00:00Jim Laranaga, long-time coach for the University of Miami men's basketball team,
00:05and he joins us Wednesdays to talk hoops.
00:07By the way, and we'll talk about this in a minute,
00:10there's a cool basketball doubleheader Monday night in Coral Gables.
00:15The women's team hosts Hofstra at 5 at the Watsko Center,
00:20and then the men's team takes the court at 8.
00:22I think it's Jacksonville.
00:24It's Jacksonville.
00:25So doubleheader, little college basketball doubleheader
00:29Monday at the Watsko Center.
00:31But I want to start here, Coach, with Victor Wemba-Nyama.
00:34I think you heard us in the last segment.
00:36What we're seeing from him is staggering at the beginning of this season.
00:41If that guy stays healthy, he will be the runaway MVP.
00:45So how, if you were tasked with stopping him one night, two nights, three nights,
00:51who knows how many nights you're coaching against him,
00:54how do you mitigate the damage that Victor Wemba-Nyama can do to an opposing team?
01:00Well, first of all, I coached a player who reminds me of Victor Wemba-Nyama.
01:07Wemba is 7'4", not 7'6", about 235.
01:11And I coached Ralph Sampson at the University of Virginia, who was 7'4".
01:17I coached him for four years.
01:18He went from 195 to 230 during the course of his four years in college.
01:24And the only way people had any success against Ralph, because he could control the game at both ends.
01:31His scoring and passing at one end, and his defense and block shot and rebounding at the other end.
01:39And Wemba's doing the same thing.
01:41His shot blocking and rebounding is at such a high level.
01:44But the only success people had was in double-teaming Ralph or being very, very physical
01:53and having multiple guys bang him.
01:57So one guy get in foul trouble, they'd bring somebody else in to be very physical.
02:02And they'd use, like, I don't know, 10, 12, 14 fouls to keep Ralph frustrated and try to keep the ball out of his hands.
02:12But in that stopping Wemba in the NBA, those referees are going to be protecting that joker.
02:17He's their meal ticket for the next 10 years.
02:22The guy is sensational.
02:24He's a walking triple bubble.
02:28He can impact the game in so many different ways.
02:31Kind of like Kevin Durant, who I got to go back to what you guys were talking about.
02:38Because Crowder, I'm on your side.
02:40I mean, okay, you know, I can't make Fred Taylor man.
02:46He's like 6'1", 2'30".
02:47He kicked my – but, listen, you know, you can be a fan of somebody,
02:54but to ask him for his autograph, were you on the air?
02:59Were you on the air?
03:00Was it during the podcast of The Pivot?
03:03Yes, Coach.
03:04We were on video, and he walks in, and we always just give everybody a dab
03:09and say thank you for – hey, I have this card.
03:12Can you sign it, please?
03:13Oh, my gosh.
03:14I don't want to sound like he's really sad.
03:16Okay, so you guys all know Dick Vitale, Hall of Famer and everything.
03:22My wife and I, with him and Lorraine, his wife,
03:25and we're going to the Tampa Bay Rays game,
03:28and Dick Vitale taught me something that night.
03:31We're walking together.
03:32As soon as he got out of his car, he was approached for an autograph
03:35and then a picture and then another two steps, another autograph,
03:39another picture.
03:40For the next 20 minutes from the parking lot to the stadium,
03:45he must have taken 25, 30, 40 pictures and signed that many autographs.
03:50He did not turn down a single person.
03:53And I've always – now, I'm not in Dick Vitale's category or Kevin Durant's,
03:58but I've never turned down a picture or an autograph.
04:00But I'm not asking for autographs.
04:05Come on.
04:06These are guys.
04:08Because Coach has seen the other side of it,
04:11and he doesn't want to do that to another man.
04:13And Crowder, I got to say this.
04:16I'm not 100% certain, but I don't think either one of them play –
04:20Solana or Hawk ever played at a high level of athletics.
04:25So the difference –
04:27Are you including video games?
04:28Are you good at video games?
04:33Are you the master so that people are asking you for your autograph all the time?
04:38Actually, I'm not.
04:40There's nothing I do very well.
04:41So I'm with Hawk.
04:45I'm with Wemby.
04:45He's a handful.
04:47And I will say this.
04:48The heat are off to a great start.
04:51You know, beating the Hornets last night, you know,
04:54scoring 144 points is totally irrelevant.
04:57Because right now the Hornets are in a rebuilding stage.
05:03They have been for 20 years.
05:05But the heat are off to a good start at 3-1.
05:09They lost their first game.
05:11But they've won three in a row.
05:13Now they've got to go on the road.
05:15And the four teams they're playing on the road are going to be a handful.
05:17And Solana, if you want to pick them to get to the finals and win it all,
05:23just take a look at these next four road games.
05:26And that will give you a good indication if they can not only be in the playoffs
05:32but advance in the playoffs and get to the championship series.
05:37I'd love to see them do it.
05:38You know that.
05:39Yes, sir.
05:39And, Coach, how hard was it for Spohr, not mentally, but just, you know,
05:44coaching-wise, I've never seen the heat.
05:46I've been out here 20 years.
05:47I've never seen the heat play this fast pace of basketball.
05:51They had great players.
05:52The half-court sets the drag-em-in-the-mud thought.
05:55Like, for this transition, it's fun as hell to watch, Coach.
05:58But how hard is it to change your entire coaching style of playing
06:01where they're shooting with 18 seconds left on the shot clock?
06:04Yeah, I talked to Pat Riley just before the regular season began.
06:10And we were talking.
06:12It was right after they had played the Milwaukee Bucks.
06:16And we were just talking about the speed of the game
06:18and what Spohr's vision was for this team.
06:21And the whole key to being able to play fast is you've got to be able
06:25to play fast at both ends.
06:26Because every time you score early, the other team gets the ball back
06:30and they can run it right back at you.
06:32And if they're playing fast with you and you have more possessions
06:37than you normally do and your objective is not to score 100,
06:42but to score 125, 140, and you're taking, you know, 30, 40, 50 threes in a game,
06:50you know, that's the recipe for success and disaster at the same time.
06:57Because you'll have nights where you're shooting lights out
07:00and you make, you know, 40, 50 percent of your threes.
07:04And then there'll be nights where you only make 15, 18 percent
07:08and you get beat by 20.
07:10Coach, take me into the mind of Eric Spolstra or just you
07:16or another head coach of a basketball program.
07:19Somebody who's been there a long time, though, right?
07:21Somebody who's established within an organization or a program like yourself.
07:26The Heat over the past decade have been known as a gritty team, right?
07:31Post-LeBron, a gritty team.
07:33They don't have the most talent and they're going to do it defensively,
07:37hardest working, toughest, best condition.
07:39That's always been their mantra.
07:41And out of nowhere this year, Eric Spolstra doesn't just say,
07:45hey, we're going to play with more pace like every other coach,
07:47but they're committed to doing it.
07:50They're doing it better than anybody right now.
07:53What has to click for him to not only say, hey, we're going to do,
07:56we're going to approach offense different,
07:58but we're going to change our entire, the fundamental basis of the Heat organization
08:05and we're going to play this way now over the span of four months.
08:09What goes through his head where he says, we're doing this now?
08:13Yeah, he obviously made a decision long before the preseason.
08:20He and his staff sat down.
08:21They looked at their personnel.
08:23It's what a coach does.
08:25If you look around the league, it's a copycat league.
08:31You watch certain teams, you know, back in the 80s,
08:36it was the Twin Towers with Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon.
08:40You had big teams like with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish.
08:46You had the Showtime Lakers where everybody wanted to play like the Lakers,
08:51fast, Showtime, running gun, dunking the ball.
08:54And so the idea that you can play that way with your personnel,
09:02it has to be decided long before the season evaluating,
09:08can Bam play this way?
09:11Who is the kind of point guard that can run our team to help us play this way?
09:16And you look at your roster from top to bottom, and Spohen, his staff said, we can play fast.
09:28Let's increase the tempo, allow a lot of guys to handle the ball.
09:32You see how many guys bring the ball up?
09:34There's not really a true point guard.
09:37You know, it used to be, okay, Magic Johnson catches every outlet pass.
09:40John Stockton, every outlet pass.
09:44And now you have teams, you know, OKC, there are a lot of guys that can handle the ball.
09:49The Celtics, when they won it, you know, you had a Jason Tatum bringing the ball up.
09:53So it's a copycat league, and people are saying, hey, get into the open court,
09:58make things happen early in the shot clock.
10:00So are you buying the Miami Heat after four games, or you've got to see more?
10:05Well, four games.
10:09It's like, hey, you go to the movies.
10:12I love the movies.
10:13After five minutes, I don't decide whether I hate it or love it.
10:17Well, I do.
10:17I've got to watch more than that.
10:20Have you seen the Spring Team?
10:21You saw Superman and like Superman.
10:24And you told me, hey, you've got to go see Superman.
10:27The movie stunk.
10:28I could have left that movie after five minutes.
10:31You know that.
10:32What did you get on Wordle today?
10:34Because I got three.
10:36You got three on Wordle?
10:37Three on Wordle today.
10:38Yeah, today was good.
10:39I got two on Wordle.
10:40No, you didn't.
10:42No, I haven't done Wordle today.
10:44I wanted to hear what you got and know what I had to beat.
10:47OK, but the point is, Hawk.
10:51You cannot make any kind of judgment call on this team and this roster and this style of play.
10:59Not only the style of play, but the style of play against the best teams.
11:04The road trip is against some of the best teams.
11:08Now you can start to evaluate.
11:11If you beat someone by 30, right, you don't all of a sudden, all right, we're great.
11:16Well, you're not going to beat the best teams by 30.
11:19You're lucky to beat them by a point or two.
11:21You're lucky if you make a game-winning shot or a game-winning stop.
11:25No, you can't judge this early.
11:29And it's great that they're off to a good start with this new style because the more they win,
11:36the more the players will believe, yes, this is the way we want to play.
11:41The more fun they have, the more they feel like, hey, we're really well-connected.
11:47Bam loves this style, right?
11:50He's handling the ball more.
11:51He's getting more assists, more rebounds.
11:54We're getting more fast-break opportunities, more dunks.
11:57You know, all of that.
11:58You guys were raving about Jaime.
12:00He's coming in off the bench and getting 20.
12:03You know, when your bench can play that style.
12:06And I know as the head coach of three different Division I schools, I was changing my style
12:13every year or two.
12:14I loved when we could repeat the style the next season because our recruits were able
12:21to replace the guys who graduated and left.
12:25But when you have a whole new crew of guys, you've got to adapt your style.
12:30I think that's one of the key ingredients to being a great NBA coach.
12:34You know, Pat Riley, when he was with the Lakers, was one style.
12:38He went to the Knicks.
12:39They were beating people up.
12:41They were the most physical team in the league.
12:44And then when he got D. Wade and Shaq, they won it all.
12:48That was one style.
12:49And then he passed the torch to Spoh, and he's got LeBron and D. Wade and Chris Bosh.
12:57That's a whole new style.
12:59And now Spoh, he's an architect.
13:02He's a sculptor.
13:03He's got different players, a different block of granite to work with, and he's
13:10going to carve some overused granite to carve away the obstacles that he has and
13:22create, you know, a Mona Lisa.
13:24Although that was a painting, not a sculpture, by the way.
13:27We got the idea.
13:28And you're spinning to a very uncultured group, so we didn't know.
13:31But real quick, because you talk about having different rosters, and we're going to run
13:35out of time, but I did mention the Hurricanes basketball team, they opened their first season
13:39under Jay Lucas this coming Monday at the Watsko Center, hosting Jacksonville.
13:43It is that doubleheader.
13:45Women's team plays at 5 against Hofstra, and then the men's team plays at 8 p.m.
13:50against Jacksonville.
13:51Do you know what to expect from this year's Canes team?
13:54Well, I've watched them practice.
13:57I think Jay Lucas is going to do a fantastic job.
13:59He's young.
14:00He's energetic.
14:01He's very forceful.
14:02He's got a very clear vision.
14:04With the roster that he has, they are physical, man.
14:08They will defend.
14:10They will rebound.
14:12They'll probably be in a little bit of foul trouble some nights, depending on the officiating.
14:15At the offensive end, they're going to want to get into the open court because they have
14:21some terrific athletes.
14:23I think the question for them, and you will not know this early in the season, you probably
14:28won't know until mid-January, is to how well they can score the ball at the offensive
14:34end against ACC caliber teams.
14:38Because I think in terms of offense, in terms of three-point shooting and free-throw shooting,
14:44that's not going to be their strength at the offensive end.
14:49Their strength at the end is going to be scoring in the paint.
14:54Offensive rebounds, scores, fast break layups, scores, dunks, scores, penetrate, kick it out
15:00for a three.
15:00Yeah, but that's not going to be the formula for success.
15:05And I see you're wearing your University of Miami blazer right now, or your pullover right
15:10now.
15:11Now, how many games into the season until you call Jay Lucas and give him some hints?
15:15Never!
15:20After I call Jay, I'll call Spoh, I'll call Pat Riley.
15:27You know, come on.
15:28One of the things I know about coaches, the last thing they need is another voice in their
15:36ear giving advice.
15:38It's one of the problems coaches have where there's too many voices in their players' ears
15:43telling them what they should do.
15:46Oh, you got to shoot more.
15:47Oh, you got to drive more.
15:49You got to shoot more threes.
15:50I mean, if you can quiet the noise, you're in much better shape than if you're getting
15:57a lot of advice.
15:58He ain't calling Coach Lucas.
16:00He's letting him do his thing.
16:02It's Halloween on Friday.
16:04You famously told us a couple of Halloweens ago that you were giving away mini basketball
16:07instead of candy.
16:08No, they were full-size basketball.
16:10Full-size basketball.
16:11Full-size bullsons.
16:11What are you giving away Friday night at the Laranega household?
16:14Well, I got to tell you, this is the best of all time.
16:19My wife and I will be in Dallas, Texas.
16:24My wife didn't even have to buy any candy, didn't have to pump up any basketballs.
16:30We will be dining in Dallas with our football program, cheering them on against SMU on Saturday.
16:39All right, very cool.
16:40Coach Laranega, he joins us every Wednesday on the program.
16:43Thank you, Coach.
16:44Safe travels.
16:45Thanks, guys.
16:46There you go.
16:47Coach Jim Laranega.
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