This is all posted in Q&A format, directly transcribed.
You're still in Bloomington, at least for the immediate future. What plans do you have?
My wife and I decided after the whole IU thing happened, basically most, if not all, Division I head-coaching jobs were filled. I think there's maybe two still out there by the time the whole thing got done, and I wasn't really that interested in being an assistant at different places. I talked to a number of guys, so we just decided, you know, IU paid us, we could afford it for a year. I've never coached my kids, my son's in eighth grade -- next year he goes to high school, and then when you play high school sports, you have to win with the high school program, the high school coaches, so I'll never get a chance to really do it. So that's what I'm doing.
Will it be nice to have some time off after spending so many consecutive years working in the sport?
I like the grind. I like working. My wife always says, 'You're the only guy that never had a job.' I would go in at night to Assembly Hall after my kids were in bed, the first time I was here, because I like being there, I like being around it. I like it. I love it. I don't know if I'll like not doing it, to tell you the truth, if I'll like, on a Saturday in the middle of basketball season not having a game or Friday not having a preparation. I don't know. We'll find out.
Do you have anything else on your plate right now? Anything else you're planning to do soon? I'm going out in a week to go spend two or three days with Lawrence Frank, with the Nets. He's putting in an offense, and he asked me to come out and go over some things with him. I'm going to go see Randy Wittman with the Timberwolves, see Izzo, gonna spend a couple of days with Izzo up at Michigan State, I'm going to go spend a couple of days with Bo Ryan, just guys that I have a lot of respect for, to see how they do it. And if I wanna get back in, then hopefully I'll be better at what I do.
How much have you talked to Tom Crean since he came to IU?
When Tom got here, I was in Assembly Hall. We talked for a long time, and I basically told him, I did tell him what to do, but I told him exactly what he was gonna end up doing with the players that were here. So, I've talked to Tom since. He's been great, did a great thing getting the former players (to French Lick).
Did you get to make it to French Lick?
I had a great time, stayed up talking. We had a group of us, Calbert Cheaney, Jamal Meeks, Lyndon Jones, Brian Sloan, Todd Meier. About 15 guys stayed up until about three in the morning just laughing, sitting around a table talking. And that was great, that was a smart thing for Tom to do, because IU's not like every other place. The strength of IU is in the people that have been here. Hopefully, former players will feel comfortable coming back, and former coaches will feel comfortable coming back, it'll be a good thing. It was a good thing for Mr. Cook to do, a guy here in town, a good thing for Dr. Rink, who's been a longtime team doctor, and Bob Hammel to put together along with Tom.
What does it mean to be doing things 'the right way' here at IU? Do you think you did that? Do you think Crean is doing that?
the programs at this level, that have this amount of following and this amount of success, they're different, because they just don't have a collection of basketball players, they have a collection of guys that have a real pride in the University, they have a real pride in representing the University, and they have a real pride in everybody doing it, meaning if I'm a senior, if you're a sophomore and you're acting like an idiot downtown, maybe you do it once, maybe you do it twice.
But as a senior, I've gotta know hey this is getting out of control, and you're not doing anymore. And if I've got to fight you I've got to fight you. I saw numerous fights when I was here as a player and as a coach where upperclassmen told the younger kids, this isn't the way we act at Indiana University, period.
Coach Knight didn't have to handle it. A lot of places say, well, we want to do things right, and they do do things right. That's great. But the difference is the pride in doing things right. It doesn't have to be a coach telling you, 'This is how we act.' Players know based on over the years. When I came here, I was more afraid as a player of Randy Wittman and Ted Kitchel, than I was of coach Knight, because I had so much respect for them, and I didn't want to disappoint them.
And as I was an assistant coach here, that's how guys were with Calbert Cheaney. There's no way a freshman or sophomore was going to come in here and jack around with drugs or jack around with anything when Calbert was here. And it became that way with Alan Henderson, it became that way with Damon Bailey. That's the culture that separates, that's the culture that we absolutely did not have, and again, if I was going to be put into a position of leadership at Indiana University, that's the culture that I was going to fight to get back here.
