NCAA Basketball Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Head Coach Josh Pastner Brad Penner USA TODAY Sports
Over the past decade, the game of NCAA basketball has evolved both on and off the court. But it’s the evolution that happened after one team cut the nets that has become more widespread and is a huge focus for the sport as a whole. We are in the midst of an era for sport that is the most defining era in sport that sport has seen in decades.
After the first week of April, as a coach, there is very little downtime as there are rosters to build, schedules to build and players to sign. While these were always offseason aspects of a program, the microscope on the offseason has been magnified to the nth degree with the age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle.
With the use of the transfer portal increasing every year and looking like a growing crowd trying to get through the doors of Macy’s on Black Friday and the newly approved Name, Image and Likeness and NIL collectives that now allow student-athletes to be paid, there are new additions to a coach’s plate when it comes to running a program that wasn’t there 15 to 20 years ago.
With all of these things on top of an already busy offseason, Jay Wright’s sudden retirement from Villanova, and some speculation that some of these new things led to his pick, I wondered how coaches are handling this new world of college basketball we find ourselves in. I wanted to talk to as many coaches at all levels as possible to answer some of these questions and if they have different opinions on these questions depending on the level at which they coach.
I would like to thank the following coaches for participating and giving me their honest perspective on these new-age issues:
Bruce Pearl-Auburn @coachbrucepearl Interview with Bruce Pearl
Jared Grasso-Bryant @Coach_Grasso11 Interview with Jared Grasso
Josh Pastner-Georgia Tech @GTJoshPastner Interview with Josh Pastner
Bill Herrion-New Hampshire @UNHMBB Interview with Bill Herrion
Grant McCasland-North Texas @UNTCoachGMac Interview with Grant McCasland
Todd Simon-Southern Utah @CoachTsimon Interview with Todd Simon
Andy Kennedy-UAB @CoachAK13 Interview with Andy Kennedy
Comments are closed.