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We hope you are ready for a season unlike any other: testing, distancing, and bubbles, oh my! Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or whether anything actually will happen…but in the meantime we will try to restore some order with season previews featuring the best players/coaches/administrators/alumni in the country. We continue our coverage with St. Mary’s assistant coach Mickey McConnell. He was named WCC tourney MVP in 2010, WCC POY in 2011, and remains top-5 in school history in career AST/3PM. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach McConnell about his athletic family and his expectations for this year.
In the 2010 WCC tourney title game as a player at St. Mary’s you were named tourney MVP after scoring 26 PTS in a win over Gonzaga, and in January of 2011 you scored 27 PTS including the game-winning shot with 1.2 seconds left in your school’s 1st win at Gonzaga since 1995 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjcPxw4w0QY): how do you explain the rivalry with the Bulldogs to someone who has never seen it in person? I am a little biased but I think it is 1 of the best rivalries in college basketball. Gonzaga kept pushing it higher and higher, which has forced us to get better. They are a top-3 team in the country and there is no love lost between our schools even though we respect each other. The atmosphere at both arenas are unbelievable: playing there was always 1 of my favorite games of the year. Many East Coast fans would be shocked at how intense the rivalry is.
In 2011 you were named WCC POY: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? It was awesome to receive that honor because our conference is filled with a lot of great players. You do not win those awards unless you are having success as a team so it is a testament to our coaches/players who helped make me better. I am proud of that but really reflects on our entire team, which helped me get recognized.
You remain top-5 in school history in career AST/3PM: what is the key to being a good PG? We still talk about this a lot because all PGs are different. We have had scorers like Jordan Ford and passers like Emmett Naar but the key is to be a leader and make the team successful. You have a lot of responsibility on the court but just have to help your team win, as Joe Rahon did in the past by locking up the other team’s best player on defense. You need to score when the time comes and get the ball to other people when the defense is collapsing: intangibles set the great ones apart.
You played pro basketball in the G-League/Europe for several years: what is the biggest difference between basketball in the US vs. basketball overseas? There is definitely a big difference, even from country to country. For example, in Spain there is a lot of tactical basketball with really creative offenses that move the ball a lot. The G-League is a tough comparison because some guys are just fighting to keep their careers alive and it can become more selfish. NBA coaches do a great job with their sets and trying different things, which I think parallels Europe, but the best athletes are in the US.
In 2019 you became an assistant at your alma mater: why did you take the job, and how do you like working for your college coach (Randy Bennett)? I knew that I wanted to get into coaching after I was done playing. I might have been able to play 5 more years but I talked to Coach Bennett every summer and now that I have 2 young kids it was the right time to come back and start my coaching career. The chance to return to my alma mater and work with my former coach who I have a lot of respect for was a great opportunity to get my feet wet. It was hard to stop playing but it is also hard to get a D-1 assistant job: it was great to get my foot in the door so it has been a good transition.
You were a career 46.3% 3-PT shooter during your career at St. Mary’s and last year your team was #5 in the nation at 38.7 3P%: what is the secret to making shots from behind the arc? A lot of repetition. For me it was also about shot selection, which was stressed to me by my dad while I was a kid. An open shot is always better than a contested 3. The player has to want to become a great shooter: work on their craft diligently, get up extra shots, shoot it the right way, etc. We do not want to shoot the tough step-back 3…even though Jordan made a lot of them last year. We stress to our freshmen that if they want to get onto the court they need to play defense and shoot open threes.
Last March you lost to Gonzaga in the 2020 WCC tourney title game, then a few days later learned that the NCAA tourney was canceled due to the coronavirus: what was your reaction when you 1st heard the news, and do you think that it was the right decision? We had just gotten back to campus from our conference tourney, and after the NBA canceled some games it just snowballed from there. We were shocked early-on but did not know enough about it. We would have loved to play and I felt really bad for all the teams but I am good with any decision to keep people as safe as possible. Our seniors had put in so much time/work so I really felt bad for them, but we just took it 1 day at a time.
Your roster includes players from Australia/Estonia/New Zealand: how does recruiting internationally compare to recruiting domestically? I am pretty new to the recruiting stuff after taking the job in July of last year. It was a very unique 1st year due to COVID. The international guys are not seen as much as the US guys so you have to teach them a little bit about the landscape since they have not grown up around it. I played over there and understand the culture a little bit: we want to create a family atmosphere where they feel comfortable right away. I want them to understand what they are getting into academically and athletically: you do not want to trick a guy into coming. We give them as much information as we can so that it is the right decision for both parties. It is a huge life decision so it is important to have the right fit.
Your father Rick won a 1976 college baseball title at Arizona, your brother Matt played minor league baseball for the Phillies, and your grandfather Dick has the most wins in Arizona high school basketball history: who is the best athlete in the family, and who is the best coach? That is a tough 1. I think my grandfather is the most accomplished coach in the family, and was a great athlete as well. His record was later broken by Coach Gary Ernst. I did not get to see my grandfather play minor league baseball but he is probably at the top, even though it is pretty close.
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? We lost a lot of key players/scoring from last year but we feel good about our group. Our goals/expectations are the same: take it 1 day at a time, try to win the league, and make the NCAA tourney. We have a lot of work to do but I am happy with our hard-working/unselfish guys. It will be a different team but they want to keep pushing the program as high as they can even though the previous guys set the bar really high.