Website – https://goexplorers.com/sports/mens-basketball

Twitter – @CoachAshHoward @La_SalleMBB

Ash Howard is in his third season as the Head Coach of the storied La Salle University men’s basketball program.

Known as one of the most dynamic recruiters in the country, Howard has revamped the La Salle roster by focusing on talented student-athletes from the East Coast.
Prior to his arrival at La Salle, Howard spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Villanova, helping the Wildcats to a pair of National Championships. During his time with the Wildcats, Howard was involved in all aspects of the program including on-court teaching, player development and recruiting. 

Before arriving at Villanova, Howard accrued a decade’s worth of college coaching experience at three different stops. He began his coaching career as a student assistant coach at his alma mater, Drexel University, in 2002 after injury cut short his playing career for the Dragons.

In 2004, following graduation, Howard was hired as an assistant coach at La Salle by Dr. John Giannini. He spent four years with the Explorers before returning to Drexel in 2008 as an assistant coach to James “Bruiser” Flint. In 2012-13, Howard served as an assistant on Chris Mack’s staff at Xavier University before landing back in his hometown with Villanova.

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Grab your notebook and jot down some wisdom from Ash Howard, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

What We Discuss with Ash Howard

• His grandfather being the chef at John Chaney’s basketball camp and letting Ash tag along from a very young age
• Seeing the older kids winning trophies and wanting to do the same
• Winning a free throw contest at camp to win his first trophy
• His mother telling him that all he cared about was basketball
• Playing AAU with Jay Williams (Duke, ESPN) and realizing for the first time he wasn’t as good as he thought
• “If I want to make it to the highest level, it’s going to take an extraordinary effort and I got a lot of work to do to get there.”
• Using pickup basketball in Philly to make himself a better player rather than through drills or lifting weights
• The college (6 D1 Schools) and pro guys in Philly still play pickup together
• Why he allows his players to play pickup and doesn’t overuse the off-season summer workouts with his players
• Why outdoor basketball has gone away
• Following in his Dad’s footsteps as a coach and working camps starting in high school
• “I just loved the camp experience and having the opportunity to provide that same experience to young people that I had.”
• How an injury as a player at Drexel led him into coaching
• Early advice from Bruiser Flint and his staff – “We don’t want to hear your opinions, just follow our lead, do what we tell you to do. And you’ll be all right.”
• Caring about players as people too, not just as players
• Getting his first coaching job at La Salle under Dr. John Giannini and learning about the work ethic it takes to be successful
• Returning to Drexel after four years at La Salle where he learned about organization from Coach Bruiser Flint
• Leaving Philly to work at Xavier for Chris Mack and putting all the parts of coaching together
• Returning to Philadelphia as an assistant at Villanova where he learned the importance of culture and having 100% buy-in from everyone in the program
• Tips for interviewing for a head coaching job…coming off a national championship at Villanova helps!
• Preparing for potential interview questions
• Being able to tell a compelling story during an interview
• Asking about the commitment of the school (in this case La Salle) to building a winning program.
• The importance of having a nutritionist, sports psychologist, and strength and conditioning coach to move the La Salle program forward
• “If you have the right infrastructure in place and the right people in place, you can build a strong program.”
• The one thing he would have changed in his first year at La Salle
• The opportunity to have an impact as a head coach and give back in the community he grew up in
• The future vision for La Salle Basketball

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THANKS, ASH HOWARD

If you enjoyed this episode with Ash Howard let him know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter:

Click here to thank Ash Howard on Twitter!

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TRANSCRIPT FOR ASH HOWARD – LA SALLE UNIVERSITY MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 400

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s MikeKlinzing here without my cohost, Jason Sunkle this morning, but I am pleased to be joined by the head men’s basketball coach at LaSalle University, Ashley Howard, Ashley, Welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

Ash Howard: [00:00:14] Mike, thanks for having me, man, excited to share my story with you guys and let’s get to it.

Mike Klinzing: [00:00:19] Let’s do it. Should be a lot of fun. We’re looking forward to it, digging in and learning more about your basketball journey and pulling out some things that coaches in the audience can take from and learn. So let’s start out by going back in time to when you were a kid. Tell me a little bit about your first experiences with the game of basketball and what made you fall in love with the game?

Ash Howard: [00:00:38] You know, I can’t even necessarily tell you the first experiences, but my first recollection, it was just being a basketball camp as a kid. My grandfather was the chef at coach John Cheney’s camp when I was a young fellow and this probably goes back to maybe like three, four years old, my grandfather [00:01:00] started taking me to the camp with him for two weeks every summer.

And just the memories of being a little kid running around, stealing basketballs from him, running up from behind him, stealing the ball, having a small t-shirt that I’m swimming in, like hanging down to my knees and just being around a game and just watching the older kids play and trying to emulate the things that I saw, like that those are my first memories.

And then you know, as I got older just being at the camp, John Chaney, Sonny Hill basketball camp No. My first competitive moments came from recognizing, okay, kids are getting trophies. I want it. And what do I need to do to position myself to get a trophy? And [00:02:00] my first trophy came from winning the free throw competition at like eight years old.

I went 10 for 10 from the foul line and I won my age group. It was like 12 and under. That was my first trophy and I was excited about it, and that was my first competitive memory. So my love for the game started at a very early age. I have a two year old son and, and it amazes me how much he loves the game.

And I just assumed that that’s how I was, because I can’t remember a time where basketball, wasn’t a significant part of my life.

Mike Klinzing: [00:02:38] Was basketball, always your main sport? Did you play anything else growing up?

Ash Howard: [00:02:42] I didn’t play anything else, man. I was a basketball junkie and my mother used to always tell me that all you care about is basketball.

You don’t care about anything else, but basketball. And she constantly reminded me that the world is bigger [00:03:00] than just basketball and  God rest my mom. Bsketball has been good to me. It’s our family, and the time spent investing in the game has been paid back to me about, good Lord tenfold.

Mike Klinzing: [00:03:17] Absolutely. I think that’s one of the things I always go back to a statement that I’ve heard several coaches say, and people have shared it with me on the podcast. And I think it’s definitely true that there’s magic in the ball, and it goes in a lot of different ways in terms of the impact in your life, but also in terms of the relationships and the people that you get a chance to meet and interact with as a result of the game of basketball.  And as you know, it’s such a small world in terms of how easy it is to be connected to people or just, somebody that that knows somebody else. The basketball world is really, I mean, it’s incredible as you know,

So thinking back on your time as a high school player, can you pull out one or two favorite memories that you have of being a high school, basketball [00:04:00] player, something that sticks out in your mind when you think back at that time in your life, something that you’re like, wow, I’m never going to forget that.

Ash Howard: [00:04:03] Oh, so one of the things that I’ll never forget, I thought I was really good. And I was playing for an AAU team, playing for the New Jersey all-stars and you know, it was a South Jersey based AAU program. And for those that aren’t familiar with the Philly area. So like South Jersey and Philly are like right next to each as like you go over the bridge and you’re right in Camden, New Jersey was an AAU program that was based out of South Jersey, but it had a lot of Philadelphia area players on it. And I’m playing for the program guy named Frank Berg. And he took us down to Orlando for the national tournament and super showcase.

And we did relatively well, I think we finished eighth. in the country, we had a really good team. Then we came back [00:05:00] and in the fall,he introduced me to a guy and said,he  was joining our team, named Jay Williams. And, it’s the Jay Williams that played at Duke who’s an ESPN commentator.

And, and I remember my first time playing with him and I thought I was good. And then I played alongside this dude. I’m like, right. Like my whole life I always played up cause I was mature for my age and in my own age group always felt like there was nobody  that I couldn’t have my way with that was my age, to be honest. And then I played with Jay and I was like, this dude is different. And, and it was a humbling experience for me, but he was a great guy. he was a phenomenal player, but it was one of those moments where I realized like, yo man, like, I might not be as good as that.

[00:06:00] Mike Klinzing: [00:06:03] Either you better either better get back in the gym or you better have a plan B right,

Ash Howard: [00:06:07] Man, and my plan B was like, yo, I need to get back in the gym. I need to work. I need to get stronger. This dude is quick, athletic, can shoot and is skilled. I was just like, wow, man. Let’s do. And he’s my position.

Like, he’s a point guard, right? And that was a reality check for me. It really made me more focused, but it also put in the back of my mind, like, yo, there are some really, really good players out here if I want to make it to the highest level and then it’s going to take an extraordinary effort and I got a lot of work to do to get there.

Mike Klinzing: [00:06:42] So what did that work look like? I’m just curious. What did you do once you kind of made the realization that, Hey, I got to get a lot better. Did you, were you working by yourself or you find a pickup games and if you were working by yourself, what were the things that you were doing? Where were you going to figure out, Hey, what do I need to do?

What kind of drills? What kind of things am I going to [00:07:00] work?

Ash Howard: [00:07:01] Well, you know what, man, during that time we didn’t drill. We didn’t really do drills. We played, so for me it was more of a reality check, a wake-up call. You know, I played a lot of ball already, but you know I didn’t do a lot of lifting in high school like that wasn’t really. You know the thing. at least I wasn’t being told that it was important at that time. So I just was playing man, just playing as much ball as I could against the best competition that I could find. You know the runs with the local college guys going up to Temple and Drexel and University of Pennsylvania and playing against the college guys. a beautiful thing about Philly is you got six division one schools here in the city and for a young guy, like I had buddies of mine that played on all [00:08:00] the teams in the city. So I had the opportunity to, to go up and play with one of my dear friends, Lamar Plumber, rest in peace to Lamar, and Lin Greer at Temple. And during that time, like Temple has some great teams, so I’ll have the opportunity to go up there and play with those guys.

And, just get a chance to just work in and compete against college level talent. so that was my way of just trying to put myself in a position to get better. but  the culture today is so different. It’s like you get what your workout, everyone’s got personal trainers.

I didn’t lift the weight until I got to college and so that’s just one of the things that was just different back when I was in high school during the late nineties.  We weren’t being told like, yo, you gotta lift, you gotta do these drills.

What’s your vertical [00:09:00] jump? I had no idea what my vertical was. I knew wasn’t the same as Jay Williams, but, but yeah, man, Those are the things that I did during that time.

Mike Klinzing: [00:09:11] So what’s the pickup basketball scene look like in Philly. So I think one of the things that we talked to a bunch of coaches on here about this is the fact that pickup basketball and outdoor basketball to a large degree has completely declined.

And I’m about 10 years, probably older than you. So I graduated from high school in 88, graduated from college in 92.

Mike Klinzing: [00:09:29] And when I was playing, and we were done with our season at Kent State, where I played and they’d hand me like a three page ditto of like, Hey man, here’s your workout for the summer? We’ll see you back here in August.

And then I just went and just like you, man, I went and played pick up basketball and tried to find the best games and all that stuff. But at that time, you didn’t have the same ability as a division one program to work your guys out in the summer and all the things and have people on campus.

So what does the pickup basketball scene look like in Philly today compared to what it looked like when you were playing?

[00:10:00] Ash Howard: [00:10:00] Well, unfortunately, just based on a pandemic, it was completely shut down this past spring summer. So pre COVID. It was pretty good because. like I said, we have the six division one schools here, so like I could send my team up to Villanova to play pick up and the guys from Temple could come up and play.

Mike Klinzing: [00:10:26] So you guys do mix it up?

Ash Howard: [00:10:27]. We mix it up. And then we have a ton of pros that are from our area that, so when they’re home, LaSalle is one of the hubs in the city to have pros come up and play in the summertime. So at times, even though we have the rules where we can work with our guys  we don’t overuse that, we may work out maybe twice during a week just to make sure our guys are getting some adequate skill work in, but.

[00:11:00] we allow our guys to play,pick up against the other teams in the city, the pros that they want to come up and get some games in with those guys. in terms of the outdoor scene. I don’t think kids play outdoors that much anymore. I think everybody is way more sophisticated, man.

I think you have the parents that. They’ve played outdoors and have tendonitis from all their time playing on the asphalt, and then they’re committed to not allowing their kids to have the same issues, right? So everybody’s trying to find that local community center or getting a membership at that gym where they can utilize the gym and not have to have their kid running around on the asphalt.

Mike Klinzing: [00:11:48] Yeah, it’s a different world. There’s no question about that. And there’s, I think positives and negatives to both scenarios and you could probably argue back and forth. And I think us old guys tend to favor the playground system over the trainer and [00:12:00] in a gym system, but it’s definitely, there’s definitely some differences.

And I’m sure as a college coach, you see some of the impact of just the way guys are brought up in the game today, compared to how it used to be. So going back and thinking to your time again, as a player, you get an opportunity to go and play at Drexel university, but you get injured. And is at that point, when you start thinking about coaching or coaching already been on your radar prior to that?

Ash Howard: [00:12:22] So you my mom, my uncle and my dad, they both, they both were coaches and they will work camps in the summer. So my dad played at the University of Maryland. So every year he would go down to University of Maryland for two weeks and work coach Gary Williams’ camp.

I went to coach Williams’ camp. My uncle would, would go down and work coach Williams camp with my father. And my uncle would also work Phil Martelli’s camp at St. Joe’s. He will work coach Chaney’s camp. So when I was a senior in high [00:13:00] school, I started working those camps when I had a gap before I went to summer school just so I can make some money.

And, and during that time working those camp, I really fell in love with like working with young kids doing stations and drills. And I was a kid that went to basketball camp growing up. So it was something that was really sort of embedded in me and. And I just loved the camp experience and I have the opportunity to provide that same experience to young people that I had.

It was something that I really fell in love with. So when I was, unfortunately shut down from playing. You know, it was almost like you just transition, you can stay around the game. I was fortunate enough for me you know, coach, Bruiser Flint, he encouraged me  to stay around a team [00:14:00] and I loved my teammates.

So not wanting to just be around for those guys. Support them tell those guys what I saw. I was a starter as a sophomore at the point guard spot. I was probably one of the most experienced guys, so the guys on the team respected me. I had opportunity to really be a leader from the sidelines, which was something that I thank my teammates for just allowing me to have that type of role during that time. It was just a really natural progression for me. And coaching was probably always my calling. I believe that that God orders our steps and he took something away from me that I thought was the most significant thing that I had. and then he just redirected me into the coaching and having the opportunity to minister, and to [00:15:00] support young people. I’m just following God’s path and he led me in the direction of coaching.

Mike Klinzing: [00:15:07] So when you get a chance, obviously you transitioned from being a player into being a coach. Things change in terms of your relationship with the coaching staff, with Coach Flint.

And so when you kind of got to go for lack of a better way of saying it behind the curtain with the coaching staff, what was that like to go from a player to a coach, just in terms of your relationship with the other coaches and maybe some of the things that you got to see or understand for the first time that maybe you didn’t realize when you were a player?

Ash Howard: [00:15:39] Well, The thing was that first season, it was coach Flint’s first year at Drexel. So I was recruited by a previous coaching staff and then after my sophomore year that coaching staff was let go and then Coach Flint came in in the spring [00:16:00] and then I was diagnosed with my condition in the fall.

So it was still relatively new. The one thing that was obvious to me was that coach Flint coach Jeff Arnold, coach Chuck Martin, coach Mike Connors. coach Brian Gorman, that those guys were the coaching staff and they were completely different than the previous staff that I played for in terms of just how they their approach into player development, to coach and when I got behind the curtain with them, it was more or less, those dudes were.

Initiating me into the profession. You know what I mean? It was like, yo man be seen and not heard. Like we don’t want to hear your opinions, just follow our lead, do what we tell you to do. And you’ll be all right. And, and I respected those guys a great deal. Obviously they were Philly guys  that had great [00:17:00] success as players and coaches, coach Flintcoming from UMass.

During his time with coach Cal and the run that they had up there at UMass building that program during the late eighties, early nineties. A ton of credibility, man, and he has the heart of gold. And I’m so thankful for that opportunity to learn from coach Flint and coach Jeff Arnold and Chuck Martin.

Like those guys took me under their wing. And just taught me everything that I needed to see during that time about what the profession was about in terms of just being mentors and being a person that actually really cared about, about the players and their development, not just as, as players, but as people as well.

Mike Klinzing: [00:17:52] Yeah, absolutely. I think that when you have people early in your career that pour into you, and I don’t think it matters, whether you’re a coach or, or in any other [00:18:00] profession, when you have people that are experienced that take you under their wing as a young person in a particular career, I think you’re going to end up being way better off, not only from just the knowledge and the things they’re able to pour into you, but then I’m sure as time goes on the relationships that you were able to build with all those guys helped you as you’ve moved on in your career and you started looking for other opportunities, and now you have people who are friends in the profession that can send out a recommendation or touch base with somebody that they know that’s part of their network to help you get to your next spot. And we all know in coaching and in basketball, like we talked about off the top, that those relationships and that connection is what you’re one phone call away, or one email away at this point from being able to be connected to people. And when you have good people on your side, it makes all the difference. So what I want to do is Ash go through just your different staffs. If you had an as an assistant and kind of frame it this way, where if you would just share some of the things that you learned as an assistant, and obviously there’s a ton, [00:19:00] but maybe pick out two or three things that over the course of your career, as an assistant coach that you learned, who you learned them from, and then how that’s applied to what you’ve done since you’ve taken over the program at LaSalle. So just pull out two or three highlights from your career as an assistant. And then I want to dig into what you’re doing to build the program there at La Salle.

Ash Howard: [00:19:18] I started off assistant coach at LaSalle, graduated college 2004 and, and was able to land an assistant coach’s position right after I graduated working for Dr. John Giannini and during my time working for coach G he taught me the work ethic component. Like I thought, I thought Dr. G was one of the most relentless workers, and for me to have the opportunity to work for him and just watch the way he would just do everything. He recruited, he had his own list.

He had it [00:20:00] spelled out on his board every day, we would meet on recruiting. He would do his own Scouts, you know? My primary responsibility was player development. In my first year Dr. G would would be involved in everything there.

Like he would wake up early and get shots up with one of his guys before they had class. He would come back and watch film all day of our opponents and I just learned from that point for like, man, if I want to be a successful coach, Like I have to work this way. And one thing that I respected about him was he was working so tirelessly.

I looked at myself when I said, man, I’m just young assistant coach. I can’t allow him to look at me and say like, yo, he’s working harder than I was. So I just followed his lead in terms of recruiting, I just wanted to every [00:21:00] day, just invest in recruiting, make phone calls.

Write letters come up with different creative ways to connect with our recruits and sell our program and sell Dr. G. And I think he respected that about me because he saw that I was putting forth the effort to bring, something different to the table and to help him build his program.

And his first year it was player development for me. I just wanted to be available whether it was early mornings, late nights, I was 24 years old, young, single guy. I had no excuses, right? So I just wanted to show Dr. G that was the type of work ethic that I was coming to the table with.

And he gave me the free rein to really develop as a young assistant coach. but because I watched him do everything, he didn’t necessarily tell me, look, Ash, this is what I want you to do. I just sorta kind of followed his lead and, and just used the previous staff at Drexel as a [00:22:00] reference point to a lot of the things that I did.

And then after spending four years with Dr. G I was able to go back to Drexel. And my mindset was listen, man. Like, this is the guy that gave me my first opportunity to really get into coaching. And I wanted to help him, achieve something that hadn’t been achieved at Drexel during my time there.

And I think the goal was we want to win the Colonial and In my four years there, I felt like we developed the guys that we had, did a good job of recruiting myself, Tony Childs, Matt Collier, Mike Connors that was the staff at that time.

And we were able to put together some really good teams and the one thing I learned from Coach Bruiser is organization, right? No. He had one of the most organized, detailed practices that you’d ever see. [00:23:00] especially in the beginning of the year, when he’s building up his defense from how you pressured a ball to how you jumped to the ball and then your gap, how you rotate from the help side, your communication, your exchanges, everybody being connected, speaking the same, Speaking within the same terminology.

Those are the things that I learned from coach, who was an underrated offensive coach. I felt like, my last couple of years, when we had the personnel that really fit his offensive system, we had great offensive teams. So no, a lot of the foundation of who I am as a coach comes from my time with Coach Flint in our Drexel days, just defensively and some of our offensive concepts.

And then, after that, I was able to go to Xavier, and got an opportunity to, After four years of Drexel, take a step outside of my comfort zone and leave Philadelphia and go out to Cincinnati with Chris [00:24:00] Mack. And I’ll tell you, man, he’s one of the best coaches in the country.

And you know, he, again, another guy that he, he allowed me to coach. She allowed me to come in and. And, and, and teach. Obviously I had to learn his system, but he did free reign to have an opinion and to teach and, and, and, and pour into the young people out there in Cincinnati. And that was the first opportunity for me, me personally, where within the infrastructure of the program, I was given the responsibility of doing Scouts.

So my time at Xavier. really helped develop me as a young coach because now I felt like I had recruiting down. I felt like I had the relationships built in and I fostered some, and I felt like I was good in player development, getting on the floor, being able to teach the game, not just guards, but being able to work with bigs and wings and all positions [00:25:00] in terms of player development.

Now having an opportunity to do all those things and now do scouting as well. I think that really prepared me during my time at Xavier to make that next jump to Villanova. And, and then during my time at Villanova the thing that I learned the most was about culture and about having everybody on the same accord and having a hundred percent buy-in from all members of the organization and the impact that could have on the success of the program and everybody in it.

Mike Klinzing: [00:25:38] That was a great answer. You did a fantastic job of putting that together and making it coherent so that any coach who’s out there listening, you pulled out some things that clearly are going to impact you as a head coach.

So let’s make that transition. Tell us a little bit about the interview process at LaSalle, what it was like, why you felt like you were prepared [00:26:00] for let’s start with the interview and then we’ll get to the job because I think it’s always. We hear from coaches talking about they’re trying to get prepared for an interview.

So what did you do to prepare for that opportunity to make sure that when you walked in and you sat down in front of the interview interviewing committee, that you knew you were prepared and you are the right guy for the job, what was it that you had done in preparation that made you feel confident and ultimately earned you the job?

Ash Howard: [00:26:24] So the, the main thing for me was to, as I was going into the end of that last season, I honestly, you don’t know what jobs are going to open up. You don’t know what opportunities are going to come about, right? The one thing that I wanted to do was I just wanted to make sure that, that I was prepared, by just having some questions that most people have during the interview process.

[00:27:00] So I had a friend of mine, actually, one of my former college teammates who is an attorney and his wife works with the NCAA. So he he’s connected with a lot of people and, and we met one day, he’s in Indiana. I think we played at Butler. I was at Villanova and we linked up and he introduced me to a friend of his who was a consultant that worked with coaches and this guy sent me a list of questions.

It was about 20 questions, interview questions that are just standard interview questions during our head coaches interview. And I was able to just go through those questions and, and map out not just the answers, but to be able to tell a story. A compelling story as to why I was the right fit and honestly, I didn’t know it was going to be LaSalle. I was just thinking just in general, it was all generic. [00:28:00] right? And in all honesty, during the NCAA tournament that year, I actually interviewed for another school. Now, I don’t want to name the name because obviously, just in confidence, like I interviewed, for another program. And then the day after I interviewed for that program, the LaSalle job opened up. I was shocked that LaSalle opened up. I wasn’t expecting it to, but since I had history there after being an assistant, having a connection there with the administration and some of the people, because there been a lot of people that were there for a long time, it was something that was intriguing.

I felt like I knew the school. I felt like I had the right experience to go into that interview with the confidence of knowing what was needed in order to move forward, so I went into that interview [00:29:00] with full confidence and I didn’t have my actual interview until after we won the national championship, so

Mike Klinzing: [00:29:08] that’s a good way to, that’s a good way to walk into an interview.

Ash Howard: [00:29:10] Exactly. So going into that second interview after winning our second national championship, gave me a little bit more confidence that at least from the standpoint of my experience, being a Philly guy, being a former assistant there and understanding the landscape that I could go into that room and, and speak with the confidence that I knew what was needed most to help La Salle move forward.

Mike Klinzing: [00:29:39] Did you have a question or two for them? So obviously you prepare for the questions that they were going to ask you, but I’m sure going into an interview, there’s things that you’ve learned along the way that you believe have to be in place from a school and administrative,facility standpoint. So were there questions that you prepared to ask them as part of the interview, maybe just pull out one [00:30:00] or two for coaches that might be heading into an interview themselves?

Ash Howard: [00:30:04] So the questions that I had were, what commitment was the university making to help the program be competitive in Atlantic 10. Obviously from our standpoint facilities, and resources, it was a concern. And I was assured during that during the interview that the university was willing to make advancements and had plans in place to make some significant changes, not just in the facilities, but also just in just some operational things that could help the program move forward, because there were some things that I felt were important in order to be successful. And it’s not just facilities. It’s are you, are you willing to have a nutritionist, are you willing to [00:31:00] have mental health, person that works, a sports psychologist that works specifically what our team, or are we open to hiring our own strength and conditioning coach cause these are all things that people don’t see behind the scenes that make huge impact on the program. And I asked about those things and I think part of it in the process I was educating LaSalle on, these are some of the things that other programs have in place that you don’t necessarily see.

People think that it’s all about the facilities, but if you have the right infrastructure in place and the right people in place, you can build a strong program. So. No, those were some of the questions that I asked him and fortunate enough for me, I was able to receive most of the things that I’ve asked for and the things that I haven’t received yet I know the university is working diligently to do, but, [00:32:00] you know, in lieu of COVID-19 and in this pandemic that we’re in now I think that we’re just fighting to make sure that we take care of our students and that we’re functioning as a university as a whole. So some of the things that I know I wanted going in they have to take a back seat to some more, trying things, but I’m just happy with my relationship with our administration, the commitment that they’ve shown me to wanting to build this program.

And I’m excited about the direction that we’re going in.

Mike Klinzing: [00:32:38] Yeah, it’s a crazy time for sure. And so I think everybody’s priorities and things that you never would have imagined a year ago that you’d be having to focus on and do and deal with is throwing a wrench into everybody’s plans. I guess the only positive is that we’re all in the same boat to some degree because everybody’s dealing with it in one way or another.

So I want to go back to when you first get that job and [00:33:00] you come in and you’re looking around in the first, let’s say three months, what did you prioritize? First, give me one or two things that when you sat down, they, after you get the job and you’re putting together the plan of what you want the program to look like, what were one or two things that you prioritize immediately and said, I have to get these things done, or I have to start working on these immediately.

If I want to get where we, where we need to go.

Ash Howard: [00:33:25] Well, I find if I’m being honest, I feel like, I may have missed the boat a little bit because I had a late start, because obviously we play all the way up until the last game that year. So I didn’t get the job until, mid April.

I wanted to jump in and I was prioritizing recruiting and recruiting guys that were borderline [00:34:00] players that I was recruiting at Villanova and trying to target those guys that come to LaSalle and you know, spending a lot of time with them.

You know, me being a recruiter at Villanova, I felt like as a head coach, I have an opportunity now to give my sales pitch and to develop those relationships as a head coach, that that would help me land some of the high major prospects, that I was recruiting while I was at Villanova at LaSalle.

And I was putting together my staff but probably primarily just with the recruiting focus that that’s where my mind was at the time. And I was getting on the floor with the guys and just having an opportunity to coach and teach, and start to implement my own ideas.

I didn’t necessarily take a look at okay. [00:35:00] Like, all right, we got it. You know, we didn’t have anybody leave. Like none of them. The previous players that were on, Coach G’s staff made the decision to leave all of the incoming recruits. They decided they were staying.

All of the returning players decided that they were staying and I didn’t have anybody leave. So as much as I wanted to bring in other players, like I had limited scholarships because there wasn’t any movement, you know what I mean? And one of the things that ended up happening was after year one, then I had a bunch of guys leave because at the end of the day, I realized that some guys just didn’t fit what we were doing. other didn’t necessarily want to meet the new expectation. And you know, the one thing that, that I look at and [00:36:00] maybe if I had to do anything over again, maybe I would have known just kind of given all those guys a fresh start gave them the opportunity to find another school and then maybe start from scratch year one, bringing in our own guys, so if I looked at it, hindsight being 2020, I think that’s one of the things that I may have done differently. but the one thing that I felt like we did was I felt like we set the tone in terms of the culture that we wanted to bring in. And I I felt like we brought in a strong coaching staff. We hired Kenny Johnson from LaSalle. I’m sorry from Louisville, hired one of my former players and Kyle Griffin, who’s now our associate head coach. And then we also hired Donnie Carr, who’s a LaSalle legend, Philadelphia, big five legend. So we, we had a strong staff. We had guys that [00:37:00] that really understood recruiting and that believed in me and my vision. but you know, when we first got in there we didn’t have the flexibility that we wanted in terms of scholarships.

And  we were hopeful going into that first year that we will be able to develop some of the guys that we had and that they were staying all right. We’ll invest in those dudes, but then you missed out on an opportunity to bring in some guys in certain positions that first year, because you didn’t have the scholarships, you know what I mean?

So that’s just the area that we focused on and in all honesty sometimes you can learn from the mistakes you made. And I think one of the things that we probably should have done when we first got the job was kind of open up some room from the start.

I think it would have helped, [00:38:00] but we’ve been able to bounce back after we had those openings, we were able to feel almost some talented young guys, our type of guys that are helping us move this needle forward at LaSalle.

So we’re excited about where we are, whenever you’re taking over a program in your building, it’s going to be a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. And for me just having to go through this experience it’s been a learning experience, man.

I think everybody thinks when you’re an assistant that you’re ready, right? And then you get thrown into that fire and you realize, man, like, you know what, man, I respect the guys that I worked for that much more. And I’m just excited, to now, being in a position where I think our [00:39:00] program is right where we need it to be.

Mike Klinzing: [00:39:03] All right. I want to be respectful of your time. I want to finish up with one more question. It’s a two-parter that I’ve kind of been ending a lot of our episodes on lately, and that is when you look forward here and you can put whatever timeline you want on this question. What do you think is the biggest challenge that you have in front of you at LaSalle?

And then number two, what is the biggest joy that you have in waking up every morning and being the head coach at LaSalle university?

Ash Howard: [00:39:30] So I think, I think the biggest challenge right now is that our league is probably the most underrated conference in the country and the Atlantic 10 has some great young coaches, great programs.

And we want to compete for championships. That’s what we want. And our league is a beast. And I think our [00:40:00] biggest challenge is just keeping our team together with the climate of college basketball you know, immediate transfers eligibility is I think the biggest challenge we’re going to have as we develop our players, because player development is going to be key.

The challenge for us is going to be to keep the team together so that we can put together a really, really good team. And  I think we’re trending in that direction. but a lot of the other external, things that are going on right now are going to make it a challenge for mid-major programs.

So player development, continuing to keep the relationships, pure and genuine within our players and their families so that they know that we’re providing the best opportunity for them at LaSalle, is going to be key for us moving forward. And I think we have the staff in place to do it.

I think we have the players that we need in order to [00:41:00] build this program and to get to the point where we can compete for championships. So it was just a matter of time and keeping this group together. And in the thing that I love the most about, waking up as the head coach at LaSalle is being close to my family, being in the community that I grew up in and having the opportunity to use my platform to inspire people, from our community to use my platform, to be able to give back to our community, use my platform to be able to, to feed these young people the information that they need to be successful.

And to teach them the opportunity, the responsibility, I’m sorry that they have to give back to where they come from. No, I think it’s easy to get caught up in yourself when you’re a division one coach. [00:42:00]  I think we all take ourselves a little too seriously at times, but for me to be in this position where I’m still right here at home and Philadelphia, and to still be close to this community and have the opportunity to give back.

I think that’s what we’re really fuels me and motivates me and to be able to do it around my friends and my family and support system, is something that I don’t take for granted and that I thank God for every day. That

Mike Klinzing: [00:42:27] impact beyond basketball and being able to do it in your own community sure is just hugely special for you before we get out. Ash, I want to give you a chance to share where people can reach out to you where they can find out more about your program. If you want to share your social media handles website, whatever you’d like to share so that people can reach out. If they have questions, they want to just talk some basketball with you and follow your programs.

Let us know how we can do that. And then I’ll jump back in and wrap things up

Ash Howard: [00:42:54] I’m easy to find. It’s [00:43:00] @CoachAshHoward on Twitter and, as CoachAshHoward on Instagram and our LaSalle handle is LaSalleMBB  on Instagram and on Twitter. It’s @LaSalle_MBB.

I appreciate this opportunity might to share my story. I’m looking forward to heading into this season and if anybody ever wants to reach out to us, we love the support, we love to engage with our basketball community, all over the country.

Mike Klinzing: [00:43:41]

Ash, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule to jump on the podcast with us today. It’s been an absolute pleasure, getting a chance to hear your story, and we’re going to be watching what you do and how you build the program there at LaSalle and to everyone out there. Thanks for listening.

And we will catch you [00:44:00] on our next episode. Thanks.