Dave Paulsen Field of 68 Interview

Enjoyed the whole interview. Excited to have DP who is a huge upgrade at head coach. His answers are actually worth listening to for an extended interview.

However, one nit to pick. Around 7:40 Dave used "poached" to describe what I think he is referring to is actually legal activity generated by the adaption of Portal and NIL, both of which were enacted to empower student athletes and to some extent reform previous practices that gave too much control to schools and coaches. And the portal gives coaches an approved path to compete under the new rules without poaching.

Thus, I don't like the term poach to describe Portal or NIL activity because it implies students and coaches who act under those rules are doing something underhanded.

Always possible I didn't fully understand the context of that part of the conversation.

Also, I think HC's best approach to the Portal is to be "Portal Resistant" as Dave said. Let's throw four year senior driven teams at the PL and beyond year after year.

Outstanding interview and while I have many of the same observations as others have posted, here were my main takeaways:

"Portal resistant" not "portal proof" is his expectation. 
He wants to and has been working on "engaging the alumni" (from personal experience he has); and "engaging the student body."
He feels he's learned that he needs to "spend quality time with his guys off the court."
He's learned "to be more patient."
"Player-led teams succeed over coach-led teams."
When recruiting, one of the "pillars, is passion"

Finally, best expression about another coach was "he makes coffee nervous."   

And, yes, while he didn't bring it up, the interviewer asked him about his days coaching D-3 Williams and beating Holy Cross. 

You’re forgetting the 7+ times he was there as Bucknell’s coach.

Packing the Hart Center “again” is a little misleading. Even when we were good under RW or even the latter part of GB’s tenure, the Hart was rarely packed but for a special, one-off game. And it seems even harder now to draw fans to low-mid major college hoops. I’d settle for being really good and having 2500-3000 on a regular basis. If we can get beyond that in the next 5-7 years, put DP’s statue out front next to Cousy’s.

That is a reason to become Worcester’s team for sports. Football can grow attendance to 15k and hoops to 2500-3400 as we continue to work on building community support

A win over BC this year in football might jump start the growth in our fan base. Hoops is a three year effort unless there is conference realignment in the future.

The Keister game against Bucknell takes the cake for most packed and raucous crowd and you can’t convince me otherwise.

I concur. A friend of mine who played volleyball at HC summed it up. "I was captain of a varsity sports team here and was never more excited at a school athletic event."

I'm assuming that this discussion is Patriot League era games.

Prior thereto, there were a number of huge games with great (and raucous) crowds in the Hart's first ten years or so. One spectacular post-Perry/Vicens/Potter game was a Saturday afternoon affair on NBC in 1990 featuring a battle between Lionel Simmons and #17 LaSalle against a (Dr.) Jim Nairus-led HC squad. Unfortunately the 'Saders fell that day, (84-81). This and the referenced Bucknell game (2007?) are the only games that I can recall matching the early years' games at the Hart. ,

Totally agree. This was my favorite Hart experience. And of course, the victory made it perfect.
RW posed for a post win photo with his classmates who attended.
My son was one of the managers.

The game SOV is referencing I THINK is the January 2011 Winter Homecoming game at Hart.