoyed playing with Nate Thurmond, Clyde Lee, and Jeff Mullins.”

“My first game with the Warriors was on the road against the Boston Celtics and we beat them. I think I had 15 rebounds that game. Nate Thurmond gave me a hard time about those rebounds. He said, ‘You stay out of there. That’s not your job!’ I had a good rapport with those guys.”

“My only regret was I got there the year after they wore the jerseys with ‘The City’ on them.”

Russell had two of the best seasons of his career with Golden State, averaging over 20 points per game in 1971-72 and again in 1973-74. He was selected to the 1972 All Star Game.

In 1974, Russell had an acrimonious split with the Warriors when they refused to resign him to a long-term, no-cut contract.

RUSSELL: “The Warriors could have kept me. They could have allowed me to finish my career there which is what I wanted to do. I’ve been upset with the Warriors ever since.”

“They had some doubts about my value and whether or not I could get a no-cut.”

“That doesn’t even sound fair. I must be missing something here. I was considered one of the top small forwards in the game at that time, shooting the ball, running the floor, and being in good shape.”

“I was so hurt that the Warriors could have given me a no-cut contract for two to three years, So I opted for free agency. I was one of the first guys to ever go out on the free agent market.”

Russell signed with the Lakers, starting all three seasons he was with the team.

He was ready to come back for the 1977-78 season, when Head Coach Jerry West cut him one week before the season began.

RUSSELL: “I thought I had been a pretty respectable young man, no drugs, no alcohol. I always worked out and kept in good shape. I always did what I was told and thought I was very professional. I worked hard and I conditioned. You would have thought that would have accounted for something.”

“They do things in that league that really make you wonder.”

With every team’s roster essentially set, Russell had to scramble to find a team to play for. He signed with the Chicago Bulls and spent his final season there, playing in just 36 games.

Russell said that in retrospect, he should have became a full-time basketball analyst instead of coming back to play his final season.

After his NBA career, he spent time coaching in the CBA, became an analyst for CBS’s “Game of the Week” and taught school in Columbus, OH.

In 1988, he received a calling to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RUSSELL: “I tried to run from it because I know what that entails, but it gave me a chance to rededicate my life because I had made some mistakes before that.”

Russell received counsel from his pastor in Columbus as to how to run a church, minister effectively, and make a difference in people’s lives by sharing the Gospel.

RUSSELL: “As an ordained minister, there’s a certain lifestyle, and there’s a certain way the Lord expects us to conduct ourselves. It’s one thing to talk about it and another thing to live it.”

“You make mistakes, but thanks be to God who can forgive us and we can repent of our sins. The Lord forgives us and we try to straighten up our lives then. Are we going to miss the mark? Sure. But we have an advocate on our side who is pleading our case.”

“To be saved and to be forgiven is the way it is. That’s the relationship I have with Jesus Christ who has forgiven me from the mistakes I made.”

“The one who has blessed me with the gift to play the game has also blessed me with the ministry to preach about eternal life. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

While Russell was working as a minister in 1995, he received an unexpected phone call. Richard Rowan, who was the president of Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) at the time, read a “Where Are They Now?” feature about Cazzie Russell.

Rowan talked with Bernie Casey, a mutual friend, to see if Russell might consider becoming the Head Coach of their Division III Men’s Basketball Program.

Through Casey, Rowan and the SCAD administration were able to get in touch with Russell and they invited him down to Savannah, Ga. so he could look at the school.

RUSSELL: “They told me where they’d like the program to go and what they were all about.”

“When they told my wife what kind of weather they were having in Savannah versus the kind of weather we had up in Columbus, I kind of knew they had my wife’s ear.”

“I went back to Columbus for three or four days and I prayed about it. This is where the Lord has directed me.”

Russell is now in his 13th year at SCAD, which will likely be his last. He found out the Friday before Labor Day that the school intends to disband the men’s basketball program, now a member of NAIA Division II, effective 2009-10.

Immediately before this interview, Russell met with current school president Paula S. Wallace to discuss the discontinuation of the program.

RUSSELL: “I was blessed to meet with the president, so we’ll see what happens.”

Even if this is Russell’s final year with SCAD, he looks back on his coaching career with fondness.

“It’s been great to be able to give something back to the game I enjoy.”

“I’m a professor, but I just wear shorts.”

In 1993, Russell became the first Michigan basketball player to have his number retired.

“My Way: The Cazzie Russell Story” (Part One)

“My Way: The Cazzie Russell Story” (Part Two)

Cazzie Russell Links:

Offical Biography: SCAD Basketball

Cazzie Russell: Career NBA Statistics

Bentley Historical Library: Cazzie Russell, Basketball All-American

An Arena’s Architect: “The House That Cazzie Built”

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/17/2008

Getty Images/Doug Benc

The Samford Bulldogs run a variation of Pete Carril’s Princeton Offense.

And it’s all because 12th year Head Coach Jimmy Tillette doesn’t play golf.

TILLETTE: “I needed something to do in the spring, so when I was an assistant coach [at Samford in the mid 1990's], I decided I was going to investigate the Princeton system. I spent four or five hours a day looking at tapes. I initially took 99 pages of notes trying to figure out the Princeton Offense.”

“It has Plato’s definition of good judgment, the ability to discern the  difference in similar things and similarity in different things. So many things look the same, but are different, and vice versa.”

Tillette put together 20-30 offensive concepts on transparencies.

However, he ran into difficulties getting in touch with legendary Princeton head coach Pete Carril. During his coaching career, Carril refused to consult with opposing coaches about the Princeton Offense due to concerns that they would work to implement defenses designed to stop it.

TILLETTE: “Years ago, you’d call him saying ‘I want to talk about your offense’. He’d say ‘figure it out yourself’ and hang up the phone.”

“You had to fight. He’s a crusty old guy.”

“They got calls all the time from people saying ‘listen, I’ve been playing golf all summer, would you mind giving me all your hard earned ideas?’ They don’t have a lot of tolerance for that.”

Eventually, Tillette finally was able to convince then-Princeton Assistant Coach Bill Carmody to allow him to come up to share his ideas and learn more from the Princeton staff.

TILLETTE: “I put together 20 to 30 concepts on some transparencies. I really went up there like a geek bearing gifts. I showed them my work.”

Carmody and fellow assistant Joe Scott looked at Tillette’s work and explained the sophistication and nuances of the Princeton Offense.

When LSU hired John Brady in 1997, Samford promoted Tillette as Head Coach. Tillette’s 1997-98 Bulldogs were the youngest Division I team in the country. He had only one senior. The rest of his players were sophomores and freshmen. Tillette decided that season was a perfect time for the Bulldogs to implement the Princeton Offense.

TILLETTE: “Of course, we adapted it to our own style and the way we like to play. There’s a lot of ways to play it.”

“”I don’t think there’s one Princeton Offense. It’s constantly in flux and constantly changing. One of its strengths is its malleability. You can change it, but still retain the essence of it.”

He called his offense “SAM,” an acronym for spacing, angles, and movement, the three cornerstones of the Princeton Offense.

After going 14-13 his first season, Tillette and his Bulldogs made the NCAA tournament as the TAAC-auto bid the next two seasons.

Today, Tillette is the only head coach running the base Princeton Offense who was not a former assistant or player for Carril.

Tillette has two new adjustments for the 2008-09 basketball season.

First, his Bulldogs are moving from the Ohio Valley Conference to the traditionally stronger Southern Conference.

TILLETTE: “Obviously, there are a lot of challenges. First of which is Stephen Curry and Davidson. I don’t know what’s more difficult to guard, Stephen Curry or the Olympic torch.”

In addition, the NCAA men’s basketball rules committee voted to move the three-point line one foot back – from 19’9″ to 20’9″, effective for the 2008-09 season.

Tillette is not concerned about his players having difficulty shooting from longer distances. He will have to adjust the “SAM” offense during fall practice.

TILLETTE: “The biggest effect [the rule change] will have on us is  angles, because now you’re setting your screens and cutting different from where you are cutting from. For us, it’s more about spacing and angles.”

So what is Tillette’s outlook for the 2008-09 season?

TILLETTE: “My expectations are for us to improve and develop good judgment in running offense and making decisions and effort. We really have to play committed because we’re not the most gifted team physically.”

Jimmy Tillette Links:

Official Samford Biography

Sports Illustrated: Sept. 27, 1965 “Faces In The Crowd”:
15-year-old Jimmy Tillette

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/15/2008

Photo/M. Al-Kassim

Rich Zvosec was called into the UMKC Athletic Director’s office on March 13, 2007. He was fired. On his birthday.

ZVOSEC: “As I look back, it was the best thing to ever happen to me. It gives me a great story.”

“I leave with the highest winning percentage in UMKC history, If he had brought me back, I probably would have screwed that up.”

“It also gave me the opportunity to really go into some areas that I probably wouldn’t have done.”

Zvosec, who compiled an 84-91 record in his six seasons at UMKC has now branched into many other fields.

His firing coincided with the creation of the Big Ten Network, where he became an analyst for games. For the 2008-09 season, he will provide color commentary for Big 12 basketball games on the ESPN family of networks.

He also works a motivational speaker, and one of his talks can be found on his official website: Coach Z: Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie Your Way to Success.

He has also gotten into the acting industry, appearing in an episode of Friday Night Lights, several independent films, and Formosa Betrayed, which is currently in post-production.

ZVOSEC: “The irony is I always play the chief of the Secret Service, or an FBI agent, or a detective. It’s always been something of an authoritative figure.”

Zvosec intends to act in more films.

ZVOSEC: “I’ve got an agent in Los Angeles who has got me some auditions and we’ll see what happens.”

Zvosec has also written a book entitled Birds, Dogs, and Kangaroos: Life on the Backstreets of College Basketball which will hit stores in late October.

The title of the first chapter? “Happy Birthday, You’re Fired.”

ZVOSEC: “Never having coached at the highest level, it’s a low major perspective on things.”

“[The book] is 25 years of chasing a dream. Coaches will enjoy it, especially guys who have coached at the non-BCS level, because they can identify with a lot of the things I went through: driving the van, driving the bus, and doing the laundry, though I’m not sure any of them had their game uniforms stolen off their bus before a game.”

“People who are non-coaches and the general public will enjoy it because it’s about someone trying to get to the top. I hope people will walk away from it with a big grin on their face. Hopefully, they’ll find it funny.”

“Some of the stories are touching, some stories are humorous, some not so humorous. It also deals with relationships with kids I’ve had over the years and where they ended up.”

Zvosec’s head coaching career began in 1988. Bob Valvano left his position as Head Coach at St. Francis (NY) to take a job in Sweden.

Valvano first offered the job to a former assistant.

ZVOSEC: “Believe it or not, he was a high school teacher in Long Island and it would have been a big pay cut to take the St. Francis job.”

Zvosec, who was an assistant coach at Loyola College of Baltimore and a good friend of Bob Valvano, received the job offer and accepted it.

He was just 27 years old and the youngest Division I coach in the country. By his third year, Zvosec guided St. Francis to their first winning season since 1969.

In those three years, Zvosec and his wife had a child, and he found it increasing difficult to support his family with the high cost of living in New York City.

ZVOSEC: “You know how the priests are. They take the vow of poverty and they make you live in it. So it was time to move after our third year.”

In 1990, he accepted the head coaching position at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla, then an NAIA program. He left in 1996 after he realized that the athletic department did not seem to have a pressing interest in moving to Division I. His .391 winning percentage remains the highest of any coach in the school’s history.

After a one year stint as head coach at Division II Millersburg University from 1997-98, Zvosec accepted an assistant position at St. Peter’s College. In 2000, he took the assistant job at UMKC.

One year later, he received the Head Coaching position at UMKC when Dean Demopoulos was hired as an assistant coach for the Seattle Supersonics.

Zvosec’s nomadic coaching career has led to some great stories for his book.

He shared two humorous recruiting experiences from his book as an exclusive to Basketball Interview Challenge:

ZVOSEC: “My first recruiting trip was at Atlantic Christian College, now Barton College. I go to meet a parent and her son in Roanoke, Va. I am so nervous. I am waiting for the home visit. I’m sitting there and there’s a bowl of peanuts on the table. I eat them like they are going out of style, because I’m so nervous.”

“About halfway through the bowl, his mother stops me and says, ‘Coach, his grandmother only likes to eat the chocolate coating on the peanuts’.”

Zvosec told another anecdote from his time at St. Francis recruiting a prep star named Chuckie Martin, (Now Chuck Martin, Head Coach of the Marist College Red Foxes).

ZVOSEC: “Chuckie lived in the shadow of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. When I went to visit him, it was strange. I knew his mother didn’t speak good English and his father didn’t speak much better English.”

“His mother was sitting on the windowsill staring out the window. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Am I that bad? Is she not interested?’”

“I said, ‘Chuckie, does your mom not care?’”

“He says, ‘No, she’s watching your car to make sure it’s not stolen.’”

“The best part of it is, his father comes in, a good guy, a blue-collar guy. Chuckie had great parents and you could understand why he was such a good guy.”

“His father comes home from work sipping a Budweiser and offers me a beer. It’s like ‘Oh, no. I’m trying to set a good example and not try to drink alcohol’. 20 minutes into it, I could see the only one paying a lot of attention to me was Chuckie.”

“When his father offered me a beer again, I took it. It was one of the best home visits I ever had.”

Rich Zvosec Links:

Official Site: Coach Z: Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie Your Way to Success

Purchase Rich Zvosec’s new book: Birds, Dogs, and Kangaroos:
Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball

Humorous Ad for UMKC Athletics Featuring Rich Zvosec

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/7/2008

The son of legendary Valparaiso Head Coach Homer Drew, Scott Drew is developing his own legend at Baylor University in Waco, Tex.

When he accepted the Baylor Men’s Basketball Head Coaching job in 2003, he inherited one of the largest rebuilding projects in NCAA athletic history. Just five years later, he led the team to the NCAA Tournament.

The sport of basketball runs deep in the Drew family.

Homer Drew has won 593 games in a 31-year coaching career at Bethel College, Indiana University-South Bend, and most notably, Valparaiso.

Both of Drew’s younger siblings were basketball talents. Bryce played six seasons in the NBA and is remembered by basketball fans for his game-winning three pointer for #13 seed Valparaiso in the opening round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. Drew’s sister Dana was a two-time MAC player of the year for the University of Toledo.

Drew only played basketball through his sophomore year in high school because he chose to focus his efforts on tennis in hopes of receiving a college scholarship, which did not pan out.

He still stayed close to basketball in high school. He worked his father’s basketball camps at Valparaiso. He also coached both Bryce and Dana’s teams in what were called “State Games” in Indiana, a precursor to what AAU basketball is today.

Drew chose to attend Butler University and served as the basketball team’s student manager for three years. After graduation, he accepted his father’s offer to join the Valparaiso staff as an assistant in 1993. The Crusaders went to six NCAA tournaments, making it to the Sweet Sixteen in 1998, while he was an assistant from 1993-2002.

Drew took over Valparaiso’s program for one season in 2002-03, leading the team to a 20-11 record and a bid in the NIT Tournament.

DREW: “My dad was looking to get back into coaching and even talked about maybe the NBA, but he’s definitely a college guy in my opinion because he does so much for young people.”

“The Baylor job came open, and through a third-party, the interest was expressed. My goal was to be in a program in a conference that competed at the highest level.”

In August 2003, Drew accepted Baylor’s offer which enabled his father to come out of retirement and become Valparaiso’s head coach again.

Drew inherited a Baylor basketball program in shambles following Carlton Dotson’s murder of teammate Patrick Dennehy and former head coach Dave Bliss’s subsequent coverup of major NCAA violations.

The NCAA allowed Baylor players to transfer to another program without having to sit out for a year. The team was not allowed to play a non-conference schedule in the 2005-06 season. There were paid scholarship reductions among many other NCAA and school-imposed sanctions.

Drew continued to persevere. Baylor won eight games in his first season, despite only seven scholarship players who remained along with a handful of walk-ons.

The following season, with just one scholarship player returning, Drew won nine games.

He said that he encountered little trepidation from regional recruits and their families despite the scandal under Dave Bliss.

DREW: “For the people who knew about Baylor, there wasn’t as much [concern]. People, especially in Texas, who had sons or daughters go to Baylor knew what a great school it was and knew it was an isolated incident.”

“For people that didn’t know much about Baylor, you had to answer more questions.”

“The further away the people were from Baylor, then the less they knew about us. The international kids after you talked to them would get on the Internet. They saw some of the things that happened and they had some more questions than the people who were familiar with Baylor.”

His recruiting pitch was simple:

DREW: “We are the only private school in the Big Twelve and we’re the largest Baptist school in the nation. If you like academic and spiritual development, the family atmosphere and top notch facilities and [playing in] arguably the best conference in america, then Baylor is definitely a possibility for you.”

Drew quickly had success recruiting top talent to Baylor after some of the NCAA restrictions eased up. Rivals.com rated Baylor’s Class of 2005 #16 in the country and Class of 2006 #17.

Drew and the Baylor Bears have also benefited from Baylor’s “Victory With Integrity” athletic fundraising campaign. The Bears now practice in the $8,000,000 Lt. Whetsel Jr. Basketball Practice Facility which also includes a new strength and conditioning center.

DREW: “The school has done a great job with rebuilding the facilities and really making sure Baylor University has the elite things that our student athletes need to be successful.”

The fruits of Drew’s labor finally paid off in the 2007-08 season. His Bears went 21-11 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.

The #11 seed Bears lost their NCAA First Round matchup with #6 seed Purdue 90-79, in a game not as close as the score indicated.

DREW: “It was a milestone to get to the NCAA tournament if you haven’t been there in a while. No matter what you say to prepare your team, it’s still a new experience. I think the biggest thing for a lot of our guys and our fans was to make it to the NCAA tournament.”

“After being there now, the goal has been raised to wanting to win in the NCAA Tournament. It’s like raising kids – first you crawl, then you walk, and then you run – so that will put that hunger in us to go to the next level.”

Baylor will not be sneaking up on any teams this year. They have five returning seniors along with three underclassmen who received significant playing time.

In the 2008-09 Big 12 Conference Preseason Poll, they are tied for third with defending national champion Kansas. Some college basketball experts have Baylor in their preseason top 25 lists.

DREW: “Obviously, we’re building and heading in the right direction. I think we realize in sports that you’re only as good as your last game. Preseason recognitions are nice but it’s the final poll that matters.”

“The Big 12 we feel is the toughest conference in America. If you don’t bring it every night you’re in trouble. So we’re going to stay hungry, try to improve, get better every day, and hope these seniors will go out on a positive note.”

CBS reveals Baylor as the final selection for the 2008 NCAA
Tournament and shows the team celebrating in Waco.

Scott Drew Links:

Baylor University: Official Bio

Jan. 31, 2008: ESPN Article: “Baylor Revival under Drew Comes Less Than 5 Years After Murder, Scandal and Betrayal”

Scott Drew ’94 M.A.L.S Receives Valparaiso’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.

Interview Conducted 10/6/2008

Photo/Stanley Hu

The California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) Men’s Basketball program has not won a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game in 23 seasons.

In September 2008, the school hired a doctor to remedy the situation – Oliver Eslinger.

Eslinger, who was previously an assistant basketball coach for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineers, brings a wealth of knowledge in both basketball and sports psychology.

He was a starting guard at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. and possesses a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston University with a specialization in sports psychology.

He was a co-founder of Top Game Sports Consulting in 2003 and has worked with athletes and teams as a sports and performance consultant. He served as a consultant to the 2003 United States Women’s World FIFA Cup Soccer Team.

For a student body with some of the greatest young minds in sciences and engineering and faculty rife with Nobel Prize winners and world-renowned researchers, Eslinger has already realized that members of the Cal Tech community are equally interested in the Men’s Basketball program.

During one of his first days on campus, Eslinger ate breakfast with faculty member Dr. Robert H. Grubbs, the 2005 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry. Instead of discussing science, Dr. Grubbs wanted to talk basketball.

ESLINGER: “The first day I got here, the second day, and even the next week, everywhere I go people want to talk to me and ask me questions. They say “how are you doing’ and are very supportive in what we’re doing.”

Eslinger wants to provide a positive experience for both the Cal Tech community who attend the games as well as his student-athletes.

ESLINGER: “As long as athletics are allowing students to compete at a high level, and give them an outlet to develop, and become part of something successful, then we’re going in the right direction.”

Even though Cal Tech has one of the most detailed recruiting forms in the country for prospective student-athletes, Eslinger said that he has a broad base of high school students who have interest in attending Cal Tech for the academic experience and can compete athletically at the Division III level.

ESLINGER: “There are students who have the SAT scores, the ACT scores, the interest and passion for science, math, and engineering. They can also play basketball. The advantage we have is the whole world to recruit from.”

“Many Division III Schools I can speak for do not have that span as far as recruits to choose from. Just thinking about the schools where I was around in New England, a lot of them are recruiting from the state they are in or their immediate surroundings, whereas we have a unique and interesting audience to speak to and select from and hope they come.”

While some of his current players did not play high school basketball and do not possess the physical talent that their opponents do, Eslinger feels that the mental part of the game is an equalizer.

ESLINGER: “You want to have the physical capacity to compete, but the mental part comes in to play in many dimensions as far as how one learns and how one models a skill from someone he’s been looking up to and try to incorporate those skills into one’s game.”

“There’s the learning aspect and then the confidence aspect. I think [confidence] is most important because I believe if one is confident in what he’s doing, no matter what his physical skills might show, he’s definitely going to have more of a chance to improve, succeed, and compete.”

From his years of studying sports psychology and coaching at both the high school and college levels, Eslinger’s coaching philosophy is to keep communication lines open so he can understanding each player as both an athlete and as an individual.

ESLINGER: “Some folks need more stringent motivational tactics and others shy away from that. Sports psychology is about dealing with pressure and figuring out where the pressure is coming from.”

“The anxiety and stress in one’s life, motivation and focus, and understanding the dynamics of one’s performance all play a role and is helpful in my coaching.”

While the 2007-08 Cal Tech Beavers went 1-25 last year, with a 27.3 point average margin of defeat, Eslinger does not get the impression that the team he inherits wallows in self-doubt.

ESLINGER: “My sense is the players are very excited and optimistic and they walk around and talk with confidence. I don’t get the sense that anyone is putting his head down and dragging his feet. They want to learn, develop, and take part in our system.”

Dr. Oliver Eslinger Links:

Personal Web Site: Doc’s Head Games:
Psychology, Performance, and Perspectives

Caltech Athletics Press Release 9/18/2008:
Beavers Name Dr. Oliver Eslinger as Head Men’s Basketball Coach

Caltech Athletics: Men’s Basketball

© 2008 Interviewbasketball.com

Excerpts from this interview may be reproduced by other blogs, message boards, and other texts, provided there is a link or a trackback to my website. Any other reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of Interviewbasketball.com is unlawful.