Happy Birthday! HoopsHD interviews former Duke All-American Jack Marin

Posted on October 12, 2022 by Jon Teitel

Duke basketball hopes to keep things going strong this season after the retirement of Mike Krzyzewski, but its proud history started well before Coach K showed up in 1980. Jack Marin was part of the 1st Duke team to make the NCAA title game in 1964 (a loss to UCLA), then made it back to the Final 4 in 1966 (losing to Kentucky before beating Utah in the 3rd place game). After being drafted 5th overall by Baltimore that spring he spent more than a decade in the NBA and made back-to-back All-Star games in 1972/1973. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Jack about his 2 trips to the Final 4 and making the 1971 NBA Finals. Today is Jack’s 78th birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!

In the 1964 NCAA title game as a player at Duke you had 16 PTS/10 REB in a loss to an undefeated UCLA team (Bruins’ reserve forward Kenny Washington had 26 PTS/12 REB): could you tell at the time that John Wooden was on the brink of the greatest coaching run in basketball history (10 titles in 12 years)? Hardly, although he had a very small team with a center not much bigger than I am (6’7″) and STILL won a national championship! They had great players and future NBA stars in Gail Goodrich/Walt Hazzard/Keith Erickson…but it was Kenny Washington who killed us.

In the 1966 ACC tourney semifinal Mike Lewis made 2 FTs in the final seconds of a 21-20 win over North Carolina: what was it like to face a 4-corners offense where you were just standing around and waiting for the Tar Heels to do something? I think that my dad said he was very close to having a heart attack in the stands! It was really an awful game. We were down 17-12 with about a quarter to go and it felt like a 20-PT deficit but we managed to pull it out thanks to Mike’s clutch free throws. It is unusual (to say the least) to be tied for the leading scorer on your team with only 4 points! Apparently they did not really want to play against us after we had swept them during the regular season.

In the 1966 Final 4 you scored 29 PTS in a 4-PT loss to a 27-1 Kentucky team: do you think that you would have won if your fellow 2nd-team All-American Bob Verga was not suffering from a flu that caused him to lose 5 pounds and score a season-low 4 PTS? I suppose I do but that is just speculation. The Wildcats were damn good with stars like Pat Riley/Louie Dampier. They had someone who was sick as well but Bob was always a big-game player who you could count on down the stretch.

In the spring of 1966 you were drafted 5th overall by Baltimore and ended up making the NBA All-Rookie team: what did it mean to you to get drafted, and how were you able to make such a smooth transition from college to the pros? There were only 10 teams in the league so I was picked in the middle of the 1st round! The Hawks were going to take me 4th overall but I told them that I would be going to Duke Medical School instead. I signed with the Bullets for what I thought would be 2 years: I wanted to put away enough money to go back to school. My rookie season was not a “smooth” transition in any way. We were 4-25 to start and ended an awful year with only 20 wins. I had 3 coaches during our first few months but the final one was Gene Shue, who was a wonderful man/coach who I still think of fondly today. The transition was really difficult. I thought that I had to be better than I was, which of course is the 1st hurdle: believing in yourself. Gene helped me understand that I should take small steps, come off the bench with the goal of giving the team a lift by scoring a couple of baskets, and go from there. I was always a bit of a slow starter but Gene’s words helped boost my confidence and made me a pretty effective player in the 2nd half of that season. It took me until my 3rd season to earn a starting berth at forward next to future Hall of Famer Gus Johnson, which is when I really got going.

In the 1971 NBA Finals you were swept by Milwaukee: how weird was it to have to travel after every single game (the last time ever in the Finals that teams alternated home games)? I just remember losing the 4th game in Baltimore. The worst part is that we had not done well against Milwaukee all year (not that many other teams had either). However, after beating the Knicks in the Garden on Saturday and leaving on Sunday we had to be in Milwaukee to tee it up on a Tuesday. We had essentially no rest after winning a pair of tough 7-game series. The Bucks on the other hand looked like they had just returned from a 10-day vacation in Acapulco! We had a couple of injuries on top of that and were fairly well spent so it was not the best of circumstances. Even if we were completely healthy we would have struggled to win 2 games against their really fine team led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Oscar Robertson/Bob Dandridge.

In the 1972 All-Star Game you scored 11 PTS in 15 minutes in a 2-PT loss by the East: what was it like to play with so many future Hall of Famers, and how crazy did the Forum get after MVP Jerry West made a 20-footer at the buzzer to win the game? I remember that game quite well. Back then it was a really serious game…because the winners got an extra $300! Today it is just an “exhibition”, which is the most charitable word I can come up with. If I was allowed to play the 4th quarter then I might have ended up with a big night, but as a reserve I just sat on the bench. West hit a historic shot: a signature clutch jumper from the top of the key. It was pretty cool: www.youtube.com/watch?v=28zwDdKG6H4

In 1972 you led the NBA with 89.4 FT%: what was your secret for making FTs? Practice and more practice. I was a good shooter who was taught to shoot free throws underhanded in high school but switched to shooting them one-handed as a sophomore at Duke. Underhanded shooting was just an unnecessary extra skill that I would have to practice. There are a couple of important techniques to adopt and then you just have to practice them. It is a steep progression just to go from 83.3% (missing 1 in 6) to 90% (missing 1 in 10): I always thought that was interesting.

In the decisive Game 6 of the 1974 Eastern Conference Semifinals as a player for Buffalo, Jo Jo White made a pair of free throws with no time left in a 2-PT win by Boston: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? It was very difficult because it was such a hard-fought battle. After I came to the Braves I thought that we would be contenders but the Celtics had an edge on us because…well, they were the Celtics after all! We probably did not get the best of the officiating in that series. Just like in baseball: the best hitters get a smaller strike zone and the best pitchers get a bigger one. Had we won that series it would have been a wonderful Cinderella story.

After retiring you returned to Duke to attend law school: when did you first think about going that route, and what was it like to be back at your alma mater? I was more mature and one of the older guys in my law class so I enjoyed being back in that environment. Back in 1966 I thought that I would postpone medical school until I saved a little money in the NBA, but after 11 years I thought that it was a bit late for me to become a doctor. Business school was not quite the plum that it is today and I was encouraged to believe that a law degree would offer me a number of options. It seemed like a logical step for me…as a chemistry major!

You spent 30 years as a lawyer during which you represented the National Basketball Retired Players Association: what were you able to accomplish as its counsel? That is better asked of other people, but I feel that I helped them work through some difficult situations and helped design certain structures/mechanisms so they could get organized. I am proudest of my work on the NBA Player Pension Plan because it is a safety net for all players. Even with their extraordinary earnings today a defined benefit plan can mean a lot. Even if you made $10 million/year during your 20s you never know what the future holds. I worked closely with the Players Association counsel Ron Klempner and the league’s benefits coordinator: I think that we have a marvelous plan. During some more contentious times I remember Pat Garrity helping with some fine analysis/advocacy. We had to educate the then-active players about what it could mean to them. In an environment like professional sports, a defined benefit plan like ours has certain features that make it unbeatable as part of a player’s financial planning so I hope it will be maintained in perpetuity. Fortunately, along with the Players Association, the leadership of the NBA sees it as a necessary benefit as well.

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Name, Image, and Lots of money: HoopsHD interviews Chris Schoemann of the Boulevard Collective

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Jon Teitel

The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created last year after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Chris Schoemann of the Boulevard Collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.

 

Chris Kleinert/Kyle Miller co-founded an NIL collective called “Boulevard Collective” last month: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did they do it? The motivation behind the creation of the Boulevard Collective was to create an NIL Collective that would serve as an augmentation to the SMU student-athlete’s experience, be rooted with community-based NIL activations, and be based on a concept that we become a trusted and valued partner of the University. Its creation was not necessarily complicated, but we took a great deal of care to make sure that we were pursuing common goals.

Your title is Executive Director: what does that entail? In my role with Boulevard I serve as the managing administrator. We have resources that we employ to provide world-class marketing services to the members of the Collective and we have a sales team that assists us in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. I serve as the primary contact person between the University and the Collective.

How much of your focus is on basketball compared to football? Boulevard’s initial focus is on football and men’s basketball but we are not limited to providing services to just those two sports. We have already done NIL activations with members of the women’s basketball/volleyball teams and our aspirational goals are to incorporate all SMU student-athletes (regardless of sport) into the Collective.

What kind of connection (if any) will your group have with new coach Rob Lanier/Athletic Director Rick Hart? We really want to be viewed by the University as a partner here. My level of communication with the University may be a little different given my familiarity with its administration due to my prior engagements. We are in regular communication with Rick and his office as well as other areas of the University’s administration. It cannot work any other way in our opinion.

What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? To date, we have created deals for SMU student-athletes that have been team-based. We are currently finalizing a number of individual student-athlete deals and our goal is to continue down both of those tracks. In addition, we also provided member of the Collective with a brand-building seminar where we brought Aaron Rapf (former NIKE Sports Marketing rep) into Dallas: he engaged the student-athletes with a great brand-building presentation.

People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? Sure, but what we want to do with our Boulevard deals is to ensure (to the best of our abilities) that the deals themselves align with efforts that have a community good associated with them. That is why we were so excited to do a deal last August with the Dallas Independent School District and provide something meaningful to the six middle schools we worked with (Note: a group of football/basketball players helped assemble more than 400 backpacks with school supplies for local students). The response from our donors has been positive when we expound on that concept as our value proposition.

It has been reported that your group will be supporting every basketball/football player at the school: why did you decide to “spread the wealth” rather than just focus on 1-2 high-profile student-athletes? We feel strongly that such a concept helps to build the entire program. However, that is not to say we will not work with the high-profile athletes as well.

Last month former top high school prospect Emoni Bates was arrested after sheriff’s deputies found a gun in a car he was driving: how concerned are you about entering contractual relationships with teenagers who might end up behaving badly? SMU provides its student-athletes with world-class Student-Athlete Development resources. We look at Boulevard as a companion to that program. Part of Aaron Rapf’s presentation on behalf of Boulevard last week talked extensively about personal conduct and responsibility to this end from the athletes perspective. It was impactful.

What kind of cool stuff do people get if they became 1 of your top donors? We have some gear that we have been working on as well as student-athlete “meet and greets.” As with other Collectives, this is still a work in progress.

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West Coast Conference Media Day Recap and Response

Posted on October 10, 2022 by David Griggs

CLICK HERE for All of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:

  1. Gonzaga
  2. Saint Mary’s
  3. BYU
  4. San Francisco (tied 3rd)
  5. Portland
  6. Santa Clara
  7. Pepperdine
  8. San Diego
  9. LMU
  10. Pacific

 

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-WCC TEAM:

-Rasir Bolton – SR, G – Gonzaga
-Alex Ducas – SR, F – Saint Mary’s
-Logan Johnson – SR, G – Saint Mary’s
-Keshawn Justice – SR, F – Santa Clara
-Houston Mallette – SO, G – Pepperdine
-Tyler Robertson – JR, F – Portland
-Khalil Shabazz – SR, G – San Francisco
-Julian Strawther – JR, G – Gonzaga
-Drew Timme – SR, F – Gonzaga
-Fousseyni Traore – SO, F – Gonzaga

 

COMMENTS FROM DAVID:

-Mark Few is clearly on the hot seat!!  The Zags failed to win 30 games last year for the first time since 2015-2016, and they also failed to make it past the Sweet Sixteen for the second time in that same timespan!!  Okay, in all seriousness, the Zags have lost just four conference games dating back to the 2016-2017 season.  That is an average of less than one per year.  They have spent far more time in the top-ten (and probably the top-five) than they have spent out of it, they are routinely a Final Four-caliber team and one of the teams that good enough to win it all, and this year will be no different.  Whenever someone says the Zags underperform, I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT!!  The last time Gonzaga failed to get past the Round of 32 was 2014.  I do not know if any other programs have been to the Sweet Sixteen every year since 2015.  That is remarkable!  This year, they are once again the practically unanimous favorites to win the league, they will likely start off ranked in the top-five, they will most likely remain in the top-ten all year long, and they are strong on the perimeter, they rebound well, and they shoot well.  They are good enough to win it all.

-Saint Mary’s is pretty far behind Gonzaga, but they are perhaps comfortably ahead of everyone else.  They won 26 total games a year ago, were 12-3 in WCC play, and although they lost Tommy Kuhse (who signed with the San Antonio Spurs in August), they still have three starters back and they had some pretty good freshmen to the lineup as well.  They should get really good play out of their guards this year.

-BYU is coming a season where they made the NIT, and while they still have some good pieces, they also have to replace quite a bit, and it is hard for me to believe they will improve to the point of being solidly inside the bubble come March.  But…who knows??

-The Dons of San Francisco have been exciting to watch over the past few seasons, and they made the NCAA Tournament a year ago.  The problem is nearly all their starters are gone, as well as head coach Todd Golden.  He is being replaced by Chris Gerlufsen, who has a bit of a rebuilding job ahead of him.

-There is reason to be excited in Portland!  All five starters are back, and although they lost in the WCC quarterfinals, they had won seven of their last eight prior to that.  If there is a dark horse in this conference, it may be this Portland team.  I am a little surprised they are only picked to finish in the middle of the league.  I could see them finishing a few spots higher.

-Santa Clara is another program that has shown steady improvement in recent years.  Having said that, they may be in a bit of a rebuilding mode this year.  They lost a lot of key players and have just two starters back.  But, they do add some key transfer players, and will look to get some contributions from them.  Herb Sendek is entering his 7th year with the program, and has posted 20+ win seasons in two of the last three years, so they are getting better.

-Pepperdine won just one conference game a year ago, and although four starters are back and they should be somewhat improved with that experience, it is hard for me to see them finishing anywhere close to the middle of the league.  But, they were very young last year, so while I do not expect them to contend for the top half of the league, I do think they will be noticeably better.

-Not a lot of love for San Diego despite them having three starters back and some experienced upperclassmen.  I do not expect them to contend for the league title or anything, but I am a little surprised they were picked this close to the bottom.

-Both LMU and Pacific won just three league games last year, and it will likely be another long year for both of them again this year.

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Season preview: HoopsHD interviews Grand Canyon women’s coach Molly Miller

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Jon Teitel

We are still a month away from the tip-off of the college basketball season this fall, 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 Grand Canyon women’s coach Molly Miller, who talked about making the WNIT last March and her expectations for this season.

In 2008 you were named a D-2 All-American at Drury, where you went 112-18 during your career as a 5’6” PG: how good a player were you back in the day? I did not pass the “eye test” for a dominating player so I had to earn my keep on the defensive end. I had a motor that would not quit and was a little ankle-biter. I might not have had the most PTS/REB but I got a lot of deflections on defense.

After getting your MBA you spent 4 years as a marketing director for the Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute: how did you get into coaching? It was a crazy thing. I loved the game of basketball but thought that I might have to go the teaching route. I am very outgoing and high-energy so I figured that I would do something in the business world. At 22 I did not think I would get a head marketing job…but I did. It was a great experience: I had to manage people, reconcile a budget, etc. A lot of ex-athletes experience a void after they stop playing so when I heard there was an assistant coaching job opening up at my alma mater I figured that I would check it out. I took a $15,000 pay cut but it was a place of comfort for me to start my journey.

After going 109-9 with a pair of state titles at Kickapoo High School, you returned to your alma mater and went 180-17 (including 55-0 at home): what is the secret to being a great coach? I really think it is about the people around you. I am not scoring a basket or taking a charge so you have to motivate your players to buy into your system. The biggest piece of success is for them to play hard and all be on-board. You need to form relationships at the very beginning to form a solid foundation…while also ensuring that it is fun. They are committed to the brand of basketball that I want to play, which has made a nice recipe for success.

You were a 2-time D-2 national COY: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? There are a LOT of phenomenal D-2 coaches. That is a team award for sure: they do not give it to coaches who go 1-34! Some of those coaches get paid pennies on the hour for all of their hard work so I am honored to be beside them as we grow the women’s game.

In 2020 you were 32-0 after winning the GLVC tourney title: what was your reaction when you learned that the D-2 tourney was getting canceled due to COVID? We were crushed, if that is even a big-enough word. We were getting ready to play the 1st round when my Athletic Director tapped me on the shoulder and told me the bad news. There were some media people there but I was a hot mess. I am glad we were all together to mourn the loss: we felt really confident that we had the talent to go all the way. It still hurts: I actually just hired the PG from that team and when we talk about that game it is still painful.

You were hired as head coach at Grand Canyon in April of 2020: why did you take the job? It was a very hard decision. I wanted to stay at Drury and try to win a championship in 2021 but after a lot of prayer and educating myself about what GCU could offer I thought that it would allow me to stretch my impact beyond Springfield, MO. It was a personal growth moment for me to expand beyond my comfort zone. I knew that it would have some challenges/expectations but I decided to take the leap. There is a great commitment to women’s basketball here and you can see the excitement in our “Havoc” student section. I love that there is a high expectation: they want us to win, and so do I. Coaches never want to leave their team but now I love my new team.

You use a full-court trapping defense/up-tempo motion offense: what makes them so effective? They complement each other because we play fast. It is a very unique style of defense but there is a method to the chaos. It can cause a lot of havoc out there but I just crossed my fingers and hoped that it would transfer to the D-1 level…which it did. It is tough to run an offense against a defense that is running around/trapping. We have 10 new players this year so we have to learn to walk before we can run. The defensive brand has stayed true so we will roll with it.

Despite only having 1 player start more than 25 games last year (Amara Graham) you made the WNIT before losing to New Mexico: what did your team learn from that loss that will help them this year? The biggest thing is availability: we had 2 PGs last year and eventually had a couple of freshmen starting and were playing some wacky lineups. There are always some unpreventable things that happen but the best ability is availability: the best teams are the healthy ones.

Your husband Derek played football at Missouri State: who is the best athlete in the family? I beat him in a game of 1-on-1…but he was coming off of an ACL injury. He has some good hops though.

What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? We want to get over that hump. We have a WAC title in mind and want to make some noise in the NCAA tourney. We just need to find where our players fit as they learn the system. The good news is that we will only get better because we are learning on a daily basis. It will be all about integrating the new kids and working towards a title.

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Atlantic Sun Media Day Recap and Response

Posted on October 7, 2022 by David Griggs

CLICK HERE for All of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON COACHES POLL:

  1. Liberty
  2. Jacksonville
  3. Jacksonville State
  4. FGCU
  5. North Florida
  6. Lipscomb
  7. Bellarmine
  8. Kennesaw State
  9. Austin Peay
  10. Eastern Kentucky
  11. Central Arkansas
  12. Stetson
  13. Queens
  14. North Alabama

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON MEDIA POLL:

  1. Liberty
  2. Jacksonville
  3. Jacksonville State
  4. FGCU
  5. Bellarmine
  6. Kennesaw State
  7. North Florida
  8. Lipscomb
  9. Austin Peay
  10. Eastern Kentucky
  11. Central Arkansas
  12. North Alabama
  13. Stetson
  14. Queens

 

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL CONFERENCE TEAM:

-Darius McGhee – SR, G – Liberty
-Kevion Nolan – SR, G – Jacksonville
-Ahsan Asadullah – SR, C – Lipscomb
-Camren Hunter – SO, G – Central Arkansas
-Michael Moreno – JR, F – Eastern Kentucky
-Chase Johnston – JR, G – FGCU
-Chris Youngblood – JR, G – Kennesaw State
-Kyle Rode – SR, F – Liberty
-Carter Hendricksen – SR, F – North Florida
-Jose Placer – JR, G – North Florida

 

COMMENTS FROM DAVID:

-After winning 19 D1 games last season, and finishing first in the ASun, Liberty is the hands-down preseason favorites this year, and if anyone in this league can put together the kind of season to get inside the bubble, it is them.  Four starters are back, including Darius McGhee, who was actually the nation’s leading scorer last year.  They are strong both in the backcourt and the frontcourt.  This could be a fun team to watch, and it would not shock me at all if they ran away from the rest of the conference.

-Jacksonville also returns four starters, and they finished just 1 game behind Liberty last year, so that experience should help them.  I cannot quite see them keeping pace with Liberty, but having said that, they were able to do it last year.

-Jax State had the unique distinction of being one of the very few teams in the history of college basketball to earn an automatic bid without actually winning a conference championship.  They fell to Bellarmine in the championship game last year, but because Bellarmine was not eligible for the NCAA Tournament due to transitioning, Jax State got the bid.  This year is a complete rebuild.  All five starters are gone, but they have hit the transfer portal and have some players coming in from power conferences who probably left in the hopes of getting more minutes.

-Pat Chambers begins his era at FGCU this year, and he has a pretty good team to work with.  Three starters are back, along with some pretty good transfers who should give them some quality play.

-Bellarmine won the conference tournament a year ago, and should have gone to the NCAAs, but was not eligible to do so, and unfortunately for them still is ineligible.  They have certainly proven themselves to be assimilated to playing at the D1 level.  They are going through a bit of a rebuilding year, but they should still finish in the top half of the league.

-Kennesaw State has all five starters back, and that experience alone should help them.  They had their best season last year in at least five years, and it really was not even close.  It will be interesting to see if they can take another big step forward this year.

-I like Matt Driscoll as a coach and am a little surprised that North Florida has been able to hold on to him.  Having said that, he has his work cut out for him this year.  Four starters are back, and that experience should help them, but they won just 5 D1 games last year and were totally off the rails down the stretch.

-Lipscomb was another team that totally crashed in the second half of conference play, but they did seem to pull it together in the final few weeks.  They won three of their last four before falling to Liberty in a close game in the conference tournament, so with three starters back we may see some improvements.

-Austin Peay is new to the league and has four starters back from a year ago.  The expectations for the Govs are still low though.  I do not think they will finish near the top, but I do think they will do better than 9th.  I am a little surprised they were picked to finish this low.

-Eastern Kentucky had an unspectacular debut in the ASun last year, and it looks like it might be more of the same for them this year.  They did sign a pretty good freshman PG in Leland Walker, so that should give them some much needed help in the backcourt.

-Central Arkansas has finished outside the KenPom top-300 in three of the last four years, and is not expected to do much better this season.

-North Alabama, Stetson, and Queens (who is new to D1), will all likely struggle to finish in the top ten.

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Name, Image, and Lots of money: HoopsHD interviews Adam Lazarus of the Arizona Assist NIL collective

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Jon Teitel

The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created last year after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Adam Lazarus of the Arizona Assist NIL collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.

You co-founded an NIL collective called “Arizona Assist” last February: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did you do it? It was very complicated as we had to navigate through the legal aspects involving international players. We were approached by friends of the Arizona men’s basketball program who wanted to get ahead of things. We developed a platform with some alumni: it is not a collective but rather a membership-based website that gives benefits to the members.

Why is your focus on basketball rather than other sports? There is another program in Tucson called “Friends of Wilbur & Wilma” that does NIL stuff for all the other sports. However, we are a basketball town so we decided to focus solely on basketball.

What kind of connection (if any) will your group have with people like Coach Tommy Lloyd/Athletic Director Dave Heeke? Tommy is a huge supporter of what we are doing and has given us his time/energy. We have talked to the team about what is going on and they are huge proponents of what we are doing. Dave has absolutely nothing to do with it.

What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? The majority of revenue that players are receiving is for sales of membership/merchandise/memorabilia on our website. We are also helping them connect with local brands such as a breakfast place/car dealership/etc. We have hosted some corporate speaking events and Bar Mitzvahs.

People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? We encourage them to do all of those things and most of our members already do that. It is important for Arizona basketball to remain a competitive program because when the team does well the town does well. If people have extra money and want to support the team then we provide a viable option.

Last weekend you hosted an event after the annual Red-Blue Game where fans had an opportunity to mingle with Wildcat legends such as Richard Jefferson/Jason Terry/Lauri Markkanen: most collectives are focused on the players on the current roster, but do you feel that you have an extra advantage by having a school that has seen 35 players enter the NBA since 2000 and had another 3 drafted last June (Christian Koloko/Bennedict Mathurin/Dalen Terry)? Absolutely! The majority of those players are adamant about continuing the legacy and are willing to contribute their time/money. The guys just shook hands and signed some photos because they are proud of their legacy here. The majority of the players who have turned pro remain connected to the program: if they are willing to help us out then we will gladly take it.

You have a big golf event today called the “Fore the Players” Cats Classic: what kind of turnout do you expect, and how much money do you think you will raise to support the players/programs? We have 100 players on the books paying $1000 each so after we pay all of our bills the balance of that money will be distributed to the team over the next several months. We are going to have great weather as the players meet/greet the golfers and sign some autographs.

I heard that you are also offering a chance to win a free trip to the Maui Invitational next month: how can people participate? There is no purchase necessary. We will be drawing a winner in the next few weeks. They just have to go to our website (https://arizonaassist.com) and provide their email address. The trip involves seats on the charter, tickets to the game, and some cool prizes.

Last month former top high school prospect Emoni Bates was arrested after sheriff’s deputies found a gun in a car he was driving: how concerned are you about entering contractual relationships with teenagers who might end up behaving badly? I am not any more concerned about the players then with a contract I would enter with anyone else. We get to use their NIL in our marketing efforts but we are not player representatives/agents. If they want to do a deal with a car dealership we do not take any money from that or sign any agreement with them. We are a brand and not a collective: there is no money sitting in a pool that we use to pay players.

What kind of cool stuff do people get if they become 1 of the 100 “Century Cats” for $10,000/year? Our memberships start at $10/month but our higher-level memberships come with custom swag like NFTs, access to the players/coaches, etc. Most of our Century Cat members do not really care about the benefits: they are just huge fans/boosters who have some disposable income. They get VIP access to all of our events, such as the golf tourney.

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