JAMES JONES – YALE UNIVERSITY MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 841

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

Email – j.jones@yale.edu

Twitter – @YaleMBasketball

James Jones is the Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Yale University. He is the all-time winningest men’s basketball coach at Yale and one of the most successful coaches in Ivy League history. James was named Yale’s head coach on April 27, 1999. He enters the 2023-24 season with 373 career victories.

Jones, the longest tenured coach in the league, has guided the Bulldogs to five Ivy League championships – 2002, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020 – four NCAA Tournament berths – 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022 – and eight postseason appearances.

Jones, the 2019 recipient of the Ben Jobe Award as the top minority coach in Division I men’s basketball, has presided over the most successful era in the long history of Yale Basketball. Over the last eight seasons, Yale has posted a 84-28 (.750) Ivy League record, won five Ivy championships, two Ivy League Tournament titles and earned four NCAA Tournament berths, including notching the first NCAA victory in school history – over Baylor in 2016.

Jones, who was inducted into New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, is a three-time Ivy League Coach of the Year (2015, 2016, 2020) and also has been named the NABC District 13 Coach of the Year three times.

Jones began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, The University at Albany, followed by assistant coaching stops at Yale and Ohio University.

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Be sure to take some notes as you listen to this episode with James Jones, Men’s Basketball Head Coach at Yale University.

What We Discuss with James Jones

• Playing sports in his neighborhood as a kid including his family’s own dirt court
• His favorite memory from high school basketball
• His decision to attend the University at Albany
• Going into sales for 5 years after graduating from college
• The circumstances that led him back to the University at Albany and coaching
• “I think what captivated me the most…and it still does, is the relationships you have with the young men that you coach.”
• Learning what not to do as an assistant coach
• “You have this inner voice that grows as an assistant and that voice is telling you that you want to be a head coach and my inner voice started getting louder and louder.”
• “I believe the most important thing in coaching is your ability to manage people.”
• “You have to know what it looks like or what you’re trying to accomplish when you close your eyes.”
• Managing player expectations
• “You could be really good, but you’re not better than the guys in front of you.”
• “We make sure they understand what they need to do to be successful and they get to go to practice every day to prove that.”
• “A lot of the recruiting that we do is just going to go watch them play so they know that we care.”
• “You just have to understand that every time you go watch kids play, they’re not going to be at their best.”
• “That’s what we’re trying to get our kids to understand is the difference of what a Yale education can do for you for the next 40 years of your life, not just the next four.”
• “We want to rebound, we want to defend and we want to share the ball. So our practices are based on areas around those things.”
• “I may have in my mind who the starting line up should be to start the first practice, but we won’t see them together fully until they all prove that they deserve it through practice against everybody else.”
• The value of filming practice
• “Some guys learn verbally, some guys learn by doing, some guys learn by seeing. So you need to have a good mix of all three and try to find out what’s the best way for your kids to learn.”
• “The best thing about film is film don’t lie.”
• “I want all my guys to have a hand in everything that we do. I want to make sure they’re well rounded so when they leave Yale and they go to become a head coach on their own, they’re ready to do so.”
• “You don’t want to have to coach your coaches. If you have to do that, then you got something wrong.”
• “I’ve not been offered an opportunity better than Yale.”
• “I have a group of men that are special people and I’m not having to worry about them and the decisions that they make.”
• The lack of opportunities for African-American Coaches
• His experiences with USA Basketball

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THANKS, JAMES JONES

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TRANSCRIPT FOR JAMES JONES – YALE UNIVERSITY MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 841

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co host Jason Sunkle tonight, but I am pleased to be joined by James Jones, the men’s basketball head coach at Yale University. James, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:11] James Jones: Hey, thanks. It’s great to be on with you.

[00:00:15] Mike Klinzing: Thrilled to have you on, looking forward to diving into all the things that you’ve been able to do in your career.

I want to start by going back in time to when you were a kid. Tell me a little bit about some of the first experiences you had at the game of basketball. What made you fall in love with it?

[00:00:27] James Jones: Well it’s part of the family thing. I had an older brother that played. My dad played in high school and we came from a background that lower middle class but my dad put up a hoop in our backyard and we didn’t play on cement.

We played on dust, dirt Which was you had to like spray water on, so the dust wouldn’t come up in the summertime. And it was just a great place to learn and play and just really enjoyed it. And I grew up in a neighborhood where we probably had, I don’t know, a hundred kids within a four or five year range of each other, so it was a very new neighborhood and all we did was play sports all day, we were playing basketball or baseball or football.

We were always doing something, but hoop was just a love of mine.

[00:01:15] Mike Klinzing: What was the competitiveness like with your brothers?

[00:01:20] James Jones: Well, as you can imagine, I mean, that’s what happens when you grow up you fight like cats and dogs against your brother and your brothers actually, I should say. And it’s just how it goes.

And we would have wars against our neighbors though. It was three of us and three of them, and we played three on three against the Butlers that lived next door, but when it came down to going head to head, I was fortunate that I had one older brother was four years older than me and I really couldn’t compete with him because he was just so much bigger and stronger.

And then I had two younger brothers that were each one year apart. So there were three of us in a row. And I was a little bigger and stronger than the two of them, and I was able to beat them two on one, which was great for me growing up, but competing against your brother is kind of where it starts and how you get that, that, that bite and that energy to be successful outside the family.

[00:02:14] Mike Klinzing: Obviously at that time, when you’re growing up. The way you come up in basketball from a youth standpoint is completely different from the way that kids come up through the game today. They weren’t trainers, you weren’t playing AAU basketball. So when you started to take the game a little bit more seriously, as you got older.

What’d you do to try to get better? Did you have a plan for working out or is it more just, Hey, I’m, I’m playing pickup games and I’m trying to compete with my brothers or are you more formal than that?

[00:02:41] James Jones: Well, you know what, like when I was a kid, it was a whole different world, right? There were no workout guys.

There was no gym to go into. You just played outside, you got in the park. And I remember as a kid going down to the junior high school, that was a block away from my house where we all played. And I remember going up to the guys on a court and saying, asking if I can get some on and they looked at me at that seven, eight or nine as I was.

And they told me I could run around the track, but I wasn’t going to run playing. So you had to make sure that you’re going to get better. And I went from being that guy to being a guy who is always picked. You know, everybody wanted on your, on your team. So it’s just one of those things that growing up and you just learn so many different things and so many different lessons from playing basketball about yourself and, and how to be better. But there was no formal training. It was all about just going out and playing. And I remember as a kid thinking that I was going to go down to this park that and they had like six courts down there and I was going to make 10 jumpers on each court before I go home.

And in my mind, I did that, but never physically it’s just one of those things that. And I believe it’s one reason why I’m a coach because I couldn’t motivate myself to do what I knew was right. So I try to motivate others to try to become the best versions of themselves. Cause I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t do it for myself personally. I needed somebody who helped me out and I didn’t have that guy.

[00:04:14] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. That’s what was actually going to be my next question. If you had anybody at the park or I know that in that era, when you and I grew up, that there were guys that are older that are kind of sometimes looking out for.

Those younger guys that are coming up to the playground and kind of put their arm around them and sort of show them the ropes, but it sounds like you didn’t have that particular person that you were able to find. And so you’re kind of going at it. As you get into high school, what do you remember about being a high school player?

Do you have a favorite memory from high school basketball?

[00:04:42] James Jones: Oh, wow. Yeah, like when I was a senior in high school, we played against Long Island Lutheran. And you got to help me out here. The former coach down. at Davidson, Bob McKillop. Bob McKillop, yep. Yeah, Bob was the coach at Long Island Lutheran and we played them on a televised game and they had an all day squad and they might have beat us by 25 in a game, but I had a dunk on TV and that was just one of those things that you’ll always remember as a kid, because I started dunking in 10th grade.

And when I was dunking in 10th grade, I was like the only guy in my group that could dunk. And now everybody dunks a basketball. Absolutely. You got to do 4’11” and he’s tomahawking on you already. So it was just a different world. And to have a dunk on TV is one of those great memories that I had.

And I had a couple of games where I was unconscious. We played against Amityville at home. I remember I went for like 18 in the first half or something like that and end up with 28 or something like that in the game. It was just one of those games that it felt like you couldn’t miss.

So those memories never lost. And coincidentally, one of the teams that I played against in my league was Harbor Fills, and there was a guy that was on that team and he actually brought his kid to my elite camp here a couple of weeks ago that you were at. And I had a picture of the two of us jumping center when we were in high school and like, think about it.  I was six foot one and I was jumping center. That’s not crazy.

[00:06:15] Mike Klinzing: That’s awesome. I mean, just again, the memories of being able to go back and reconnect with somebody that you were connected to so long ago, you still have that dunk on tape?

[00:06:24] James Jones: You know what? I don’t, I don’t like now, like now in today’s age, you certainly have that.

I’d have it on speed dial on my phone and be able to dial up for you. You know, the technology wasn’t like it is today.

[00:06:37] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s a little different world. I’ve got a few things from high school that are still floating around that I can get to. Of course, my dad was, he was the guy that had the old giant camcorder and was filming stuff. So I still got a few things. Then he converted them to, for me a couple of years ago, he converted them to DVD. So I’ve got one or two things that I’ve looked at in the, in the semi recent past, but most of that stuff is just again, lost to history. So when you think about your own recruitment and your process for choosing a college and how you end up at the University at Albany, just tell me a little bit about what that was like and what you remember, because again, Completely different era where there wasn’t a whole lot of information out there for people. And I think a lot of kids, especially if you didn’t have a high school coach or parents who had kind of gone through the process before, it was easy to kind of be flying in the dark. So what do you remember about that process for you?

[00:07:27] James Jones: Well, again, my process was short and simple. I visited one school and it was Albany, one of my former teammates was on the team there and I had gotten a letter from the assistant coach recruiting me and I just went up to visit in March before September, which would have been my freshman year. I had a great time and I ended up going there like I had received a lot of letters from Drew University, from Brandeis, from NYU, from a bunch of different schools, but the recruiting process was a lot different.

And I was just lucky to go to a place like Albany where it was a good fit for me academically and socially, and it worked out well. And I just got lucky. Neither one of my parents had gone to school and they were not part of the process, for example, like my son is a high school senior.

He’s taking a gap year, he’s a tennis player and he and I, we went on college tours and, and we went to 12 different universities to take a look at it that that was not the case for me. And I was just very fortunate and lucky to be in a situation where I had a former teammate that was at a place that I had gone to visit and I absolutely fell in love with.

And you know, it’s funny, like I had, I still have a number of guys, that high school teammate and I are still in communication, but there’s about 15 guys that I graduated with. And we go camping every year and we have for like the last 35, 40 years, we go every Memorial Day weekend.

And it’s just kind of like, part of the thing that we do is, luckily I was doing it before I got married, so it was . You’re grandfathered in. I’m grandfathered in as well as my buddies. That is never a question on what I’m doing Memorial Day weekend because I’m going to hang out with my boys.

[00:09:15] Mike Klinzing: That’s funny.  That’s good stuff. Going into school, obviously with the caliber of schools that you’re looking at, You were a good student. What were you thinking about in terms of career wise?

[00:09:24] James Jones: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I use this all the time when I’m recruiting kids. Like I tell kids, I ask kids the same question.

I tell them, tell me the three things you think about the most through the course of your day. And I tell them, don’t think about what you think I want. Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Don’t tell me you’re thinking about physics or school, because it’s not on the list. And I have an index card in my office.

I write three things girls, family, God, that’s all on one line. Food and basketball. So when I was 18 years old, all I thought about was what I was having for dinner, what girl I was going to date, and when I was going to hoop again. And that was the only thing going through my little pea brain at the time.

And not thinking about a career and what you want to do for the rest of your life is really wasn’t a great thought. And so if you would have asked me that when I was 18, I would have said business, but honestly, I didn’t know what that meant. Like I could have been in marketing and finance and accounting, so there’s all these different things that you can do in business.

But I just said that as a grander scheme, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had three different majors. I started out majoring in business and then I went to criminal justice and I ended in communication. So as a young man, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I had a gift of gab.

I could talk to people and I got in sales right out of college because of that, but in terms of a direction and understanding it. Didn’t know my dad was a laborer. He was a presser to dry cleaners. And I went to work with him most every day in the summertime and on the weekends to make money. And I enjoyed being around my dad.

And all I knew is that I didn’t want to be a presser for the rest of my life. Coaching at this point, not on your radar at all. No, it was not. It was never something that I thought that I wanted to do or, or felt like it is something I could do. Like it just wasn’t part of who I was. And I just got very lucky even getting into coaching.

And again, I’ve said it several times already. I’m a very fortunate and lucky person to, to have the opportunities that I have. And I kind of lucked into a lot of different things.

[00:11:31] Mike Klinzing: Cause you were out of the game for what, like five  years, right?

[00:11:32] James Jones: Yeah. So I graduated from college and I got a job at selling, which was really equipped for who I am.

Like I could certainly get out and talk to people. And I always felt like I could sell snow to an Eskimo. It’s kind of like and that’s kind of like part of what recruiting is, is like you’re selling the university that you, that you coach at. And you’re, you’re selling yourself and, and what you think you’re able to do.

So I’ve never had a problem with speaking about myself or speaking about a place that I love. As I do Yale University, so I went to work for NCR. I sold computer products for 5 years and I was dating a young lady who had a girlfriend whose sister knew the assistant women’s coach at Albany, where I went to school and we went up to Travers racetrack.

I mean, Saratoga racetrack for Travers. And she told me that my former head coach was looking for an assistant and I had grown tired of selling. And you know, I called him up and asked him if the position was open and he said, well, he’s not sure, but if it is, he’d give me a call back.

Called me back two weeks later and told me to come up and meet with the AD. And I had gone back to school and the plan was to, I had gone into coaching and a plan was to coach and get an MBA. And I didn’t go work on wall street cause a lot of money was being made at the time. But I ended up falling in love and gotten snake bit with basketball and I haven’t worked a day since.

[00:12:56] Mike Klinzing: What was it about coaching, that first experience, the first couple of weeks, the first couple of months, what was it that really grabbed you?

[00:13:01] James Jones: Well my first team, we were 17 and 3 and I thought coaching was easy, right? You know, because I had better players than the teams that we played against.

I was a head JV coach, assistant varsity coach, so I thought coaching was easy. And I think what captivated me the most. And it still does is the relationships you have with the young men that you coach. Now, at that point, I didn’t realize what it would grow into. And this is morphed into something that I couldn’t imagine at the time that I got into coaching.

Every Christmas, and I was speaking to one of my alums two days ago. He had graduated when I was an assistant coach here at Yale and he sent me a Christmas card and I said, listen, tell your wife not to stop sending the Christmas cards because I love to see the young men that I coached and their family and the growth of them and how many times I’ve become.

Sort of a grandfather, so to speak, with this extended family I have in coaching. And that’s what truly makes coaching special, are the relationships that you have with the young men that you coach, especially when they graduate. You know, certainly you want to win championships and that makes things a little bit more special, but those relationships and what you’ve built and how they’re connected through basketball and through what you built, that’s what makes it special.

[00:14:20] Mike Klinzing: How long into your career were you before you realized that that was really where the magic was?

[00:14:24] James Jones: Oh, that’s, that’s a great question. I’d say I was probably as a head coach when I got to this part of it. And then as a head coach four years in, when I had my first group of graduates, and then what you understand is like, now these guys are going away.

They’re going to leave the university, but you still stay connected to them and you still want to stay connected to them, but you miss them at the same time. And now I’ve kind of gotten long in the tooth that the guys that graduate from Yale now, I may see three or four more times the rest of my life once they graduate.

And that’s just kind of weird to think about. Like I’m, I’m 59 years old and you know, they may come back for a game. They may see us on the road for a game. They may come back for a reunion. I may see him at a wedding, but you know, I’m going to see these guys three, four more times the rest of my life. And then that’s kind of scary to think about, because I do think of these young men as part of my family and my extended children.

[00:15:23] Mike Klinzing: Well, it’s crazy when you consider how much time you spend together over the course of their four years on campus, and then you think, okay. All that time we’re spending on a day to day, especially with the rules, the way they are today and guys being on campus all summer. And again, completely different from when the time when you played or when I played, where it was just, you got to kind of went your own way in the summertime.

And obviously now completely different, but yeah, to think about, Hey, I might only see these guys that I’ve spent basically four of the most influential years of their lives, right. Where those guys are transforming from you know, from boys into young men and you’re, you’re getting them prepared for.

What they’re going to do for the rest of their life. And you’ve had that impact. And I think to be able to always think that, yeah, maybe I’m only going to see them three or four times, but to be able to have that connection again, really. That’s what makes coaching basketball special is you love the game and the fact that you can use the game to build those kinds of relationships and have the kind of impact on kids that you’re talking about. To me, that’s really what coaching ends up being all about is all that other stuff, like you mentioned, winning and championships and all that stuff. Clearly it’s important. And on the college level, you got to do that in order to be able to keep your job. But ultimately it’s the impact that you’re having through the game.

I think that that really gives most coaches the satisfaction that they’re looking for because they know they’re having an impact on young people’s lives.

[00:16:43] James Jones: Yep. 100%.

[00:16:47] Mike Klinzing: All right. So talk to me a little bit about your experiences as an assistant coach, both at Albany and I know you were here in Ohio at OU, what did you learn as an assistant that you feel like were great lessons that helped you when you eventually got a head coaching job?

[00:17:01] James Jones: Well, first of all, you, you learn a lot about what not to do. You learn a lot about different ways of doing things and you learn how you want to be treated as an assistant coach and how you would treat people in your stead. So you think about years ago there are a lot of head coaches that thought about assistants as guys you can utilize at your personal whim.

Like, I know guys that have been asked to pick up dry cleaning and drive to the airport and pick up extended families and crazy things like that, that I would never ask any of my assistants to do. Like the only way you’re going to go pick up my dry cleaning is this, like, I’m in a shower and I forgot my shirt and I can’t get out and please help me out.

There’s no way I would have you go, anybody that works for me do anything like that personally. So you learn a lot about what not to do. And then I learned about a lot of that, what I don’t know, right? It’s funny. This is a great story. I, I’m at Albany and I’m working with Doc Sauers, he’s the winningest coach in Division III history, and I’m with him and he goes, Hey, let’s go up the road, there’s this guy, Bielien, he’s going to be at this Holiday Inn in Rochester, and he’s giving a basketball clinic, and I’m like, the last thing I want to do is drive with you three hours one way, cause I’m doing all the driving, right? We’re going to drive three hours one way and three hours back to listen to some Joe Schmo Bielien talk about basketball. I remember going and sitting down. They had one of those projectors. Wait, I can’t remember what they’re called.

Where you had those clear sheets and overhead, overhead projector. He’s got an overhead projector and he’s writing all this stuff down. And I couldn’t stop copying what it was right now. Cause I didn’t know any of it. And cause the only knowledge I had of real basketball was what I had learned from Doc as a player and as an assistant coach.

So it was. Very limited in terms of what I knew. So I learned about a lot about what I didn’t know. And so at that point I started a binder of all the things that I found interesting or that I liked when I was scouting different teams and I would just add stuff, different plays, different schematics.

I also started thinking about the best way to formulate my team practice wise. So I kept all the practice plans from, from the different coaches, from the different years when I was an assistant coach. So there’s all these things that you do to try to prepare yourself to be a head coach. And I remember thinking to myself, I got into coaching a little bit later.

I was like, I think 28 or so when I first got into coaching without doing the math and, and you know, I, I wanted to be, I wanted to get a head job by the time I was 40 and fortunately enough for me, I was a head coach by the time I was 36. So I kind of kicked that coverage of getting there a little earlier than I thought I might.

And at that young age I was just full of piss and vinegar. And I was kind of learning on a job in some respects. And you know, but that all that cutting my teeth as a head coach helped me be who I am today. When you

[00:20:20] Mike Klinzing: When you think back to taking over as the head coach for the first time, and you go from being that assistant where the saying is always right as an assistant coach, you just give suggestions and as a head coach, you got to make decisions.

What was that transition like in terms of. Going from, Hey, I’m kind of in the background and I can suggest some stuff to, Hey, ultimately the buck’s stopping at my desk now, and I got to make these decisions. How much did you enjoy that process? I don’t know if enjoy is the right word, but how much did you enjoy getting the opportunity to kind of put your stamp on, Hey, now I can make this ultimate decision about how I’m going to build the program.

[00:20:57] James Jones: Well, number one, my transition was seamless because I grew up with a father who had given me enough self respect and enough self love to believe in myself. And I did, and I do, and you know, I trust me a lot. I like me a lot. And as an assistant coach, I remember working for Doc Sauers. And as an assistant, young assistant you got all these ideas.

I remember being in his office once and we’re going over whatever we’re going over. And I’m like, yeah, coach, we can do this and we can do this. And we can do that. We can like, I’m, I’m going crazy, throwing all this stuff out on him. He goes, he goes, James, listen, when you get your own freaking team, you can do whatever you want, but right now we’re doing what I freaking want to do.

And at that point it caught me and that’s when I really realized I was an assistant coach and that you have this inner voice that grows as an assistant and that voice is telling you that you want to be a head coach and my inner voice started getting louder and louder.

And I knew I was ready to become a head coach when Larry Hunter, when I was at Ohio university, started using a lot of my suggestions, so. If we’re sitting in office, I’m suggesting stuff and that’s the stuff that’s being implemented. I knew at that time that I was ready to take over. And there was still things you wanted to learn to do.

And not so much basketball. What, from what I believe the most important thing in coaching is your ability to manage people. We all know X’s and O’s like no one knows more basketball than I do that you’re going to beat me because you know more basketball. I believe it’s how you manage your locker room that makes a difference in terms of how successful you are or not.

[00:22:44] Mike Klinzing: What does that look like when you think about managing a locker room and what goes into that in your thought process?

[00:22:48] James Jones: Well, I think the first thing that you have to do is you have to close your eyes and you have to know what it looks like.

You have to know what it looks like or what you’re trying to accomplish when you close your eyes. And I certainly do. And then you have to have a pulse. You have to know the kids that you recruited and you have to understand and foresee problems before they crop up. For example, we have four starters back and they all want more.

If you think about it Cornell played with the greatest, the quickest pace in our league. They only took four more shots a game than we did. So if we play at a higher pace, a quicker pace, and we will, what we’re going to, you can maybe get four more shots a game, but that’s one more shot a guy.

And that’s not even counting the fifth guy. So my thing to my team is that you have to be more efficient. So when they left campus. Last year, that was the message that they heard. When they got back to campus for us to go to play in Greece, that was the message that they heard. When we get in the locker room next Wednesday for the first time, that will be the message that they hear.

And then managing the expectations of the guys on my team. I’m going to have 17 guys on my roster without a bad player. We have no bad players. Every single guy on my team could help us win. Especially in the right situation, every single guy on my team would be in a rotation on at least 1 other team, but they won’t be in a rotation on our team.

So, with that being said, my, my ability to manage our expectations is going to be going to make the difference in us being successful or not. So, me understanding that and our coaching staff understanding that. That’s what helps us. And that’s what understanding and then managing your team means to me is knowing what you have to do with these guys and each and every year and being able to close your eyes and see what it’s going to look like on and off the court.

[00:24:55] Mike Klinzing: What does that look like with the guys who, as you get into the season, they’re not playing as much as. How do you keep those guys engaged? What do you do to make sure that they know that you’re still investing them as a player, as a person, even though they’re not getting the minutes that they’d like to see?

Because obviously we know, look, kids who are towards the end of your bench that aren’t playing as much as they want to. It’s easy for those kids to start to wonder and question and try to figure things out. So what do you do to make sure that you keep those guys engaged and you let them know, Hey, I care about you as a player, as a person, and you’re a big part of what we’re doing?

[00:25:31] James Jones: Well, again, it’s the conversations they have with the guys on the team. We stat every practice, so you could be really good, but you’re not better than the guys in front of you. So you can want, we all want. Things like I want to win the lottery for 500 million, right?

We all want things, but the reality of it is, and everybody has to be able to look in the mirror at themselves in terms of who they are and understand that, so it’s my job to make sure they see a clear path to why they’re in a situation that they’re at, I have to make sure that I draw that picture for them so they can see it and understand it.

And if you can do that, then they can believe you. Like I’ve been a head coach at Yale for 25 years, I’ve never had one kid transfer. Not one time has a kid knocked on my door and said, Hey coach, this isn’t what you said it was going to be. I’m not happy here. I want to transfer. And I think a lot of that is because we’ve got the right people, but while they’re at our university, we make sure they understand what they need to do to be successful and they get to go to practice every day to prove that and they either going to do it or not.

And it’s, it’s on them and they have to understand that. Now that’s a life lesson that everybody needs to learn. We all need life lessons.

[00:26:56] Mike Klinzing: All right. Talk a little bit about the recruiting process that you guys go through because obviously with that track record of guys not transferring.

So much of that is a credit to what you do once they’re there, but it’s also a credit to the kind of kid that you’re bringing into your program and how much you get to know them through that recruiting process. So maybe start at the very beginning. How do you guys identify the list of kids? Because clearly in the Ivy League at Yale, you guys have a different.

Set of academic standards that then most of the schools that you’re potentially competing with for recruits. So just talk about how you get your list initially, and then walk me through the process of kind of start to finish of recruiting a kid.

[00:27:37] James Jones: Well, listen, I am fortunate to have the best staff in the league.  My staff is tremendous. They do a great job. And I don’t really have to tell them to do anything. Coach Kingsley has been with me for 15 years. Coach Simon played for me. He’s been with me for 11, 12 years. So they know exactly what needs to be done. My director of basketball operations, Matt Elkins, has been with me for three years now.

So I don’t ever have to ask them to do anything. I don’t because they’re already three steps ahead of me. So that being said, that’s where it starts. And all around the country, we know certain places or certain areas that are going to be good for us to recruit. So, and their coaches that we know are, whether it be high school or prep school or AAU, we know certain guys are always going to have kids.

So you just make phone calls, you reach out, you touch people, you have those relationships. And now once you identify a kid who’s good enough for you, well, then you also got to make sure they’re good enough academically, and then you have to make sure it’s going to work out financially. And then once you cross those hurdles, because the only hurdle you really want to have at the end of the day is if the kid likes you, so we like him, it’s going to work out academically.

It’s going to work out financially. Now the last hurdle is they got to like us. So a lot of phone calls, a lot of text messages, visits that go on. We go out and evaluate these guys to make sure that we vet them correctly. But a lot of the recruiting that we do is just going to go watch them play so they know that we care.

And then we’re not evaluating them anymore. We’re just letting them know that, hey, listen, Yale is here and we want to make sure that you know that. And when it comes at the end of the day, we want to feel like we’ve put more time and energy into you than the other coaches that may be recruiting you, which really helps.

[00:29:30] Mike Klinzing: And during that evaluation process, how do you weigh out watching a kid with their high school team versus watching them in an AAU setting? Do you prefer one or the other? Are you looking for different things when you’re seeing them in different settings? Does it matter what, just how do you approach that piece of it?

[00:29:45] James Jones: Well, I think we approach it by understanding what it is. Like, there are times, like, Justin Sears, who’s a two time player of the year in the Ivy League. I went to watch him play in his high school, and he was really good, played well. I went to watch him play with his AAU program. He had nine turnovers in the first half of the game.

Nine! Right? So you just have to understand that every time you go watch kids play, they’re not going to be at their best. And but you, there’s certain things you want to see, whether it be athleticism, a skill, you want to see if those kids have those aspects of something that’s going to help them be successful within your program.

Like the way we play our guards have to dribble, pass and shoot. And that’s real easy, but to think about, cause everybody likes guys that can dribble, pass and shoot. So we’re looking for certain things of that nature. And the main thing we’re looking for when it starts is for toughness. You know, if you’re not tough, well, it’s hard to be any good because if the ball’s lying on the ground and it’s loose, you’re going to watch it.

And if you’re going to watch it, your team’s going to lose. So we’re looking for kids that have a toughness. And we’re looking for kids to have a certain skill level. Once we get to that part, you know talking to AAU coaches and high school coaches and parents to try to get them all on board with who we are and what we’re trying to do.

And to be honest with you parents and family members and teachers, those are some of our best recruiters because when we’re not there, those are the people talking in the kid’s ear, telling them that, listen, this is a life changing opportunity for you and you really need it. Take a good hard look at it.

That’s what we’re trying to get our kids to understand is the difference of what a Yale education can do for you for the next 40 years of your life, not just the next four.

[00:31:38] Mike Klinzing: No, it makes complete sense. And I think that when you start talking about kids that have that opportunity, clearly It’s not an opportunity that everybody gets with the grades that you have to have as a, as a high school player and the test scores and all the things that go into it, and then just, again, making sure that those people are a good fit for what happens at Yale.

And then, as you said, it sets them up for not just those four years they’re at Yale, but for the rest of the entirety of their life. What’s your philosophy in terms of how you like to set up practice? Do you have the same format day in and day out? Do you like to mix it up? Just how do you design your practices?

How do you think about practice design?

[00:32:16] James Jones: Well, it starts with defense for me. We have three areas in which we try to be really good at. We want to rebound, we want to defend and we want to share the ball. So our practices are based on areas around those things. And my assistants have softened me up over the years.

I remember when I first started coaching it, yeah, we might not take a shot in practice for the first week or so. Where it’s all about defense and rebounding and trying to build a base for that. You know, we played over here in Greece and what I realize now is that our offense is much further ahead of our defense.

And there are things, all those drills that we do, all the rotations that we have all the all the different reps that guys get, that’s what really makes a difference for us. And we have to make sure that we get back to that when practice starts, but trying to organize practice and keep it fun, keep it where guys are going to be mentally into it.

Everything in our practice is every drill that we do has a minute attached to it, where, so this drill, we may loosen up for 10 minutes, and then we may run some transition stuff for 4 minutes, and then we may shoot for 5, and then we may do dummy offense for 10, and then we may offensive execute for 15, and then we may shoot again, so everything has a minute based on it, where we tried, I try to keep on task that way to try to get us ready to play, building it up from scratch from the bottom and we’ll start with our shell and we’ll just work on passing the ball and jumping and playing in gaps and moving from side to side.

And then we’ll work on guarding cuts and then we’ll work on different screening action, all within our 4 on 4 shell till we build it up to play five on five. So we get six weeks or so to build our team up before our first game. And it always seems like you never have enough time to get it all in.

[00:34:21] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s universal amongst coaches without question. How do you think about putting together the groups that play together in practice? In other words, If you have, let’s say your guy, who’s your seventh man on your depth chart, how do you make sure that that guy gets minutes with the guys who may be starter so that you kind of mix together those lineups?

Do you vary that up practice by practice? Do you vary it up within the practice itself? How do you just make sure that you’re dividing and balancing out the teams and the groups in practice to make sure everybody gets a chance to play with everybody else so that when they step on the floor in a game, that they’ve had enough time to build that chemistry that you’re looking for.

[00:35:02] James Jones: Well, it’s a slow build. We want to mix guys up, especially when we start our practices and have an open season where we’re really working to give everybody a chance. So I may have in my mind who the starting line up should be to start the first practice, but we won’t see them together fully until they all prove that they deserve it through practice against everybody else. So we’ll just mix guys up together. And like I said before, I’m fortunate that we don’t have any bad players. So we can mix guys in and there and then we try to there’s certain days that, okay, I want to see these two guys play together.

Or I want to see these two guys play against each other. It’s just a matter of how the season’s going along and how we build it to try to figure out who should be playing with whom and at what time.

[00:35:56] Mike Klinzing:  I’m assuming that you already said that you stat everything in practice. I’m assuming that you’re filming practice, correct?

[00:36:01] James Jones: Yeah, we are fortunate to have key motion and we can actually we have it set up in our practice facility and also our game facility. Where we’re able to watch every single thing that we do. And we send guys tape after practice. You know, if somebody says, Oh, I didn’t foul that guy.

I can it’s real time. I can go, whoa, whoa, let’s take a look at this. You did foul a guy. Because I don’t know about you, but no one’s ever committed a foul practice.

[00:36:31] Mike Klinzing: That’s good. I love that. All right. When did you start having the capability to film practice and how valuable has that been as a tool compared to when you couldn’t do it?

[00:36:41] James Jones: Well, there were times when we would film practice occasionally. But now that we have the setup with Keymotion, it’s just like you punch the time into a iPad and boom, you’re done. You got it. So that Keymotion’s probably been about six years now that we’ve had it. And it’s just been an invaluable tool for our program, trying to make sure that we can learn through learn through film.

[00:37:11] Mike Klinzing: How much time do your players spend watching film? In other words, when you do a breakdown, if you’re sending the kid something individually to him or with the entire team, just how much time do you spend with the team? Going over film sessions, as opposed to obviously you and your coaching staff spending a lot more time than what you’re sharing with the players.

But what do you share with the players? I know sometimes coaches talk about. Hey, so different teams are different or this guy needs more. This guy needs less. How do you think about how much you share with the players?

[00:37:37] James Jones: Well, I think that anytime you could give a learning situation, because people learn different ways.

Some guys learn verbally, some guys learn by doing, some guys learn by seeing. So you need to have a good mix of all three and try to find out what’s the best way for your kids to learn. The best thing about film is film don’t lie. Right? I talked about with the guy who says he didn’t foul anybody.

The film doesn’t lie, so it helps you understand exactly who you are and what you need to do. So we make sure that we have a good mix of that. My assistant coaches, going back to that point I made to you before, they, all of a sudden I’ll say, hey, Matt. Why don’t you take the guards and work on that our weak side to help and show them some clips of what we’re not doing.

He goes, Coach, I already did that. This tape’s already set. I’m watching it with the guys tomorrow before practice. So we’ll have guard sessions that we do. Coach Simon will have post sessions that we’ll do. And then I’ll have overall stuff that I’ll show to the team before practice. We got a film room and we only do like 10 minutes of it, 15 minutes of it, depending on the day.

Depending on if we need a cerebral day to get guys off their feet, we may watch a little bit more and we certainly watch after each and every game, we’ll watch film breakdown of what we didn’t do, even in a win, like we want to show, okay, we’re not blocking guys out or we’re not getting back on defense or we’re not closing out with our hands high enough, whatever the case may be.

We try to work on that film. So guys can see themselves because it’s one thing for someone to tell you that you’re not closing out the right way. It’s another thing for you to see it.

[00:39:24] Mike Klinzing: Do you think about the balance between showing them, Hey, here’s something that we’re doing incorrectly that we need to fix versus showing them stuff that, Hey, here’s where we did exactly what we’re looking for.

How do you balance those positive and negative clips? Is that something that you think about?

[00:39:37] James Jones: Oh, no doubt. I think that each time that I show them some negative, I want to show them some positive too. I want to give them some positive reinforcement and make them feel good about who they are and what they’re trying to do.

[00:39:52] Mike Klinzing: All right. You mentioned your assistants a couple of times and just the different things that they do. How do you think about the delegation piece of your job as a head coach? How do you figure out which guy’s going to do what and how do you make sure you’re maximizing each one of your staff strengths?

[00:40:06] James Jones: Well, I think that’s the easy part of the job. I’ve been able to delegate a lot more over the years as I’ve grown comfortable with my staff. And I think that I want all my guys to have a hand in everything that we do. I want to make sure they’re well rounded. So when they leave Yale and they go to become a head coach on their own, they’re ready to do so.

They’re ready because they’ve already done it in practice. And they’ve already done it for me. So I really make sure that all my guys have a foot in our offense or a hand in our offense and a hand in our defense and understanding what we’re doing. We’re recruiting because again, and that helps my guys be invested.

And I think that’s important, just like you want your players invested. You want your staff invested as well. And Bill Parcells said something really interesting.

No, Bill Belichick said this is that you don’t want to have to coach your coaches. If you have to do that, then you got something wrong. And I certainly don’t have to coach my coaches because they’re, like I said, always a step ahead of me and ready to do what we need to do to be successful.

[00:41:13] Mike Klinzing: When you think about the totality of your program and you think about the leadership that you provide as the head of the program, and obviously you’re looking for your coaching staff to be those leaders.

I think 1 of the things that when I think about what makes a basketball team or a basketball program successful, I think about teams that have. leaders amongst the players and every player feels like they have a spot where they can lead. But clearly, if you have guys who are the leaders, the guys that everybody’s looks to, how do you think about developing the leaders on your team?

And what are some things that you do to give your players an opportunity and give them space to lead?

[00:41:53] James Jones: Well, I think that you want to make sure that your senior leaders are coveted, that guys want to be like them and to do so that you have to give them responsibility. So, you know I think it’s important to ask your players, like we have a donor that has given us 100 K for each of the last seven, eight years for projects to make Yale basketball better.

And he’s done so much. It’s like, there’s almost, there’s not a lot that we can do that. I mean, obviously that’s not a small number, but it’s not like, If I wanted to build a wellness center, I need 4 million. That’s right. So in any event, just asking your players, what is it that you think we need?

Where should we go to dinner? Like giving them opportunities to answer questions and to help your program. I think are really important because the younger guys the freshmen and sophomores, they’ll want to become leaders as well and understand it’d be their chance to say where they’re going to go eat dinner or what they’re going to do and, and how they’re going to do it.

[00:43:04] Mike Klinzing: Big picture question for you here. So you’ve been at Yale for 25 years. Obviously the success that you had speaks for itself and the institution, Yale university and the pedigree and the brand that goes along with that makes it super special. But I’m sure over the years that. There’s been other places that have come calling and have knocked on your door and maybe talk to you about, Hey, we have another opportunity that may be different from the one that you have now.

Why stay at Yale? What makes it so special? Just when you think about the institution and the program and the 25 years, when you think about that, what makes Yale university and Ivy league basketball so special in your mind?

[00:43:51] James Jones: Well, number one, I’ve not been offered an opportunity better than Yale. I think that that’s a big part of it.

I haven’t had an opportunity where you would say that job is better than the one I have. Where Yale basketball is and what we’ve been able to do, it’s hard to get a better opportunity than the one I have. And the reason why you stay here is because we do things the right way.

There are a lot of things that are going on in college basketball right now that that don’t affect us. Like we’re not affected by the transfer portal. We’re not affected by NIL, not yet anyway. So I just have a different peace of mind when I put my head down on my pillow at night.

Knowing that I have a group of men that are special people and that I’m not having to worry about them and their decisions that they make.

[00:44:48] Mike Klinzing: What’s the biggest change that you’ve seen over your 25 years in terms of whether it’s the game itself, the players, are they the same? Are they different?

What do you think about when you think about the biggest changes over the course of your career?

[00:45:02] James Jones: Well, the biggest changes have just occurred, right? With this NIL. This has been really a game changer where in the past people with. Do things under the table for players and now it’s out there for everybody to know that this player is getting $400,000 to play or this player is getting a million dollars to play.

You know, that’s a whole different world now. That’s different now. And you know, outside of that it’s similar to what it was 20 years ago, the players are similar to who they were 20 years ago. You know, it’s a great game. And I wake up every day, anxious to get to my job and ready to work with my guys.

So I haven’t seen a lot that’s changed outside of the the different rules that we’ve had here the last few years.

[00:45:57] Mike Klinzing: What about the game itself and the style of play and the way the game is played? When you think about the advent and emphasis in the last five or 10 years on the three point shot, you think about how much the ball screen has become.

So much more important, whereas when I think back to the era when I was playing from 88 to 92, when you had so much motion offense and off ball screening, and just, it’s a different, the game has evolved in a different way. How do you think about some of the changes that have occurred on the floor in terms of style of play and just the way that the game has changed?

[00:46:31] James Jones: Well Steph Curry changed the game, right? You know, like the three point shot is just. Everybody shoots it now. It’s just like everybody dunks, everybody shoots a three. And that has changed the game where you used to have it where you had you could play big lineups and back to the basket guys.

You look at the NBA, a guy like Shaq, Shaq talks about it all the time is that because of him, they were like probably 10 guys in the NBA, they wouldn’t have been there because they tried to, they needed somebody to guard Shaq, right? So there were these big body guys they have, like the big body guys, they just don’t have those guys in NBA anymore, unless you’re skilled or you have one great aspect of your job where you’re a great rebounder, a great defensive player. If you’re not one of those guys, it’s hard to get there as a big guy these days. And then you have all these guys that are just like long and lean and athletic and really like Kevin Durant, that’s almost seven feet tall and he has skills like a two guard.

So the different kinds of players in the NBA have changed, especially along the lines of the Europeans. You know, they’ve come and they, like, Giannis and, and Joker and Luka Doncic, like, all these guys have kind of changed the way that game is played. And in college, I see it more of a five out schematic going on now, where people are spreading the floor a little bit more because of the three point shot.  Those are the major differences that I see.

[00:48:09] Mike Klinzing: Skill level of players today higher than the skill level of players in the past, in your opinion, or no?

[00:48:15] James Jones: Well that’s really tough to quantify. I mean they had guys like Pearl Washington. Like, who was more skilled with a ball than Pearl Washington now?

Could anybody handle a ball as well as that kid handled it back when he played for Syracuse? I’m not sure. So I think maybe the overall skill level is better. I think what our post players do specifically, their skill level is a lot better. I think the guard play may be similar, but as I said, the ability to shoot the three and shoot it from deep is just different like there was a time where my coaches in college, we didn’t even have a three point line until my junior year in college.

There was no three point line and then it was the ACC line, but in between the top of the key and the foul line, which was basically a layup for a lot of guys. And then now it’s moved out and moved back and we’ll see if it ever gets to the European style of play when we go to quarters and have a different lane.

Do you see that happening ever? You know, I hope not. I don’t like change that much. I have to admit, I’m an old head. I kind of like the way things were or the way things are.

[00:49:29] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. I think when you start looking at the, it would be hard to be hard to imagine when I think of college basketball, I just think of the 20 minute half and think about it going to a 10 minute quarter.

It just would seem like, Hey, it’s the third quarter. That just would seem weird when you start talking about college basketball.

[00:49:49] James Jones: The main thing that changes is the free throw shooting right now. Like you got to get to five before you get to the free throw line and and not then it’s two shots and it’s not a one in one.

So it’s all that stuff. I think too, that makes a difference that will change the game so much.

[00:50:07] Mike Klinzing: Well, here in the state of Ohio, we’re going in high school this year. They’re doing away with the one on one, the one on one is gone and it’s all, yeah, everything is going to, to two shots. So if I’m not mistaken, I think cause we play we play the eight minute quarters and I think what’s going to happen is once you get to, I feel like once you get to, it might just, they might be doing the files by half, but I know they’re doing away this year with the, with the one on one, which to me.

I don’t know, again, just to echo what you said, I feel like going back in old school. Like, I just can’t imagine there being a situation where you’re trying to come back and whatever you’re getting the guy to align and got to make that one on one man. You got to make the front end. And to have that go away is just, it’s, that’s one of those things.

I’m not a fan. I’m not a fan of that change. Let’s put it that way.

[00:51:02] James Jones: Well, that makes two of us. I’m definitely not a fan of taking away the one on one, the pressure. And again, I think that you look at that and it just changes who you are as a player and I’d rather have the pressure than not.

[00:51:16] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question about that. I know as I was preparing for our pod tonight, that one of the things that is on your mind a lot as an African American coach is getting opportunities for other African American coaches to be able to coach at the highest level in 25 years.

And you set the bar pretty high. What do you think about in terms of trying to help younger African American coaches get opportunities in the game? What do you see as things that need to be done in order to improve that situation?

[00:52:01] James Jones: You know, that’s a great question. What needs to be done? I just think that flat out, like, like you said, it just needs to be an opportunity.

And if you did some research and tried to figure out how many African American coaches there are in a game and then how long of an opportunity they have to be successful or not, as opposed to their white counterparts it’s amazing the differences that go on in college basketball and the different degrees in which we’re given opportunity.

Especially given that the complexion of the average college player. So it’s a shame that this is the way it is and that guys aren’t given an opportunity. And there have been peaks and valleys with it. I mean, there once was a time where there were six out of eight coaches in the Ivy League were African American.

But it’s not something that was sustained and didn’t last. And I just hope that more often than not, that some guys are given the benefit of the doubt and given the opportunity to try to run some of these teams. And trying to be successful and especially at the highest levels.

And I think that’s where we have a misnomer. I think for me as a black man, seeing John Thompson and John Chaney and Nolan Richardson play at the highest level and get to sweep 16 final fours and win national championships, that gave me a inkling that this is something that I could be successful at because they did it and they kind of looked like me.

We all need to have those kinds of role models and we need to have those kinds of people that we can look up to. And those kinds of people that we feel like we can emulate. And if you look around college basketball right now, there’s not an African American in the Pac 12. I don’t believe that any of it, well, the former Pac 12, I don’t know what’s going to happen.

[00:53:56] Mike Klinzing: Who knows what that league even is anymore. Yeah. The college conference landscape is insane.

[00:54:01] James Jones: Yeah. Yeah. Cause it’s all about money. But if you look at all the best jobs in the country, how many of those jobs are given to African Americans? Just not very many of them. They’re just not.

And then, like I said, and once you get those opportunities, how long do you have before they let you go? Like there were two African American coaches that got let go after one year. Desmond Oliver was let go at NC State, I mean at East Tennessee State after one year. I mean, it’s like, I’m just not getting how this is supposed to work.

[00:54:33] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s crazy. I know that Dwayne Killings at your alma mater, when we talked to him you know, we did a bunch of we did a series of podcasts with Dwayne his, his first year at Albany and he talked a lot about just how. One, he was grateful for the opportunity, but two, that he really felt, and I don’t know if pressure is the right word, but he just felt, I think responsibility is probably a better word.

He felt a responsibility that I have to be successful in this job, not just for me, but I have to be successful. So the next guy gets an opportunity because if I can have success and I can do this and I can get it done, then that’s going to give the next guy a better chance. Whereas if things don’t work out now, boom, all of a sudden, here’s another excuse.

Here’s another reason. Here’s another example like. The couple that you just cited where a guy gets a job. Now, if you don’t have that success, suddenly the next guy behind you maybe doesn’t get that opportunity. I just thought it was interesting to hear Dwayne talk about that responsibility that he felt, again, not just for himself, but for the guys that were coming after him.

And again, I don’t think that’s something that the average College basketball fan, I don’t think people are thinking about that stuff. I really don’t.

[00:55:52] James Jones: No, I think you’re right. I don’t think it’s certainly not thought about enough. And I think it’s why we have the problem that we have with the numbers that we have, especially at the highest level.

[00:56:06] Mike Klinzing: What do you think are the solutions? I mean, clearly one solution, right, is to have more African Americans in decision making positions within the university system. So we need more African American. ADs and college presidents and people that are seeing the value there. And we just don’t have that. And then I think the second piece is how do you continue when you have this lack of opportunity?

How do you continue to. encourage and develop that pipeline of great coaches coming up through the ranks so that when these jobs do open up that you have guys who are ready and able to step in. To me, those are two things that I think are, are really important when we start talking about starting to be able to even the playing field to some degree.

[00:56:54] James Jones: Well, again, if you look at it from the athletic stand, athletic director standpoint, it’s like we all are prejudiced to a certain extent, meaning That you want to hire people that, that look like you or that, that you feel comfortable with. And it’s not something that some people don’t do it normally, there’s just a comfort level.

I’m more comfortable with this guy because he looks like me. So until there’s more ADs and there are more vice presidents and more presidents. It’s hard to get there unless you make an active decision to hire somebody that doesn’t look like you we have to make that decision going into it because if you don’t, if you don’t make that decision going into it, you’re never going to get there.

You’re just never going to get there. And so I think that’s what has to happen is that there has to be these active decisions made prior to the hire that we want to make sure that we give a person of color an opportunity to be good.

[00:57:56] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s definitely a challenge that’s out there for the college basketball landscape and trying to make sure that guys who are ready and guys who have the opportunity to be successful get that opportunity. Because it just feels like, again, when you start talking about what the makeup of the coaching landscape looks like and who gets those jobs. It just feels like there’s an opportunity that is being missed.

And when you start talking about developing coaching talent and guys getting overlooked and not getting the opportunities that they deserve, and nobody wants to see that in any walk of life. We want to be able to see the people who are ready and the people who are capable get those jobs. And I think that’s something that Again, everybody in the coaching profession has to continue to try to work towards and push towards.

And I think if we can continue to make people aware and hopefully that at some point we can get that, we can get that turned around. Tell me a little bit about your experiences with USA Basketball. I know you’ve had an opportunity to work with USA Basketball in a couple of different capacities. How does that opportunity come to you?

And then what were your experiences like with USA Basketball?

[00:59:05] James Jones: Well Sean Ford was a Villanova guy, and my brother was coached at Villanova for a bit, and I got into U. S. A. basketball initially because Jim Boeheim and my former boss Dick Sauers they were some golfing buddies, like they used to coach, Doc used to coach golf at at Yale and I think Jim Boeheim coached golf at Syracuse and they would have tournaments against each other or see each other at tournaments.

And all these, all basketball coaches that a lot of basketball coaches play some golf in the off season. So they became friends and I wrote Jim Boeheim a letter asking him to be part of U S A basketball. And I was asked to be a court coach way back in the early two thousands. And then I went with Mark and Jay Wright to Brazil to play in the Pan American games. Brilliant opportunity, wonderful to be part of it. I also took I was with the 19 and under national team that went to Lafayette a few years ago. And out of the 12 guys on that team, I think nine of them are in the NBA right now, which is a tremendous team.

We won the gold medal against the kid from France who’s got drafted by the Spurs. So there’s some great opportunities there to see these young men grow up and watch them in their careers. It’s truly amazing to take a look and see how it goes. Thank And just to put on a red, white, and blue and be part of that be part of the United States and represent the country I think it’s certainly worthwhile and given opportunity, I take it every time and presently I’m on the board for the 19 and under helping select that team every year.

[01:00:49] Mike Klinzing: Who are your coaching mentors? Who are people that you reach out to? How much do you talk to your brother when it comes to coaching? Do you guys talk? Do you guys talk a lot? Do you not talk at all? Do you try to stay away from each other during the season? No. Who are you  reaching out to?

Who are you talking to about, about things coaching related.

[01:01:06] James Jones: Well, I talk to my staff, right? Like I’m kind of a self-made coach in a lot of ways, so there’s nobody that. Hey, I’m leaning on this guy or that guy. You know, if I have some thoughts and I want to work through some stuff I’ll get with my staff more than anything else.

So I’ve done that. And like I said, my brother and I, we talk most every day. And, it’s like an older brother, younger brother relationship where I’m talking to him and trying to help him with things that he’s looking for and trying to get better at and trying to help him on his team.

So you know, I feel pretty good about what we’ve been able to accomplish at Yale and I’m kind of confident in what we do. So there’s not a great need for me, especially at this stage of my career to reach out to others.

[01:01:56] Mike Klinzing: All right. I want to wrap it up with a final two part question. 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 single day, you wake up in the morning, get out of bed and you’re heading into campus, what brings you the most joy? So your biggest challenge and then your biggest joy.

[01:02:19] James Jones: Well, the biggest challenge I have is maintaining the level of greatness that we’ve been able to come up with the last decade our team has been really good and we’ve been at the top of the league and it feels good.

It’s nice to go to the NCAA tournament. It’s great to win your conference and to win a championship and put numbers on the banner and hand out rings to people on campus that support your program. So all those things are really great and we want to continue to do them. So maintaining the level that we’ve been at, that’s something that’s certainly going to be a big challenge.

And, you know the, the biggest joy I have is just being around my players. We graduated EJ Jarvis, Isaiah Kelly, Matt Cotton, and Mike Feinberg this past year, and I’m going to miss all four of those guys. And they were great members of our community, but they were just good people, man. They were just good guys.

And EJ Jarvis he’s taken a grad year. Because he can’t play at Yale anymore. He’s going to play down in Florida. Matt Cotton’s playing at Hawaii. They’re both grad transfers. And EJ was down in Florida for a six week program. And he came up to Yale because he misses the place and misses his teammates, and he worked out with us somewhat before we went to Greece and just seeing that kid smile just brings a joy to my face.

And now I have several seniors that are going to be graduating. Matt Nolling, Luke Kalaja, Yusef Basaama, and our captain, August Mahoney. And I’m going to take a lot of joy and spend time with each of those guys every day. Because I won’t be seeing them for a while after they graduate.

[01:04:11] Mike Klinzing: Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you, whether you want to share social media, email, website, whatever you feel comfortable with. And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:04:21] James Jones: Well I’m on Instagram. I’m old head and one of my assistant coaches got me on Instagram, so I’ll post something probably a few times a month.

I’m @YaleCoachJones on Instagram and my email address is j.jones@yale.edu. And listen if you get that chance to come out, whoever’s listening gets a chance to come out and watch Yale basketball I think you’d be surprised at our level and what we’re capable of, like last year we finished the 65th best team in the country and this season coming up should be one of the better teams that I’ve had to coach in my 25 years at Yale.

[01:05:03] Mike Klinzing: James, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule. Pleasure to meet you out at the elite camp in early August and really truly appreciative of your time. So to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.