Indiana University Athletics
Coach Miller and Staff Meet with Media
4/25/2017 3:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Archie Miller
Associate Head Coach Tom Ostrom
Assistant Coach Ed Schilling
Assistant Coach Bruiser Flint
Transcript
Coach Miller
ARCHIE MILLER: Well, I think you have to emphasize what you emphasize every day you're going to get in many ways, and I think taking care of the basketball is a huge thing. Not just by your point guard or your perimeter people. It's everyone has to value the ball, and it starts every day with your practice habits and the things that you emphasize.
I thought our team, in general, last year, I was very comfortable with us in how we played. We didn't turn the ball over as much as maybe ever in maybe my head coaching career day. I could be wrong on that, but I felt like we really took care of the ball and shared it rally well last year. So it will be the same emphasis here. You can't win at this level. You can't do any of the things that you want to do obviously, by turning the basketball over. So it will be a big emphasis as well.
Q. What's your first month been like? As much of a whirlwind as I would imagine?
ARCHIE MILLER: Yeah, I think there are a lot of things coming and going. You're meeting a lot of people. You're meeting a lot of former players and people that are important to the program. You're focused as much as you possibly can on your current team and your roster and your workouts and all of those things. Then the big elephant in the room is recruiting. When you take over and you get ready to get started and try to put your stamp on things from recruiting, you're spending a lot of time on that. So I expected it though.
I think the one good thing, like I said, when I first got here, I wasn't going to try to do a million things right away. I was just trying to do the little things that we needed to get done with our players here. Getting our staff intact, making sure we have the staff that we needed to have here. I feel we have that.
And we're getting ready to finish up recruiting here in April. And I think once that happens, hopefully we can really start to get our feet on the ground, get our summer program ready to go. Start to get our May and June program ready. July will be right around the corner again, and then we'll be heading into the fall.
So it's going to be -- I think every month's going to feel the same. You're just going to be on the run quite a bit.
Q. You mentioned recruiting. You didn't talk specifically about anything, but how important when you take over a new job to hit the ground running in April? How important is that for you to formulate the plan for what you want to do?
ARCHIE MILLER: Yeah, the two live periods are always a crap chute. And I don't necessarily mean that by if I took over the Indiana job or if I took over another job, when you change jobs and sort of the landscape changes, these two evaluation weekends can become in many ways non-impactful if you're not organized because you're just looking at hundreds and hundreds of kids. You have to try to be focused.
If it was a normal year, you're going out there and you're really, in many ways just evaluating young guys, but you're hammering in the guys you've recruited for a couple years. That's not the case. We're having to make evaluations and we're also trying to get in on certain guy, and we're also trying to do a great job with the underclass people as much as we can before we see them in July and get them to campus in June.
So we just want to be efficient in the period. Stay with the guys that we like, and then continue to evaluate the young guys. As we continue to get more information on some guys that stand out that maybe we weren't aware of, you kind of play it by ear.
But it is a big class for us. We're going to have a lot of opportunity on the floor for people coming in in that class. So we're attractive right now. You know, we just have to be very, very smart and make sure that we're not wasting a lot of time.
Q. I know you talked about the inside out in the press conference, and I know you've looked at programs around the state. How is that message being received?
ARCHIE MILLER: All positive. I think I didn't leave -- once we got done with the incoming class from 2017, and once we stopped spending, I don't want to say spending time, but once we were done with that class and they were solidified and we didn't have to go back in or do more work with them, in particular spent a lot of time in the state for 3 days. Only had about three or 4 days left in the period and just spent them in the state.
We were able to hit multiple high schools and coaches and say hello. We were able to get some of the recruiting days and contact days that we were allowed to do, we did. I think it's been very positive. I think in general what I feel is the state of Indiana, the high school coaches in Indiana. Would love for Indiana to be good every time, and I don't anticipate that changing.
Q. What is the biggest surprise you've learned in your first month?
ARCHIE MILLER: I don't know if anything has really surprised me. I think one thing that's surprised me to the positive is how our current guys, team on campus, has responded to the change, also has been very mature about their approach. And I thought that was very, very -- sometimes it's difficult to get anything done in 3 weeks when you don't know somebody. But I feel like with their approach and what we've tried to put together for a four-week period of time, they took advantage of it and they improved.
We had some guys do some nice things in the three or four-week period of time on the court with us. I was really pleased with that. Their acceptance of what we were trying to do was very good. That was surprising. I'm not really sure that there's been a whole lot in the first month or so on the job that I didn't know was coming, whether that be good or bad though.
Q. What challenges have you faced in the first month?
ARCHIE MILLER: I think one thing that's always challenging is you're trying to get to know your current team and their families and their coaches. I think what's been challenging is the amount of time you don't have to do everything that you want to do. So especially with this last part of the period being over on Sunday, the fact that finally I don't have to leave the campus or staff doesn't have to leave, it should give us our first breath of like, okay, we can sit here and we don't have to leave the office. We don't have to get scattered around. We can actually be together here and start to get some things going. But the amount of time, you want to invest in it, but you just can't.
Q. Talk about the roster, just how much have those guys responded this month and talk about in particular about that 2017 class.
ARCHIE MILLER: We're very pleased about the three guys that have accepted to stay. Like I said, one of the things in recruiting is you work so hard to get a kid to say yes, that when something like this goes down, you're reluctant. You're reluctant to trust again. You're reluctant to do certain things as a family, and those guys welcomed us with an open door.
We sat down. We talked about a number of things. I think the one good thing, the one common thing that everyone should feel good about here is I think all three families and all three kids in general love Indiana. They love Indiana basketball. They love the passion of the fan base. The university clearly stood out in their mind with the education that those guys were excited and didn't want to relinquish that. I think they just needed some confidence in what was coming, sort of some of the same things that they sort of signed up for on the first go round.
So we're very pleased and also very thankful that those guys continue to trust us, because when you're building a program and you're trying to do it your way, the one thing that really can get tricky is when you have to add mass numbers and the class, so to speak, isn't broken down as it normally would be year over year. We have seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen.
In many ways, that class, if it didn't show up, would really end up being about a nine-person overhaul in about a two-year period of time. How that tiers down and how you get better with freshmen going to sophomores and sophomores to juniors, that improvement is really important in the development of a program. Not that guys can't leave early shall or whatever, but the rock, the foundation of what you're doing is a core group of guys getting better and getting older. You have experience in front of young people that are coming in. Those three guys not coming would really put us in a situation, in my opinion, where we're really looking at heavy, heavy turnover with young people in the near future.
Q. You mentioned that experience, how critical was it having Collin Hartman. What were those conversations like?
ARCHIE MILLER: Collin and I had a number of talks. Everything that stands out, everything that was told to me about him as a person, as a leader, he's a key cog in the program's wheel was true. It didn't take long to figure out what he's about, what he's been through, and what he wants to be about now is, I think, a better finish. An opportunity to help establish something here on the front end where he can be attached to something new.
He's been good. He's really good. He's worked very, very hard in rehab. He's got a long way to go. He's chosen to stay here all summer and not take any time away. He's chosen to stay here all summer and continue to rehab and stay on campus with our staff. So I think that's going to be a big, big help for us as we continue to build towards the summertime when everybody's here. He's going to have a really good feel for what we're doing.
Q. As a follow-up on that, do you have a time line of when you expect him to participate in the May-June workouts?
ARCHIE MILLER: He participated in workouts this spring. He didn't miss one. He was available for every workout. He's sort of on an every other day approach, not an everyday approach. We limited all contact in the spring. He was basically in a functional basketball workout setting, no competition. Win competition and all that stuff, I'm not in a rush. I don't think anyone's in a rush to put him in a situation. The goal will be for him in November to feel as good as he can when we get ready to start the season.
Q. Do you have a sense at this point, a better sense of the guys looking into the draft will do?
ARCHIE MILLER: Yeah, I think all four guys now that the semester's getting ready to end are all getting ready to dive into the NBA process, which is all of them have received feedback from the advisory committee. They all understand where they're at. OG is obviously moving in a direction of going to be evaluated physically by the NBA, and then he'll go off into the draft. The other three guys are going to have to go through the process of getting feedback directly from the teams and hopefully at some level find out if they're invited to the combine.
If you're invited to the combine, obviously, I think that's a big step. It puts you in position to feel like you're one of the 60 guys that potentially they invite has a chance to be drafted. If not, you have to continue to evaluate what teams are telling you and workouts, meetings, whatever they're going to get.
So I think all four of them are confident. I know OG's on his way. I think Thomas has continued to really push towards finding answers out, and I know James and Rob once they finish up the semester here, so to speak, with some finals, think those guys are going to get their opportunity as well.
Q. I think you said previously now that you've seen the guys move around on the court, is anyone kind of sticking out or impressing you?
ARCHIE MILLER: Yeah, I think all the guys did some good things. Getting my eyes on De'Ron this spring really put me in, I guess, an aggressive mode with him in terms of what he has to do for next year. He's going to be a major, major league player for us next year. The opportunity is there.
He should be one of the most improved players in all of college basketball if we can get done what we want to get done. It starts with his work ethic in these next, I guess, 12 weeks physically. He's got to change his body. He's got to change his motor. He's got to prevent injuries and do some things which he didn't have the opportunity to do a year ago as he entered campus.
That's a big step for me to getting a chance to see him and understand. I'd love to put him on a plan, and he's going to do that. I think he'll be here all summer, which is a big commitment for him.
I was surprised I hadn't seen Devonte Green play a lot. Just in watching our workouts with him, he's sort of been in the mode of some of the guys I've coached in the past. He's got some stuff to him. He's physical. He can really get the ball to the rim. We need guys like that. James Blackmon's probably the best shooter I've ever been around, just in terms of what we were able to accomplish with him in three weeks and watching him workout in our framework and watching him shoot and do some of the things that he did, and looking at his numbers. Probably best numbers I've seen in my time doing some of the stuff that we were doing.
Rob also shot the ball particularly well this spring, and he's in tremendous shape. Great character level. Josh Newkirk, tremendous worker. All these guys have been in the gym extra, but I think Josh brought a real communicated -- he communicated. He had a vibe about him when he showed up that the workouts were important. I think that stuff all helped.
I think Juwan Morgan has a chance to be a special player for us as well. Not that all these guys don't have their positives or whatnot. But off the top of my head, as I look at roles and things they're going to be asked to do, I think Juwan could be another guy with an opportunity to really break out as a player with how we play. Watching his skillset and what he's doing with the ball in his hands and some things, I think he could really blossom with how we play. I think he's going to have a lot of decision making with it.
Just off the top of my head, that would be some things.
Q. With your style and philosophy, how do you envision this team's style?
ARCHIE MILLER: I don't know about that. Typically we've been really versatile. I'd say versatility at the three, four and five for us where guys can play different spots, guard different spots. I don't know if that's the case with this group.
I know this, I think if all the perimeter guys are back, and incoming guy like Al, even Justin Smith, I think we'll have a very, very talented back court. I think we'll have a very experienced back court. I also think we can have some depth in the back court.
Looking at our front court, like I said before, I think Juwan really fits how we play. Being able to space the floor is going to be something that's vital to what we're doing. He's going to give us a guy that I think can really do that. And I think De'Ron is going to be a guy that's going to look a little bit different as well.
But I don't know yet how we're going to have to play because you really don't know until you start getting out there and seeing what's effective. But I feel like we're going to have, with a little bit of luck, I think we're going to have a team that can play a couple different ways. I think that our guards should really have a beat in many ways, much improved in terms of the decision making because of what we're going to ask them to do. I don't know if depth-wise and all that. But I feel like this will be a blueprint to build off of. It won't be one that we're restricted. We're going to play the way we want to play, and the guys that are in the program as they get older, that really helps them. You don't want to restrict things and keep teaching new things. You want those guys to be experienced as they get older.
I'm not sure yet. All things go well, health and all that stuff, I think our guards, that's going to be where our strength is.
Q. Talk about De'Ron Davis?
ARCHIE MILLER: De'Ron has terrific hands and footwork, and I think the whole key to his game and his development starts with his body. He doesn't really have to touch a ball here for four or five weeks. We've got to get his body and his motor ready to go for heavy minutes. He can't play heavy minutes right now and that will hurt him.
When he can play 25 plus minutes a game without fouling, you're going to see a guy that can do a lot of different things. Yes, post, operate off the post with him, offensive rebound, has a great motor, get fouled, he's a good free-throw shooter, so get fouled. Defensively be able to be a presence for us, be physical inside with his size. Also do some things in transition that he hasn't done before as well. So I think there are some things that we're going to ask him to do, where he's going to have to really grow up.
But it starts up here and it starts with his body. He's got great hands and feet. He's got great hands and feet. We've just got to find a way that when you guys see him in October and November that you say, wow, what happened to him. If you're not saying that, then we didn't get it done. That's just the way it's going to be. If we say that, then you're like wow, he looks like a new man, then he's going to have a chance to have a good year.
Q. On the challenges, I know you haven't been an oversigning guy in the past and you've inherited that situation, but that whole being able to get the scholarship numbers, is that a big challenge?
ARCHIE MILLER: It's not a big challenge yet. We still have guys now that one's gone, and we have three more guys that could walk in tomorrow and say I'm not coming back. So when that happens you're kind of looking around and saying, now we're one under, so we have a lot of things coming and moving, but I don't anticipate it being challenging. I think it's going to work itself out.
Communicating is big this time of year anyway, especially heading into the off-season. I met with the guys a ton on the front end. We're going to meet with them a ton on the back end as well as they get ready to part for summer break.
So I think those things will sort themselves out as they normally do. We had a couple instances in Dayton where we were over, and at the end of the day we ended up being under two and three when it was all said and done. So you never can tell. But we'll sort it out. We inherited and we'll fix it.
Q. When we talked to you last month you talked about non-conference schedule and how it's important for seeding in the NCAA Tournament. I know there is no sort of perfect formula, but in your mind, what is the idea of chemistry in terms of building off non-conference schedule and the really big games? Maybe filling in with the right kinds of opponents that you find here at home?
ARCHIE MILLER: I think that's probably the right way of putting it. The right kind of opponents that all serve a great purpose for the development of the team. Number one, you have to put yourself on a marquis stage as much as you can. When it starts to talk about the opportunity to play in Assembly Hall, everybody that we bring in here has to have great purpose, whether that's a national opponent or a game we're preparing to play a specific style of a team coming from a different league that we'll see later down the road, or just in terms of you're building your non-conference resumé around numbers at times. Sometimes you're looking at those numbers and saying this number can't go here. We want to play this number right here. And looking for those perfect fits.
But it's got to be done with great intelligence. It's got to be done with great pride and the development of your team. It also has to have your fans excited about what you're doing. This year we'll take on a certain level what we can pull off. Down the line, though, I think you'll see a different model with what we're trying to do. It's going to take some time. You're not able to recreate the wheel one day at a time. I think we'll have an opportunities for home at homes. We'll have opportunities to play, and whether it be events like Maui or the Bahamas one day, I think there are going to be a lot of those things that are on the docket moving forward.
It's going to take us a little bit of time to get this year's situation kind of as good as we can get it, and then after that, we'll really start to build year after year in terms of having things set and done in stone for years to come when we're not really worried about it, and everybody knows what's on the horizon.
Coach Ostrom
TOM OSTROM: Yeah, you have to cover a lot of ground, with very few exceptions you're not recruiting the same guys at Dayton that you are at Indiana. So guys are talking to me about players who I've heard their reputations but I haven't seen them before. The next two weekends it's good you have all four guys out. You just have to cover a lot of different ground and see a lot of guys. You rely on your relationships that you've had in the past, talking to different high school coaches.
It's been well-documented that we've made a lot of rounds in Indiana, and starting from there and kind of building from the inside out. But seeing, it's a big class, as everyone knows. But, again, you have to -- it's no different where you're at. You've got to find the right fit. You've got to find a guy who fits the program, that fits the community, the university, and obviously the head coach as well.
Q. What is the right fit both as a player and as a person?
TOM OSTROM: That's good. Everyone talks about the word culture, and sometimes it almost becomes cliché, but it is. Everyone says culture, culture, culture, then you see a really talented guy, and you say, well, he's really talented but are you really talking about your culture there?
So there's definitely you have to have a level of talent to play at Indiana and the Big Ten to succeed. But you also have to find a guy who the coaching staff, and most importantly Coach Miller connects with, and who will fit and kind of mesh with his personality. I think that's really important.
Things like hard work and character and passion, those are all talents as well. It's not about running and jumping and shooting, which are very important as well. But we've kind of learned over the years, our staff has learned over the years, that there's a lot that comes into that. Obviously, someone who embraces expectations and the community of the Indiana Hoosiers.
Q. As far as recruiting, do you have certain areas you'll focus on?
TOM OSTROM: I don't think that's been decided right now. Here at Indiana we haven't talked about that. There a lot of things going on. At Dayton there weren't as much guards and bigs. It was more a little bit of offense and guys who focused in. It's not as specialized. As you guys know, it's not specialized like football where you're in charge of the defensive end and it's not like that. You only have 12, 13 guys. It's more collaborative than it would be in football. You have a guy who focuses maybe more on the offense, a guy who focuses more on defense and a guy who focuses maybe on rebounding or out of bounds, things like that.
I would say even though at Dayton I was more focusing on offense, it doesn't mean look at the defense or talk about the defense. And vice versa, the guy who is in charge of the defense, in a game if he saw a player or situation that may work, he can suggest it. It's more collaborative, I think, than anything else.
Q. Just talk about your own opportunity coming to Indiana, and after Archie gets hired, the process and how quickly you knew that you were going to be coming here as well.
TOM OSTROM: Well, it's an unbelievable opportunity. I'm a graduate of the University of Minnesota, I'm from Minnesota, so I know a lot about Indiana and the tradition, and the power of the brand. So that's a special, special opportunity, and I'm very thankful. Just like you guys, I've had a lot of help along the way. I'm sure just like you guys had help along the way. I'm very mindful of that. As a guy who was a very average basketball player who just loved the game and tried to put his head down to work, I had to have some people who helped me, and I'm very grateful for that.
The process, I interviewed for the head coaching job at Dayton. I clearly didn't get it otherwise I probably wouldn't be here right now. So that process took about a week to 10 days. Coach Miller was kind enough to really support me in that process, so I did that. Then he basically said whatever happens, you have an opportunity to come to IU when the time is right.
So when he got the job, obviously, it affects a lot of people. Some good. Anytime there's a coaching change, it effects just numerous, numerous people. Again, some very positive, some negative, some kind of in between. You know, what happens, I have a wife and three small children, and you know, she was, as most wives do, asking a lot of questions and asking what do you think is going to happen.
So we went through the process, the Dayton process, and Coach Miller was patient and supportive of that process, and when that didn't work out, I moved on into Bloomington.
Q. As closely as you've worked with Archie, how would you describe his leadership style going in at times of adversity?
TOM OSTROM: One of his many great strengths, he's unapologetically who he is every day. The person you see is not different than the person I see, the players see, the person the donors see and the athletic director or the president. He is who he is. He's as genuine and as real as it gets. He is who he is, regardless of the previous outcome, which could be very positive and at times can be negative.
It's probably been well-documented that we went through some adversity at Dayton off the court, and again, that's when his leadership skills really, really shine. You find out who someone is in times of adversity. And we faced some adverse times and we obviously had some good times at Dayton as well.
But as a leader, when things aren't going well, he just rises to the top. But what you guys will notice and what everyone will find out is he is the same guy every day. He is as genuine and as real as it gets. That's no matter who his audience may be at the time.
Q. What did you learn from Billy Donovan during that time spent with him, and how did that shape your approach?
TOM OSTROM: The number one thing you figured out about Billy is no matter whether it was the first year at Florida or I joined him in the second year, I should say, or after we came off the Final Four or whatever the case may be, it's just nothing can duplicate, nothing replaced work. You is work. You put your head down and you treat people right. You surround yourself with passionate, loyal, bright people. You solicit their opinions and you work.
One of the similarities I'd say Archie and Billy have is they're deep thinkers. They put a lot of thought into things. There is no decision big or small is a spur of the moment like just go with it. It's not a whim decision. They both think, they both feel in their hearts, and they're usually right if not always right, that if I put enough thought, if I put enough time in this, if I ask enough people that I trust their opinions, then I can come -- and they have this great talent of putting all 15, 20, 10 people, whatever, people's opinions in this barrel and they mix it up and come up with the right decision almost all the time. That's a great talent.
But with Billy, it's just nothing -- deep thought, getting a lot of people's opinions that you trust, and then put your head down and work. Treat people the right way and have a lot of passion and love what you do. No matter, again, what situation you may be in, it usually works out for the best.
Q. As you approach recruiting in the state of Indiana, would you do something different? I know if it was a football coach you'd say you were going to visit every (Inaudible) in the state, and it turned out to be physically impossible. You could try, but there is no way. How do you maybe really lock into the state and try to keep the best players here?
TOM OSTROM: Well, it's clearly important, and it's clearly, I think, again, I'm sure a lot of coaches in a lot of different sports and a lot of great institutions will say the same thing. You build kind of from the inside out, and you start in this great state with the great coaching and the great players. Did we hit every school in the state? Obviously, we didn't. But we tried our best to get as many as we can, and we'll continue to do that.
I think, again, you build equity in the relationships, which is just kind of, whether you're recruiting or just a business or anything else, you know whether a coach has a good player that's good enough to (Inaudible) or you treat them right. They're always welcome to come to practice. They're welcome to come to games. You embrace them with open arms whether they have good players or not, and just show a lot of respect.
Because the coaching in this state is unbelievable. It's as good as it gets. I think you start that way and the people I've encountered in a short time, they want Indiana to do well. Most of them are Indiana fans. Most of them are supporters of Indiana, so if you start with that premise that they want to see you succeed, and you treat them right and treat them with respect, and treat them the same way, like I said before, treat them the same way whether they have a great player or don't have a great player, and then you build, again, from the inside out.
But, yeah, if you're at Indiana, and you represent this great university, I think you start with the state of Indiana with all its great talent and great coaching.
Q. Coach Miller was saying that he's almost surprised to see how quickly the team responded to the change. Did that strike you too to see how guys embraced you guys?
TOM OSTROM: Kids are resilient. I'm sure there's -- whenever there is a coaching change, just like Dayton, when I talked to the guys at Dayton, they're resilient. They kind of -- even like when you lose a game, they get over the game quicker than the coaching staff does. They kind of move on to the next play a little faster.
That's just the way society is and the way kids are. 18 to 20 years old, and your worries probably don't burden you as much as they do when you're older. But they've been great. They've been awesome. They've worked really hard and done everything. They've bought in and in a short period of time they've come to try to trust us and do as we ask them to do. Their attitudes and just their body language and things like that have all been just terrific.
Coach Schilling
ED SCHILLING: Well, it's been terrific. This is home for me. As much as I enjoyed 70 and sunny, every day in L.A. at UCLA, there's nothing like being home. When I go out and I'm recruiting the guys here in Indiana, it's like I know every high school, every high school coach and getting to know all the players. But it's home. Not only for me but for my wife and it's just terrific.
Q. How easy of a decision was it?
ED SCHILLING: Well, it was pretty easy in the fact that I wanted to see family. But I really enjoyed working with Steve Alford, working with our players at UCLA. That's the relationship's there, is what made it a little bit difficult. But obviously getting a chance to come home, especially with Archie Miller, he's the finest young coach in the game today.
So to be able to lock arms with him made it an easier decision.
Q. The ability to successfully recruit, you have a lot of connections, but what in your mind is the key with in-state players?
ED SCHILLING: One, I think it starts with relationships. I'm sure everybody that speaks about recruiting, it starts there. And one thing that makes Indiana a bit easier to do that with is the high school coaches still have influence, and you have high school coaches that had for the most part, across the State of Indiana, care about their players as people. And you don't have so many other people associated with the players, you might have in L.A., for example.
So I think being able to have relationships with not only the player and the family, but the high school coach is vital here in this state. That's what makes this a great state to recruit from my perspective.
So I think recruiting the State of Indiana is going to be important. We just at UCLA just got through recruiting Chris Wilkes, and you're working with Doug Mitchell, you're working with the family. Maybe the AAU program a little, but it it's a good recruit, it's a good way to recruit and that makes the State of Indiana a little bit different and hopefully it's going to prove fruitful for us because obviously the lifeblood of Indiana basketball since I've been around has been built with a foundation of Indiana high school basketball players that come to Indiana, come to Bloomington.
Q. You've been around the state a little bit since being on the job. What's the reaction you're getting from high school coaches and AAU staff?
ED SCHILLING: I've been real flattered, just most everybody I've seen is welcome home. So that's been nice, and I don't know if early in my career all these high school coaches were beating me when I was at Logansport and Western Boone and all of them and early at Park Tudor, so I don't know if they are welcome home because of that.
No, it's been great. I think the reaction from everybody that I've run across is so favorable relative to Coach Miller, because they see him as, hey, this is kind of a guy that's cut of the Indiana school basketball cloth. In other words, a guy that loves basketball wants to get in there and sweat in the gym. Everybody that I've run into has been super favorable about Coach Miller and I've just been so flattered that, hey, welcome home, coach.
Q. Regarding those relationships, you've been on both sides but as a college coach and a high school coach, what's the key to creating authentic relationships on both sides?
ED SCHILLING: I think ultimately it's going to boil down to how well do you take care of the players. Obviously you've got to coach them well. They want to see that they do improve. I think that's one of the things, is he going to get better, is he going to have a good experience, is he going to be treated well. That's what I look for when I was a high school coach was, hey, if he going to be treated well; is he going to have an opportunity here.
I think ultimately, the product is going to be what's going to sell beyond that. After we get a few years in, then you're coaching the bulk of your team, players that you've coached, then it's going to be the product. Okay, it's one thing to say it now, but I think the one thing that I looked at and I think the other high school coaches at Indiana are, what's the product. It's one thing to talk about it.
Now let's see the proof of it, and I think that down the line, it's going to be what are you producing, and, how are you treating our players in the process.
Q. How did your experience at UCLA make you a better coach and maybe a better recruiter?
ED SCHILLING: Well, for me, getting a chance to work with somebody different. I had worked with John Calipari obviously at UMASS, the Nets and then at University of Memphis. It gave me a chance to really get a different system, and that's with Steve Alford, being able to get the old IU motion, so to speak, learning that from an offensive perspective. I think that was very helpful to just see a different way of doing things.
And then also, it kind of expanded the recruiting base into seeing how, you know, getting a chance to meet more people from coast to coast now. I obviously did a lot of the east stuff when I was at UMASS and a little bit at Wright State as a head coach, but then extending it all the way to California -- I think at Indiana, you have the opportunity to recruit coast to coast because of the name recognition.
Obviously the bulk of it is going to be here in Indiana, but again, I think it's just getting a chance to learn another system, another way of doing things, and also to expand the recruiting base.
Q. You said sunny and 70. I think it's more like you don't have In-N-Out Burger any more, but you don't have to drive on the 405 either.
ED SCHILLING: That is right.
Q. But I mean, talk about the different mindset maybe as a coach for how you would coach kids in the Pac-12 compared to how you coach them in the Big Ten?
ED SCHILLING: Well, one, I think how you coach them I think is going to be pretty consistent. You've got to stay true to who you are, and I can't be -- I'm not going to be different how I'm going to coach guys there as here, but I think the style of play is a little bit different. The Pac-12 is a lot more up-and-down. It's going to be a lot more free-flowingness traditionally than the Big Ten.
So Big Ten, you're going to have to be a lot more physical than probably the Pac-12 has been. So I think that's the one adjustment you're going to have to -- it's going to be a tougher, more grind-it-out type game traditionally than the Pac-12. So that would be the one change that I would see just from a coaching style perspective.
But I think Coach Miller, that's how he coaches. He's not going to have any adjustment.
Q. What was the extent of your previous relationship or knowledge of Coach Miller, and then John Calipari, the relation to the family did, that play a factor for you?
ED SCHILLING: It did. Well, I guess my relationship with Archie began a long time ago. I was the best man in Sean Miller's wedding quite a few years ago. Now, he was pretty young at that time.
Now kind of how I really got my respect for Arch was, I guess it was my first year at UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, I had the Dayton scout. We played Florida. They played Stanford. And so I had the Dayton scout. Now they advanced, we didn't, so that scouting report ended up in the trash.
Same thing happened this year. Similar thing happened this year. I had the Dayton scout and the Anaheim, the John Wooden tournament in Anaheim, so I had the Dayton scout again. And so both times, as I scouted them, I was like, wow, they do a terrific job. And so I was very, very impressed with them four years ago and again this year, this past season.
And then knowing Sean Miller, coaching against him at Arizona, there's a lot of similarities in how the two play. So I think, I just had a great deal of respect from scouting his teams. Also, I also had the Arizona scout each year, too, so I saw his brother.
Then Calipari, once you work for Cal, you always work for him at some level. He talked to me afterwards more than any. I think he probably did some things behind the scenes with Bru and I. But Coach Cal, if you're with him, you're with him and he's with you. There's not a more loyal guy in the business than John Calipari.
Q. Earlier questions and maybe the answer is no, you talk about UCLA and you were obviously at Memphis, a lot of success there. At a program where there is a high level of achievement expected and a lot of attention, is the assistant's role any different?
ED SCHILLING: You know, I think it kind of comes back to what the head coach wants. I've been fortunate with Coach Alford that he gave me great, almost free reign from a skill development perspective, to, hey, good run with it. And then with Coach Cal, you have certain things that he's going to allow you to do. I've been fortunate to be with guys that let you run with different things.
And so I've been at programs that have been pretty successful. When I got to UMASS, they had everything -- everything was rolling. We went to the Final Four at Memphis, it was kind of a little bit of a build but it had a lot of tradition. Obviously at UCLA every time I left the gym, I had to look at the John Wooden statue.
There's a lot of pressure but the bottom line is you have to do your very best to coach your players like you'd want your son coached. That's what I'm going to try to do every day here at Indiana, same thing I tried to do at UCLA and before then.
Q. You've obviously done a lot of skill development going back to the academy. How important is skill development going to be in your specific role here, how do you see that specifically playing out?
ED SCHILLING: Well, one of the reasons, again, I was interested in the job is that I knew the priority that Coach Miller places on getting his players better and the skill development. So that's one of the reasons it made this job interesting is because you have a coach that puts a premium on taking the guys that we have and making them better.
You know, some of just, okay, now it's all about X's and O's and here it's about improving them as players on the court and off the court.
So that's what I want to do. That's what I think hopefully is one of my biggest strengths that I can bring to the table. I'm certainly going to do everything in my power to help these guys get better. I've worked with some of them already. Of course they were about this big when I was working with them. So I'm fired up. I really enjoyed the couple workouts that I've got to be with these players, and they certainly have a great work ethic.
You know, I think that's -- if you kind of throw in some of the generalities that we've spoken about earlier, these kids know how to work, and they learned it from their champion's academies or whatever they came up in and their high school coaches and then even the foundation that's been laid in these players, they work here.
So that was really fun to be part of that.
Q. Who were some of the guys you worked with --
ED SCHILLING: Collin Hartman was one. He's one of the guys that was coming in, the McRoberts a little bit. So some of those guys, got a chance to work with them when they were, gosh, junior high, and coached against like Collin, and when I was at Park Tudor, he was at Cathedral. Got a chance to coach against some of them, as well.
Q. What did you learn from working extensively with Calipari, how did he shape your approach?
ED SCHILLING: Well, I think the biggest thing I gleaned from Coach Cal is one, just how hard he got them to work. He knew the buttons to push. He knew how to push them, how to just maximize them. And I think if you see Coach Calipari's teams, you see how hard they play.
And also sitting in in recruiting visits with Coach Cal, you see his charisma. You see how he connects with players regardless of their -- where they are from, whether it's a kid in the south or the north or rich or poor, he has an incredible ability to connect with them.
I think the extent of how hard he gets them to play and how he connects with them in recruiting, and also to be able to challenge players the way he has over the years, but yet, at the end of the day, they know that he cares about them.
Q. So when Archie gets the job, can you just talk about the process and how quickly you were on the radar, or did he reach out?
ED SCHILLING: Well, it was actually through Sean Miller. He gave me a call and we just kind of small-talked, which isn't necessarily unusual. We were just kind of small-talking, lamenting about the testing of the waters and all that stuff that we were both dealing with at UCLA and Arizona.
So we were just kind of talking and he says, "Okay, the real reason I'm calling here, kind of a go-between here. I know your roots in the Midwest and Indiana. Would you be interested in talking to my brother about Indiana?"
I said, "Absolutely." He kind of put us together and we spoke that night and we spoke the next night and it was done.
Coach Flint
BRUISER FLINT: I mean, it's big-time basketball, that's for sure. For me, probably my thinking in coming here was a little different than some of the other guys. One, I came because I believe that Archie could get it done. That's probably the No. 1 thing.
And then, you know, you come to play at one of the historic -- coming to work at one of the historic places in the country in college basketball history. For me it was working for Archie, because I could actually stay at home and relax if I wanted to. I know I wanted to work but I didn't have to jump at it. But Indiana, you know, the opportunity to come and work at a place like this is unbelievable.
But my whole thing was: I want to work for Archie. I think he can get it done, and why not get it done at one of the best places you possibly can get it done at it.
Q. How does Archie most impress you?
BRUISER FLINT: Well, I know the Millers for a long time, his dad, his brother, his uncle, Uncle Tim for a very long time. For me I just watched him from afar a lot a little bit. Probably was in more social circles with Sean than I was with Archie. When you live in Philly, those guys come through town. Because they play LaSalle, they play St. Joseph, they played actually Temple when they were still in the league, and I would go and watch the games if I could. I knew a couple guys on the staff.
So I've always watched them as he evolved as a coach and everything like that. That paid big dividends for me in terms of coming here when he called me. But you know, we sort of coach in a little bit of the same way, you know, tough defense, tough-minded.
So watching him, in a way, I say I watch a little bit of myself and how they went about playing. He's had a lot of success, so I knew he would do a good job and I knew he had a reputation of being a guy who really got after it, got some good players. I recruited against him a little bit at Drexel a little bit, so I knew he got things done. He was a hard worker.
Q. You talked about the defense and the tough-minded approach to coaching. Where did that develop in you as a coach?
BRUISER FLINT: Me, go back to my high school coach probably. When I was in high school back in the days when you did think you can't do today, but my high school coach, if you ain't doing it the right way, you know what I mean, you got, as they would call, punished now. But no, my high school coach, and then I worked for two good guys, Fang Mitchell and John Calipari, who they were -- that's what it was all about. It was about playing defense, playing with toughness, challenging the guys a little bit.
So my two guys who I sort of, my two mentors in the profession, that's their thing, both, defensive rebounding. They talk about defensive rebound and get your chance to win every night.
Q. As your career has gone along, have you found it harder to instill that in players?
BRUISER FLINT: Not necessarily. I always feel as though as a coach, if you have good relationships, you can get anything through to them, but you've got to have good relationships with them.
Is it a little different than it was when I was coming up? Of course, I'm old, you know what I mean. But if you have a good relationship with them, you let them know you care, they will still go through the wall for you.
Now, do they ask a few more questions than they did back in the day? Oh, without a doubt. But I think as long as you've got good relationships with the guys and they believe in you and you show in them that you believe in them, then you'll be fine.
Q. I read that you visited Indiana last year, and if I'm not mistaken, it really stood out to you what you saw in being able to watch how you practice. As you now are in it more day-to-day, what maybe still jumps out from that visit last year and this current roster and group of guys?
BRUISER FLINT: Well, the great detail and the practice, good enthusiasm, since I've been around the guys a little bit. The guys really work hard. Really like basketball. They are always in the gym.
So as a coach, you want to see that. You don't always want to have to grab them and put in the gym all the time and they only show up when you schedule something. These guys have done a great job. I see them shooting around all the time with each other, playing all the time, when you're walking through a little bit. Those guys are always in the gym.
So when you have a team, you have players that want to do that, you know they want to get better. But last year when I came to practice, I thought it was great detail, as detailed a practice as I've ever been around. I went to a lot of practices last year. But like I said, you know, being around the guys, you see they have really great enthusiasm and they really work hard.
Q. What are some of the lessons, philosophies that you bring to the table from having been a collegiate head coach for so long?
BRUISER FLINT: You know, like I've always said, like I said before, I think if you play defense and you rebound the ball, you give yourself a chance to win. You've got to take care of the ball a little bit. As a guard, that's one of the things you preach, take care of the ball.
You know, like I said, you push the guys, if you've got good relationships, you can push them. You can coach them harder than most people think you can coach them. That would probably be my philosophy as a coach. You know, my thing was, hey, push them as hard as you can. I always used to say: I love you, I might love your game all the time, but I love you. You do that, I think you'll get what you need to get out of the players.
But defensive rebounding I think always gives you an opportunity to win basketball games, and if you can do that and establish that, then you've got a good, fair chance of winning.
Q. Piggybacking on Zach's question, your year away from coaching --
BRUISER FLINT: One of the reasons why -- I had a couple opportunities to work last year but one, I wanted to take some time off. It gave me a chance to go around, because you don't do that. When I first got in coaching, you did that a little bit, especially with teams in your area.
But as time has come -- guys don't necessarily want -- I know why guys don't want you necessarily being at practices unless you're really friendly with them. But it gave me a chance to go around and check out some different things. Maybe I did see some things that I would probably do a little differently than I did as a head coach. One of the things I appreciated is not only guys would watch but guys would talk to me afterwards, you know what I mean.
Come on in and let's talk some basketball. You see some things, you probably do a little bit differently. Also, too, I will say that I felt pretty good in that some of the things I was doing, you saw again, so, you know, I felt pretty good about that. When we sat down and talked, people were asking me as many questions as I asked them.
So you went back and forth with the basketball thing. It was fun. I did not just college but I did NBA also, too. It was good. Like I said, I probably do some things a little differently but I also felt for myself selfishly that my foundation, I thought it was pretty good just from talking to the guys that I was talking to.
Q. You and Coach Schilling both have experience working under Calipari. Aside from the defensive mindset, how else has he shaped your approach to your coaching career?
BRUISER FLINT: I mean, I learned a lot from him. I mean, we're like best friends to be honest with you. Schilling was only there for a year, you know what I mean. He wasn't there the other time. He wasn't there when we were bad at UMASS. He came when the good was really good. (Laughing)
Our relationship is more than just basketball to be honest with you. We talk about everything. So we were young. I mean, we were really young, and we talked about a lot of things, growing up, relationships with our families, with our players, all those things like that.
For us, it was almost like, you grew up together, you know what I mean. You had a guy, your next door neighbor, y'all are together every day. So you experience a lot of things with each other.
It was more than just basketball. That's why our relationship is the way it is today. So learned a lot of things. Cal coached you hard but Cal is a big relationship guy as you all saw from the thing last week. Those are the types of things you learn when you were young. I was 23 years old when I started work for him. It's more than that.
But we always play defense. We also believe, one of the things we always talked about was having post presence. We think if you don't have post presence, you're a little bit of a fraud. So we talk about that all the time. You know, those types of things like that.
Q. Back to your year off. Was there a point where you thought, maybe I don't come back to coaching?
BRUISER FLINT: Oh, yeah, yeah. It was, one, I think I took it off to see whether or not I really wanted to continue to do it or do something else. So after about four months, I realized I wanted to go back and coach again.
But I will be honest with you, I wasn't in a rush. I wasn't going to just get back into coaching to get back in coaching. I got lucky because I looked at Archie and said, okay, I think this would be a guy that can be a good person to work for. He got a bright future. He's already done very well. So I just wasn't going to take a job just to take it. I didn't have to to be honest with you. I did a couple TV things and they actually had talked to me about being full-time; we'll get you a full schedule within next year.
But I knew after the time off that I really wanted to coach again. But I didn't really have to. I didn't have to just jump at any opportunity to go back and coach. So this was a good opportunity for me and it was a good person for me to go with.
Q. How much did you recruit the Midwest?
BRUISER FLINT: Not necessarily. If you had opportunity to be involved with some kids -- I've been coaching for a long time and you meet a lot of people and you talk to a lot of people. Honestly, the guys that I've talked to in the Midwest have all been calling me saying, see now you're out here, come out and recruit a couple of my guys.
You know, just having relationship with guys because I did it for a long time, and they have sort of like, all right, come on out. I try to get you to come out before, you're an East Coast guy. So you know, now they might have a couple guys for you here and there. And you're at Indiana, so that's the other thing, also, too.
But I mean, I just think recruiting is getting to know people, and like I said, I've been around. I've been around for a little minute now. It's just an opportunity, just now that I'm out here, and like I said, the guys that I've known for years -- come on out.
But I had opportunity to recruit kids, we recruit Ohio, Chicago, even when I was at Drexel, UMASS. I've been around some of those guys. We just never really got them to come there, got them to come to the schools but we recruited their kids.
Q. You said you knew after four months, you knew you wanted to get back in. Was there a moment or something that happened that all of a sudden, you realized that you wanted to do it?
BRUISER FLINT: When you're in the house for like three days because it's snowing, right, and you've got nothing to do and you're watching TV all day, then you realize, okay, you've got to figure out what you want to do.
And John Chaney always told me this, because I actually tease him about, oh, I ain't going to be 80 years old coaching and doing all this stuff. He said to me -- it's really true and I really found it out this year: One of the reasons why guys that coach for so long is that the kids give you energy. He says, being around the kids, they keep you going a little bit. He said, you'll be surprised.
And last year, I missed that. I missed the interaction with the players and the kid and just being on a college campus all the time and being around the young people.
So I missed that a little bit, and he was absolutely, positively correct about that. And you know, you miss being in the game. One thing about Philadelphia, it's very unique in that you've got the six Division I schools; everybody comes through there. In the East Coast, you're not that far away from -- I went to see Indiana at Maryland last year, so you're not that far away from going to see any conference, all types of people play.
So that was the one advantage about being in the East Coast, and so you miss it, going to the games, you miss the excitement. But more than that, you miss being around the kids and the energy that they sort of give you to keep going every day.
