Speaker 1: All right program rolling along. The interim head coach of
Speaker 1: the University of Utah is good enough to give us
Speaker 1: some time in studio. Josh Eiler, coach, how you doing,
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, doing great, great, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Having a beautiful day and crazy, crazy time for you.
Speaker 1: You and I have never met before, so just for
Speaker 1: a little context, I'm a college basketball junkie. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask you right off the top, what's Bob Hawkins like?
Speaker 1: I got it? That's my first question time. I've got
Speaker 1: as much time as you'll get me. I do this
Speaker 1: for four hours every day, Couch.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what he was the probably the greatest
Speaker 2: motive on court motivator that I've ever been around. I
Speaker 2: mean he could he get a guy to run through
Speaker 2: a wall and do so with a smile on his face,
Speaker 2: so you.
Speaker 3: Know he's uh.
Speaker 2: I learned a lot from him, and good and bad,
Speaker 2: you know, how to operate, and certainly we didn't see
Speaker 2: the eyed eye on everything, but I had his back
Speaker 2: for sixteen years and then kind of picked up the
Speaker 2: pieces from there well.
Speaker 1: And the reason I ask is I was a student
Speaker 1: at the You in the nineties and I attempted to
Speaker 1: walk on and play for Rick. It lasted about a
Speaker 1: month and a half because Andre Miller was the starting
Speaker 1: point guard. So I'm not like that guy, right, And
Speaker 1: you know, I loved those teams, and I have a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of respect for coach mcjeris and Coach Huggins.
Speaker 1: Kind of strikes me as a similar type figure where
Speaker 1: the basketball brilliance may have been overshadowed by some of
Speaker 1: the personality traits. Is that is that fair to say?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, in a lot of ways. You know, he
Speaker 3: started from the ground up, he did.
Speaker 2: He started at Walsh College, went on to Acron and
Speaker 2: just kept on moving, moving his way up the ladder
Speaker 2: in terms of the college basketball scene. So he had
Speaker 2: a heck of a career and I was a part
Speaker 2: of a lot of wins with him and even our staff,
Speaker 2: our staff that we were together, it was pretty much
Speaker 2: the same staff for more than a decade, So a
Speaker 2: lot of those relationships over the course of my career
Speaker 2: of will last lifetime, between Frank Martin, Brad Underwood, both
Speaker 2: those guys were on that k State staff that I
Speaker 2: was a ga on when I first joined Coach Huggins staff,
Speaker 2: So those guys. You know, Eric Martin over at South
Speaker 2: Carolina State had a really good year that we worked
Speaker 2: together for over a decade. And Jared Calhoun up the
Speaker 2: road at Utah State. You know, he was the ops
Speaker 2: guy when I was a video guy when we first
Speaker 2: got to West Virginia. So got a lot of connections
Speaker 2: and we're all kind of part of that tree.
Speaker 1: So one more thing here, And truly I could do
Speaker 1: this with you for an hour. I've got ten Bob
Speaker 1: Huggins questions I want to ask you, but we won't
Speaker 1: take that much time. But I want to separate Coach
Speaker 1: Huggins the personality and just ask you about Coach Huggins
Speaker 1: the basketball mind. Like schematically, you know, he was a
Speaker 1: coach that believed in defense and pressure. But what did
Speaker 1: you learn from him just straight as a basketball coach?
Speaker 2: I mean, the biggest thing is Bob Huggins, especially when
Speaker 2: we were really good, well twofold, it was kind of
Speaker 2: a you know, the Press Virginia days are the first
Speaker 2: ones that came to mind when we talked about Bob
Speaker 2: Huggins and when he really put a stamp on that
Speaker 2: West Virginia program when we went to the Final four,
Speaker 2: and the third year there were there, we weren't that
Speaker 2: type of team. So he kind of coaches to his
Speaker 2: his his personnelity. He did a really good job over
Speaker 2: the years to do that. You know, Joe Missoula was
Speaker 2: our point guard at West Virginia the first three years,
Speaker 2: so he had that toughness, that tenacity that really fit
Speaker 2: Bob Huggins' style of play. And you know, it was
Speaker 2: kind of oil and water from from time to time
Speaker 2: and day to day, but really at the end of
Speaker 2: the day that those two, those two kind of married
Speaker 2: themselves and really put that stamp and defense on that floor.
Speaker 2: And when you look at the Press Virginia days and
Speaker 2: in those days with Javon Carter and and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: Daxter Miles and Tarik Phillips, some of those guys just
Speaker 2: had such a hard edge in terms of how they
Speaker 2: played the game and they really fit that and uh,
Speaker 2: we kind of recruited to that point and built those
Speaker 2: programs and we had to shot block with the sagoball kanate,
Speaker 2: you know, you know, cleaning everything up on the side,
Speaker 2: so those guards could be really really aggressive defensively and
Speaker 2: if they got beat, you know, you had one of
Speaker 2: the best shot blockers in the country at the at
Speaker 2: the rim to clean things up.
Speaker 1: Did you see anything from Joe that would indicate he
Speaker 1: would go on to be a great head coach.
Speaker 2: Now, I remember when he kind of got out of
Speaker 2: the game and Joe and I had a really good relationship.
Speaker 2: I remember, you know, Synergy Sports Technologies was one of
Speaker 2: the first you know, analytical programs or so to speak
Speaker 2: out there, and I remember him reaching out and just
Speaker 2: trying to like he is, like, coach Eiler, would you,
Speaker 2: you know, share your log in. I wanted to really
Speaker 2: kind of study the game, and he had that, you know,
Speaker 2: more so than a lot of kids these days. He
Speaker 2: had that that that that hunger to just watch film
Speaker 2: and study film, and you saw it as a player.
Speaker 2: I remember sitting in, you know, as a video coordinator
Speaker 2: and he's he's our point guard and sometimes he was
Speaker 2: our backup point guard. But regardless, he's going into see
Speaker 2: me to study his opponent. And some of the things
Speaker 2: he would see that I wouldn't see, like when we
Speaker 2: started looking at the tendency is like he would pick
Speaker 2: something up every time, like I can take advantage of that.
Speaker 2: So he had that mind from from day one. I
Speaker 2: never knew like that's where he wanted to go with
Speaker 2: his career, but certainly, you know, he's continued to do
Speaker 2: that and he's he's different than a lot of guys
Speaker 2: you'll see out there.
Speaker 1: We just broke some news on the show without coach
Speaker 1: Eilert's logging info for Synergy, Joe Mizula is not coach
Speaker 1: of the Boston Celtics. I think I.
Speaker 3: Said listening, but I shared that log in with him.
Speaker 1: Hey, tell me the origin story, you know, as you
Speaker 1: just referenced with Coach Calhoun, Coach Martin. I mean, I
Speaker 1: have a tremendous respect for coaches.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: My mama always used to say when I'd go to
Speaker 1: a coach's dinner, hug your coach's wife, you know, because
Speaker 1: of how much you guys go through. So I get
Speaker 1: the grind and I respect the fraternity. What's the origin
Speaker 1: story with you and Craig and how you landed in
Speaker 1: saw it?
Speaker 2: You know, I was, I was enjoying life. You know,
Speaker 2: I had a little bit more anxiety last year at
Speaker 2: this time than I do this year in terms of
Speaker 2: the transition, because I'd never been through that process.
Speaker 3: Before seventeen years years and I started as.
Speaker 2: A GA for coach Huggins. I went to West Virginia,
Speaker 2: newly married, without any kids. You know, we kind of
Speaker 2: take a leap of faith and take a thirty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars job as a video coordinator O seven, a video coordinator,
Speaker 2: the director of ops, the interim assistant coach, to associate ad.
Speaker 3: For So I just every every role up the ladder.
Speaker 2: I played those, every one of those roles in seventeen years.
Speaker 2: So you know, last year, you know, a ten month contract,
Speaker 2: it didn't really work out the way we thought it would.
Speaker 2: You know, really tried to build a roster late late
Speaker 2: in summer and and and so you know, we kind
Speaker 2: of behind the eight ball and trying to compete in
Speaker 2: the Big twelve.
Speaker 3: So it didn't work out great.
Speaker 2: But then I started like, let me just enjoy some
Speaker 2: of this, and I started having conversations with some coaches,
Speaker 2: a couple other Big twelve coaches. My agent got me
Speaker 2: in touch with Coach Smith and and it was a
Speaker 2: slow process. You know, I think Coach Smith does a
Speaker 2: really good job of doing his due diligence on who
Speaker 2: he brings into programs. And you can see with the
Speaker 2: character of guys that he has in this program, the
Speaker 2: character of people he has in this program.
Speaker 3: He took his time on me because we didn't know
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 2: We had never met, and so it was just about,
Speaker 2: you know, one phone call ever three or four days
Speaker 2: for about five weeks, and just one random call he said,
Speaker 2: you're ready to go, ready to do this. And this
Speaker 2: is I think or two days before our our summer
Speaker 2: workouts began and at mid June, and I was like,
Speaker 2: at that point, I was like, Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2: And uh, it was kind of crazy to me that
Speaker 2: he never brought me out. You know, it's all based
Speaker 2: on phone conversations, and we'd never been face to face,
Speaker 2: had never been to Salt Lake before other than flying
Speaker 2: through the in La over. But I was like, leap
Speaker 2: of faith, let's do this. And I felt good about it,
Speaker 2: and and my family and I just jumped and jumped
Speaker 2: at the opportunity and we in this way.
Speaker 1: You know, there's there's a personal side of this business
Speaker 1: that I don't think we do a good enough job
Speaker 1: of acknowledging. And I'm familiar with it because my father
Speaker 1: was in sports. He wasn't a coach, but we moved
Speaker 1: I don't know six or seven times because of his career,
Speaker 1: and you moved out here you know, either wife, three children. Correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: and obviously Craig has been let go. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that means for your future. I'm wondering if you do, coach,
Speaker 1: if I could ask you if you know what's next
Speaker 1: after the year.
Speaker 3: I don't, Okay, I don't.
Speaker 2: And I'm totally at peace with that, especially at at
Speaker 2: this point in my career. Like I said last year,
Speaker 2: at this time, you know, I was going through it
Speaker 2: for the first time in my career and not knowing
Speaker 2: what's next, and I put a lot of anxiety around that,
Speaker 2: that whole scenario, and I tried not to because I
Speaker 2: just wanted to have faith that things would work out.
Speaker 3: And they did.
Speaker 2: And here I am in a situation and and I
Speaker 2: really don't want to think too much about that because
Speaker 2: we have so much going on right now in terms
Speaker 2: of we still have a job to do. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I'm the leader of this program, and I've been trying
Speaker 2: I had to, uh, you know, my the way I
Speaker 2: handle things, I want our staff to handle handle things
Speaker 2: the same way. Everybody's assessing your value at this time,
Speaker 2: and that goes that goes from the you know, the
Speaker 2: bottom guy on the roster to everybody on the staff.
Speaker 2: We're fighting through this adversity. Let's see how we handle it.
Speaker 2: And then someone's always watching and assessing your value. And
Speaker 2: no better, no better opportunity to show who you are
Speaker 2: and showcase who you are is to handle these things
Speaker 2: appropriate way. And I think we've done so.
Speaker 1: I will follow up because i've and I'm sure you
Speaker 1: listen to the show, so thank you. H. I talk
Speaker 1: often and have for the past few weeks about you
Speaker 1: as a candidate for Alex's staff. Uh, basically two decades
Speaker 1: if not more in the Big twelve. Uh, you're also
Speaker 1: a big, strong dude. You want somebody to have your back,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're walking into a gym. Obviously you
Speaker 1: know that's not the number one thing, but you know
Speaker 1: you want people to respect instantly what you do. And
Speaker 1: you have the resume, you have the pedigree. And I'll
Speaker 1: ask whether or out you've had conversations with Alex about
Speaker 1: coaching with him.
Speaker 2: Well, what I saw you said, big sean dude. I
Speaker 2: looked up to Alex when I saw him for the.
Speaker 1: First Yeah, I've known AJ fears he's out of shape.
Speaker 1: You look like you still play. Alex couldn't get up
Speaker 1: and down the floor twice.
Speaker 3: Now we have.
Speaker 2: You know, we've worked together really well through this transition.
Speaker 2: You know, he's doing right by the people in Dallas
Speaker 2: and trying to kind of manage both situations at the
Speaker 2: same time. And I think I've been a big help
Speaker 2: to him by by taking on the role here as
Speaker 2: an interim head coach and keeping everybody together and keeping
Speaker 2: everybody locked in. But I haven't had those conversations with him.
Speaker 2: I haven't forced those conversations. He hasn't forced those conversations.
Speaker 2: And you know, kind of I've told several guys in
Speaker 2: our staff, you want these things to happen organically. None
Speaker 2: of it can be forced. If you're going to force
Speaker 2: yourself upon someone, it's likely not going to work anyway.
Speaker 2: So as we kind of feel each other out and
Speaker 2: we work together through this process. If it's a right
Speaker 2: for him, if it's beneficial for him and he sees
Speaker 2: a lot of value in me and I see a
Speaker 2: lot of value in him, and it's mutual, then well
Speaker 2: we'll look at that. But right now we're not to
Speaker 2: that point yet for sure.
Speaker 1: Now take take me through the process if you would
Speaker 1: about deciding to play in the College Basketball Crown, because
Speaker 1: you know, I had wondered whether or not you'd get
Speaker 1: a postseason invite, and then when it came, I'd wondered
Speaker 1: whether or not you would accept it. And as you referenced,
Speaker 1: you know, players are playing for coaches. The transfer portal
Speaker 1: means it's free agency call whatever it is. Coaches are
Speaker 1: playing for jobs. So I understand the desire to showcase
Speaker 1: the talent. But what was the process that you guys
Speaker 1: went through before deciding to play in the tournament.
Speaker 2: Well, the opportunity was presented prior to even going to
Speaker 2: Kansas City, So okay, that invited already, you know, came
Speaker 2: across the desk of the administrator administrators and they presented
Speaker 2: to me and and kind of got my feedback as
Speaker 2: to what my thought process was. I mean, certainly we
Speaker 2: weren't out of the question of getting automatic bid and
Speaker 2: if we can get hot in Kansas City, so you
Speaker 2: didn't really want to You had to be careful on
Speaker 2: how you presented that to the team.
Speaker 3: But that was out there on the.
Speaker 2: Table, and it's new and it's exciting, you know, you
Speaker 2: think about all the other postseason tournaments. And I know
Speaker 2: that I've been a part of been in the n
Speaker 2: I T twice and to the CBI once, and trust me,
Speaker 2: there's no motivation whatsoever to play in those things. And
Speaker 2: sometimes you said n I T like we were talking
Speaker 2: about earlier today. You know, if you win a couple
Speaker 2: of games, and back in the day, the big reward
Speaker 2: was to go to New York City and play in
Speaker 2: New York City if you got to the final four.
Speaker 2: Now it's Indianapolis. So if you throw this and throw
Speaker 2: all that into the and you start weighing these things,
Speaker 2: now you look at the n I T as kind
Speaker 2: of in my mind, I see it as lesser of
Speaker 2: a tournament than what this Crown Tournament is. You know,
Speaker 2: you go to Vegas. I know the timeline is a
Speaker 2: little strange in terms of waiting three weeks to play
Speaker 2: in it. But they're all in national TV. You know,
Speaker 2: they're all broadcast by Fox or FS one. It's all
Speaker 2: in Vegas. I mean, who doesn't want to go to Vegas.
Speaker 1: I'm pushing to get down there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you.
Speaker 2: Got a week in Vegas and then at the end
Speaker 2: of it, which is new to everybody, nilpiece if there's
Speaker 2: if you win a couple of games, you're automatically in
Speaker 2: the money, and you win the whole thing is three
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars. So there's a lot more motivating factors
Speaker 2: to it. And the way we've handled it through this
Speaker 2: coaching changes, through the coaching change is, you know, all
Speaker 2: these things can happen at the same time. You can
Speaker 2: be in the portal, you can still represent University of Utah,
Speaker 2: you can still play in the Crown Tournament, and all
Speaker 2: these things can happen at the same time. And I
Speaker 2: think that's what's going to happen moving forward with some
Speaker 2: of these other schools to keep everybody, give them the
Speaker 2: right opportunity to assess their value, but also compete and
Speaker 2: play in the tournament.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the interesting thing is a lot of these
Speaker 1: schools are big brands. They're just down a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys, Butler, I mean, there's some really
Speaker 1: good brands in the tournament. Before I said you loose,
Speaker 1: you kind of alluded to this last check. There are
Speaker 1: five players in the transfer portal, and as you kind
Speaker 1: of alluded to, you can be in the transfer portal
Speaker 1: and still play in practice. Are you going down to Vegas,
Speaker 1: I didn't even mean to do this with a full
Speaker 1: deck your disposal.
Speaker 2: For the most part, we are, Yeah, I think we're
Speaker 2: pretty much full strength. You know, Caleb Lohner is looking
Speaker 2: at his NFL potential, and like I said earlier, you know.
Speaker 3: I want to do right by everybody.
Speaker 2: Sure, I'm not forcing anybody to play in this, but
Speaker 2: if if his his value moving forward is NFL, that's
Speaker 2: something he needs to pursue. Mason Mattson had had some
Speaker 2: issues with his shoulder all year and he's going to
Speaker 2: have he had surgery on on on that and get
Speaker 2: got things cleaned up there, so he won't be participating
Speaker 2: with us. But for the most part, as you know,
Speaker 2: as we look at it right now, where's full strength
Speaker 2: is probably anybody's walking into that tournament now. Will there
Speaker 2: be five or six guys in the portal? Yes, and
Speaker 2: I don't there's no reason why they can't play and
Speaker 2: being the portal and and assessing their value while we
Speaker 2: do so. And if you to be honest with you,
Speaker 2: the portal's never really closed, right. I Mean, there's agents
Speaker 2: that talk to coaches, there's coaches that talk to agents.
Speaker 2: There's all this stuff going on. Behind the scene means
Speaker 2: that you're never going to stop, so you might as
Speaker 2: well just allow them to be in the portal and
Speaker 2: have legitimate conversations with coaches, especially through a coaching change.
Speaker 2: You don't want to lose the trust to guys and
Speaker 2: so they should be able to, you know, make the
Speaker 2: decision in the best instances of themselves through the process.
Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate the time. Utah basketball means a
Speaker 1: lot to me, so I respect you, know the work
Speaker 1: that you put in during a very difficult transition. Best
Speaker 1: of luck in Vegas, coach, and best of luck with
Speaker 1: whatever's next.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on