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"Special Edition" Episode - a chat with Alan Bishop, Director of Mens Basketball Sports Performance
134 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to another "Special Edition" offseason Episode (#29) of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast.
The 3 Old Men had the wonderful opportunity to sit down w/ UH Director of Men's Basketball Sports Performance, Alan Bishop, to talk about the Houston Cougars Men's Basketball program. We go into what his role is within the program, his career journey in getting to the University of Houston, and his philosophies around sports performance to reinforce Coach Sampson's culture of toughness in the program. Have a listen, Coach Bishop provides some insights into the UH Hoops program 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
Introduction to Podcast Episode 29
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to another special offseason edition, episode number 29 of the No Conference for Old Men podcast today, where two of the three old guys, Bill Walker and myself, Steve Chang, are here today with a special guest and current University of Houston men's director of men's basketball sports performance, Coach Alan Bishop, joining us for a bit of
Role of Sports Performance in Success
00:00:27
Speaker
Q and&A.
00:00:27
Speaker
A big thank you to Jeff Conrad for arranging this, especially with today being day one of practices formally beginning for this upcoming season. We've got some questions gathered up and will help to provide some view into what goes into the sports performance efforts of our men's basketball program, especially as those of us that follow the program closely know that this aspect has been a key differentiator for us and how successful it has translated onto the court for the team over the
Coach Bishop's Career Background
00:00:55
Speaker
years.
00:00:55
Speaker
And we'll try to get some insights into what challenges Coach Bishop faces as he focuses on continuous improvement to stay ahead of the competition in the Big 12 Conference. Prior to joining U of H, Coach Bishop also held roles in strength and conditioning at UT Arlington as assistant strength and conditioning coach, and at Utah State as the director of Olympics, strength, and conditioning.
Comprehensive Approach to Sports Performance
00:01:18
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast, Coach Bishop. And thanks so much for taking the time out from your busy schedule. Let's go right into the interviews at this point. And so for guys like Bill and myself, we're hardcore fans. And we know all about you and what you've meant in helping to build the toughness required in Coach Samson's program.
00:01:38
Speaker
But the casual fan may not be as aware of your role with the team. If you wouldn't mind, if you could give folks a high level i idea of what it means to be leading the charge with sports performance for the men's basketball team and also how you got into the profession in your journey getting to Houston.
00:01:55
Speaker
Sure. So I think if it's ah if we're looking at the evolution of of sports performance, um you know it used to just be classified as a strength and conditioning coach. And I think somebody somebody who lifts the guys and somebody who runs the guys. Now, make no mistake about it, you know strength, conditioning, speed development, agility, all those things are still part of it. But I think there's a broader umbrella, you know a 30,000 foot view that you got to kind of zoom out and say, OK, well,
00:02:23
Speaker
A sports nutrition is a massive part of that. A sports science has kind of taken the subjectivity out of data and made it more objective, right? So so now it's no longer opinion. It's it's it's fact. it's it's it's It's numbers, right? And so when you look at a sports performance director, my job is to be that umbrella that everything falls under. So it is strength and conditioning.
00:02:48
Speaker
It is you know sports nutrition. It is sports science. It is also recovery. So it's it's all these different things of how are we doing everything off of the court to try to prepare them to be the best version of themselves. Because because ultimately that's what it comes down to is is if we are going to be the best version of us as a team, we need everybody to be the best version of themselves.
00:03:13
Speaker
as a part of that team. And so that is that is more or less the the simplified version of of my role is how do I help our guys to become the best versions of them through everything unrelated to basketball. So when we put the ball back in their hands, they are that bigger, stronger, faster, more explosive, better endurance version of themselves.
Personal Journey to Strength Coaching
00:03:37
Speaker
um So I think that's that's sports performance in a nutshell. And I will say one thing that is is really ah say awesome about the role at UH is that you know at other universities, and and not like any specific, but it is something you see is you almost have this like siloed ah approach where you have somebody, one person who handles nutrition and they they kind of just do everything on their own.
00:04:01
Speaker
One person handling strength and they kind of do it on their own. One person handling science, they do it on theirs. One person handling recovery and all of a sudden it's not necessarily like an integrated approach. um And so that is one good thing with us is when you're dealing with a smaller roster like we have, you know, 14 guys.
00:04:19
Speaker
It's very integrated approach of everything related to their performance. um so So that is my role in a nutshell. Now in the the world of how did I get here? Yeah. um You know, Long and Winding Road was was actually talking about this with some some people earlier today. ah Prior to my playing career, collegiately, I had never lived anywhere in my life longer than three years. I lived yeah lived one place for three years. Wow. On average, everywhere else for two. Had a couple one-year stops in there. but you know So obviously, my dad was was army, right? So you know people say, where are you from? And I'm just a child of mother nature, baby. I'm i'm from all over the place, right?
00:05:01
Speaker
di um Nice. Nice. Yeah, so my dad was 30 year, active duty, you know, former active duty at this point, you know, retired as a full bird Colonel, started out flying helicopters, you know, kind of transitioned to flying a desk and, you know, doing those things as as an older guy, um you know, more on the, you know,
00:05:20
Speaker
I don't know, the the pencil pushing side of the military when he got older. um But you know that that was kind of of my thing was I grew up in an environment that you know my dad maxed out every PT test growing up. He was actually a pole vaulter, collegially. I mean, so you know it's you know that was kind of the background I grew up in. I played football at Utah State University. um yep i am a I'm very, very proud of that. Look, we may not be the... ah We may not be the best team on the planet, but uh, we got spunk. So, you know,
00:05:55
Speaker
They're the Pac-12 now, right? No, I'm going to say this. It will go down in history. Utah State, we single-handedly saved the Conference of Champions. So there you go. At this point, whoever's whether it's UNLV or whoever leaves the Mountain West next, they'll go down in history as as as destroying the Mountain West, but we'll go down as as saving the Conference of Champions, man. So yeah go Blue Aggies. I know that there's a little something down here i live in Texas. Nice. but ah But yeah, so I was playing football. um you know I knew I wanted to get into strength. i Actually, I signed as a business major. ah I didn't have the connection coming out of high school that that strength and conditioning was its own separate entity because I you know i knew that there were strength coaches on the visits. i But like my strength coach in high school was the line coach or
Passion for Basketball and Joining Houston
00:06:45
Speaker
the head coach. right And i just I guess I had just assumed that these guys were coaching a position that was not
00:06:52
Speaker
My position, i just i I'm just a dummy, man. I didn't quite connect the dots. So I get to Utah State, and I'm saying, wait a minute. and Hold on now. these This is what you guys do for a living. like You guys lift weights. You teach people how to lift weights. In between doing stuff, you're probably in there doing curls and squats. like in between every so like This is the greatest job ever. does does everybody know about like why Why isn't everybody doing this? right yeah like this is so anyway so i went from being a business major to being a future strength coach within like very short time of arriving on campus i was like yeah i want to do what those guys do right um and so i ended up finishing up at utah state i went to a school called southern utah university that was the first coaching job i had in uh
00:07:40
Speaker
You know, funny, we had the same number of student athletes that we have at UH, right? It's division one. It was, it was FCS football, ah but there was a head strength coach and there was myself as a grad assistant. So there was two of us running 400 student athletes every day. um It was, it was 5 AM m was when baseball started and 5 30 PM is when track and field started. And my gosh I was there.
00:08:02
Speaker
for each and every one of them in between. so it was ah That's so much to cover, man. Yeah, it's ah it was a lot of work. um But it's funny because ah i when I got into strength, I had no intention of being a, ah ah but quote unquote, a basketball guy. um I just you know i thought I'd go down and do the job. And I followed the path that I knew was out there to be a you know a head football strength coach one day. um But I i i always loved basketball. I played basketball playing up.
00:08:31
Speaker
are growing up um but I kind of fell back in love with it because what would happen is my boss would go out to football practice and I would stand in it and I'd train two or three teams during the course of practice and basketball was one of them and it was it was a couple things one it was just a whole lot of fun I mean just fun training the guys um I really love what I do but the other thing is because it was so limited. And before I got there, there was the head strength coach by himself. there There wasn't even a GA or an assistant. I was actually the first grad assistant and the first assistant at SU as a strength coach. So i'm I'm running basketball, and I'm lifting these dudes, and and like they're getting really good results. But they they were so appreciative of people just investing of somebody finally investing into them. ah Man, and I got a lot of
00:09:20
Speaker
you know fulfillment out of that. and And so a job came open at UT Arlington, ah working for Scott Cross. I went to you know University of Texas at Arlington. you know we I was there for a brief stay. I was only there for about a year. ah But I had some success, won some games, ah did some good things, I think, in the weight room, strength and conditioning side. Went back to Utah State, i worked there four years. and And when I went there, again, same number of student athletes as Houston. ah There was two of us full time.
00:09:49
Speaker
There was one part-time, and there's two grad assistants when I got there.
Alignment with Coach Sampson's Vision
00:09:52
Speaker
So there was there was five of us running the entire athletic department. i mean it was So I was the top football assistant, and I was kind of the ah the default Olympic sport director. yeah And so more or less, the the head football guy would go out to practice, and I'm staying back, still training basketball, gymnastics, everybody. But at that point, i I had taken on basketball. It was it was what I wanted to do.
00:10:17
Speaker
um And then when the opportunity came to work for coach, you know, I won't only get into all the behind the scenes, but I put out a couple of calls to some, you know, ah one of coach's previous strength coach from Oklahoma and one of challenge previous strength coaches from map. And I was like, guys, like, I want to push my chips all in on this. Like, I really, really want this job to go work for ah for coach Sampson. um they They both felt that I was a right fit for him. And so, you know, both of them called, got me connected.
00:10:48
Speaker
Uh, went through the interview process and, and man, I'm one of the best decisions I've ever made. Love, love being down here. You know, it's, it's awesome. No, it's great. And we're so appreciative of you as, as part of the program. And, and you know, for the three of us that are diehard Houston Cougar basketball fans, we all notice the change after you joined in 2017 with the physical transformation of the kids heading into the 17, 18 season. And of course it.
00:11:14
Speaker
wasn't a coincidence that it coincided with the exponential jump the team made that season, making the turning for the first time under coach Samson. Now going back in time, can you describe the process of getting aligned with coach Samson's expectations from a strength and conditioning perspective? Because every, like you said earlier, every school, every program is different. And how did you ensure there was that alignment early on?
00:11:39
Speaker
So I want to take one step back. I'm going to answer that question, but something you said. I would say this. I'm i'm super grateful to be here. I work my butt off. I'm really happy to be you know a puzzle piece in this thousand piece puzzle. And I've got one little piece in the corner somewhere. as So you know my part of it.
00:11:56
Speaker
um But I'll say this, if if I get abducted by aliens tomorrow, Coach Sampson is still a first ballot Hall of Fame. call i mean like he he He was going to do what he did no matter what. right yeah um And then the other thing is, I mean this sincerely, it sounds funny, but the the best strength coach on every staff is your recruiting court.
Importance of Nutrition in Training
00:12:17
Speaker
right and Because when when you bring in really, really tough kids, you're going to have a really tough team. And you bring in super you know freak athletes that can play ball and buy into playing hard. All of a sudden, we all look like geniuses, right? Yeah, yeah. um so So make no mistake about it. When I came in, you know that's the same time Qantas came in.
00:12:36
Speaker
And all of a sudden, you know, we're getting some really, really good dudes out of Louisiana. You know, Kellen had been established on staff and all of a sudden, you know, the recruiting was going to tick up no matter what, you know, just with coach being here and and being able to get his program going. um So when you say it coincided, i you know, I'll say I was at the right place at the right time for that. And and i've I've been.
00:12:58
Speaker
I'm very proud of, you know, the, the hard work I put in the, you know, to help the program, but I don't, please don't give me too much credit on that, man. Cause I don't, I don't deserve it. It's a, it is coach Samson's program. It's those assistant coaches. It is, man, those guys, you have no idea what goes on every day. And it is a developmental program. Um, most definitely. Yeah. Those guys got them right. Well, I had to discount what coach has done, obviously.
00:13:25
Speaker
as you said, one of the greatest coaches in all of college basketball. But we definitely want to give you your props as well. I mean, for us fans that monitor it really closely, we saw the physical transformation of the kids right from yeah the season before, even to to your first year there, it was just a different body ah makeup heading into the season.
00:13:48
Speaker
And so, just wanted to make sure we understood kind and kind of how you got aligned with coach and then maybe a a better idea of the types of programs you put in place for that first year that was different from what was done before. Yeah, yeah so i yeah and and I get what you're going with that. So, what I'll say is ah it's probably my favorite thing that coach Samson demands out of us.
00:14:12
Speaker
And he's not asking. I mean, he's telling this is how he runs his program is we all need to be first team all conference in our job. And I really feel that way is that I need to look around and say, OK, if I think anybody in in our league is doing a better job than me as a strength coach, well, why is that? And then how do I do a better job than that? OK, in terms of being alignment, I mean, look, you're going to absolutely work your face off in this program, both ah as a coach and as a player.
00:14:41
Speaker
um you know, coach values a lot of things, you know, accountability being one of them. ah But I think, you know, the the training style I have is kind of a perfect storm of, like you said, you know, guys' bodies developing. Well, we wouldn't be able to do it if if Lauren Sampson was not fundraising her face off, which a lot of people don't see that, but behind the scenes, all that money that she brings in, that's how much coach Sampson values nutrition.
00:15:09
Speaker
is that money now goes to our fueling station, which is our 24 seven 365 food that they have in their locker room. All that money goes to our training table, which is our meals that we were able to provide. So, you know, we make them come in and they they have weights, they have tutoring. that Well, you're going to miss breakfast. We were making you be with us so we can provide you that meal.
00:15:29
Speaker
Um, we have you there in the afternoon at practice, like you missed dinner between pre-practice film practice post shots, whatever. So we can give you dinner, right? So we can give that training table, but without that training table, the bodies are not going to respond as training yeah at all the way, uh, they, they need to. So you, so you look at it as a.
00:15:52
Speaker
collective holistic effort of that. you know And then the other big thing is, you know one thing I'm a firm believer in is micronutrients should drive your macros. And what I mean by that is if you look at the city of Houston, we are not a very calorically deficient people.
00:16:07
Speaker
like yeah these
Commitment to Training and Recruitment
00:16:11
Speaker
ah These meals are phenomenal, right? yeah But that being said, if you like let's say you start looking at key micronutrients like like vitamin D or zinc or magnesium or all these things. Well, maybe it's a nervous system regulator. You can't sleep at night because you're magnesium efficient. Maybe your androgen production, the things that make you male is is not where it needs to be. It's it's substandard because your vitamin D deficient, your zinc deficient, you're one of these things. And so now we can start looking at it and saying, okay, we have the money to provide the support. Let's go out and actually get the the mindset of health that will drive performance.
00:16:49
Speaker
and address those things. ah The other big part is, you know i'm I'm a big believer this is my personal thing and you know there's always exceptions to the rule, but I think if you can stay sub 10% body fat, you are gonna have a much better response, hormonal response to training, to nutrition, to everything we're trying to do. So I do think that's one thing that I... I am a little bit more cognizant of, is that one, fat don't flex. I'm not saying you can't be a really good player, carrying a little bit of extra body weight. A lot of people have done it. However, I do want to be very aware that if we're trying to put on weight, like make sure we're putting on a good weight. yeah right And and there's there's nothing wrong with you know being a 20 pound more muscle version of yourself that that is running faster, hitting harder, defending better, giving more quality minutes for longer because you're in better shape.
00:17:40
Speaker
Versus just being a bigger body carry an extra weight that I mean well You're not doing much with it because it's not the right kind of weight You know, but but the other side too is don't lose sight of it Not everybody's having to put on a ton of ton of weight Some guys just have to get stronger more explosive better upper body violence, whatever that might be um And so I'm just very aware that that training hard will get results as long as it's really consistent and it's well thought out. It's a you know a ton of effort on display, those kind of things. And so I think that's just one thing, me being a big you know weight room guy going all the way back to the first time I snuck into a gym on the military base at 10 years old. right i mean i just um It's just something I'm i'm all about. i've I've trained under people with many disciplines. I mean i fell i fell in love with with you know the iron game. I remember the first time I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger.
00:18:35
Speaker
right And I was about five years old and i was and I actually I ran down the hall and I told my mom, I was like, mom, there's a guy on TV with bowling balls in his arm. Like you got to see this. i find Yeah, my brain didn't comprehend how was I was. I really thought he had bowling balls under his skin. yeah um I was trained by a level five, meaning i he can be a judge in the Olympics. He's a former head coach in the Olympic Training Hall for Olympic weightlifting. I mean, that's that's who I trained weightlifting under. ah But my strength coaches in college, they were all you know powerlifting based. So I have a very diverse background in training, and I think you kind of draw for many disciplines.
00:19:14
Speaker
um And then, you know, you start implementing the speed work, you start implementing implementing the conditioning side. Um, and yeah, that's just kind of my background. And I think if you implement that and believe me, I'm going to believe in it and I'm going to have a stronger opinion on it than any of our players ever will. I mean, but, but I should, it's what I do for a living. So, so now on top of that, like I better be all about this 24 seven three 65 year olds. Why would they be right?
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, completely. Yeah, great. Yeah, but but I'll also say this, a man, don't lose sight of it. There's a lot of really good strength coaches out there working for programs that you know maybe maybe the kids are knuckleheads, maybe the head coach don't hold them accountable. I mean, those programs are out there, right? Yeah. But what I will say is is the kids we bring in, man, super high character, you know do not recruit problems. And I love that about coaches. he just he doesn't He doesn't want to deal with problems, so he doesn't recruit problems, right? So all the kids we bring in, they know what they're signing up for.
00:20:09
Speaker
They want to be a part of of the package, and the you know the the whole package is a developmental package. um So these kids come in knowing they're going to work their freaking butts off. And oh, by the way, like you think they're not talking on the recruiting trips? you know They're not talking about, hey, man, conditioning month looks like this. June and July weightlifting looks like that. i mean like But that's what the kids are signing up for. It's why you know it's not why they come, but but it's a part of the total package that
Reflections on Previous Connections
00:20:34
Speaker
they're coming to. So it's it's just it's part of the culture now. Nice. Awesome.
00:20:38
Speaker
Nice. ah let me ah Let me make a quick comment and then ask you a question. yeah the The comment is, I'm 100% on board with you but about Utah State taking over the Pac-12. And the reason I say that is because I'm i'm from Milwaukee, I'm from Wisconsin, and the Packers starting quarterback Jordan Love.
00:20:59
Speaker
came to the Packers from Utah State. I trained him once upon a time. Oh, wow. Oh, you did? i when When he was a... Yeah, he was a... I'm not taking any credit, man. I was there for one one year with him. Great kid, high character. I mean, you could tell right out the jump that you're just like, yeah, this kid's got a chance to be special. um but but But the thing I liked about him, um and honestly, I appreciate the most about him, is the guy just... he He's a worker.
00:21:29
Speaker
He came in, worked his butt off, earned everything he got. I mean, what he's got right now, he he he didn't get there by accident. I mean, it's not just because he was you know touched by the hand of God and he's just going to be successful no matter what. he That kid worked his freaking face off.
00:21:44
Speaker
um Yeah. Oh, that's good to hear. Yeah. Another dicker fan. I was going to say, we've had a few guys. ah I think Kyler Fackrell was a linebacker ah from Utah State outside, you know, rush Russian outside back. You know, he was one of our guys. um I got to remember who else. i Was it Marwan Evans might have been a safety for you that we had. um I think we might have one more running back. I can't remember who it was. But yeah, we we had a handful of guys come through ah Utah State. Go play for the Packers. Yeah. Oh, nice.
00:22:16
Speaker
Nice. yeah Okay. Well, great. Well, the question I have is, uh, last year it obviously hurt the basketball team that our snow went down earlier in the year.
Player Rehabilitation and Custom Training
00:22:28
Speaker
Tuggler went down late in the year. And I think a lot of people are curious to know how their rehab has been and how they're looking heading into the 24, 25 season.
00:22:37
Speaker
Yeah, so they they are both 100% cleared. um Rehab went really, really good for both of them. um Again, high-character kids that attacked rehab, right? um So I mean, without diving too much into the the details of it, I'll say they we had our first practice today. They both looked really, really good. Nice. Nice. Nice.
00:23:03
Speaker
Hey, coach. So we see and follow your tweets on on Twitter or X, whatever they want to call it now. And it's just so impressive to see the work as well as some of the before and after photos you post on the kids. So we know that at a high level, you have some common routines for all the kids. But maybe you can share with fans whether you customize programs by kid or by position group. Sure.
00:23:28
Speaker
Yeah, it may be different cuts that you take at at devising programs for the kids. No, that's a really good question. So ah one, I laughed a little bit. What what do you call tweets now? Do do you call them exes? I don't know. I don't know if you call them anymore. But ah but ah yeah, so so here's what I'll say. there's a The reality of training is that that training, for the most part, is general physical preparation, yeah right? the specific You know, physical preparation is more towards like the energy system demands, what you're going to see in a game. Then you get that sports specific preparation, which is really the the game itself. Right. And so our off season is predominantly GPP, just general physical prep.
00:24:13
Speaker
with a, we'll say a path carved out of how we're going to get to our, you know, sport specific prep. That being said, that there's there's always a skeleton in place. However, if somebody has a need, for example, coming off of a rehab,
00:24:29
Speaker
Uh, for example, you know, maybe we have a discrepancy, you know, we do a lot of testing on force plates, you know, uh, dynamometers, things like this. Uh, you know, we have different force cells we can use to say how to, you know, one side of the body to the other and different, you know, isometric angles so we can compare side. If somebody has a glaring issue, well, you need to attack that. However, once it's been corrected, you don't need to necessarily be on a a specific plan to correct something that's no longer there. I mean, it's kind of like taking medicine.
00:24:59
Speaker
after you're no longer sick, and right? And so, are there custom? Absolutely, for certain people, certain times of the year, they're doing something completely different than others. So, like, think of a redshirt, right? Redshirts, I do not care if you're tired of practice because I don't care if you're tired in the game. You're not playing this year. That's right. I mean, just be real talk. You're not playing this year. We need you to be better for next year. So, yeah practices might be a little more uncomfortable for you because you're doing a little bit more training with me, but but by next year, you'll be ready to go.
00:25:28
Speaker
um High minute guys, their program's gonna look a little bit different than low minute guys, right? Low minute guys look a whole lot different than no minute guys. um So so there where there will be differences, but that being said, you don't have two different practices, right? yeah There's a team practice. you know You're still trying to accomplish a goal. So we do have a very skeleton program of what we want this thing to look like that we can always make little adjustments to. um When we are in season, there might be seven variations of a program on the floor.
00:26:03
Speaker
Um, when we're in our off season, there might be two or three and and it's one program with two or three variations based off of, you know, maybe one guy's got a shoulder issue and other guys got a, you know, Achilles issue.
Innovative Conditioning Drills
00:26:14
Speaker
Um, so yeah, it's, it's not a super exciting answer, but, uh, it's great insight, but I'll say the other thing is, is I don't, it's not like I got the program written out right now for what we're going to do next year. Cause I don't, I don't know what guys are going to have and what their needs are.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so that's the most important thing is the first thing you got to do is conduct a needs analysis. Like what, what do we need to do? Where do we need to go? And then burn we just got to put the plan together for how we're going to get there. Okay. So I've got a question here from the third old man that couldn't make it today. And so he wanted me to ask this. Someone once said that the best conditioning drills are the ones players hate the most. If this is true, what is the drill our kids hate the most?
00:26:59
Speaker
Man, I don't hate any of them. I love watching our guys work to face it off. Oh, okay. So that's a good one. um i will Okay. So one thing we implemented this year is ah we we went and bought five brand new Versa Climbers.
Role in Recruitment and Program Values
00:27:17
Speaker
Okay. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that, but it yes it's like yeah calling gap yeah correct.
00:27:22
Speaker
Right? And so we bought five of those, one of the thoughts being that we we wanted to take one of our our days that was a speed development sprint day and say, okay, let's make this more of like, you know, a lactic acid threshold training day. Let's do something a little bit different, but let's take the pounding off of one day a week and then, you know, we'll see how that adds up over the course of, you know, a 12 week off season. Yeah.
00:27:46
Speaker
I think that a one of one of the funniest things I heard from our players, because I think that Versa Climber is probably the new most dreaded day in our building. oh and And look, you you never judge a workout by how many guys puke. I mean, any any any dummy can just keep blowing the whistle until guys throw up. I think every dude popped at least once. on the verse of this offseason. But but but it's it's always a challenge. So no matter what, you've got to beat a time, you've got to beat a distance, you've got to beat something from a previous week, or you're trying to beat somebody else. And if you don't, you're held accountable, which is you have more work to do. You didn't win the drill, right? yeah yeah um But one of the guys, the funniest thing he said was, ah the only thing worse than the Versa climber
00:28:36
Speaker
was me saying five seconds and then the whistle because I mean like like we're not waiting for you it's it's we're going right perfect yeah so so my my countdown and that whistle and I'm telling you I'm a whistle coach that whistle is the best way to organize a group of people That whistle blows nonstop during conditioning drills, but I think the versus probably the toughest thing we do. yeah um And I think it's probably the most terrifying thing to some of these guys because I mean, they're just nowhere to hide. there There's no way to hide in the middle. There's nowhere to... you know Hey, I'm going to run on part as I can, the first two and the and the fifth, but I'm a coast on the third and the fourth, the little, there's just nowhere to hide. so And when we do everything, we have a full staff in there. So that's one unique thing about our our staff is, a yeah, in our off season, every single day and ah in June, July, August, September, if we're doing a team lift or team run, coach Sampson,
00:29:32
Speaker
ah you know, the the operations guys, the assistant coaches, the video, all the way down to the managers. Everybody is there because that's that's our practice. So um yeah, so when I say there's nowhere to hide, there's nowhere to hide. this no denied oh So kind of jumping topics here. We can't mention any names at this point because in this upcoming recruiting class, they have not signed yet. But we did notice one top flight recruiting target brought their personal strength and conditioning coaches with them on their official visit. Is this the first time that that has happened? are you Or is it commonplace? do you Are you actively involved in on-campus visits with recruits?
00:30:14
Speaker
Yeah, I must have not been there for that one, man. I don't remember. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No. So, ah okay. So, i would is it the first time that I've met a strength coach on a visit? No. A lot lot of times, like some of those guys, you know, people who come on visits are people that are that are important in that person's circle, that decision-making process. Absolutely.
00:30:37
Speaker
um Sometimes, I think once you start bringing a strength coach, you might as well start bringing the neighbor's dog too, right? Yeah, yeah. Might as well bring everybody, right? But ah but no ah but anyways, you know some some guys, you like maybe it's it's it's a workout guy. Maybe it's ah someone who has a couple dual roles with them, you know like an AAU coach that or a high school coach or somebody that also does some other things. But primarily, it's it's the kid and his his immediate family. Family, yeah.
00:31:02
Speaker
um In terms of what you're alluding to, um I will say in that instance, there was a pre-existing connection to that strength coach. And I'll say this, that that's a about where it starts and it stops. I mean, he he had a really, really good, trust me, that guy had really, really good things to say about the Houston program.
00:31:26
Speaker
yeah but and that That was Casey Beard, 100%. That guy absolutely did a phenomenal job in making sure that specific recruit knew his path to success and and how Houston was going to get there. But with those with again with those strength coaches specifically, just a preexisting relationship, never hurts to have a lot of people saying good things about you. yeah um you know I know that their bias, and again, I know the guys, their bias was they they had a connection to that family. um and and They really wanted him to come here because they wanted more free Houston. cu you I know the guys. but ah but no it's ah But no, they they were really you know they they were a really good group. you know so So is it common? Probably not super common. um
00:32:15
Speaker
But is it common to have a lot of people on a visit? Yeah, sure. yeah know Important people in your life because it's this huge, important decision. Now, that being said, my involvement, every every unofficial visit, trust me, if if we're bringing them in, they are important.
00:32:28
Speaker
so i'm um you you know it's I'm not doing the recruiting in terms of I'm not going to games. I'm not calling people. I'm not doing that. that's That's obviously the assistant coaches. But when they come to the building, out I'm meeting each and every one of them. oh You get to the official visit. It's probably about an hour of me explaining to them, you know hey, this this is what the program is. This is how it operates. This is what to expect. This is how this is what we value. you know Really touching nutrition, sports science, training.
00:32:56
Speaker
um You know, and then for a lot of the kids, the most important thing is, you know, okay, well, what are the first eight to 10 months look like? Cause you go to college to get a job, they're going to be with us eight to 10 months and they're going to go get a job, right? It's Jerris water, right? yeah Yeah. And so in those instances, you know, maybe, maybe the priority shifts a little different too. This is what your plan is from day one.
00:33:19
Speaker
until the you know the last day of of of month 10. And so you just gotta make sure that the kids, the family, you know everybody involved knows that there is a plan for you. And this is how we will help you to become the best version of you. And this is this is what we're gonna do to get you there.
00:33:38
Speaker
um you know It's kind of the the days of the ah you know the waterfall and the in the cold tub and the locker room or whatever, you know like those facility battles. Look, that stuff's cool, but that's it's it's not really what it's about. yeah right um those Those extra bells and whistles that just don't do anything for you.
Adaptation to Big 12 Challenges
00:34:01
Speaker
It's not really where we're at in college anymore. like Everything's got to have a purpose, a function, um and everything's got to demonstrate that it it makes you a better version. Yeah, no that's a great answer. So we just wrapped up our first year in the Big 12 with smashing success, finishing first in what is clearly the number one basketball conference in the country.
00:34:23
Speaker
Did your thinking change at all leading into the first year of the Big 12? And after a year of that grind in the Big 12, has your perspective shifted again heading into year two? I'm going to take a page out of Coach Sampson's book. I mean, don't act like we weren't winning games before we got there, right? Yeah. Not to take away from what you're saying there. yeah um But what I will say is,
00:34:54
Speaker
The most important thing that we're going to do every single day is what we're doing right now. right so if if If you have practice, this better be the best practice you've ever had because it's the practice you have now. um Better be the best weight session, better be the best conditioning, better be the best exposure to nutrition that you've ever had because it's what we have now. and and I'm not worried about next week. I'm not worried about tomorrow. I'm worried about what are we doing right now? How do we have success and and and do this?
00:35:22
Speaker
And I think that mindset has not changed. That's just how I approach it. um Have other guys on staff change different? Yeah, I'm sure they have. um But no, it's not like we're doing more. It's not like we're doing less. Some things, are they maybe a little bit different?
00:35:41
Speaker
Sure. right I mean, I just talked about the versatile climbers, right? How how do we yeahp maybe try to take 12 weeks, take one day and just just change the exposure to still get something good out of training, but maybe take some pounding off. right yeah um That being said, I wouldn't say there's been anything wholesale, big change that we're doing this year that we didn't do last year in terms of my in terms of MySpace.
00:36:06
Speaker
um But I will say that is a that is a big boy league, man. that is a there's no There's no place that you can look at the schedule and say, all right, rule. Yeah, no soft spots. No. that's you know and and And I will say that, you know not not to discredit anybody. maybe that That was a reality, probably, in the you know maybe in the American a little bit, is when we were you know When, when we're at our peak and other people, you know, they, we may not have our best game and we're so still going to be okay. Um, doesn't really happen anymore. So, uh, but, but yeah, you know that, I know that it's just the reality of life, but, uh, yeah, man, that's all we can do is just keep showing up, working our freaking faces off and, uh, trying to do everything we can do to go win games. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome.
00:36:52
Speaker
I didn't really have any other questions. Bill, did you have anything else that you wanted to ask Coach Bishop? Well, you know looking into the the upcoming season, you know where we've got four or five starters coming back, and you've obviously worked with them. You've worked with our snow and tugler, two of the key reserves. ah But we've got you know our new point guard, Oozan, coming in and some others. How are the newcomers adjusting to to the offseason, to your expectations in terms of strength and conditioning and, yeah and how how they bought in.
00:37:29
Speaker
No, I'll tell you this, ah Mercy and Chase are two freshmen coming in. um I mean, Mercy, I feel like I've known him forever, right? I mean, he's I feel like he's been committed to us for the last 10 years. Yeah, right. But no, I'll tell you this, the ah you start learning about guys, kind of what what drives them, what makes them tick, like you know what's their motivation. um And I'll tell you this, the two freshmen,
00:37:54
Speaker
I think they're both guys that that I've been extremely happy. I've been impressed with their work ethic. um You can tell their kids that come from families ah that value hard work.
00:38:07
Speaker
um i think i mean i don't i don't I don't have a negative thing to say about either of the freshmen coming in with where they're at. right i mean They're freshmen. It's like, what does Coach always say? The best thing about freshmen is they're going to be sophomores. That's just part of the deal. But what I love the most about it is that Mercy, he's getting to learn from Emmanuel. And he's getting to learn from LJ. And I think that is one of those secret sauce things in the program is, well, don't forget, Emmanuel, he was learning from Jamal. yeah And Jamal, he was learning from, and he just you just, yeah you have this you know chronological order going back, and that that's the difference between having a good team and having a good program.
00:38:51
Speaker
It's Coach Sampson who's built a phenomenal program. Same with Chase. i mean Chase is seeing how how our guards operate, our wings operate, and and and it's all being done at a super high level. um you know so Those are the new guys. That's what im I'm most impressed is they they just dove right in. you know They didn't dip their toe in. They came in, and and they came in trying to earn minutes.
00:39:14
Speaker
And I love that man. I love how competitive they are. Los. Nice. Oh, I'm telling you, man. I'm i'm excited, man. we Coach Sampson does a really good job making sure we get the right kids in the building. You know, Los, he's one of those guys that he came in and again, he he could have... gone anywhere. you know he he's you know Coach Sampson wanted him. He wanted to come play for Coach Sampson. And and he came in. And with transfers, you did you just never know you know, well, what did it look like at their old school? what did you know like What are their habits? But I'd say Los came here because he wanted to work. yeah He came here because he knew that this is a place that
Player Development and Role Adoption
00:39:51
Speaker
would push him. He knew that this is a place that that he would, if you wanted to to you know get a PhD in basketball,
00:39:57
Speaker
This is where you come. And so I will say that I really, yeah I think all three of those guys are super high character guys. I think Los, I mean, that's your floor general, right? That's your point. glass So I think he's he's super high character. He's a guy that's working his butt off. um You know, like everybody, you still got a lot to learn when you get into a new program, but you're asking basketball questions now, man. I'm um um wanting you to talk to me about, you know, squats, curls and, ah and creativity, man. What are we doing?
00:40:25
Speaker
But no, but no, I like all three of those guys are awesome. You know, just I think I think Los is going to do a great job for us. I think the freshmen are going to do a great job for us. All the basketball stuff aside, I love working with them guys. All right, that's great because. ah ah Especially about about who's on because ah yeah, the the one the one question and and I.
00:40:52
Speaker
You know, if you ask me who I think is going to win the big 12, who's going to win the national championship, I mean, I'm going to say us, but the one concern I have is, is replacing shed because shutt shed was just so extraordinary both on and off the court. He's just almost generational. And, uh, so to hear you say that about Oozan is, uh, that, that, that, that really, uh, that makes me feel really damn good.
00:41:20
Speaker
No, I mean, well, I'll tell you this too. um Jamal was a lot different than Dajon, right? Dejan was different than Galen. And I love all three of those guys. Now, now you're right. well Jamal, I mean, you know what was he, the the defensive player of the year, the Big 12 player of the year? I mean, that that guy was just, I mean, he was special, right? He he he could do some things that probably most of us have never seen a UH Cougar do before, right? yeah um Now, that being said, Los is not coming in to be the next Jamal. He's coming in to be the first Milos. ye
00:41:52
Speaker
right I mean, Jamal wasn't coming in to be the next day, John. He was coming to be the first Jamal, right? And and i do I do think that, I mean, Los is Los. He's got his own strengths. He's got his own weaknesses. but ah yeah and And I get what you're saying in terms of replacing. yeah Someone's got to run the point, but yeah I mean, Los is a high character dude. He works really, really hard. He values the right things. um We just need Los to be the best version of Los, man. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you 100%.
00:42:21
Speaker
Awesome. So I think that's all we had today. Thank you so much, Coach Bishop, for the deep insights into your program, for Cougar fans listening. and Just so you guys know, you guys are going to give me a lot of flack around the office, man. You guys are asking me a ton, a ton of basketball questions. I have a basketball IQ of zero, man. I'm a weight room guy.
00:42:42
Speaker
I thought we were going to be talking about, you know, French contrast and half field squats and rear foot elevated versus French foot elevated split squats and, you know, velocity base versus, you know, RPE versus, you know, but what percentage base. What are we what are we doing, man? oh go yeah well Well, we're all experts. We're we're both experts at that. get you tell that wet do that daily so it really never entered our our tra of thought we will had to talk about other topics I guess it goes without saying, right? Everybody knows about it. But no, I mean, I'll just say, you know, me, I had to work really, really hard to to try to just be average. But, you know, there's there's guys like you, Bill, you just pick your parents the right way, reach down, touch by the hand of God. You just kind of show up and got them, man.
00:43:28
Speaker
I love it.
Wrap Up and Subscription Details
00:43:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah you know yeah i yeah some some people are luckier than others. coach Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Bill, did you have ah any final thoughts that you wanted to say? Yeah, I wanted to mention one thing. ah Yeah, I mentioned it to you, Steve, ah but I've got a coworker. He's our corporate counsel here in my work.
00:43:58
Speaker
he He's a U of H basketball season ticket holder, huge U of H basketball fan. And ah he kind of disappeared this week because his his brother passed away. and and And every one of us here in the office, and and especially myself, ah what ah want to offer him our our deepest condolences. And Kevin, I hope ah hope you're doing well. I hope your family's doing well. And we just want to make sure that that you know we're thinking about you and that you're OK.
00:44:26
Speaker
Here, here. Completely agreed. Thanks again, Coach Bishop. Really appreciate the time. Take care. All right, guys. Go Cougs. Go Cougs. Thank you. Thank you. Go Cougs.
00:44:37
Speaker
So that's it for this episode 29 of 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. We are also available via the Republic of Football podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as the only basketball-centric podcast. Or at gokooks.com website for those that prefer to digest the content that way.
00:45:04
Speaker
We appreciate the continued support from all. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, no conference for old men. And as we enter October, we will begin to ramp up our cadence with some national and big 12 previews. So please be on the lookout to download and listen as the next episode drops in October. Take care, everyone.