We are still a couple of weeks away from the tip-off of the 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 continues our coverage with Temple associate head coach Monte Ross, who talked about playing for a Hall of Fame coach and his expectations for this season.
You played basketball for Hall of Famer Clarence “Big House” Gaines at Winston-Salem State: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? He played to the strengths of his personnel whether we were good at shooting/passing/driving. 1 of the biggest lessons I learned from him was accountability. We had a certain responsibility not only to him and each other and the program…but also our families. We came here to play basketball and also get a degree because the ball always stops bouncing some day. He taught us the importance of life after basketball.
How good a player were you back in the day, and how did you get into coaching? The older I get the better I become! I was a pretty solid player…but I tell my kids that I was great and refer to my exploits on every playground that we pass by. I enjoyed leading and getting others involved and putting them in the right places. I had a knack for that while growing up, which is what led me into coaching. I always wanted to be around basketball even if the NBA was not in my future so I looked for the next best thing. I wanted to help others the way that people had taught me and coaching was the way for me to do that.
In 2004 as an assistant to Phil Martelli at St. Joe’s your team started 27-0, was ranked #1 in the nation, and made the Elite 8 before losing by 2 PTS to Oklahoma State: how close did you come to going undefeated? I like to say that we were close because we finished the regular season undefeated, which was quite an accomplishment. We had 1 week off before playing Xavier in the A-10 tourney and we were a rhythm team: we lost in the 1st round and Xavier ended up winning it all. Due to the early loss we had another week off until the NCAA tourney. We still had a #1 seed but struggled with Liberty in the 1st half before pulling away in the 2nd half. If we had to play a more talented Power 5 team then we might have been in serious trouble. We never talked about going undefeated, which is a credit to Phil and his coaching style. We just went about our business and focused on whoever was next on the schedule. We also had tremendous leadership starting with Jameer Nelson, who kept everyone in line. Xavier also lost in the Elite 8 that March.
In 2006 you were hired as head coach at Delaware: why did you take the job, and do you think that we will see you as a head coach again in the future? I enjoyed being at St. Joe’s and Phil gave me autonomy during practices/games so I was in a situation that was not just good…but great. I would only take a head coaching job if I could be there for a long time and Delaware made sense in terms of both academics/athletics. I always felt that it was a sleeping giant based on geography. I had a couple of other interviews/offers but I admired Delaware from afar. I do not know what the future holds but I am in the same type of situation here at Temple with Coach Aaron McKie as I did with Phil: it is a great situation. We grew up together and have the same philosophy both on and off the court: academics, post-graduation life, etc. If something were to come along that made sense: maybe, but I can be very picky.
In the 2014 CAA tourney title game Carl Baptiste scored 24 PTS including a go-ahead layup with 10 seconds left in a 1-PT win over William & Mary: where does that game rank among the highlights of your career? It probably ranks up in the top-2: not so much because of what happened but due to the way we got to that happening. We had a bye and then won our 1st 2 games. We were confident going into the title game because we had already beaten William & Mary twice that season…but the game turned and we were down by 6 PTS with just over 1 minute to go. Delaware all-time leading scorer Devon Saddler called a timeout and I asked him what play he wanted to run, and he told me to give the ball to “Bap” because he was unstoppable that night. It was such a selfless moment by Devon, who had such a good feel for the game: he did not have an ego and just wanted to win. It was 1 of the most thrilling moments for me and our players. Jamelle Hagins turned everything around for us and put things in motion: my only regret in 30 years as a college coach is that he left the year before we got to the NCAA tourney.
In 2019 you were hired as an assistant to Aaron McKie at Temple and are part of a staff with Mark Macon: what is it like to be surrounded by so many members of the school’s Hall of Fame? When we all 1st arrived the imitations they used to do of Coach John Chaney were 2nd to none…including his high-pitched voice! Aaron and I grew up watching Coach Chaney and I remember that it was a big deal when Mark showed up in 1987 as a McDonald’s All-American. I lived about a 15-minute walk from McGonigle Hall and I got to see him play every single home game: he was mesmerizing. Fast-forward a couple of decades and now I have gotten to know him on a personal level. Aaron and I grew up with the same mentor: John Hardnett. You can have all the talent you want but if you have a checkered character then people will not want anything to do with you. Everyone should know the fundamentals and know where everyone is on the court: we took it for granted back then but kids today do not know all of that stuff. It is lost on today’s basketball society so we are constantly drilling that into our players. It makes for a really special environment.
Khalif Battle has been great when healthy but has only played 18 games combined over the past 2 years: how is his health doing at the moment, and how crucial will he be to your team’s success this year? He is healthy…knock on wood! 1 thing we discussed with him is that the best ability is availability. We want to help him take advantage of his skill set within the confines of the team setting: it is all about us winning games. He can score/shoot and cause chain reactions to the defense, but there is a total responsibility that includes rebounding/defense, which he has been working on.
You have 1 senior (Ryan Sayers) and 1 grad student (Kur Jongkuch) this year and no juniors: who will you look to for leadership on the roster? Damian Dunn is our leader, without question: the kids look to him for that role and he has accepted it. He has handled himself that way on and off the court. How he goes is how our team will go: they feed off his body language/enthusiasm. Leadership can be lonely at times when you want to win. You can get on the other guys because it is not personal. He has made a tremendous leap.
Your non-conference schedule includes games against Villanova/Vanderbilt/Rutgers/St. John’s/VCU/Mississippi (plus either Richmond or Syracuse in Game 2 of the Empire Classic): which of these games do you feel will present your biggest test? Wagner on November 7th! I sleep like a baby when I look at our schedule: I wake up crying every 2 hours! This is probably the deepest team we have ever had and our kids want to play games like that. Nothing will prepare us better for the AAC than playing a really tough non-conference schedule. The competition is what excites me: watching film and then trying to stop our opponent.
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? It is going to sound corny but all we want to do is “max out”. If we are working hard and playing our best basketball going into March, that means our kids have developed their skill sets and built cohesion as a team. If our “best ball” is that we win 17 games, or 25 games, or other: that is fine. Last year we let a couple of games get away but despite our injuries our guys were really playing at a high level toward the end of the year, which is what we want to be doing again this year.
