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Derek Sloan is entering his fifth season as the men's Basketball head coach at West Virginia Wesley.

In college, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach on previous WVWC head coach Nick Patela's staff and was appointed as the interim head coach on August 10, 2021 before taking over the Bobcats program officially on September 15, 2021.

In 2018, Sloan served as an assistant basketball coach at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana.

The Cleveland, Ohio native was a member of the Cleveland State University men's basketball team from 2013 to 2018 where he earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration.

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Prepare to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Derek Sloan, men's basketball head coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads podcast.

It's Mike Cleansing here tonight without my co host, Jason Sunkel.

But I am pleased to be joined by Derek Sloan, head men's basketball coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Derek, welcome to the Hoop Heads pod.

Thank you for having me, Mike.

I'm looking forward to our conversation today.

Excited to have you on.

Looking forward to diving into all the interesting things you've been able to do in your career.

Let's start by going back in time to when you were a kid.

Tell me a little bit about your first experiences growing up with the game of basketball.

What made you fall in love with it?

Yeah, basketball has always been a huge part of my life.

My older brother played it, my father played it.

They're pretty much the ones that got me into it and showed me how the game is played and taught me everything that I know.

And, you know, I've been playing it since, you know, elementary school and just picking up from them and going to parks and playing and just, you know, learning and watching all the college games on TV and that sort of thing and being dragged out to different events with family and friends.

Basketball was just always a part of everything that we did.

So, you know, growing up, something that I fell in love with very quickly, you know, throughout middle school and high school and sort of sort of started taking more serious.

Played for some great coaches when I was younger.

And, you know, that was something that sort of shaped who I became as a player.

And now today as a coach, let's.

Start with pickup basketball.

Where'd you used to play when you played pickup in the Cleveland area?

Yeah, Euclid Creek was always the number one spot for me.

You know, my brother played at Euclid for Shine o', Toole, and I actually ended up playing for him at St. Ignatius High School.

But that's where it all started.

My father would also take me up there and, you know, we would get it in.

You know, you had to be tough to play up there.

So there was some good battles.

Definitely.

Tough toughens you up.

Exactly.

Mentally and physically.

It's tough.

It's tough finding.

It's tough finding good pickup games anymore.

If you're a high school or a college kid, man, trying to find games or you play outside anymore.

Yeah, for sure, man.

It is.

It's a struggle, without question.

So as you got older and you're Getting into high school, how'd you go about, besides playing pickup ball, how'd you go about improving your game?

What were you doing by yourself or just what was your plan for becoming a better player as you got up into high school?

Yeah, just, you know, wanting to be an all around player and develop all of my skills.

And a big part of that came from just watching, you know, my favorite players on tv.

You know, who did I want to emulate and why, watching where I wanted to be next.

So my goal was always to play in college at the highest level.

And watching those guys on tv, you realize that you gotta have a wide variety of skill.

You know, you gotta be able to handle the ball, you gotta be able to shoot the ball, you gotta have a great iq, feel for the game.

And so, you know, when I'm by myself, you know, whether it's outside on the court or finding an open gym, you know, I just wanted to be able to develop those things and be the best player that I can be.

Were the guys you tried to emulate.

So, you know, obviously being in Cleveland, LeBron, you know, everybody wants to play like him, but I love Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony, guys like that, you know, anybody on Ohio State.

When I was growing up, you know, was always something that, you know, every kid was striving to play for and striving to be like, you know, play, be able to compete at that level.

You know, back to the good old days where they were playing, they had lost to Florida, you know, in that national championship.

Was hoping they had pulled that one out.

But you know, all those guys, and a lot of those Cleveland, Cleveland area guys too, you know, just watch, trying to emulate those guys were definitely had some ideas in my head that Cleveland.

Area basketball, I mean, just over the last 25, 30 years, there's just produced so many great players.

And obviously, you know, you know, well, the history of, of high school basketball here in the Cleveland area.

And you mentioned a guy who's a legend as a high school coach here, Sean o', Toole, who I've been fortunate enough to know Sean since way back in the day.

We played against each other when I was at Strongsville and he was at, he was at Ignatius.

And so he graduated a year before me in 87 and I graduated in 88.

And so I've known Sean forever and obviously a great coach.

When you think about the influence that Sean had on you as a player and maybe some of the other coaches that you had in those younger years, what are some Things that you took away from them that you feel like are still a part of who you are as a coach.

Maybe something from Sean or something from somebody else that you remember.

Yeah.

First of all, you know, playing for Coach O, Coach Sean o', Toole, he toughens you up, you know, And I remember when I first go in to play for him, so he had coached my brother.

My brother's about 10 or 11 years older than me.

He had coached my brother, so I had already knew him, and he knew me.

And so, you know, I knew his style.

You know, you got to be tough to be able to play for him, you know, physically and mentally, you know, and, you know, so I got a lot of.

Lot of great stories, you know, with him, with that, and we still keep in contact to this day.

But his attention to detail is something that really stuck with me and is something that continues to be a part of me as a player and a coach.

You know, he was.

You'll never find anybody more prepared.

You'll never find anybody that runs a practice, you know, more efficiently than he does.

Every detail matters.

You know, if you're supposed to hedge a screen and, you know, if you're.

If your footworks, you know, two degrees off, you know, it doesn't matter.

He's going to let you know about it in a loud but loving way, and you got to be able to take that, but it's all for the better.

And, you know, I knew it was all out of love, and so I definitely loved playing for him.

And like I said, all of his players come back and keep in contact with him today.

You know, I work his summer camps every summer, and a lot of my former teammates, you know, come back and do that as well.

And so.

But that attention to detail and that preparation and sense of urgency is something that he instilled in all of us, and so I'm glad he did that.

What's your favorite memory from high school basketball?

Oh, man, I think just, you know, playing in those post seasons, you know, when I was playing, we had.

We held our district, district games at Solna High School, and I know they changed it up a few times throughout the years of how they format those things.

But, you know, just being able to play in front of those big crowds, you know, you feel the pressure, but you feel how much love everybody has for the game.

And we got to play against some great players.

You know, we can never get past Shaker Heights for some reason.

My last two years, they knocked us out, but they have some great players.

Issa Ahmad, Terry Rozier, Robert Fonbi, all those guys, you know, so they had some really, probably their most talented teams that I've seen since.

For sure.

They always gave us fits.

But just playing in those environments was definitely probably the biggest, biggest experience when it comes to high school basketball that I had.

Yeah, there's nothing like state tournament basketball in Ohio now that we've got seven divisions, though.

Derek, I don't know, man.

It's you.

You start out, man, you're already in like the district semifinals or the district final in your first game.

It doesn't, doesn't seem right that you only got to win, like, that's right, four or five games to win a state championship.

But I'm still having a hard time wrapping.

They got it easy today.

Exactly, exactly.

It was, it was seven or eight back in the day.

Tell me a little bit about your recruitment, the decision to go to Cleveland State.

Yeah, Cleveland State was, you know, they were always at the top of my list.

You know, just being in the city and, you know, going to St. Ignatius High School.

I remember my mom, she would take me to school every morning and pick me up and, you know, I would always see, especially when they made their run in the tournament, in the NCAA tournament, billboards all over the place.

And, you know, we would see them working out at 6:30am outside, carrying weights and all of that stuff.

So that was always my dream school.

And, you know, when they came knocking, I was ready to jump on that right away.

And so there was no hesitation on my end.

You know, I visited.

You know, they fed me good.

And Coach o' Toole came with me on that visit as well.

And, you know, Coach Waters was coaching, was, was the coach there at the time, who I still have a great relationship with and we still talk, you know, all the time.

And he still gives me great advice.

He's a big, big time mentor to, to me in my coaching journey.

But yeah, there was no hesitation on my part.

You know, had a few other offers, but when CSU came calling, I was, I already knew that was where I wanted to be.

That's funny.

I grew up with Cleveland State basketball because my dad was a professor at Cleveland State and he retired, I think, in maybe 1995.

But I grew up going to, going to all the games, and I'm like, from like 1980, so Franklin Edwards and Lee Reed and Mike Sweeney and Darren Tillis.

And those are guys that, when I was in like, fourth, fifth, sixth grade, those were the guys that I watched.

And then when they Went when they went on the run in 86 with Mouse and Kenny Robertson and Clinton and Clinton and Clinton and the whole, you know, the whole, get the whole group.

I was just getting to the age where I could go and, and try to sneak into, try to sneak into some pickup games down in, down in Woodland Gym.

And I always say that Clinton Smith, always.

Clinton Smith always looked out for me if he could sneak a 16 year old skinny white kid who could shoot into a game.

He tried to, he tried to, he tried to sneak me in there every once in a while.

But man, just all those teams and growing up and seeing Coach Derringer first and then Coach Mackey obviously with the team that, that made the run in the tournament.

I spent a lot of time in Woodland Gym and back in the day Public hall when, when the Vikings used to play over there, you know.

And then obviously Coach Waters had previously been at Kent where I played.

Came in a couple years after I graduated and really I think got that thing started where I look at the program that I played in and then I look at what it has since become.

Coach Waters obviously started that off.

And anybody that I know from, from Kent or from Cleveland State, just like you, has nothing but great things to say about Coach Waters and who he is, not just as a basketball coach, but also as a person.

And it sounds like that he had that kind of influence on you both just as a player, as a person and then ultimately as a coach.

Yeah, for sure.

You know, I think that's what makes the great coaches great.

You know, Coach o', Toole, Coach Waters.

It's bigger than basketball, you know, it's bigger than basketball.

You know, there would be times where, you know, we're all dressed up for practice, the ankles taped.

You know, we're sitting in the film room expecting to watch maybe 15, 20 minutes of our next opponent, but it turns into a, you know, two, three hour session of, you know, just life.

And you know, but, and he didn't.

We were thinking, we're sitting there thinking, is he forgetting about practice?

But no, he let you know I didn't forget.

We just think this is more important.

So, you know, that that's the stuff that really stuck with us.

Definitely stuck with me.

And like I said, I try to sort of emulate some of that stuff and in my coaching days today.

But, you know, we talk before every season and after the season and we go through goals and everything like that.

And I keep him updated and he keeps me grounded in what I'm doing.

And so I Definitely still have a great relationship with him going into school.

I know you ended up getting a business.

A business degree.

And that's the same thing I got a business degree in.

And I could tell you that when I went to school, I had no idea what I wanted to do.

I was completely, completely clueless.

So I'm like, well, what gives me the biggest range of options?

I think I'll try business.

So where were you at?

Were you thinking coaching at all or where was your mindset academically, career wise?

Yeah, I had no clue what I wanted to do.

I definitely never saw coaching in my future, Especially if you probably ask some of my teammates, they'd be shocked.

They were shocked when they saw that I got into it.

I was by no means the most vocal guy.

You know, I spoke up when I had to, and I'd always call out the picks and everything like that, but, you know, I wasn't the rah rah type of guy.

But, you know, I stumbled into coaching where, you know, actually my senior year after our season, and coach Dennis Felton, who's assistant up at Providence right now, he called me and he was our head coach at the time.

After Coach Waters retired, he called me to call me in the office, and, you know, we started talking about some of these things.

And he asked me what I wanted to do.

I said I wasn't sure.

And he said, well, you love sports, you love basketball.

Why don't you keep trying to follow that path?

I said, okay.

And a couple weeks later, somebody who also went to the same high school that I went to, St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ed Kelly, he works, he's at Culver Academies, a boarding school out in Indiana.

Small town Indiana.

And he gave Coach Felton a call and asked if Derek would be interested in teaching or coaching.

And I said yes.

And that was actually my first time stepping into coaching, coaching high school basketball for a year.

Coach helped out with the freshman team and the JV and varsity teams.

But, yeah, I had no clue throughout my whole, you know, I started as a finance major or.

I'm sorry, I actually started as a health science major.

Wanted to get into PT, but then.

And I failed my Summer Chemistry 2 class, so that wasn't going to work out.

And I got into finance and then eventually just settled for business administration.

But, yeah, I had no clue that coaching was going to be part of my future.

So when you get to Culver, what's that experience like for you?

Do you immediately say, oh, man, this is the right place for me?

Is it Take you a little bit of time to figure it out.

Just where are you at mentally as you take that job and you start getting into it?

For the first couple weeks, yeah, I.

Was just one of those guys where wherever I ended up, I wanted to be all in.

I wanted to put my best foot forward.

I, you know, sort of wanted to prove myself.

But I'm a big believer in no matter where you're at, you know, take pride in what you do.

So whether it's middle school, high school, college, I believe in putting in the work, putting in the time and putting in the effort.

And so when I got to cover, I started out actually watching Ed Kelly, the guy who had hired me.

He was the head freshman basketball coach, so started out as his assistant, and after a couple games, he was sort of letting me take over the head role.

But I always sat on the bench for JV games and varsity games, started working with the players and player development, working them out.

We have some very talented guys, too, so I really enjoyed that.

And so, you know, taught myself how to do film work and that sort of thing.

I just wanted to use that experience to learn everything that I could about coaching behind the scenes and on the court.

And so I was very excited to be able to get that opportunity.

Easy or hard to flip the switch from player to coach for you?

For me, it was pretty easy.

I have patience, which I think you definitely have to have, especially, you know, going from Division 1 college to high school, where, you know, not everybody can do the same things.

We have four Division 1 level players on the team, but, you know, not everybody was like that.

And so for me, you know, they say patience is a virtue.

I'm glad I had that because that definitely carried me a long way.

But, you know, I think.

I think I know it's tough for.

For a lot of guys to be able to, oh, why?

Why can't he do what I did?

Well, you know, not everybody's built like that, which is fine.

So you got to be able to work with everybody.

So it came pretty, pretty simple for me.

As you're getting into the year and you realize, hey, I really like this coaching thing.

What do you start to think about in terms of your plan moving forward with coaching as a career?

Were you thinking, hey, I might want to stay at the high school level?

Obviously, as a guy who played collegiately Division 1 basketball, there's always the draw of, hey, I'm familiar with, with college basketball and the opportunity to get back to.

To college coaching, which obviously, eventually you did.

But Just tell me, what were you thinking about?

What was the strategy?

Was there a plan or were you just kind of.

I'm just going full out in what I'm doing right now, and the next step in the process was kind of still far off.

Yeah, I definitely want to get to the college level.

You know, once I started working, working at covert at the high school level, definitely, you know, I felt like I could take it more serious at the college level.

As far as, you know, what you demand as a coach and what you can dive into.

You can sort of put all of your time into that aspect.

So when I was coaching that cover, I was also working in the communications department, which definitely helped me a lot too, you know, learning how to do different things technology wise.

But, you know, I definitely wanted to be able to put all my.

Put all my time into coaching basketball.

And so when, you know, I wanted to get to the college level, so I started to build up my network, build up connections.

That was sort of the first thing, first step for me, but then just continuing to help out with every aspect of the program so I can grow my skills and be prepared for that next level.

Which part of coaching do you feel like came the most naturally to you?

What were you pretty good at right out of the gate?

Do you feel like.

Because everybody always has the standard answer, Derek is always, man, I didn't really know anything.

I had to learn everything.

But most of us have one aspect of something that we feel pretty comfortable with right out of the gate, something that grabs us, that we're like, man, I see this.

And, yeah, I got areas to grow, but I'm pretty good at this right off the bat.

What was that for you?

Yeah, for me, it was definitely player development.

You know, I feel like that.

And even still to this day, I feel like that's sort of my niche there.

Just, you know, whether it's film work, because I'm very detailed and organized, but on the court as well.

I played for two different head coaches in college, and I got.

And they were.

Both are considered great, but both are very different.

So I got to see a lot of different things as far as processes, player development, different on court workouts.

And, you know, part of that was realizing again that every player is different.

There's not a one size fits all thing.

And so if you can take the time to learn each guy and see, hey, player A needs this, player B needs that, you know, player development was definitely.

And it was a big passion of mine.

And, you know, when I was at Culver I started getting tapped in with John Lucas, assistant coach for the Houston Rockets, Houston legend, you know, and so I was working his camps and.

And, you know, got to see what he does up close and personal, and a lot of his close trainers and coaches as well, just learning from them.

And so that player development aspect for me, I think, was definitely one of my strong suits and continues to be to this day.

How did that connection with Coach Lucas come about?

So, actually, right before I started at Culver, a couple weeks before, I had moved up there.

One of their assistant coaches at Cover, Bill Murchie, who's still there, he's their head girls coach now, but he was a varsity assistant, and he had been working with John Lucas for a few years by that point.

And he had asked me, hey, do you want to come down to Houston and work these camps and work these showcases?

I said, yeah, sure, I would love to.

And so he's the one that sort of got me hooked up with that.

And Coach Lucas was great.

He would bring all the coaches in one room.

You know, whether he met you or not, first thing you do would gather all coaches, probably be about 10 or 12 of us.

And he'd just look at you and point at you.

All right, what do you got?

What are you going to do?

You like, whoa, you better be ready to say something, and it better be good.

So you had to be on.

Be on your P's and Q's.

And so first time.

My first time doing that, I struggled, and he was like, clean that up a little bit.

And.

But, you know, after that, I sort of.

I got the hang of it, and I came in.

I was prepared.

I was ready to go.

Yeah, I think Coach Lucas's reputation, obviously, in the game going back to coming out of Maryland as the number one.

People forget that he was the number one overall pick in the NBA draft.

And he also played.

Did you know he played college tennis?

Played college tennis at Maryland, which is kind of crazy when you think about a guy and the way that we.

The way that we do specialization today.

And here's a guy who was the number one overall draft pick in the NBA, and he was.

He was playing collegiate tennis, too, so.

Sure did believe he was all American.

Yeah.

Coach Lucas obviously has a tremendous reputation after the year at Culver and you're working with Coach Lucas, tell me how the opportunity at West Virginia Wesleyan comes your way.

Yeah, so I.

After that first year at Culver, again, I knew I wanted to get to the college level.

And so, you know, at that point, I Didn't have too many connections, but, you know, I had a couple, but I was just applying to jobs, you know, I was applying to everything that I saw and I was willing to go anywhere and do anything.

And actually I didn't hear anything, I didn't hear it back from anybody until the end of the summer, really late July, early August.

And that was from Nick Patela, the head coach then.

He was the head coach at Davis and Elkins College, Division 2 down down there in West Virginia in the Mountain East Conference.

And he reached back, he had a part time position open, went down there, interviewed, he hired me and you know, so I'm always grateful to him for that.

And we still talk to this very day, great coach, great, even better person.

But he hired me at Davis and Elkins was only there for a month until he got the head job at West Virginia Wesleyan.

And you know, he took me with him.

I was blessed enough for him to be able to take me with him.

And it was even better too because it was a pay bump.

It went from full time or part time to full time, making 5 grand to 20 grand.

So I was definitely clapping my hands about that one.

But I was his assistant for two years.

He ended up retiring and I took over for him and I'll be going into my fifth year as head coach.

Tell me about your experience as an assistant coach at the college level.

What do you think made, what makes a good assistant coach in your mind and what were some of the things that you felt you did well to help and support Coach Patella?

Yeah, the first thing is trust and loyalty that you know, your head coach has to be able to trust you.

He has to know that you're loyal to him, you know, and that, that, that branches off to a whole bunch of different things.

If he gives you a task, you want to make sure it gets done right.

You want to make sure it gets done the way you know he wants it done.

But he also has to know that you have his back in any type of situation.

You're not going to talk bad about him.

You're not going to, you know, you're basically an extension of him, you know, whether he's around or not.

And so that's something that I took a lot of pride in and I still do.

And so as an assistant, your head coach has to be able to trust you.

He has to know that you're going to do whatever it takes to make his program successful because at the end of the day, is his name stamped to that program.

And so that's what I wanted to do for him.

And so I wanted to learn all I could.

I wanted to just do my part to make sure everything was running smoothly.

I wanted to anticipate problems that before they became his problems and find solutions.

You know, never bring them.

Never bring your boss problems.

Bring them solutions.

And so that was what I did.

You know, I took the initiative to do certain things and, you know, clipping up film and, you know, making videos and scouting reports.

You know, I found a more efficient way that we wanted to do that, how to use synergy and huddle and that sort of thing, you know, be able to.

Got a little fancy with that stuff.

You know, I just wanted to make the program better and do my part to.

To help make Coach Patela look good.

And so I had a great time working for him.

He empowered me a lot, gave me a lot of different responsibilities, which in turn helped me to grow and learn at a high rate, at a fast rate.

And so I'm always thankful.

Thankful to him.

When you think about the amount of time, and you mentioned it earlier in a previous answer about being able to teach yourself how to watch film, obviously up until the point when you got to Culver, you're watching film as a player as opposed to watching film as a coach.

So when you start watching film as a coach and you're an assistant, would you say that your level of knowledge of offense or defense, which one do you feel like you benefited more from watching film?

Was there one side of the ball that you really felt like you were able to accelerate your growth with film, or were they both pretty equal?

Definitely offense.

I was always a big defensive guy.

That's how I played when I was.

When I was younger and still an active player.

So I definitely had an inkling towards the defensive end of the ball.

But I knew my offensive IQ had to grow, right?

I knew I had to.

That was an area where I had to continue to learn, to get better for sure.

And so I stayed.

And even still, to this day, every off season, I watch the top 10 offensive teams, offensively efficient teams, and watch multiple games of them just to see what they're doing, just to pick up something new.

And so now I would actually say I'm a better offensive coach, I guess, if that's the term, to use a better offensive coach than a defensive coach, you know, just because I put so much time and effort into that side of the ball as you were going.

Through and dissecting film and.

And you're watching Coach Patella and Obviously, at some point, probably came sooner than you thought in terms of getting an opportunity to be a head coach.

But while you were an assistant for those two years, what did your note taking slash kind of putting together your thoughts for the eventuality that maybe you might be a head coach someday?

Were you thinking that far in advance of kind of collecting stuff and putting together, whether it's a Google Drive or an old fashioned three ring binder or just how were you going about sort of preparing yourself for the eventuality that maybe you could become a head coach one day?

Yeah, for sure.

And it's funny you use that term, note taking.

I was a big note taker.

You know, I bought a couple notebooks, actually one of the assistant football coaches had gave me when I met him.

He said, yeah, you should get yourself a couple notebooks, keep a pen in your pocket.

You never know when you're gonna have to write something down.

And so I was note taking every single day, learning a lot from coach Patella and also putting together different plans of what I would do if I was a head coach.

You know, just preparing myself and sort of building that portfolio up.

And so by the time that opportunity came around, I had just pages and pages of offense, defense, how to handle certain situations off the court, that sort of thing, and just journaling, writing down thoughts, you know, so I was.

I was already in preparation for those two years as the assistant coach because you never know, you know, you got to be ready for the opportunity.

You never know what could happen, whether it's at the.

At the place where you're at currently or if it's somewhere else.

And so I definitely wanted to be as prepared as possible.

And so I was writing.

I was just a big writer writing everything down.

Tell me about coaching during COVID and how you and coach Patela handled that situation.

And clearly everybody had to adapt and adjust and kind of go through it.

But for you, it's your, you know, first time as a college coach and you're kind of going through that.

Tell me a little bit about what that that experience was like.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy.

I believe it was March, you know, so we're right towards the end of the regular season, you know, and then, boom, everything gets shut down.

And so obviously very disappointing for everybody.

But, you know, you fast forward to the next school year.

We are actually the only school that doesn't have students on campus for that first semester.

And so we're constantly communicating with the guys virtually.

But, you know, you got the other schools in our, in our League, the Mountain East Conference, you know, they're on campus and so first semester ends, guys, you know, they've been taking online classes and things like that.

They move on the campus.

In January we start doing two a days, you know, because we only have 10 days to prepare for our first game.

Nobody played in the first semester game start in the second semester.

I think we had 10 or 11 game seasons, something like that, but we only had 10 days to prepare.

And so we were a little bit behind the eight ball with that one.

But we made it work.

You know, we definitely made it work.

2A days, you know, morning shots, afternoon practice, weightlifting and that sort of thing.

We had to be strategic with it because, you know, you can't just break down their bodies completely within such a short time span and you're getting ready to play, play conference games.

But it was definitely a strange feeling.

For sure, if you make it work in those circumstances, you can make it work under any circumstances, right?

Yeah, for sure, absolutely.

So as you go through that season or as you go through that off season, I should say, Coach Patela ends up retiring, as you said, and you get named the interim coach.

What was that process like from him and you having a conversation about, hey, I'm going to step away to you getting the interim job to you eventually, a few weeks later, getting named officially as the head coach.

Just walk us through what that looked like from your perspective.

Yeah, he had actually, you know, throughout that year he had talked about walking away.

Nothing concrete, but he had mentioned it before.

You know, he, his family was getting bigger.

He, you know, had three little kids at home.

And actually when he had hired me a couple years earlier, he was, he was in the midst of having his, his daughter, his first daughter.

And so, you know, there were times he was at the hospital and you know, I was back with the guys, you know, doing workouts and skill work and that sort of thing.

So he definitely had a lot of off court responsibilities that he wanted to make sure were a priority.

And so that was the right decision for him.

And I had a great relationship with the athletic director at the time, Randy Tenney.

And you know, he was a conversationalist.

You know, he was always, you know, just looking to talk and he would come into the office all the time and talk with us and sit with us and you know, we get to, you know, we're actually, we're still friends to this day, but had a great relationship with him.

And so when coach Patela made that decision to step down, I sort of had an Idea that I would be in the running to be the next man up.

And so, like I said, I'd already been preparing as far as, you know, what I wanted to do and what I wanted that role to look like for me.

And so when it happened, I definitely got real excited.

But I was grateful to Coach Patella.

He recommended me as well to Randy Tenney, our AD at the time.

And so Randy was forever indebted to him for giving me my first opportunity.

What was it like for you, transitioning from an assistant coach in the program to becoming a head coach?

Obviously, the roles are different.

A lot of times you hear assistant coach, right?

Is the guy that the players come to.

He's the.

He's the good guy that the head coach ends up having to be the bad guy.

Who's.

Who's the guy who determines the playing time.

But clearly, the dynamic is different between an assistant coach and players and a head coach and players.

And oftentimes, right, a coach comes from outside the program.

They don't have a prior relationship with the kids.

And so it's easier, maybe to see that coach in that head coaching role because they didn't know that coach in any other role.

So for the guys that played for you as an assistant, now you're transitioning to becoming the head coach.

What was that process like for you?

Were there any challenges in doing that?

Yeah, it was.

It was actually great.

Those guys, and I'm so thankful, so very thankful to them.

They played hard for me.

They listened.

They, you know, they set the example.

I also think when I first came in as a young assistant, I think I was 24, 23 at the time, something like that, I knew before I even came in that I had to sort of draw that line and just like, hey, I'm not their peer.

I'm their coach.

Because it's easy at that age.

And I even see it in a lot of young coaches today.

They want to be their.

Their peer.

You know, you can't do that.

You have to draw that line.

You are their coach, and that's how it has to be.

And so I did that from day one.

And so when I became head coach, we had a. I had a great relationship with the guys, but also they saw me as coach, right?

And so that, I think, was the biggest aspect in me being able to coach those guys and.

And having great relationships with them.

When you think about the relationships and how that leads into building a great culture around your program and having guys who, day in and day out can do the things that you want to do so that your vision of the program can be established.

When you think about those first months on the job, before you guys play a game that first season, what are some of the things that you're trying to do to establish that culture and then to build on that?

What have you continued to do in your program to be able to build the kind of culture that you want to have, both from an environment standpoint and then how that environment eventually leads to winning?

Yeah, I'm a big believer in how you do anything, is how you do everything.

And so for us, it started off the court, showing up on time, going to class, being respectful to professors, you know, all of those things that are representative of what you would want your athletes to be when you're not there holding their hands, watching them.

And so we set that standard from the jump, and I think that was key into what we did on the court.

But, you know, especially where I'm at now, we're academics first, and so those are the type of guys that we recruit, you know, But.

And I was talking with one of my mentors a few weeks ago, Jason G. Great coach, a lot of people know, and he said something.

I was sitting in on their practice at Coastal Carolina, and he got on a kid and he said, one of their new kids, and he said, we don't become you, you become us.

And that's something that.

And I thought he put it perfectly.

And that's something that we do.

You know, we want guys that want to be where.

Where we are.

And so if they can't be who we are, then this isn't the place for them.

And I'm not the coach for them, but I've been blessed to have guys that want to be coached and want to play for us and want to be held to those standards.

And so.

But again, I think it definitely all comes back to how you do anything is how you do everything.

And so we made sure that it was bigger than basketball.

We built great relationships with the kids.

We made sure they're doing the right things off the court, and everything else will take care of itself.

So that, I'm assuming, starts with the recruiting process, right.

Is trying to identify the right guys who have those characteristics that you're looking for.

They're good academically.

They're the kind of kids that you can count on.

So when you're out there and you're at an AAU tournament or you're watching kids, what are some of the intangibles that you're looking for?

I mean, clearly there's a skill level that you have to be able to play to play at your level of basketball.

It goes without saying that basketball skill is an important piece of being recruited.

But beyond that, what are some of the intangible things that are important to you?

When you go watch a kid, what are some things beyond their skill level that you're looking for that make you think, hey, this kid's going to be a good fit?

Playing for me and playing for our program at West Virginia Wesleyan?

Yeah.

The first thing I look for is motorcycle.

You know, what is your motor like?

Are you sprinting back on defense?

If you.

If you crash the glass for an offensive rebound and you don't get it, what do your first couple steps look like?

Are you.

Are you dropping your head and, you know, walking up the court, or are you sprinting out the gate?

How do you guard a ball screen?

If I'm a guard, I want guys that are tenacious and trying to get through ball screens.

If I'm a big guy, I want guys that are not afraid to go up and hedge ball screens and then sprint back to their roller or, or the popper, you know, that sort of thing.

Am I bouncing out?

Just what does that motor look like for guys?

And so that's always the first thing I look.

I look at their attitude.

How do they handle tough plays, how do they interact with their teammates and their coaches, you know, because that's something you don't want to bring into your program.

And, you know, I think especially once you get to the college level, it's hard to change guys.

Right.

You're not going to get a guy that's never played with a motor before, and all of a sudden he's going to come to you and start playing with the motor.

It's just not going to happen.

You're not going to get a guy that's been a bad teammate his whole life and then turn him into a good teammate.

It's not going to happen.

And so those are the two things that I look at when I first start recruiting guys.

Watching them in person.

You know, those are things you can't really tell just from watching film on a computer or on a phone.

You got to see these guys in person and, you know, how do they communicate?

But, you know, those are the.

That motor, I think, is the biggest piece for me because, you know, you got to be able to compete.

You know, I think there's a difference between playing hard, but then competing, I think, takes it to a.

To a, to a.

Whole nother level, you know.

You know, I think we playing the best Division 2 conference in the country.

And so we need guys that's going to compete, that's not going to quit, and that's going to go out and give it their all every night.

When you think about recruiting, there's obviously two main avenues that you get access to players through AAU and through their high school teams.

And I think that probably more and more that the identification process and figuring out who you're going to recruit is becoming more and more that AAU is the area where you first identify players and you can see so many guys at the same location and all that kind of thing.

And then once you've identified those players, then you can kind of follow up with them, be at their high school games, watch them there to let them know that you're interested.

But how do you weigh the value of a player's performance in high school basketball versus AAU basketball versus what you try to see when you're watching the kids in that environment.

Just how do you think about the high school level and the AAU environment when you're recruiting?

How do you use those two venues to be able to help you to make an accurate evaluation of the player that you're trying to recruit?

Right.

You know, when it comes to high school ball, you know, the goal is to win.

I think winning is important in AAU as well, but it's more about showcasing your abilities.

And so, you know, if you're a recruiting a player, they might play a completely different style in AAU than they do for their high school team.

You know, their high school coach is going to do, and they should do whatever it takes to win.

And so if you got a kid that's just a dominant sits 4 post player for his high school team, but then, you know, he's playing the guard for his AAU travel ball team, you know, you're going to.

You're going to see two different sides of him.

And so I think realizing that is important.

But I love watching kids in their high school setting because it's more.

I think it's more representative of what it's going to look like in college for them as far as playing together as a unit and being able to build chemistry with your teammates and being.

And normally high school systems are more organized.

Right.

And so you're being able, you get to really see how their IQ is.

You know, a lot of these AU games, you know, is all right, whoever touches the ball first pass half court is going to get the shot, you know, it's so, you know, that's.

And it can be hard to watch for me at times, but, you know, so I think definitely watching guys in both setting is very important, but realizing that I hate that high school ball is getting diminished a little bit these days when it comes to the recruiting process, at least in my opinion it is.

But I think it's just as important as watching kids, you know, at these big AAU tournaments.

I think you make a great point about the fact that being able to evaluate a kid with their high school team where again, if they're being recruited by a college program, chances are they're one of the better players on their high school team.

Again, depending upon the level of that particular team.

But still you have kids that are more likely to be fitting into a role on their high school team versus an NAAU team.

It's more of that all star environment, as you said, where guys are just kind of, hey, I got the ball, I'm going to go and do my thing and then maybe you'll get a turn next time down the floor.

Yep.

So when you get guys on your team and they're in your locker room and they're on your practice floor and you start to kind of identify, hey, this is what I need this kid to do.

And this is what I need this kid to do.

And you're starting to put together the roles that your players are going to have.

Obviously, guys, when they come in, anybody who is good enough to be recruited to your level was probably a really good high school player, had the ball in their hands a lot, got a lot of opportunities to do things.

And then when you get to the high school level, or, I'm sorry, when you get to the college level, not everybody gets those same opportunities.

Guys have to fit into a role.

So tell me a little bit about your communication with players as you're heading into the season, during the season, just to make sure that guys understand what their roles are and what you need them to do.

How do you communicate that?

What does that look like on a day to day basis for you?

Yeah, you know, guys that aren't willing to fit into a role never last long and we let them know early.

We, we have multiple individual meetings with our guys.

And you know, though I found those to be very productive.

We let them know from the jump, this is what we expect from you.

You know, and some of them, you know, you know, kids, you know, truth hurts sometimes, right?

Not every, not, not everybody can dribble the ball.

Not everybody can shoot the three.

Even if they think they can, you know, it's, that's, that's not.

Basketball is not an equal opportunity sport, right.

And so we let them know early and we're constantly giving them evaluations throughout the preseason, throughout practice, before playing, before we play in our first game, during the season, we're constantly evaluating and giving them feedback.

I think that's the most important thing.

You got to give these guys constant feedback, let them know what you see, let them know what they're doing well, let them know what they need to improve on.

But you got to let them know early what it is as a coach, what you expect from your guys.

And if you do that, I think you'll be in good shape.

But you got to have that line of communication open with them.

And so a lot of meetings with us, we watch, I think, I really do think we watch more film than anybody to let these guys know, hey, you know, my guys are, my coaches are great at picking out specific plays, you know, whether it's from practice or games and things like that.

We had a kid last year who's about 6, 7, 6, 8, probably the best athlete in the conference and he can be dominant on the block when he wants to.

But actually last week I went through and I charted all of his shots of when he took more than three dribbles because sometimes he falls into that trap where I want to be a guard.

Well, you're sits eight and nobody can stop you on the block.

Go down there and dominate, you know.

And so I charted every single one of his shots throughout the season to where he took more than three dribbles.

And a lot of those started outside the three point line.

And it's like, look, this doesn't work for you.

You know, you shot 32% on these shot attempts and you had a 20% turnover rate.

You know, get down there and do what you do, what we need you to do.

And so doing those sorts of things have been real helpful for us as far as helping guys identify what their role is.

But you know, I think you bring, you recruit them for a reason, you know, and so whatever it is you think they can bring to the table for your team, when you were going through that recruiting process, stick to that.

You know, some guys have, you know, they go through their high school career and, you know, might have been a 25% three point shooter.

Rarely do you get to the next level and see that improve significantly, you know, something you need to work on, but you're not going to jump from 25 to all of a sudden you're a green light 40 shooter, it just doesn't happen.

And so you have to help these guys be realistic, be realistic in.

In their expectations.

Yeah, it's well said.

And I think that when you do do that, as you said, the honest conversation, right, is you got to be able to tell guys the truth and have them understand.

And the film obviously helps the more film that you can have to back up.

It's one thing for a coach to sit here and tell me, hey, you're not good shooting off the dribble or you shouldn't be putting the ball on the floor, but when you could pull up 25 clips of me missing shots or turning the ball over whenever I dribble, that holds a lot more weight.

Because obviously, as we all know, the film doesn't lie.

So being able to have those honest conversations with players, one of the things that really helps them to be able to understand and buy into their role.

And it's something that we've talked to a lot of coaches about on the podcast.

So I think that's a key piece of advice, is making sure that you're being honest with players, having those tough conversations and making sure that they understand what their role is.

All right, tell me a little bit about your philosophy on practice design.

How do you put together a practice plan?

What's important to you?

Right.

I think efficiency is important.

I think, you know, I don't like a lot of dead time in our practices moving on from one thing to the next.

And I think you have to be strategic with them as well.

Everything you do in practice should model how you want your team to play from, you know, breakdown, whether three on three, two on two, teaching principles to how you want to get shots up.

Right.

You know, I think everything you do has to model how you want your team to look on the floor.

If you want your team to play fast paced, which we do, everything we do is fast paced.

You know, we don't walk from.

From drill to drill.

We make sure we sprint through everything.

We practice at a.

At a.

At a.

At a efficient speed.

And so I think that's the biggest thing.

But then you got to have energy.

You know, there's no sense of practicing if you guys aren't going to have energy.

And so we set that standard from the jump.

Even if you got to fake it, you know, you fake the energy, but make sure you're bringing it.

I'm a big believer in if you're not bringing it, you're Taking it, you know, so there's no, there's no such thing as just, I'm gonna come here and come in here today and slide under the.

Slide under the radar.

You know, if you're, if you're not enthusiastic, if you're not clapping, if you're not vocal and encouraging, I think that, you know, you're just wasting your time and you're taking away from the team effort.

You know, sometimes there'll be days where we, we will pick our energy guys, and a lot of times it's going to be a guy that.

Not that vocal, that's not that animated.

But, you know, we want, we want to set that standard to say, hey, nobody slides under the radar here.

If you're not giving it, you are negatively affecting our team.

And we want to have efficient practices.

It's not like we need to be in there for three hours every day, but if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right.

And so having energy, being efficient, but then modeling what you want your team style to be, I think is very important for us.

Do you like to have the same schedule format for practice every day?

In other words, like, do you come in and, hey, we're going to work on player development first for 20 minutes, then we're going to defense, then we're going to offense.

You like to mix it up.

Do you have some pet drills that you do every single day or every day?

Do you try to mix it up?

Just what's your philosophy on sort of putting together that practice plan and what it looks like day to day?

Yeah, I definitely like to mix it up.

I think especially kids today, you know, they, they like change, you know, they don't like doing the same things over and over and over again.

So some days will be heavy in player development.

Some days we'll just be team aspect things.

You know, a lot of times we'll, we'll start defense, then offense or we'll do.

Do it vice versa.

I definitely think you got to switch it up, but, you know, and I go back and forth, you know, because in the game you got a guard tired, but you also have to be able to execute your offense tired.

So when do you put those in in your practice?

Do you want to.

Do you want to put it at the end where they're sort of sucking wind a little bit now that all of a sudden they got to be in the defensive stands and get three stops in a row?

Or do you want to put your offense at the end where they really Got to focus where they're tired and not turn the ball over and be able to make shots and make free throws and still run the floor and be strong with the basketball and that sort of thing.

So I definitely, I'm a big believer in switching it up, but you know, yeah, kids these days, man, I think you got to keep them on their toes, you know, keep them.

They get bored easily and so.

But, you know, I love doing certain things.

There's certain things that we'll do every day.

Perfect passing is something that we do every day.

I got that from one of my old coaches.

We got, you know, basically playing five on five and defense is in the passing lane the whole time.

Offense, you're not looking to score.

You get points for making a perfect pass to hand.

Two hand catches, no.

No tips, no deflections.

You get 10 in a row, that's a point for you.

Then you switch it up doing things like that.

Defense getting four and three.

Defense making sure.

We got four offensive guys, three defenders, they're scrambling and just constantly looking for the next guy, the next rotation.

So we do.

Those are a couple things that we do every day, but I definitely like to keep, to keep our players on their toes for sure.

How do you work in your special situations?

Sideline, baseline, out of bounds, last second stuff.

How do you work that into a practice?

I usually do them at the beginning.

I think that's when guys minds are fresh, you know, so we'll put that in at the beginning and then we'll rep it, live right away.

You know, I think the more, the more opportunities you give them to play through that stuff, hopefully they'll be more prepared come game time.

You know, not something you can completely control, but you can definitely do your part to put them in the right situations.

We had quite a few of those situations during our, during our season this past year.

And so I was definitely glad we put the time into doing that.

And so, yeah, I like to put those situational stuffs in at the beginning of practice where they're focused, their minds are fresh, they're not really thinking about anything else.

They're not thinking about what they're going to have for dinner or the homework that they got to do or anything like that.

They're ready for practice.

That makes sense.

I mean, I think if you can get their minds fresh and get them able to concentrate and understand what their role is and what they're going to execute in those special situations, that definitely, without question, I think helps them.

How do you handle putting together which Guys play with who during practice.

So in other words, are you a, hey, we got our seven guys or eight guys who are in our rotation.

Those guys are always playing together and then you're second groups going against them.

Do you like to mix it up?

Are you mixing it up in the preseason?

But then once you start playing, kind of keep the starters together.

Just what's your philosophy on putting together groups that play together in practice?

Yeah, you know, I definitely go back and forth.

Most of the time I mix it up, you know, especially like you said towards the beginning, you don't even, really don't even know who's going to be in your rotation.

You have a good idea, but there's always going to be guys that surprise you.

But I'm also a big believer in, you know, if you got your top seven or eight guys, you want them to be able to compete against each other as well, to get that high level of competition.

So by the time they, they get in the game, you know, they're used to going up against some high caliber, high caliber players.

And so, you know, and sometimes there's different lineups that happen in games that you didn't expect would happen.

So you're like, hey, I want to see these guys together and practice more, that sort of thing.

But yeah, I like to keep, again, I like to keep the guys on their toes, man, and let them sort of see them in different environments, see them in different situations.

And so, yeah, more often than not, we'll mix and mingle the guys and see who plays well together and just give them a different look, you know.

And, you know, I like to have our point guard, our starting point guard going up against our backup point guard, you know, just to get that competitive edge going, that sort of thing.

And so, yeah, we'll, we'll mix it up a lot, definitely.

Let's flip it to off the court responsibilities.

As a head coach, what's the one thing that you spend the most time doing that doesn't directly relate to coaching your basketball team on the floor?

What do you spend the most time outside of coaching on the court or recruiting?

What do you spend the most time doing that's still related to your job but isn't directly coaching basketball?

Man, that's a great question.

You know, as you know, it's, it's a whole lot from doing inventory, especially this time of year, you know, we're doing a lot of inventory to see what we need for the coming season.

Practice, gear, shoes, shorts, shirts, all of that stuff.

Scheduling, gym time, you Know, especially at, you know, at the, at the smaller school level, you know, we've got two gyms and, you know, you got to make sure you're getting in your practice time and working, working together with the other sports in your athletic department, that sort of thing.

A lot of paperwork, just a lot of administrative tasks.

And I like to, again, I like to empower our assistant coaches so that, that way they're learning as well, and hopefully they'll be in the position.

Position that I'm in being a head coach.

And so I like to, you know, delegate a lot of stuff to them so that way they're prepared for that moment.

But, you know, I don't think people realize how much time that you spend not coaching basketball or not doing anything basketball related.

And so it definitely is time consuming, for sure.

Tell me about how you divide responsibilities amongst your staff.

What do you do?

How do you delegate?

How do you have it organized for your program?

Yeah, I think the first thing you got to do is look at their strengths and weaknesses, you know, and I've got a very unique staff.

My one assistant, he's 62, 63 years old, coached high school ball for a long time.

Then he'll be going into his third year coaching NCAA Division 2 ball for the first time.

Right.

And then my other assistant, he played for me two years ago, and he's got a completely different skill set.

And so, you know, he's great.

He handled our young guy.

He handles all our social media.

He's great with player development.

He does, you know, he does that fancy stuff on the computer with the Photoshop and graphics and that sort of thing.

You know, our older assistant coach, he's good with reaching out to, you know, outside organizations.

That's a good project he's working on right now, getting outside organizations, building partnerships with them, come to our games and that sort of thing.

Fundraising and just reaching out to the older alumni and that sort of stuff.

He's good at those things.

And so two very different people.

But yeah, just looking at what they do well and putting them in those positions to do that stuff, that's the biggest.

Cool.

You got so many different.

You got different perspectives with the guy who's in his 60s, and then you got a young guy in his 20s, and obviously you're still in your 20s, but, you know, it's just to be able to have that, that diversity of thought.

Right.

And guys can have your conversations in the coach's office and, and hash some things out and everybody brings their own perspective.

And then you Figure it out.

And obviously you as the head coach, get to make that.

Get to make that final decision.

Unlike when you're an assistant, you can just make those suggestions.

I'm sure that the opportunity to be able to be able to make those decisions, be able to make those decisions.

I'm sure that everybody that I talk to that goes from assistant to head coach, first they say, man, the number of decisions you got to make is overwhelming.

But then the second thing they always say is, it's.

It's great to be able to be the guy that ultimately makes those decisions and, and not just, not just giving suggestions anymore.

Absolutely, absolutely.

All right, before we get out, I want to give you a final two part question here.

So part one, when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?

And then the second part of the question, when you think about what you get to do every single day as a college basketball coach, what brings you the most joy?

So your biggest challenge and then your biggest joy?

Yeah, I think the biggest challenge is just dealing with the changing landscape of college athletics today.

You know, especially over the last year or so, there's been quite a few changes, and you really gotta, you really gotta stay up to date with everything that's going on from rule changes, whether, you know, this past year they gave.

If you were in your last year of competition and you went juco, they gave you an extra year.

And that sort of changes how recruiting is done.

And this year they're looking at giving guys, giving everybody five years, starting with this next incoming class.

And so you never know what's going to happen and, but it's going to affect how you, you know, especially your recruiting and your team management and that sort of thing.

So that's definitely, I think, the biggest challenge.

But, you know, I get, I get joy, you know, just working with the guys every day in practice.

And, you know, I'm sure it's the opposite for them, but I love practice more than I love games, you know, seeing the progress that they make, you know, and just reaching different milestones, reaching different goals.

And, you know, we.

There's been seasons, you know, obviously where, you know, we struggle and, you know, we.

It's like when you're struggling and you're losing a lot, what do you, how do you keep guys motivated?

Maybe we've been struggling with our giving up too many offensive rebounds.

So until until we get that right in games, that's going to be our goal.

And then finally, boom, we have a great game or Two where we don't give up offensive rebounds like we were before and that feels like a victory.

And just keep stacking those good days, keep stacking it.

But seeing those guys achieve things like that, seeing those guys come in every day, work hard and do something and improve, improve in things that we're asking them and improve on, that's the biggest joy for me.

Being able to see your players grow and improve.

I think that when I talk about what it means to be a basketball coach, I always say that the opportunity to impact players both on the basketball floor and off the basketball floor and use the game of basketball, that we all love to be able to do that.

I think that's what makes coaching special is not everybody gets to use something that they love to be able to have an impact on other people.

And so to be able to again coach your team and watch them grow as people and watch them grow as players and watch them grow as a team, I can see where that again brings anyone joy.

And it's refreshing to hear you say that.

Before we wrap up, Derek, I want to give you a chance to share how can people get in touch with you?

Find out more about your program.

So if you want to share social media, email, website, whatever you feel comfortable with and then after you do that, I will jump back in and wrap things up.

Yeah, sure.

I definitely welcome anybody.

I love talking and just connecting with different people whether they're a coach or player or whoever at any level.

My Twitter is oachdsloan and our team Twitter is wvwcmb.

We're very active on Twitter, very active on Instagram as well.

My email is Sloan D. And so yeah, I'm definitely would love for people to reach out and start a conversation and see where we can take it.

Derek, it's been a lot of fun tonight.

I really appreciate it.

Can't thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to join us and to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.

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