We are still a couple of months away from the tip-off of the new college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel commences our coverage with Queens coach Grant Leonard, who talked about making the NCAA tourney last March and his expectations for this season.
You played college basketball at William Penn, where you were a 2-time academic all-region player who graduated cum laude: how much importance do you place on academics? We are very fortunate that Queens attracts a certain level of student, so we weed out the below-average students before we even get to the recruiting process. Academics is huge for us: we have a 100% graduation rate, and the school allows us to be pretty picky.
How good a player were you back in the day, and how did you get into coaching? I probably thought I was a better player than I actually was. I went to a small private high school in Milwaukee where I played the 3&4, and in college I transitioned to the 2, and eventually played PG. It taught me to see the game from multiple angles. My high school coach has won more than 600 games and the teams I played on helped turn the program around. Players will follow you if you can help them develop.
You were hired as an assistant at Queens back in 2013 when they were still D-2: what is the biggest difference between D-2 and D-1? The 1st part is positional size: we kept our whole team when we moved up to D-1 and were able to win 18 games despite being 2-4” shorter at every position, but by the end of the season we were worn down. The other big difference is scheduling. In D-2 we scheduled to be the #1 seed in the tourney, but in a 1-bid D-1 league you are scheduling so that your team will be the best version of itself in March. I want our team to learn the lessons that we need to learn before we enter conference play.
Your non-conference schedule includes road trips to Oklahoma State/BYU/LSU/Houston/Baylor: is there any 1 opponent that you feel will be your biggest test or that you are most excited to face? As a coach, I would say Houston. They have become a top-5 program in the sport over the last 5 years and their defensive culture is so elite. We have a pretty good offense, but it will be an unbelievable test for us. As a fan, the Marriott Center in BYU is an unbelievable environment. We played there 2 years ago and I thought it was even better than Duke because their fans were off the charts.
Last year your offense ranked top-20 in the nation with 84.5 PPG: what is the key to having a great offense? Everyone is a little different in how they get there, but the key for us is rim pressure. The A-Sun has been 1 of the top-2 leagues in the nation in offensive efficiency over the past few years, so you need to score points in the paint and take care of the ball. We have been playing fast, but you cannot play carelessly.
Take me through your incredible postseason run last March:
Chris Ashby scored 34 PTS/10-19 3PM in a 5-PT OT win over top-seeded Central Arkansas: how big a deal was it to win the 1st Atlantic Sun tourney title in school history? I do not even know if I can put it into words. We are a championship-minded program and expect to be in the fight every year. We put that pressure on ourselves after moving up from D-2 so that is the benchmark. The goal is to build a program that has realistic championship aspirations each year. For the school/community/city, it was such a rallying point. The skyline turned Queens Blue for the game, and most of the restaurants/sports bars were sold out. I have not seen that kind of energy in the city since the Panthers made the Super Bowl back in 2016.
In the NCAA tourney you lost #2 seed Purdue: what do you think your team learned from that game that will help them this year? I say tongue-in-cheek that we were “upset” by Purdue: they have a phenomenal program so hats off to Coach Painter and his team. That is where we were in D-2 and that is where we want to be in D-1. I am a big believer in analytics…but even though Purdue took a lot of long 2s they still had 1 of the most efficient offenses in the history of the sport.
Your top-11 scorers last year were from 8 different states and 2 foreign countries: what sort of recruiting philosophy do you have? This year will look a little different as we have several top players from the Carolinas. You need to find kids who fit your school’s vision: when you come here you must go to class and perform community service and learn to communicate at a super-high level. They need to want to play basketball the way we do it: we build community through basketball. I had to look for guys who are bigger because our footprint changed, so this year we have guys from Slovakia/Turkey in addition to Americans from several states.
You had a birthday last month: what did you do for the big day? I went lake-surfing, which was very cool. I have ocean-surfed a bunch, but catching a wave on the lake is very different: I have an adventurous spirit.
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? We are very process-driven so we do not set any numeric goals. Our standard is to be in the fight for both a regular season title and conference tourney title. We have players/coaches who have tasted it and seen it: we are the only team in the nation besides UConn who has 3 all-league players coming back. Isaiah Henry did not start a single game last year, but he has taken the biggest jump and will probably be our leading scorer this year. If we can stay healthy, I think it is reasonable for us in the years ahead to eventually win an NCAA tourney game.
