A week from Monday, NC Central will play at Virginia to open up the season.
They follow that by heading up the mountain to play app. They're going to Liberty. They got trips to Marquette and LSU. The traveling show begins.
Lavelle Moten, head coach at NC Central. It's here. You got a lot of stuff between now and then though, don't you? You got 10 days to get ready for Virginia. What's happening between now and then?
Man, just trying to fine tune some things. We've got a scrimmage here tonight against Elizabeth City. What I'm doing is just trying to play guys five minutes at a time and just search for some different combinations because when you have some new guys, you kind of mesh them in with the returning guys. So far, so good. We were just able to put some things on tape because you play against yourselves in the summer and so it gets boring.
They need to see someone with a different color jersey on. So now you have some tape on who you actually can be, who you actually are at the moment, and what you really need to do to improve. So it's been a great process for us as well. So you have some new players, but I can't believe this. You have eight, your eight returning top scorers from last year back. So how is that even possible in today's college basketball world?
Man, it's tough, right? Because we're not even basketball coaches anymore. We're general managers. And going on those days where you're going to connect with the kids and on senior night, they'll be crying and boo-hooing because they've been through so much and overcame so much and then they got to this moment to see it through. It's just, I think those days are going to be behind us. I just think these kids are semi-pros and we're general managers and it's no longer amateur basketball at its finest. So we just try to do what we can and just hope they return. But those days really have been behind us.
I think we've seen this for like the last four or five years. So how were you able to avoid, you know, you've got guys who average double figures. I mean, I'm sure that maybe in the back of their minds, hey, I could do this in a bigger league in the Atlantic 10 and the ACC.
How were you able to maintain all of those eight guys? Yeah, you know, I just think it was by circumstance and you try to build a relationship with them. The reality is, you know, basketball is a funny game, man.
And we probably don't even have enough time for me to go in so much depth with it. But basketball is a funny game where you have people who are trying to advise kids on how to go, where to go, and how to do something that they haven't done themselves. You probably like that's really, really, really, really, really weird once you like, no, nobody jumps in and coach the kid and tells him about boxing unless he's boxed, right? Nobody does that with golf. Nobody does that with tennis, but with basketball is the wild, wild West. Because let's be honest, the, the, the pay at the end, right?
Everybody wants that part of the goal at the end of the rainbow. And so they advise these kids. And it's so bad now that we have high school coaches that's selling the kids to other programs during the year, right? Because it looks better in their it's a feather in their cap.
If they say, well, I coached the kid who was at a power five school, as opposed to a mediac school. So it's no loyalty in anything anymore, right? It's none of it.
So it gets out of control. And I think when you have some guys that's returning, you just got to say, man, I appreciate you guys returning. Thank you. That's it. I wouldn't say there's anything that we've done special because we, we have lost some kids.
So we've benefited from the transfer portal and have not benefited from the transfer portal in regards to how it hits you. So it's, it's, it's crazy. It's really a difficult time for coaches. I think you see, that's why some of the coaches are getting out of it because it's no longer what it used to be. It used to be simply about the kid and developing the totality, the totality of that human being.
But nowadays, everybody just wants to put their kid and what they deem is the best situation possible. And, you know, that's where the chips fall. And, you know, I was having this conversation with some of my friends and I'm like, it's crazy because every great college basketball player, he had a great college basketball career, nine times out of 10, you experienced a lot of adversity initially. And then you had to overcome that, right? Like me and Jerry Stackhouse, we've been friends for 30 years. I was like, yo, we ate the other day, right?
We, he came down, we had dinner at a lunch at a restaurant and we were just talking. It was like, I said, yo, do you realize you selected the university of North Carolina knowing you weren't going to start there when you got there? Like no kid would do that nowadays, right? And so Jerry endured those bumps and bruises. I remember what Vince went through at Carolina, right? We had those kinds of things. I remember what Raymond felt went through at Carolina or whatever, right? I remember what Grant went through at Duke at certain times. You're going to experience the adversity, but that's part of the process in order to get past the adversity. You have to find out what's really deep down within and inside of you.
And I don't think people are willing to do that anymore. Lavelle Moten is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show, NC Central head basketball coach. I want to ask you, but I've always thought about this in terms of coaching. Do you think you could have coached, I know you were a baseball player as a kid growing up.
Do you think you could have coached another sport? Absolutely. Absolutely. Why?
Absolutely. Because I was, you know, I was better in those sports, number one. And I was fortunate, every sport that I played, I was always in the leadership position of that sport, right? So I was scrawny when I first started playing basketball. So I was a point guard, right?
So I had to know where everyone needed to be. I didn't hit a growth spray until my junior year in high school. In football, I was a much better, anybody will tell you, I was a much better quarterback. And you know, that teen years old, my coach was letting me call my own place in pot water, right? But I would literally just go home and study because we ain't have much to do back then.
We wasn't distracted by the internet and all of those things. So if you love the game, you really immerse yourself into it. And I was calling jet sweeps and bootlegs and play action passes at 10 years old. And then with baseball, it was the same thing. I was pitcher, catcher and shortstop, right? So my coach at the time was letting me call the signals and things of that nature.
Right pitcher. And I was always immersed into a leadership position in those sports. So I understood it really well, right?
I could tell you the entire major league baseball rosters of every team when I was 10 years old. Like it was, I was that crazy. You and me both. Yeah, right. So I just think it was natural for me. And basketball was the one sport that I really had to work at a little more. But you know, I go coach my son's flag football team now, right? You run a double, double versus an options and come, right?
So it's all of those things. And I had them out there on the baseball diamond as well. So to answer your question, I'm 100% sure and certain that, you know, I could coach any baseball team or any football team. And my mom reminds me of every time she's seen me, she wanted me to stay with baseball forever. But I tell her, you know, be patient, baby, because basketball has provided you a quality life.
And by the way, Trey Oliver doesn't need your help right now. It's going pretty well on the football field. The reason I asked the question is because I don't know why I've had these conversations with a bunch of other people, but we've talked a lot about coaching. And I think, I think coaching is far less about X's and O's and game planning and way more about managing people. Like I've used this example, Gary Williams, you know, great coach at Maryland. When he started coaching, he was like a soccer coach too. So I'm sure Gary doesn't know a damn thing about soccer, but he knows how to coach people. He knows how to motivate and get the most out of people, although he has strange methods at times or has strange methods at times. But that's the way I look at it more than anything else. I just wanted your take on that. That's it. You know, you hit it spot on. You know, I told my staff, I just have a guy that I just recently hired that you may remember named Pat Cole.
He was my media player. And so it's his first time being on other side. So he's in our staff meetings and he just said, wow, coach, after like three or four staff meetings, I was like, what's he saying? Wow.
Well, he's like, we really don't talk about basketball and X's and O's. I was like, nah, it's just about managing people. That's all it is. Being able to motivate this guy or being able to check this guy or being able to communicate effectively with this guy and knowing what buttons to push to get the best out of him and knowing what buttons not to push so you can get the best out of him.
That's all it is. It's just management. Their talent is their talent. And don't get me wrong is we, there's a level of, uh, culpability where we have to put them in the right situation at the right time. But you know, you look at the great ones, that's what John Wooden was, right?
Like he had the most, he had a lot of talent for all his work. I love coach K and what he's done, right? You never looked at a Duke basketball team and said, wow, you know, the, the offensive sets that they're drawing up is just right.
It was really simple, but I always say it. The one thing that separated Duke from everyone else. If you ever looked into their huddle during a time out, you had 12, 13 guys locked in on what coach K was saying. You look at anybody else's huddle. You got five guys behind the coach.
They just on and off looking at the chili, just dancing to the bank. Right. It's, but in Duke's huddle, he had the ultimate buy-in and I think his army background helped him in that sense. I try to study football coaches. You know, Mike Tomlin, my, my favorite, he's been incredible to me and just going up there because football is a little more barbaric. You know, their personalities are a little different, but when I go to training camp, it's like 150 dudes and things like that.
He has to manage all their personalities. So the ultimate quality control and the management and leadership of a coach is like, look, it's just being a leader of men at the end of the day. Right.
And just so happy we do this with basketball, but if my family is going to have a family reunion, I'm the same way. Right. So it don't matter what role I'm thrust into, I just have to be in a position of leadership because it's who I am naturally. Mike Tomlin is my third favorite coach, just so, just so, you know, I mean, you're, you're, you're ahead of him.
Rod Brenda Moore is also ahead of him. My man. I appreciate it, man. Oh, you know, I'll catch up with you that 20. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's I'm you, you, you know, where my allegiance lies. Let's, I want to ask you a couple of more things and we don't have, we really don't have much more time.
Take your time. What is the impact? I asked this of Steven Gaither from HBCU game day the other day. I am curious, what do you think the impact has been of Dion Sanders at Jackson state? We know college game day is going there this week and that's cool and all that.
But what do you think ultimately the impact has been felt across the HBCUs with Dion Sanders there? You know what, man, this is crazy. Him and I and Chris Paul, we did a podcast maybe a year, a year ago, a year and a half ago. And afterwards, Dion, he got my number from Chris and he said, man, like you got so much knowledge and wisdom that I needed to talk to you.
It felt so crazy hearing one of your childhood heroes, right? Get on the phone with you and tell you this. But through the last year and a half, we become incredibly good friends. Really close.
We have intimate conversations about, you know, the pros, cons, the challenges, et cetera. And so he just called me yesterday. I had five missed calls. And when I came out of practice, it was Dion Sanders. And I was like, what's going on, man? And he said, man, I just wanted you to know, like, game day is here. I was like, he was like, yeah.
And I was like, man, let me tell you this because you're going to be caught in the moment. But I'm pulling for you so much because what you've done to shine the spotlight on HBCU athletics, the wants, the needs, the challenges, the culture, the highlights, the lowlights, and just the truth. I think it's something that no one else could possibly do at this time. We've seen ADs and universities try to implement that and try to emulate that by going out to get a pro coach at their university. Well, that don't work because there's only one Dion Sanders, right?
Always has been, always will be. I don't care who you go that played in NFL. I don't care who you go get is only certain people. And I told Dion this, I said, when God, when there was a line and God had a line of giving out the gifts, the gifts that he gave to Dion Sanders, that was a short line. Like it won't many people in that line because he has the ability to just walk in the room and captivate an audience by being himself. And not many people on earth can do that.
And so you'd be hard pressed to find that any other place. And I'm extremely happy for him, what he's done, what he's put together is showing that HBCUs can succeed at the highest level, if given the correct opportunity, if given the resources, if given the publicity, if given the marketing. And we have just some of the best basketball and football at our university, some of the best athletes at our university, some of the best coaches at our university, so anywhere else in the nation. And he's proven it. Yeah, it's not just track and field.
And that's where it gets pigeonholed into that. All right. Two things about the NBA before I let you go.
First, are the Lakers really this bad? Yeah. Gosh. Yeah. You know, I hate to say it. I hate to say it. I'm obviously in the Celtics fans. Right.
You know, as long as we get it, I'm okay. But you know, the Lakers, you know, I don't want to tell anyone how to do their job. But I will say this. LeBron James is the best point guard to ever play this game. Right. And I say he's a point guard. People want to label him a three or four, but no, no, no, he's a point guard. He's always been that it just hasn't been traditional to cause him that because he don't fit to be a less traditional point guard. Right. But that's what he is. Since high school, you look at him, he's bought the ball of the court in the initiated office. With that said, you always have to have shooters around him.
That's what he thrives. Right. And again, since he was in high school, that's what he had.
How was he able to take the Cavs team, you know, when he was 22, 23 years old to the finals and booty Gibson and you know, because they were shooters. Right. Yeah.
And so they asked me of Calico, they would shoot us. If you look at this late, like a roster, they don't have anyone who they don't pay to break a record for the worst three point still go percentage ever. And they're breaking the record of teams that was literally tanking and trying to be bad. They're trying to be good. Right. And I just think, you know, it's LA is the spotlight, right? It's showtime.
It's all of those things. And I think Russ took a lot of the heat, um, obviously because they were single pointed, but the person always just said, like, like, no, it's not Russ. Obviously Russ don't fit, but the person that needs to be held accountable is AD because this team was built around in full AD. That's who is really built for us. Right.
Bron has just continued to be LeBron, but Anthony Davis was the 28, 29 year old guy that this team was built around. And when I see him play, I don't see the hunger of an individual that's trying to be great. I see, I see the hunger of a, of a guy that's satisfied. He got his money.
He got his championship. I'm in LA now. I'm cool. Whatever y'all say about me.
I'm cool. Sometimes that's, that's the life of an NBA basketball player. I always say, man, like I, you know, I know a lot of these guys personally, a lot of these guys don't care about winning championships, right? The media and the fans put that on them. Like, man, he got to win a ring, but this side, these guys like, no, I don't.
I'm a multimillionaire for the rest of my life and my kids, kids can eat. And I respect that whatever it is, but I just think it was all built around AD and not LeBron. And he's not playing at the AD level that everyone thought he would. And so in essence, it's hurting everyone because they don't have the shooting around them. I don't care who you put out there as a coach. I don't care who you put out there on the floor with them. If you don't have proper shooting to space that floor, you're going to be hard pressed to get a victory. And that's what they're going through right now. Right. Next time we talk, we're going to, I'm going to, I'm going to let the Ben Simmons thing cook for a little while before, before we, before we definitively say that Ben Simmons, if he refuses to shoot, the Brooklyn Nets can't win.
Uh, not the way they want to win, but we'll let that, we'll let that cook for a little while because Kyrie Irving is trying positive affirmation, uh, which I'm not even sure what that is, but maybe he watched an SNL skit. Uh, but it's, uh, it's been a little bit of a disaster. Uh, Lavelle Moten, you are the best. I appreciate your time. Good luck against Virginia. I know we'll talk again soon.
Uh, best of the family. I'll see you later. Thank you, my man. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me as usual.
Whisper: small.en / 2022-11-07 05:18:13 / 2022-11-07 05:22:59 / 5
