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Post by Sons of Vaval on Jun 10, 2020 7:21:12 GMT -5
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Post by hchoops on Jun 10, 2020 7:51:27 GMT -5
Wish Nelson had put some names in here, even if he had to name all 13. Guess Hart is the 5th returnee alluded to.
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 10, 2020 8:54:40 GMT -5
Interesting to hear what he had to say in evaluating that first year and his own learning curve. Getting some specific names would have been nice, but hearing about the team was also good.
I like the idea of Zoom meetings and of dividing up the team among assistants for small group and one-to-one communication. Having players contact each other regularly (on their own) is also a plus. Perhaps this will create a group identity that will make it harder down the road for players to "walk away" and start over somewhere else.
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Post by bringbackcaro on Jun 10, 2020 9:06:29 GMT -5
When will the haters quit with the lazy “coach-speak” criticism? Nelson was very candid and very specific in a lot of his responses. I don’t know how you can expect more from him, especially in an article written by a guy who he likely has no relationship with. This was the most detail we have received from a Holy Cross coach since RW wrote the last blog post on his website.
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Post by lou on Jun 10, 2020 9:14:42 GMT -5
Paywall?
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 10, 2020 9:18:00 GMT -5
bbc, I agree that BN was candid in his responses. I don't see much "coach-speak" here because it is, in many ways, specific about issues facing the team in general and CBN in particular. As I think about giving specific names, I am not sure that is possible at this time. Once the players are working out on campus I hope we will see their contributions and progress/improvement mentioned in future "interviews."
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 10, 2020 9:19:39 GMT -5
Sign up for the 30 day free trial, read the article, then quit. You will still get free access to the site for the full 30 days. (I did a site search and, other than this interview, I could not find anything about HC.)
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Post by dadominate on Jun 10, 2020 9:46:56 GMT -5
When will the haters quit with the lazy “coach-speak” criticism? Nelson was very candid and very specific in a lot of his responses. I don’t know how you can expect more from him, especially in an article written by a guy who he likely has no relationship with. This was the most detail we have received from a Holy Cross coach since RW wrote the last blog post on his website. how about you quit with the "haters" nonsense? there isn't a single hater of nelson on the board. there isn't even any regular poster who dislikes nelson, to my knowledge. what are you trying to accomplish with this?
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Post by DiMarz on Jun 10, 2020 12:28:10 GMT -5
Sign up for the 30 day free trial, read the article, then quit. You will still get free access to the site for the full 30 days. (I did a site search and, other than this interview, I could not find anything about HC.) Can you copy and post the article?
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 10, 2020 12:46:17 GMT -5
My First Year: Brett Nelson insists Holy Cross is ‘on the right path’ Brian Hamilton
First-year players and first-year head coaches may think they’re ready for everything college basketball and a new program will throw at them. Then reality hits.
So again this offseason, The Athletic will check in with select freshmen and head coaches about their first year — the things they learned in Year 1 that will shape Year 2 and beyond. Next up: Holy Cross coach Brett Nelson. The former Florida standout under Billy Donovan and former Marquette assistant under Steve Wojciechowski took the Crusaders job in early July 2019 — his first career head coaching gig — and navigated a 3-29 campaign followed by an offseason roster overhaul while continuing to lay a foundation for more.
Obviously an interesting season as a first-time head coach. In terms of the job itself, what expectations did you have and how did the reality match up or diverge from it?
I knew going into the year it was going to be, I wouldn’t say a rebuild — it was going to be a challenging year from a win-loss standpoint. I got the job in the middle of July, which is kind of unusual anyways. I think we lost four starters. Two of our top players put their name in the transfer portal before I got the job. And then a two-time defensive player of the year in the league, Jehyve Floyd, graduated. So I knew going into the year there was going to be a transition, just from a pure roster standpoint. First time being a head coach, being completely honest, obviously, it was challenging. As an assistant, you have your routine you go through. I was blessed to be at Marquette with Wojo. He gave me unbelievable freedom to grow as a coach, to think like a head coach, to put myself in position to get involved with a lot of different things. So I felt like I was prepared. But I don’t think you’re ever prepared for all the things that come up. As a head coach, you still have your routines and your day-to-day schedule, but there are always things that come up that are unexpected, that you’re having to deal with. Being an assistant, you can’t be prepared for that. So you have to be able to adjust, adapt and keep an open mind.
So given the roster turnover, was that what they call Year Zero, or was it more like Year Sub-Basement 3?
There are two things I really wanted to do, every single day. Year 2 may feel like Year 1 a little bit, with eight new guys on our roster. But for me, I wake up every day trying to implement and clarify our culture and our values and what’s really important to our program. The second thing is, in what we do, you have to recruit and build talent. Those two things every single day are my focuses. But I wouldn’t say I’m going into this year feeling like I’m starting at zero again. Even though our win-loss record isn’t what any of us wanted, we made some strides. Four things are really important to me in our everyday habits, and what we do here at Holy Cross. I feel like we grew in a lot of those. One is to do your job with maximum effort. From the time I got the job to today, the guys that are returning — and even the recruits that are coming in — I’ve had a lot more time to explain what that looks like and give them examples from a pure basketball standpoint. We practiced a lot harder, going from A to B with maximum effort, as the year went on.
Number two is an unselfish attitude is really important to me. I look back at my time playing for Coach Donovan. He talked so much about unselfishness, playing the right way, being there for your teammates. At the time, I didn’t really know what “culture” meant. But I felt it. You gotta be a good teammate. When I look from when I got the job in July to today, our guys have an unselfish attitude on a more consistent basis in all areas. Practice is everything is my third one. The way we practiced as the year went on improved. And then being on time is the fourth one. One thing I’ve tried to do is create an environment where our guys can live in the present. I know a lot of coaches say that, but when you go through a season like we went through, being where your feet are, being present and trying to celebrate small victories — your goal every single day is for daily improvement. I feel like we got better in those four areas and that’s going to carry into Year 2. So I don’t feel like we’re starting at zero.
You mentioned small victories. What’s a specific example of a small victory that you managed?
When I talk about being more process-driven than results-driven — like how we practiced on a day-to-day basis. Are guys giving maximum effort? Do we have good body language? Do we have good attitudes? That really improved. Our pick-and-roll defense got a lot better as the year went on. Here’s how I put it: If you give maximum effort and you have an unselfish attitude, that puts you in position to have success. That’s not going to win a game for you against a team with equal or better talent. But at least it puts you in the ballpark to have success. Same thing off the floor.
Simple things: When I got there, the locker room was not up to standard, from a cleanliness standpoint. Guys didn’t take care of their stuff. That’s a big deal to me. We have really nice facilities, we have really nice things, we have to take care of them. If I walk in our locker room today, it’s going to be really clean. Everything we do matters.
When you talk about the things that pop up for a head coach, was that more than you imagined — all those decisions that come down to you in the end?
I don’t know if it was more than I imagined. But obviously as a coach you want to focus on your players. Whether it’s somebody popping into your office, or something from an administration that they want you to do, speaking engagements, there’s an issue academically — those are just things that as an assistant coach you don’t always have to deal with. As a leader of a program, you’re put in a role where you have to make those decisions and make them quickly. It could be anything from somebody just popping in your office, and the next thing you know they’re in your office for an hour. You didn’t expect that.
Strictly from a basketball perspective, what was something you wanted to implement that worked?
Automatically my mind started going to offense and defense, things like that. But in terms of what I wanted to happen, the guys who were all-in and bought into what we were about — I felt like our guys got better. From a skill development standpoint, from a player development standpoint, from a decision-making standpoint, I felt like individual guys made some really good strides in their game. That was important to me. And then for our style of play, it was a lot different for the returning players than what they were used to. Not saying one’s better than the other. But from the Princeton offense to the way we play offensively, you gotta make more reads, you gotta be more instinctive. I want to give my guys freedom to play. So when I think about it from a basketball standpoint, being able to make decisions, understanding spacing, passing the ball when you’re supposed to, good shot/bad shot, playing out pick-and-roll — I thought guys made some good strides in those areas. And like I mentioned earlier, our pick-and-roll defense was better as the year went on. Guys got better, they knew exactly what we wanted to do.
Flip side of that, what was something that you were pretty sure would work … but it just didn’t?
I wanted to play fast, I wanted to get up and down the court. Our personnel didn’t lend to that. So I had to adjust the way we played on both sides of the ball. Pretty much from the fourth game of league play to the end of the year, we were playing six guys. So I couldn’t press. I couldn’t be as disruptive defensively as I wanted to be. This year I think we’re going to be deeper, we’re going to be more athletic, we’re going to be able to play a lot more bodies, put a lot more pressure on our opponents with our depth and length and athleticism. And then offensively, I had to play a lot slower. We had to run a lot more sets. We had to do some things offensively that I didn’t go into the season wanting to do, but as a coach, that’s our job. We have to put our personnel in the best position to be successful. That was the best thing for us to be successful. Plus I was always concerned with their stamina as the season went on.
So you invest all that time and energy into developing guys, and then the roster kind of flips with transfers. How much are you prepared for that to happen, given the transition, or how disappointing is it that you have to refurbish the team?
Any time you take over a program, as you well know, that’s going to happen. You’re going to have roster turnover. With that being said, man, my main focus is the guys in our program. And I’m really excited about these guys. I felt like the five guys we have returning made some big-time strides in their game and will continue to do that because they’re kind of all-in with what we’re about and what we’re doing. The incoming guys, I’m really excited about them. There are three things that are really important to me as we’re evaluating players. Number one, I want competitors. Second thing is, I want to find guys who find joy in the work. Guys who are gym rats, who love it, who are coachable, who want to be great. Third thing is, we want really good people. We’re going to handle ourselves in a first-class way in everything we do. Hopefully, as we move forward, with the returning guys and incoming guys, we’re going to have competitors, we’re going to have guys who love it, guys who find joy in the game. When everybody’s on the same page, that’s when special things can happen.
It’s such a weird summer with COVID-19 disrupting schedules and the development time would be so valuable to you. How have you and your staff managed that, to where guys aren’t stagnating?
It’s funny, I was in a staff meeting yesterday and I was talking about even when things are normal, when guys are home for a month on a break, we should be using Zoom more than we do. This is something I think is going to stick. So for us, the last 11 weeks this has been going on, there are a lot of one-on-one conversation with our players. We have weekly Zoom calls. We talk about a lot of different topics. I have what I call core values of character. Each week I’ll take one of those or six of those and we have a discussion about those as a team. And we have what we call core player groups. I’ve broken our players up so each assistant coach has four guys. We’ll do small-group Zoom meetings and talk about a lot of different things. Three or four days a week, each player has to call a teammate. So it’s given these guys an avenue to really get to know each other in a different way. You’re just trying to find ways to keep them engaged, to get to know them. It may sound crazy, but I feel like we’re really connected now, which is important. This time has been good. I don’t think you can ever over-communicate.
This may vary from guy to guy, but inasmuch as you can measure it this summer, where do they need to improve, in order to be better and more experienced as opposed to just more experienced?
For each individual guy, we have an improvement plan. As coaches, sometimes we can give guys too much, so one thing we try to do is simplify. We’re like, hey, we need you to improve in these two or three things, which is going to help you and help our team. With the rules right now, we’re handcuffed from a basketball standpoint. But we’re trying to give them things from a strength and conditioning standpoint where they can become more athletic. They can watch as much film as they want, so we’ve tried to make these guys think from a film standpoint. I want to see how the rest of the summer plays out and when we can get our guys back to campus before I dive into a ton of basketball stuff. My main focus has been the leadership part and getting connected.
In terms of basketball-specific stuff, what do you put at the top of the list as far as what you need to get better at overall to improve?
Defensively, playing relentlessly and consistently hard for 40 minutes. We have to get a lot better at being disruptive and contesting. We have to be a team that contests every shot, every pass, pressures the ball and uses our length and athleticism to our strength. Through our recruiting and with the guys returning, we’ve addressed that some. Offensively, playing with pace and understanding spacing. I want to play with more pace. I want our guys to flow more. We’ve got to continue understanding how to play with each other, and that ball has to move. The ball has to find the best shot.
When you do the Brett Nelson self-assessment, where do you want to be a better head coach in Year 2?
Going through this year made me a lot better, even though the results aren’t what we wanted. Having eight new guys coming in with these five returners, communication is key. Being connected is key. I have to do a great job of communicating with our guys in all areas, not just from a basketball standpoint but with everything. One thing Coach Donovan has always told me is, Brett, just be yourself. And it’s so true. Obviously I’ve been blessed to be around so many good coaches and good people that I’ve taken things from and have taught me so many lessons. But at the end of the day, it’s taking those lessons and fitting them into my personality. From a basketball standpoint, we’re always learning and always growing. When you go through what we went through this year, you find out if you have surface confidence or deep confidence. Most people have surface confidence. I’m deeply confident in how we operate. I know we’re on the right path.
What constitutes success in Year 2?
It’s not about the win-loss record. It’s never really been about that for me. Yeah, I’m as competitive as they come. But are our guys living in the present? Are they being the best they can be where their feet are? Are we process-driven or are we result-driven? Maximum effort and an unselfish attitude are going to put you in position for success, but you have to execute to win. So are we executing better? Is our quality of play improving? Are we contesting more shots and more passes? Are we making the extra pass on offense? Is our spacing getting better? There’s a lot of things, but it goes back to execution.
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Post by hc87 on Jun 10, 2020 13:03:34 GMT -5
Not sure what else he could say really but that was a vanilla milkshake of an interview imo....next year will be telling.
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 10, 2020 13:11:25 GMT -5
Vanilla is my favorite flavor of milkshake.
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Post by longsuffering on Jun 10, 2020 13:15:18 GMT -5
You guys who popped into his office for an hour, knock it off.
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Post by trimster on Jun 10, 2020 13:15:45 GMT -5
Vanilla is my favorite flavor of milkshake. Thank you for posting the interview.
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Post by trimster on Jun 10, 2020 13:19:30 GMT -5
Not sure what else he could say really but that was a vanilla milkshake of an interview imo....next year will be telling. Yes it will if It happens. With more and more cases popping up as people mingle, I think next year might not happen until January.
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Post by longsuffering on Jun 10, 2020 13:24:01 GMT -5
Vanilla is my favorite flavor of milkshake. Coffee is my favorite flavor, but in New England a milk shake was only milk and syrup blended to a froth. A frappe had ice cream and milk and syrup. An ice cream cone was 10 cents, a milk shake 20 cents and a frappe 30 cents at my local drug store. Whether that regional quirk has disappeared, I haven't noticed. There are not many corner drug stores left and CVS doesn't have a soda fountain.
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Post by rgs318 on Jun 10, 2020 13:26:52 GMT -5
Your New England milk shake sounds like a NY egg cream. A good egg cream is a real treat. My favorite shake in NJ was a Vanilla Malted with a long pretzel (to stir it).
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Post by longsuffering on Jun 10, 2020 13:27:39 GMT -5
Not sure what else he could say really but that was a vanilla milkshake of an interview imo....next year will be telling. Yes it will if It happens. With more and more cases popping up as people mingle, I think next year might not happen until January. 19 states have increased cases since Memorial Day weekend. I'm bracing for a potential surge closer to home from the protests. The only good thing is that the protesters generally wore masks and the Memorial Day revelers generally didn't.
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Post by hc87 on Jun 10, 2020 13:31:44 GMT -5
Coffee frappe man here all day....
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Post by bringbackcaro on Jun 10, 2020 13:32:06 GMT -5
When will the haters quit with the lazy “coach-speak” criticism? Nelson was very candid and very specific in a lot of his responses. I don’t know how you can expect more from him, especially in an article written by a guy who he likely has no relationship with. This was the most detail we have received from a Holy Cross coach since RW wrote the last blog post on his website. how about you quit with the "haters" nonsense? there isn't a single hater of nelson on the board. there isn't even any regular poster who dislikes nelson, to my knowledge. what are you trying to accomplish with this? images.app.goo.gl/kZY7vSqtwHLBKGfX9He's an angry elf hater
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Post by bringbackcaro on Jun 10, 2020 13:56:56 GMT -5
Not sure what else he could say really but that was a vanilla milkshake of an interview imo....next year will be telling. What the hell do you want him to do, give his critiques of every individual player who left the program, publish his offensive playbook, give his social security number and bank account details? BN gave very specific insight what he's focused on while building this program back from the dead, as well as the blueprint for how he's looking for his teams to play. Two things he's focusing on every day: 1) Implement and clarify culture and values for what’s important for the program 2) Recruit and build talent BBC Note: The haters can say this is coach-speak all they want, but our last coach had virtually no interest in these two areas
Four things important in everyday habits for players: 1) Do your job with maximum effort 2) Unselfish attitude 3) “Practice is everything” 4) Being on time BBC: Again, a stark contrast from where this program was when Nelson arrived
Three areas of emphasis when evaluating players: 1) Competitors 2) “Find joy in the work” – gym rats, coachable, want to be great 3) “Really good people” – first-class in everything we do Offensive approach: -“play with pace” -Give guys freedom to play while understanding how to read the defense, spacing, ball movement, pass/shot decisions (“find the best shot”), pick-and-roll -Get up and down the floor Defensive approach: -“playing relentlessly and consistently hard for 40 minutes” -be disruptive, utilize depth & length to put pressure on opponents -have the ability to press
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Post by hc87 on Jun 10, 2020 14:42:21 GMT -5
^^^^ It is what it is but this is basically all "coach jargon" anyone coaching basketball at any level would say, nearly word for word....
I'm sure he's trying to be closely guarded coming off a 3-29 campaign but it would have been interesting how he felt coaching at a mid-major after playing/coaching at a high level, is coaching in an "academic league" a challenge or a benefit??? etc etc
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Post by purplehaze on Jun 10, 2020 14:49:02 GMT -5
I like our coach - in some of his responsesI think he was saying that his learning curve was pretty steep coming from an assistant's role to head coach - The rebuilding of the roster with so many new guys was something I never thought I would see at HC - but he managed to get it done very well I do believe that this lost time for working out on campus and getting familiar with the new faces is a very unfortunate break for our team which needs that more than others.
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Post by bringbackcaro on Jun 10, 2020 14:51:58 GMT -5
^^^^ It is what it is but this is basically all "coach jargon" anyone coaching basketball at any level would say, nearly word for word.... Any other articles that you can share where a coach lays out very specific, numbered bullets on three aspects of their program? If you really want coach-speak, check out the "My First Year" with the Belmont coach: What was something you were sure would work and did, system-wise, basketball-wise?
I got asked that question a lot along the way, about what’s the same and what’s different. We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel by any stretch. Probably 80 percent of what we were doing is what we’d been doing. It may have had a different name to it, or a different timing to it. It wasn’t that much of a learning curve for the players as far as X’s and O’s are concerned.
The differences were the structure of practice or maybe the pace of practice. A little bit more of an emphasis on strength and conditioning and nutrition. Behind-the-scenes is where a lot of the differences were. And I tried to do some things that were different early, that didn’t work so well, so we scratched that. We scratched a couple of things along the way that didn’t work. What did work was sort of what they’d been doing.
theathletic.com/1850210/2020/06/08/my-first-year-casey-alexander-explains-whats-next-for-belmont/
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Post by hc87 on Jun 10, 2020 14:54:51 GMT -5
Not picking on Nelson here...just that it was a very bland article (imo)....probably more of a function of the interviewer than HCBN.
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