Talking Ball with UConn Men’s Basketball Managers

 

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Inter­view­er Glenn Cul­ly sits down with man­agers of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut Men’s Bas­ket­ball team, Jack­son Gre­aney and Nate Her­man. The pair give insight as to what it was like being apart of the 2022–23 team that won the nation­al cham­pi­onship, as well as the high expec­ta­tions for the upcom­ing season.

 

Tran­script

Hel­lo, my name is Glenn Cul­ly and today we are joined by UConn men’s bas­ket­ball stu­dent man­agers Jack­son Gre­aney and Nate Her­man. As stu­dent man­agers, Nate and Jack­son’s duties include assist­ing at prac­tice and on game days, help­ing play­ers when they want to train on their own, and work­ing on the oper­a­tions side of the bas­ket­ball program.

They’re in the build­ing almost every day. They’re well plugged into the team, and as a result, they’re prob­a­bly some of the biggest fans and some of the best sources that we’re going to come across here. Uh, so we’ll be get­ting a piece of their insight as we dive into what it was like being a part of last year’s cham­pi­onship team, play­ers that we’re excit­ed to see next year, look­ing ahead to the sched­ule and, and more, and more thoughts on stuff like that. Uh, but what was, what was the best part about being a part of last year’s cham­pi­onship run? 

It was my first year full time as a stu­dent man­ag­er, and it was an absolute­ly thrilling experience.

Very up and down. We had that lull in the mid­dle of the sea­son, about Jan­u­ary, where things were look­ing pret­ty bleak, and then the pro­gram [00:01:00] as a whole real­ly turned it on, and that March Mad­ness run is some­thing that I will nev­er for­get. 

Yeah, and that was my third year as a man­ag­er, and my first two, we had first round exits. In games, we were favored to win. Which hurt, um, but hav­ing that incred­i­ble run in March and April, um, was just like unre­al. Um, peo­ple dream of that kind of stuff and we got to live out that dream. So it was a great experience.

Uh, at what point, at what point did you think you guys had a chance to win it all?

I mean, first half of the year we were play­ing great. Like Jack­son said, we had that lull in the mid­dle of the win­ter. 

So the first por­tion of the year, the boys are hot. Every­body, every­body in Con­necti­cut’s think­ing Nat­ty. And then, we’re down in the dumps. Nobody’s think­ing Nat­ty. On the way back up, at what point, when were you like, won’t Nat­ty again?

You know, I think, game by game, you take it one by one, and the team in the tour­na­ment had an his­toric run, demol­ish­ing every oppo­nent in sight. Um, and each game, it was like, oh my god, we’re going [00:02:00] to the final four. And then it was like, this is the game. Dur­ing the nat­ty, and it was just like, sur­re­al. Did­n’t feel like it was hap­pen­ing. But, there they were in, um, where were they again? Hous­ton. Um, and Hous­ton in the Final Four, and that, that tip off went, and the game hap­pened. And we all know the rest. So, it was just like, I think, all the, like, in the play­offs, a team has to get hot, and we just got hot at the right time.

I total­ly agree. I believe we start­ed 12 or 13–0 that sea­son. At that point in time, we were like, wow, we’re like a legit nation­al con­tender. And then we hit that low, and then I’d say on the way back up, I specif­i­cal­ly remem­ber being at Nate’s apart­ment watch­ing the Elite 8 Gon­za­ga game with him. And when they won that game, it was like, wow. Like, Final Four, and it was like, it start­ed feel­ing super real. And then after that, it was just two more games, and then… When the final four, and it’s like, it just kept being like, wow, like, yeah, [00:03:00] like we were not say we were shocked, but it was just like, wow, is this like actu­al­ly happening?

And then it did. And in your head, it’s like, what if we win the nat­ty? And then we won the nat­ty. And then actu­al­ly hap­pened. It was pret­ty sur­re­al. And I’m get­ting goose­bumps right now. Like, like, when you talk about the entire game that I think that was the point for me to and like, when we han­dled when Timme was in Sanago’s pock­et, that’s when I was like, Oh my god, are we for real? Are we being for real right now? Um, Any­who, what’s been the, what’s been the mes­sage over the off­sea­son through­out the pro­gram in terms of what’s the team’s men­tal­i­ty after accom­plish­ing some­thing so big? I can take this one first. Um, from what we’ve seen, the men­tal­i­ty is like you just got­ta stay hungry.

Like, you can’t get com­pla­cent. Like, the tar­get is as big as it’ll ever be and every­one’s gonna be gun­ning for you as the defend­ing nation­al cham­pi­on. And, it’s impor­tant not just for the play­ers to under­stand that, but us man­agers. We take. Like, when we were num­ber one in Ken­Pom last year, we were like, dang, we’re the num­ber one man­agers in KenPom.

Like, that’s Like, that’s some­thing to be proud of. We want to hold [00:04:00] that title. Um, and I think there’s a lot of pride through­out our staff to, um, to repeat this year. And this year’s, um, sort of say­ing or quote is, every­thing is on the wrist­bands. And I guess that it lit­er­al­ly means every­thing. Like, this is You should put in every­thing you have into this pro­gram to make it successful.

And we’ve had Many guest speak­ers come in and speak to the team about just the men­tal­i­ty over all the sea­son and how to approach defend­ing your crown Yeah, I total­ly agree and That’s man­agers. We obvi­ous­ly don’t con­trol much of the on court Activ­i­ty so what­ev­er hap­pens in the game is out of our control.

So I think our men­tal­i­ty of the group is just to Whether win or lose always just work the hard­est you can which is the same as the play­ers, but obvi­ous­ly win­ning and los­ing They con­trol where we have lit­tle to no con­trol over that. Um, but yeah, like Jack­son said, a lot of new­com­ers as well, a lot of new freshmen.

So they should be hun­gry and all the return­ers have [00:05:00] felt what it’s like to reach the top of col­lege bas­ket­ball. And so hope­ful­ly they, or we know they will be hun­gry and want to go back to Mada­gas­car. Um, so, Jack­son, you men­tioned, uh, you men­tioned there’s been a cou­ple, uh, speak­ers that have come in, talked to the team, deliv­ered some messages.

Uh, from what you’ve seen, what, what’s just, what’s been your favorite? Um, I was present for Eric Thomas. He spoke about three weeks ago or so, and he was a very engag­ing and he’s one of the best moti­va­tion­al speak­ers in the world. And it was, uh, it was a real­ly nice oppor­tu­ni­ty to be able to stay for that.

Um, and he… Talked about just like, for the return­ers, like, you guys have felt what it’s like. Now you got­ta let the new­com­ers know what it feels like. Like, you want it, you got­ta want it for them too. And like, have every­one’s back on the team. And you just got­ta have the men­tal­i­ty of like a lion. Um, and he gave this real­ly cool anal­o­gy that was like, Alli­ga­tors are most, or croc­o­diles are most vul­ner­a­ble when, [00:06:00] after they’ve eaten.

And that was how he was sort of say­ing, You guys have got­ten yours, but get it again. And you got­ta just keep going. Yeah, I agree, Eric Thomas was unre­al. Um, very cool expe­ri­ence to get to hear him speak. The way he, like, deliv­ers his speech is, like, unre­al. You can, like, tell why he’s the best. And just wants to, it makes you, like, want to run through a wall.

Um, so yeah, I agree, Eric Thomas was unbe­liev­able. Nice. Um, on the theme of stay­ing hun­gry, improv­ing, nev­er set­tling. Uh, what are some of the guys you’re most excit­ed to see show out this year? Whether that, whether that be a new­com­er that’s worked hard to inte­grate them­selves into the team, or that be a return­er that’s worked hard to, to, to expand their role this sea­son com­ing up?

Uh, there’s a few new guys that I’ve noticed for sure. I don’t know if Nate has some dif­fer­ent names, but a good mix of guys that have over­all just improved their game, and then some new faces that I’m excit­ed [00:07:00] for stores to be real­ly intro­duced to this sea­son. Uh, just to name a few. that I think have real­ly stood out are Cam Spencer.

Um, I think he’s super, super under­rat­ed in the por­tal and he’s gonna play a huge role for us this year. And then I think Sam­son John­son has tak­en mas­sive strides in his game and he will also play a piv­otal role this sea­son. Total­ly agree. Um, adding on to that, I would say Dono­van. Get­ting his, the start­ing role after Adama went to the NBA.

Um, gonna get his chance to get real­ly big min­utes and be a big part of this team. And that’s with­out men­tion­ing. Any of the fresh­men too. Yes, the Fab Five. The fresh­men are super promis­ing. Um, one of the most excit­ing class­es we’ve had in recent mem­o­ry. And that’s head­lined by Ste­fan Kas­sel, who’s hope­ful­ly will be a lot­tery pick this year.

What, uh, what’s, what, from each of you, what’s one game you have cir­cled on the sched­ule in terms of this is the biggest win this year? Who’s the, who’s the most high­ly tout­ed oppo­nent? Maybe there’s like a clear num­ber one answer, maybe you guys dis­agree, but who’s one you [00:08:00] have cir­cled on your cal­en­dar, like, this is the biggest win on the resume if we get it done?

I think it’s, at least for the non con, it’s Kansas going to their place, like two blue bloods, two huge names in col­lege bas­ket­ball. Just going to do it out in the mid­dle of nowhere. You know, like that’s that’s what they do over there is col­lege bas­ket­ball. So hav­ing us go over there. Yeah, UConn, Kansas, two icon­ic logos, two icon­ic brands.

In that game on the road, a true road game. It’s going to be elec­tric. Yeah, I think the chalk answer on the sched­ule is Kansas. It’s the last two nation­al cham­pi­ons fac­ing off and what’s spe­cial too is. A lot of the mar­quee non con­fer­ence games are played at neu­tral sites, but this one is at Allen Field­house in Kansas, which will be, should be an elec­tric envi­ron­ment, but I think one that’s, um, per­son­al­ly for me, I think I real­ly want to focus on is the Mar­quette rematch after they knocked us out in the Big East Tour­na­ment this year.

It’s one of the big­ger goals of the team is to [00:09:00] win the Big East reg­u­lar sea­son and the Big East Tour­na­ment. That was some­thing we did­n’t accom­plish last year, and I think Mar­quette would be a good, good way to start off that run. Yeah, no, uh, obvi­ous­ly I agree, would love to, would love to get in the, get in the, get in the action in terms of Big East success.

Big East accom­plish­ments. Uh, we did a, we did a chat cast for, for this pod­cast­ing class ear­li­er in the year and we, I did a UConn men’s bas­ket­ball one with some, with some class­mates for that too. And my, my bold pre­dic­tion was I guar­an­tee either a Big East reg­u­lar sea­son title or a Big East tour­na­ment champion.

Con­fer­ence sched­ule specif­i­cal­ly. Not nec­es­sar­i­ly like the biggest win like a Kansas, that’ll be the biggest for the resume. Just in terms of envi­ron­ment, maybe his­to­ry, excite­ment, style of play over­all, what game are you, are you look­ing for­ward to just in terms of this is gonna be a fun watch? I’m hop­ing per­son­al­ly bring back 2 beer night against Prov­i­dence when they vis­it Gamble.

I know it’s [00:10:00] a week­night. Jan­u­ary 29th. Jan­u­ary 29th. That’s the date. Maybe run back to White­out. I think that was prob­a­bly the best envi­ron­ment last year and it would be a great envi­ron­ment to have again. Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of great road envi­ron­ments in the Big East. Um, I think St. John’s with Pati­no Um, is gonna be a good one.

You got Hur­ley vs. Pati­no New York vs. New Jer­sey in that way, and just St. John’s being in New York and us in Con­necti­cut. It’s like a true North­east bat­tle. And, um, we’ll do that at XL or at the Gar­den. Um, I think that’s one to look out for, is just the true, like, North­east bas­ket­ball clash. Um, I love that.

I love those takes. Uh, I would say I def­i­nite­ly also have Prov­i­dence, uh, cir­cled on my cal­en­dar. Look­ing for­ward to that one the most. Um, a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed with how many of the, how many of the big­ger con­fer­ence matchups are at XL Cen­ter this year, as opposed to Gam­ble. Um, I feel like a lot of the, a lot of the big names are at XL.

Would you guys agree or no? [00:11:00] I’ll have to look, but. Jack can take this one. I hon­est­ly thought when it came out that we did a bet­ter job than the last two years I’ve been at UConn in sched­ul­ing big time oppo­nents in the Big East at Gam­pel. I know, I think we have Vil­lano­va at Gam­pel for the first time in like eight years or something.

I heard it’s Sat­ur­day 8pm, which is the first 8pm Gam­pel start time on a Sat­ur­day in a long time. Inter­est­ing, well you guys know bet­ter than me so I love to be wrong about that. So, uh, you allud­ed to it a lit­tle bit ear­li­er. Um, the Prov­i­dence game you said was your best envi­ron­ment of the year. Obvi­ous­ly, it’s senior night.

It was, uh, the skis were hot com­ing into it. We were enter­ing tour­na­ment play, uh, soon after. Uh, last home game of the year, 2 beer night, white out. I believe it snowed that day in stores. It was the per­fect storm, no pun intend­ed. Uh, how­ev­er, with all that in mind, I still have, although we lost the game, I have Xavier as our, as the best envi­ron­ment of the year.

Um, I, I say that too and every­one’s like, you can’t say that [00:12:00] cause we lost. But like when we came back like down 15 to make it like a three or four point game Oh my god when Hur­ley was run­ning across the court and like oh my god. I lit­er­al­ly again I remem­ber exact­ly where I was. I agree. That’s hard to like say that because the result did­n’t go our way but in the moment that gam­ble was Even like, even like before the game, like at tip, like obvi­ous­ly the entire crowd was stand­ing at tip because of the whole tra­di­tion or what­ev­er, but like, nobody sat down, nobody sat down, the crowd was up for the entire game and that was the only game that was the case all year.

That was one of the few games where I was in the stands as a fan, and I do remem­ber now that you bring it up, that was an absolute­ly elec­tric envi­ron­ment, um, and I hope it’s the same for Xavier again this year and that the out­come is dif­fer­ent. It was too good of a game for us to lose that one, we need to get him back this year.

For real. Um, on a sim­i­lar note, my uh, my best, my best indi­vid­ual moment, the game, the game as a whole obvi­ous­ly does­n’t com­pare to the Xaviers and the Prov­i­dences, but the Joey Cal­cater­ra [00:13:00] run against George­town at home last year, I think that was the loud­est like in an indi­vid­ual moment that Gam­pel got all year.

That was, that was, that was crazy. What was that? What was that like from two peo­ple that are with the team? Like Joey’s, Joey’s, Joey’s com­ing out par­ty. I was actu­al­ly in Flori­da dur­ing that time. No! I was watch­ing on the big screen, but from what I could tell, I mean, that place was buzzing. I was also in Cal­i­for­nia dur­ing that time.

Oh my god. So nei­ther of us were there to watch it in per­son, but I can also res­onate with it. It seemed like it was absolute­ly jump­ing. I remem­ber Joey hit­ting that deep three in tran­si­tion. And then the broad­cast cut to Patrick Ewing on the side­line and he was absolute­ly motion­less and had those blanks there on his face, which was great because Joey was an incred­i­ble guy to have around the pro­gram last year and it was, it was unfor­tu­nate that he could only be here for one year, but he was not just an elite shoot­er, but a great, great guy to, uh, rebound for and talk to.

Thank you boys for join­ing me. This has been a great time. Lots of great insight. You got, you got any clos­ing remarks? [00:14:00] Thank you for hav­ing us, Glenn. It was a plea­sure. Seed­in starts in… 12 days from today. Today’s Wednes­day the 25th? 5th? So 12 days NAU. Very excit­ing. Alright, um, thank you boys for join­ing me.

This was a great time. Have a great rest of your day. You too. Good­bye every­body. Goodbye.

 

Research:

https://www.wtnh.com/sports/uconn-huskies/husky-hoops-2023–24-season-preview-for-uconn-basketball/

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/recap/_/gameId/401522202

 

Image Cred­its:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/03/sport/march-madness-championship-game-final-preview-spt-intl/index.html