KEVIN SUTTON – TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF BASKETBALL AT IMG ACADEMY – EPISODE 884

Website – https://suttonslivingtrophies.com/

Email – kevinsuttonbasketball@gmail.com

Twitter – @CoachSutton

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Kevin Sutton is the Technical Director of Basketball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Sutton spent last season as an assistant coach at Kansas State University. He previously served as an assistant coach at Florida Gulf Coast, Rhode Island, Georgetown, George Washington, James Madison and Old Dominion.
Sutton has also had three different stints coaching for USA Basketball. He was an assistant coach for two years at the Hoop Festival for the East, helping the Junior Developmental Team (U16) win gold at the FIBA Americas Tournament in Argentina. He also was the head coach for the Nike/USA Basketball Hoop Summit, which showcased the top 10 international players against the top 10 U.S. players.

In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Sutton coached at five nationally-ranked high school programs – Flint Hill Prep (1988-90), Harker Prep (1990-92), St. John’s Prospect Hall (1992-98), Montrose Christian and Montverde Academy (2004-11) – amassing a 489-102 record and winning two national championships.

Sutton has built a reputation of being an outstanding teacher of the game of basketball, helping more than 130 student-athletes earn college scholarships at all levels. Sutton also has more than 20 years of basketball camp experience including the Nike Hoops Jamboree, Nike All-American Camp, Michael Jordan Flight School and the LeBron James Skills Academy, among others.
A 1988 graduate of James Madison, Sutton was a three-year letter winner for the Dukes.

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Have your notebook handy as you listen to this episode with Kevin Sutton, Technical Director of Basketball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

What We Discuss with Kevin Sutton

• His time as an assistant at Florida Gulf Coast and Kansas State
• How his relationship with IMG Basketball Director Brian Nash played into his decision to take the job at IMG
• Running the IMG “Tryout” period for all the players/teams
• Doing clinics in Japan
• The way teams are structured at IMG and placing players on the team that best fits their needs
• “Compete to win, compete to play, and compete to develop.”
• “At the Academy it’s a think tank every single day.”
• Providing guidance and feedback on a daily basis to coaches
• Internal IMG Coaching Clinics
• “We define for all of the student athletes that are in the basketball program, what an ultimate ascender is and so we speak to those pillars and we talk about what it means to be a student athlete at IMG Academy.”
• “It’s up to that coach to keep the IMG model and our objectives and our pillars at the forefront and what’s best for the academy, but also being able to bring their team together as a cohesive unit.”
• Strength and conditioning at IMG
• Leadership development and mental performance
• A “Typical” day at IMG for a student-athlete
• The ability to impact so many players, coaches, and teams in his role at IMG
• Helping both players and coaches move up to the next level in their careers
• “It’s not about the level. It’s about where can you go and have the most impact.”
• “Where can you go and have the opportunity to leave your mark?”
• “You have to become self aware and use your emotional intelligence to figure out what it is that you really want.”

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THANKS, KEVIN SUTTON

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TRANSCRIPT FOR KEVIN SUTTON – TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF BASKETBALL AT IMG ACADEMY – EPISODE 884

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkle this morning, but I am pleased to be joined for the second time by Kevin Sutton, Technical Director of Basketball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Kevin, welcome back, my man.

[00:00:14] Kevin Sutton: Hey, Mike. Thanks so much for having me back on.  It’s truly a pleasure and an honor because I’m a huge fan of your work and I’m a huge podcast guy. So I’m super happy to be here.

[00:00:26] Mike Klinzing: Appreciate those kind words. Definitely looking forward to catching up with you since we last talked when you were an assistant at the University of Rhode Island.

You’ve been to a couple of places, Florida Gulf Coast, and then obviously last year, Kansas State, and now you’re at IMG. Just tell me a little bit about your two stops in between Rhode Island and IMG, and then we’ll dive into your role there at IMG.

[00:00:48] Kevin Sutton: Yeah, I’ve been real fortunate in my career to be associated with some outstanding coaches and outstanding programs. And since our last time that we spoke I was at the university of Rhode Island under David Cox and had a great three year run there and then left and went to Florida Gulf Coast and joined Michael Fly’s staff. And we had a phenomenal year, went 22 and 12 and broke a lot of records and had three guys that are now playing professional basketball, Tavion Dunn Martin, who’s playing in France, who was newcomer of the year, scored 700 points in, in, in our season that we were there. And then we had Kevin Samuels, who was the defensive player, the Atlantic Sun defensive player of the year. He too was playing in in France.

And then we had Caleb Cato, who was an outstanding player for us. And he’s playing professionally in Montenegro. And then after that year the business is the business. So unfortunately we got let go and Pat Chambers took over. And then I went to Kansas State university on Jerome Tang’s first staff.

Last year he was a national coach of the year. We had an outstanding run went to the elite eight and eventually lost to Florida Atlantic. who went on to the final four, who was an outstanding team. And then the good Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to come to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

So that’s where that’s where I’ve been in the last couple of years.

[00:02:14] Mike Klinzing: So tell me how that opportunity with IMG comes to you. Obviously, you had some previous experience with Montverde and being there and obviously the tremendous success you had there as a head coach. And I’m assuming that played into both their decision to look at you as a potential candidate and also you looking at them as an opportunity to get back into sort of that world.

Talk to me a little bit about just how the opportunity gets to your desk and then what you thought about in terms of just figuring out, hey, is this the right opportunity at the right time?

[00:02:46] Kevin Sutton: Great question. Brian Nash, the director of basketball at IMG Academy has been a good friend of mine for probably a better part of 10 years.

We knew each other when he was a collegiate coach, and then he’s been at IMG for the last eight years. And during that time, he’s tried to hire me. This is the fourth time he’s tried to hire me, so we’ve known each other and we’ve stayed in contact for years and I’ve always served as a a resource to Brian because of my experiences, like you said, at Montverde Academy Bishop McNamara in Washington, Montrose Christian in Washington, D. C., so my experience at the high school level, I’ve always served as a confidant to Brian and in this particular situation, the fourth time, we call it the fourth time is a charm everything aligned, came into alignment and it was the perfect time the Academy had just been sold to another company and so Brian was able to do some restructuring within the basketball department.

And I’ve always wanted to, to be back at the high school level and be in an academy. So the timing was right and becoming a technical director at IMG Academy has been a very rewarding experience for me.

[00:04:01] Mike Klinzing: All right. So tell me day to day, what does that role look like? What’s the job description?

[00:04:04] Kevin Sutton: Wow, It’s a large job description, one in which that I’m really prepared for and I’m really excited about. but on a daily basis starting in the beginning of the school, I’ve run our training camp. Which lasts for three weeks. It’s almost like a in a public school, it’d be your tryout period because we have 19 teams at the Academy.

And so we run a three week tryout period training camp. And then, we select the teams and put the players on the teams. And then after that my job is coaching development, player development leadership academies. And then we just recently, Brian and I just got back from Japan where we did clinics, two clinics a day in nine cities in 11 days.

Had you been to Japan before? Actually, I had, I’ve been to Japan, it was 25 years ago. I took one of our teams to Japan to do clinics and also play against some of the Japanese teams. John Patrick, who is the head coach of the Chiba Jets in Japan is a good friend of mine and he brought Coach Vetter and I over to do clinics and bring our team over.

So yeah, 25 years ago we went there and interesting enough, we on this past trip. We went on our off day, we went to see the Chiba Jets play and John Patrick is, like I said, the head coach and we were able to reconnect and it was great to see him doing a great job there.

And then also watching the team that he played was coached by another friend of mine, Ryan Richmond, who is doing a tremendous job.

[00:05:39] Mike Klinzing: What’s the level of players that you’re working with when you’re over there doing those clinics? Does it vary or just who are you working with?

[00:05:45] Kevin Sutton: Yeah, it varies. We had over a thousand kids in the clinics and the ages varied.

Usually what they would do is, like I said, we did two sessions per day. They would have their younger kids, which would be U12. And then we would have U13 and above working with their players and boys and girls because in Japan right now it’s their summertime and obviously it’s our wintertime here in the United States.

[00:06:18] Mike Klinzing: Are you using coaches from Japan and the various organizations that you guys are working with over there? So I’m assuming that you’re not only training players, but you’re also working with their coaches and that’s part of the learning experience as well.

[00:06:29] Kevin Sutton: Absolutely correct. The organizers did a tremendous job of organizing the clinic sessions, but they also had their coaches learn from Brian and me. We had an interpreter and we spent time with the coaches to educate them on the drills that we were doing and explaining the drills that we were doing and why we were doing them. And they jumped right in and were very, very helpful. And it enabled us to run very, very successful camps, but the coaches were so eager to learn. And then at nighttime around a meal Brian and I would discuss what we do at the academy. And also we would talk about how to grow Japanese basketball, as well as connect with us here in the United States.

[00:07:12] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. All right. So talk a little bit about the structure of what you guys do at IMG.

I know that, as I told you before, we had Jeremy Schiller and Daniel Santiago on from IMG. And they talked a little bit about just the way that you guys put together the teams and who coaches what team and what level. You’ve got the elite national team, then you have teams that are more similar to what you might consider to be a normal high school team.

So just talk a little bit about that structure and how you guys put that together, both in terms of players and coaching staff.

[00:07:43] Kevin Sutton: Yeah, well, first and foremost Jeremy Schiller and Daniel Santiago are outstanding people and outstanding coaches and great representatives of IMG Academy. But yeah, we, like I said, we have 19 teams the 17 boys teams two girls teams and we have the IMG National Team.

We have the Varsity National Team, which competes in the NIBC. We have the junior varsity national team. We have a middle school national team, girls national team. So those teams compete at the highest level. And then we have teams that are under there. We have two other teams in the postgraduate program, post postgraduate academic and a postgrad regional team.

And so those, their objective is to try to get the young men an extra opportunity to gain exposure to go on to college. And then we have six other varsity teams, and their job is development, as well as there’s just compete to win compete to play, and compete to develop.

And then we just try to use those opportunities to place kids where they can have the best experience, the whole IMG experience which fits their needs. If they’re a developmental kid, then they need to be on a developmental team where we’re stressing the fundamentals on a daily basis.

There are players that need to be in a situation where they can gain more exposure to go on to college and play at the collegiate level. And so we try to balance teams out. And we do a great job. Brian does a tremendous job with over 220 student athletes. Doing a great job of placing them on respective teams and many of our teams, if they weren’t at IMG Academy and they were in a regular high school situation, they would be competing for playoffs and state championships.

[00:09:37] Mike Klinzing: When it comes to helping the players get to the next level and be competing at the college level, what are some of the things that I guess IMG does and then specifically in your role, obviously you have a ton of experience as a college assistant and know the recruiting landscape inside and out. So just talk a little bit about how you guys help those players that come to IMG to be able to get that opportunity to play college basketball.

[00:10:05] Kevin Sutton: Well, at the Academy it’s a think tank every single day that we come to work you have an opportunity to talk basketball and any idea that you have, you can go out on the floor and actually try it so it’s a lot of iron sharpens iron type of an experience.

But the one thing that I think that we do a tremendous job of is we take a holistic approach to development. We wanted to, obviously develop them as players, but we want to develop them as students, we want to develop them as, people so we look to on a daily basis try to put them in situations where they can continue to grow obviously as a basketball player on the court in the strength and conditioning program The ADPs where they are challenged mentally, and then we have nutritionists.

We just try to expose them to what college basketball is going to be about, how you’re supposed to work how you’re supposed to go about your work and being prepared. And then our coaches do a tremendous job in all those areas of just being demanding but not being demeaning.

[00:11:19] Mike Klinzing: Tell me a little bit about how you go about your, I don’t know if coach training is the right word, but when you are working in your role with coaches and trying to obviously not only develop your players, but you’re also trying to develop your coaches. And as you said, I know that that was one of the big things that Jeremy talked about in terms of being a think tank.

Like, you could walk down the hallway and talk to this coach or that coach and, Hey, let’s go try this out or let’s get out on the floor. And obviously everybody’s thinking basketball all the time. So what’s your role in terms of helping your coaching staff to grow and improve and get better? And how do you facilitate those kinds of conversations?

[00:11:58] Kevin Sutton: Yeah. My role is to be a resource on a daily basis. What I try to do is attend as many practices as I can. We have our coaches send me their practice plans all the way up to the first game. And then after the first game, they don’t have to send their practice plans.

I’ll collect the practice plans and then I’ll determine what teams I want to go watch practice that day. And then I’ll provide feedback usually, later on that night, I will email coaches and or text coaches to let them know what I saw in practice and what I thought they did extremely well and some areas of improvement.

The other things that I do in terms of the coaching development is we have an internal coaching clinic every month and I pick two coaches to be presenters and we film it. And then what we do after we watch, after we film it, we bring those respective coaches in and we critique them in terms of how their presentation went well and how it could get better, and then it becomes a part of their curriculum detail.

And so the level of professionalism continues to grow. We brought in Kevin Eastman this fall to speak to our coaching staff, which is a tremendous opportunity for us to continue to grow. And then this spring we’ll have another speaker come in and talk to us about professional development and about coaching and just basically just how to continue to navigate their careers.

And then we also are going to develop a Coaches Academy. And with the coaches Academy, we want to make that a global thing where we’re inviting coaches from around the world to come to the Academy to learn more about the academy as well as then selecting our coaches to go and do clinics like Brian and I did in different parts of the different parts of the world.

So, all of that is just a part of just a part of what we do and a part of what I do and some of the things that I brought to the to the academy this year.

[00:14:03] Mike Klinzing: How do you think about building a team culture within the various teams that you guys have? Because I would guess that one of the challenges is obviously if you’re at a public high school, you’re probably with kids that have known each other for a long time.

And even again, when you start talking about local private schools, a lot of times those kids have played with each other, AAU wise and at IMG, you guys are bringing in guys from all over the country and a lot of cases from all over the world and then they’re getting placed on teams and you kind of got to build that team culture and structure around there.

So how do you guys think about that piece of it, obviously outside of the basketball X’s and O’s, but as we all know, being able to build a cohesive team is more than just having good strategy when it comes to X’s and O’s. So how do you think about and work with your coaches in terms of building a team culture so that you’re getting that experience that you want every kid to have where teams are playing together and they’re cohesive?

[00:14:58] Kevin Sutton: Right. Well, it starts off with at the beginning of the year, Brian has a meeting and we talk about and we define for all of the student athletes that are in the basketball program, what an ultimate ascender is and so we speak to those pillars and we talk about what it means to be a student athlete at IMG Academy.

And then from there, once the teams are selected, we have an outstanding coaching staff and many of those guys, are very successful right now, but some of them have aspirations going into collegiate level and or run their own basketball programs outside of the academy at the high school level.

So what we try to do is give them enough support to grow their own programs, have their own ideas within the scope of understanding what the overall objective of IMG Academy is about. So we give them a lot of runway to land their own plane. We give them the resources to support a lot of the ideas that they have from a team bonding standpoint.

We emphasize what an ultimate ascender is, what our culture is about. But then now they have to take that and then implement it and then put their spin on it within their scope of their own team. Because like you said some of the teams might have multiple student athletes from different parts of the United States.

And some of them might have multiple student athletes that are from outside the United States. And so it’s up to that coach to keep the IMG model and our objectives and our pillars at the forefront and what’s best for the academy, but also being able to bring their team together as a cohesive unit with the objective is to improve and put themselves in a position to gain scholarships and then win.

[00:17:01] Mike Klinzing: What about the supporting departments that you guys have around the basketball side of it. So when we start talking about strength and conditioning, and I know you mentioned nutrition and leadership, can you tell us a little bit about some of those ancillary things that are part of the IMG program, but that aren’t directly basketball related, but that support the basketball programs?

[00:17:21] Kevin Sutton: Yeah, I mean, our strength and conditioning program is fantastic. We are educating our student athletes on how to strength train properly, how to be in tune with their bodies. It’s not a weight lifting or putting a lot of weight on the bench press and lifting is the understanding how, on what particular day, what body part they’re working on and why they’re working on it.

And then our strength and conditioning program does a tremendous job of using functional movements that our student athletes as basketball players perform on a basketball court. So there’s a lot of communication that goes on with our strength and conditioning program and then the nutrition, we’re trying to educate them on how important sleep is, how important eating right, hydration, and then if we can educate them on those things and then they can start to implement those things and then they can see their performance will hopefully improve.

Leadership is always important.  What we try to do in that is just give them the opportunity to learn from different people of importance of leadership and importance of followership and what it means to be a leader and not just on the court, but off the court and over in the communities and different aspects of the academy.

Because again, we’re just trying to grow them in other areas that will help them be successful at the next level. Alex Allakian is our video coordinator. We use a lot of teaching them how to watch and study film versus just looking at it for an entertainment value. Our coaches use it an awful lot.

And then we have the mental performance, the visualization, just all these things are in place to help them continue to grow as a basketball player, as a person and then it goes back to our holistic approach.

[00:19:20] Mike Klinzing: What’s a typical day look like for a student athlete? I don’t know if there is a typical day, but just how much time they’re spending with the basketball.

How much time are they spending on academics? How are they getting in that weight training and the other parts of it? And just what does a day look like for a kid?

[00:19:32] Kevin Sutton: It’s a full day.  Some of our student athletes, the younger ones have sport in the morning, and then they have academics in the afternoon.

So, a typical day for our middle schoolers and our JV kids is starting at eight o’clock in the morning, they’ll have practice, and then they’ll go into strength and conditioning, and then they’ll go into mental performance, nutrition, and then that’ll take them up to about noon, and then they’ll go home, back to their dorms, excuse me, and then prepare for classes that they have to take in the afternoon that generally starts at 1 and goes until about 5, 5:30.

And then you have open gym and or individual workouts with your coach and small group workouts. And then that’s a typical day. And then it’s flip flopped for the older kids. They have school in the morning and then they have sport in the afternoon.

So they take their classes up from eight, it’s about :730 up to noon and have lunch and come over and then they’ll do their practices, strength and conditioning and all of the ancillary programs that we have in place for that particular day. And then they will come back for extra shooting or individual workouts or small group workouts as well.

[00:20:56] Mike Klinzing: What’s been the most satisfying part of the job for you to this point, because obviously with all of your assistant coaching background and head coaching background, you don’t have, quote, a team. You’re now responsible in overseeing a bunch of teams. So how’s that adjustment been and what’s been the most satisfying part of this role?

[00:21:15] Kevin Sutton: Oh, wow. It’s all been satisfying. It is just like you said, I don’t have one team. I feel like I’m responsible for all of the teams. I try to be as much involved as I possibly can with the coaches, with the players I have relationships with all of our players, all 220 of our players.

And so it was great because like I said, I can go watch them practice. I can go watch them play the game and then I can be in that support role, sharing information, sharing my knowledge, right there on the spot and in one on one conversations or in text messages and group forms.

And in speaking to them as a team or speaking to our whole entire group and our entire coaching staff it’s been tremendous. This is what I’ve always wanted to do. Particularly the latter portion of my career after chasing the dream of becoming a head coach at the collegiate level, I’ve always desired to be in a leadership position where I can have the most impact as I possibly can and this position and IMG has afforded me that opportunity.

[00:22:21] Mike Klinzing: What are some things that as you look forward and you’ve been there since June that you hope that you’re going to be able to have an impact? Are there things that you guys are planning, things that you’re thinking about in terms of, Hey, how can we make this great experience that kids are getting? How can we make it even better?

Is there anything that you guys are thinking about that you’re working on that you kind of have in the back of your mind of, Hey, this is a direction that I’d like to see us go to be able to really take this thing to a whole nother level?

[00:22:49] Kevin Sutton: Yeah, there are a number of things. Obviously placement of our players last year, we had 66 of our seniors go on to play at the collegiate level in some level or some capacity.

And we want to continue to do that. We want to be able to continue to place our players at the collegiate level where they can have a great experience. But also the one thing that I want to do is I also want to help our coaches cycle up and cycle on to their next level and that would bring a great deal of satisfaction to me to see some of these outstanding coaches that we have selfishly, I would love to have them, keep them.

But also know that they have desires and they should, and they have goals that they want to move on that when the opportunity presents itself. And so I want to be in that position to be able to help them as well. And if we’re doing that, if we’re placing our student athletes, and we’re placing our coaches in really good situation at the high school levels, whether running their own programs whether it’s at the collegiate levels, division one, two, or three then more and more people will look at IMG as more of an option not only as a player, but they’ll want to come here and as a coach continue to learn, because like I said, it’s a think tank on a daily basis. People, some very bright minds in the game of basketball that think basketball and we share it on a daily basis.

So that’s one thing. The whole Leadership Academy is another area. We want to continue to grow that because we want to develop the certifications. We want to bring coaches, like I said, from around the world here to the academy and spend two weeks or four weeks to learn from us as well as giving our coaches opportunities to go and learn the game of basketball from some outstanding coaches around the world to see that there’s more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.

So if we’re able to do those type of things Mike, that would bring a great deal of satisfaction to myself and to everyone.

[00:24:56] Mike Klinzing: How do you split your time if you had to break it down in terms of how much time you’re spending with coaches versus how much time you’re spending with players?

It sounds like maybe you’re spending more time with coaches, I guess, though, when you’re watching a practice, you’re always spending time with both, but just how do you break down the role between how much time you’re spending with coaches versus players?

[00:25:16] Kevin Sutton: I would probably say 70 to 30, I try to right now in season, I want the coaches know that I’m supporting them so I just want to go to watch the practices and watch them work and it’s just been a great deal. It brought me a great deal of pleasure to be able to do that, to sit and watch some outstanding coaches, young and old, do some great things with their team.

But then also just with the players, I try to develop a relationship with them to get to know them as people and then I can reach them and teach them more basketball take them out on the floor when necessary to probably reassure and reaffirm what their coaches are already telling them.

But just trying to develop relationships with them now so that I can help them reach their goals as well.

[00:26:13] Mike Klinzing: With the connections that you have on the college level, I would think that your ability to be able to interact with your athletes there at IMG and then to be able to sort of give them guidance, give your coaches guidance, as you mentioned about trying to get those players to, to go to the next level.

When you have conversations with players and coaches, I think one of the things that’s been interesting, Kevin, about the podcast for me is talking to coaches at all different levels. And obviously depending on where you’re at on social media and when you go and so you go to high school games, there’s a lot of focus on, Hey, I want to be a division one player.

I want to get a D1 scholarship. And yeah, we all know that the level of play at division two and division three is super high. And if you get an opportunity to play college basketball at any level, it’s a blessing. And so when you start talking to players and coaches and trying to get them to maybe understand.

What level it is that they should be focused on? What are those conversations like both with coaches and players and how do you approach that piece of it to make sure that you find the right placement for the players that you’re working with?

[00:27:20] Kevin Sutton: That’s a great question, Mike. But it starts with being as being as honest as you possibly can.

Being authentic as you possibly can. And then I cite my career for that example for them to see cause I’ve been at all levels in the collegiate ranks. And I tell them that it’s not about the level. It’s about where can you go and have the most impact.

Where can you go and have the opportunity to leave your mark? I start off with what’s your, your end game? What’s the objective? And both coaches as well as players will say my objective is to get to the collegiate level for the player, obviously is to go to college and have somebody else pay for it.

I tell ’em all the time. It’s like, well, if that is the objective, now you have to decide what level fits you best and so let’s just look through that. Let’s just talk through that. So I just try to be as honest as I possibly can. I cite, cite examples like me being at Florida Gulf Coast.

We went 22 and 12 and that season probably in my 37 years of college coaching was arguably one of the most fun that I’ve ever had and we were riding buses and we were catching Southwest airline flights and thinking it was like our charter plane, but we were wildly successful.

And we had so much fun. Coach Fly did a tremendous job with our program. And then the following year, I’m at Kansas State University, where I’m actually in the Big 12 one shot away from going to the final four, flying on charter jets, and we’re doing some fantastic things that we deserved and we earned those opportunities.

But both of those experiences are two different levels, so it wasn’t about the level. It was about where could I, Kevin Sutton, have the most impact. And I think that’s what has to happen is that for a student athlete and a coach, you have to become self aware and use your emotional intelligence to figure out what it is that you really want.

And then you have to reverse engineer and then go after it because like you said there’s good basketball being played at all levels.  One of my former players, one of my living trophies is Josh Merkel, and he’s at Randolph Macon, and he won a national championship at Randolph Macon, and, and I’m sure that he’s had aspirations to go to higher levels, but he won a national championship and nothing can take that away from him.

[00:30:03] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that’s one of the things that I’ve definitely learned as I’ve gone through this process with the podcast and doing whatever 800 and some episodes that we’ve done and talking to people at all different levels of the game. It’s just, there’s great basketball, there’s great coaches at every level of college basketball. And I think that when people find out or go and watch a division three game or division two game, I think a lot of times they’re stunned by just how high that level of play is and how good you have to be to be able to play at those levels. I want to ask you final two part question.

So part one, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge? And then second part of the question, 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.

[00:30:46] Kevin Sutton: My biggest challenge will be continuing to keep our streak of a hundred percent, getting our student athletes placed.

Recruiting has changed dramatically, Mike, as you well know. And the recruitment of the high school seniors is probably way down the pecking list with the NILs and the transfer portals. They just push down the recruiting of the high school seniors outside of the elite players.

So my biggest challenge is to continue to have an impact at IMG Academy and help place all of our student athletes. So that’s a challenge. What brings me to great satisfaction, it makes me the happiest is the fact that I get to work at IMG Academy and I’m living out my purpose of what I’ve always wanted to do, to be in an academy. And I’m in a part of the formation of different programming that can help grow IMG Academy. Not only make us the best academy in the world, but improve our brand and our marketing ability marketability. So that brings me a great deal of satisfaction to being able to, to work at IMG Academy and live out my purpose here in Bradenton, Florida.

[00:31:59] Mike Klinzing: That’s well said. Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can get in touch with you, find out more about the programs at IMG. And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[00:32:08] Kevin Sutton: Fantastic. I can be reached email KevinSuttonbasketball@gmail.com. I’m on Twitter at with @CoachSutton and on Instagram at living trophies.

So if you want to reach out and touch base with me and connect with me those are the best ways to reach out and touch base with me.

[00:32:25] Mike Klinzing: Kevin, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule this morning to jump on and join us. Pleasure to have you back on for a second time. Really appreciate it.

And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.

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