Ep 2886 Jay Wright on the State of Youth Basketball: Why "Attitude" is the Only X and O That Matters ( Part 2)

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From the fifth quarter studios in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Focus on development like they normally would as parents, you know.

If that ninth grader is a good student, a good young man and a good team and a good player and a good teammate.

If he is at that point, they've probably done a pretty good job and made good decisions.

And I would tell them to trust their own instincts.

Look for somewhere for them to play where they're going to get a high level of competition.

They're going to be surrounded by people that have the same goals that they do.

The best student, the best player, the best person they can be.

Don't just go for the best program that has the best players.

If you don't feel good about who they are surrounded by.

And trust your instincts, they got to that point because of decisions you've made to that point.

Don't let someone come in and say, okay, he's in ninth grade now.

You don't know what you're doing. Let me take this over because you know what you're doing.

That's why he's in the position or she's in the position, but she's now.

You might use somebody to give you some advice, but you make your own decisions for your son or your daughter.

And make sure they're surrounded by people that have the similar goals.

You mentioned earlier about someone that says, you know, this AU program promised me I'm going to start.

So I'm going to leave and go to this AU program.

And if you do that, my first thought is always to think about if they're telling you you're going to start.

Next year, they could be telling someone else they're going to start over you.

Exactly.

Regardless of how you're playing.

If you're not playing while they're going to go get somebody else to start over you.

Or are they going to stick with you?

If you're struggling a little bit, keep working with you to keep improving you because in ninth grade,

you're at a development stage like you are.

You're not really complete as a player.

And we talk to all our guys, even the NBA.

You're not really complete as your player as a player until you make it to like 10 years in the NBA.

And then you got to start.

You got to keep getting better and better every year.

And maybe in your 10th year in the NBA, you got to start figuring out how do I keep my body healthy and still.

Level and play, but you never stop getting better.

So it's somewhere where you're going to constantly develop as a player, student and person.

That's like, that's great advice.

I mean, I think a lot of parents need to need to hear that and just like relax a little bit on that part, right?

And speaking of parents, you know, there's.

I would, you know, like you said before back, you know, when probably when you first started,

parents would hand over a player to you and say, OK, whatever coach says, right?

Now they seem to be more involved at every level during all the process, right?

And they'll, and maybe you still had that even 20 years ago, right?

Where a parent would, I think that's probably more the exception than it is, but that bubbles to the top, right?

Of the conversations.

You know, what was the message to the parents?

Again, in that particular case, like, you know, is it relax?

Is it, you know, we got this?

Is it, you know, here's the things I need to look, you should look out for.

These are the concerns and not, you know, does that make sense?

Yeah, it's, and it's hard.

It's hard to tell them relax because it's, there's some, right?

And their daughter, you know, it's so, there's so important to them.

Yeah, yeah.

I, you know, I would, you know, I would tell them like if, if I was watching a game where my son or daughter was playing,

I definitely had a different perspective about my son or daughter that I did the rest of the team.

It has, as a coach.

Now, I would still tell them, do what the coach says, but just internally, I wanted them to be successful, you know?

I wanted them to feel good and enjoy themselves, you know?

If parents can understand coaches understand that, but everybody on the team has parents.

You know, I said joke with our guys, you know, after we lose a game with our team, the next morning, we'd always meet the next morning,

we'd have breakfast together and we meet and I'd say, look, I know we lost, I know your parents are telling you it's my fault.

But I just want you to know, my mom watches a game too, she says it's your fault.

Everybody's parent, you don't have a clear perspective on the game or your, or your, your son or daughter's development.

You have a, you're the person supposed to love them, support them, be there.

There's no one else that does that for them.

And that's, that's good and you need to be there, but you need to find a coach that you can trust.

It is going to develop them as part of a team and understand it's not going to be perfect.

And at all times you go through that your son or daughter goes through on a team or with a coach is actually a part of their development.

And it's actually a positive part of their development.

That's right.

I've got, you know, we've got guys on the NBA, I can say, McCale Bridges with the New York Knicks, red shirted his freshman year.

Jalen Brunson with the Knicks, his, his freshman year, I should take him out for offense defense.

His dad hated that because I told me it wasn't good enough defensive player yet.

And so what, what did his dad do?

He worked with them in the off season to make them a better defensive player.

And, and Dante, defensive Genzo plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

He never started a game at Villanova.

His parents didn't like that.

He didn't like that.

But they didn't put it on me.

They put it on Dante to keep improving, keep getting better in a fight through that adversity.

And now he's been through all kinds of trades in the NBA, changes on teams.

And he's handled it all as an incredible professional and been successful everywhere he's been.

I think because of something adversity he dealt with in college.

That adversity, it actually is going to strengthen them.

And going through that together with the coach and trusting the coach and your son to go through that and your daughter to go through that together is actually a positive part of their development.

Yeah, and you need to, yeah, absolutely.

And I think that's where you just need to pause and say, what is, what are we learning out of this?

What is the lesson that this can help us as we, right, as we progress?

Instead of looking at it as a negative, it's like you said, yeah, definitely.

You know, since we're talking to young people here, Bill, I always, I love the opportunity to share this.

If parents can understand, they have to be the ones, especially the better your daughter or son gets, the more attention they get as a basketball player or athlete.

You have to be the one to teach your son a daughter, not to evaluate themselves by their success, the athletic field or basketball court.

But evaluate themselves on what kind of person they are, what kind of competitor they are, what kind of team made it there.

You have to be the one to do that because no one else is doing that.

Everyone's ranking them. Everyone's evaluating them on social media. Everyone's listing them.

The guys that I saw struggle the most in their college careers and professional careers, even their high school careers, were the guys that only looked at themselves as what kind of player they were and where they were right and what kind of game they had as opposed to that's just, that's just an activity that I participated in and I take great pride in.

But it's not how I evaluate myself as a human being.

And the parents have to always be the one to let them know you're loved, you're appreciated, you're respected because it's kind of person you are not what kind of game you had or where you ranked or what kind of player you are.

And the best advice that I've heard too was after a game, it's just I love watching you play. That's all you need to say.

That's great.

Let's switch gears. Let's talk about the NIL and the money that's entering college and now it's trickling down into the high school, into high school as well.

And you know, it's created some amazing opportunity. You're probably very intimate with it from that behind the scenes when it was all developing, you know, there's definitely some positive things that have come that will come out of it.

But right now I just feel like it's in a state of luck where it's not quite figured out yet and were, you know, as college coaches and even high school coaches were all just trying to figure it out and what it means.

But I want to talk about specifically, how does that change the team environment you were talked about when the guy sitting next to me, you know, I'm busing my tail just that, you know, as much as he is, but you know, he's making a million dollars.

How do you deal with that as a coach?

There's a lot to this obviously.

And I think first we all have to admit that college athletics, as we know it, that it really I think was our country's best program to develop future leaders in our country through athletics, through being a part of the team,

through being leaders, college athletics at the division one level where NIL is involved, that's over.

And I think we got to just admit that to ourselves in where NIL is involved, it is professional sports because NIL is not what it was intended to be.

It was intended to be an opportunity for kids off the student athletes off the court, they had an opportunity to make some extra money they could.

Now it's paid for play, you're literally, you're getting paid for your value on that team.

And that is what it is. I think one day it will, it will separate where there will be professional college athletics, probably somewhere in the range of about 150 teams.

And then I think there will be another model that will be amateur athletics, no pay for playing, no scholarships, kind of like club sports.

I think that's, but it's far down the road. The NIL aspect, the positives are, there are a lot of great examples where kids have financial advisors, they have agents, they are getting, they are interested in getting their degrees, they are professional basketball players, professional athletes that are also getting an education.

And they're staying in college longer, the top players are staying college longer because they're getting paid and they know that they're probably not going to be NBA players, so they're staying in college longer.

And I just saw yesterday, the TV ratings in college basketball are up like 30% this year, just the high level of play, because guys are staying in school and there's nothing wrong with staying in school longer, you know, you mature, you get your education.

They're the positives. And to your point about sitting on the bench next to somebody, baby, you're scoring 15 points game, he's scoring eight and he's getting paid more than you, because he's a track early in the year and he was projected to be a better player.

You know, you're learning to deal with the business of professional sports, you know, you got to accept that and know, you know, at the end of that year, you have the right to earn more money.

And the other guy is learning also, at the end of the year, I'm not going to get paid the same amount of money because I didn't, I didn't produce.

So it's purely professional sports. I really still enjoy watching Division 3, Division 2 basketball, even Patriot League, Ivy League where guys are, you know, they're going to school really to get to the degree, but even to that level, the Patriot League Ivy League, those guys have good years there.

The next year, they're going and they're getting paid. So it is, it's truly professional sports.

I would imagine the conversation, the recruiting conversation changes quite a bit, right? And again, so you, again, 20 years ago, you're sitting in front of a family saying, here's what a program is, but right and then, you know, you're selling them on the program and the team aspect and everything. Now it's, you're still doing that, but then it's now they're asking the question of how much?

Right? Is that, again, generally speaking, is that how the conversation changes now?

It's clearly, you know, when, when I was in coaching and this is, I never made the move to the NBA, not because, not because I didn't like it, I would have loved to and I had opportunities, but I truly love being a part of the educational process with our players, you know, every four year player, 100% of our players.

Every four year player graduated on time and we took great pride in that.

And guys came to Villanova to do that. They came knowing, I want to get my degree. I want to be educated and I want to be a pro player too. And I want to do both.

Now, and it's not, it's not the player's fault. It's the system.

The system is, if you're a really good basketball player, you have the opportunity to make a lot of money in these next four years, maybe five.

And so the recruiting meeting, you know, used to be in the home where you talked about what major they were going to be in, how you're going to go through each year, what classes you're going to take, your alumni network afterwards.

If you, when you finished playing basketball, how you would get to work in the area of your interest.

That does not go on at all anymore. It is clearly how much are you going to pay me and how much playing time is available at my spot next year.

And they only talk about one year.

One year.

Because the contracts are only one year contracts and everybody knows now at the end of each year, everybody's a free agent and you're going to renegotiate that contract.

At the end of the year, so they don't even go past talking about one year.

And that's, that's where the transfer portal comes in.

You know, I think before we go to the model that I said to you where there's purely professional college athletics,

club sports, college athletics, I think don't come a time when players are signing multi-year contracts because the transfer portal rules will have changed.

You know, maybe you'll have one, you'll be allowed one transfer if your coach leaves or, or something like your coach gets fired.

But other than that, you'd have to stay for two or three years.

And after you transfer once, you can't transfer again.

That will come into play.

That will help some things.

Being a free agent at the end of every year.

Is really the problem.

Young people are.

And again, it's, it's, it's the, it's an opportunity to make money. It's, it's the one time in their life.

You know, it's easy to say, well, I should stay and get to education. If you don't have any money.

And this is your opportunity to make it.

That's right.

Yeah.

You have a good year and you're making 300,000 at good year.

And you know, in the middle of the year, the team has already saved you.

I'll pay you 500,000 next year.

You're going to take that.

Going all right now in college athletics.

And you, you know, you kind of want to, you, you, you have a heart for those players who, you know, team from nothing.

Right. And, you know, they can barely put shoes, you know, have shoes on their feet.

Right. And, and, and, you know, they love basketball.

And they, you know, they help them get to a date, a day where they could get paid.

And, you know, 300,000 dollars.

Right.

That's not a money coming from, you know, so it's hard to say no.

Right.

Or hard to, you know.

And this is interesting too, because, you know, you, you, Dylan Nova was all about the culture.

And right, synonymous with your culture.

I mean, it is just, you know, I, like I said, I not only did I borrow a lot of drills.

I borrowed a lot of your philosophy and how I teach the kids.

And, and how do you, it's, you know, it's changed.

Like, you can't develop a long-term culture.

If you're all, you can develop one year culture.

Yeah. Right.

Is that what you have to do now?

It's just.

Exactly.

That's exactly what it is, Bill.

You've got to, you've got to develop a one year culture.

You've got to have an early part of the, the foundation of that culture.

For that individual season is the negotiations of contracts in the off season.

Everyone understands what their role is.

What they're going to be paid.

What's going to be expected of them.

And that's got to be negotiated, discussed and agreed upon for the basketball season starts.

And then once you get everyone clear about that.

And you've got everybody, you've got to have everybody clear about what everyone's role is.

You know, you can't have somebody find out in a minute of the year this guy's making a million.

I'm only making 500,000.

What's going on?

Yeah.

You had to make sure what everyone understands what everyone else's role is.

And then you go in to start playing and practicing.

And then you start building on that culture in terms of enthusiastically accepting your role.

And, and, and, and, and believing that everyone's commitment to their roles is going to serve everyone individually to their best.

And how to go through competition together.

How to deal with success together.

How to deal with failure.

You got to start defining that.

So you got to do it quickly and you, and you got to spend more time on it.

I think now that you ever did.

When we coached and we knew we had the guys for three or four years, we could spend time teaching it and explaining it.

But we knew it would generically grow the older players passing it down to the younger players.

That's not, you don't have that anymore.

That's got to be, that's got to be taught each year individually.

If you do have a guy or two that returns for two or three years, you're at a great advantage.

And, and I ask you to look at last year's final four.

All four of those teams were teams that had players that were in the programs for long periods of time.

They all were older.

They had some transfers, but they had a lot of players on every team that were in the same program.

And had great institutional knowledge that they could pass down to the younger players and the new transfers.

Yeah, and as you know, that's extremely important to have those senior players on your team that can help transfer that culture down.

I mean, there's nothing better than that.

So let's look at, let's talk about high school then when it comes to culture.

And I'm a high school coach, I want to develop culture.

What would be some of the non negotiables that, and how do we hold the players accountable today?

I think, I think it starts with respect for everyone in the program.

Everyone that came before you, everyone that's a part of it from the janitor to the assistant coaches to the student managers.

Everyone's got to be respected and everyone has to understand that everyone's role is different, but everyone's status is the same.

Even players have moved on and left.

They're still a part of it.

And when they come back, they're to be respected.

Okay, their roles might not be the same as they were when they were players, obviously, but they're still important.

And it's still a role you have that when you leave this program, you come back and you pass down your knowledge and you pass down your respect for the program.

So I think that that's a foundation and that everyone comes in knowing that you're a part of something bigger than yourself, but you're going to become us.

We're not going to become you.

However, when you become a leader in this program, you become a junior senior.

And eventually we are you because you represent the program.

So how you represent it makes us all what we are.

Whatever.

Bill and all the basketball is this year is really based on the leaders and how they represent the program.

And how did you deal with or actually many other different questions?

What did you tolerate early on that you realized later that you should have when it comes to culture?