The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Gottlieb - All Ball - Celtics closing in on the Warriors, special guest Univ. Hawaii HC Eran Ganot

Episode Date: October 4, 2018

Subscribe here to the All Ball with Doug Gottlieb Podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/all-ball-with-doug-gottlieb/id1358843497?mt=2. All Ball with Doug Gottlieb is part of the Colin Cowherd Podcast Network. All Ball is an unfiltered podcast covering the biggest stories in college basketball and the NBA. Join Doug as he brings his unique perspective as a TV analyst and radio host. Join us this week as Doug talks Lakers small ball with LeBron, and why the Celtics are closer to the Warriors than people think. He's also joined by University of Hawaii HC Eran Ganot on his unique path to the D1 coaching ranks.  Follow Doug on Twitter at @GottliebShow and go to theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions, about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to learn the hard way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It's a

signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, welcome into All Ball. I'm Doug Gottlieb, and this week's guest is, I think you're really, Aranaganat is the head coach at Hawaii. He had a really fascinating life before becoming the head coach at U.H.

Manoa. and we're going to talk about it from being a growing up in Jersey is the son, twin son of immigrants, going to Swarthmore, playing for a legendary coach, and then shunning what you would think would be a six-figure job on Wall Street in finance to go and be a volunteer assistant at St. Mary's and live in a, you know, like a two-bedroom house, which he had a car repoed and ultimately becomes the head coach, U.H. Manoa. Like, that's a really interesting tale. Plus, some of the things he's learned along the way, a coach or two that he admires,

I think you'll enjoy our conversation. We have gotten a chance to see a little bit of the NBA. And, of course, I'm fascinated by the Lakers and what LeBron looks like. And I told people, when he signed there, look at their roster, and look at how he played in the NBA finals, and he was guarding Draymond Green. You're going to want to try and find a mismatch for LeBron James as he creeps into his mid-30s. wouldn't surprise me at all if he plays a good amount of center. They play small ball.

And the one mistake that people make about the Lakers is they take last year and they say, that's what Josh Hart is, that's what Brandon Ingram is, that's what Lanzo ball is. Young, older players, they get to be role players. They are what they are until they lose a step and they're out of the league. But younger players, especially with the player development that they have with the Lakers, they're going to improve. And so on paper, it looks like this is not a good enough shooting team. Rondo, Lance Stevenson, Javail.

They bring toughness and experience and a couple have a championship pedigree. But they don't bring shooting and you need shooting around LeBron James. Well, a couple things. One, I think LeBron will make them a better shooter because if he's playing four, he's playing five. He's just a tremendous passer. And his ball dominance, people gravitating towards him creates open shots. Secondly, they're going to prove because the longer in the league, the better a shooter you become. But while everyone's paying attention to the Lakers, I'm fascinated by the Celtics.

I don't know, maybe it's because he's wide or he played in Utah. We seem to have forgotten how good Gordon Hayward was as an All-Star in the West before became the biggest free agent on the market two years ago. But Kyrie didn't get a chance for a full training camp with the Celtics last year. He does this year. And he wasn't fully healthy last year. He is this year. You had two All-Stars, and in Kyrie, a guy who's a top-10 player.

To a team that went to the Eastern Conference finals? Game 7? Make a shot they probably win? I think people are underselling just how close the Celtics are in proximity to the Warriors who won't be complete until they add to Marcus Cousins. And let's be honest, when they add to Marcus Cousins, if he's going to play in the fourth quarter, they're not playing small ball. They can't switch everything. Changes who they are.

We'll also cover a little bit the, um, the scandal in college basketball and the testimony, which we're seeing in this federal grand jury testimony. But without further ado, let's get to our conversation this week on All Ball with Aran Gunnar. All right. The All Ball podcast continues on. I wanted to now only preview his basketball program, but he's got a fascinating kind of life story and life journey that's led him to be in the fourth year.

Is that right? Fourth year head coach at Hawaii? Man, it just, it does seem like yesterday where we were in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Spokane, Washington, hanging out, getting ready as they had upset. It was supposedly an upset against Cal, but it was a beatdown against Cal before they lost in the second round. He's Ron Ganat. He joins us here on the All Ball podcast. Ron, how are you? I'm doing great.

Another perfect day in paradise. Can't complain. Yeah, what is it really like? I mean, for a guy from the States and you grew up in Jersey, went to college in the East Coast, for heading out to the West Coast and working for Randy Bennett. What is it like every day to wake up in Honolulu? I don't want to sound too cliche, but it is living in the dream. I mean, you're doing what you love, where you love, with people you love, nothing better.

You know, I was so loyal and still am to Jersey. It's a little different. I love Jersey, but Hawaii's pretty nice. Now, there are challenges with Hawaii basketball, right? Like there's some budgetary issues with the entire athletic department. But also there's this sense that, hey, we can get everybody to visit. Anyone who doesn't want to visit Hawaii? What's the actual, like, can you bring anybody in?

What's the limitations on how many kids you can actually bring to campus? Well, as you know, we can only get 12 visits. I think you get 24 now. A couple years ago, they changed. You can have 24 official visits over a two-year period, so you can vary it, whereas before it was only 12 per year. But, yeah, I don't know if it's a, that difficult to bring certain guys on visits.

Like you said, there are some challenges here. But I think we put all our time and energy into the great things we have going on, because we do have a lot to sell a program that's got a lot of momentum, a state that's unbelievable with great people. So I think it's an exciting time right now to be here. Let's go back to your childhood, because it's not like that. It's not like mine, right? Like you didn't grow up in a basketball household.

You have a twin brother. and your dad immigrated to the United States from Romania. Your mom immigrated from Israel. What was it like, where was it, Tenafly? Is that where you grew up? Yeah, a small town. So actually my brother and I were born in Philly and then went to Bergenfield, New Jersey,

and then basically moved to Tenafline in 87. So kind of grew up there. I went to elementary school, middle school, high school, and then after graduating, 99, went over to Swarthmore College, which is only about two hours away in terms of a drive. So I spent our years, former of years growing up in Jersey, I have an older sister, a younger sister, a really low-key family. It was a low-key city, a great city where people kind of knew each other

and about 20 minutes from New York City. But I was very much an East Coast guy and basically felt like East Coast was Hawaii at the time. Swarthmore is a great, not good. Like I'm not underselling it when I say it's one of the premier liberal arts private liberalized schools in the country, isn't it? Yeah, no, it was very clear when, you know, I had been recruited there and kind of with the background I had that that was where I was going to go, especially when I didn't have as much say, and my parents knew about how good the school was, and that's where you're going,

but I really appreciate it there. I met a lot of lifelong friends, great professors, played for a really good coach, a guy who's a mentor to me, someone I talk to often still, but I really appreciate my time at Swarthmore. Who's that? Who'd you play for it at Swarthmore? I played for Lee Wemberley, who's retired as winning as head coached. They were there for about 25 years. Actually, coached at Bellarmine Prep in the late 70s, early 80s, and then was assistant coach to Greg Povitch for two years up Pomona Pitzer.

That's amazing. So what was he like as a coach? He was good. He was well-balanced as a coach. I learned a lot from him about, you know, just cared about the guys on the court, off-the-court. An academic, you went to shoot as a graduate from Stanford. got his doctorate and jurisprudence from Cal Berkeley, and, you know, did take a sabbatical for a couple of years to be the head scout for the Spurs

before he came back to Swarthmore to finish out his coaching career. So just really valued how much he cared about myself and all the guys. What did he run? How did you guys play? He was big on scouting, so we kind of mixed things up in terms of, you know, played a lot of man, a lot of zone. There was an offense. He actually took a lot more sets. You know, he took a lot.

We even ran an offense called Egan. after Hank Egan, who was with them when they were working together for Pop in San Antonio. So a little bit more of a structured system, you know, the game has obviously changed. Shoot, that was almost 20 years ago, but in terms of the international, the free-flowing. So back then it was more of a set-to-set-to-set structured and mix it up a little bit on D. All right, so how good a player were you? I started off pretty well and got hurt. It didn't really play much my last couple of years.

a pretty solid division three player wasn't good enough to play division one or anything going guard no you know how it is a deep we're sure we have four or five guys uh go abroad like mid-year so you might start at the two and by the second semester you might be playing some four and i'm only six two as you know so but that was kind of the life of division three basketball and especially out of liberal arts school and you know we only had 1400 kids but it was awesome. I prayed for very much the love of the game. I thought our league was really good.

My brother actually played at Franklin Marshall for Glenn Robinson, who was close to 1,000 wins right now. And, you know, programs like Johns Hopkins and Havard and, you know, there's just really good league with a lot of good programs. Wait, so you actually played against your twin brother in college? Oh, yeah, all four years. Don't ask me how we did against them. How'd you do?

No, they were a powerhouse. You know, it's great as Swarthmore now has become a, you know, when you've been to the tournament, each of the last years, I believe, under Landry Kismoski, who's, if you remember, was an assistant at Davidson. It was done a really good job there. And just to see a lot of those programs do well, it's been nice to follow from far. Okay, see, you get done in 03, and you graduate,

and so what was your plan, what, to go to Wall Street? Well, my back, so even when I went to Swarthmore, I knew it was a good school, and if there was some 1% chance that I, you know, I love the game, I love being part of a team, I love to compete, and I shoot a lot of it was the academic school that Swarthmore was, but I saw Coach Wirmley's background, I thought there was a good chance that I would want to continue to stay in the game. He knew a lot of guys and it ended up working out for me, but my background, if the 1% chance that I didn't go into and stay involved in basketball, that would be set up. I had an economics background, and most of my opportunities were investment banking. But, you know, as you know, and we talked about before, I was really excited to get a volunteer opportunity for Randy Bennett at St. Mary's. Okay, but take me through kind of the timeline. I mean, this is the great thing about what I want to do with this podcast is people like you, your path to becoming a head coach. And, you know, you won the Red Arbock Jewish College Coach of the Year Award a couple years ago. I think it's just kind of fascinating.

So you graduate, like literally, you walk in graduation. Did you come home and try and figure out what you want to do? Were you getting ready to go work in finance? Did you right away pack and go work for Randy? What was the, how did it actually work? Well, so that stretch was it was pretty clear. You know, you go through the anxiety a little bit of, hey, you know, I might have some opportunities and I did in terms of investment banking, but this might not be what I want to do.

It was clear that it wasn't what I want. I wanted to be involved in the game. And so how does a Division III guy get an opportunity to get his foot in the door? I mean, it started with, you know, I emailed, which email was a lot bigger. Then we're going to have some of the things in terms of communicating with coaches. I emailed and wrote a letter to all 350 Division 1 coaches. And I was blown away by the responses I got. Some guys with advice, and it wasn't, hey, can I?

It was more, how would you advise someone like me who wants to, you know, start this path? and a lot of guys recommended working camps and, you know, just get in front of people. The two things that stood out to me was Phil Martelli invite me to his office, and there were about St. Joe's about 20 minutes from Swarthmore, and so I went up and met with him. Lawrence Frank was the other one who I met up with him at his office. He went to TNEC, which wasn't far from Tentafly where I grew up five minutes, and met with him into the office, and he was the third assistant with the Nets at the time.

And as you know, all the time, when you look back, you keep in touch with people. Clippers were actually here, you know, this week doing training camp. So it's fun, and I see Coach Martelli. So that's how it started. Just worked, I worked Kentucky camp. I worked Virginia. I worked St. Joe's. I worked Villanova, Jay Wright, and I talked to him about that.

So it's just that's how it started. And eventually, you know, it led me to Randy Bennett, hired me the phone through my college coach. my college new coach, new coach Bennett, and he hired me over the phone in August when things were looking bleak as a volunteer. And then I just kind of grabbed my stuff, a little I had, and went over there and he picked me up from the airport. And here we go. What did your parents say when you said, hey, I have this great degree.

Your parents are two successful-educated immigrants who made a life for you and your family, and you said, hey, I'm going to go work for free in Marraud. California for a private Jesuit school. Yeah, I think there was some disappointment there. There was a lot of concern. There was a way we want to sit down and rethink this. But I think they knew me pretty well to know that even if we talk about this, this is clearly what he wants to do and he's going to chase it.

And I think they finally changed it to, maybe change their two and maybe 10 or 11 years later. Okay. So you get out, Randy's there. Who else is on the staff when you get there? Great staff, great players. I mean, it's funny to look back. I was sharing an office with Lamont Smith,

who was obviously recently the head coach San Diego is now at UTAP. Across from us was Kyle Smith, who's been the head coach at Columbia, now at San Francisco. And this is 2003, so this is my 16th year coming up. Randy's obviously still there. Dan Shattle, who was one of our assistants, who's done a great job. working with Fox and IMG since that time.

And just Todd Golden was one of our players who's associate head coach at USF now. So over the years, the amount of, there's some guys who've emerged and running their own programs right now and doing a great job with it. Didn't you have your car repoed when you were there? No, actually, I didn't really have a car.

I mean, there was a stretch. My parents actually moved to Brazil because my dad's work. They had a lease on this car for about a month. to set it over and, you know, I'm stuck paying this last month. I didn't really want it because I didn't have the money to pay for it. So it's funny looking back on it, but I was glad when that got out of our system. Okay.

And then, but wasn't there a stretch, though, where you also, you're at, you're at Hawaii as the director of ops. How'd that, when was that? So I worked for three years as a volunteer at St. Mary's just trying to, you know, soak up a lot of knowledge. It was very much an apprenticeship learning from my job. those guys, but obviously, you know, you're volunteering, I was able to make some extra money through camp,

build a good relationship with the people at the cafeteria that helped me out, maybe felt bad for me. And then, but, you know, life was simple then. I didn't mean much. I was just happy. I was trying to figure out how I could stay for a fourth year at one point when, clearly I didn't have the funds to do it. But through that relationship, it's funny because Randy Bennett hired me over the phone,

and then after year three there, you know, I get on with Riley Walls, and he hires me over the phone, and then I flew over there again with not much stuff. He picked me up from the airport, and so I spent four years there, and that's my second stint coaching, my third stint coming back to St. Mary's for five years, and then coming back obviously and 15 as a head coach. It's a crazy path. It's a crazy path, and you inherited a program that, for people who don't remember, in your first year, the NCAA said that you're going to be on probation the year after your first year,

and then all the players were free to kind of transfer, which many of them did, but you took that first team that had some talent to the NCAA tournament. You beat Cal, which is a loaded team in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Okay, so, and this is, there's a lot of young basketball coaches. I'm interested in it because I've interviewed for a couple of jobs.

The interview process at Hawaii, you had been there before, but there's a, you know, there's years in between, right? There was like eight years in between. No, not eight years. There was, I'm going to say like, five years in between, right, when you left there as an assistant coach and when you interviewed to be the head coach. So you knew some people, you knew the area very well, you knew a lot of

the different important people. How'd you get the job in the interview? You know, at the end of the day, it's very competitive, as you know, and so, you know, I felt, you know, I had prepared, you know, learning from the ground up, working for Riley Walls, working for Randy, but I'm working with the people I work with. I just felt at the end of the day, I had been ready for this position. I just had done every aspect. I worked for guys who really empowered you, gave you a lot of responsibility.

And then you combine that with my knowledge of Hawaii, what they were going through, kind of my background in helping programs go through that. And I didn't think anybody had as much passion as I did for not just the job, but the state, especially with what they were going through. Like, I wanted that challenge. And I think it could have scared some people away, maybe, because there were some dark clouds that no one knew what would end up happening.

Of course, it wasn't very good when we found out the clarity what was going to happen, but it kind of gravitated me more towards that. I always said to people that the dream job should be somewhere, in my opinion, where you kind of played her coach. And so I had a lot of – my heart was into the affinity to be there. But I kind of – I've been preparing it since day one. So it was kind of working the interview deal and speaking from the heart and being very clear on what we're going to do, how we're going to do it.

And, you know, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity. I'm very grateful for that. Your first day as head coach, anybody who's ever played and thinks about coaching has, in their mind, how they think they want to be, how they think they want to talk to the team, the type of staff they want to put together. Well, in your mind, how did you approach it? Well, there's an old line like, number one, have a plan, number two, be flexible, and it basically became once I got there and be very flexible.

I had known a little bit about what's going on. You have to imagine this is a program at that time that was going through a perfect storm in a really rough way. There's NCAA's looming. There's off-court issues. There's academic issues. And here I come into that, and you only know so much from afar. So I probably spent the first stretch really good.

understanding what exactly was going on. And then it became, scratched that plan and readjust. And it just reconfirmed what you always believe in in the foundation and the culture. The best thing I did, I think, was I spent the first with all the pressure on recruiting. And, you know, let's put it this way. People, and I was like this, when they get an opportunity like that, you're thinking build, build, and it became clear that we needed to stabilize first, which we've done, and I'm really proud of, before we can build.

If we skipped steps, we would have been in the same situation over and over again. So the first couple days were spent in terms of relationships, meeting people, and flying to homes and guys were all over the country because we had a lot of initial players to meet with these kids and their families and get to know them. And a lot, it was really tough, but it was the best thing I think we did. One of the things that I learned about your style was, you started early morning workouts with the players

and for a couple of of weeks you guys ran them but then didn't you turn it over to the players yep I think that's part of you know you're building your program and your people talk about X's and O's and development and our big part of our program is development period not just player development academic development

personal development developing future leaders I think we all know sometimes people want to get this Mr. Coach thing going, which we all like to do, but you're not going to be as good as you can be. Your ceiling is not as high as you can be if your players aren't empowered. Now, they have to earn that, but that group did. And it was amazing to watch a group that's been through so much that had so much potential

individual talent come together and created more investment on their end, and then they ran with it. And as a coach, there's nothing better to sit back, relax, and watch them go and get out of their way when they hit that point. It's a, it's a special moment. And then you completely had to rebuild the program, though, because they were all gone after the first year, right? Yeah, no, so there's usually, as you know,

when we go through something, we either we know what we know, or we study from others or people that have gone through something. So not many, I think you said this earlier, have gone through the issues or the penalties the following

year. It's usually that year. So, while I was great that our team came together to, you know, do, go on a historic run for our program. I was just as proud of the next two years, the last two years, basically, because they actually had to deal with the reality of the situation. And, you know, you build this deal and then you lose. We literally returned one total point per game from that team you covered in the A. H.A. tournament.

So, again, it became a great opportunity, a great challenge. We talked a lot about what we have, not what we don't, what we can do, not what we can. and that group's done a really good job to set us up for this year where we're back up rock solid in every area, have eight out of ten back, had a two guys sitting out, have two ESPN tournaments we'll be part of. I just can't say enough about that group

because I know, like you said, a lot of people talk about that NCAA group. How do you, like, look, you're in paradise and anybody who's ever been to Oahu, it's a thriving nightclub scene, there's the beach, there's all these tourists that come by, there's, I mean, you're, it's, and I know that they call, what do they call,

what do they call, Las Vegas, the what island? Is it like the sixth island or seven island? The ninth island, sorry, I forgot how many islands. It's the ninth island, right? But there is a, there is a little bit of Vegas to Oahu, especially to Honolulu, right, in that there's a lot of things that can divert your players' attention. How do you do that? How do you, because, like, in the real world of basketball, a lot of these guys,

they all think they're going to the NBA, whatever, but they also want to have a good time. how do you get your players to focus? Oh, our perspective is important. I think number one, we have a committed group of people on our staff and our players that we either develop within or that we bring in. We identify guys who can understand the balance. Now, I'm big on balance, and something I've had to learn as a coach is still working through. You know, sometimes coaches can get out of whack there.

But I am a big believer. You're not going to be very good if you're not happy. You're not going to be happy if you're not. And you need it all along. You need to do what you love. You need to be in a great situation and be with people that you love to be around. So I think we found a good group there. You also have to find the correct balance between fighting like heck to get better,

but also enjoying the journey. So how do you balance that with a lot of great distractions we have here? Well, we just make sure we're in balance. We're not out of whack. We talk a lot about perspective. How hard is to be good, the sacrifices you need to make. But understand there is a balance there. I do want to enjoy some of the great things we have here in Hawaii, and we have a lot.

But just, you know, it's a concert reminder of the sacrifice we need to do to be good. And once they kind of buy into that and see that, it's reinforced. And like, you know, with the culture now it comes from the staff, and now the seniors show the younger guys, and we're always on the same page. And when we have those moments, we veer off, we identify right there and keep going. Give me a sense of why Randy's been able to be successful. You know, like I look at what Randy's done, taking over program won two games to now, you know,

consistently banging heads with Gonzaga, who's really a high major and a low to mid-major kind of league. And, you know, they've redone McKeon, but it's not anything spectacular, right? It's tucked away there, you know, 20 minutes from Cal Berkeley, you know, one of the best, you know, public school in the country. what's it really like?

What's the secret sauce really to what he's able to do? The secret deal, and I'm not sure he would say this too. I mean, you know, someone asked me about him last year to talk about him. And I just think you could argue he is, or maybe, you know, he's one of the best coaches in the country, could argue he's the best in terms of perspective of things you just talked about, what's been done there, his discipline in terms of the routine to stick with it, in terms of his program and the fundamentals over and over. again, there's not much fluff.

You know, you talked about the bells and whistles, but they have the right bells and whistles, and do good programs do in terms of, you know, they've got guys who are committed to each other. They work, they're united, and he does an outstanding job of that. So I think there's so many people looking for some magic formula, and he found it, but it's not something magical. It's just the daily discipline to stay locked in over and over again for so long. and they're not going away. Give me your best Randy Bennett's story.

So he says, give me Randy Bennett's story. What is it? I don't know. Yeah, I've got to be careful about him. For someone who's so dedicated, sometimes he can be an absent-minded professor. I've had those moments, too. He's, you know, I think sometimes I've had my car run out of gas in the middle of the road, and he'll give me crap for that, and then he'll have it done to him the next day.

So he can be so locked in on what's going on and forget some of those other deals. but, you know, I think it's hard to find so much on him because he's, like I said, remarkably consistent. What about Riley? Riley is an absolute legend, and I played against his teens, but it was when it started, it was 29, 99, 98, 99. They were talented, but not like they were when AC was there,

when Anthony Carter was there, and they had that incredible backcourt. But still, Stan Sheriff's Center was a tough place to play. But he was just, I mean, he's such a legend that he's still like an ambassador. I think, to the state, right? And isn't he like a... I mean, he's a really kind of interesting guy. They used to run that flex, which I'm not a big flex guy.

What's... Give me a Riley Wallace story that for somebody who never worked with him, didn't hang around him, kind of embodies who he is. Well, for us, Wallace is larger than life. He's, like you said, he is a legend. I'm very much sitting in his office. He's the coach of Hawaii. He's the face of the program.

We induct him in a circle of honor a couple of years ago. And, you know, he's a, you know, a tough guy, but, you know, a heart of gold, and he does, will do anything for his guys. And I learned so much from him in terms of, you know, how much he, you know, there's some coaches who just think about their programs. And like you said, in terms of the ambassador, he was everything Hawaii. He was at every team's games. He was at every team's fundraisers. He was, you know, meeting with the state and fighting for he fought for the arena. I mean, he's, I learned just so much for him how Kerry was. But, You know, he was the most direct coach I've been around, which I always loved.

He was very much in your face, whether you're a player or coach, told you exactly where you stood. And then if he did he, but he would do things for you with you not knowing, like, hey, to support you, to encourage you to push you. And if you thanked him, he would always say, I didn't do that. But he totally did that. He was just trying to continue to play off this tough guy exterior. But, you know, we visit him every year.

You know, he's had some health issues, as you know. and he's such a fighter, but he's, shoot, he taught me, when I was there as a director of operations, I didn't know anybody. He picked me up in the airport. I had lunch with him. Remember, I'm not making much. He took me to lunch every single day from Monday through Friday that I was there for that one year with him because he had retired that after that year.

And I was a guy who didn't really try many foods, but he would say, we're having halibut. I don't want to eat halibut. He'll eat this year fired. Okay, I'll eat this. and one day he made me eat pigs feet, and he said, I'm not eating pigs feet, or I think it was chicken feed, I'm not eating that.

We eat that, you're fired. Okay, I'll eat that. You know, so he, and I talk to him every two, a couple times a week for, and this was 06, since 06, he's as good a match as you could have. Your favorite Hawaiian food is what? My favorite Hawaiian food. I am a big beef stew guy.

where's the best place to get beef stew in Hulahoo? Well, if I'm fortunate enough to be invited, Wai, Country Club, got the best. Very nice. You have to be invited? You don't get automatic membership? No, that was only Coach Wallace. I'm not there yet.

That's still, that's like I said. He's going back to the, back to the, that's part of the renegotiation, back to the NCAA tournament. The place you grew up playing basketball in Jersey was what? The tent of light courts, which are still there, the outdoor courts. do kids I feel like that nobody plays outside anymore

no I mean that was back you know people you know you forget when you're east coast you get the seasons I forget it now but the winter we would show us snow so we could play and that was a big deal at the ten-fight courts and then you go there now and there are not many people there and you're thinking mid your early mid-90s it was hard to get on the court and obviously you got to win to stay on and you have to adjust the the wind and all that but it was great

and it's a shame that it's, like you said, what's happening with, you know, playing outside. The most difficult place you've ever played or coached is where? Most difficult place, probably at Gonzaga. You know, I remember when we beat them for the first time, Mickey McConnell had a step through over Robert Sacri, and I can't tell you how great that locker room was firing. Oh, I mean, unbelievable.

And then Mickey McConnell, like, think about that. deal, he was set to play for New Mexico, right? And Richie gets fired. And so he, you know, he gets out of his letter and comes in place for you guys and has an incredible career. You know, if not for, if not, if not for Richie getting fired, like none of that happens. I mean, just, it's really remarkable how those things take place. No, it happens a lot. And you hear that with a lot of programs and, you know, just these little breaks and guys who come in because Mickey, you know, play behind Patty Mills for two years and Patty leaves. It's, you know, how do you play's Patty?

And then here comes a guy who first year playing a lot is an all-conference player and a second-year's player of the year. So that's a great part of doing what we do. There's a lot of great stories. Okay, so the last part is give me the update in your family. For people who don't know, your sister-in-law tragically died in a car accident. And you in your, I think she was then your fiancé, right? you adopted your daughter.

Remember, this is for people who are like trying to catch up, this is back in, I'm going to say, 2012, right? So you're at St. Mary's as an assistant. I think the car accident was in Oregon. Yeah, Chelsea, Barbie's sister, Chelsea, was in a car accident of September 2012. She didn't do anything wrong, obviously. she was pushed into the other lane and going the wrong way and by someone

who had some road rage and, you know, she passed away and I remember getting the call from Barbie's father. I was actually, we're about to walk into being at St. Mary's and hearing the news and obviously making sure it was related to me so I could be there when we related to Barbie.

There are no positive size of the story. The only thing was that the 18-month-old Ziza was not in the car and obviously as you know we've raised her since she's to think about how much time's past she's seven and a half now she'll be eight in March it's it's it's really really amazing i know the you know the anniversary just just came and went um what's that law like to go through when you're you know obviously not only you became a parent but you're also helping your spouse mourn and then you're also

coaching one recruiting second all these meetings like what how do you how do you process all of those different kind of emotional aspects of your life while maintaining what you're doing in your profession? Well, I think that's where you lean towards continuing to lead. You go through it in that experience, you know, moving forward, you know, there's so many things that are awesome about life and things that give you a lot of heartache and are really tough. And being in a leadership position, you've got to continue to stay composed and be supportive

of those and make sure you're someone they can look to for stability and support. You know, I can't imagine. Obviously, no one can imagine hearing news like that, and the amount of motion it goes in, but you've got to be able to compartmentalize. You've got to be able to sometimes just be there. And, you know, because it was a very difficult moment for a lot of people. You know, I remember being with her for a couple days, you know,

in Juana Creek and then driving over to Myrtle Creek, Oregon, spending, you know, a week there going through all that. and then shifting gears, but it's something, you know, that comes up every now often, you know, on the anniversary. And, you know, Barbie has been, and her family have been so special through it. And obviously, and you got to meet these. She's an awesome young lady and a pleasure and a treasure to have around. Yeah, I know she's really, really, she's amazing.

Of course, I know your players love her. Tell me about this team. You mentioned 8 of 10. I know Shreaf's back. I know Bugs is back as well. This is a pretty talented bunch. You guys got off to a good start. I remember the one point lost to UC Irvine, the Big West tournament.

What's your biggest challenge heading into the season? Well, you know, you lose two good players in Mike Thomas and Gibson Johnson. And Mike Thomas, you remember, was their starting format on the NCAA tournament team. But that's part of being in a program. You lose some guys to graduation and other guys emerge. So I feel great about where we're at, we're headed. You talk about eight out of your 10 coming back. You have two guys in Monte Colina from Melbourne, Australia,

who played for the COE, and Justin Hemsley from Damien High School in Southern California, who sat out. Then you add three recruits to the mix. So I think clearly, and hopefully some of this will merge, our balance might be the best since we've had it. We might not have a guy who's emerged as the superstar yet. Now, I think even the team you saw, played into that.

You know, even you're talking about making McCown, guys emerged, sometimes you think you have to bring in, but you can develop it too. And so I think

if anything of the challenges, it's a good challenge, is while we bring a lot back, what's great about our league is there's probably about six teams that bring seven or eight out of the top ten back as well. So it makes for exciting

league slight. Yeah, yeah. And obviously the travel is dynamic for you guys, but you're going to spend a lot of time in Southern California in the

the wooden, what is it the wooden, what's that? Legacy. And then, of course, you've got to play Fullerton and Irvine and Riverside and so on, of course, to David Patrick, who's now at Riverside, who's a former, another former Randy Bennett guy, like you guys are all kind of getting together. And you'll tell better stories there than you told me.

Like, you wouldn't even sell him out. You wouldn't give me anything. I just didn't, I'm not asking for all that much. And we'll take that off the air for those ones. We all got, go ahead, we've got some good ones on each other. It's just funny, you know, you look at D.P. with Riverside, Rick Croy, you know, right now with Cal Baptist. And Adam Caporn, who's now overrunning the Center of Excellence in Australia. They're guys in the mix that will be future head coaches, guys on their staff now that are terrific.

Marty Clark, who's now back in Australia, work with the NBA Global Academy. It's a group that's real close and supports each other. And, you know, you spend so much time together for so long and then you're scattered. That's the good and tough thing about it. Yeah, and then the only time you're together right now is when you, well, sometimes when you're recruiting, but also when you're coaching against each other to which there's not really time for pleasantries. Last thing, the coach who has no idea, but you have an incredible amount of respect for, that you have thrown on their tape and learn something from watching or you watch their game and you're like,

man, I think that guy is really, really good and he has no idea. I think he's really good. Well, you wouldn't know. I have an idea. Brad Stevens is the guy I kind of watch a lot. The one that I respect the most that I haven't worked with is Greg Pavich. I've been fortunate because, like, the connection I told you with my college coach, that to spend probably a training camp with them probably three or four times in the last six or so years.

So he's probably the one in terms of how you run the pop in terms of how he runs this program and how he deals with his players and the stuff he runs. But recently, Brad Stevens a lot, those are the two guys. They don't think. I've never met Brad. You know what's funny is Brad and Randy, I both saw their teams practice. I think they both, maybe Randy's team lost in the finals, but I did the Diamond Head three years in row, and they were in different years. And both were two of the five best practices I've ever seen run.

And both had an incredible amount of detail. Both teams were remarkably, like the kids walk in, they all have great looking haircuts, and they look like you'd want to. and they're the toughest damn kids that you could find. And both practices emphasized fundamentals in an expert way in which you'd see it come out. Like they, my brother's big on passing and catching and I work with kids now and passing and catching. And there was all of that in practice. And it was one of those deals where it was before Brad's teams had made a run in the NCAA tournament.

But I could tell you then that like they were going to do it. He was the real deal. And in watching Randy, I would tell anybody who listened, like this is two of the five best practice I've ever seen in my life. And it wasn't anything necessarily special. It wasn't any drills. It was just the quick attention to detail. You could see how the teams were tough when they played.

And the fundamental aspects of catching, passing, pivoting, and spacing that I think everybody's kind of trying to teach. They understood how to teach on a practice by practice basis. And you could watch one practice in the Stan Sheriff's Center the day before the tournament began and you knew their teams had it. No, and those are the good. You try to tell that to your team because there's a tediousness. to it. There's, you know, but the repetition, it could be considered to some boring, but

those are the goods. I mean, you can run a lot of great plays and a guy can't shoot and a lot of great plays, a guy can't pass. I mean, you bring that up as funny because the first time I went to the spurs training camp, I was sitting with Coach Wormbley, and they're literally doing pivots and jump stops and snapping passes with two hands and thumbs down, and he's telling me this is a lot of the stuff he's done when he was up at Pomona Pitzer, and it's just great to see those guys rewarded for the way they're going about it. And so that's a lot of the things I look up to. That's funny.

I started coaching. I was watching my, I moved to California. I put my son in a little, there's an A.U. Program workout. And they're doing Euro steps and they're taking shots they can't make. And they got done and the guy came over, what did you think? And I said, did I come in late? And he's like, no, you're here early.

And I said, well, where is the part with the catching and the passing and the jump stops and the pivoting? And he goes, well, you think we should do that? I was like, yeah, that's the part you do every day. I said, yeah. And so now it's funny you mention boring. Like my son's nine and he's like, dad, do we have to do the pivoting and the passing and the thumbs up and thumbs down? I was like, yep.

Yep. Yes, you do. The other stuff is just, it's amazing. And it is the challenge, especially with a kid ADD to get him to do it every day. Ron, I know you've got to run. You've been so thoughtful with your time. I wish you nothing but success. and of course safe travels every time you guys get on a plane

and love and respect to your family. We'll see you when you come to the contiguous 48. In the meantime, enjoy paradise and best of luck this season. Thank you very much. I appreciate as always and look forward to seeing you soon. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most. most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world.

Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to learn the hard way with your favorite therapist. host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who

knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human