Hoops HD

If winning is the key in March then there is no assistant coach I would rather have on my sideline then Win Case.  On Saturday the Blue Raiders got a 2-PT win over Old Dominion in the C-USA tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament.  Coach Case joined the Middle Tennessee staff 6 years ago and this marks his 4th trip to the postseason in the past 5 years.  Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Coach Case about his old teammate Bill Self and what it took to win 4 NAIA titles in a 6-year span from 1991-1996.

You played 2 years at Oklahoma State: what was current Kansas coach Bill Self like as a teammate back in the day, and could you have ever imagined that he would win a dozen straight Big 12 titles? We always knew that he was destined for greatness because he was like a coach out on the floor. He always wanted to be a coach and was a student of the game who could break down film. That was his passion/calling even back then.

You won 2 NAIA titles as an assistant and 2 more as a head coach at Oklahoma City University from 1991-1996: how were you able to be so dominant, and what is the secret to winning a title? More than anything you need really good talent. We had some really good players come through, and then you need them to play defense and rebound. You also need them to play together for 1 cause.

Your son Jeremy won the 2008 NCAA title at Kansas: who is the best athlete in the family? His mom Rita! I tell people that all the time and we would even discuss it at the dinner table. She was a great college basketball player and her whole family also played basketball.

You have spent the past 6 years as an assistant to Coach Kermit Davis, who is the winningest coach in school history: what makes him such a good coach, and how do you like working for him? I love working for him. I thought that I knew a lot about basketball before I got here but I have never seen my boss take a day off from having practice and making the program better. He can get the most out of his talent better than any other coach in the country. He does not take anything for granted: even if we miss shots we will always play with effort/energy. I talked to Bill Self before taking the job and he said that Kermit was 1 of the best coaches out there and that I needed to take the leap of faith. I will never forget that call and I am glad that I took the job.

Last March your team lost to Kent State in the CIT: what did your team learn from that game that can help you in the postseason this year? Our team was a little beat up at the time but I think that disappointment motivated us: Coach preaches that adversity can be good for you. Our guys realized that we had to get better if we wanted to make the jump: from weightlifting to more shooting to having a better focus.

You played several fellow tourney teams in non-conference action this season including UNC Asheville/VCU/South Dakota State: which of these teams impressed you the most? Looking back on it I would have to say Asheville. We won the game by 2 PTS but we knew afterwards that the Bulldogs could make the NCAA tourney. They play hard and are well coached: I would not be surprised if they win a game or 2 this week.

On Saturday Reggie Upshaw scored 9 PTS including a pair of FTs with 2.9 seconds left to clinch a 2-PT win over Old Dominion en route to being named conference tourney MVP: did you think he was going to make the FTs, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? 1 of our previous games involved a Hack-A-Reggie, and he just got back in the gym and kept working on it until he made 10 in a row. I looked him in the eye after he got fouled on Saturday but did not say a word: when he looked back at me and nodded I knew that he was ready for that opportunity. I really thought he would make them because he had paid the price. The whole city is abuzz right now: you cannot go anywhere without having someone shake your hand and congratulate you. I just got stopped in Wal-Mart by some people who said they cannot wait until Friday!

You have only 2 players on your roster from the state of Tennessee: what is your team’s recruiting philosophy and how have you been able to get guys from so many different states? I have been in this business a long time and have people I trust who might tell me to go look at a kid. We have found some players from Memphis and Mississippi and Milwaukee. We get some recruiting reports and hear of players via word-of-mouth and then try to go all over the area: you have to be the 1st 1 there and the last 1 there. As hard as Coach Davis works at coaching he works just as hard at recruiting: he is like 1 of the assistants in that he is a tireless recruiter who does not sit back and relax because the buck stops with him.

Your team shoots 61.7 FT%, which is 5th-worst in the nation: do you fear that you might lose a close game this week due to your poor FT shooting, and as a coach is there anything you try to do besides tell them to keep practicing their FTs? Coach Davis thinks that mental toughness plays a large part in many aspects of the game: making FTs, getting a 50-50 ball, etc. We shoot FTs at the end of every single practice and if you cannot make 10 in a row then you have to come back and shoot them later.

You received a #15-seed and will be playing Michigan State in St. Louis on Friday: how are you preparing to face the Big 10 champs? Everyone is picking the Spartans to win a title…but they have to play us 1st! We are going into it with our game plan and Coach will prepare us for battle. We have to rebound the ball and guard them well, and since they will be locked in defensively we also have to find ways to score. I truly believe that we will compete and we are not going to go in scared. I am looking forward to it because in 2013 a lot of our players were just excited to be in the NCAA tourney but now they want to actually win a couple of games.

Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy finished a tremendous regular season by earning a #1-seed to the SEC tourney, and even after a 5-PT OT loss to Kentucky in the SEC tourney title game earlier today his team received a #3-seed in the NCAA tourney and will face Green Bay in Oklahoma City this Friday.  After making the CBI in 2014 Kennedy hired Rick Stansbury to be 1 of his assistant coaches, who helped the Aggies sign a top-10-in-the-nation recruiting class that helped them win 26 games so far this year.  Stansbury made 6 NCAA tourneys in an 8-year stretch as head coach at Mississippi State and is a big reason that yet another SEC team is finding success. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Coach Stansbury about losing a tourney game in OT thanks to a Providence player named Billy Donovan and being named SEC COY.

Take me through the 1987 NCAA tourney as assistant coach at Austin Peay:
Tony Raye made a pair of FTs with 2 seconds left before Ken Norman missed a 15-foot shot at the buzzer in a 1-PT win over Illinois: did you think that Norman’s shot was going in, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? The Illini were a #3 seed so nobody gave us any chance to win. Illinois had a very good team and was loaded but we were tough and could really defend people. We even had a big guy who could shoot from behind the arc.

Billy Donovan had 25 PTS/7 AST in a 3-PT OT win by Providence after Bob Thomas missed a FT at the end in regulation: how devastating was that loss, and could you tell at the time that Donovan would become a star on the sideline 2 decades later at FL? We were fouled with no time on the clock with a chance to go to the Sweet 16. Providence coach Rick Pitino called a timeout but there was no real strategy for us to share at that point. I just told Thomas to make the FT and he said it was money in the bank…but he missed it. We were up late in OT with time running down when Donovan pushed off of our defender with his left hand, stepped back, and made a 3-PT shot: the rest was history. Pitino later said in his book that he might still be at Providence if we had made that FT, but he became coach of the Knicks the following season.

What are your memories of the 1995 NCAA tourney as assistant coach at Mississippi State (tourney MOP Ed O’Bannon scored 21 PTS in a win by eventual champion UCLA)? We started the tourney with an 8-PT win over Steve Nash’s Santa Clara team, followed by a 14-PT win over Keith Van Horn’s Utah team. Next up was UCLA in Oakland but Tyus Edney and the O’Bannon brothers were too talented for us.

What are your memories of the 1996 NCAA tourney (Erick Dampier had 12 PTS/14 REB/6 AST in a loss to eventual national runner-up Syracuse)? I never saw someone score over Dampier that entire season but Otis Hill did exactly that and finished with 15 PTS. We were favored to meet Kentucky in the finals in an all-SEC championship after we had blown them out in the SEC title game 2 weeks earlier, but we were not at our best.

What are your memories of the 2002 NCAA tourney (Deginald Erskin scored 17 PTS [8-9 FG] in a 4-PT win by Texas)? We played them in Dallas in the 1st year of the pod system (where teams were assigned to 1st-round sites in an effort to minimize travel). We were the higher-ranked team but you can imagine who had the most fans there. We were the poster boy for how the pod system did not work!

What are your memories of the 2003 NCAA tourney (Mario Austin had 18 PTS/10 REB but Brandon Miller made a runner in the lane with 6 seconds left in a 1-PT win by Butler)? At the time nobody knew how good Butler was. We were down by 1 PT late in the game and Winsome Frazier had an open shot but it went off the rim. Butler went on to beat Louisville before losing to Oklahoma.

In 2004 you were named SEC COY: what did it mean to you to win such an outstanding honor? When we changed offices several years ago I uncovered the trophy that had been sitting in a box. I had forgotten all about it so I polished it up and put it up in my new office. Maybe when I get older I will look back and reflect on it.

What are your memories of the 2004 NCAA tourney (Lionel Chalmers scored 31 PTS [11-13 FG] in a win by Xavier)? We finished 25-2 in the regular season and went 8-0 on the road in the SEC. Our 2 losses were at home to Kentucky/Alabama, and then we beat the Tide on the road to win the outright SEC title. I felt like we should have been a #1 seed but we got a #2. It is a fine line when you get to the NCAA tourney: we had to play a very hot Xavier team in the 2nd round. A kid we recruited named Dedrick Finn made a 60-foot shot at the halftime buzzer to take a 1-PT lead. We actually tried to bring Finn in to visit Starkville but at first he could not make it due to 9/11, and later his football schedule kept him from doing so.

What are your memories of the 2005 NCAA tourney (Shelden Williams had 13 PTS/15 REB in an 8-PT win by Duke)? We played Duke in Charlotte and they were a very good team. We had blown out Stanford by 23 PTS in the 1st round. The Duke game was close all the way but our PG had a critical turnover with a couple of minutes left.

What are your memories of the 2008 NCAA tourney (Ben Hansbrough scored 19 PTS in a 3-PT loss to eventual national runner-up Memphis, his last game before transferring to Notre Dame)? We beat Oregon in the 1st round but nobody realized that Memphis would end up playing for the title. Their center Joey Dorsey had been mainly a rebounder all year long but he scored 13 PTS (6-8 FG) against us. Barry Stewart was a great player for us but he went 1-12 from the field that night. Even so, it was still a 1-possession game until the final buzzer.

What are your memories of the 2010 SEC tourney (Eric Bledsoe scored 18 PTS in a 1-PT OT win by Kentucky)? We played the Wildcats in the SEC title game in Nashville with all of their future 1st-round draft picks (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, etc.). We were up 3 PTS late and fouled Bledsoe with 4 seconds left. He made the 1st FT so everyone knew what was going to happen next…except the 3 people in charge on the court. Wall started at the top of the circle as Bledsoe put up a high-arcing shot, ran into the paint, and was 3 feet ahead of Bledsoe while the ball was still in the air. Wall eventually got the ball and flung up a 3-PT shot from the corner that was short.  Jarvis Varnado thought the game was over, but Cousins flicked it in at the buzzer and we ended up losing in OT. It did not just cost us the SEC title: it also cost us an NCAA bid. There are always calls that beat you here and there but rarely do they cost you a conference title/NCAA bid. I became the 1st basketball coach in SEC history to get fined for my comments about a game: $30,000!