PETE GASH – UNIVERSITY OF MAINE MEN’S BASKETBALL ASSISTANT COACH – EPISODE 680

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

Email – coachgash@gmail.com

Twitter – @CoachPeteGash

Pete Gash is entering his first season as a men’s basketball assistant coach at the University of Maine.

Gash joined the Black Bears with 15 years of Division I experience at six institutions including stops at Florida Atlantic (2009-14), the University of Florida (2014-15), the University of Tennessee Chattanooga (2015-17), UMass (2017-19), LaSalle University (2019-2021), and Wagner (2021-22).

Gash began his coaching career  in 2007 as the video coordinator at LaSalle for former University of Maine head coach, Dr. John Giannini.

Gash, a native of Long Island, N.Y., earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in hospitality administration with a specialization in sports management from Lynn University in 2006.

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Be prepared to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Pete Gash, Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach at the University of Maine.

What We Discuss with Pete Gash

• Growing up a fan of Michael Jordan and the Bulls in Long Island during the 90’s
• Getting his start in coaching as a student at Lynn University in Florida after an injury cut short his playing career
• Working out his roommate at Lynn who became a 4 year starter and the feeling that gave him
• “I remember never experiencing a feeling like that while playing, just that pure excitement and happiness for someone else to succeed.”
• “You have time to think about your ego or yourself when you’re coaching.”
• “When you’re a player, you’re worried a lot about how you’re doing. And when you’re a coach, you’re really worried about how the team’s doing.”
• “I always was kind of just trying to make it work as a player. And I think that’s one of the reasons why it was easier for me to accept that role in coaching.”
• “I kind of slowly realized that coaching was more of what I was yearning for than just trying to feel cool or be on a college team.”
• The importance of self-awareness when it comes to making career decisions
• Be aware of yourself and what you can bring to a staff
• The level of player you are/were doesn’t matter when it comes to being a successful coach
• “Don’t be a guy that’s just in it because you want to post it on social media, be a guy that’s in it because you want to learn how to help a program win.”
• Always take notes as an assistant coach, learn what you like and don’t like about a head coach’s approach
• Why the opportunity to work for Coach Chris Markwood at Maine was so appealing
• The initial hurdles to overcome at Maine
• The areas he and the Maine coaching staff will be targeting in recruiting
• Low maintenance, high upside players
• “The ultimate separator is just your love for basketball”
• “Shooting and feel are two things that we’re going to value a lot”
• “I’d want to see a game, whether it’s on an AAU circuit or a high school circuit in a game that matters like a win and go home game or a big rivalry game.”
• “You just have to build trust with your guys. And trust is so many different things. It’s the consistency in how you approach every day.”
• Summer development with a new team
• “If the staff is connected, the players are going to be connected and the players can see if the staff is connected.”
• “Come to practice with a smile on your face”
• “When it comes to building authentic relationships with guys and building trust, you just have to be who you are every day.”
• “When you’re an assistant coach, your messaging has to be exactly what the head coach’s messaging is.”
• “Constantly communicating is the best vitamin that you can give a program when you’re a head coach or assistant coach to your player. So it’s always communicating so there’s no margin for misinterpretation.”
• “Climbing is easier than hanging on.” – Tom Crean
• “You have to get to know the parents and you can choose if you want that parent in your program or not in recruiting.”
• “Make every day long. I want to make everyday fun for them. I want to max out every day with them, because four years goes by so fast.”
• “Roles are different. Status is the same.”
• “We have to keep them aligned with the ultimate goal, which is winning, being a good teammate, serving each other, enjoying other people’s success.”
• Villanova “flush days”
• “There is some truth in the fact that you’re going to change a narrative whenever you come to a job where they haven’t won in quite some time.”

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THANKS PETE GASH

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TRANSCRIPT FOR PETE GASH – UNIVERSITY OF MAINE MEN’S BASKETBALL ASSISTANT COACH – EPISODE 680

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight, and we are pleased to welcome from the University of Maine, men’s basketball assistant coach Pete Gash, Pete, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:13] Pete Gash: Hey man. Thanks for having me guys,

[00:00:14] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. Excited to have you on want to dive into the things that you’ve been able to do thus far in your career.

And then we’re going to spend a bulk of our time tonight in the podcast talking about the university of Maine and what you guys are trying to build up there with the basketball program. So let’s start by going back in time. Tell us a little bit about how you got into the game of basketball as a kid.

[00:00:36] Pete Gash: Yeah, so, basketball in my family has always been very, very important. So my dad went to the University of North Carolina and didn’t play, but was a big fan. He grew up in the state of North Carolina and he really got me into basketball at a really young age. And when I was younger, I didn’t really realize the significance of all the guys that he was talking about when I was, when I was younger until I really got, got into the history of the game. But one of the things that he did was, he had this infatuation with Michael Jordan because Michael Jordan was obviously a North Carolina grad. So three, four years old in Long Island being a Bulls fan was kind of, we were on the outside looking in, in the nineties.

Right. So everyone was all about the Knicks and we were diehard bulls fans because of Michael Jordan. But I got in that way ended up, ended up moving to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where I went to the Solbury prep school. And I went there at the time when they were in the top 25 in the country.

And I really just got into this higher level of basketball and realized pretty, pretty early in my high school career that I wasn’t as good as the seven or eight division one players that we had that I was playing with and competing with every day. So really just tried to figure out a way to be around the game as much as possible and kind of stay around a team atmosphere.

That’s what led me to. But it was those, it was those young days of my dad taking me to Long Island Lutheran games in long island and Kobe Bryant play high school shootout in Jersey, Shaheen, Al Harrington, Hurley Anthony’s Anthonys and got a chance to watch him. And that’s kind of where it all got started.

And then just kind of wanted to be around it. Moving, moving forward with life and realized there weren’t a lot of six foot power forwards in division one around the game.

[00:02:41] Mike Klinzing: You had a chance you played with Andrew Bynum.

[00:02:45] Pete Gash: Yeah, I did. I had two years with Andrew. He came to us as a freshman. When I was a junior at Solbury school, he was a 6’ 11” freshman.

His seat were size 18. Couldn’t make a jump hook. Couldn’t get up and down the floor. But you could tell there was something there because he just looked so young and was just starting to chuck shots across the gym. He wasn’t at wouldn’t show up when he didn’t didn’t of moods just got like, where is Andrew?

[00:03:25] Mike Klinzing: So as you’re starting to put together your plan of, Hey, I want to be a coach. I want to stay involved in the game and I want to do it through coaching. Did you have somebody that you reached out to that you talked to that kind of served as, I don’t know if mentors the right word, but just somebody who maybe you gave you some early guidance in your coaching career or kind of pointed you in the right direction of, Hey, here’s what, here’s what you should think about doing or here’s who you should talk to as you’re, as you’re trying to get into the coaching profession.

[00:03:53] Pete Gash: Yeah, there, there was two things that kind of happened. The first thing that happened was my mom, who is Italian and from Brooklyn, born in Italy, nudging. And I didn’t really get what she was doing in high school. But now looking back on it, she, she kind of saw the writing on the wall that my playing days were going to be numbered.

And she said, look at these two Italian coaches. So this is something you might want to get into if you love basketball this much. So that was one way, but really what happened was when I started looking at where I was going to go to school I was going to go walk on at a couple different division, two places, and I was going to go play some division three basketball in the state of New Jersey.

And then what happened was I ended up getting accepted into Lynn university in  Florida. And they had a young coach who was 28 years old at the time. His name was Scott McMillan. I went down there on a visit. He. Come walk on you know you have an opportunity to make the team he’s like, but you know, you’re telling me about coaching.

Like, we might have something here for you if it doesn’t, if it doesn’t work out. So my first week at Lynn I’m training, I’m getting in shape, I’m playing. And I end up hurting myself pretty bad in like one of our first couple like workout individual type situation. And he looked at me and was like, Hey, I have one graduate assistant in me.

He was like, if you want to do this, We’ll make you a student assistant, you’ll kind of grow up in coaching. I’ll let you get your hands you know, dirty with scouting and recruiting and back then you could go live scouting and see if you like it. So I did it. I fell in love with it. I started getting in the gym with guys.

I kind of made it my own little thing, and that’s kind of really the, the person that gave me the, the, where kind of allowed the light bulb to go off for me, that coaching made more sense than trying to figure it out and play when I was in college.

[00:05:53] Mike Klinzing: Would you say that initially from a coaching standpoint, that that player development piece and working with guys in the gym on the floor, because you were a player, you probably still, at that point kind of thought of yourself as a player, was that the first part of coaching that you really fell in love with was that player development side of.

[00:06:13] Pete Gash: Yeah. So it’s really interesting you say that. So my roommate was a six, eight Danish kid who was a walk-on. So we both were there as walk-ons right. And I ended up doing the coaching thing. He ended up becoming a really good player a four year starter. But what happened was when I was kind of thrusted into this role of like, I need you more to help me coach than I do to help me play.

I started going the gym with him at night and just working on books and working on his midrange game and taking him out to three and just passing with him and working with him. And I’m on the bench, four games into the season. He hasn’t gotten off the bench yet. He checks into the game and I swear, like my heart rate went up.

My nerves went up, I was sweating. I was all worked up and I started. Almost having that feeling of like your brother or your son or your child is out there. Right. And he went out there, he made a jump hook, he walled up on defense. He really impacted the game. And I remember never experiencing a feeling like that while playing like that, just that just pure excitement and happiness for someone else to succeed.

And I was like, man, this is what it feels like, but this is what coaching feels like. And then that’s kind of where it, where it took off. So yeah, the player development piece. But I think also just combining, like serving other people, being a good teammate and player development, all wrapped in one. And that was kind of where I was like, all right, I got the itch now to really get into this coaching.

[00:07:39] Mike Klinzing: Was there something about coaching when you transitioned from playing to coaching, was there some aspect of coaching as you got into it in that first year that you’re like, man, I didn’t realize coaches spent so much time and doing this, or man, as a player, this piece of coaching was kind of invisible to me.

Is there anything that you can think of that sort of fits that description?

[00:08:03] Pete Gash: Yeah, so very easy. So I’m in my first workout and one of the guys takes the charge and flies on the floor and he just left all this sweat. And the head coach, Scott MC Miller looks at me. He’s like, wipe it up. And I’m like, right in that moment, I’m like all my pride, all my ego, everything flies out the window and I’m on all fours wiping up a wet spot.

And like in the middle of doing it, I’m like, what am I doing? But then you get up and like the next player trying to help someone close out, or you’re trying to move the drill fast. And you’re like, you have time to think about your ego or yourself when you’re coaching you, like, if you’re really into it, you don’t have time for that.

And, and that was one of those things where, I hope I’m answering your question the right way, but like when you’re a player, you’re worried a lot about how you’re doing. And when you’re a coach, you’re really worried about how the team’s doing. So it was like one of those things that just kind of hit me and it kind of made a lot of sense and takes a lot of pressure off you when you kind of give up your ego.

And you’re kind of all it to see. The kids succeed and see your team succeed.

[00:09:08] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. I think there’s a different focus as a player. Obviously you’re concerned about the success of your team as well, but so much of what you spend your time on as a player is trying to get better, trying to have an impact on the team, trying to see how you fit into the team success.

And as a player, as a coach, that mentality completely shifts to where you’re no longer worried about one individual’s role or one individual, how they’re going to do. You’re worried about how that all those individuals fit together to create a team. And again, it’s a totally, totally different dynamic in a totally different way of, of thinking about it.

And it’s interesting that you’re one of the, honestly, one of the few people that I’ve talked to that has said that, that, that the feeling it’s almost like the feeling you got from coaching was you love that feeling almost more than you love the feeling that you got as a player. Is that right?

[00:10:03] Pete Gash: Yeah, well, when you’re not very good, you’re not making six threes in the game or hitting a late game, big shot and you don’t get you, I was just, I always felt like in basketball, I was swimming out there.

Like, yeah, I played really hard. I tried really hard, but I just couldn’t do certain things on the court. You know what I mean? And I had a couple really good games against long island Lutheran. We were at Solbury and against hunt hill when we were playing against maple league teams. But like, I just never was the guy.

I was always around really, really good players from AAU to high school. So I never really got that state of this is all about me. I always was kind of just trying to make it work as a player. And I think that’s one of the reasons why it was easier for me to accept that role in coaching.

And I did, I got more of that euphoric coaching. Then I did as a player, there’s no doubt about that. And I, and to be honest with you, Mike, like, I’m really glad that I put that together early in college. Because there’s a lot of kids that go to college and they’re fighting this battle of just trying to be cool, be on the team and just be the one that’s gets the suit up from Jersey.

I got a three year head start on getting to the division one level because I was in Orlando at AAU nationals, taking notes on every high school kid in the state of Florida and Georgia. And I, and that was all. Cause I kind of slowly realized that coaching was more of what I was yearning for than just trying to feel cool or be on a college team.

I think if more people realize that they would figure out the coaching is, what they want to do and it would, their transition would be a lot easier into being a professional.

[00:11:48] Mike Klinzing: That’s interesting. We just talked to our, our first interview tonight was with Brian bury who’s head high school coach here in the Cleveland area.

And he was talking about just sort of his path to coaching. And he was a kid who played in a really good high school program in Cleveland. And he had to decide whether he wanted to play division three or whether he was going to go to a bigger school. He ended up going to Ohio U and trying to walk on and never made the team.

And he’s like, man, if I would’ve known sort of more about. The path to coaching was all about. He goes, what I should have done is just been a student assistant. He should, I should have been, I should have been a manager. And that, that would’ve been a great route for me to sort of again, go behind the scenes and be a part of the, the coaching staff and, and get to sit in on some of those meetings and be involved and build relationships with those coaches.

He’s like, but I just didn’t realize this is in 2001. He’s like, I just didn’t realize that that was a potential path. And then I told him, yeah, I go when I was playing. So that was a long, long, long time ago, 88 to 92. Like I never looked at the guys who were managers. I never thought, oh, those are guys who potentially want to get coaching jobs.

I was like, I was like, oh, they must just want to hang around with the players and just be a part of the team. And, and now you look at the number of guys, whether it’s at the high school level, or certainly at the college level, the number of guys who come through that student assistant slash manager role and end up.

Going to, and getting really good jobs because of the relationships they’ve been able to build and the knowledge that they’re able to gain. And I think what you described is what I see way more guys going that path and also understanding that that’s a very viable path to get into the profession.

[00:13:31] Pete Gash: Mm-hmm yes. So there’s, there’s two things Mike, about that that are really interesting. So the first thing is it kind of all goes back to like self-awareness, which is. One of the gifts that, that you hope your players and your staff and people that you work with have is just being aware of yourself. You know, and I think the earlier that we can all do that, the easier it’ll be for all, for everyone to really make a successful coaching career.

And that doesn’t mean that you can’t chase things. And that doesn’t mean that you can’t set your goals high and really want to make a division one team or whatever. Like that’s not what is, but there is a certain level of self-awareness that can really help you in any profession, in coaching for me, it’s one of those things where anytime I’ve been on staff with a really good guard in college, So right now we got a guy under staff, Jordan Bronner who played at New Hampshire.

Who’s a point guard. Like I’m not going to go in there and be like, Hey, let me take the guards. I’ve worked with all these guards, my whole career. Like, no, like you played guard at the division one level, you’ve done it handled that’s you. I have a very good self-awareness I’ve always been on staffs with really good players.

So a lot of them were guards. So it was like, Hey, I have to find a way to be really good with front court guys and really good with X and O’s and really bring value in other ways, because I didn’t really have the background knowledge of, Hey, I went out there and split pick and roles in a college game. I could teach it and I could study it.

But if they want someone that has done it, then they’re probably going to look for a former player. So it kind of goes back to just being aware of yourself and what you can bring to a staff. And then the second part to, to what you talked about is a couple years ago There was a final four. I’m trying to remember who was in it, but it was a really interesting final four, I think, three of the four guys in the final four that coached were either student managers or like division three players, maybe.

I’m trying to think of who it was. Might have been like. Mark Few, Coach Drew at Baylor, Kelvin Sampson. And I’m thinking about who was the, who was the fourth guy in that final four? And I think the national coach of the year, that year was Juwon Howard. Right. So I would always look at that as a way of you can be an NBA top five pick.

And be a really good coach like Juwon Howard, or you could be starting out wiping wet spots and rebounding for guys like coach Drew at Baylor and win a national championship. So there’s really coaching is like a universal language. And people try to put you in a box a lot of times, but if you’re really aware of yourself and you know what you can do, and you’re valuable in what you can do, it doesn’t matter.

If you made a three in college, you didn’t play college basketball or you were a hall Famer. If you could coach, you can coach.

[00:16:10] Mike Klinzing:  You can teach it right. You have to be able to teach the game. And I think that’s one of the things that if you are a former player, that is really hard. I know I could speak for my own experiences that as a former player, my first year two of coaching, I was terrible because the only thing I knew was what I knew as a player, the.

Two coaches that I had ever been around were my high school coach and my college coach. So everything that I knew about basketball, which I thought at the time as a 23 year old guy was I thought I knew pretty much everything. Right. You’re kind of have, I kind of had this ego of like, Hey man, I was a good player.

I’m sure I’m going to be a good coach, but you look back on it. You’re like, I didn’t study the game. I didn’t do some of the things that you were describing that you did in order to improve your craft. I was more the guy who’s like, Hey, I could play. So now suddenly I can coach. And I think you make a great point that ultimately what it comes down to is players want to trust that you can make them better.

And if a coach, a head coach is going to hire you onto their staff, that head coach wants to know that you can make the players better, then ultimately you can make the team better. And I don’t think at this point, I don’t think it really matters what your background is. If you’re willing to put in the time and learn, and then you can teach the game, there’s a place for, as you said, anybody, it doesn’t matter if you were an NBA player or you were a guy who got cut from your high school team.

If you’re invested in what you’re doing and you’re learning your craft, there’s certainly a way that you can have a very, very outstanding and successful career as a coach. There’s there’s no doubt about that in my mind.

[00:17:39] Pete Gash: Yeah. Yeah, no, you’re a hundred percent, right. I really hope that every young coach that’s trying to get into it, that didn’t play.

I really hope that they understand that. You know, when everyone wants to tell their war stories about when they were younger as coaches, but it was a lot harder to do it 10, 15 years ago and get in than it is now, and be very appreciative of whatever role you have. And don’t be a guy that’s just in it because you want to post it on social media, be a guy that’s in it because you want to learn how to help a program win and just kind of be a star in whatever role you can do or be really get really good at video or get really good at recruiting graphics or get really good at being on the court and being in player development, just like really be good in your role.

And don’t just do it to, to feel like you’re you’re supposed to be doing it, but do it cause you want to serve and you want to be a good coach.

[00:18:36] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. All right. So you’ve served as an assistant coach under a variety of head coaches at the division one level and at a number of different schools. So what I want to do so that we can make sure that we get an opportunity to dive in deep with what you guys are building there at Maine.

Let’s just talk about in general, at your stops along the way before you get to the University of Maine, what are some of the big lessons that you’ve learned along the way as an assistant coach that you’ve brought into your experience that you’re having at Maine so far? Let’s kind of approach it that way.

[00:19:13] Pete Gash: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I’ve worked for I think it was eight or nine different division, one or two head coaches, one division, two head coach. I think, I think eight division, one head coaches. And I’ve gotten so much from, from all of. You know, one of the biggest things that I’ve been able to do with working with all these guys is really, is really take a lot of notes on how they responded to different things.

So when I worked for coach Donovan, which was in those eight, nine months that I worked for him, I felt like that’s where I learned the most about running a program, dealing with players. I just remember taking a lot of notes on like how he was after losses, how he was after a day off, how he was on a Saturday morning individual at 9:00 AM.

I just really took a lot of notes on how he approached it. So with all those different guys, I really learned how they approached kind of the daily routine. And it was really, it’s been really good for me because the last couple guys that I’ve worked for in Ashley Howard and Bo Mason, they’re kind of cut from the same cloth, just this tough defensive minded, no excuses mentality.

Right. And I always wanted to kind of marry that with Tom Crean’s player development and coach Donovan’s offensive system, right. John Jan’s ability to run a program and I’ve kind taken a little, little bit of all those guys and kind of morphed together. And I’m just trying to marry it for whenever I get an opportunity to hopefully be head coach one day, but more importantly, I want to bring whatever I’ve learned from those guys to whoever I’m working for now.

Right. And, and I think whenever you get a chance to work for a lot of different head coaches, you have to really look at what do really well and take that and almost have like this. Mental folder, where now, when you’re having a discussion, you could bring up and there’s some credibility to it. You know, there’s some credibility to, Hey, when I was at La Salle with coach Giannini, here’s how we handled our sit out guys.

Or here’s when I worked for coach Donovan guys, eight through 13 on the roster. Here’s how we managed them during the year or Tom Crean. This is how we did individuals and how we blended individuals with practice. So guys, we’re always getting better, just like those little parts of it from all of those guys that you can take and kind put in your folder.

And then now when you have conversations with the guy that they’re working for, you can, you can give him as many suggestions as he wants, and then he could pick and choose whichever one fits the program. So that’s kind the benefit of, of all these different head coaches that I’ve worked for. And it’s not been great on my moving expenses every time I’ve, it’s really good for seeing what a lot of different head do and how they operate.

[00:22:04] Mike Klinzing: Let’s talk about the opportunity at the University of Maine. So coach Mark Wood gets the job in March of this year. You come on in, may talk a little bit about the process, how you become aware of the opening, what were the relationships that brought you to, to the university of Maine? And then what was just talk a little bit about the interview process and why you felt like this was a good fit for your next move?

[00:22:28] Pete Gash: Yeah. So I’ve known Coach Markwood for about three or four years now. You know, when I was in assistant at UMass, he was at. Northeastern. And we kind of recruited similar guys in the new England area. But we also kind of dabbled into some pockets that Northeastern was recruiting into whether it was Florida or Minnesota, they were recruiting those areas.

And we kind of always were trying to go outside the box a little bit at UMass and find guys outside of the region. And it was always like, Hey, Northeastern’s recruiting this guy or you’re being Minnesota. And Northeastern has a kid that played with this high school the year before. And there was just always kind of this common ground.

And then it’s actually a funny story. We were at an MTE when I was at La Salle in the Gulf coast classic down in Florida, and I’m in the I’m in the lobby. And Someone is talking about the state of Maine behind me. And I’m like, yeah Maine’s a great state. I’m like my old boss used to do the head coach at Maine and this woman says, well my son-in-law played at Maine.

I said, really. And she said, yeah, Chris mark would. And then Chris Markwoods wife was there and my wife was there and we’re all talking. And I’m like coach Giannini gave me my first job at at the division one level at La Salle And I had no idea that Chris worked or played for coach G and I had no idea.

So we kind of all just sat there and talked a little bit. And Chris came down and we connected some dots. And then we just kind of kept talking over the last couple years. And when he had an opportunity to get the Maine job, coach Jani called me and he said if you have an opportunity to go work for Chris Markwood, you need to drop what you’re doing and go.

And when coach Giannini speaks. I listen, he is my basketball dad, right? Like anything that he says I normally do because he’s so smart, he knows me. And he said, you and Chris would be great. He said, he’s going to get it rolling up there. Maine’s a great place. No one knows about how good of a place it is. I’m telling you go do it.

So I interviewed with Chris and in the process of interviewing with Chris. Bashir Mason got the St Peter’s job. And I was really down the road with Chris and Chris called me and he offered me the job. And that morning Bash took the St Peter’s job. So I told Bash, I love you. I’m so happy for you.

I gave him a big hug. We took him out. I said, up and down the road with Chris, I want to do this. It’s going to be great for my family. And I took the job and then coach went to St. Peter’s and I came up here to Maine and it’s been, it’s been one of the best experiences and decisions I could have ever made to come up here.

Just because of what type of person Chris, Markwood is and what type of environment that he’s building. Like if you could, as a coach, if you could paint what you want in terms of family values, player development, spending time with the guys everyone’s included, well, thought out, if you could paint that picture, that’s kind of what Chris is as a coach and as a leader.

And it’s been really refreshing and it’s been really great for me to get up here and bring my family up here to the University of Maine,

[00:25:42] Mike Klinzing: In some of those first conversations that you had with Chris, what were some of the talking points that you and he went through when you start thinking about what it was going to take to get the program where he wanted it to go, what was the vision that he talked about with you?

Made you think beyond your personal relationship with him, what was the vision for the university of Maine? What were the things that he was telling you he saw or things that you saw in the program that made you think, Hey, we can build the kind of program that we can be proud of up here?

[00:26:17] Pete Gash: Yeah. Well the first thing that we talked about was just like the appreciation for being at Maine.

Like he wanted people that have an appreciation for being at Maine, right? So since Ted Woodward had a team that won 19 games that might been in, I’m not sure, but they haven’t had a double digit win season in over 10 years. So he knew that it, that the success had not been there in a while, but he wanted guys that were going to come up there, embrace the job, had an appreciation for being a basketball coach at the University of Maine.

And knew that, okay, there were going to be some hurdles, but like how were we going to jump over those hurdles and make it work? And I kind of felt that from him, like he had this kind of attitude about him, where I played here. I’m from the state. I know we can be good. I was on teams when we were good. I coached on teams when we were good at Maine.

I know what this thing looks like. I want a staff, that’s going to be appreciative of being up here and kind of being it with me. And that kind of sold me because my whole opportunity in basketball, I’ve tried to be really thankful and grateful from where I am. Right. And I was like, that’s exactly the, the environment that I want.

And that’s kind of where it started. And then I kind of listened to him talk about how he wanted to get this program where needs to go. It’s Chris it’s and that’s what I was like, okay. This is, this is a no brainer. I have to get up here and I have to make this work.

[00:28:00] Mike Klinzing: What was the first thing on your plate after you got hired?

[00:28:02] Pete Gash: So the first thing he told me was my wife was due in like three weeks and he was like, don’t come in now.

[00:28:14] Mike Klinzing: That’s good advice there. Right?

[00:28:16] Pete Gash: I’ve for guys that said are you on your way up yet? And I’m get settled here. So it was really refreshing when he told me that to worry about my family first that made everyone really, really excited in the Gash household.

But yeah, that was the first thing. But he really just wanted me to get an understanding of the roster. And then he just kind of talked to me about what he wanted in terms of IQ and guys that had a feel for the game and he really valued shooting.

[00:29:02] Mike Klinzing: When you guys thought about where the program was and you look at where you wanted to go, what were, you mentioned that there might be potentially some hurdles that you’re going to have to get over. What were some of the things that you guys talked about internally when you looked at where the program was when Chris took over and then when you come on board, what were some of the things that you felt like you had to overcome for lack of a better way of saying it?

[00:29:30] Pete Gash: Yes. So it’s really interesting. Cause everyone kind, when I took job, they kind of looked at like, oh, Maine, like why, why are you going up there? What do you, what do you think up there? And I kind of. Looked at everyone. And I was like, well, what what’s not to like, right. It’s a state university, you got a beautiful campus.

You’re in a city of Bangor. You’re an hour away from Bar Harbor, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. And everyone keeps talking about the cold in the winter and it gets so cold up there in November. And I, I just look at it as, as like the, the, the biggest hurdle that we have to overcome is just kind of the perception and the initial shock, like the initial shock of, oh, Maine’s recruiting me.

That’s a little bit further away that maybe I thought I was going to go to school. Right. And, and then just the perception of that would that. That Maine hasn’t been good in about a decade. And I think once we can get over those two things, I think the floodgates are really going to open up. And what I’ve noticed so far since being up here is if people are telling you that it’s cold and that’s the only reason they can come up with for why not to want to go to school at the university of Maine, then they’re not really serious minded.

And they’re not really people that we want in our program. Right. And if coaches are using that against you. And that’s a pretty shallow way of recruiting against, against us. So that’s kind of like how I’ve kind of gone about this thing, where again, it goes back to being appreciative of the opportunity and the university and just looking at it from the standpoint of, okay, we know there’s a hurdle, you have to get up here.

Cause once you get up here, you’re going to really like it. And you know, it’s cold. Okay. Well, in, in every gym in America, in this, during the season, it’s 70 and sunny. Right? When I was at Florida Atlantic, we were 1.4 miles away from the beach. I never went to the beach and my players never went to the beach during the year.

So it didn’t really matter to me. So I think once we kind of convey that some people, I think a lot of the a lot of the, the image will change and we’ll be able to really dive in and get more kids that are kind of what we’re all about here in terms of building this thing.

[00:31:35] Mike Klinzing:  Apparently it’s not cold elsewhere in the Northeast.  Is that what people are telling you?

[00:31:40] Pete Gash: Well, I was in, I was in UMass Amherst for two years and I almost got frosted, but multiple times digging my car out. So

[00:31:47] Mike Klinzing: I believe it, it doesn’t seem like the difference in temperature between Maine and a lot of the rest of the Northeast would be a whole lot different.

It doesn’t seem like that’s a very solid pitch that I’d be trying to sell to recruits. When you guys are out on the road, you start recruiting. Where’s the main recruiting base for you guys. Where do you guys go to find players? And I guess then to go along with that, what, I’m not all that familiar with the high school basketball scene in the state of Maine, what’s it look like as far as in state players and then where do you guys look outside the state for as your recruiting base?

[00:32:24] Pete Gash: Yeah, so the state of Maine is a very like serious basketball state. There, there high school I between 18 a year, But if you go to any of these gyms around here from everything that I’ve gathered, they’re, they’re usually pretty. There’s usually about one or two division one players a year that come out the state.

So we’re really spend a lot of time making sure we evaluate that’s got potential division in the state of Maine that’s priority one, obviously, especially Chris, one of the best players to in the state and having that experience. But we’re going to take the new England basketball scene. We’re going to kind of make that a main focus for us.

We’re going to really do a lot of work in Canada. There’s some pockets in Canada, Montreal, Ontario. There’s a lot of different pockets in Canada that we feel that we can really dive into. So if you ask me right now, I’d say one and one a is the new England prep school scene is, is Canadian basketball, high school basketball.

We’re going to dabble in the international thing. You know, Maine’s been able to do that and have some success. Coach Markwood’s been able to do that. Coach Rob on has done a tremendous job of recruiting international kids, James Madison, and Drexel. So we’re dabble in that market as well. And then we’ve, we’ve kind interesting approach where.

We’re putting some pockets all over this, the country that we’re going to really evaluate and see what comes. So we’re going to look at some cold weather states. So we’re going to look at Michigan, Wisconsin Minnesota, where we’re going to focus in, in those areas. We’ve got a guy on our staff, Tommy Freeman, who played high school basketball in Indiana.

Who’s really connected in Indiana. So we’re going to focus a little bit on, on that pocket. And then we’re going to focus on two major states in terms of Florida, an area that Chris and I have had a lot of experience recruiting where there’s a lot of guys that get under recruited and end up being good division one players, and then we’re going to take Texas and we’re going to focus on that.

So it’s going to kind of be those four areas, Canada and new. England’s going to be one big one. The cold weather Midwestern states. Right. Obviously New Jersey, New York and Philly has always got players. And then we’re going to take the two big states of Texas and Florida, and really just dive in there and try to evaluate and then obviously nowadays with the, with the transfer market, you have to really be heavy in it, but all that goes back to, if you’re really evaluating in the summer, you’re going to have a really good pulse on who’s going to different schools that you liked.

So when those guys end up in the portal, you’ll be able to make a quick strike on them and know what you’re getting yourself into.

[00:35:06] Mike Klinzing: When you start looking at players, obviously there’s a certain level of talent that a guy has to be able to have to play at the division one level and a play at the university of Maine.

But clearly when you’re trying to build a program and talking about the vision that you guys have, there’s more to it than just their talent. So when you start thinking about. Intangibles that you guys are looking for when you’re out on the road recruiting or when you’re watching film, what are some of the things that you’re looking for from an intangible standpoint, when you talk to a kid, when you talk to the people around them, when you watch them on film, when you see ’em in person, what are some of those things that you’re looking for?

[00:35:45] Pete Gash: Yeah. So I kind of, we’ve kind of talked a lot about this as a staff in terms of like, what, what are guys that are going to be really good in college look like, but we kind of all talked to different players that we’ve had you know, High upside high character, right? Like low maintenance, high upside, low maintenance.

If you’re a high upside guy where you are not a finished product, whether you’re young, you haven’t played a lot of basketball. If you’ve got a lot of upside in your game, right. And you’re low maintenance where you’re a worker, you’re a guy that wants to just come in, put in work, want to get coached, want to get better.

Those are normally the guys that overachieving in your program. Right. So we’re going to really look for guys that have a lot of upside, right. And not a lot of maintenance and just love basketball. Want to get coached. Those are kind of two major points for us. Now, when it comes to basketball thing obviously you have to love the game, right?

That’s, that’s, that’s kind of the ultimate separator. It’s just your love for, for basketball. There’s a lot of distractions out there. So guys that really love basketball are going to move up on our, on our board. Right. And then from when it comes to playing the game shooting and feel are two things that we’re going to value a lot, you have to be able to shoot the ball.

It’s hard for you to get significantly better as a player. If you don’t have the upside of making shots the game at the end of the day, you have to put the ball through the net, right. And then feel for the game is something that’s really hard to teach that if you can get guys that have a high IQ for the game, that can process things that can adjust to what type of game it is, then you’re usually going to be able to function in college and be a good player at the collegiate level.

So it’s kind a complex answer, but those are just kind the things that we’ve talked about as a staff that, that are really going to, they’re really going to be important to us when it comes to making the decisions on who we really want to dive in there with

[00:37:41] Mike Klinzing: When you’re evaluating those things with a player there’s clearly two different environments where you get an opportunity to watch players. So you can watch ’em in an AAU environment, and then you can watch ’em with their high school team in that environment. When you guys are going out, whether it’s you personally, or you as a staff, if you’ve had these conversations, do you value one more than the other?

Do you look for different things depending on which environment you’re watching the player and just, how do you think about balancing or looking at a player in the AAU versus the high school environment?

[00:38:22] Pete Gash: That’s a really good question. I actually think we’d all prefer to see as much structure as we can in the game.

Cause then you can see how a kid can process the game. You know, how his feel for the game is. But then you can go watch some AAU programs that are absolutely terrific and run great stuff. And a kid might look a little bit less dynamic, Because he’s really in structure. And then you can go to a high school program and watch a high school coach that just says, Hey, we’re going to run, spread, pick and roll game and let our best player make plays, or it can be vice versa. So you don’t know. So I think a lot of it depends on who your guy you’re going look at is playing for. And, and I, I honestly, Mike, I don’t think you have enough time now to really try to say, okay, I like this kid, but I need to see him in high school.

Like, I think you have to be able to make your decision off of watching summer basketball and really evaluating. If you had to ask me what the preference would be. I’d probably say I’d want to see a game, whether it’s on an AAU circuit or a high school circuit in a game that matters like a win and go home game or a big rivalry game.

Or I like seeing guys when there’s something on the line is kind my biggest selling point to, if I’m on a really good in game,

[00:39:46] Mike Klinzing: That’s a great point. I love that. I haven’t really heard anybody say that, but when you think about it makes a ton of sense, right? Because you want to be able to see a kid who’s going to step up and handle that big moment, because hopefully what you’re trying to build in a college is like a college program is that you’re going to have some of those big moments.

You want to know that you’re going to have a kid that can step up and perform in that, in that, in that big, on that big stage. And, and if you can find a kid that can do that, then you’re halfway there to, to, to getting them to be a part of your program and to, to have some success. When you guys take over, obviously you’re trying to recruit and build the roster and improve the roster, but you have some guys.

We’re already there. And some guys that I’m sure are going to be an important part of your team moving forward that are holdovers from the previous, from the previous regime. So as you guys think about what you’ve done over the summer with the guys who have been a part of what you’ve done with your workouts, just tell us a little bit about kind of what the summer looks like for the guys that have been part of the roster that you’re going to hopefully build your team around, come you know, come this fall.

[00:40:55] Pete Gash: Yeah. So we’ve really tried to give everyone a blank sheet of paper and kind of just get a chance to know them and see how they work and see how they operate. And the biggest thing that we’re just trying to do, right. Is, we’re just trying to build some trust. Like I think whenever you take over a, a job or you just come into a job, you don’t even necessarily take over a job as an assistant.

Sometimes you come in and you know, you’re trusted into a team that’s ready to be really good. You just have to build trust with your guys. And trust is so many different ways. It’s the consistency in how you approach every day. It’s the consistency in how you are at practice. It’s your consistency in checking in on them.

It’s your dialogue with them? So right now, the biggest thing that we’re doing is we’re just kind of building trust and then we’re kind of implementing our system and we’re allowing them to make some mistakes. And we always talk about how practice looks a little clunky right now. Well, it’s going to look a little clunky when 13 players and five staff members have never been together before.

So it’s not, it’s not going to look good. So I’m not saying that we’re, that we’re. Sitting over here and letting things go, but we’re really just kind of being all in this thing together, trying to figure it out together and building trust together. And then we’re going to kind of see how this thing gets, how this thing moves getting closer to the season.

But for right now, the biggest thing for us is just showing our guys that we care about. ’em, we’re here to develop them as players. We’re here to develop them as people and just kind of be invested into them. And then hopefully that’ll parlay itself into some, into some mutual two-way trust where the real growth development can happen.

[00:42:35] Mike Klinzing: Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing on the floor with the guys. How much time are you spending with them and what do you guys hope to accomplish with the summer workouts? Obviously you’re tailoring ’em to each individual player and what you see their role going to be and all that kind of thing.

But just tell us a little bit about the on court workouts that you guys have had this summer and what those entail.

[00:42:58] Pete Gash: Yep. So majority of what we wanted small groups skill, right?  Voices, voices, voices. We quickly realized that. We have a whole entire system that we have to implement. And this is where coach Markwood being so well thought out and really knowing himself and knowing what he wants the program to look like. He quickly stepped in and said, Hey, we need to start implementing what we’re going to do on both sides of the ball.

And let’s, let’s give our guys a really good base of everything throughout the summer. And once we give them that base, then we can go back and, and, and kind of go with a whole part, whole method. Right? So now when, when we come back in the fall, we can do a little bit more individuals and still build and implement.

But we really spent the summer just installing our offense, parts of our offense, installing our base defense, how we’re going to guard ball screens, how we’re going to guard in our gaps. Right? So we kind of implemented both our offensive shell and our defensive. And then we sprinkled in about 15 to 20 minutes per practice of skill development and combination shooting, which is essentially shooting out of our offense.

And we felt like that was a good way to integrate us, getting to coach these guys on their skillset and also implementing the brand of basketball that coach Markwood’s going to implement at the university of Maine. So we just got, and we felt like we really in of that shell and now when we get it’s tighten

really, really start getting this program to look the way we want to look.

[00:44:51] Mike Klinzing: As you guys are meeting as a staff and Chris is going through and, and talking with you guys, how does he go about dividing up responsibilities among the staff? Is he an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator Or is it everybody’s coaching kind of everything.

Are you responsible for a position group? Just how’s he go about dividing up the responsibilities among the staff?

[00:45:12] Pete Gash: Yeah, so he was very, he was great with it. He said, Hey, what do you guys want to take this? You know, like I said, Jordan Bronner, you’re a point guard. You’ve had a lot of success being a point guard at New Hampshire.

Take the point guard, Rob Obel, you’re a really good shooting coach. Let’s get you really working with the wings Pete, you have had you’ve done a good job working with big guys, places you’ve done. You take those guys. And then as far as kind of the, the, the overall part of what are we focused on we’re all kind of just figuring that out, but it’s one of those things.

Where someone’s going to be watching on the ball defense. Someone’s going to be watching our protection, whatever happens behind the ball, someone’s going to be watching our offense. How’s our offense, spacing and our offensive execution. And we’re going to kind of split that up as you know, five on five starts happening more and it starts getting a little bit more fluid in practice.

But it’s just going to be something where we’re all going to sit down and talk about it. It might be one day, Hey, you got pick and roll defense, you got protection, you got offense. And we might flip it up just so we’re pretty versatile in terms of what we’re looking for. And then again, we all take ownership, guys, all hear our voices.

Guys can go talk to anyone for film. And it just brings that whole cohesion that we, we believe here is what can separate a team is just how connected we all are. Right? And if the staff is connected, the players are going to be connected and the players can see if the staff is connected.

And coach Markwood comes from Coach Goen, who seems like everything they do there is really connected. And coach Markwood was really stressing that we all have to be connected in, in what we do as a staff. And I just think that’s really resonate with our players. They’re going to comfortable. And then that’s just lead to connected with each on.

[00:46:57] Mike Klinzing: That being said, tell us the amount of time that you guys are spending together as a staff. Meeting going over things, especially here in the off season. I’m not sure that let’s say if I’m a high school coach, I’m not sure that I, I know exactly what a college staff is doing on a day to day basis as a high school coach, maybe I’m in the classroom and I can meet with my staff, but we don’t all know kind of what goes on behind the scenes with the college staff.

So as a brand new staff coming in, trying to turn around a program and here you are in the summer months, what are your guys, what what’s the meeting schedule look like? How long the meetings last? What are you guys talking about? I know there’s obviously lots of different things that you guys are talking about, but just give us an idea of how much time you’re spending together in the coaches’ office, breaking down, film talking, and just trying to figure this thing.

[00:47:50] Pete Gash: Yeah, well, so no matter what, we’re always going to meet on practice and you know, it, it could be for an hour, it could be for an hour and 20 minutes. We’re always going to meet and go over what we’re going to do on practice, which again is one of the most things about working for coaches. He’s so well thought out in terms of like what we’re going to do and what everyone’s going to be doing in practice.

So we’re always going to meet, right? That’s going to take X amount of time every day, like said it could an hour minutes, 45 minutes, whatever. But the most interesting thing, and one of the most refreshing things about being up here is we’re always kind of around each other in the we’re either sitting in the meeting room. We’re sitting in my office, we’re sitting in Rob’s office, we’re sitting in Tommy’s office, we’re sitting in Jordan’s office. We’re always just kind of around each other. So I couldn’t put a clock to how long we are, how long we spend together. But it’s pretty much all day. I mean, besides working out, we’re either meeting on recruiting, we’re meeting on what the program needs to get done.

We’re meeting on travel. We’re meeting on gear, we’re meeting on social media. We’re meeting on how our locker room’s going to look like. We’re always just kind of meeting with each other, what the guys need. I mean, as you know, the players, sometimes they need to get a TV for their room. So we have to figure out how are they going to get there?

They might need to figure out, Hey, where’s the, we have two new freshmen that just came last week. Where are they going to eat on campus? We have to show them where to go. So we’re always around each other. So from when we get in. So when we leave besides maybe to go work out, we’re generally around each other for that whole entire day,

[00:49:31] Mike Klinzing: It just shows up again, the amount of time that you have to put in and in order to get everybody on the same page and make sure that you’re all rolling that boat in the same direction and to get, as you said, build a trust amongst the coaching staff, and then build that trust that the players can see it.

And now you start to build the trust with your players. So as you guys think about building the relationships with your guys, what are some, some of the things that you do over the course of the summer to start to build that trust, you talked about, Hey, we’re showing up every day, we’re doing this. And you know, the players are bought into the fact that they know we’re here to make ’em better, but what are you doing to build the kinds of relationships that it really takes so that you can coach your guys and push ’em and get the most out of.

[00:50:20] Pete Gash: Yeah. I just think being authentic, I think like that’s just kind of who we are. Like, we’re all kind of, like we said, in the beginning and we’re all very thankful and grateful to be here. So I think when our guys see us being excited to be here and not feeling like a burden coach Markwood always talks about coming to practice with a smile on your face.

Like when you’re coming every day with a smile on your face, when you’re having like real authentic conversations with guys, you’re asking them about their families. You’re asking them about how they got here. You’re diving to ’em a little bit more than, Hey, I watched some tape on you and we need to work on this, that, and then they really start to feel like you’re about them more than just what they could do on a court.

So we’re building it just by being authentic, right? The best coaches I’ve worked for the John Gianninis, the Billy Donovans. You know, those guys are just the most authentic people that you’re going to find. And then I’ve worked for other guys that are in it for the complete wrong reasons and they’re, they’re not authentic, you know?

And I think that when guys see that and players see that and players feel that you know, and one of the best things about Ashley Howard and Bashir Mason is like, you know what, you’re going to get with those guys every single day. Cause that’s just who they’re right. And coach Markwood’s the same way. So I think when it comes to, when it comes to building authentic relationships with guys and building trust, you just have to be who you are every day and dive into them as, as kids. I think that that’s how they’re going to turn the corner on you and make sure that they trust you no matter what, when the bullets start flying, come see you.

[00:51:57] Mike Klinzing: How does that dynamic work with you as an assistant? You can answer this, whether it’s sort of where you are at the university of Maine or in some of your other stops, obviously there’s a slightly different relationship with an assistant coach as with a head coach.

Ultimately, the players know that the head coach is the guy who’s going to determine whether or not they get on the floor. And so you have different assistants that sometimes. Fill different roles, sort of, as maybe a player confidant that a player can come to and, and talk about something that maybe they wouldn’t bring to the head coach.

So whether you want to address sort of where that is with you know, at Maine, obviously you haven’t gone through a season yet, so you haven’t faced some of those playing time issues. And some of the other things that as coaches can sometimes be challenging, but maybe in your other stops, just talk about how that relationship for you as an assistant coach was so important to the players that you coach.

Just because again, the relationship with the head coach, sometimes isn’t always the same as it is for an assistant.

[00:52:52] Pete Gash: Yeah. I just think when you’re an assistant coach, your messaging has have to be exactly what the head coach’s messaging is for sure. Now you’re you, you can, you can approach it a little different, right.

But the one thing that you can never do is you can never give the guys any crutch that you are not aligned with the head coach. They’re waiting for you to not be aligned with the head coach. Right. So it doesn’t matter how that comes across. You have to make sure that you’re always completely aligned with the head coach.

And that’s kind of the way that the guys realize like, Hey, I can’t get over. Like if I’m, if I’m trying to tell people I’m getting screwed here and no one’s believing me and no one’s buying into it, then they have to really look in the, the mirror themselves. Right. And that’s, I think it goes back to this Mike at the end of the day, like, Your character as an assistant coach, right?

Like your character as a man should be your same character as an assistant coach. If you’re a loyal friend, right? You’re a loyal husband, you’re going to be loyal to your head coach and you’re going to kind have his back. You’re going to make sure that you’re connecting. You’re going to make sure that you’re in such good standing with your head coach.

And what he’s thinking that when a player comes to you about something, you can essentially rattle off what the head coach would say, and then we’re all rowing in the same direction. And then there’s no issues. And that’s where. Constantly communicating is the best vitamin that you can give a program when you’re a head coach or assistant coach to your player.

So it’s always communicating. So there’s no margin for misinterpretation. And I think that’s, that’s the most important thing you can do as an assistant coach to just be overly communicating with your whole entire staff every day, as much as you can.

[00:54:45] Mike Klinzing: That makes complete sense. And I think when you look at it, right, that consistent messaging. And that idea that you can have those arguments right behind closed doors, you might have a disagreement, or you might bring something to a head coach and the head coach thinks about it. You have that discussion in the coach’s office. And then once everybody leaves the coach’s office and that door closes everybody’s back on the same page.

And I think as an assistant coach, that word that you hear over and over again, that you use as loyalty, right? It’s there’s a reason why somebody brought you on their staff to be a head coach. I’ve said this a couple times, Pete, but it’s one of the things that I, I think when I think about my coaching career, There’s one statement that a guy that I was his assistant coach at the high school level for, I think we were together for 12 years.

And after the fact, this is probably like three or four years ago. So he and I hadn’t coached together for probably 10 years. And we were just having a conversation. He’s like, like the one thing that I appreciated about you more than probably anybody that I’ve ever had is one of my assistant coaches, was the fact that I knew that I could count on you, that you were always going to be loyal to me into our program.

And you were never angling for trying to do something else or get another job or getting my job. And there’s you just never know when you, when you bring people in, especially on the high school level where sometimes you kind of inherit assistance or you get somebody who’s a teacher in the district that maybe you don’t have a relationship with or whatever.

But that’s probably one of the things that I’m the most proud of when it comes to my coaching career is just that here’s a guy I worked with and worked for for a number of years. And the thing that, the thing that he was most that, that made him feel the best about our relationship was the fact that I was loyal to him.

And to me, just like you said, there’s nothing as an assistant coach. If you don’t have that, then you really don’t have much of anything. Because again, you want to be able to present that United front to the players. When you think about what you guys are trying to build there, and you look ahead to the start of fall practice and you think about the season and, and you’re going through it, and let’s say, it’s next, it’s next March.

And at some point next March, unless you guys are cutting down the nets in April, well, then we can call it April. But what do you see as the definition of success in your first year? And obviously I’m not talking about wins and losses, but when you look back on the season, when it ends, what do you guys hope to say that, Hey, this is how we’re going to define success.

Have you guys had that conversation?

[00:57:12] Pete Gash: Yeah. You know, we haven’t had that conversation, but I think that. If we just focus on like keeping our culture tight, keeping the environment tight. And what I mean by that is keeping what coach Markwood wants this program to look like keeping that authentic every day.

Right. And we don’t waiver on that. So it’s every single day we do that, the wins whatever other people define as success, that’ll be their own we’ll know that we did our job. If we keep everything moving in the right direction and we keep it tight throughout the whole entire year. You know, one of the best lines that I remember from Tom Crean when I worked at Indiana was climbing is easier than hanging on. He had this, this sign on his desk. It’s climbing is easier than hanging on and I never really paid any attention to it. Like I was like, what is this? Like I was 21 years old. Didn’t make any sense. But I now like being in it and seeing different programs and being on the start of, of programs and coming into other programs where you are hanging on, like, if you’re always climbing and you’re always doing something and you’re always making forward progress, it is so much better than just hanging on by a thread and catering and bending on what you want the program to look like.

So for us, I think if we just keep the program tight, keep our environment authenticity is going to be there.

[00:58:58] Mike Klinzing: What are some things that you guys have looked at when you’re sitting down in the film room and you’re trying to evaluate what you have from last season. Are you guys mostly at this point, you’re just looking at individual personnel. Are you looking at, Hey, here’s what this team did.

Well, last year, how can we incorporate that into this coming years team? As you guys evaluate the film, what is it that you’re looking for? What are some things that you’ve found that you’ve seen that you think can help you heading into this season?

[00:59:29] Pete Gash: Yeah, so we’ve watched pretty much all of our guys that are returning and their shots, their turnovers their fouls.

We’ve watched a lot of that. And it’s just pretty much like how they are as a player where we can tighten up their individual games where they’re comfortable on the court. You know, some guys didn’t play a lot of minutes, but I think they really fit in our system really well, so. Okay.

What did they do well in their short minutes that we can really build off of. So it’s been very player personnel based. And when we’ve watched film, now, one of the things we are doing is we are looking at teams that we’re going to play in the league and looking at their film and kind of what they’ve done in the past.

And just kind of getting a core sense of what the other teams in our league do.

[01:00:33] Mike Klinzing: As you’ve sat down and maybe initial impressions back when you guys first got the job and you were looking at players, any initial impressions that were maybe. Sort of off base after you had a chance to actually work with a guy out on the floor and actually dive into them a little bit more in the film room.

Is there anybody that surprised you in let’s spin it positive? Is there anybody that surprised you in a positive way that maybe on first glance you were like, eh, I’m not sure about that guy. And now as you’ve gotten a chance to work with them, you’ve seen what they’re all about that. And you can name names if you want or not name names, but just maybe talk about how the more you’re around and the more familiarity you build with the guy, the more you, you sort of see what they’re all about.

[01:01:16] Pete Gash: Yeah. So I’ll, I’ll just give this as a general thing. I think every single person in our program has surprised me because these guys were, I think six and 26 last year won three division one games. So going into it, not knowing I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what I was walking into, but every one of these guys has, has completely impressed me with their coachability.

They’re wanting to get better their willingness to do, whatever’s asked of them. So I’m going to say every one of these guys has impressed me with that. It’s all been better than I thought. And, and basketball is one of these games, Mike, where it’s really hard game to quantify and there’s so much analytics out there, but it’s hard to look at basketball analytically because so much of it is driven by the environment that you’re in, on the court, who you’re playing with, how the game’s being played.

You know, it’s not like you’re in baseball and you’re going up there and you’re going against the pitcher. And you know what he’s going to throw where his three pitches, he he’s going to throw at you. I mean, basketball is so on quantified. So I, I think they’ve all kind of impressed me in different ways.

And I haven’t tried to read into too much of what they, what they didn’t do last year as more of like, what can we get from them after working them out for a summer or a couple individuals? Like what more they have to give than anything else.

[01:02:41] Mike Klinzing: When you’re going through and you’re doing this process with the players as a new staff.

One of the things that we talk a lot with high school coaches about is the parents that are part of the program. So as a college program, and again, you can speak to what you guys are doing at the university of Maine, or maybe you can speak to what some of the other programs you’ve been with, just how you’ve engaged and maintained communication with parents and how.

Important you feel that is in terms of making sure that you have the parents on board with what’s going on in the program? Cause I know in a high school level, obviously it’s really important. People are, are really dialed in. And I think about the way that parents are so involved with their kids’ careers all the way from youth basketball, through high school and the amount of money that they’re spending on trainers and travel for AAU and all these things you have, I think a different generation of players where the parents have been so much more involved in careers of players than they were 15 or 20 years ago.

So just how have you guys handled that at Maine or how have you handled that in the past with some of the other staff you’ve worked with?

[01:03:47] Pete Gash: Yeah. So my best friend growing up is a head baseball coach at a very prominent high school in New Jersey. And they’re in the top 25 USA today. He’s an unbelievable baseball coach.

He worries about his parents all the time. It’s almost to the point when he calls me, it’s like, he’s not even worried about the game. Right. And I, every time he says that, I just think never in that position ever. I don’t now every single coach I’ve worked for is different in of how’d. Right. I think that, that the common denominator in college is a majority of the time in recruiting.

You have to get to know the parents and you can choose if you want that parent in your program or not in recruiting. Right. And I think that there’s some parents that are so overbearing. And so much that there’s some coaches that say I don’t, I don’t want that in my program. I don’t like where that’s going to lead.

When you inherit a team, it’s a little different, because you’re kind of stuck with those kids and their parents. And I think that the one thing that you can always do is just be really transparent in your conversations with them. Kind of see where they’re at and just again, not cater to things that aren’t about the team.

Right? And I’ve had some coaches that say, I’m not talking to any parents. I’ve had some coaches that literally take parents phone calls after games. So it’s so all over the place. And it’s hard for me to give you an answer on that, but I’ll, I’ll say this, like your parents are always going to have a, a vision of you as a player.

That it’s completely different and than what the head coach is going to view us,  it’s never going completely align. And it shouldn’t, I mean, that’s your child. So I think the one thing that you can do whenever you’re an assistant coach is you can just show those parents that your loyalty is to the program and to the head coach. And I think if you do that and don’t waiver, and again, it’s very similar to what you talk about with the players. Like if you don’t waiver, you don’t bend on that. They can’t throw anything at you because it’s not coming back at ’em. Right. So if you establish those, those lines early in the relationship with the parents, a lot of that stuff just becomes white noise and you know, and goes back on them because no one’s drinking the juice that they’re trying to make drink.

So I hope that that answers your question a little bit. Again, it’s so different in every place that I’ve been, but you know, for, for me, the one thing that I think really benefits college. Is, you can get to know parents in the recruiting process and usually make a decision if you want that, that, that crew around as you’re going through trying to win some games and have some difficult times.

[01:06:38] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. That’s a great point. I think the ability to sort of, pre-screen not just the player, but pre-screen, the parents makes a big difference and, and you know, at least a little bit of what you’re getting into before you get into it and. As we know, I mean, parents obviously have a big influence on their kids and rightfully so.

And yet at the same time, I know that as coaches, one of the things that no matter what level you talk to coaches at, they want to be able to have that impact on their players and they want to make sure that the players understand what. What it’s all about that it’s, that it’s about team. And I think parents sometimes, and again, we can completely understand why you and I are both parents and you love your kids.

And sometimes you’re not always realistic about what it is that your kids are or aren’t, and, and parents can sometimes unfortunately get a little bit crazy. So, as you said, the fact that you can pre-screen ’em out through the recruiting process, I’m sure makes a big difference at the, at the college level, compared to the high school level where you kind of get you, get what you get and you have to figure it out.

And as you said, your friend who coaches a baseball team, man, I it’s, if you’re. You have to spend a lot of time on parents as a high school coach. Let’s just put it that way.

[01:07:48] Pete Gash:  Yeah. And it it’s a time it’s a time period in their life too. Like that high school experience is just it’s delicate.

You know what I mean? And there’s, it’s a hard, it’s a hard thing to really, to navigate. And I, I feel bad for all the high school coaches that have to deal with that. And I also know that one of the worst things as a parent is seeing your kid unhappy or seeing your kids suffer. And that’s a really hard part as a parent.

So there’s always kind of that, that clash and I feel really bad for you guys that you have to do that all the time.

[01:08:17] Mike Klinzing: I think what’s interesting. And that as, as a parent. So I have a, I have a son who’s a high school junior this year, and my daughter’s going to go to college here in the next in the next week or so.

And she’s, she doesn’t, she doesn’t play. She’s just going as a regular, as a regular student, but it’s interesting just as a parent, you realize like how fast these four years of high school go and as a college player, how fast those four years go when you’re sitting there as a parent and you just realize that, man, it, it goes, it goes quick and then it’s gone.

Whereas sometimes I think as coaches, we sometimes forget that the players’ experience is, is so short because we as coaches have the ability to have a long career. And so you say, okay, we got this year and then next year, and then, and you know, you’re getting a new crop of guys in you’re recruiting ’em and that’s not to say that you’re looking at ’em.

Numbers that you’re just bringing through the program. I, I completely understand and get that. That’s not the case, but I guess my point is, as a parent, you realize that those experiences go super fast. And sometimes as a coach, you get caught up kind of in, in such of the minutia that you don’t realize it quite as much.

It’s like, I always was amazed that as a player, at one time, I ran into my high school assistant coach. This was years and years after I graduated and we were talking he’s like, now I’m trying to remember who was on your team? And he named a couple guys who were like, Seriously, like seven years older than me.

And I’m like, yeah, I didn’t. I’m like, yeah, I didn’t play with, I didn’t play with those guys, but kind of as a coach it’s sort of, at some point it kind of runs that stuff kind of runs together. And it’s just interesting how the perspective, your perspective as a parent is, is different.

From my perspective, when I was a coach, it’s, it’s totally different kind in the way you look at and approach it. And I think that sometimes no matter which side of they’re on, sometimes as a parent, you forget what the coach is going through. And sometimes as a coach, you forget what the parents are going through.

If that makes any sense.

[01:10:17] Pete Gash: Yeah, no, yeah, no doubt. No doubt. I live by this thing I heard, I heard guy say this once it’s. You know, make every day long. And I was like, why, why would you, why would you want to do that? Like what, why would you want every day to be long? And I think about it now all the time with these guys in college, like, yeah, I want to make every day long for them.

I want to make everyday fun for them. I want to make every day, I want to max out every day with them, because like you’re saying in four years goes by so fast. And then all of a sudden they’re, they’re outta college and you just had ’em and you’re like, damn, where did that go? So I always think about that.

Just like kind make, make every day long and just kind of spin that into your own way of just trying to get the most out of everyone every day and not taking a day for, for granted. Yeah. It makes a

[01:11:03] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. I mean, I think if you can maximize the experience that you get, right? I mean, honestly, that’s really, when you start talking about building a new program, like you guys are doing, what you’re talking about is a, obviously you want to have success on the floor, your win loss record at the division one level.

Is important. And yet at the same time, I think what I hear you saying right there is that not only do you want to win on the court, but you also want to create the type of experience that your players are going to enjoy. And that they’re going to look back on finally. And if you can build that type of program, that’s going to make the recruiting process so much easier.

Because now guys are going to come in. They’re going to talk to your current players. Current players are going to say, man, this is a place that you want to come and play. Because this staff cares about you because the experience of playing here is such a good one. And then that sorts of sort of starts to feed on itself, right?

That’s when you know you have success, then when your staff, it’s not just your staff selling the program, but your players are buying in and they’re the guys enforcing the culture. And I, I would guess that that’s where you guys eventually want to get to.

[01:12:10] Pete Gash: Yeah, no doubt, man. It’s all environment, man.

It’s all the kids can feel it from a mile away when they’re around your players and they’re around the staff and they feel it, then you know, you’re doing  something right.

[01:12:20] Mike Klinzing: So to go along with that, I think one of the challenges that coaches face is how do you keep the guys at the back end of your roster?

So the guys who are your players, who are your reserves, how do you make sure that you keep them engaged and buying in and a part of what you’re doing? Cause obviously the guys who are out on the floor, it’s easy for them to feel connected to the program. It’s easy for them to feel good about the coaching staff.

It’s harder for guy 13 who look, every guy on a college roster, I’m sure thinks they should be playing. So guy 13, who’s playing two minutes of game and blowouts, how do you make sure that you keep that kid engaged? What are some of the things that you’ve done in the past or that you’ve seen head coaches do in the past or that you guys have talked about there at Maine that you can do to keep those guys who maybe aren’t getting the minutes they want, how do you keep them on board and on task with what you’re trying to do?

[01:13:22] Pete Gash: Yeah. So I’m going to give a lot of credit to Ash Howard on this, because you know, when I was at the Ash would always talk about this, got it right. And it’s just it’s roles are different. Status is the same it’s a big Jay Wright thing.

And we talked about it a lot at Sal and it’s just making sure that everyone feels very important in their, in their role, regardless of their role. And then really taking those guys that aren’t playing and developing a program for them where they’re constantly feeling like they’re getting better, even if they’re not on the court.

Right. So everyone’s always going to be getting better when they’re on the court. That’s the number one way to really get better as a player. That’s why the G League was created. Right. But in college we don’t have the luxury of sending guys down to playing, right. So we have to. Be really creative with the guys that aren’t playing in terms of their player development, to make them feel like they’re getting better.

Right. And part of the player development is more than just on the court instruction. It’s the authentic dialogue that we have with them to keep them aligned with the ultimate goal, which is winning, being a good teammate, serving each other, enjoying other people’s success. Right. And if we have that dialogue going with them and we’re teaching them that as they’re not playing it’s going to make that experience better for them.

Some guys, regardless of what you do are not going to want to come back and they they’re going to want a different role, but as long as their status is all kind of the. Their role can be different and they’re still going to be getting better. So Ash was amazing at that. I really love him as a person for everything that he did for me.

And he did a really good job at La Salle and it didn’t really come to fruition, but if you look at what he was able to do with guys in terms of developing them, he really made us as a staff focus on that. So I’d love to bring that wherever I go. I think that’s a really important thing. And I think that no matter where you are, if you have that relationship with your guys and you’re constantly working with them to get them better, then they’re going to, eventually it’s going to crack.

If they’re bought in and they’re going to have success the way that they want to have success.

[01:15:46] Mike Klinzing: That makes sense.

[01:15:48] Pete Gash: You know, so, and then here’s another thing too. Villanova did this thing called flush days that I thought were brilliant. So the day after a game, they would do kind of a flush lift. They’d go over some plays.

And then the guys that didn’t play would get like a really hard individual, maybe one on 1, 2, 1, 2. And it was just a way to keep those guys really, really engaged on the day after games. So all that bad energy could just kind of flush itself out through the process of lifting, preparing, and, and an individual instruction.

[01:16:21] Mike Klinzing: That makes a lot of sense. I mean, I think that anything that you can do to make sure that those guys are bought in another thing that now I’m trying to remember who told me this, but is recently on one of our shows. And so forgive me for whoever, whoever shared this with me, but talked about how as the head coach, like going out and rebounding for your guys that don’t play like, Hey man, I’m going to let’s, let’s go through a workout and it’s not the assistant coach.

It’s not the graduate assistant. It’s the head coach that comes out and says, Hey, let’s do a shooting workout. Let me rebound for you. And obviously when you’re rebounding, when you’re going through that individual workout, you’re having a conversation with the kid.

And what better way to show that you’re valuing that, that player who’s maybe not playing a lot, not getting a lot of minutes and, and not contributing as much as they want to do on the floor. You’re spending time and taking that time just individually with them to be able to go through and do that. I thought that was something that I hadn’t heard anybody say before, but to me that seems like a really powerful thing that a head coach could do.

[01:17:26] Pete Gash: It’s like February on like a Sunday. I think we lost on a Saturday, maybe to LSU at LSU got blown out and we come back on a Sunday and I go into the office early and you know, some of the guys come down on the court to work out. It was a, an injured guy that was a red shirt and it was a walk.

And he put him through like a 45 minute, like really hard individual. And I’m like this, guy’s a hall of fame, two time national championship coach. And he’s down there with three guys that can’t come in and play on the next game and he’s working him out and getting a better. And like, that was to me when I saw that I was like, wow, like this, there’s a reason why this guy’s going to be in the hall of fame.

And I kind of asked around and they’re like, yeah, he does that all the time. Like he’s always invested in those guys. Yeah. Even if they’re not playing, just kind of showing them that he is there for him and, and coaching him up. I think that goes such a long way.

[01:18:25] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think there’s any doubt.

There’s no way that if you’re a guy at the back end of the roster and your head coach is coming down and pour it into you. Look, everybody’s competitive. And you still , you still aren’t happy that you’re not getting on the floor, but the idea that somebody in the coaching staff, especially the head coach, is still investing in you and putting time in and, and trying to get you better and help you improve so that eventually you can get out on the floor and contribute.

I can’t see where there’d be anything, any more valuable than that. When you look ahead, what are you excited about for this season? When, when the season starts, what, what part of it are you most excited for?

[01:19:01] Pete Gash: I’m excited to see. I’m excited to watch our guys in a completely new environment, completely new system.

I’m excited to watch them kind of figure it out. You know what I mean? Like I think they’re going to get baptized by fire. You know, we’re playing Nebraska on the first game of the year and think Boston college, our third game of the year, like we’re going to get really tested. So I’m excited to just see our guys figure it out.

And I’m excited to see how they respond to when it’s not going well. I think like when it’s not going well in year one, so much character comes out. Right. And you have a chance to really coach guys on character in this first year. You know, you only get year one once. So I’m really excited to see how we’re going to respond to all things good and bad.

And just, just see how these guys are and when the bullets are flying and be there to kind of help.

[01:19:50] Mike Klinzing: Two questions to wrap things up. Actually it’s a one, one question, two parter. So, first part, when you look ahead over the next year or two for you personally, what do you see as the biggest challenge ahead in the next year or two?

And then part two, what’s the biggest joy that you get out of what you get to do every day, waking up and being an assistant there at the university of Maine. So your biggest challenge and your biggest joy biggest challenge,

[01:20:15] Pete Gash: I think is just going to be kind of changing the perception, just kind of changing, like when people think why can’t you win or whatever.

I just think that’s, that’s always going to be a challenge, just changing people’s perception.  I don’t really put a lot of thought into what others think, but I think that there is some truth in the fact that you’re going to change a narrative whenever you come to a job where they haven’t won in quite some time.

But the one thing about Chris is he’s been here when they’ve won, so he knows what it looks like. So I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge. The biggest joy in doing what I do honestly to me, the biggest joy is. When I come home, I’m in a good mood. Like I think there’s a lot of guys that I know that they don’t like their job or they don’t like the people they work with and they kind of bring that into the home and it, it kind of it kind of resonates with their family in the wrong way.

And I’m glad that I can come home every day, be a good place. Give my, give myself to my family when I come through the door and kind of know that I’m going to wake up tomorrow and do something that I like. So the biggest joy to me is being able to do what I like and then be able to come home and be in a good mood and not bring any bad energy into the house.

[01:21:33] Mike Klinzing: That’s invaluable. Not many people, there’s not, not everybody gets a chance to do that. And I’ve said this numerous times on the pod and a lot of times in response to how guys answer that question. But to me, I think that, you know what I hear you saying, and, and what other coaches I think try to express is the fact that you get to.

You get to be with basketball every day, you get to do something that you love and you get to use that thing that you love to be able to have an impact on the kids that you coach. And then you can obviously bring that home in a positive way and be able to interact with your family and be happy. And not everybody, like I said, not everybody has an opportunity to do something that they love and have an impact on the world and, and do it with, with a game that just like it’s been so good to me.

I know it’s been, it’s been good to you. And I think that you could feel, as you’re talking tonight, I could feel the passion that you have for coaching and what you’re trying to do and what you guys are building that the university of Maine. And it’ll be exciting to be able to watch and kind of track your progress and see how you guys go through and what this season looks like.

And as we talked about a little bit earlier, when you, when you get done with this year and you look back and you try to define what. What success looks like. You know, I think you guys are going to get that thing going and, and get it built the way that you want to get it built. Before we wrap up, I want to give you a chance to share how people can find out more about what you guys are doing there at the university of Maine.

You can share a website, social media, email, how people can reach out to you. And then after you do that, I’ll jump back in Pete wrap things up.

[01:23:05] Pete Gash: Yeah, I don’t even know what my Twitter handle is.

[01:23:11] Mike Klinzing: We’ll put that in the show notes and I’m probably before you,

[01:23:18] Pete Gash: Just Google Maine basketball, hopefully you’ll hear about us because we’re playing well we’re winning games.

[01:23:38] Mike Klinzing: The programs Twitter is @MaineMBB. So if you want to follow Pete and you want to follow Maine basketball, that’s where you want to go. Again, Pete, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time outta your schedule to jump on with us. It’s been fun, learning more about you and your journey, and then the type of program that you and Chris are trying to build up there at the University of Maine.

We’re looking forward to being able to follow you guys this year and see where success takes you. So again, thank you. And it’s everyone out there. Thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.