Q&A idea is that you are a student-athlete and there’s no player who can skate that commitment. For example, Rawle is flying around the country right now for all these draft combines since he declared for the draft, but he’s coming back for his finals before he flies out again. We’re making sure he finishes. How did you prepare for your Tournament game against the University of North Carolina? We went into that game believing we could win. We were playing really well, we had come up with a plan that we felt had an opportunity to work, and the team bought into it. We were on a run, and it was easy to convince the team they were David, ready to slay the giant. But we knew by halftime that it wasn’t going to happen, because North Carolina was just unbelievable—they sank 22 of their first 30 shots. We played really well and still lost by 28 points. It seems like you’ve never turned down an interview. How important is it to meet media requests? We want to handle every request that we
get, and never say no. We’re trying to make a name for ourselves, so the day after we beat Alabama A&M, I started interviews at five o’clock in the morning and did a show every 15 minutes until 2:30 in the afternoon. It’s been hard, and I’ve only said no once. The night before the play-in game I was going to have dinner with my college coach, who I hadn’t seen in years. So I told ESPN that my coach took first priority. How did you prepare your players for the media hype that surrounded your first NCAA tournament win? From the start of the season, we’ve had them do every interview that was requested. They were a little shaky in the beginning, but they improved as the year went on. Next year we’re going to hire someone to come in during preseason and tutor the kids on how to handle the media. The thing I’m proudest of is that I never heard any of my players use the word “I” in their interviews. After all we had gone through, that showed our team-building had been worth it. They gave credit to
their teammates and the coaching staff, and never talked about themselves. What is your next challenge? We’ve got to get into the NCAA Tournament in a more conventional way and make it to the Sweet 16. Winning our conference championship as a seventh seed was a pretty unusual way to get into the Tournament. Next time, we want to get in as a 12 or 13 seed, then upset a four or five seed to move into the Sweet 16. Entering your 22nd year at Oakland and having accomplished your goal of making it to the Tournament, do you have plans to move on? I was 28 years old when I got my first head coaching job, and I came from a program that had been successful. I really believed that I was going to be the next Mike Krzyzewski, and what I found out was that I didn’t have to go anywhere else to succeed. I’ve been very fortunate to get great players and great assistant coaches. People ask, “Why have you stayed there so long?” But I feel very fortunate that they want to keep me. I’m lucky to be here.
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