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"Coaches Series" - KC Beard (UH Assistant Coach) Interview
117 Plays3 months ago
Welcome to the 1st episode (#54) in our offseason "Coaches Series" on the No Conference for Old Men Podcast.
The 3 Old Men had the privilege to sit down and chat with Coach KC Beard (UH MBB Assistant Coach). We cover things far & wide as we dive into coach's background, his journey into coaching through the Video Coordinator path, and how his role has evolved over the 10+ years on the UH staff. We bring a depth and insight into Coach's background / perspective that you won't find anywhere else!
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Spotify / Apple Podcast / SoundCloud & the GoCoogs.com website; we're also available via the Republic of Football Podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as their only basketball-centric offering
- Intro / Exit music: Ground Zero provided by FreeBeats.io
- Please follow us on https://gocoogs.com/old-men/
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction with Coach Casey Beard
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome folks to the second off season edition of the No Conference for Old Men podcast today, where the three old guys have a special guest in the University of Houston men's basketball assistant coach, Casey Beard, joining us for a bit of Q&A.
00:00:18
Speaker
This is year two of the podcast, so it represents an exciting evolution of the content we're now able to bring with each of the men's basketball assistant coaches joining us for dedicated episodes. And Coach Beard is our very first one in this series.
Coach Beard's Career Journey
00:00:30
Speaker
For fans that may not know, and hopefully I get this right, Coach, Coach Beard has been with University of Houston since 2014, starting as men's basketball video coordinator and then being promoted to assistant coach in 2021.
00:00:43
Speaker
But he'd already had an extensive journey across multiple levels of basketball prior to joining the Cougars. I don't want to get into too much detail because we actually want to hear about your journey directly from Coach.
00:00:54
Speaker
But just before coming to Houston, Coach had spent a few years as the video coordinator for Canada basketball, where I believe that's where you cross paths with Coach Sampson. And prior to that, Coach Beard had spent a few years in the NBA at both Utah and Portland as video interns for both franchises.
00:01:10
Speaker
In addition to those stops, Coach also had a couple of stints at Pacific and West Texas A&M as an assistant coach, as well as a start to his career at SMU. Coach Beard also received his bachelor's degree from Boise State University and a master's degree from West Texas A&M University.
00:01:25
Speaker
Super impressive background, and we're excited for Coach to join the podcast. Welcome to the podcast, Coach Beard, and thanks so much for taking the time out from your busy schedule. Yeah, no problem. I'm excited to be here, and I think you guys do a wonderful job. And anytime we can talk Cougar basketball, especially in July, it's a
Q&A: Coach Beard's Path to Coaching
00:01:44
Speaker
good day. It's a great. ha um Awesome. Thanks so much.
00:01:49
Speaker
And so we've actually gathered some questions amongst ourselves and from listeners, but anything you wanted to kick things off with, or do we want to go right into the questions? ah Why don't we just go right to the questions?
00:02:01
Speaker
Awesome. That'll help. Okay. Well, so I started this off with some highlights of your background, Coach, but maybe you can spend a few minutes providing listeners with your own perspective on your kind of basketball coaching journey, how you became interested in the first place, how you got into the profession, as well as maybe the route you took towards advancement.
00:02:22
Speaker
especially with your stints on the video side, which maybe isn't the norm, as well as maybe your international, you know, experience with basketball Canada as well. Yeah, no So the day I knew that I wanted to coach was I i was 16 years old. I was a junior in high school.
00:02:42
Speaker
I played on the basketball team. I was our starting point guard. We actually had a game that day. but for whatever reason they were allowing us to job shadow people.
00:02:53
Speaker
And at that time I was thinking, you
Educational and Early Career Foundation
00:02:56
Speaker
know maybe do like financial planning, real estate or something like that. I wanted to make money, right? a lot of people you to just, what makes money and has some freedom and those things.
00:03:08
Speaker
So I job shadowed real estate agent and I got to also meet with like a financial advisor for the day. And it was the most boring day of my life. And so no offense to any of those that do that.
00:03:21
Speaker
My best friends, you know, financial planner and and I love talking with him and things like that. But for me, I was like, I can't do this. I can't wake up and do this every day. So at that age, I knew i wanted to be a basketball coach, specifically at the college and NBA level. And so every decision from that point on was kind of centered on how do I get there?
00:03:45
Speaker
Yeah. So. that That's the origin of the the drive. And then from there, I you know graduated high school.
00:03:56
Speaker
I went on a mission for my church. I came back and I walked on to a junior college up in the state of Washington called Big Bend Community College. you know it was a great learning experience.
00:04:11
Speaker
Unfortunately, I realized like this is about as far as my playing ability getting to. But I had a really insightful coach there that gave me great advice.
00:04:22
Speaker
You know, I told him I want to be, you know, I want to be a college basketball coach one day. said, okay, if I was you, you need to go to as high of a level as you can and get as much experience at that level as you can. And then you can settle and fall in wherever you think, you know, if it be junior college, division three, division two, whatever it may be.
00:04:43
Speaker
you It's easier to go back down than it is to climb the ladder going up. And I didn't really understand that at the time, but I was grateful for it. So I decided at that time I reached out to some Division I programs and an assistant at Boise State met with me and said, you know, we'll bring you on as a student manager if you come here.
00:05:04
Speaker
and Nice.
Coaching Philosophy and Career Aspirations
00:05:04
Speaker
so I needed to hear. Yeah. I wasn't planning. I mean, I would have gone anywhere, but it just worked out that it was more or less in the area where I grew up. And so it was nice to funny thing is that's the only time I've been close to family, essentially, in my career.
00:05:19
Speaker
Every other time I've moved out, moved away and things like that. So I'm definitely grateful for it. So I did my undergrad there at Boise State, was a student manager while I was there.
00:05:30
Speaker
Greg Graham was the coach. Leon Rice is now the coach there, and he does a fabulous job. yeah I was with Coach Graham, who was the previous coach. And i was fortunate enough, my senior year, we made the NCAA tournament.
00:05:45
Speaker
And you guys are aware of this as much as anybody, the currency in coaching is always winning. So I was fortunate enough to be there when we had at that time set a record for wins in a season, won the conference tournament, got to go go play Louisville in the NCAA tournament, got beat. But that put me in a position to be able to get my first job at SMU under Matt Doherty.
00:06:11
Speaker
Okay. I went from being you know a student manager, I was, you know, be at the office as much as I could trying to learn. The coaches were so kind to me and allowing me to be around and teaching me, taking me on road trips, doing all that.
00:06:27
Speaker
I got to SMU and I got my first job was what they called at the time video intern. It was before video coordinators became a position that everybody had.
00:06:39
Speaker
So this was 2008, 2009. It was just starting to be a position at most universities. So before smu made it a full-time job, they had an intern spot.
00:06:52
Speaker
And so it was not for very much money, but that didn't matter to me. It was an experience to get in. And I spent the entire summer teaching myself video. I did not know anything about. Oh, wow. So you had to learn on your own.
00:07:06
Speaker
So they had just invested. They had just built their practice facility. If you guys had been up to SMU and seen that, it's a it was ah it's a beautiful facility. They had spent a lot of money and they had invested, I think at the time, $250,000 this equipment.
00:07:23
Speaker
And, you know, Bill, who sold video equipment and stuff, probably can imagine what some of this was. And I'm thinking, man, I i just hope I don't break it. yeah but Yeah, I can. na One thing I do have is I have work ethic. And so I would stay in there all day.
00:07:40
Speaker
i learned how to do it and had a wonderful experience there that year. But I knew that I needed to continue to progress. And so I went from there to West Texas A&M, which is a Division Two school.
00:07:55
Speaker
For anybody that asks, where would you want to be a GA at the Division One or Division Two level? I personally am partial to Division II because you get to get on the floor and coach.
00:08:06
Speaker
You get to get experience recruiting. You get to do a lot of those things that RGAs are awesome. They do a wonderful job, but they're somewhat limited by NCAA rules and some of the things they can do.
00:08:19
Speaker
Whereas these guys at the Division II level, they're like a coach. Oh, interesting. Got my MBA there, spent all my time essentially with basketball. Again, you know, was fortunate to work for a really good coach and a and an assistant coach there who's one of my best friends now, Vinay Patel, who's the head coach at Angelo State now.
00:08:42
Speaker
he's He's become a very, very successful coach himself. And so went from there – to work in the NBA for the next three years. And so I spent two years with the Blazers, a year with the Jazz.
00:08:57
Speaker
Again, everything in this business, sometimes it's just timing and opportunity. My first year with the Blazers was the 11-12 lockout and they the coach was fired.
00:09:08
Speaker
So they brought Terry Stotts the next year, who brought in Jay Triano, who was the national team coach for Canada. He needed a video coordinator. I just happened to be the intern in the video room and they were like, oh, you can take him.
00:09:21
Speaker
So I spent that whole summer with him and that's where I met Coach Sampson. And so Coach Sampson and I spent about eight weeks together between Toronto Puerto Rico, and then Venezuela.
00:09:35
Speaker
So we we got to know each other. And I think the coach respected the hard work. and And I know that Mrs. Sampson, I think she's the one that actually, in a lot of ways, got me the job.
00:09:50
Speaker
Nice. I can remember we had a an exhibition game before we left Toronto against Jamaica. and I had recorded the game, but then I had to cut it up for the coaches and they had like a little social in one of the clubs there at the, at the arena. This is where the Toronto Raptors play. That's where played.
00:10:10
Speaker
And so I'm out there and I'm just working on getting the film ready for the coaches. Cause this is my first opportunity to be like a head video coordinator on this big of a stage.
00:10:21
Speaker
And so I'm just working, working, working and coach Sampson, along with his wife, Karen came over and she brought me a little bit of food and, You know, we just talked and I just, you know, told him what I was doing and kept my head down and kept working that whole summer and stayed in touch with Coach Sampson.
00:10:38
Speaker
and And it just kind of worked out from there. That next year I worked for the Jazz. And then after that year, Cougs fans know, Coach Sampson took the job. And after hiring his son and I think Coach Hollis, I think I was probably third on his list and he reached out.
00:10:56
Speaker
The rest is history, as they say. Yeah, no, that's that's incredible. It's interesting how these connections occur right through one's career. Exactly. I think that's the best thing. You know, i get asked a lot by young coaches, like what, you know, what what's the best path? What should I do?
00:11:14
Speaker
you know, a couple of things I always ah tell them and admonish them, like, first of all, be really good at your current job. Whatever they hire you to do, do that well. A lot of guys in this business are spending so much time trying to get the next job.
00:11:28
Speaker
They don't do their current job well. so So be valuable where you're at in your current job. So you've obviously experienced, you know, at all levels, right? Yeah. National team, pro level, NBA level at the highest levels, as well as now college basketball at the highest levels.
00:11:45
Speaker
Do you have a, and there's no right or wrong answer. Everyone has their preferences around, right? What level of the game they, they prefer to stay in. Do you, have you drawn any conclusions based on your own experience as to where, where you see yourself going as you continue to advance?
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, no I think. i there's both positives about every positive negatives, right about everything that I've every spot, every level. For me personally, I love the Division One level.
00:12:16
Speaker
ah love where I'm at. I would love to be, you know, when the time's right and a head coach, head coaching opportunity presents itself. That would be obviously a goal of mine.
00:12:28
Speaker
Um, And then I think if the time were right down the road, I did enjoy my time in the NBA. That would be also an excellent opportunity. But regardless, what I find to be most important is the people you work with, working with Coach Sampson and the rest of the staff here is just awesome. mike It really is a family.
00:12:50
Speaker
There's so much opportunity to grow and and get to take on new responsibilities and do things that, you know, you just don't get if you're just chasing job to job to job. Yeah.
00:13:01
Speaker
So I'm very happy with where I'm at right now.
Role Evolution and Team Strategy
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, and and we're so happy to to have you as part of the coaching staff. mean, as you had mentioned, right, you were part of the original staff as Coach Sampson came on board. Your role obviously has changed and evolved over time, right, starting off on the video side and now being on the bench as an assistant coach.
00:13:23
Speaker
You know, obviously for the three of us that are diehard fans, we've followed and we know exactly who's on the coaching staff and and a little bit of the roles. But for the general fans, maybe you can spend few minutes describing kind of how your role has evolved and and even the whole responsibilities of a video coordinator. I'm sure some of our fans aren't even too sure what that means and and kind of where your role has evolved to now and whether you're actually you know coaching a specific group of positions and things of that nature.
00:13:55
Speaker
Sure. No, though I think for me personally, it was such a blessing to be able to learn through the video. You know, I wasn't Hollis, for example, who an all American and sees the game from a best player point of view.
00:14:10
Speaker
And there's value in that coach Kellen was a walk on at the division one level. So he sees it through that lens. You know, coach Qantas, when he was here, sees it through that lens coach, Mike now, former player.
00:14:22
Speaker
So I think my perspective is a little bit different going through the video room. One thing that was a value to me coming up, especially here with Coach Sampson, is because of his time in the NBA.
00:14:35
Speaker
In the NBA, video coordinators are leaned on very heavily. They're involved on the floor, scouting reports, all those different areas. And so whereas maybe just a traditional college coach may think, oh, he's just the guy that gets my video ready, make sure it runs.
00:14:52
Speaker
In the NBA, they're seeing obviously Spolstra, other guys that have come through the video room, I believe Mike Brown. yeahp oh You know, they go on they has to become coaches. And coach told me that when he hired me, you know, his his goal was to move.
00:15:07
Speaker
groom me to be able to become an assistant coach. And then, you know, from there. And so he didn't see me as just a video guy. And so he allowed me to anything that I saw in practice or game film or scouts,
00:15:24
Speaker
I could bring to him and be like, hey coach, this is what I'm seeing on film. Over the seven years, it really evolved to where a lot of our, instead of us watching, for example, the game in total as a staff and marking clips,
00:15:41
Speaker
to by the end of you know i did that for seven years i would create an edit and i would have it ready for the coaching staff and then obviously we've all watched it but then that kind of made us more efficient so it was you know this is the you know I would find common breakdowns or things we did well, or you know what I mean? And and kind of grouped in a way that now we can be you know three to six minutes long and just boom, be very efficient and allow us to all get on the same page and make sure that we're not just...
00:16:14
Speaker
too scatterbrained on you know what exactly went well in the game what do we need to fix and let's address those and so now we have an excellent video coordinator probably the best in the country in matthew mcdonald and now he's in that same role and coach is giving him a lot of that same responsibility because he was a student manager with us ga You know, he was the TBT coach.
00:16:39
Speaker
I mean, you guys are are obviously aware of Matt and he's he's got a great mind for basketball. And similarly to how coach viewed me, he's allowing Matt to grow in that role.
00:16:50
Speaker
And Matt is having his voice heard within our program and things that he picks up watching European basketball or NBA, he can take to coach. So I think that video coordinator role is really important on staffs.
00:17:05
Speaker
and especially for coach Sampson, because it's someone that he relies on in a lot of ways to just help keep us up to date on what are some of the current trends going on in basketball and in technology that could help us.
00:17:18
Speaker
Okay. And how about now? Now is, is your role has expanded and evolved.
Player Development Focus
00:17:24
Speaker
What are you focused on now as part of the staff? Yeah. So going from being in the video room,
00:17:31
Speaker
to being an assistant. Now, what has probably been one of the real special parts is because you're involved in the recruiting of these student athletes, the relationships, you know you've known some of these players for you know five, six years by the time that graduate.
00:17:51
Speaker
You know, as a video coordinator, I got to see him when they came on the visit and things. But you could almost remain a little bit impartial because you don't have. ah Now it's like you do definitely pull for each one of them and your heart goes out to them because you know how you know the journey they've all had.
00:18:08
Speaker
and You've been involved with them since they were you've seen them, you know, in their junior year, high school, their senior year. Or, you know, if they're in the transfer portal, you're the one that did the legwork and got to know and and collect information.
00:18:21
Speaker
or identify that they are someone that fits us. And so i what I really enjoy outside of, you know, where I was very much X and O's minded coming from the video room,
00:18:35
Speaker
Sorry about that. I think we ran into some issues with Tom's computer. And so we had a bit of a snafu here, but I think we're back. So apologies for that, Coach Beard. If you can kind of continue around your your thoughts ah around your current role and kind of the in interaction with the kids, that'd be great.
00:18:54
Speaker
Yeah. hey As a former video coordinator that dealt with a number of mishaps, something not working, I certainly understand. And and grateful that we can continue.
00:19:05
Speaker
But I think it's relationships that's been the been the most important part to me now is just, man, you just really, your heart goes out to each one of our players and you want them to do well.
00:19:19
Speaker
You know how much work they're put in. And then when they do have games where they do really well, it really you know is special to be a part of. you know You get to help these young men achieve goals and dreams that they've had since being young and get to do it as a team. And and with the the coaching staff that we have, it's really special.
00:19:39
Speaker
Other responsibilities I have, I work with the fives specifically. okay So I like myself and Coach Mike work with the fives and we we like to call ourselves Motor Club.
00:19:51
Speaker
And the reason being is if you play that spot, you got to have a motor. You got to be able to get to our pick and roll coverage on defense, do everything we ask of you defensively. Then you've got a rim run.
00:20:03
Speaker
You've got to sprint out and go set ball screens. You know, it's it's tough to do it without having a motor. And it's such an important part of – almost similar to offensive linemen in some ways, right? They may not always the credit they deserve, but all I know the way, for example, last year that the JVR and JoJo anchored that spot for us really was a difference maker when we go against a lot of these teams. So I like to say we, we will, you know, we're the motor club and that's what we got to bring every day is a motor.
00:20:34
Speaker
Nice. So let me, if you're working specifically with the fives, how, how are our, our, Well, there'll be, I guess, three new fives this year, four four slash fives, C-NAC, McFarland. I've heard McFarland's look pretty good lately. And then, ah of course, our our Sam Houston transfer.
00:21:01
Speaker
Well, yeah i was gonna I was actually going to clarify, though. We can't assume anything, Bill. I was going to say, hey, maybe we can get a preview here. Who's actually going to be playing the five position in next year's iteration? Is it still going to be JoJo or is it going to be, you know, Sanak or one of the new kids? Or how's that shaking out?
00:21:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's been really good. Obviously, JoJo, returning National Defensive Player of the Year, is is definitely going to anchor us there at that spot. you know From there, both said Khalifa have really had great summers. And then Jacob, obviously coming back from the injury, has really shown some some bright flashes.
00:21:42
Speaker
It's been, again, awesome to see him come back and you know play in some live action and get back out there for the first time. And and just the...
00:21:53
Speaker
mental relief that is for him that I can do this and I'm back. And he's shown to your point, some really, really incredible things that he's been able to do. Chris has been awesome.
00:22:04
Speaker
There's not a more coachable player on our team that wants to get better. That's got that burning. We're excited about all of them and they're all working hard and they're all putting in effort and they're all very deserving of of any opportunity that comes their way.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's great to have all that all that that depth. that's It's kind of kind of unprecedented. And you've got to have that at the level that we're at and what we you know the standards that we've set here.
00:22:38
Speaker
You don't get there if you don't have depth in that front court. You've got to have it. Yeah. So, I mean, you brought up all these great kids that you're coaching obviously trying to reach each of the kids or motivate the kids.
00:22:52
Speaker
It can vary, right? Person by person, individual by individual. You know, what's kind of your philosophy around communicating and and coaching up the kids, uh, kind of in in your experience, what your philosophy is around that.
00:23:08
Speaker
That's a good question because to your point, they're all different. They learn differently, especially in the summer. I think as much as anything as a coaching staff, we're learning, for example, how does Khalifa learn?
00:23:20
Speaker
What's going to be best for him? How's Chris going to learn? and And so you're seeing some of their mistakes and then how do we correct them and get them better? I know one thing. Obviously, coming from the video room, I'm very partial to like, hey, we're going to show and watch a lot of video.
00:23:36
Speaker
You guys are going to see what you've done well, see how you're not reacting here, be it on offense or defense, and then showing them a clip of us as a team in the past, like whether it be JoJo, Josh Carlton, Javier.
00:23:50
Speaker
jvierre how they played and how they played that situation out in a game so they know what it looks like. And then take it to the floor, try to in some type of breakdown drill, show them like, hey, this is where we need you to rotate or this is where we need you to get to the line of scrimmage and stop the ball.
00:24:09
Speaker
This is what you've got to do. This is the and then from there, once they get The idea of what it is, now the real secret sauce is getting him to do it at high enough level to be Cougar basketball, right, to meet Coach Sampson's approval.
00:24:24
Speaker
You know, it's one thing to, yeah, you can go out there and do it half-heartedly, but you're going to be sitting by me. You know, you're not going to get game time. you're not going to get to play. So you want you've got to learn how to do it you got to learn the fundamentals.
00:24:38
Speaker
And then can you increase the speed at which you do that to be to our standards? Yeah.
Recruitment and Team Culture
00:24:43
Speaker
Nice. Nice. Hey, Bill, do you have some questions on the recruiting front that you wanted to to pose?
00:24:51
Speaker
On the recruiting front? Well, I guess, you know, recruiting recruiting player retention ah kind of the lifeblood of of most programs. I guess retention isn't hasn't affected us as much because you i think probably due to the culture, and we talked about this with Alvin Franklin, the culture that the basketball program has and that obviously that you've been instrumental in building you know couple players, Mark and Arseneau have left, but but really yeah very few and
00:25:35
Speaker
So I guess I'd just ask what the specific role you know you play in terms of recruiting the kids and what's been so successful in terms of, you know from your standpoint, in terms of keeping the kids in the program and and just building such an exceptional culture.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah. the The real key, and Coach, will tell you this and anybody that is in our program is just how high of character that each one of our kids are and our players.
00:26:12
Speaker
It starts there. You know, you're not going to have a culture of retention if it's a bunch of guys that you know don't follow rules that you know don't play hard that are selfish that have those characteristics that people don't want to be around then you're going to hit the portal you're going to find other options so as a recruiter i know major thing for each one of us that that has that assignment and responsibility is evaluating people evaluating can they be coached hard
00:26:45
Speaker
Do they have a you know, what kind of patterns have they shown in the teams that they've been on from, you know, do they switch teams every year? Do they stay with certain people who's been in their life consistently?
00:26:57
Speaker
You know, do they have, are there, be it their parents or anybody, you know, how have they raised them and and really identifying a lot of that. Obviously, after you assess that the talent levels there is then it's a dive into, is this a person that when it gets difficult, because it will playing in our program is great coach Sampson is going to challenge you.
00:27:21
Speaker
Are you going to be someone that has that character that can get through it? And then our job specifically, and the reason I think our retention is so high, is we're not just going to get you to campus and and never talk to you again, you know, and and just Pray that it works out, that you're a good player and and you know everything works out. No, we're going to continue to develop the relationship. We're going to continue to coach you.
00:27:48
Speaker
And that way, you know i think when they look at options, you know even some that maybe don't get to play as much they as they would like their first year, They've been treated really well.
00:28:00
Speaker
They've been coached hard. They've gotten better. And they know, and and because, the as they say, the proof is in the pudding, they've seen guys like Jamal not play much as a freshman, get drafted.
00:28:12
Speaker
They've seen guys like Marcus Sasser, again, come in as an unheralded freshman, become a starter by his freshman year, by the end of his freshman year and then become a draft pick. They've seen guys go through, develop and and achieve their goals.
00:28:25
Speaker
So they know that if I hang in here, if I do what I'm told to do, it's going to work out. They have, ah meaning us, these coaches have a history, a track record of doing that.
00:28:38
Speaker
Whereas if I hit the portal, There's just no guarantees. And, you know, we hated losing both, you know, Tremont and Terrence. They're great. You're not going to find better kids, better people.
00:28:51
Speaker
But sometimes there's for reasons outside of but that we may know or whatever they may. You know, those are going to happen occasionally. But it's our job to do what we can to make this an environment that they want to be a part of.
00:29:06
Speaker
And I think we've done ah as good a job as anybody, obviously, given our track. Yeah, absolutely. you know, most people are like, well, how many portal kids are you bringing? I was like, we brought in one. Yeah.
00:29:17
Speaker
That's it. Just shocking. yeah In today's world. Yeah. It's definitely a special place. But let me ask a follow on question on the recruiting front. I know you know coach Sampson and the staff have always talked about not looking at recruiting rankings and player rankings, right? You guys are the judge of the the kids yourselves, and obviously that's always going to be the case.
00:29:41
Speaker
However, there's no denying the fact that the the caliber of player that you guys are recruiting now has definitely elevated year over year. And my question is, compared to when you guys just arrived and you were really spotting these talented kids that maybe hadn't developed yet, but you saw some potential there and and you you know the hunger and the desire is going to be there to fit in with the culture, as you guys have started target target you know more you know, high end kids, is it more difficult to find kids that can fit into the culture, right? With that, with still that level of hunger and desire and wanting to learn that, that you guys always look for.
00:30:26
Speaker
i would say that aspect of it specifically about finding the guys with the hunger and the drive that, that has not changed one bit. Now the rankings following a player maybe has changed obviously in the years that we've been here.
00:30:41
Speaker
I know even for me from my first year, you know, being out on the road and offering kids to now we are a program that kids put down on like their vision board of, I want to receive an offer from Houston. yeah crazy Flashback to 2014, they may not have taken our call. yeah Right.
00:31:04
Speaker
yeah But now when we call, they're they're taking it. And it's something that, you know, big again, because Coach Sampson's so good at what he does and he's built this program into what it's become that,
00:31:20
Speaker
It's something that people are attracted to. Right. And so these kids that have goals, they know all of these guys know that in order to get where they want to go, you've got to be coached hard and you've got to be coached well.
00:31:33
Speaker
And we do that at the highest level. And so. we are we actually attract more of those like-minded kids into our program, competitive kids. And now it's just about evaluating them and and almost choosing and finding the right ones because there's a lot that want to, again, be a part of our program, but which ones, again, just the next level for us really fit us and they're their families, their support really fits us as well.
00:32:02
Speaker
That when they have a tough day, they're not going to,
Post-Season Evaluations and Strategy Adaptation
00:32:06
Speaker
bail on it. You know, they know that again, in the long run, this is going to be the best route for this, this individual, this player and the proof, you know, is there it's there year after year. Yeah.
00:32:19
Speaker
No, that's, that's great insight. Now, if we looked at this past year, obviously on the performance front, another record setting basketball season ran away with the big 12 championship by an even larger margin than in year one.
00:32:32
Speaker
Incredible success. um Obviously tough the way the season ended. Clearly the formula works, but as you're continuing to tweak and as part of continuous improvement, was there any takeaways right after this past season in in terms of, hey, we need to get more I don't know, athletic or there were things, you know, gaps that we need to bridge just to get over kind of that next step and and get that first national championship.
00:33:03
Speaker
Sure. Obviously after every season, not just this last one, yeah but after every season as a staff, you evaluate what went well, what are areas to improve and, and areas of focus, you know, at at what we're doing,
00:33:19
Speaker
For us, with all the new players, you know, we're adding a blend of experienced players and youth or newcomers and in Khalifa. Really just the summer is really getting in the foundation. So i don't think that has changed.
00:33:34
Speaker
we we know that June and July are very important to establishing the culture and establishing, ah you know, our base foundation defensively. So that as we flow into the season, that we've got the reps in place, the guys are understanding it.
00:33:51
Speaker
I tell, You know i have talks with our incoming freshman, Isaiah at times. i tell I told Isaiah, Isaiah, once you understand our defense and you can become a playmaker in it, the rest of everything else will take off.
00:34:07
Speaker
And I think that's for any individual within our program. Once you, and I think the growth you could see was especially in Emmanuel, who as a freshman,
00:34:18
Speaker
was not a great defender, right? Probably a little bit more a liability defensively at times, but could really shoot, gave us something that we needed with that team. His evolution from there to being now, in a lot of ways, we put him on their other team's best player.
00:34:35
Speaker
you know, and and that's a testament to him and his hard work, but he learned the system. He had someone in Jamal who was patient with him and got on him when it was time, but helped him learn and understand the system. And obviously coach Qantas and breaking down and teaching the guards.
00:34:53
Speaker
And then now when coach Sampson got him and he, and once he understood the system, now he becomes a playmaker. Now everything else makes sense. And so right now, There's enough new guys and we're trying to develop that chemistry defensively because that's kind of the secret sauce right there. Once that's established, know we know can, we're going to find ways to score. We're going to find ways to do things offensively.
00:35:20
Speaker
We've got to get right defensively. And once that's established, then we can work on maybe some of the things that we noticed that, hey, this year we got to improve on. Yeah, yeah. but We'll kind of take that as it goes and and with new personnel and going from someone like Jaywon, you know, down on the block and more of a low post four to Chris, who's got the ability to be on the perimeter when he's at the four is going to give new spacing and new opportunities. So there's going to be new things. So.
00:35:51
Speaker
you know If we had returned the exact same team, there might be bigger adjustments we'd have to consider. But when you bring in new guys, it's what is our foundation that's got to be there?
00:36:02
Speaker
So we got to stick with, you know as people say, you know your Bible. What's our Bible? We got to stick to the Bible, and then we can go from there. If the Bible's not there, we're not going to be very good.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, you've obviously got to – I don't even want to say adjust, but you've got brand new players in. four freshmen and Khalifa, so you know five new players. So you obviously have to tailor things to them. But but in terms of tweaking what what you're doing or anything like that, I mean, we were two points away from i know being the national champion. So I'd say the ah the the base strategy in what you're doing is –
00:36:47
Speaker
I can't imagine that's being tweaked too much because it's certainly working and certainly successful. Yeah, there's no doubt. We're not going we're not going to mix or or mess that up for sure. We got right locked in on what works, right?
00:37:02
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think that's all the questions that we had queued up for today. And I also want to be sensitive to Coach Beard's time. So thank you so much for the deep insights into kind of your background and how you approach coaching and and your role on the team.
00:37:21
Speaker
Any final words or points that you wanted to highlight today that we haven't covered, Coach? I think just the last thing is, again, want to thank you guys for having me and taking the you ah Yeah, no need for that. Yeah, no need for that. Yeah, we're the grateful ones. Yeah, we're the grateful ones.
00:37:38
Speaker
And then I'm thankful for all the fans out there that support us, that travel with us, that give us the support on the road, at home in the Fertitta Center. You know, we don't achieve a lot of this without you guys' support. So very grateful for all that you guys do and and the the fans out there.
00:37:54
Speaker
All right. Thank you so much, coach. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah. so that's it for this episode of 54, the No Conference for Old Men podcast. Hope you all enjoyed it. And again, would really appreciate it if folks would follow, subscribe, or collect our podcast, depending on your podcast platform of choice.
00:38:11
Speaker
We're also available via the Republic of football podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas football as their only basketball centric podcast.
Podcast Conclusion and Future Episodes
00:38:19
Speaker
We're at the gocougs.com website for those that prefer to digest the content that way.
00:38:23
Speaker
We appreciate the continued support from all. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account. No confidence for old men. And again, we are in our monthly cadence now during the off season, but please stay tuned as we're working on getting some of the other assistant coaches on the show as well.
00:38:38
Speaker
So please be on the lookout to download and listen for the next episode to drop. Take care, everyone.