RYAN LARSEN – UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH – EPISODE 787

Website – https://gowyo.com/sports/womens-basketball

Email – rlarse13@uwyo.edu

Twitter – @RyanLarsen

Ryan Larsen is the Women’s Basketball Associate Head Coach at the University of Wyoming. Larsen just completed his 4^th season on the Cowgirls’ staff helping the team reach the NCAA Tournament in 2021.

Prior to arriving in Laramie, Larsen spent six seasons as the head women’s coach at South Dakota School of Mines. Larsen became the head coach of the Hardrockers after serving five years as an assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of South Dakota.

Before his time at South Dakota, Larsen was a member of the Augustana (S.D.) College men’s basketball staff from 2002-2007 and from 1999-2002, Larsen coached at Minnesota State-Moorhead.

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Have a notebook handy as you listen to this episode with Ryan Larsen, the Women’s Basketball Associate Head Coach at the University of Wyoming.

What We Discuss with Ryan Larsen

• Drawing up plays in his basement as a kid
• “I never take for granted how hard it is to be in college athletics.”
• Choosing college coaching over high school coaching
• Getting a GA job at Augustana College on the men’s side after graduating from Minnesota State Moorhead
• “There’s just no job too small for anybody.”
• “This professional humbles you in a hurry and it could be taken away from you really quick and so you better give back and pay it forward a little bit.”
• How his appreciation for coaching has changed as he’s gotten older
• The need to be up front and honest with recruits
• Looking for skill and IQ in recruits
• The importance of being able to create your own shot in the women’s game
• Trying to evaluate a player’s motor
• The time requirements for a college athlete
• Why he feels the women’s game fits him better as a coach
• Fighting egos less in the women’s game than the men’s
• Thinking like a head coach when you are an assistant
• “You have to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations.”
• Being a “drill” coach vs. being a basketball coach
• Setting your players up for success with how you design your practices
• How being a head coach helped him become a better assistant at Wyoming
• How his relationships and conversations with players have changed as he’s gotten older

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THANKS, RYAN LARSEN

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TRANSCRIPT FOR RYAN LARSEN – UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH – EPISODE 787

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle, who is almost done with his Disney World vacation with his wife and four children under the age of eight, which as I’ve said multiple times, I’m not sure how much of a vacation that is. But nonetheless, we are here with Ryan Larsen, the associate head coach of the Women’s Basketball Program at the University of Wyoming.

Ryan, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:25] Ryan Larsen: Thank you guys for having me. I really appreciate this. This is outstanding.

[00:00:29] Mike Klinzing: We are thrilled to be able to have you on and looking forward to learning more about you and all the things that you’ve been able to do in your basketball career. Let’s go back in time to when you were a kid.

Tell me a little bit about some of your first experiences with the game, what you remember from being very young.

[00:00:44] Ryan Larsen: Yeah, that’s a great question. Honestly, these are true stories. Probably nobody knows these stories other than I. Probably my wife, my parents my siblings maybe because they witnessed it. But I was the kid that hammered up boxes on the wall and in shot hoops, always had that make believe a proponent like, like a lot of kids do. But I guess really kind of where I figured out I wanted to coach was I thought it was something mastermind when I was down there in the basement shooting on the box hoop of I was thinking of two-three zones and set offensive plays and stuff like that.

I thought I was the innovator of those things until I got smart enough and actually played organized basketball that there were such things as zone defenses and set plays and stuff like that. And that’s the truth there.

As I played organized basketball, I learned I was pretty competitive and even back then, I remember I hated losing more than I I liked winning. And I don’t know if that’s a good trait for a young kid to have. Proud to say I’ve since gotten a little bit better with that.

But I was the kid growing up in the eighties and high school in the nineties where did everything back then, played football, played baseball, played basketball, obviously golf didn’t. Tried one year of track and figured out that I wasn’t fast, didn’t jump very high.

So I gave that up and I sure as heck wasn’t going to run farther than a mile so I, I gave that up quickly. But enjoyed all sports and just was encouraged to do all of it and that, I think that ultimately helped me down the road with my coaching career as well.

Enjoying all aspects of coaching in different sports and still use different watch football and think basketball stuff like that. Talk to wrestling coaches and tennis coaches here at Wyoming and relate that to basketball. So, I really think my childhood being competitive and stuff like that has shaped me pretty well for, for my career.

[00:03:15] Mike Klinzing: So you knew from an early age that. You wanted to coach? Cause I think what we found, Ryan is on the pod after talking to a bunch of people, that there’s really sort of two ways that people kind of find their way into the coaching profession. One is somebody who, it sounds like you’re of this mindset that you knew from the time you were little, you’re drawn up plays, you’re in your basement on the box hoop, trying to figure stuff out and mm-hmm There’s that school.

And then the other group is the group that maybe is playing and they get done with their high school career or their college career, or they have an injury and all of a sudden the game is kind of taken away from them, so to speak, as a player. And then they’re like, wow, I have to figure out a way to stay involved in this game.

Maybe coaching is the way for me to be able to do that. And so people sometimes come to it that way. But it sounds like you knew pretty much from an early age that coaching was going to be on your radar when you went to school, was the idea that. You were going to be a coach? Or at that point had you kind of thought, well, maybe I’m going to get a real job, or just what was your mindset like as you, as you went into college?

[00:04:19] Ryan Larsen: I knew I wanted to coach. My whole goal in life for the longest time up until probably my junior, senior year of college was I wanted to be a high school coach basketball do a little football in the fall I’ll be a third base coach in the spring for baseball that and teach history and geography.

And that was my goal in life was to teach and coach. But very, very fortunate to be surrounded with People at the right time to give me opportunities to stay in the college game to coach in college. And been very fortunate to stay in it as long as I have because I never take for granted how hard it is to be in college athletics.

It’s very competitive. And it’s hard to stay in and not just from retaining a job and keeping a job and getting a job, but the mental aspect of it as well, that gets a lot of people out of it, obviously, as you guys know as well.

But yeah, to answer your question, as long as I remember that’s what I wanted to do as coach. And like I said, probably my. Yeah. Junior, senior year, maybe as early as my sophomore year. I kind of maybe thought, boy, this college thing’s pretty sweet, maybe that if I could make a run at this even better.

And yeah, I probably really made that decision that I want to be in college coach when I was doing my student teaching for sure.

[00:06:07] Mike Klinzing: I never take for granted how hard it is to be in college athletics was that about being able to do basketball all day and not have to be in the classroom? Was that the main driver of that?

[00:06:13] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. I wouldn’t say not so much against teaching, you know?

Right, no, I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah. But obviously, when you teach, you still have to put pants on every once in a while when you coach you put pants on for a game and most of the time it’s just you’re wearing sweats and shorts to the office.

I figured out that we when you actually get to study a game For a living and be in the gym and being around young kids and passing and shooting. Yeah, , that’s where it’s at. A hundred percent.

[00:06:46] Mike Klinzing: And the outfit’s a huge part of it, man. Trust me. So I have to tell you a quick, I have to tell you a quick story.

So the beginning part of my teaching career, I taught in the classroom and about 10 years ago, I had an opportunity to move from the classroom and teach elementary pe. So now I go to work every day and I wear sweats, or I wear shorts and a t-shirt and I wear tennis shoes. So I always laugh and tell my wife that it’s like I’m dressing again.

Like I’m 14 years old. I get to spend all my money on, I get to spend all my money on tennis shoes and cool t-shirts and nice sweatpants and all the stuff that I liked to spend money on when I was a kid. And yeah, it’s one of those things that I remember at some point telling my dad, When I was younger, I’m like, I just want to be one of those people.

I never want to put on a suit and go to work. I want to be able to just do. And I never even thought, honestly, like I was one of those people that never, I mean, I played, but I never really thought at all that I would ever coach. Just never, it just never crossed my mind. And, and now here I am where, I mean, I never, I’m almost never in a pair of pants or a dress shirt anymore.

I got a closet full of them, but I never put them on. I’m always in shorts or whatever. So it’s a pretty good life. I can completely relate. I relate.

[00:07:57] Ryan Larsen: Yeah, absolutely. What’d you teach before PE then?

[00:07:59] Mike Klinzing: So I was an elementary school teacher, so I started my career teaching third grade, which I taught for four years and then Year saint.

Yeah. And then I went to fifth grade and I taught fifth grade for I think 14 or 15 years. And now I’ve been in the gym. I think this is my 10th year of being an elementary. Phys ed teacher. So yeah, it’s, that’s awesome. Being a, being a phy ed teacher gave me a whole new lease on life. I don’t know if I would’ve made it in the classroom to this point, I’m not sure.

[00:08:32] Ryan Larsen: I thought, yeah, I was thinking differently. See, I originally thought I wanted to teach pe Okay. And then I kind of switched. I’m like, you know what, man? I love badminton., I love being in the gym, all that stuff, but I kind of figured out history and geography. I could see myself teaching that day and then day out for sure.

But I would’ve been much very similar to you where yeah, as much as I loved teaching history and geography I would’ve ended back up in the gym.

[00:09:00] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, and there’s pieces that don’t get me wrong, there’s pieces of the teaching aspect of it in terms of being a classroom teacher.

There’s certainly elements of it that I miss, although, honestly, my favorite part of being a classroom teacher was sort of the, the sideline discussions that you’d sometimes get into where you’d be. Teaching one lesson and then something would come up and all of a sudden we’d be talking about whatever for 45 minutes.

That was honestly always my favorite part of teaching because it’s sort of a way where you kind of got off the, you got off the curriculum, so to speak, and you just were sure having conversations with kids. And that’s kind of what I always loved about being a classroom teacher, was when you’d get those opportunities where kids would ask you something that maybe it was tangentially related to the lesson that you were teaching, but for whatever reason it was something that that kid wanted to know about or that the class was interested in and all of a sudden you’d be having these, these sort of real life discussions.

And that was what one of the things that I really always enjoyed about teaching. But yeah, going into the gym sounds really cool. Super fun.

[00:10:04] Ryan Larsen: It was a lot of fun engaging those kids and having just different type types of conversations and yeah, I bet that’d be. I could see how you’d miss that.

[00:10:13] Mike Klinzing: That’s pretty cool. And it’s funny just how, again, your life sort of goes in certain directions and think about just forks in the road and how things could have been differently. So when I graduated from college, the year I graduated was 1992, and that year was the year that the NCAA cut all the division one staffs from two GA’s down to one.

And so at that time, like I sent out, seriously probably 250 letters that I printed out on a matrix printer with the Tandy TS 80 computer that my roommate had in our, in our apartment. And I heard back from lots of coaches just saying, Hey we’d love to have you, but we just don’t have a job.

Cause everybody had those guys staggered. So one guy would come and the next guy would leave. And so basically everybody had somebody coming back for a year and I probably could have waited and maybe gone and. Tried again in a year, but by that point I had kind of moved on. I had a business degree. I was at home trying to figure out what I was going to do and ended up going back to school.

And so who knows if, if it hadn’t been that that rule would come in, I might’ve been coaching in college and gone a whole different route. So it’s just funny how life works.

[00:11:23] Ryan Larsen: Have you heard this statement or had this conversation that, I’ve had this talk with a lot of my friends that getting your GA job’s hardest job you can get.

You remember that?

[00:11:34] Mike Klinzing: No, I hadn’t heard, I didn’t heard anybody say that, but it’s not surprising.

[00:11:37] Ryan Larsen: It’s getting harder now from what I understand to, for a lot of different reasons and probably a different topic.

[00:11:48] Mike Klinzing: You can only imagine just the number of people that want to get into it.

I mean, I think when you look at just every level of college basketball, when you think about from division one all the way down to. And AI, division three, JUCO, whatever. Mm-hmm. There’s just so many people that are out there that want to stay in the game and want to get involved in college coaching. And of course I think there’s, there’s also, and this is one of the things that we’ve really tried to hit on a lot, is trying to help people to understand that the path is not an easy path.

Mm-hmm. I think a lot of people sometimes have a perception as a young person, and especially if you’re a young person who’s played the game that. It’s super easy. Like, oh, I played and you know this, and boom, and all of a sudden I’m going to have this job and I’m going to be shooting up the ladder as fast as I possibly can.

And so you and I both know that that’s not really the way that it works. It takes a lot of time. You have to pay a lot of dues. You have to be willing to, yeah, go lots of different places in the country. You have to work for nothing or next to nothing. Mm-hmm. And even then, there’s no guarantee of success. And you just have to, you have to love what you’re doing.

I think that’s the message that’s come across to me loud and clear with everybody that we’ve talked to is, man, I love my first year or two where I was making nothing. I was living in somebody’s basement and I was having a bartend at night to be able to make money here. I was working at the Kinko’s or whatever, just to be able to, to make ends meet.

And  a lot of people look back on that time fondly for sure.

[00:13:16] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. And you can throw me into that club. I mean, yeah, some of my fondest memories and that kind of goes back to you have to be resilient, you know? Man, I got at Augustana College now, Augustana University where I did my grad work.

I got lucky that somehow, some way they needed someone to teach racquetball, and I did it. And I think that got me an extra three to 500 bucks a semester and that you could make that stretch a long, long ways, you know? And then, yeah, I was pouring beer and leading tables at the Central Valley Country Club, you know?

Part of that was for the tips and cash, but  Mostly for the free golf that they allowed me to play. But  that, that, that’s the resilience part of you could’ve been like, man, it’s too hard for, I don’t see the, the benefits of me working as hard as I am and making no money in hopes of getting another job after your GA job.

 there, there’s nothing guaranteed there for sure. And then again, it’s just being around the right people, right time, and I I’ve been the basketball gods have certainly blessed me with, with those two things for sure. Yeah. All right. So

[00:14:39] Mike Klinzing: talk a little bit about how you got to Augustana after you graduated from MSU Moorehead.

[00:14:44] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. The guy that got me really started in the game  Mike Olson he was at Black Hill State at the time, and I was a good player, Mike. But. Not, not a great player.  I was a good athlete, but not a great athlete, you know I’m a five 11 average athlete that pretty good jump shot with a good IQ and not a whole lot else.

[00:15:10] Mike Klinzing: That’s a good combination though. That’ll take you a lot farther than a lot of people think It will.

[00:15:13] Ryan Larsen: It has for  noon ball I’ve been pretty good there. Nice. The guy that got me into the game he gave me an opportunity to walk on a Black Hills state and, and did got a chance there never dressed or anything like that, but played.

But he knew I wanted to get into coaching and he offered me a manager job at, when I was at Black Hills State, just knowing I wanted to coach, and he’s like, Hey you can play maybe I’ll get you into a game maybe. And we were good then too. I mean, when I was there, we made it to three straight NAIA national tournaments so, I mean, there was really good players there at the time, and that’s what he meant by maybe I’ll get you into a game. But we still talk and communicate to this day. He’s just a great mentor of mine and tremendous friend.

I still give him crap. I’m like, did was I really that bad or did you see something and wanted to be a coach? That’s funny. Yeah, we tease at each other a lot there. But  he from Black Hills State, he got a division two job at Minnesota State Morehead, and asked me to join him there.

That’s kind of rather kick kickstarted my career where I went to. MSU Moorehead  state, his manager was able to work full-time for a couple years for him there. And then, yeah, searching for that grad assistants job. But one of the guys I played with at Black Hills State was the women’s assistant at Augustana.

And obviously Coach Olson knew the head coach at, at the time. But that was I always go back to having good relationships to help you out, get a job and my, one of my best friends to this day, Travis Trapping and write that name down, you’d be a good guest for you on your podcast.

He’s a tremendous basketball mind and a great story. But he was the assistant at Augustana College on the women’s side. Obviously I was on the men’s side then, and he. Yeah, it was very influential with the men’s staff at Augustana to get me that, that grad assistant’s job there. Just to continue to stay in the game and keep living the dream.

[00:17:21] Mike Klinzing: What do you remember about balancing your responsibilities as a coach with obviously going to school and then trying to earn some maybe money on the side, just what were those years like for you as a ga?

[00:17:32] Ryan Larsen: Trying to make a joke on this because you’re an educator, but  at that point, SEC education really came secondary for me. It, it really did and the people I worked for there, we kind of had the same frame of mind we were able to go to class stuff like that.

But yeah, your work came first in the office and, and on the court and getting to. Go out in the road and recruit.  so, man, I couldn’t answer that question honestly because I don’t remember studying a whole lot and getting, getting my work done academically a whole lot at that time, even though somehow I was probably a better student in grad school than I was undergrad.

I think that a lot has to do with something that I with a master’s in education, I really enjoyed what I was studying, so that helped a bunch, you know. But a lot of long hours, a lot of late nights. I do know that you know but there wasn’t much of a balance. It was more so the job of basketball.

And education came man, it probably wasn’t second, it was probably closer to the third or fourth.

[00:18:42] Mike Klinzing: What do you take away from that experience as a GA that you think is still influencing you today as a coach?

[00:18:52] Ryan Larsen: I’m a big believer in that. I mean, there, there’s just no job too small for anybody, you know?

When I was a head coach at South Dakota Mines, I made a point to sweep the floor. Part of that was going back to education background. And again, speaking to an educator, one of your main jobs is to make sure that your classroom is safe. And I wanted a clean floor. But probably the bigger lesson there is I wanted the women that I was coaching to know, Hey, geez, Ryan can sweep the floor.

I can be selfless in a lot of areas too. A lot of, with the way I was raised as well, clean your own car, wash your own car that type of stuff. But that was certainly a big lesson a as a GA where, even though you’re a low man on the totem pole, you really make that office go all right, by folding mailouts tthe letters that you snail mailed back in the day to a few hundred recruits licking the envelopes, stuff like that.

Driving camp brochures to man South Dakota, and try and get as many campers to your day camps that you could  just on and on and o, minute details of no job is too small. That makes a team really good in a program. Really good. And those are good lessons humbling lessons that I really hold true and dear to my heart to this day because I mean this professional humbles you in a hurry and it could be taken away from you really quick and so you better give back and pay it forward a little bit.

[00:20:40] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. I mean, I think there’s no doubt that, I mean, you have to put that time in, you have to work, and the more work you put in, the more likely you are to have success.

But obviously success isn’t guaranteed in any way, shape or form. You mentioned some of the things that you had an opportunity to do it Augustana, and I know that depending upon what level coaches start their career at, there’s varying degrees of responsibilities and things that you get to have your hands in.

But I think one of the things universally that coaches have said to us on the pod is that as much as they expected to be doing, Basketball as a basketball coach, that there’s so many things outside of basketball that have to be done and have to be taken care of in order for a program to be successful.

So this isn’t a question, maybe specific to Augustana, but just thinking about your career in total, are there some things that are outside of the purview of the basketball court, the Xs and Os that are, that are required for a program to be successful? Some things that you enjoy doing that are off the floor, stuff that maybe you wouldn’t have thought you would’ve liked, but things that you enjoy doing more than maybe you would’ve guessed that are non basketball related, if that question makes any sense.

[00:21:58] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. No, I do. And. I’m not going to try to get off topic here, but I like the conversation again, I have this with my friends a lot and even with people that don’t know much about coaching, but basketball’s such a small percentage of what we do and I’d like to almost put a poll out there to figure out what that is, you know?

So when you actually get on the court and, and work with your team and your players and stuff like that, it’s a joy. But man, I probably a little bit different as I get older. And one thing I really enjoy now at 45 years of age ages here at Wyoming, they have a, a golf tournament series in the summer called the Cowboy Joe Golf Series.

As much as I love to golf, but I love meeting boosters and fans and stuff like that. I think that’s just something that’s come, I’ve gotten better at with age. But enjoying being around people more. A lot of it has to do with the great people here in the state of Wyoming and are great fans of Wyoming Athletics.

I really enjoy that. I enjoy speaking engagements now, you know 20 years ago you asked me to be on a podcast. I’d do it for professional reasons, but I’d probably just be that stick in the mud profession guy totally PC and stuff like that. Right. Really just enjoy chopping up shop and talking hoop and stuff like that?

I enjoy recruiting a lot more. I do. There again, I think it’s probably with my age right now, they’re, I’m recruiting a lot of young athletes that their parents are my age so that’s a different dynamic with the recruiting that it’s hard to admit as you get older, you enjoy that stuff  That’s pretty cool.

It’s a different relationship builder for me. I’ve really enjoyed that. 20 years ago I knew you had to recruit you have to be good get good athletes and stuff like that. And to be successful individually as a coach. But Actually really enjoy building the relationships.

 more and more as I get older with, with these young kid or athletes, I have to stop saying kids. I really enjoy that. I kind of look at myself as kind of a kind of a dying breed. I think you get a little more valuable as you get older in women’s basketball.

A as a male, okay, if, if you do things the right way. And I, I’m kind of embracing that role as I get older.  just finding different ways to be good at, again, like I said, the recruiting part of it. Just finding different ways to relate to the players that you have on your roster as you get older, you know they look at you a little bit differently now.

Yeah, I’m enjoying that quite a bit more and I joke about it, but it is true. You know I’m not nearly as serious. I’m not nearly as a hard ass. I’m still pretty demanding and want things done the right way, but I loosened up a lot.  I just probably, it’s just because I appreciate being in the game as long as I have and being at the different spots that I have been and feeling very fortunate, more thankful.

But man, I just enjoy the things that I thought were kind of burdensome early on in my career a lot more just the daily interactions with your staff. If you work with a great staff, I’m the only male on staff here at Wyoming Women’s Basketball, and I hope it stays that way. I just love it. I love being the guy, you know to talk different things.

[00:25:45] Mike Klinzing: I teach in an elementary school, Ryan, so I get it.

[00:25:48] Ryan Larsen: I get it. Yeah. I just, there’s so many different things I’m, I’m really enjoying later in my career that I probably didn’t enjoy as much as I did early on.

The things that I still do love to do and obsessively watch film  I did that  probably because I had to and need to learn a lot early in my career now I just really, really enjoy it. Just the so many different creative things in basketball that is changing and coming our way the athleticism, these women that we’re trying to defend man, how do we stop that?

and trying to find something that, We can use defensively help us trying to find ways to score watching individual film with players and what’s going to work for this type of kid, you know? There I did it again, said kid work with this player. But yeah, that was a great question.

I’ve never really been asked that or thought about it, but there’s some deep thoughts there by Ryan Larson that yeah, kind of revealing how much I really enjoy coaching.

[00:26:57] Mike Klinzing: No, I like it. And I’ve got a couple things that based off of what you said to kind of follow up on. So one was you talked a little bit about how the recruiting part of it has changed as you’ve gotten older and you’ve shifted from being more of a contemporary of your players to being more of a contemporary of your players’ parents.

But when you think about just. How recruiting has changed, whether it’s the impact of Covid or just how it’s changed over the last, let’s say, 15 years of your career, what would you point to and say is different from maybe what you were doing 15 years ago?

[00:27:31] Ryan Larsen: I’d say the biggest thing, and I’ve learned this over time and a lot of people say it early on, but I think it’s the best policy even we’re in, I’m just upfront and honest and as straight shooter as I can be, you know?

I think a part of that is so important anymore with being able to transfer whenever you want. It seems like how many other times you want, you know I really want whoever comes to the University of Wyoming to really know what they’re getting into and we’re not going to try to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes, you know?

I just think that’s the best way to go about it anymore. Early on it was impress, impress, impress schmooze tell them what they want to hear or what they, you know what’s best for the, for the athlete stuff like that. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still schmoozing and and impressing.

But when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of it  I want those people who we’re recruiting to know what we’re really about. Nothing’s promised. All right? Come January here in, in Laramie, Wyoming there’s going to be some days where it’s, it’s pretty darn miserable when the wind’s blowing 40, you know?

And the sun’s not out and it’s cold. Okay? I want them to know that you know I want them to know the closest shopping mall from Laramie is in 40 miles away in Cheyenne. And we’re not trying to hide that fact, what they’re getting into. We’re going to coach you hard.

We’re going to be demanding we’re going to hold you really accountable, all right? And you’re going to be a team first player. We don’t tolerate selfishness. Okay? All that stuff, and. A lot of people say it in the recruiting world, they might say that stuff, but then they’ll let it slide when it gets to the program.

But we hold our athletes accountable to those expectations. And so it’s not a shock when they do get here, all right. They know what they’re getting into. Yeah, I’d say, that’s the biggest thing that comes to my mind right away. To, to answer your question there.

[00:29:45] Mike Klinzing: Talk about identifying players and just going through the process of recruiting there at Wyoming, what does that look like?

It’s just from start to finish, how you, how you get your initial list of names, then how you sort of winnow that list down to the people you eventually bring on a campus and then clearly the, the girls that you make offers to.

[00:30:05] Ryan Larsen: Yeah, it starts with need obviously that’s biggest thing that we’re looking for.

Right.  out of current roster what, what you got coming up, which you might be losing.  we, we like to recruit regionally first and foremost.  we’re going to look Wyoming, bordering states upper Northwest Midwest a little bit, we’ve done well in, in those areas and kind of after that if you’ve looked at a roster that we have to done pretty well with our international players here at Wyoming.  but we’re one of the few teams that  runs pure motion basketball that I’m aware of or that I’ve probably coached against.

And I don’t want people to get confused with pure motion that we’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We’re not doing that by any means. There’s so many different actions to what we do. A lot of stagger screens, a lot of flares, a lot of back screens  a lot of single pin down screens.

We. Fill six, I’m sorry, eight spots on the floor. All right. Within our motion. And it’s, there’s a lot going on there. So skill and iq. Probably the two things that we really, really try to hone in on players that we recruit to fit our motion.  skill is probably the easier of the two to identify you know when it get comes to evaluating a player.

Iq is tough to evaluate, you have to watch them play quite a bit to figure out exactly how high their basketball IQ is. Still haven’t figured that part out.  this, this far into my career. Sometimes I get it right. Sometimes I don’t. And  that’s, the thing about coaching you’re always learning there.

But  as coaches, we have to talk, take a lot of the blame there too. If, if we’re not getting our athletes to do what we want them to do offensively and defensively we have to take a big look in the mirror too and figure out how we can we get them to figure it out.  how can we get them to be successful?

So obviously not going to put it back on the players there completely. But yeah, I think the biggest thing also anymore man, and I’ve been thinking about this for a couple years now, man, if you can really find and recruit kids and get them to your athletes to get them to your program that can create their own shots anymore, you’re going to have a good team, you know It’s not just creating own one shot at a shot at one level getting to the rim or three point line pull up jumpers.

Some of these players are really good. And if you can find a recruit that can create their own shot at two different levels and sometimes three different levels, O holy smokes, you got a darn good player there. That’s one thing that we’re really paying a lot more attention to is, can, can this kid, can this athlete create their own shot and get their own bucket?

Because if you can, especially with the style that we play motion wise, pretty tough to guard at times. How, no, I didn’t get, I didn’t get into talking on the defensive end there, because that’s a completely different conversation. How much time you have, Mike? When I start talking defense. That’s a greater subject.

[00:33:36] Mike Klinzing: I completely understand. There’s a lot that goes into being a good defensive player, but you could probably, you could probably, if you could figure out a way to just measure a player’s motor, you’d probably have a lot of, the lot that, that’d probably take you to about 85% of their defense.

Right. There’s obviously some things Yeah. And reads that they have to make. But man, if you could, if you could accurately evaluate a player’s motor on the defensive end as a high school, as a high school player, man, you’d have, you’d, you’d have a bag of gold right there.

[00:34:07] Ryan Larsen: Yeah.  I’m glad you brought that up.

And more and more difficult too. The longer I’m in this profession is. Finding high motor kids who I’m not implying that well, there’s laziness out there, but there’s, there’s certainly a difference in the effort young kids play with and this from high school levels of youth levels AAU to, to college.

And I don’t care what level of college, it’s different. And be perfectly honest there too I, how many coaches have you come across listening to or on your own podcast or reading or whatever, and they always say, our number one thing is we recruit effort.  people that play hard.

Right. Yeah. I’d like to yeah, that’s right up there in our priority list too, but still miss on it still miss on it. And. I’d like to get that one figured out. Because that one that one cuts me pretty deep when we missed there where we didn’t evaluate their effort in their motor.

Yeah. Because you’re a hundred percent right. You can have some of the greatest SC schemes defensively. All right. Greatest system defensively. It, it, it’s still not going to work if you don’t have athletes that, that compete and have big time Motors on the defensive end.

[00:35:37] Mike Klinzing: And I think too, right, when you jump up, as you said, when you jump up a level, then the intensity of everything that’s required of you goes up from a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint and just from a time standpoint, everything that’s required from a time standpoint.

[00:35:56] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s the biggest adjustment I think athletes have from high school to college is understanding how much time. Is put in. And that’s not just the 20 hours. Alright. That we’re allowed to work with them. Right. You really want to be good, you have to put time in on your own in the gym.

Watching, asking to watch film with your coaches outside, just maybe getting a practice guy to help you out strengthen your weekend, stuff like that. That, that’s, that’s the biggest thing that I really think  moving up a level is missed out anymore. They just don’t quite understand.

You could talk about it till you’re blue in your face. Right. You know? So you experience it, right? Yeah. You can, you can tell them how hard it is and how much time you have to put in, but until you experience it themselves it doesn’t, it doesn’t equate for sure.

[00:36:55] Mike Klinzing: And then you’re trying to get them to.

Well, when you’re trying to get them to understand it, and then you put them in that situation and you just don’t know how the kid who maybe had a high motor as a high school player, suddenly they get to college and you have these added demands and suddenly that desire or that love or whatever it is that turns somebody’s motor on just isn’t quite revving at the same speed.

And it’s interesting, again, as you see how kids go from from one situation, one environment to another, and it’s, again, we’re all human beings, right? So it’s just, you never know what you’re getting.

[00:37:37] Ryan Larsen: You don’t, and a lot of those athletes they’re that much better.  They’re that much talented where they can get away talent wise. they were so darn talented that they, they made it look easy and it kind of looked like they did have a, a big time motor and were playing hard because they made it look so easy.

[00:38:03] Mike Klinzing: Us slow guys with a jump shot can’t really relate to that.

[00:38:05] Ryan Larsen: Right. That’s exactly right. Work my ass off to get in your shot, you know? Yep. Yeah, that’s a very interesting topic there that I think man, every college coach has had or is having or Yeah, it’s a lot going on there for sure.

[00:38:25] Mike Klinzing: No question. All right. Tell me a little bit about the transition for you from coaching on the men’s side and obviously as a man playing basketball, growing up and being around teams of male players and making the transition to coaching women.

And first of all, how does it happen? And then secondly, Were there adjustments? What did you like about it? What was different about it? Just talk a little bit about the transition.

[00:38:52] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. Easily the best decision I’ve made professionally  for a lot of reasons.  going back to one of my best friends, Travis Trap, Higgin that helped me get, he’s helped me get a few jobs. This guy helped me get the graduate assistance job at Augustana.

He was a GA for name is Ryan Williams. He was at Wayne State in Wayne, Nebraska. And he was taking over the women’s basketball program at the University of South Dakota as they went from division two to Division one. And honestly when I was on the men’s side,  I kind of pal’d around with a lot of the women’s coaches, got to know quite a few of them male and female you know which I would think is a little bit different and so, but I just like basketball.

I like coaching, I like coaches like I said, I still talk to tennis and wrestling coaches here at Wyoming that think get basketball ideas so therefore had a lot of friends on, in the women’s side of collegiate basketball. But when Ryan Williams, who’s now the head coach at Colorado State went to University of South Dakota he didn’t really have anybody  kind of.

In his pocket to go to South Dakota with him. He had his current assistant at Wayne.  and I won’t say he wasn’t connected, but  knowing Trap Higgins from his GA at Wayne State and I, I’d known Ryan, I’d worked a couple camps for him down in, at Wayne States. And so we were quite friendly.

 Ryan asked Travis if he thought I’d be interested and we got to talking about it and I just, whatever reason, I don’t, I can’t really think back to what my specific reason was. Maybe it was hey, it’s a division one opportunity maybe that’s what it was at that point in my life where I’m like, Hey, like.

Could be a good, good opportunity to get to division one and jump just because  I was really starting to understand how hard it is in the men’s side, and not that it’s any easier in the women’s side to get jobs and advance and move on. It’s equally hard on both sides.

So I thought, probably thought that was some of my decision. But the other reason is and I talked about, I had a lot of friends on the women’s side when I was on the men’s side of basketball, and I thought it was just a kind of a different lifestyle, you know probably a little bit more laid back.

I still think it’s a better way of life. I really do. I enjoy the coaching a lot more some days again, I, I’m still stubborn I still, if you asked our current team right now while I’m in there, like, yeah, Larsen, he can, he can be a pretty good SOB, still hold them really accountable.

But I just still think I’m, I’m not nearly on edge every single day coaching women as I was men maybe that was the environment that I was in at the time, but it seemed like he had to coach angry a lot and I. That’s not me.  that’s not my personality. Okay. The other thing about the game of basketball, women’s basketball, I really do think, and I bump people who’s listening to this, and you, Mike, the same way.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you really need to put women basketball players in position to score a lot more so than men. Just because without the athleticism. All right. Because there’s just not that many. Caitlin Clarks and Paige Buecker’s  and Angel Reese is around  that can, Caitlin Clark can shoot from the logo whenever she wants stuff like that.

Okay. Obviously it’s getting a little easier as and I talked about it a lot recruiting kids that can go create their own shot. It’s getting a lot better as kids get. Better as basketball players, more athletics, stronger, faster all that stuff. But I really do believe the coaching style fits me and that I’ve always been a sucker for motion basketball.

That’s what motion basketball is creating shots for your players. And that really, really intrigued me about women’s basketball. And that’s kind of the story how I got into it. And I, I’ve never looked back. I’ve just really, man enjoyed it. It’s been a fantastic change for me.

And I really do like the relationships a lot more. I do, I think it’s more enjoyable from, just fits my personality a lot more and I may ca catch some heat for, for saying this story. But one of the biggest things to the reason I like saying that it’s more enjoyable for me I never forget my, my first job out of grad school was at Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota. It’s now Jamestown University. When I got hired at Jamestown, I was the assistant men’s basketball coach, head men’s golf coach, head of women’s golf coach in sports information director making $23,000. And I had arrived. Mike, That was it.

[00:44:06] Mike Klinzing: got to ride. You have to ride around the golf cart as the golf coach. That’s a good gig, everybody loves that job.

[00:44:11] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. I was there two months, all of two months. That’s a different story. Not going to go there. But meeting the team the first day in Jamestown College was really good.

When I got hired there, they were the number one team in the nation the entire year and got upset in the national tournament. But I was meeting the team and talking to the seventh, eighth, ninth player on the team and, You know hey, so what is it you want to do when, when you’re done and graduate?

Oh, I want to go play overseas I’m want to go play overseas. Now you’re not. I’m sorry. You know? Right. Not realistic and that, that was I use that as example that  kind of fits my personality where I just think females are a lot more realistic.

All right? We, a young lady at Wyoming this year that could have went on and played, you know overseas for, and done well for a couple years. But you know what? Hey, I got my mba. All right, I’m ready to start life. Let’s go live. Okay? That fits me. And I don’t know what that explains about why I like women’s basketball a little bit more than men’s basketball.

Why? I enjoy it more. I don’t know why, but I always go back to that, that that story and that conversation of man, oh, how, why I like it. Maybe you can make sense of it for me.

[00:45:40] Mike Klinzing: It sounds like maybe you don’t have to fight egos as much.

[00:45:41] Ryan Larsen: That’s exactly it. Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. It’s, yeah, your coach, your, you’re not fighting you and you’re not, you’re not dog cussing guys every single day.

It’s known fact females are, are, are pleasers much more than males. All right. Therefore, I’m not coaching angry every darn day. All right. Even though I still get angry probably every day. It’s not all of two, two and a half hours of practice. Yeah. But you’re a hundred percent right, not, not dealing with egos nearly as much.

[00:46:14] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I think in my experience, so I’ve never coached a female team at the high school level, but I’ve coached both my daughters and so had experience. Coaching girls. And one of the things that I liked the most about those experiences has been just the camaraderie that if you can get the chemistry right, and again, that’s not to say that it always goes right because I’ve heard stories from people that with coach, where you get in a situation where it doesn’t go well and then it can maybe not be the best situation.

But I’ve been pretty fortunate in that the teams that I’ve coached  the girls teams that I’ve coached have gotten along really well and developed a bond that I would say is probably much stronger than the bonds of teams that I’ve coached of males. And I think that that’s something that I’ve enjoyed that part of it in terms of watching them develop.

Friendships within the team and really kind of come together as a group beyond just the basketball floor, but really truly becoming friends. And to me that was always kind of a rewarding part and obviously doubly rewarding because my daughters were a part of those for sure. Experiences. Yeah. But at the same time, I think just as a coach, when you see your players coming together, not only as a basketball team, but also just as people off the floor, to me that was always one of the more rewarding parts of coaching my daughter’s teams.

[00:47:41] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. And I’m not going to follow up with examples that you just said just because Yeah. You hit it on the head and there, there again going back to getting older and getting softer and appreciating that stuff more and more Yep. Is really what it’s about.

And what makes this profession really, really rewarding.

[00:48:04] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s funny how we mature and the things that maybe were. Important to us, or that made us angry when we were 23, 24, 25. Yeah. Things that frustrated us, like those things kind of melt away, and I think you sort of reorient your priorities just, I mean, in life, obviously.

But then as a coach, I think too, you just, you just tend to look at things differently and you start to figure out and learn and understand what’s important. And for you, as you’re going through your career, and you’ve been an assistant at a bunch of different places, obviously at some point you probably have in the back of your mind that, Hey, I’d love to be a head coach someday.

What were you kind of doing to prepare for that day when you were going to become a head coach? Did you have a, a way of sort of cataloging, recording, collecting ideas, notes? Film things that you thought would be important for you when you eventually became a head coach? Did you have the old fashioned three ring binder?

How’d you go about just kind of keeping the things that you wanted to keep front of mind as you were preparing to become a head coach?

[00:49:15] Ryan Larsen: Yeah, I’m kind of a pack rat and keep a lot of stuff in, in the three ring binders.  we have cleared them out over the years. But really just kind of being astute and, and watching and studying people I’ve worked with  coached against and I think that ha probably has a lot to do with my, my passion for history learning history and studying it, kind of taking note of, hmm. I really like that, or, Hmm, if I ever get a chance, I should never do that. You know what I mean?  don’t handle situation that way.

 I’d like to think I’m a fairly observant in a person that can recall events and stuff like that. But I very, very fortunate to work for a lot of really good coaches. But two, I will point out, as I probably got better as a coach that  really encouraged me to be a lot more outgoing and hands-on in, in coaching and practice, you know being having different ideas if it’s offensively, defensively just not.

Staying so close to the vest and stuff like that taking chances.   I never forget again, going back to the University of South Dakota, working for Ryan Williams and he sat me down and I want I n he goes, I want and need you to start thinking like a head coach in practice, you know?

And that will serve you better when you do get your chance. And man, those were meant a lot at the time it gave me so much confidence. And it served me well. It served me really well for when, when I did become a head coach. Yeah. Cause I just thought I was prepared. Was that prepared?

Are you really prepared to come a head coach? No, you’re not. Alright. Did I think I was prepared? Yeah.  but it was, I, no, but it, it served me really well a lot of confidence and again, thinking outside the box and I’d love that team. My first year at South Dakota School of Mines, loved them to death, man.

They played so hard and gave me everything they had, but pretty limited. And if I had a whiteboard and could draw up what we did offensively for you right now, you would laugh. You would, you would absolutely laugh. And my assistant at the time was a very good player. She played at South Dakota State and just a great coach, great player.

I sat her down and showed her what we were going to do. And she goes, Ryan, we’re never going to score. Like, well, Kenny, this is what we have though. This is all we’re capable of doing.  that’s fun. And as simple as it was, it was innovative because it was all we could do with the talent that we had.

You know? Again, nothing against those women that I had there, and they would probably admit that they were pretty limited talent wise. But we did eventually make some baskets out of it. It helped us and we were able to continue as we got better at it, add more and more and more things to it and motion wise and stuff like that.

And as they got better at play as players and stuff like that, we were able to continue to add and  kind of developed our own little motion offense out of it that, that we used for a number of years at, at South Dakota School of Mines. But yeah Amy Williams, who I also worked at the University of South Dakota, who’s the Head coach at the University of Nebraska right now. Major influence in me as far as just putting a lot of trust in me of being able to coach. Cause as, again, I’m sure you’re aware not every situation is that way or your assistant you don’t, sometimes, unfortunately, you’re not able to coach a whole lot.

Right. And those people really Were great to me in those, in those regards of not holding me back and trusting me to coach and, and get the team better. And so I really owe those guys a lot to helping me become a head coach. The old joke. Yeah, are you ever ready? No. All right. You’re not, you certainly learned more in your first year than you ever will in your entire coaching career.

But I was pretty darn prepared because of those two. Yeah.

[00:54:11] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. What was the hardest part or the most eye-opening part to you about being a head coach? Maybe something that you didn’t realize went along with the head coaching position when you were an assistant, you kind of looked at it like, eh whatever My head coach has have to do X, Y, or Z or make this decision.

I could do that without any problem. That’s going to be easy. No stress. Just what was something that was maybe surprising to you or hard that you, you kind of didn’t anticipate?

[00:54:38] Ryan Larsen: Two things I’ll always, immediately come to mind. One being, and, and, yeah, you took it for Grant. I took it for granted completely, but time as an assistant, you have your duties and like on my desk, I have my list of things, daily duties. I want to get done long mid-term, long-term, stuff like that. And you pretty much stick to those tasks. As a head coach I still try to head  those duties and, and list and stay on schedule or whatever, but it’s impossible.

It doesn’t happen with a player popping in wanting to chat your ad popping in or  media interview whatever it may be, booster just randomly wanting to shoot the breeze stuff like that. Yeah, time was the biggest thing.  learned to take work home with me and be efficient at home without overworking.

Yeah, that was the biggest thing that I took for granted. And  like you said, you kind of poo-pooed it with the, the rest of the, when I was assistant before become a head coach. And the second one. And I’d like to think I’m good at it now, but it takes you a long time to get good at it and even get comfortable with it.

But a really good friend of mine told me right away one of the biggest things skills you, you have to be good at in becoming a head coach is you have to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations. And yeah, that, that took a bit it really did.  probably avoided having conversations with, if it’s your staff or players or administration than I should have had early on does that, does that make sense? No, it does. Yeah.  especially with your players, and it doesn’t have to be difficult conversations. It just has to be a conversation, to maybe at some point get to a difficult part of the conversation, if that makes any sense.

I wished I would’ve paid a lot more attention to that than I did early on in, I’d say my first couple years for sure of being head coach. I wished I would’ve done a lot better job that paid a lot more attention to it.

[00:57:11] Mike Klinzing: Was it just experience or was it an experience in the terms of number of reps, or was it an experience where, man, I wish I would’ve had this tough conversation because now.

What I should have said kind of came back and bit me?

[00:57:28] Ryan Larsen: Both. Yeah. Okay.  for sure both. Because that certainly happened, and that’s just being a red blood American boy there again, you know I never questioned any head coaches that I worked for.  I don’t want to make it think like that, that’s what I’m getting at here.

But when you’re an assistant and you’re with your head coach having one of those uncomfortable conversations maybe you’re thinking more of the player and like, man, I wouldn’t have said it that way. Or geez poor, poor player.  that type of deal. Right. And probably missed the point on it there, you know?

And not really understanding, you know what the message was coming from the head coach or  how important that conversation needed to be.  I wish I would’ve taken a lot more, paid a lot more attention to that because it would’ve helped me, it would’ve served me a lot better my first couple years for sure.

The other thing is who really likes confrontation, right? I kind of scoff at the fact where I hear people say I not afraid of confrontation. Ugh, boy, okay. I’m not sure if I believe that.

[00:58:45] Mike Klinzing: Those people are wired, those people, if that’s true, they have to be wired differently than most of us, I think.

[00:58:50] Ryan Larsen: Oh yeah, absolutely. And I just don’t think most human beings really enjoy confrontation. I think that had a lot to do with it because it’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, it’s the exact thing conversation that my friend told me right away, that you, you have to get comfortable with it because it’s, nobody enjoys it.

So, yeah, those were the things that. Really set me back. I wouldn’t say, not set me back career just opened my eyes right away..

[00:59:23] Mike Klinzing: How long did it take you into your tour of duty at the School of Mines to be able to feel like you had things in place from a basketball philosophy standpoint, and obviously, like you talked about earlier, you have to get some recruits in there that can do maybe more than what your first group was capable of doing.

How long into that process was it before you felt like you had things kind of where you hoped they would be when you first got the job? Hmm. Are the answer’s probably never right, because Yeah, because you’re never satisfied, but yeah,

[01:00:00] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. I understand  the premise of your question and I’d probably say year four year three, maybe at the end of that year, year four or around there where, and I’m going to base it on play the way that I wanted our teams to play. Does that make sense? Would that, would that work for you?

[01:00:25] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, no, that absolutely makes sense. Yeah. I think when you start talking about, when you look out on the floor and you, to me, the answer to the question is sort of, you look out on the floor and you see a team that fits what your vision is of kind of what you want your team to, to look like.

And that’s not to say that you’re going undefeated, but yes, the team is playing the way that you want them to be playing it.

[01:00:47] Ryan Larsen:. Yeah. It’s year three or four for sure. I think we  established what our identity was offensively and defensively. And we were able to start playing that way.

And that was, those were fun days, those really were and I’m not going to results aside I don’t even know what my record was at South Dakota School of Mines, but I know it wasn’t anything fantastic. Hard job, really hard job, you know. But I learned more there than anywhere I’ve ever been.

Obviously. Well, I should have because I was the head coach but finding ways to be innovative, different recruiting stuff because all there is is engineering and science there, that’s all you could recruit to kids that wanted to study engineering or go into the medical field. Pretty limited very limited. But yeah get to a point where we had our identity offensively and defensively, but yet still having an open mind of playing zone pressing which kind of goes outside of my comfort zone a little bit had an assistant there that man really taught a really good two, three zone and he gave me so much crap first couple years we had that thing in that.

We’d go zone and the opponent would make one three. We were out of it never played it again the rest of the game. But getting to a comfort zone of doing all kinds of different things defensively our defensive package there was man, and we did all kinds of different things from again, two, three zone trapping out of it, you know trapping a second or third side  defending ball screens multiple ways.

Switching like screens, switching all screens, you know doubling the post multiple different ways. I mean, we were doing all kinds of different things defensively we were really good defensive teams. Well back then that was a lot of fun, you know? So yeah, year three or four, I would say, to answer your question and, and stop rambling about different things that we did.

[01:03:21] Mike Klinzing: How’d you teach that stuff in practice? So you do multiple looks defensively. What does it look like in a practice setting? Are you doing that out of small sided games? Are you doing that five on five? Is it breakdown, a combination? Just how do you go about teaching that to your players?

[01:03:37] Ryan Larsen: Yeah, pretty much all of it.  I’m a big Don Meyer fan huge. Don Meyer anything Don Meyer says is gold, but I struggled with being a drill coach a quote I’m talking about versus just being a basketball coach. I’m paraphrasing a little bit but I love drills especially defensive drills.

And we did, man, a ton of them. You know but I thought was really beneficial for us, because again, we were pretty limited athletically basketball-wise at South Dakota. Mines loved those kids to death and played their tails off. But with what we were able to recruit to pretty darn limited.

So we had to drill a lot and we had to be really good defensively. We had to maximize their athleticism by having perfect footwork defensively, having perfect closeouts, you know? Yeah. We did a different closeout drill every single day. All right. Every single day. We were doing, if not one, maybe multiple closeout drills.

If it was just a one-on-one or a two on two to a three on three closeout. A lot of small-sided games especially offensively that, but that we would tie in defensively. I think I kind of found a balance between the Don Meyer quote of don’t be so much a drill coach as a basketball coach.

We’re thinking of in stealing, discovering, you know good defensive drills that we’re also very competitive, all right. To get our kids to compete and get that, that, that sense of will of, of winning. But yeah, if I were to send you a picture of my practice plans from South Dakota School, mines were you see skip past closeouts ffor two minutes and then ranger drill close out for four minutes and then another drill for two minutes and you probably thought think I was nuts as detailed and timely as I had it just to squeeze those drills in.

But  again, to be perfectly honest with you really wondered if I too much, too much drilling and started to run that when I came to the University of Wyoming, where never been to a place where, and Gerald Matson hired me here who is retired a year ago. Never been to a place where they play so much, five on five in practice in my entire life so that was a pretty big shock from doing what I was doing to come in here where not, not saying that we don’t do any drills or skill work or anything like that, or just roll the balls out and play.

Don’t get me wrong there, but man, we, we play a whole bunch here and that’s where I started scratching my head, man. Maybe we didn’t play a month enough and I wasn’t a basketball coach, I was just being a, a drill meister. Yeah, rambled on from your question there a little bit, but we did it all, Michael.

We did it all. And I liked it though, thought it was very, very beneficial for the situation that we are in at again pretty limited situation as far as recruiting goes. And making the most out of what you had.

[01:07:10] Mike Klinzing: Are you a stick to the two minutes no matter what’s going on in the drill, or if things aren’t going the way you want it, you run over the drill.

I’m always curious about how coaches approach that.

[01:07:21] Ryan Larsen:  I changed there early on. Yeah. Absolute stickler.  I probably did that because I read in one of my. Thousands of coaching books that I read of whatever book I read that, that month or year about whatever coach it was sticking to the minute exactly being that detailed.

But later loosened up quite a bit where, hey, you know what, maybe  Good or bad the good being, Hey, we’re doing really well at this drill.  let’s keep it going. You guys are having fun we’re getting better. Let’s keep going here. Do it again. Or maybe, I like this, I like what we’re doing here.

Let, let’s keep going. Or unfortunately the opposite. Hey, we’re not getting this. You just, you’re just playing out the clock here. All right? You’re just, you’re just watching the clock and waiting for this to get done, we’re going to redo this again or put three, two more minutes, up five minutes, whatever it may be.

That type of deal. Yeah, really loosen it up there quite a bit. That did help me for sure.  I think in coaching to be flexible in your practice plans time wise, whatever it is, or sometimes you just have to set your athletes up for success every once in a while, you know?

If you’ve tried this drill three days in a row and it’s been trash three days in a row, it might be a different direction. Right? Yeah. Something different. It’s not working. Yeah. It’s not going to work.  just there’s other ways I could describe setting your athletes up for success, but that’s the biggest one that comes to my mind.

[01:09:05] Mike Klinzing: What’d you learn during your time as a head coach that made you a better assistant when you got to Wyoming?

[01:09:10] Ryan Larsen: I now know what the head coach is going through. Yep. That I’m such a better assistant coach now. Of, let’s go back to having an uncomfortable conversation with the player. We before I was a head coach and assistant I wouldn’t have said it that way, or eh, man, being a little harsh here something like that.

Or, oh, he or she didn’t deserve that. Now I know. Yeah.  it, it’s probably warranted and there’s definitely a reason why you know just man, the different things you have to think of as the game is going on and it’s not just basketball wise, all right?

It’s what you say, what you do to players, they’ve turned it over for the third time and they’re still playing hard and their body language is good.  probably not the time to, to rip into them, right? If they turn it over for the third time and not playing real hard and their body language is great, isn’t great, then yeah better get into them Pretty good. Understanding what the head coach is going through right now, that is so invaluable. I had someone tell me when I was making this decision to go from South Dakota School of Mines to Wyoming, that you’ll enjoy it a lot more.

You will, because you’ll have a greater understanding of what the head coach is going through and it’s, your job is going to be easier because of that. And he was exactly right in those words. And I like it a lot more, man. Not just the fact that I’m a better assistant coach, but knowing what they’re going through.

It again, made me better as a coach. And hopefully I have served Gerald, when he hired me and three years here and, and Heather this past year, hopefully my experience as a head coach has, has served them well.

[01:11:29] Mike Klinzing: Talk a little bit about, we touched on it earlier, just very briefly about being the only male on your staff.

Talk about a, just what that’s like from a professional standpoint, working environment, what you like about it, and then two, what value you feel you bring as a male in terms of a different perspective or just again, being obviously a different gender. So just talk a little bit about those two things.

[01:11:58] Ryan Larsen: Whew. Yeah, I like being a male with the current staff that we have together, just because we’re, we’re such good friends and  we really can’t talk about anything. And I mean that we really can talk about anything and it’s. Sounds weird and immature, but man, it’s fun. Yeah, no, I get it. It’s fun cause we’re, we’re tight we’re really tight.

All of us and it’s, that makes me being the only male, I just, it’s, it’s a fun environment. You know? It’s, it’s really fun. I kind of they kind of ask me, I don’t know how to phrase this, but  most of the time, I don’t know a question a male should know about let’s just say a, I don’t know about your car, I don’t know crap about cars you know that type of stuff.

But  I, I enjoy that.  we just. That’s, that’s specific to our staff. And I probably would’ve, if I didn’t enjoy the people I worked with so darn much, we weren’t so tight and, and friendly and care for each other I’d probably have a different answer, you know I probably would.

Could you repeat the second part of your question?

[01:13:25] Mike Klinzing: So second part is just as a male, what value does that bring to the staff? Just in terms of having a different perspective, maybe in terms of the way you relate to players or coaching style, whatever you think is relevant to that question. If there’s anything.

[01:13:44] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. I really don’t, don’t have anything that really pops to my head right away. That, that is relevant. I think I. I’m really glad it needs to get better. I will admit it needs to continue to get better, but I really hope to a point where, I don’t care if it’s men’s basketball but especially on the female game right now, it, we start to look at it as gender neutral.

It shouldn’t matter, it really shouldn’t matter. And nothing just really pops my mind. Mike, I’m, I’m not going to make anything up to try to sound, sound small. Yeah, no, that’s totally fair.  that’s totally fair. I maybe it’s, again, getting older. All right. I think it’s a little bit easier for me to put my arm around a kid right now and pump them up love him up, you know?

That’d have been not, have been harder. It certainly was harder 15 years ago when I first got into women’s basketball at the age of 30. Right. That wasn’t nearly as easy. All right. Yeah. But I think being around the game as long as I have now and being older I think I’m looked upon and a lot more trustworthy from our players our young women right now to probably have a hard conversation with about whatever it is, you know?

And they, they certainly do that.  they’ve had some pretty good heart to hearts with a lot of our players over the years that I don’t think they would’ve any of the players I would’ve been coaching back at South Dakota when I first got into women’s basketball again at the age of 30, I don’t think, or whatever it was, how old her I was, 28, whatever would’ve come to me to have those conversations.  I’m, that makes it really pretty special and a lot more enjoyable and I’m, I’m glad that they, they’re confident and comfortable and be able to do that.

[01:15:59] Mike Klinzing: So, yeah. No, that makes sense. I mean, again, just from your own maturity level and then from there, from the player perspective.

Their comfort of coming to someone who’s in their late twenties, early thirties versus someone who’s in their mid forties. Clearly it’s a different, they’re looking at you in a different way as a, as a person, not necessarily as a basketball coach. Yes. But just as a human being as they’re at you. Yeah.

They’re looking at you as a different person. I think that makes, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

[01:16:29] Ryan Larsen:  Who knows maybe if I was mature as I am now, back then when I first got in, may have been different.

[01:16:37] Mike Klinzing: Right. Yep. No, I get it. You’re right.

You’re a hundred percent right. Yeah. We’re all, we’re all a lot different at again, I’m 53, so I’m a lot different at age 53 than I was at age 28, that’s for sure. In terms of what, what I might have wanted to get into and put out of coaching and it’s just, I mean, yeah, we’re, we’re just different and we mature and I think you, you tend to see.

You tend to see the value, at least I’m, again, I’m speaking for myself, but I think I tend to see the value more in the people at age 53 than I did when I was in my twenties. In my twenties, it was much more about just about basketball and not necessarily about the people. And I think as I’ve gotten older, it’s become more about the people part of it, and less about the basketball.

And that’s really, I think, how I’ve personally matured.

[01:17:31] Ryan Larsen: Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. And I like to use maturing is learning and getting better that’s what maturing is. Absolutely. When I was younger it was about winning games. All right. Getting the best recruits, and I’m ashamed to admit it.

I was more worried about getting my next job than I was about basketball.

[01:17:56] Mike Klinzing: It was about you. I mean, I think that there’s no doubt, I mean, I don’t think there’s any doubt that that’s probably how most people are. I mean mm-hmm.

It just, again, as you mature, you, you, you tend to grow out of that and you see the bigger picture, which you can’t, you can’t always do when you’re young. That’s for sure. No doubt. All right, one final two part question. Part one, you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then part two, when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy? So your biggest challenge and then your biggest joy.

[01:18:33] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. You talk about for our team next year or just kind of kind in general?

[01:18:40] Mike Klinzing: You personally, as a coach in your profession.

It could be specific to your team. It could just be looking ahead at where you are in your career, however you want approach that. There’s no wrong way to approach it.

[01:18:52] Ryan Larsen: Yeah. This might sound cliche but I, maybe it is, but I thought was original, but you know how a lot of people have new Year’s, new Year’s resolutions to do whatever.  I had the thought long, long time ago that every year my New Year’s resolution is just be better than I was the year before.

All right. And that as a person professionally, you know Everything that kind of covers and not, not trying to dodge the question there a little bit, but that I just again, I think I said earlier that’s such a fun thing about basketball is you’re always learning and you’re always should be getting better.

And   got a chance to be the interim head coach for two months this year. Because Heather, our head coach, coach gave birth her first child a number of weeks early and was in the NICU for that long. And so that may be a better coach again getting back to that head coaching role, even though I, we’ll make a point that it was not my team. It never was my team, it was always Heather’s team. But  running the show for those two months really got me better as a coach and, and saw things differently in a number of different ways. But so how do I get better and improve from that?

 I got a lot of thinking to do and, and a lot of figure a lot of things to figure out how I get better from there. But I certainly know it’s there if it’s finding ways to expand our defensive package or our offensive package, or Make it a goal of, man, we only scored on x amount of percent of our baseline inbounds plays which I call we have to get that number up something like that.

I will certainly find ways to improve on professionally, challenge myself there.  I think the biggest thing for our team right now is we lost two fifth year seniors this year that coaches rarely come across. They were young women that were just true professionals of the term of bringing it every day in practice.

And tough in getting better. I mean, these two young women’s approach to practice was the only reason that we were good while I was running the show for two months. I mean, they were just absolute rocks and tremendous leaders. And we could be as talented if not. Even more talented next year than we were this year after winning 23 games and finishing second in the mountain west.

But our big, my biggest concern in the rest of our coaching staff is how do we replace those two toughness and their approach to the game of basketball every single day?  that that’s going to be a big challenge. That’s going to be a really big challenge. And so we’re, we are locked in on that right now.

How we get that fixed or corrected or for us ready to go. Sorry, Mike, I rambled so much. I forgot the second part of the question already. Your biggest joy. My biggest joy if you haven’t figured it out, and I’ve talked about it a lot, and heck, I ain’t that old, but 45 I just I, I enjoy being around young people so much anymore in this profession and seeing them get better and reach their goals. Wow. It, it just again, we’ve talked about so many different examples, and the last one, you hit the nail in the head where you’re worried about winning games, chasing the next job, and you’re totally blinded about what’s really important, the relationships and seeing young people meet their goals and, and stuff like that.

That’s what’s really special anymore. I love basketball as much as I did when I was shooting baskets in the box in my basement still just live and breathe it. Love it. Absolutely. And love studying the game. Love watching film, love play, playing practice, love the individual workouts, but there were some moments this year in the past few years here at Wyoming, and even some some years at South Dakota mines where some images of smiles and hugs of players are just absolutely burned into your mind that and you start to realize what’s, what’s so important, that what’s really fun and there’s I, there, there is a while maybe where I knew I always wanted to coach, but maybe get into administration later on at some point in my forties or fifties or something like that.

Be a fundraiser or something like that at the college level. I’m done thinking that I’m going to coach till I retire. That is my new goal. All right? I’ve thought that for probably three or four years now that yeah, this is not so much that I’m going to choose to get out of coaching do something different.

Nope. That’s done. I want to do this until I’m going to retire when I know it’s time to be done. So, little side note for you there that  again, tells you how. Much. I love this profession. Again, not just the coaching, but young people give me a new lease on life as much fun.

They’re be as much fun as they’re to be around.

[01:24:51] Mike Klinzing: It’s well said. And I think, hey, when you’re around young people, they help keep you young. And that’s what it’s all about.

[01:24:57] Ryan Larsen: Well said. Yeah. You’re, you’re a hundred percent right. And I thank you. this has been a blast. You’re a great interviewer.

Well, thanks. You got a great, a brand new big fan in me. And I’ll tell you what this has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for, for this opportunity. This has been a blast.

[01:25:13] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. I appreciate that. I want to give you a chance to share how can people connect with you, whether you want to share your email or social media or website, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, I will jump back in and we will wrap things up.

[01:25:28] Ryan Larsen: Yeah.  I get. Pretty active on Twitter. Would be a good way to get in touch with me. You wouldn’t know I’m a coach cause I don’t have Coach Ryan Larson or Coach Larson. It’s just @RyanLarson

One word there. Anybody ever want to get in touch with me, they can go on goyo.com and  look up my email there. That would I have no problem sharing that. I’m not going to say it over the podcast because as you’re well aware, Mike, it’s kind of a funky email and it’s, it’s hard to write down and so just go, yeah, gowyo.com and

[01:26:08] Mike Klinzing: Hey, you got the most simple Twitter of anybody.

You got your actual name. That’s pretty good. That’s impressive.

[01:26:14] Ryan Larsen: But I’ve had a lot of people ask me like, you. Work, right? Yeah. Why don’t you have Coach Ryan? I don’t know. That’s a good question, so maybe I should work on that, but yeah, go to go wild.com, get my email or, or Twitter. I do have an Instagram account.

I, I think I got one post on there, so that’s not worth it.

[01:26:33] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, completely understand. Ryan, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule. I truly appreciate your kind words. Means a lot to me and to everyone out there. Thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.