RJ Bell is entering his fourth season as an assistant coach and sixth season on staff for the Duquesne University Women's Basketball Team. After a two-year stint as a graduate student, Bell was promoted to assistant coach ahead of the 2023-24 season.

In his first season as offensive coordinator, Bell helped transform Duquesne into one of the top three-point shooting teams in the Atlantic 10 during the 2025-26 season.

Bell joined the staff after wrapping up his collegiate playing career at Geneva College. He played in all 65 games over his final three seasons with the Golden Tornadoes and helped lead the team to an appearance in the 2020 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Championship Game.

On this episode Mike and RJ discuss being a coach's kid and carving out his own path in coaching, emphasizing the significance of relationship-building and character development within a team. We examine the intricacies of his transition from a graduate assistant to a full-fledged assistant coach, highlighting his new role as offensive coordinator and the ambitious goals he has set for his team. Additionally, we reflect on the vital importance of communication and cultural understanding in a diverse team environment, particularly as it pertains to leadership development among players. Bell shares the joys and challenges inherent in the world of college basketball coaching, as well as the commitment to fostering a positive and successful team culture.

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Have your notebook ready to go as you listen to this episode with RJ Bell, Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach at Duquesne University.

Website - https://goduquesne.com/sports/womens-basketball

Email - [email protected]

Twitter/X - @rj_bell5

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If you're going to lead somebody, you have to know the person that you're leading.

RJ Bell is entering his fourth season as an assistant coach and sixth season on the staff for the Duquesne University women's basketball team.

Bell joined the staff after wrapping up his collegiate playing career at Geneva College.

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Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast.

It's Mike Cleansing here tonight without my co host, Jason Sunkel.

But I am pleased to be joined by RJ Bell, women's basketball assistant coach at Duquesne University.

Rj, welcome in, man.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Absolutely excited to have you on.

Looking forward to diving into all of the interesting things that you've been able to do in your basketball life to this point.

Let's start by going back in time to when you were a kid.

Tell me about your introduction to the game.

What are some of your earliest memories of basketball?

Yeah, so ever since I can remember, I was in the gym.

My dad was a high school basketball coach, a boys high school basketball coach in Pittsburgh for about 30 years.

And so 4 or 5 years old, after school, my mom would drop me off at the gym and I'd be there watching practice.

So I was always able kind of to see the game from the coach's perspective, just being around him.

And obviously, you know, all of my coaching philosophies and everything I've learned about basketball started with him, started with my dad.

And I went on all the road trips with the team where they weren't far, like, you know, 30 minutes down the road, road trips with the team.

Got to sit in the coaching meetings from a young age, and I, I took full advantage of that all the way up through, up until I play.

I eventually played for him when I was in high school for four years and learned a lot while I played for him, obviously, and just how to, like, how to manage people, how to, how to just how to get across to people, how to motivate people.

Even though me and him kind of have a different.

And people that know us that are listening to this, me and him have different demeanors.

He's a lot more intense than me, but we all, we have the same thought process when it comes to basketball, but he's just a little bit crazier than I am, but in the best way possible.

But yeah, I mean, just.

Just being a coach's kid is like a, like a basketball person's dream.

Just have access to things that a lot of people don't.

And I try to take full advantage of it.

How old were you when you finally realized that your experience as a basketball player, a basketball kid, wasn't the same as everybody else's in terms of the bat, the gym access.

Right.

The being able to sit in on the coaches meetings, all those kinds of things.

How old were you when you realized, like, hey, my buddies don't really have this in the same way I do unless they're tagging along with me.

Right.

But.

But when did you realize that?

Right.

Well, so honestly, probably not until I was probably in sixth or seventh grade.

My dad was actually good friends with Tom Crane.

They worked camps together back in the day.

So Coach Crane let us come out to Indiana when he was in Indiana every fall from like, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade on.

And we used to sit in on their practices like a week leading up to their first game and then watch their first game.

So I think kind of then was when I was like, man, I'm kind of.

I'm kind of lucky that I get to, you know, have a dad that's in coaching and knows people and.

And knows the game.

And like, just sitting in on Indiana's, you know, film sessions with Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller sitting right next to me like that, I would say those are the.

Those days are probably like, yeah, this isn't.

This isn't normal.

Not a lot of people get to experience this stuff.

Did you find yourself even while you're playing?

I think it's always interesting just thinking about the perspective of somebody who ends up in coaching and especially somebody who had a father who was so involved in the.

In the game.

From that perspective, when you were playing, did you find yourself thinking the game from more of a coaching perspective maybe than some of your friends did?

I know, for me, like, I. I felt like when I was playing, like I was just a player, for lack of a better way of saying it.

Like, I was not.

I don't know if interested, but maybe just not aware of the bigger picture of everything that was going on.

It was more just, what's my role?

What do I need to do?

How can I help the team win?

Not necessarily looking at the big picture strategy of why this decision was made or why this decision was made.

So I don't know if you were consciously aware of the fact that, hey, I'm thinking about the game as a coach, or maybe I'm just thinking about it as a coach when I'm off the floor and when I'm playing, I'm just playing.

What was kind of the mindset in terms of that player, coach, thought process, balance for you as, let's say, a high school player?

Yeah, I think I did.

I think I did think about it a little bit differently.

I probably led any player of all time and calling timeouts like falling out of bounds or just situations like, I probably called more timeouts than any player ever.

So, yeah, I do think I looked at the game from a coaching perspective.

I wasn't a point guard, so I think that maybe deterred it a little bit because I didn't have the ball in my hand.

I was more of a wing player.

But yeah, I think from a young age, like my dad would always say when we'd be watching games together, even when I was little, like, I would say certain things and be like, whoa, like you're thinking like that already.

So, yeah, I always think I looked at the game from a coaching perspective, but, you know, just had trust and faith in all the coaches that I always had, you know, ever had.

Because, you know, I think that's what a player should do and give suggestions and try to look and make it easier for them.

But, you know, trust, trust in what they're trying to do as well.

What was the balance between you and your dad?

Obviously you played for him as your high school coach, but as an off season type of situation, how much did your dad work with you?

How much did you go to him when you're saying, hey, I want to work on this or I want to get better at that?

What did your guys offseasons look like?

We'll jump into the seasons a little bit here in a minute.

But just what did the offseason look like in terms of him helping you to develop your game and you wanting him to help develop your game?

Right.

So because of how intense he is, people always thought that he probably pushed me super hard, which he really didn't.

Anytime we worked out, it was me asking him.

And I think, and I really thank him for that.

I didn't really understand it at the time, but now I do.

Like, he wanted to make sure that I didn't hate basketball and hate him.

So anytime that we did work out, it was me initiating it and it was, you know, it was a few times a week going and get shots and I always asked to shoot.

I kind of wish I were asked to work on other stuff too, because all I could really do was shoot in my career.

But yeah, I mean, it was.

It was more initiated by me.

And then he would always ask and we'd go in like, do you want to work hard or are we messing around?

Are we going to play pig against each other or we.

Are we actually working?

And so he would always ask that question on the way to the gym too.

But I just think the fact that he initiated it because a lot of coaches that coach their sons, they push them too hard and maybe I would have been a better player, but then we wouldn't have had the relationship that we have now.

And I can almost guarantee you that.

It's so interesting that you say that.

And that was going to kind of be my follow up question.

Have you ever had a conversation with your dad about that particular aspect of whether or not it was easy or hard for him to maybe not be that more pushing, overbearing dad and saying, hey man, I got to get RJ in the gym, he's got to get better, he's got to do this.

Did he ever kind of give you, you wonder and I'll give you my perspective with my own son here in a second.

But just curious if you've ever had like an adult to adult conversation kind of about what that relationship was like at the time.

Yeah, we have.

I was pretty self motivated to for the most part.

So I don't think it was like where he had like he was like what the heck, what are we doing here?

But like I, he's talked to me about it and pretty much just said what I just said.

Like he didn't want me ever to hate basketball and resent him.

That's kind of conversations we've had about it.

But like I was decently self motivated.

I could have been better about getting in the gym, but.

But yeah, the conversations that we've had have just been similar to what we just talked about.

Yeah, I love the way that you described it.

Right.

That the way your dad approached it was that he didn't want you to hate the game of basketball because he was pushing it on you when you didn't want it.

And then number two, he didn't want to sacrifice the relationship that he had with you in order to make you into a better basketball player.

And that's one of the things that my son's now he's going to be a junior in college next year.

And that's one of the things that as a basketball guy with my son that I had to really be very cognizant and aware of those exact issues that you were talking about that your dad probably wrestled with when he was away from you and laying in the bed at night and thinking about all this stuff is how much do you push, how much do you not.

And I kind of eventually came down on the same side of the coin that your dad did that I'm going to provide opportunities which obviously your dad keys to the gym, high school coach, lots of opportunities to provide you with chances to, to go in and work on your game.

And with me coaching and doing things like, I always had access to be able to get my son or my daughters to places to be able to play.

And there were times where I'd be going to the gym, maybe to do a workout with some kids or doing a group session.

I'd be like, hey, you guys want to go?

And sometimes they'd say yes, and sometimes they'd say no.

And I'd have to be like, man, I would have killed to have a gym and have my dad say, hey, we're just going to go to the gym.

I would have killed for that when I was a kid.

And yet I had to make sure that I dialed myself back and realized that, hey, it's about them.

And then of my three, two of the three eventually kind of took over on their own.

Kind of like you said, they started asking me, hey, can you take me to the gym?

Hey, can we go?

Shoot?

And I didn't have to do it.

And that was a great moment for me as a dad, as I'm sure it was for your dad that, like, hey, now it's, it's not, it's no longer your dad's career, It's.

It's yours, right?

And we're going to help facilitate that as the parent.

But we can't drag you along to make you do the things that you don't want to do.

As you said, that self motivation is important.

And I think the, the, the biggest piece for me that when I hear you talk about that, it's, it's ultimately the relationship, right, that now you and your dad have a great relationship.

You're going to have a great relationship for the rest of your lives.

And we've all heard the horror stories, right, of parents who have pushed their kids way too far and whatever, whether it's basketball or something else.

And now that relationship is fractured.

And to me, ultimately, that was never worth whatever that price was never worth making my son or my daughter 10% better as a basketball player.

The, the relationship was always more important.

So I think you're.

I think your dad came at it from the right perspective and.

But it's, it sometimes was tough.

I gotta, I gotta admit that there were definitely times where I'm like, come on, we gotta go.

Right?

Right.

For sure.

All right, let me ask you then about just what it was like playing for your dad in high school.

Obviously, there's lots of different things that can trip that up.

Perception of other people, whether that's other players on the team, whether that's other parents of players on the team.

There's always challenges there.

So how did you and your dad navigate it?

What do you remember about that time playing for him?

So freshman year I dressed varsity but played JV and didn't play at all varsity.

And then.

And I shouldn't have.

I. I didn't deserve to.

And then sophomore year I kind of was like in the rotation varsity to start the season, playing a lot of the games.

And then eventually his coaches said will you please just start him and not take him out of the game?

Like he was.

I think.

And I think he was doing it for me.

He was almost over cautious with it and would, you know, almost like I was coming off the bench when the other coaches were saying I should be starting.

Then eventually he did my sophomore year.

And then from then on, like, you know, we had a.

We had a really good core group of players where nobody was like my junior and senior year especially where nobody really stood out as the best player.

There was like three or four of us that on any given night could be.

So I think at that point everybody kind of just like recognized that I deserved it.

But he really, he really kind of eased myself ease me in and almost like it was almost like no choice.

Like all the coaches and even some of the parents are like why, why do you keep taking them off the floor type of thing.

So.

But he, he ease it in for, for me, I think.

And he has said that just so I didn't get any pushback and which, you know, I'm thankful for that as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that's one of the things that is sometimes difficult to navigate and I'm sure that you've seen it with players that you've recruited, whether it's travel, somebody coaching their.

Their own kid.

And you see the situations where maybe the kid isn't quite good enough to get some of that treatment or that starting spot or whatever it may be.

And then that's when all that resentment really builds.

And, and like you said, I think that as the parent coach, it's really important to almost bend over backwards right to.

To be.

I don't know if, I don't know if anti fair is a word, but to be anti fair to the, to the.

To your own kid, just to make sure that, you know, there's no backlash towards, towards you as you.

As the player playing for your.

For your parent.

I think that's a.

Again, another thing that player coach coaches who coach their own kids.

That's one of the things that I think that is a key to success is to be able to, to make sure that whatever your kid's getting, he's earned it and probably earned it two times over before they, before they get anything for sure.

When you think about yourself right now as a coach and then you think about your dad and who he was as a coach.

And you said that your guys personalities are, are different.

But I'm sure that over the course of time, playing with them now, coaching with them, there's certainly some things that he's done, characteristics that he has traits, things that you've carried over that you've looked at him and you've, you've copied or incorporated into who you are as a coach.

So what's one or two things that, when you look at yourself as a coach that you say, oh yeah, that, that came from my dad.

I definitely took that from him, from being around him, being coached by him, watch him coach all the time.

What are those characteristics that you took from him?

I would say that there's two main ones.

The first one being he, he loves the quote.

Players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

And he was just always, I, he always had great relationship with his players and it wasn't like obviously where he couldn't push them.

It wasn't like a buddy, buddy relationship.

It was just a, it was a trust relationship.

And so I really try hard to build that trust with our players at Duquesne.

And then I feel like once you do that, then you can coach somebody harder and they, they respect you more.

If they realize that you really care for them and off the court as a person, then they'll, they'll work harder for you on the court.

And he definitely has taught me that.

And really the other thing too, the other main thing is like really attention to detail and not really to ever leave like a stone unturned.

I just remember like our game plans, they were always like we, you know, he always was thinking we always did junk defenses and just there was always a lot of attention to detail and everything we did and simplicity, simplicity to it.

But we just drilled the basics and you know, a lot of attention to detail and we just did it until we got it right.

And I, that's what I kind of, I use that every single day in my workouts and, and when we're in the gym.

So I would say those is a lot of other things obviously as well.

But those are the two main things that, that really come to my mind right now.

What's your favorite memory from playing high school basketball for your dad?

Yeah, that's a, that's a.

That's a great question, because my, I would say probably my.

My senior year, we had the most wins in school history up until they actually broke our record the next year.

We 20.

We had 23 wins my senior year and we beat North Allegheny in the first round of our.

The playoffs.

Who's like a powerhouse in Pittsburgh.

And they had like three division one kids and we had a bunch of division three kids and we were, we were up by 20 in the first half, just killing them.

I made a half court shot at the buzzer at halftime and we won that game.

And just, just kind of being the underdog in that game and winning the first round of the playoff game there, that's.

I would say that game is probably my best memory with him.

That's always fun.

Buzzer beaters.

Yeah.

Halftime.

End of game.

It's tough, it's tough to be buzzer beaters as a memory.

I could tell you that much, that's for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

Tell me a little bit about the recruiting process and how that went for you, how you ended up at Geneva.

Yeah, so I was decently recruited by a lot of Division 3 schools in this area and a couple outside of the state.

I went to one of the hoop group camps in Albright College and had a good week there.

So I had some schools from out of the state that saw me.

And then I actually, I had a couple D2 schools that were recruiting me later in my career in high school, like Edinburgh University and a couple others, Wheeling Jesuit and came down to Geneva was just.

They, they came to almost all my games my senior year and they showed that they really wanted me and they had a lot of faith in me, and that was important to me.

You know the quote, go where you're wanted.

And I felt like they wanted me and, and coach Jeff Sanicero, who was there for many years, 30 some years, and he actually just retired this past year.

You know, he was a big reason.

He was.

He's a great guy.

He had a really successful career.

So just, just, just the shit.

They showed that they really wanted me and were.

And showed up at, you know, almost every game my senior year.

What was the influence of your dad in terms of his knowledge of kind of the process and helping you to work through, whether it's levels, whether it's trying to narrow things down?

What do you remember about your conversations with your dad as you're going through the process of Making that decision.

Yeah, it was really good where you're wanted level.

He didn't, he told me really not to worry about the levels because people get hung up on that.

Like obviously I was enamored with the D2 stuff when it started to happen and that's normal for a 17 year old kid.

But he just kept saying, just like those schools didn't, they didn't even know who you were a couple weeks ago.

You've had a good playoff run.

So now they know if you'd go, you know, you can, you know, look there and visit there but you know, remember the people that have been there the whole time and Geneva to seem like the best fit for me and you know, I'm super happy I went there.

Just you know, I met my best friends there.

I'm actually in one of the, one of the guys weddings this weekend and so yeah, that's.

He just, you know, go where you're wanted and don't get enamored with the level.

Yeah, I mean, great advice.

Right.

It's something that, as you said as a 17 year old kid, sometimes it's hard to keep that perspective.

You obviously had the advantage of somebody who had gone through that process with other players and had a good understanding of what the landscape looks like.

There's a lot of kids that don't always have that perspective.

And so then you get caught up, as you said, in the levels and I think the, the idea of go where you're wanted and find the right fit athletically, academically, socially, all the pieces that go along with that I think are so, are so critical.

And I'm sure those are the same things that you preach to the players that you're recruiting at Duquesne.

Right.

Trying to find the right level somewhere they can have success, match their talent, temperament, character with your coaching staff, where they can find that success.

I think that's always a big piece of, of getting it right, getting that college decision correct.

And it sounds like for you that ended up being the case.

When you get to Geneva, are you pretty well set on the fact that you want to get into coaching at that point?

Are you thinking about, hey, I want to follow my dad into high school coaching, maybe be a high school teacher?

Are you thinking college coaching?

Are you not thinking coaching at all?

Are you considering maybe another career?

Just what was your mindset as you entered college?

So it's funny.

So it's actually funny you bring up the teaching.

So yeah, I actually went into Geneva thinking I was going to be a high school Teacher and a high school coach.

And on my visit, they set up, you know, academic meetings for me.

And I met with academic, the education School of Education.

And she was giving me a talk, and my dad said midway through, he knew I wasn't doing it.

Like, I was zoned out.

I was like, I'm not doing this.

So I actually ended up doing business.

And that was.

Honestly, I always kind of knew I wanted to coach in college, but that was kind of just like, just in case college didn't work out.

I was gonna be a high school teacher, high school coach, but I was like, I don't know if I can do four years of education.

And I wasn't a big school guy anyway.

Like, I always did good in school, but, you know, I didn't really love school, so I was like.

So I ended up doing business, and then I kind of sold out to the fact that I was going to be a college coach after that.

And once I kind of, you know, made my mind up and going business and school, I thought business would kind of help out with college coaching and recruiting.

And then I kind of had my mind set up that I was going to be, you know, a college coach after that.

Yeah, I got a degree in business, too, and I felt like I had no idea what I wanted to do.

And business was kind of like, you could do anything, right?

It's like, I could go here, I could go there, I could do this.

And so that's why I ended up choosing it, because I had no idea going into school what I wanted to do.

Tell me about the adjustment of playing for a coach, a coaching staff that wasn't your dad.

Obviously, you've grown up watching him coach, playing under him.

All of a sudden, now you're in a new environment, new coach, new level of play.

What was that adjustment like for you?

Kind of on all levels, going from high school to college?

I would say the one biggest adjustment was that I didn't know what was going on all the time.

Like, you know, with my dad, I live with them.

I could ask him, hey, like, what?

You know, I don't live with the coach in college, so I, you know, I just didn't really always know what was going on, which was a different, you know, with different perspective.

But, no, my coaches at Geneva were great.

Like, it was a seamless transition.

Coach Sanicero, you know, he was the head coach for 30 some years there.

And then Coach Zach Stitt was our assistant coach, and he was a young assistant, and I'm still.

I'm Friends with him now to this day.

He was, he's the head coach at Mars high school with the girls now.

He was a women's assistant at Cornell for a little bit.

And you know, they're just great guys and they, they, I, they always had our best interest and it was pretty, a seamless transition.

But yeah, like I said like just not knowing all the time what the game plan was, what, what we were doing, what the ins and outs were just because I wasn't, you know, wasn't in the, wasn't in the loop as I much as I was in high school.

That make you think about how important communication is as a coach to be able to make sure that your players understand whether it's role strategy, whatever.

I think that's one of the things that if I think about my time a as a coach that probably me or the coaches that I worked with probably didn't do enough of is communication.

And then seeing it as a parent and looking at it from hey, what do my kids who are playing on this team, what do they need to know?

What do they want to know?

What are things that are important that are going to make them more comfortable or more understanding of what's going on?

I think that that communication piece to me is an area that is huge and some coaches do it really well and there's other coaches that don't do it very well at all.

So I'm just curious, did you learn that lesson?

Kind of.

Because hey, you had the behind the scenes deal with your dad, now all of a sudden that that faucet is shut off, right?

Yeah, I think communication is super important.

Obviously there's certain conversations that the coaches have that the players can't know.

But I think everything that they need to know or should know, they have to know and be told it a lot, especially in this day and age because they want to know.

They want to know the why.

A lot of players want to know why.

And I think, I think, you know, it's up to us as coaches to almost over communicate the why and why we're doing things and over communicate their roles and what we're expecting them to do, even though they might not like it, like not everybody can be the 15 point a game scorer, but getting them to realize that the person that's setting the screen for the score is just as important might not look like it, but to the team you are.

So I just think over communicating that stuff as well as communicating not just a player's role to them, but their roles to each Other.

So, like, hey, why does this person get to shoot all those shots?

Well, because they're in the gym and they're the one.

They practice those shots, and we feel like they need to take those shots to win.

So, like, just to cut out all the sidebar locker room talk, let's get it all out and communicate everybody's role to each other.

And I think that's very important as well.

So, yeah, I don't think you can ever communicate.

Yeah.

Things that are left unsaid often get filled with other stuff.

The vacuum kind of sucks all that other stuff in, and then it gets filled with things that you, as a coach probably don't want it to get filled in with.

You're much better.

You're much better off filling those vacancies with the actual truth of what's going on, rather than have the players trying to guess and speculate and figure it out.

That, in my experience, on both ends of this, never really goes well.

It doesn't turn out the way that you as a.

As a coaching staff would hope that it did.

Over the course of your four years, did you talk to your staff at Geneva about, hey, my goal at some point is to coach?

And did you have those kinds of conversations beyond just them coaching you as a player?

Did you ever go to them and talk to them about, hey, I'm thinking about getting into coaching, and then they maybe gave you a little bit more because you were on that coaching track, so to speak.

Was that something that you tried to take advantage of?

Yeah, so they.

Yeah, they.

Once I became a captain, especially I was a captain my last two years, they especially then, they really allowed me to be in more of, like, the, you know, the.

The meetings and stuff like that, and they knew I wanted to get in coaching, so they helped me with that.

I actually went recruiting with them a couple times when I was in college.

They allowed me to go with them.

And then when I graduated the Pit Jam Fest, which is the huge AAU tournament here, they.

I went with them in Geneva.

Stuff like, I was coaching with them.

So, like, they.

They allowed me to do stuff like that.

So, yeah, I mean, I helped them with the scouts here and there.

So they.

Yeah, they were really, really good with knowing that I wanted to coach and allowing me to.

To kind of have an input and, you know, here and there, as my career went on.

Yeah, to be able to have those little touch points, to be able to get that experience, get a feel for what that recruiting trip looks like, and I'm sure going to the jam fest.

Completely different walking in there as a coach than what it was like for you walking in there as a player and kind of seeing it from the other side of the curtain.

Super interesting, I'm sure, to kind of get that feel for, for what that would have been like.

Tell me a little bit about graduation day.

What does the job search look like?

Tell me about how you go about the process.

It's always interesting to hear from guys that I sent out 350 emails or I reached out to this guy and this guy and this guy who I knew through this and that.

And obviously you had your dad and his connection.

So just walk me through how you went about trying to go through the job search.

Yeah, so I'm the type of person, like, I, I'm not a big, like, reach out to 500 people and hope somebody sticks.

Like, I'd rather reach out to a couple and really build relationships with those, those, those people.

So actually, oddly enough, I was set up to be the men's GA at uk.

So I pretty, I met with them a few times my senior, my whole senior year.

I've talked to them was when Coach Dambrot was the coach, and I talked to Coach Terry Wigan, who's now at Akan almost every day.

Drove him nuts.

And I was actually set up to be the GA there for the men's team here.

And then a co. Assistant's job opened with the women.

And, and Coach Burt called, called my dad and like, sought him out for the job.

And whenever he hired my dad, he called me and said, because I've known Coach Burt, we're from, like, the same town.

And he said, well, I heard you're going to be with the men.

Why don't you come be with us instead?

I said, that sounds good to me.

I said, I'm in.

We met, we met over coffee and I said, that sounds good to me.

I'm, you know, I'm in.

Let's do it.

And the rest kind of is, is history there.

Uh, I, I, you know, I said yes on the spot.

And that kind of.

Now we're here.

All right, so two things from that.

One, just.

Let's start with the graduate assistant part of it.

As you're going through, obviously you have two things that you're trying to accomplish, right?

You're trying to get your graduate degree.

So you got to go to class, you got to take classes online, however it is that you had it set up, and then obviously you have your responsibilities to the basketball program.

So how did you at that point in your life, how did you balance those two things, the academic side of it, with your responsibilities with the basketball program?

Yeah, so I was like, Coach Bert saw something in me.

For some reason, I don't know what it was, but he, from day one, like, he really had a lot of faith in me.

And, you know, I. I owe him a lot to what, where I am today, obviously.

I mean, I stayed in the same place and he's hired me a couple times and he.

He's let me do a lot of.

From day one, like, I.

He let me do, you know, work.

He let me work people out.

I was able to on court, coach a little bit, only like, when other coaches were out because of compliance rules and stuff.

But he.

He allowed me.

He.

He kind of took me under his wing from day one and he really taught me because he's known to be like, the best international recruiter in Division 1 women's basketball.

And he kind of started showing me the ropes with that from day one and, and he allowed me to.

Obviously, I couldn't go out and recruit when I was a GA, but the FIBA YouTube channel, it was like my best friend and I used to watch the FIBA YouTube channel like crazy.

And he kind of let me just like, run with it and showed me like, what, what to look for, what countries that we look for.

And so I was able to kind of do a lot of basketball stuff, especially like the behind the scenes basketball stuff when it came to recruiting, like on campus visits and organization of that.

And I was also had to do some of the op stuff, like setting up hotel rooms, buses, meals and stuff like that, as well as doing my grad school.

And I did a master's in leadership.

It wasn't too difficult, but it was very beneficial for what I want to.

For I want to do in coaching.

But no, they kind of treated me like all the staff when I, you know, when I was a ga, they kind of treated me like another assistant coach and took my input during games, in practice, into meetings.

Um, so I was very fortunate that, you know, the whole staff, but especially Coach Burke, kind of saw something in me and, you know, had a lot of belief in me from the beginning.

Do you feel like that freedom or that opportunity that you were given, do you feel like that helped you to find your coaching voice, your leadership voice, maybe sooner than if you hadn't have gotten that opportunity?

Definitely, yeah.

I think it gave me the experience early because I was kind of thrown into the deep end, um, you know, a lot of gas as you know, they don't get to do really much besides, you know, film and do the laundry and order meals.

And I was lucky enough that, like I said, I could do pretty much everything.

And yeah, it definitely gave me the experience that, you know, was needed.

What is needed for I am now.

And I also got the coach.

We have male practice players in women's basketball.

So we have a full squad of guys that started students on campus and I was like their head coach during practice.

So I was able to like implement other teams plays with them.

And so that, that really helped me a lot to get, you know, where we, where we are today for sure.

Yeah.

That ability to get those kinds of reps I always think is super important.

I've done tons of interviews with guys, rj, that talk about just getting reps. Maybe it was in the summertime with a seventh grade AAU team, or maybe they were coaching the JVS back at their high school for two years while they were working another job before they realized that, hey, they wanted to get into coaching.

And to a man, all those people always tell me that those reps of being a head coach and making decisions and like you said, being able to see things on film and then implement that with your practice squad, to be able to do that clearly again, is.

Is an opportunity to take some knowledge over here and apply it over here with the team.

And being able to do that directly for yourself, I think again, I'm sure is invaluable to you as you're going to continue to move along in your career.

So the other thing that happened for you is you go in with the idea that you're going to be coaching on the men's side.

Your dad gets the job, you get the job, suddenly you're coaching on the women's side.

I don't know if that's something that you ever thought about while you were playing or while you were considering considering your coaching career, but when that opportunity presented itself, as you said, you jumped on it.

Was there any.

I don't know, you obviously didn't have anything to adjust to because you hadn't coached at the men's college basketball level.

But that's clearly the level that you were playing at.

What was the adjustment in terms of coaching women?

What do you love about that piece of just being able to coach the women's game?

Right.

No, honestly, before Coach Burke called me, I really didn't have any plans to coach women's basketball.

And it's the best decision that I ever made to coach women's basketball.

And he said that it would be.

He said that just how I am, I would fit women's basketball perfectly.

And I, I mean, I love coaching women.

They.

They have.

They want to learn.

They really.

They want to learn and they want to absorb.

And like I said earlier, they once with them, especially when you.

When they really know that you care about them, they'll run through a wall for you.

And yeah, I've really enjoyed coaching women and now I'll never look back.

Like, people always say, like, are you ever going to switch to the men's side?

Like, no, I'll be on the women's side my whole career.

Just be.

Just the relationships what I've built and have built with them and just, just like I said, the appreciation that they have for.

For us is.

I don't think you see it as much on the men's side.

You do, but I just think more so on the women's side, they really appreciate, you know, whenever you do take the time to get to know them as people would, you think there's more.

Ego on the men's side?

For sure.

When it comes to thinking how much they know about the game, it's definitely.

It's definitely different.

I. I think that that's clear when.

If you've coached both, and I've been fortunate to coach boys, and I've been fortunate enough to coach both my daughters many, many times.

And I do think that there's.

There's certainly, as you said, a level of desire to learn on the women's side that I'm not sure is.

It's there in some male players, but it's.

It's probably there in a lower percentage than it is on the women's side, for sure.

When your GA position ends, is it clear at that point, had it already been established that you were just going to transition into another position on the staff at Duquesne, or was there a moment of sort of uncertainty that maybe you're going to have to go out and get a job somewhere else?

So there was.

There was.

There was some moments of uncertainty.

I really wanted to stay at Duquesne just because of the relationship I've had with everybody.

Obviously, my dad's here.

Coach me and Coach Burton have become really close.

And so it's kind of funny, like, in between when I was a GA and assistant, I just never kind of went away.

Like, I always.

I'm going to make.

I'm going to make them tell me to leave.

So I just kind of like, kept coming in.

Season was over kept coming in, and Coach Burt was like, I'm going to hire you if I can.

I want to keep you, but like, I, I, I'm not going to fire anybody.

So.

But then we actually had a couple coaches leave and take other jobs.

And I was fortunate enough to be, you know, he hired me, you know, right there when they left.

And I was, I was obviously very happy, but I pretty much, I told him, I'm giving you no choice.

I'm not, I'm not going to leave until you tell me to leave.

And, but it worked out very nicely, and I'm very fortunate.

Know how, how it kind of all played out.

You're not the first person to try and be successful with that strategy of, I'm just going to be around, be around, be around, be around, and eventually, hey, this guy's around all the time.

We're just gonna, we're just gonna keep him on the staff.

We're just gonna hire him.

So good strategy, rj.

It definitely is one that I've seen work before without, without question.

So tell me then, about the transition from graduate assistant to being a hired member of the staff.

How did the responsibilities change?

What did your day to day look like?

How was it different?

So it was seamless because like I said, they kind of treated me like an assistant to begin with.

I took over as the recruiting coordinator when I first, when I first was the assistant.

And so I decided to go.

I went on the road a lot more than I was when the ga and we do a lot of international recruiting.

So I've been to Europe, I've been to Africa, which was what, you know, a lot of people go to Europe.

Not many people go to Africa.

And in specifically Senegal.

I've been to Senegal twice, and a lot of people have said that there, that I'm the only Division 1 women's coach that has been there.

Now, I don't know if that's true.

Like, nobody hold me to that, but I suppose that's what they say when I go over, that I'm the only women's basketball coach to go over there.

And really the real reason why we kind of started going over there, we had a player, my first year actually is GA that transferred into us from Western Kentucky.

Her name was Fatsu Pooey.

And we just loved her.

Like, she was a great player for us and just a great person.

And she was from Senegal, and that kind of built that network.

And I went two years ago now, and I've gone the last two years and was fortunate Enough to get a couple players, bring a couple players back with me that are on our team now.

And, and it's.

It's been.

It's been.

It's been really.

It's been life changing for me to be able to recruit, you know, overseas as well as domestically.

We do a lot of domestic recruiting as well, but, you know, we have this year on our team's roster.

This coming up, we have eight different countries represented, which is kind of exciting for me.

And so it's going to be a lot of fun.

But, yeah, like, I. I think from day one, just more recruiting and more on the road is kind of what changed the most when I first became an assistant.

What's your favorite country you've been to?

I would say Senegal one, because they've kind of like, adopted me there for some reason.

Like, they.

When I go there, I get, like, special treatment.

And it's, It's.

It's.

It's been a lot of fun going there.

I.

And I really do love it.

The people there are amazing.

They're so welcoming and so great.

But I've also.

I really enjoyed Hungary, too.

Budapest, Hungary, is where coach Bert, his wife is actually from there.

So we've been over there a few times.

He has an apartment there.

And when we go recruiting in Europe, we stay there.

And Budapest, Hungary, is.

Is a fantastic city.

So I would say between Hungary and Senegal right now, but there's still a lot that I have to go to and visit a couple of our players that are on our team now from different countries.

So, yeah, the verdict is still out, but I would say those two right now as we stand.

When you go to Senegal, where do you go?

What, are you going to an event?

Are you going to a specific venue?

Are you connecting with the same group of people?

What does that look like logistically, going to Senegal?

Yeah, so the first time I went, I didn't really know what I was getting into.

I kind of had a plan, but, like, it was like, I really had no idea what to expect.

And so Seed Academy is where I usually go, and that's where a lot of the players are.

It's an academy that was started by coach Samba Fall, and he.

It's where all the best players from Senegal are asked to go and play.

It's in chess Senegal, and there's a men's team and a women's team, and they have junior teams.

And I spend a lot of my time there when I go.

And there's, you know, there's a lot of tall players There, obviously we've, we have two players now that are 66 and 65 from seed academy.

So I spent a lot of my time there at Seed and then just from going there, I've kind of built other connections.

They're kids that don't play at Seed that are really good, that people say, hey, you gotta come check this kid out at this gym.

Come check this kid out here.

So it's kind of turned into, I'm kind of turned into the real life Adam Sandler in the movie Hustle when he goes over to Spain or wherever he goes to find.

That's kind of, that's kind of how my life is going right now.

And it's, it's been a lot of fun.

But yeah, I go in with an agenda, but it kind of usually just gets wherever I end up and whatever, whoever kind of where they pull me to go is where I go.

But yeah, Seed Academy is where a lot of the good players are.

Gotcha.

Yeah, it's, it's funny when you go and you're flying by the seat of your pants, right?

It's just, hey, let's see where we can find the players and we'll go, we'll go where the players are to go along with that.

How long did it take you to get a feel for the women's game and having an eye for the level of talent that a player needed to have to be able to have success at Duquesne?

Because I would think again, this is just me talking as a 22 year old male college basketball player coming into the women's game and then going and trying to evaluate players, whether it's at an AAU tournament, whether it's in a foreign country, whether it's in a high school game, trying to evaluate that and figure out, hey, what level is this girl?

I would think there would have been a little bit of a learning curve.

So what do you remember about just kind of trying to figure that out of, hey, how do I, what's my eye for talent when I'm trying to figure this out?

Right.

I think, you know, as coaches we're all still learning always and still evolving.

But I think just having, because coach Burt has been at Duquesne for 20 years and has like had 20, 21 season, like 17 out of those 20 years.

And so he's kind of showed me what we look for and we like there's really, to me, the way I always explain it, there's really no like secret formula.

Like I just look for people that can play and kind of fit what we do and that just depending on what position we need, like for post players, we want as big as we can get, obviously at Duquesne, but we want to make sure that they can run, they can catch and they can finish, and then hopefully everything else that we can teach them.

But when it's from taking me to look, to me, basketball is basketball too.

So it didn't take me too long to like recognize what is needed for a good player at this level, especially with the guidance that I had.

But like I said, still learning, still, you know, still adapting, still trying to, you know, figuring out like everybody else, what, what, you know, the best players are and what that looks like.

But I kind of just try to trust my eyes and, you know, if I think a player is good and others might not, you know, I trust my gut and trust my eyes and you know, bring that player to Coach Burt.

And it's kind of, it's worked thus far and hopefully it continues to work.

The art and the science of coaching, right?

There's there's some scientific things, there's some, some size, some speed, some stuff that's easily observable, and then there's some art to figuring out, hey, I don't know, maybe necessarily exactly what it is about this kid that I like, but, but there's something, or maybe it's just something that, you know, fits with your program that you're like, maybe this player is being overlooked because of X, Y or Z, but they have this intangible quality that I know is going to fit and work for us.

And I think that's again, sort of the art and science of, of coaching.

There's no, there's no one exact way that it's always going to work.

You kind of got to have that feel to go along with sort of the, the metrics that, that everybody's looking for.

As an assistant coach, what's your favorite part of the X's and O side of the game that you like to get in the film room and really dive into?

Do you have one side of the ball that you really like to, to go in and dive deep on or just give me an idea of X's and O's wise, what you like.

Yeah, so I'm actually fortunate enough this year I'm moving over to being our offensive coordinator, which I'm very excited for.

I've kind of always been more of an offensive minded person and so, and that and coaching the practice squad really helped me out with that.

So luckily this year I'M going to be running our offense and we're going to be doing a lot of five out, four out, one in motion with a lot of concepts that can be stacked and just letting the players make reads while like all hopefully, you know, we do so much in practice and teach them in practice that we don't have to say much in the games and.

And it's just them making the reads and them making the plays.

But the way I'm going to construct it is I can control, we can control it from the sideline if we have to, as well as having set plays for shooters to get shots, drivers to get downhills and post to get post ups.

But yeah, the.

I love the offensive side of the ball and I'm always looking at Twitter and YouTube and coaching clinics about how to expand, you know what, just different concepts and, you know, set plays that we can run to help us be successful.

Yeah, I think it's an ever evolving process.

Right.

One of the questions that I always like to ask, especially guys who are first time head coaches, is how set and cement is your philosophy, Right.

Basketball wise, as you said, there's so much out there now that you can continue to learn from and continue to take.

And I think the best coaches, right, they have a core philosophy and then they're able to tweak and add little different things that can give you a wrinkle, maybe that fits your personnel for that particular year in a given way.

And so I think that's really the right way to approach it when you start talking about, hey, I've got this, this is what I know we want to do is our core and then we're going to pull little things out and add it and tweak it based on again, our personnel year to year or maybe our particular opponent.

So it's good to have all those little wrinkles as a part of what you want to do when you're trying to teach decision making and players making reads.

For you guys at Duquesne, what does that look like in a practice environment?

As you said, you want to give the players as many reps as you can during practice to be able to make those decisions so that when it comes time for the game, they're comfortable with doing that and they don't always have to look over to you at the sideline.

So for you guys, what does that look like in a practice setting?

Yeah, so we try to do a lot of like disadvantage situation.

So we do a drill called 4v3 where the offense has 4 and the defense has 3.

So we're, you know, we're penetrating and ends up being four on four.

But the defense is shifting so the, we have to make reads and decisions in real time.

We do that drill a lot and we also do 5v5, but we can't dribble, so no dribble.

So it forces our cuts, our screens, our passes to all be extra crisp.

And so we just try to make our practices harder than the games, whether that's disadvantaged stuff or no dribble.

But yeah, that and just really repping and drilling everything that we want to do into the, into their minds so it's second nature when the games come.

Does Coach Hurt have a set way of designing your daily practice schedule?

In other words, is it, does it always start with player development stuff and then go to defense and then go to offense?

Or is it kind of we just figure out what the team needs day to day?

What's the overall practice planning process look like amongst you guys as a staff?

Right.

So it's different from the summer and in the season obviously.

So in the summer it's a lot of kind of getting in like the basis of our offense and defense to kind of get our principles in and a lot of skill work.

A lot of skill work.

We get a lot of shots up, we have them do a shot challenge, a lot of stations, a lot of breakdown work.

And then when the season rolls around, we usually start off practice with a couple, you know, drills to get warm.

Then some stations for player development to develop some, you know, ball handling, shooting, finishing.

And then from there we kind of break it in between offense and defense so the offense might go first and we, you know, we'll rep our, what stuff we want to run, we'll do those advantage drills that I talked about.

We'll run over some of our sets and then we'll.

And if we're preparing for an opponent, if they guard a certain way, we'll, we'll go over that and then we'll flip the defense and we'll go over, you know, how we're going to guard certain plays, how we're going to guard their motion.

Offense, if we're going to fire in the post, double team the post player, if we're going to, how we're going to defend ball screens.

So usually kind of break it up into segments with the beginning being warm ups and player development and then offense and defense spread out, separated from there.

Are you locked into the clock schedule of hey, we're doing this drill for 10 minutes and regardless of where we're at when it gets to 10, we're moving on.

Or is it, hey, we've got certain things we want to accomplish in this 10 minutes, but if it takes us longer, we're going to kind of extend it.

Is it.

Is it a feel thing that you go through by day, by day in practice?

Feel thing?

Mostly a field thing.

Yeah, we're kind of loose with the practice plan.

Like, if we need.

If we're doing a drill for 10 minutes and we need to do 10 more to get it right, we'll do 10 more to get it right.

Coach Burt, you know, usually monitors that.

And, and if we.

And if I see something offensively that I want to add more time, I can go over to him and tell him, same thing with the defense.

So, yeah, it's kind.

We're kind of flexible with it and just want to make sure we get it done right.

Tell me about the positives of having your dad on the coaching staff with you.

What are the big things that you think make it unique and that make it a positive for the two of you, but also for your program, for your players?

Obviously, there's that.

That dynamic between the two of you that, again, not many people get the opportunity to do that, so just throw me the positives.

Right.

So our staff feels like a family dynamic to begin with, and I feel like obviously having a father and son helps with that, and I think that's a big positive.

This year is.

This upcoming season will be the first year I'm the offensive coordinator and he's actually been our defensive coordinator for a while.

So I think we'll be very aligned with what we're.

What we're doing offensively will fit what we're doing defensively.

So I think that's a big time positive just because we're, you know, we're together a lot and we think so much alike.

So I think that'll be a big time.

That's a big time positive as well.

And like I said, I just think the whole.

The family atmosphere of having a father and son on the staff that are connected and, and our whole staff is kind of connected like that, which makes it, you know, a lot, very enjoyable to be around.

And it's, It's.

It's.

I think it's better for the player's success, too.

Absolutely.

What's something that, over the course of your guys's time together that you've disagreed with and what did that conversation sound like?

Yeah, so we do have some disagreements, and I think he thinks they're more than I do.

It was just, you know, it's just funny.

But, yeah, I mean, sometimes, you know, we'll disagree with how regarding a certain action or what we should be doing, you know, certain play.

And then we usually just talk it out and will come.

You know, sometimes we.

He's right and sometimes I'm right and.

But yeah, I mean, it's.

It's always like, professional.

And, you know, we.

Is any.

You know, we always, you know, we'll have disagreements here and there, but we just kind of talk about it and come to a conclusion when, you know, whatever works best for the team.

How easy or hard is it for you guys to step out of your roles as assistant coaches for the same program and just have a conversation over dinner that doesn't directly relate to the team?

Is that something that you guys find easy to do, or is it something you find hard to do?

It's.

It's actually probably decent.

It's decently hard because we care so much about it and we talk a lot about it.

We try not to just to have talk about other things, but we end up do talking about it a lot, and it's a healthy amount.

But.

But, like.

Because we want.

Both want to talk about it, but yeah, we do talk about it a lot, but we do make sure that we, you know, there's certain times where we say, all right, we're not talking about it today.

We're just gonna.

We're gonna go to the, you know, the Pirate.

Pittsburgh Pirate game and enjoy.

Enjoy the game together and not talk about basketball at all.

But, yeah, we.

A lot of our time is definitely talk about the Kane women's basketball, for sure.

How does your mom handle all this stuff?

She's used to it because she's been.

She's really not a basketball person, but she's used to it because she's been around basketball so much and.

But yeah, she.

She kind of just.

She loves coming to the game.

She's really proud of both of us, obviously, but she doesn't.

She's really never been a basketball person, never coached basketball, never played basketball, so she kind of leaves the basketball conversations to us, but she loves coming to the games and supporting both of us.

Yeah, that's very cool.

And I think that obviously, as you well know, and I'm sure your dad well knows, that the spouse is always an important figure in a program.

Right.

In terms of being supportive of the person who's coaching, but also just being supportive of the team and building relationships with the players who are a part of it.

So it's cool to hear that that's kind of how you guys have put it together and handled it with your dad being a longtime high school coach and then stepping into a role at the college level.

And have you guys had that conversation about, hey, dad, what was it like coaching boys for 30 years at the high school level and now coaching women at the college level?

Just when you guys talk and you're asking him those kinds of questions, what are some of the answers that he gives you?

Yeah, I. I've asked him that a couple times.

And really, he says it's really not much different.

And he kind of says what I said earlier.

Basketball's basketball and people are people and, you know, they just want to be treated equally and like people and cared about.

So, yeah, we've talked about that, especially early on when we first started.

And yeah, he.

He not.

Not much of a difference like his coaching from what I have seen.

You know, I played for him now.

His coaching style hasn't really changed.

He's very intense.

He's intense, but positive.

And he coaches.

Yeah, he coaches our women here just like he coached us when I was.

In high school to be able to have.

Right.

A steady personality and a steady coaching style.

Again, that sort of transcends, in this case, gender and level.

And you got to coach who you are.

Right.

I think that you made that point kind of indirectly at the very beginning of.

Me and my dad are different in the way that we approach our coaching, but yet you kind of have to be who you are, and that's when you're going to have the most success.

I know that, again, thinking about somebody my age.

So I'm 56 years old, so when I'm coming up through a lot of the coaches that I played for, a lot of coaches that I watched on tv.

Right.

Were kind of that very intense.

Right.

Very demanding, very.

It's my way or the highway.

And so when I first started coaching, that doesn't really fit my personality.

That's not who I am.

But there was a huge part of me that in my first year or two of coaching that I felt like when I was coaching, like myself, that I wasn't really coaching the way that I should be, if that makes sense.

Because what I had observed and seen for so long was kind of the fiery coach and the guy getting in your face, and that was just never who I am.

But yet when I didn't do that, I kind of felt like, oh, this is.

I'm not sure I'M coaching the way I'm.

So am I really coaching?

Am I doing what I'm, am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

But you do have to really find your voice and find your personality and figure those things out in order to really be able to have the kind of success that you want to have as a coach.

Because ultimately, if you're phony or fake, the players figure that out pretty quickly.

If you're not coaching and being who you, who you really are on a day to day, on a day to day basis.

When you think about the culture that you guys have built at Duquesne, what are some of the things that you've done that you think might be applicable to other coaches maybe at the high school level who are listening, something that they could take away that you think has helped your program to build a good culture?

Yeah.

Now, obviously, like high school level, you can't really control who's on your team as much, but we do a very good job of not sacrificing character, like taking a good player that's not a good person.

And, and I think at the high school level, you just don't have to deal with it.

Like if a kid maybe is really good and not best for the team, like I, you know, he might not be best for your team.

And I think we do a great job of not sacrificing character for, for, for talent.

We, we want good players.

Obviously we have to have good players to win, but we, we really vet our recruits well and make sure that we're bringing in good, high quality character people.

And I think that's so important because, you know, you see a lot of horror stories of coaches that, you know, quite frankly, they get desperate and they bring in players that aren't very good citizens for their program.

And I don't think that's ever worth it.

And we do a very good job.

And that starts with Coach Burt at bringing in good quality human beings first.

And that happened to be pretty good basketball players as well.

And it's obviously more fun to coach those kids too.

Right.

When you have high character kids that are going to do some of the things that you want them to do, they're going to be fun to interact with both on and off the floor.

And it just makes the coaching that much more enjoyable.

When you can do it with players that you like not just as players, but you actually like them as people.

I think that's a huge part of what it was, what it's all about.

And clearly, as you said at the college level, you're able to recruit and bring in players that you think are going to fit your program, which obviously helps to build the culture.

Once you have those players on campus and you think about developing leaders on your team, what does leadership look like on the Duquesne women's basketball program?

How do you guys develop leaders?

What's the philosophy on how you put leaders in position to lead?

Talk to me a little bit about that.

Yeah, so especially for now, a lot of colleges now are going international route, but since our team is such heavy international, so many different cultures, so many different personalities, the team building and the leadership is very, very important for us.

Just because we have kids from all over the world that like, they don't know how each other kind of operate.

And so we actually, we, we got, we get out in front of it a lot.

In the summers especially, we do a lot of team building.

So if that's, you know, the Kenny woods, our amusement park, we'll go there, we'll do different field day activities, we'll do cookouts and all that stuff just so they get to know each other as people, which is very important because if you're going to lead somebody, you have to know the person that you're leading.

And so that's very important to us.

And then every, every week in the summer, as well as every week during the season, we have a leadership course that's actually taught by my dad because he was a high school teacher and one of his teacher classes was leadership.

So he puts the players through a course of leadership as the, you know, throughout the whole year.

And it's just kind of molding them and how to be leaders and letting them, some of them know, like, listen, not all of you in this room are leaders.

And that's okay.

Like, you need to have followers on a team as well.

So it's kind of showing people how to be leaders and followers.

And then when it comes to picking leaders, it's just kind of what we observe.

Like, we don't make it a player voted thing because as we all know, that becomes a popularity contest.

We appoint the leaders and the captains, and it's usually two, you know, two players every year and doesn't always have to be upperclassmen.

We've had, we've had freshmen, we've had sophomores that, you know, that were leaders.

And so we kind of just, we kind of pick those, but we try to mold, mold them all to be leaders as well as letting them know, hey, if that's not that's not who you are.

It's okay to be a follower as well.

What are the roles that your captains have?

What are some responsibilities that if they're named a captain, what are some things that they're expected to do or what are some opportunities that they get as a captain?

Yeah, it's kind of more.

It's kind of like the middleman between the staff and the players.

If any, you know, any issue arises amongst the team, you know, they'll.

They'll kind of let us know if they need something.

If the team.

Team needs something, they'll let us know.

They.

If.

If we're, you know, little things like where they want, where's the team want to go to dinner when we arrive at, you know, on the road trip, stuff like that.

And, you know, we'll have them up, we'll have meetings with them.

Just, you know, kind of go over, you know, certain things, game plans and whatnot.

And it's really just like the mediator from the rest of the team in the coaching staff is what I would say is the best way to describe it.

Again, that goes back to what we talked about before, right.

In terms of the communication.

Right.

It's one more line of communication.

Staff.

Yeah, maybe a direct line to a player, but maybe sometimes that message goes through the captains and the captains can relay it and sometimes it means more.

It's more impactful coming from player to players as opposed to maybe coming from a coach directly down to the team.

If they hear it from one of their fellow teammates, all of a sudden maybe that message resonates a little bit more.

So that makes.

That makes a ton of sense to me at this time of year.

Right.

Summertime.

You guys are getting into your summer program here.

What's the process for Coach Bird delegating some of the things that you guys do in the summertime?

Like our season ended and I got handed like a two page workshop, you know, document.

Hey, here's your workouts.

We'll see you back here.

We'll see you back here in August.

And that was it.

And obviously now you guys have far more access and ability to work with the players.

One of the things that I always think is that, man, to hear the same voice or voices for 11 months out of the year, you got to be really careful that you're not burning them out on one voice or this or that.

So how do you guys handle the summer?

How do you approach that?

To make sure that you're getting the most out of the contact time you have with the players and yet at the same time not burning them out so that when they come in the fall and the season rolls around, that they're fresh and ready to go and excited to be.

Be playing and start practicing right now.

That's a good point, especially because these days, that's all these kids do is play all year round, and they really don't get much of a.

Of a break.

So we're able to go eight weeks in the summer, and a lot of teams are practicing now.

We.

We're only going to go six.

Just try to shorten that a little bit, just because we don't want that burnout or that those injuries, those, you know, those.

Those injuries to happen.

So we're going six weeks.

And the.

The good thing about us is, like I said, we have coordinators as well as the head coach.

So they're hearing different voices, but.

So that's good from that aspect.

And.

But the important things are hearing different voices, but it's all the same message, like, we're on the same page, which is very, very important, obviously.

And so them hearing multiple people like offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, head coach, it kind of keeps it fresh because you don't have one person coaching it, you know, the entire time.

And like I said, we.

We try to give them time off when we can, like if.

If in the summer, like, because we can go four days a week, we're gonna go four days a week in the summer when we start, if the first three days are fantastic and they seem tired by the last day, we might give them that fourth day off just to keep them fresh and keep them ready.

And coach Burt always has a.

He has a quote that he wants his teams to be mentally and physically fresh for January and February and March those last three months, because those are the most.

Three important months.

So we really try to not over, you know, overwork them in the, you know, in the summer months.

That way, you know, they are fresh for those later months.

What does that look like in the season?

So as you guys are coming down to the end of your conference schedule, so you're into February, and obviously Everybody knows Division 1 basketball season, it's a long season.

What do practices look like?

Do you guys start to taper down?

Do you start doing more film work?

Just what does it look like as you get into the tail end of Your schedule to make sure that you're keeping the women on your team fresh.

Yeah.

So, yeah, we usually taper it down, and we always say, let's just do the stuff we have to do.

So we'll get in the gym, and if we'll.

We'll get, like, the.

The scout, the scouting report out of the way, and that's the stuff we have to do.

So, you know, we'll go over their plays, how we're going to.

How we're going to do certain things, and then we'll get some shots up, and then that'll kind of be it.

Like, we.

We.

You know, we want the.

We want their legs to stay fresh and.

Yeah, so as the season goes on, our practices get shorter and shorter.

You know, they start off, you know, two hours, and by the end, we're only going an hour, you know, if that.

Just to get, you know, what we absolutely need to get in so they can kind of get off their feet and get rest and stay mentally fresh as well.

On a person, on a personal level, for you, when you think about your time at Duquesne from when you started to where you are now, what area of coaching do you think you've had the most growth from day one to sitting here in the chair tonight on June 10th?

Yeah, no, that's a.

That's a great question.

I would just say really, like, enjoying every moment, and I really started to do that this year.

Like, I think I've always enjoyed it, but, like, it was kind of a whirlwind for me at the beginning because, like, I was, you know, the ga and then I was, like, one of the young.

I was 23 when I got hired as an assistant, so I was, like, one of the youngest assistants across all Division one.

So it was just kind of, like, you know, crazy.

But this past year, just, like, kind of stepping back and really enjoying everything, like, this is pretty cool that I get to do this for a living and just having greater appreciation for where I'm at.

And.

And it's.

It's.

It's know, it's.

It's pretty cool situation that I'm in, and I don't take it for granted.

And I think this year I really did a better job of stepping back and seeing that.

And I think it made me a better coach just because, you know, more appreciative and it, you know, it helped.

It helped me coach the girl, the women, you know, better.

That's a great answer, rj, because I think no matter what profession you're in, but particularly in coaching, we often get so focused right on the day to day, the moment to moment, the next game, the preparing, the scout, the making sure our own team's ready.

And it's hard sometimes to just take a step back and take five minutes to just sit in a chair or sit on the couch and reflect on what it is that you get to do and how enjoyable it really is.

Even though there are obviously moments of stress and nobody likes when you lose games, and there's clearly a lot of tough moments along the way, but the highs of being able to coach and use the game of basketball to have an impact and help your team win games, all those things, we get caught up in all that stuff.

And sometimes, like you said, to be able to just take a deep breath and look and say, man, like, this is great that I get an opportunity to do this.

I think it's a good point.

It's an answer that I haven't necessarily heard too many people give me that answer, but I think it's a great answer because it just points out again, that we sometimes are going, going, going, going, and to just stop and be able to gather ourselves and, and kind of realize where we're at.

I think it's a really good perspective that you have from that standpoint.

I want to ask you a final two part question here.

Part one, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then the second part of the question.

When you think about what you get to do every day coaching women's college, college basketball at Duquesne, what brings you the most joy?

So your biggest challenge first and then your biggest joy.

So, biggest challenge, I would say, since it's my first year, you know, running the offense and I, I set lofty goals for myself, so I already looked to see who, you know, led the A10 last year in points.

And that's the goal.

That's going to be, you know, the goal that I have for our team this year, which was 73 points a game.

So I want us to average 73.

And that's obviously going to be a challenge.

You know, we have, we have a decently new team just like everybody else these days.

How, how the climate is.

So just getting the new team to play as one and kind of mesh, that's going to be a challenge.

And I'm excited, I'm excited for that challenge.

I'm excited to try to, you know, average those 73 points a game.

And then, I'm sorry, what was It.

What was the second part?

Second part.

Your biggest joy?

Biggest joy?

I would just say that doing what I've always wanted to do, which is work in basketball.

You know, I learned from a young age I wasn't going to play in the NBA and so I knew that I was going to have to coach to stay in the game.

And just being around our, you know, our great young women every day from different cultures, like I said, you know, eight different countries.

So they get to teach me how they live and I get to see it firsthand when I get to go over there.

And so just being around our women and around our, you know, coaching staff and just like I said, appreciating every moment, you know, along the way throughout the season.

Really well said, rj.

And I think it kind of encapsulates the entire conversation of what we talked about.

Right.

Growing up, son of a coach.

Always kind of have coaching in the back of your mind as you're going through your playing career.

You get an opportunity.

Now the challenge is in front of you is to continue to build your knowledge, your skills, be able to pass that along to your team and your new role as an offensive coordinator.

And then, as you said, the joy is just getting an opportunity to interact with the young women on your team and continue to grow in your profession.

Really well said.

Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how can people connect with you, Find out more about what you guys are doing.

Share, email, social media, website, whatever you feel comfortable with.

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

Yeah.

So feel free to reach me out anywhere.

My Instagram is rj_bell 5.

You can even you can.

I'll get my number out of here.

I don't care.

Anybody, feel free to reach out to me.

I love connecting with people and learning from people and, you know, helping people out.

And so, yeah, feel free to reach me out a number or Instagram.

Whatever.

Whatever.

Whatever works best for you.

Perfect.

Rj, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to join us.

Really appreciate it.

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

Thanks.

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