Climbing in the Sunshine State

I spoke with Peter Gash, a first year assistant at Florida Atlantic after being promoted from Director of Operations.  Gash has worked his way up from starting as a manager at Lynn University and to the Graduate Assistant position at Indiana University.


AHT: First, congrats on the promotion to 3rd assistant.  Tell me about coming from Indiana and what steps you took getting this position.


Gash: I learned so much from my time at Indiana I felt like I was given the tools by the coaches there to jump into my next job with both feet. Before coming to Florida Atlantic I had a relationship with Tim Kaine and Mike Jarvis II from working the Duke Basketball camp. I stayed persistent with Coach Jarvis II and Coach Kaine when trying to land a spot on Coach Jarvis's Staff. They were the ones who really helped me come to Florida Atlantic. 

AHT: What would you say is your coaching style, are you a run-and-gun guy or do you have a lock down, defense first mentality?  What coach would you say you try to learn from the most?


Gash: I believe that I'm very much into the defensive aspect of basketball. Coach Jarvis's teams had always been known for their intense defense. The common theme between all the best teams that I have worked for is our ability to defend. I have learned the most form Coach Jarvis, he has done so much for me in terms of seeing the game and teaching the game, what separates him for, any other coach is his ability to teach the game.

AHT: How is it working for such a legendary coach, what have you learned most?


Gash: It has really been an honor to work for Coach Jarvis. When I was younger I used play basketball in the drive way at my house and pretend I played for Coach Jarvis at St. Johns, now I have the opportunity to work for him. Not every day you can go into the office feel like you're at a clinic, and working for Coach it's just like you are.  


More than anything, I have learned from Coach how to "slow down" and teach the game.  Coach Jarvis will make sure that every little detail in done right before we move to the next drill, there is nothing that gets by Coach so you have to on point with every detail. I have also learned how to listen - Coach makes sure that as an assistant you listen and you make listening a talent. 

AHT: What type of guys are you recruiting, more specifically, what are you looking for in a player?


Gash: We go by one philosophy at Florida Atlantic; We recruit "Character not Characters". No matter how talented of a player someone is we make sure they have tremendous character.  As far as basketball skills, we really look for guys with upside, guys who can thrive in our program and really develop each year.


Thanks so much to Pete for taking his time and I hope to see good things out of the Owls this season.

Opening Day

It's finally here.  The "start" of the college basketball season is tonight at midnight, even though it never really ended.  It has become a year-round sport, not just from October 15th to the first week of April.

A week after a team gets knocked out the NCAA Tournament, there's a good chance they're back in the gym having individuals.  It's amazing how the role of a player can change so drastically within only a couple of days - no longer being a freshman, becoming an upperclassman, or all of a sudden having a huge role as a senior leader.  Summer workouts, pick-up games, and shooting on the gun for countless hours keeps players busy at all times, not just between October and March.

Practice or party?  Coaches have to weigh the pros and cons of focusing on having practice versus having a party with 18,000 of your closest friends.  Activities include dunk lines, laughing, and rap music (maybe a celebrity or two - ask Coach Cal).  Practice obviously is best for the team, but a Midnight Madness builds support and momentum with the fans heading into the season.  Furthermore, the players have already been going at it hard for weeks with workouts that maybe they need a break mentally, even if it is only for an hour and a half.

All I know is that it's starting to cool and that means that tipoff is only a couple weeks away.  Good luck to all the teams and I hope these young men stay free from injury as much as possible.

My preseason pick - The Tar Heels of North Carolina

A Wounded Big East

The Big East is going to look A LOT different in a couple years.  If Syracuse and Pittsburgh do in fact go to the ACC, there will be a tremendous whole in the quality of the conference.  It doesn't even sound right to imagine not having Jim Boeheim in the Big East.  There is something magical about the Big East Tournament in Madison Square Garden each March and it will be hard to imagine losing two of the most dominant teams.

One of the interesting dynamics will be the styles of play that Pitt and Syracuse will bring to the ACC.  These are two extremely tough, rugged teams that will knock the hell out of you.  Their focus is on rebounding and the famous Boeheim 2-3 zone, respectively.  The ACC is known for his finesse, up-tempo style of play which isn't necessarily the complete opposite of Syracuse and Pitt, but it clearly isn't the first thing you think of with these two programs.

Coach Pitino wrote in his blog that the Big East has to stick together and find football programs immediately.  He is thinking about the short-term necessity of gaining teams to fill the void, but if you look 3 or 4 years down the road, there is an enormous opportunity brewing in Louisville, Kentucky.  In my opinion, Louisville just became an unbelievably attractive job once Coach Pitino retires.  It clearly is already a great school to coach at, but think about the current the Big East gauntlet that teams play in  - You could play Villanova, Pitt, and at Marquette in a matter of 10 days.  That's absolutely brutal.  If you take Pitt and Syracuse out of the equation, you're looking at Villanova, Notre Dame, and Marquette as the hardest competition.

Taking over for Coach Pitino whenever he retires could be the perfect situation in a Pitt/Syracuse-less Big East that will soon by wide open for taking.

"Last Friday Night"

On-campus visits are a tremendous opportunity for teams to recruit in hopes of a commitment. Both coaches and recruits talk about their "experience" while on campus. It has to be a great "experience" for the kids and their families to make a commitment. Well, from a behind the scenes perspective - it's a borderline 3-ring circus.

The best weekends for kids to come visit is when there is a lot going on campus, especially in the fall during the big football game weekends. It definitely helps Billy Donovan to have 100,000 fans screaming for the Gators on Saturdays, and these coaches play that up. They have to.

The weekends start with a Friday night fly-in and a curbside pick up from the coaches, straight to a dinner that's waiting for them (steaks, anyone? Also, make sure they're well-done!) Friday night has to be a blast for the kid. Parties and girls. These guys want to meet girls when they come to campus, it's a fact. You better be sure for him to meet some or it will put a negative outlook for the entire visit.

Saturday mornings are usually a team tailgate that has an impressive food spread for 25 enormous young men. Adoring fans are constantly coming over to creep out the players and shake the assistant strength coach's hand. The hardcore fans are aware of what recruits are on campus and will try their best to help the school get a commit by screaming their name like it's the Holy Grail.

It's a constant effort by everyone to cut up and tell jokes. You have to keep the recruit stimulated the entire weekend. If the kid becomes bored, most of the time the experience isn't quite right and he'll look at other schools favorably where he had more fun. If that happens, all of the peons whose job it was to make the weekend amazing gets cussed out.

Sunday is all about hugs and "we'll see you soon!" Coaches stay up at night praying that wasn't the last time they wave goodbye. It's like a sappy high school break up; they're suicidal when "the one" gets away, but a week later they are calling someone else.

Rasheen Davis - Xavier Assistant

My second interview was with Xavier assistant Rasheen Davis.  Rasheen and I worked a year together at Louisville and have remained in contact over the past four years.  He has demonstrated the ability to grow in this business through networking and hard work.  I spoke with him about his past, working his way up the coaching ranks, and comparing styles between some of the coaches he's worked for.

To give a little background on Davis before Xavier - he played Division II ball and immediately began coaching on staff after graduation.  After three seasons in high school, he returned to the college game at Louisville as a Program Assistant then on to Pitt as the Video Coordinator for a couple seasons.  Rasheen's biggest strength is in the New York City area, with great connections in the recruiting world that he established while working with the legendary NY Gauchos AAU program.

AHT: Hey Ra, great to talk to you again.  First of all, tell me how you got into coaching.


Davis: I blew out my knee my senior year of college when I was playing for St. Thomas Aquinas.  It was then, in 2002, that I began to see things differently while on the sidelines.  I began to see the game from a coaching perspective.  After I graduated, I stayed on staff and worked there for 3 years.  It was a great opportunity to begin coaching right out of college.

AHT: Then you went to powerhouse Rice High School, right?


Davis: Ya, I went to Rice.  I'd played there for three years in high school, and always kept in touch in with Coach Mo Hicks.  He wanted a young guy on the staff and it worked out.  When I came in, Edgar (Sosa) and Curtis (Kelly) were both seniors, Kemba Walker was a sophomore, Durand Scott and "Momo" Jones were both freshman.  We had a great group of guys to work with.

AHT: Ya, that's an amazing high school team.  What did you take from working with guys that talented?


Davis: Well, I played with Elton Brand for 5 years in AAU growing up, so I've always been used to big time players like that.  It was all I knew.  It was great though, because Rice's practices were college level practices.  We did what places like Louisville did in practice.  People see how successful some of these coaches like Coach Pitino and their style, so they implement it into what they're doing at the high school level.

AHT: So what brought you from Rice back to the collegiate level?


Davis: My whole goal was to be a D1 assistant.  I chose to network and work at every camp I could when I easily could have gone on vacations.  (He begins to laugh on the phone, it's obvious he's immediately thinking back to friends inviting him to vacations that he sacrificed on along the way.  He laughs contently at the choices he's made, and thousands of hours working toward this goal.)

AHT: What's the best thing you've learned after nearly a decade in coaching basketball?


Davis: The best thing I've learned is to get better every day.  Right now as I'm coming into my second year here at Xavier, I'm working on becoming more vocal.  The terminology is different everywhere you go and now that I am a lot more comfortable with this system and program, I've really got to step up and become more vocal.

AHT: What about Coach Mack at Xavier?  Tell me a little about him.


Davis: He's different than both Coach Pitino and Coach Dixon.  He gives the players a lot of freedom on the court to create.  He's definitely a player's coach and the guys really like him.  When you look at Pitino, it's all about the press and speeding teams up, Dixon stresses rebounding at tough half-court defense, but Coach Mack is about executing our defensive scheme.  We have a unique shame on defense and we really focus on accomplishing that as a unit.

AHT: Sounds great, Ra.  I know Xavier is going to have another great season in the A-10.