Matt Jones the current Assistant Coach at the University of Idaho. Coach Jones is a 5 year member of the Rising Coaches Organization and a Trinity University Alumni. Matt has had coaching stops in roles such as a GA and DOBO at Seattle University, which then led him into his current position at Idaho.
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Welcome everyone to another episode of the rising coaches podcast and on top of that a member Spotlight so I’m your host duck Auto alongside Allen major and today the main person we’re focused on is my man Matt Jones the current assistant coach at the University of Idaho Matt Jones what’s going on Doug
Thanks for having me Allan thanks for having me on I’m really excited to join you guys today um been a member of rising coaches for 5 years so super stoked to be on the the member Spotlight with you guys um it’s done a lot for me
Um and helping me Network and grow um as a Young basketball coach and you know I’m just excited to kind of talk to you guys and share my story yeah we appreciate having you man I know it’s busy and uh it’s funny we were just talking you played my played my Pacific
Tigers last night so I know you guys got a lot going on so uh but no thank thank you for being on man obviously uh truly appreciate your your your loyalty and membership but um yeah excited to chop it up with you brother so thank you
Absolutely so to give you an idea um I know I kind of mentioned before but we’re g to talk about your journey your coaching experiences kind of what got you to where you are now at Idaho uh and then obviously talk a little bit about just you being with Rising coaches how
That’s helped benefits you and I will say before we even get into anything I mean the the way we got onto this podcast was because of um this organization and not even to necessarily use it as a marketing tool but um me and you have been chopping it up on Zoom
Calls and and conversations for a little while now so it’s always good to hear your story um again you know again but be able to share with everybody else so your journey though start things off I know you had a four-year career at Trinity and I’ll do that I always tell
Everybody I’ll do the bragging for you you held the single season record for assists so um and I had to I had to Jonesy I had to look up some of your uh old film on Synergy so of course I did exactly that because I’m like I got I
Gotta know what I’m talking about a little bit so but that being said um talk about your playing career at Trinity some takeaways maybe that you learn that still help you to this day yeah absolutely so I had an awesome experience at Trinity University it’s a division three School in San Antonio
Texas um played for a historic division 3 basketball coach coach and Pat Cunningham um he was the nabc president for a long time he had like 600 700 wins in his career just an awesome awesome coach to play for um and had a great assistant coach Ross Bert um and really
Enjoyed my four years there when I went to Trinity they were the three-time conference defending Champions um were expected to be really good when I came in as a freshman and we struggled um we ended up going 5 and 20 and it allowed me the opportunity to play a lot as a
Freshman which um I think I took for granted early on in my career that you know that’s not usual a lot of freshmen don’t get to play that much um right so you know that was a great experience for me and then throughout my career my
Favorite part of being a part of that program was watching us get better and better and better every year so we started kind of at the bottom five and 20 next year we won 10 games then we won 12 then we won 16 right and so it’s
Really cool to see us build as a group um and that’s something that I’ve taken with me everywhere I’ve been ever sense that you know it’s a process right and we talk about that all the time here at Idaho in year one right it’s a process
And you can’t skip steps in the process that’s right so you have to get better every single day um and that’s something that I was learning and going through in college as a basketball player and I didn’t even realize it right now years later as a as a college coach I’m
I’m living it at from the coaching side and it’s a it’s you know a full circle moment in a lot of ways and I’m happy you say that too because nowadays people would just be like oh you know we had a bad season eh let’s hit the portal and see what we can
Get into next but you showed your commitment I mean you learned A Life Lesson out of it and it went full circle yeah no and it great uh lot of a lot of really good friends um from my years at Trinity and uh the division three experience I wouldn’t
Trade for anything you know I think a lot of people at times think a certain way about division three and I loved it it gave me the opportunity to continue to play basketball at a really high level we had you know multiple Pros in the league
That I was playing in the uh Player of the Year my senior year grad transferred to Liberty and started and played 30 minutes a game on an NCA tournament team at the division one level the next year so high level division three players yeah and it gave me a great opportunity
To play and to go to a great academic institution as well it’s funny we were literally just talking about that this morning with a a previous pod guest and you OB see Doug’s at the D3 level now and my first head coach or assistant coaching job was at division three and I
I loved it man I I we were just talking about it this morning just um you know you are literally thrown in the everything especially on the coaching side of it um you’re doing everything um you know and you just develop an appreciation for the Purity because
There’s not a lot of perks right and sometimes Purity can bury you know or perks can bury Purity you know what I mean like you lose the the sense of what it’s like and absolutely and um I I I’m forever grateful and thankful for uh starting off at the D3 level because
That line is not even razor thin like it’s and we’re in a day and age now it’s damn near invisible because guys guys can play Anywhere how they ended up there different circumstances is what it is but if you can hoop you can hoop 100% so if you’re leading the team in single
Season uh record for assists you know I mean obviously you can ho you get you get a yeah man the ball moving around like that yeah got a dime dropper on our hands man pass first pass first my guys involved so one of the things I want to touch
Before we even get anywhere else with your um next steps after Trinity at what point did you always know or at what point did you say I want to get into coaching or was that just something that kind of like later on you know after you graduated was that something growing up
Like where did you kind of come to that realization yeah I always knew that I really loved the game of basketball um I played a bunch of sports until I was a freshman in high school and then I just started focusing on basketball um and I
Really enjoyed it and I loved it and a lot of people you know everyone always says like oh you’re the coach on the floor stuff like that and then I got to college and I was studying finance and I thought that’s what I wanted to do that
I wanted to go to Wall Street and work long hours make a lot of money do all that and then my junior year um heading into my senior year I got an internship with Spurs sports and entertainment the uh family company of the San Antonio Spurs and I was interning in finance for
Them and so every day over the summer I went to the AT&T Center swiped in went down below the AT&T center and sat in a cubicle and Greg papovich the San Antonio Spurs all their checks came across my desk and so I was you know basically just depositing their checks
Or paying their checks working in the finance department and I kind of realized like it’s cool but I’d rather be over there with them right I want to see what they’re doing over there I don’t want the expense reports after the road trip or hearing the balls bounce in the
Gym during practice like I want to be there with oh and so that same summer I uh started coaching for the first time I was volunteering as an assistant coach um with an aou team and so I ended up you know going to one or two practices a
Week helped coach in like six tournaments and I just found that like I really enjoyed it um I really enjoyed getting to know the players the kids um even the parents right like just the whole experience of coaching the relationships um the strategy all that
Just was really fun to me and it was so much better than sitting in a cubicle from 9 to so basically as soon as that summer ended I was like you know what I’m gonna try and pursue this while I’m young while I can let’s just give it a shot
And see what happens um and so that’s kind of how I figured out that’s what I wanted to do yeah wow that’s amazing I was actually having this conversation with one of my former players um just yesterday we were working out together lifting and and he mentioned he goes I
Was like so how bad are you itching he had another season and didn’t want to come back and I was like how bad are you itching right now that you were out there he goes honestly not really and I’m like well that might change any year
Or two you know because he loved it he was always around it he’s still in the gym shooting around but I’m just like that might change in a year or two and he goes yeah honestly I think it might so you I feel like it it hits everybody
Differently at different times but you had you obviously had a role where you’re cashing checks for Greg papovich and you’re seeing that money come in you’re like ah that might have to be mine someday oh so wow yeah that’d be nice lot of zeroes lot of dig right
There man no yeah it was it was a really cool experience right just working in the accounting offense was was great um I learned a lot of stuff about just how to work in an office and you know what the proper way to behave is how to write
An email how to do things like that that are are really valuable that you may not know as a college student true and so I had a lot of people teaching me how to conduct myself in the workplace and you know how to handle your business how to
Prioritize tasks like a bunch of things like that that a lot of college students necessarily think about yeah so internship was great for that and it showed me how much goes into making a basketball team operate right everybody just watches the Spurs on the court but they don’t understand all the hundreds
Of people behind the scenes that are helping make that happen yeah lot of them so I think having that internship really gave me an appreciation for all the people that are helping you know that product that we see on the court at the end of the day and led me into
Understanding that no job is too small right for anybody and really helped me when I became a graduate assistant in my next step those are the magic words we talk about it on every episode I was waiting for it I was waiting for it Alan every episode man it’s unreal like everybody
Says it and it’s I just love it because it’s it’s right on the money like um just to have that humility and that mindset that hey I’m GNA do however little this is or even if it’s a minimal role but the the responsibilities are a lot you know typically that’s kind of
How we all start out like you know you um but I that’s that’s right that’s line drive right up the middle for what we talk about on the spt all the time yeah I was waiting for it hey it’s important man this is about the rising coaches right you got to
Start somewhere and rise up the ladder so yeah and you know it’s funny Matt we we kind of coined a a dual kind of you know definition because we want to help individuals rise right and and climb and and get to that next step whatever that looks like but part
Of my motivation for doing this is I want to rise the profession too like I want to rise help all coaches rise in terms of just getting better um you know at their craft and so um you know if we can do those two things help individuals
Rise and then help raise the game then you know we feel like we’re we’re you know in a good place 100% so then following your um Trinity playing career so you go on you move to a uh Seattle University where you get a graduate assistant rule or a ga rule
Talk about that GA role and some things that maybe you learned from there with those experiences yeah so I was very fortunate after my time at Trinity to right away um have the opportunity to be a graduate assistant um for the Seattle University um and it was an awesome experience I
Think the biggest thing I learned was just you know the amount of work that goes into a college basketball program from everybody right head coach assistant coaches director of Ops graduate assistants student managers the players right as a division three player our seasons were so different than at
Division one players so like that was the first eye openening thing to me I showed up you know beginning of August and the players had already been there and they’d been working out all summer and I was like this is right3 level we showed up the first
Day of school and we started working out and you know everyone had been working out during the summer but like you couldn’t do anything official till October 15th um when I was playing and so that was that was different first off right off the bat was the amount of work
That the guys were putting in all the time um and it was it was really cool to see and to be a part of right and I think over the last five years at Seattle you that program’s taken some great strides and it was really cool to
Kind of be there in the early stages and kind of see that program grow and develop um and I learned a lot from all the all the guys I’ve worked for um the head coach there right now Chris Victor um has been an awesome mentor of mine throughout throughout my first five
Years as a coach and so I can’t thank him enough um for allowing me to learn from him every day because I was there with him all five years um and Sam Kirby was an assistant coach there who was really influential on me Mike odland was
My first uh you know the director of Ops right above me they kind of taught me how to how to do that job um yeah and so I really appreciate him uh yeah and just just what it what it took every day to come in and and get the job done right
And there were highs and there were lows and there were long nights and there were you know early mornings but it was all worth it to see the success that our guys had on the court and the success that a lot of them are having now right
Like some of the first guys that I worked with at Seattle you have professional careers overseas right now and are having success and moving up and you know that’s that’s what it’s all about is just being a part of their journey and helping them achieve their goals so you guys won a conference
Championship uh we did we did yeah we won the first one since the uh the Elgen Baylor days wow how about that yeah it was it was an awesome year 23 and N um got a share the conference title with New Mexico state and Stephen F Austin
The number two seed in the conference tournament it was a it was a big time year so man when you go from a rebuild to a conference title like that there there’s no words for that man like those are like you talk about Journeys like those are those are like
The special that’s special stuff man when you’re able to do that one spot like if any of us can do that one time Yeah in our profession where we’ve been to go from a rebuild to walking up that ladder man like that’s a that’s an unbelievable feeling yeah yeah it was an
Awesome awesome season backtack 21 years there at Seattle U um and they’re they have another great team this year and you know we saw it firsthand a couple weeks ago really you know I’m cheering for them every night so those are my guys over there awesome not to mention a bad place
To not a bad place to live either that’s what a city no not a bad place at all oh my gosh that’s one of my favorite that’s a yeah different pod for a different day there we could do a whole pod on just hanging out in that that City but um but
No man rebuild to ring that’s special yeah and then two years as a gr assistant as we mentioned you end up staying and kind of taking on another role as you already mentioned the director of basketball or Doo position so talk about that role I know you were
At a fiveyear stint there talk about the role being in the doo there uh and then just maybe some I guess for people listening too like some responsibilities that maybe that role had brought on yeah so I was there for two years as a graduate assistant and then after my
Second year the director of basketball Ops Mike odland who I worked for for the two years um worked alongside he decided to step away um from the profession and I was fortunate to get promoted right in um which was really awesome aome I really appreciated that opportunity and
Um it’s funny because my first well let me start as as a director of Ops you have different tasks depending on what the head coach wants right every head coach wants their director of basketball Ops to do you know a lot of the same tasks but it might look a little
Different so for me I was in charge of everything surrounding travel flights buses rental cars um all that stuff in charge of making sure that we’re on budget right that we’re not overspending or that we’re spending right up to our budget um we we had the opportunity in
The budget to feed our guys after every practice so every day post practice we had a training table meal set up so I was in charge of that um I was in charge of our day-to-day schedule making sure that weights is on time everybody has their academic meetings you know our
Practice schedule’s not conflicting with the women Team all thatp Stu so I kind of got thrown into that role and I finally got hired like first second week of November during the covid season so at that time we didn’t even have a schedule yet at that point because of all the chaos in
College basketball and then so fast forward three weeks later we’re heading off on a 10day road trip for my first road trip as the Director of basketball Ops we’re busing to Portland then we’re flying from Portland to Las Vegas then flying from Vegas to uh LA to
Play UCLA then busing down to Long Beach State then flying back to Seattle and so you want to talk about getting thrown into the fire it was here you go let’s see if you can do this or not Matt are you made oh my gosh
Wow and and I’m not going to say by any means I was not perfect I don’t even know if I was good on that trip but I survived it and I learned from it and you know I think it just allowed me to
To see you know hey I can do this like I I I am capable of doing this job and from there right I just gain confidence every year in that role and was able to take on more and more responsibility um which was really awesome and really
Unique and uh coach Chris Victor gave me more and more responsibility and allowed me to be more and more involved which I really appreciate and allowed me to grow as a coach you know I was fortunate enough to get hired at Charlotte in 2010 and like it first position I
Hired like that that role like and I know there’s a you know bunch of rising coaches either members or followers in that role I’m telling you like if if somebody fully just jumps into that and Embraces that like like whenever the obst person is like sick for a day you’re like what the
Hell’s going on like literally it gives you that feeling like that that role to me is like the that’s the that’s the spoke in the in the or you know the I guess in the wheel like not the spoke but you know yeah the axle that holds the the all the wheels
Together but like it’s an amazing uh it’s a that role is just to me crucial so um when somebody just Embraces that and dives into it I mean they’re basically like you know helping run the company uh for the most part sure because everybody is like leaning into
That person every single day yeah I uh I’ve seen some some uh basketball staffs call it the chief of staff and I think right I think it’s a a pretty good you know comparison right like you you really connect everybody right you conect players to the academics a lot of
The times to the athletic training to the strength coach assisant coaches to one another right your a liais on across Campus A lot of the times with facilities and you know people like that so it’s a it was it was really awesome for me right early in my career to have
That experience because now I’ve seen the inner workings of the program I know no doubt all that’s behind the scenes stuff I know what it takes um I’ve seen it at the mid- major level and I think that has helped me understand you know and
And you know help helped me get to where I am and be able to take on the next challenge because I know what everyone else around the program is doing for sure yeah and then following we’ll kind of go into the next step following you
Go and take a leap from Seattle and you move to Idaho um and first season as an assistant coach I guess talk about one how you kind of went from Seattle to Idaho but then maybe touch on a little bit of like your new rules and obviously some things that you’ve learned
Throughout this season so far as the new assistant absolutely so I’m really excited to be here I was very fortunate um to be offered this job by our head coach Alex prle he and I worked together at Seattle U for four years um he was the associate head coach there and then
In March got the opportunity to be hired as the head coach by Idaho and asked me to come with him and for me obviously it was a huge opportunity I think a lot of people get stuck sometimes in the director of basketball operations role and it’s really hard to make that jump
From Doo to assistant coach and so to have the opportunity to do that to have Coach purple be the first head coach to believe in me and bring me on as an assistant coach um I can’t thank him enough and I really appreciate him giving me that opportunity and it was it
Was great for me to make this move with a guy I knew and is a mentor of mine and that I really trust and so couldn’t be happier to have made this jump with him and it’s been a really fun unique challenge to come in year one right the
The first challenge was just flipping the roster right that’s right and this day and AG and then and then and then hoping everybody shows up the first team yeah it happens you know it happens it happens everywhere nowadays it seems like but we got here and we were
Fortunate to retain three players um and bring three guys back but then we brought in 12 new guys wow and so it took us wow you know seven weeks to seven eight weeks to to find the 12 we wanted to bring in um and then once you
Get all the guys to commit you know that’s just the first step now you got to get the training paperwork done and you got to make sure that they get admitted into school and that you know cross all your te’s dot all your eyes
And so we had a great um staff here at Idaho that that got all that done um we were super organized our support staff our athletic trainer our academic adviser all those people did a great job helping us so that you know every guy on our team the first day that they could
Possibly start practicing or working out with us was cleared and ready to do so um which was a feat in and of itself yeah no question and so you know we got eight weeks together this summer to start building and start getting better um and laying the foundation and you
Know here we are nine games in and it’s it’s crazy to think how far we’ve come right wow um but it’s it’s been really fun working with Coach prle um we got a great associate head coach Brandon lar who’s super experienced in the Big Sky um so really fun learning from him every
Day coach David Dunham um is an awesome Mentor not only for myself and the players but everybody on campus he’s just a great guy um Adam Ellis another one of our assistant coaches really experiened and Nathan Krill our GA just making everything go so um it’s it’s been really
Fun well it’s good to hear you guys stepped into a you stepped into a good situation and moving up and then kind of going off of that and talking about moving up um one thing that we kind of want to touch on is like the rising coaches part of things as we mentioned
So um obviously I know you mentioned the beginning but you’ve been a member for five years um what are some ways has this helped you in the really just in the transition at all from going as a GA or or I should say starting at Trinity
All the way going up to Idaho um has this helped you at all and if so what ways has this helped or benefited you over the years Rising coaches I should say for sure great great question Doug and and I I would say absolutely yes um
I think the first way it helped me was Rising coaches allowed me to connect with people that um it’s not always easy to right A lot of the times as a uh ga networking can be difficult right um I always say like it’s easy to network on
The same level so right like ga’s Network well together and then it’s to network down so like okay I’m a ga I can network with other gas I can network with managers now I’m the director of Ops I’m D I’m networking with other support staffs and gas but it’s hard to
Network up and I Rising coaches gives you a natural way to pick some of those people’s brains right right so when I was a ga there were assistant coaches that were coming on and allowing us to ask questions and to talk to them and network with them and then you could
Follow up with them and start building a relationship with some of these guys which was really neat um and it’s hard to do otherwise um and I think it also gave me ideas and different ways to look at things that you know I hadn’t thought of
Um because a lot of the times you know you get with the staff and you’re staff does it this way and so it sometimes it’s hard to like imagine or think of whoa that staff does it differently and they’re really successful too like maybe I should their brain or think about how
They’re doing things and I think it’s opened my mind to there’s a lot of different ways to to do this and to build relationships with your players and recruit and run your program and and all that stuff um and so Rising coaches has been great for that and I think it’s
Also just been really helpful for me to meet people like you Doug that are in similar positions and just love basketball love teaching the game love the relationships with the players right like finding like-minded people that we’re working through this business together with um is is something that
Can’t be understated right like those Zoom calls during covid man like I was sitting in a you know 300 foot apartment in Seattle y and really my only time to to talk to people you know besides my girlfriend who’s been an unbelievable supporter of me throughout this right like was was
Talking to you guys on Zoom right that was the only time I got to to talk to people talk Hoops um and find some normaly um during those those difficult times so yeah no completely I know I mentioned and touched on a little bit in the beginning but we literally I was I
Was in a dorm room um as a grad assistant and like exactly like you small little cubicle where you’re sitting and sleeping at night my bed’s two feet away from me and next thing you know I’m like we’re hopping on we have a whole group chat there was me him a
Couple other gas all of us there was actually a couple um head coaches as well and even there was actually even an assistant coach in the g-league Ben Sanders who was with the Chicago Bulls at the time so he uh he would hop on all
Of us would hop on occasionally we had a weekly Zoom call and then that Zoom call would just be absolute whatever we felt we’re like hey mon it was Monday we’re like hey what should we talk about today let’s talk about offensive Tendencies and then Wednesday we would have our
Zoom call and just talk about so it’s like and that just gives people ideas too like I guess I’m kind of that’s the reason I’m saying this for other people out there I know people always talk on you see and like you just mentioned Matt um you see all these coaches and they
End up moving up um well you you got to catch them when they’re grad assistants and especially for us we’re kind of growing up together you know taking these next steps taking these next rules and then just I mean hey look at you now right you’re over at Idaho Idaho and and
And doing great so it’s definitely showing no I mean I think uh a lot of it is just right place right time for me you know like I yeah people talk about luck a lot and I I don’t want to say I’ve been lucky but I think luck is when
You’re preparation meets opportunity and so I I prepared for this role and I was ready for it and then once I got the opportunity you know hopefully I can prove myself right so um I think that’s something right to to just always be prepared always you know stay stay ready
Right everyone says stay ready so you don’t have to get ready right stay ready always be talking to the people who maybe you know at the next level that you want to reach right try to try to set yourself up so that you’re doing that job before you’re given that job
Right that’s how I felt as a ga all the time was like right man I be doing the Ops job right now so when I get that Ops job I already know how to do it I’m already ready I’m there okay now I’m a director of Ops I’m gonna act like I’m
An assistant coach so that when when that opportunity comes it’s a no-brainer hey I just Matt Jones is my guy he’s gonna be my next assistant coach he’s already doing it now it’s just given title so yeah especially when the rules changed yep exactly huge huge boost for
The rid Community yeah I mean guys go from like literally behind the desk to being able to jump on the court like that that that goes to exactly what you’re saying like if you’re thinking that step ahead you know all of a sudden some people sit down in the room and
Want to change rules it’s like Bang there it is you know great opportunity for for young coaches out there 100% super super awesome that that we can be on the floor now and and that they’ve added those two spots to help um I think it’s going to
Help a lot like you were talking about earlier Allan with with raising the profession right like it’s gon to give a lot of people opportunities to get that experience that they wouldn’t be able to get for years otherwise absolutely it’s just gonna Elevate the profession of basketball and and and help our players
Which at the end of the day is what we’re all about yeah that’s so there you go like that’s that’s why the light bulb like why did it take so long right for that light bulb to like go Bing I mean it’s like what do we what’s this all
About because like if the fellas aren’t in a great spot every day like what are we talking about like this it’s none of this makes any sense so um no I was really glad when that happened um because and again most people did it from within which was great it was just
Changing titles and adjusting you know some stuff internally um I think some places brought in some outside guys especially if they could afford to yeah um but either way however people did it uh the most important thing is there’s more guys now that are that are chipping
In and helping dudes get better which is cool 100% And then the final question I have in this regard would be Matt Jones assistant coach at Idaho um what is the next steps now obviously of course you always want to keep moving up and I and
I I don’t want to take away the simple fact of obvious again you want to you want to stay where you’re feel at but like in your mind what are maybe some of the next goals that you have yeah I think you know it comes back
To what I talked about at the beginning and our goals here at Idaho is to get better every day right so for me if I can continue to get better myself and help our staff get better and help our players get better every day that’s going to open opportunities for everyone
Here right if we continue if we you know have a a moment where we rebuild and get to a Big Sky championship and do that doors are going to open for all of us our players will have opportunities to play professionally um y coaches will have more opportunities right and it’s just
About getting better every day and so for me you know my end goal right the dream is to be a college head coach one day that’s the dream right now there’s a lot of steps between right now and getting there and okay starts with getting better every day yeah and so you
Know for me that’s that’s what I’m focused on how do I get better here at Idaho today and if I can continue to improve and not skip steps in the process like we talked about just just be where my feet are planted right now um hopefully one day that dream can be
Fulfilled um but until then man I’m going to keep investing in our players and one of the cool things I think we did here was we every one in our program picks one word for the year one word you’re G to live by throughout the year
And for me my word this year was relationships because I want to invest in my relationships with my players invest in my relationships with our staff and an area I to be better is invest in relationships with my friends in the coaches Community right I haven’t
Been good enough at that this year and Doug thank you for reminding me but um you know just I I’m I’m pushing myself to be better about my relationships this year and so I’m going to keep doing that and getting better there and you know hopefully we can we
Can uh keep climbing the mountain man here at Idaho so no I love that approach man I mean I I and somebody told me long ago and again this is Stone ages when I was you know a young young buck like you guys but they said you know if we win
They come looking for everybody and literally that’s the way it works right like and the better we get as coaches that’s why it’s great because our players even when they don’t know it they’re challenging us to improve because if we if if we give them something they climb that bar you know
Leap over that bar whatever that developmental bar is they kind of put the pressure back on us to give them the next thing yeah 100% sometimes we got to go reach outside ourselves to get that next thing yep so we got to go get better before they can get better
Absolutely and then that that whole that little game of ping pong goes back and forth until hopefully at some point you know we’re all cutting down Nets together I mean that’s the way that’s how it goes so um that’s a that’s a great perspective man I mean like I said
There’s a lot of a lot of people on this uh that follow us that that are members like yourself um that just need to be reminded of that especially the relationship building piece you know just to continue you know you just never know that that one relationship that could change everything
So that’s something that we’re definitely trying to promote so I’m glad you brought that up no absolutely I think I think that’s the most valuable piece for me with Rising coaches has been the relationships I built with other Rising coaches members um by doing things like attending the events at the
Final four the Coaches convention all that stuff it’s been really great yeah awesome perfect and then Al I mean do you have any final questions before we get to the final segment final portion no man I think he’s ready for uh Family Feud Rising coaches style oh
No all right so it’s not necessarily uh time not quite yeah not quite so you don’t have to feel stressed it’s more or less about um three quick questions or we call the three quick hitters so basically three three questions just kind kind of putting some more Spotlight
As to you I I always like to say humanizing you right everybody thinks all these D1 coaches or these uh you know gigantic mod or something different you know hard to hard to be able to realize who they’re they’re just natural human just like everybody else yeah um
So learn a little bit about who you are but then also kind of putting a little more motivational and some basketball into it as well um but the first one is just if you weren’t a coach what would you be doing oh that’s a good question I
Think we kind of answered that a little bit Wall Street yeah I’d probably be uh doing Finance somewhere um honestly hopefully if I wasn’t a coach I’d be working in finance for a sports team somewhere right like back with the Spurs working in their finance department doing
Something like that um so I think I think that would be where I’d be hopefully so not another Jordan Belford no no into it but uh second one is what is something on the regular that just tends to motivate you yeah something that motivates me regularly um could be could be on a
Day-to-day life could be basketball related however you want to however you want to look at it yeah I think I would say someone who motivates me regularly is uh my girlfriend she holds me accountable right you’re not in trouble are you right now I’m not in trouble
Okay good all right yeah that that’s good that means it’s authentic you’re not just not not trying to recover some lost points okay for sure hopefully I get some brownie points but yeah let’s hope I’m sure you will you know I think she’s someone who pushes me all the time
Right like I’ll come home from work and I’ll be tired and she’ll be like hey you got your workout in today no well get up and go do it and I’m like you’re right I need to do that for myself like I’m a better Coach I’m a better person when I
Get my workout in I’m better for everyone around me when I sleep right when I when I get up and I eat breakfast when I cook a healthy dinner right all those things and she’s a crucial part of of making me a better man and I think
That makes me a better Coach so I’d say that you know her and and our dog are are my daily motivation love it hey you gotta walk the dog you gotta get out yeah right sometimes they walk you but it it doesn’t matter like you know
However it works out about that that’s 6 AM wakeup call when they’re staring at you like you gonna take me out yet or no yep for sure and then the final one if you could leave a mark on the world what would that Mark be that’s a tough one
Um you know I think the Mark I would want to leave is just helping all those around me be the best version of themselves we talk about it all the time here at Idaho we’ve defined leadership as the ability to make those around you better and I I
Would hope that the Mark I would leave is one of a leader and that’s by lifting those around me and helping them become the best versions of them eles um and that’s who I want to be that’s why I coach right and so I think you know at
The end of the day if if people say that that’s who I am and that’s what I’m about I would be really happy so good stuff perfect and then the final question we have to basically wrap all of it up is if you had won number one
Top piece of advice for young Rising coaches and then how can they accomplish that piece of advice to be able to grow in the in the industry yeah I think my number one piece of advice is don’t be afraid and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there right sometimes it’s uncomfortable
It’s uncomfortable to DM that coach right and and just try to connect it’s uncomfortable to introduce yourself um I struggle with it right like at some of these conventions and these conferences even on the road recruiting like you see another coach that you’re aware of you’ve watched them rise in the
Profession and it’s it’s awkward sometimes to take that step and introduce yourself and but I think it’s so important right like to put yourself out there um and and you’ll be better for it right it’s kind of that elevator pitch like you know hi Allan I’m Matt
Jones um I’m a basketball coach I I’ve really enjoyed listening to you on Rising coach whatever it is right but just put yourself out there take the leap and you never know what it’ll turn into earlier it just takes one that’s it Jonesy dropping the gold
Nuggets to wrap her up my God no that’s it man yeah because here’s the thing it’s gonna it’s it’s it’s it’s you can feel awkward now or you’re gonna feel awkward later yeah so you kind of got to pick one you know and so it’s like why
Not get it out there and even if nothing comes of it I say the worst case scenario is you develop a new and genuine relationship and we can sometimes get caught up in our profession that oh I’m GNA build a relationship with this coach or person yeah because they can do this
For me yeah as opposed to like you know what this is I want to make I want to build this relationship make a new connection something may come out of it yeah maybe but you don’t know um but just the authenticity of like putting yourself out there um and just like you
Said I mean Doug and I are both a part of this because of relationships yeah um literally I mean our our CEO You Know Rich josi I mean we he and I met at a leadership conference back in 2016 yeah and we had been in touch maybe
I don’t know a handful of times between then and him making the call you know for me to to be a part of this and so it’s just crazy um and but I love the way you said that how and and that you said it U because the more we get closer
To the end of the season you know this this come that’s gonna come up more and more when when it comes musical chairs time you know in March and April so um you know that that that that kind of Courage never fails yep 100% And it’s hard it’s hard it is
Hard it’s easy it’s yeah difficult yeah it just having one relationship I shoot a text and next thing you know I’m standing here I meet Allen and now Allan can’t get away from me I’m I’m calling him at at 11:00 at night freaking restraining orders on this guy I mean
Like he’s a freaking cockroach man can’t get rid of him H I’m not kidding the other day I shot him a text at 11 o’clock I’m like I got a question for you and he goes sorry I fell asleep I’m like yeah I probably could have waited
Till the next morning but you know you know how it is I had the early yoga class man I had I had a 5:30 wake man so I had to I had to had to shut it I had to I had to close the shutters early
That night but but no we go back and forth if not every day every other day just about something but you know again just just just getting to know this dude like he’s a he’s a real dude you know he loves the game cares about our
Profession deeply um and so this is kind of a way for us in a small tiny way of of hopefully giving back a little bit and helping the profession you know grow a little a notch but um yes sir but man you you you’ve been great today man thank you so
Much again I know it’s crazy and busy but um appreciate you jumping on brother no absolutely Doug thanks for the invite Allan thanks for having me on um you got it always I love listening to these so it’s GNA be a little weird hearing myself always hearing my own voice Hey
Listen fast forward when when yours gets dropped fast forward the next time you and your girlfriend might be have a little dust up there you go fast forward yeah5 40 minut give the marker give him the marker fast forward that point just hit play and then when you that’ll get
You out of any upcoming jams so you you kind of front loaded you know some some Goodwill here uh yeah but uh but no good luck uh moving forward man um thank you thank you yeah you got uh you got a couple of vandals fans right here me and
Doug for sure man I appreciate it I appreciate it guys V’s up for sure let’s keep it love it well again coach Matt Jones everybody thank you for sharing all your experiences everything you know that you all your knowledge throughout the years uh and that does it for
Another episode of the rising coaches podcast and member Spotlight again Doug capuno and Allen major keep working and keep Rising coaches take care
