Coat Check | Assistant Coach Xavier Silas

Check the podcast appears every other Thursday. That is our rotation at this point in time in the feeds the podcast feeds of both the Delaware Bluecoats on your podcast platforms and also very exciting it also appears in the seventy six Ers podcast network feeds on all of the podcast platforms as well. But without further ado, let's introduced the guest for this episode, Bluecoats Assistant coach Xavier Silas. Coach Silas, I know we were just catching up a

little bit. You've got young kids, a young family, and it's obviously an unprecedented time right now that the world is facing. How are you doing and your family, how are you all doing during this time? We're all good. My parents are actually with me now. We're all hunerd down in my spot in Colorado. So it's as good as it can be when you have two toddlers running around. Absolutely,

we are recording this on April fifteenth. Just for some context for the listeners out there, we are going to dive into coach Silas's background, his career as a player high school, college, and into his pro career. We will get to our healthy lifestyle segment presented by our friends at Christiana Care of course as doctors, nurses, and caregivers, and as neighbors and friends Christiana Care as a partner in everyone's journey to greater health and well being? Why

do they do it for the love of health? Visit Christianacare dot org. Will shift Gears to his career as a coach, obviously with the Delaware Bluecoats this season as an assistant for Connor Johnson, and then we will have some fun with our at the buzzer questions towards the very end. But let's jump in with your hometown. You're a Texas guy, Austin, Texas. How would you describe growing up out there? You know, it was definitely not as popular as it is now. Back then. It's blown up

in the last ten fifteen years. You know, our slogan and austiness keep Austin weird, and so it's a lot of weird stuff going on Sixth Street and down on the Dragnare. The University of Texas has always been a weird kind of kookie spot. But you know, the food is amazing. Of course, tex mex and Barbeque kind of take the Take the King spot out there, and it's just a really nice spot. You know, it's really hot, um not really a winter but really cool spot to

grow up in. You know, Austin is definitely the best city in Texas for sure. And I've got the sense just from being around you for this season that you're a big food guy. So I think I want to talk more about that towards the end, at least relatively speaking to the NBA and the NBA G League circuits in the different cities, you're you're a well traveled man, and I think that carries over into the food scene

a little bit as well. But speaking of Austin, you're high school Stephen F. Austin High School, and then you ended up at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. I know you've talked talked about that transition before, and all it takes is really a Wikipedia search to see the history of Brewster Academy basketball, a very well known program. And you you mentioned recently that you picked up a lot

more scholarship offers from that prep year. So with the background of Brewster and all that, explain a little bit more about your high school and prep experience, maybe even at both schools. Yeah, you know, I went to Austin High after attending Saint Stephen's, which was a really good private school there in Austin. Went over to Austin High. Played Mount junior and senior year there, and when I got there, we hadn't won the district in thirty years, and so we were able to win the district and

go and defeated in my senior year. After that, I had about three offers. Coach Smith at Brewster recruited me to go to Brewster Academy for my fifth year. My dad, you know, it was two things. My dad didn't want me to go to school to college too early, right, So I was I turned seventeen in January of my senior year, and so I was really young. I was sixteen, half of my my senior year, and so he just thought it was too young for me to go to college,

which looking back, he was he was right. I went to Brewster Academy, had three offers when I got there, left with over forty and so it was a huge kind of boost in my career in the first kind of stepping stone of getting on the map and getting known. It was a really good experienced. The exposure, the difference in exposure between prep school and just a normal public school is just it's night and day, and so being able to do that really changed a lot of things

for me in my career. Before we quickly touch on your college career, what are your relationships like with fellow Brewster products that are in the NBA or around the NBA. You know, Um, It's funny I was when when I got called up to the seventy six ers, Craig Brackens was there, and Craig was a Brewster guy, you know,

when I was with UM. When I was with the Nuggets for their preseason a few years ago, of course, Will Barton is a Brewster guy, and so you know, it's a it's we have a long list of guys in the pros UH, from Thomas Robinson to Donovan Mitchell to you know, even the kid coming out now Terrence clark Um going to Kentucky UH and and last year Jalen LQ. So I mean it goes on and on like literally, and so you know, our relationship is that

of just we're all alumni and we all have that connection. Um. You know, I've played with Chris McCullough who who went to UH Brewster UM and so the literally the list goes on and on, and I've been able to play with the few guys that went to Brewster and actually stayed in my same room, which is funny. Wow. Yeah, I see you interact with those guys on social media from time to time. Certainly a good fraternity of players

that have come through that program. And talking about your college programs, Now, a couple of years at Colorado two thousand and six to two thousand and eight, and then you finished at Northern Illinois. So what are your fondest memories at each school? Was it perhaps going back and forth in the scoring title race with Jim or Fredette towards the end of your career in Northern Illinois just touch on your experience at both places. All that stuff

was fun. Man. You know, Colorado is a beautiful, beautiful campus, great people. I met my wife there. I met one of my best friends there, or two of my best friends actually, Sundance Wicks and Bianca Smith both coaches now, and Sundance of course, was a coach when I was there. He's now at Wyoming just got a job. Congratulations to him there. You know, it's honestly, Um, it's a lot of good memories in both spots. Um, you know, the

people there. You know. Being able to be the fourth leading scorer my freshman year behind kd Um and Wesley Johnson and DJ Augustine uh in the Big twelve was was huge for me. Being able to average thirteen as a freshman was like, I was one of my goals to come in and really show that I can play as a freshman. Then going you know, all the way until the end where where I was with Ricardo Patton,

who was at Colorado and recruiting me at Colorado. Uh he changed and took a job in northern Illinois and I ended up following him, And yeah, you're right, going back and forth with Jimmer and all those guys, that's my senior year. Um, you know, understanding and learning how to how to carry a team and and and score a whole bunch of points like that when people are

gearing up to stop it. Um, it is a whole and and then you know, honestly, the best I think the best um piece that I love the most is just really getting in the gym in Northern Illinois and working on my game with Sun Dance and Jeff Becker and all those guys that were there. Coach Smith. You know, we spend a lot of time, a lot of dark hours in those gyms, so that probably will be the

most memorable piece of it, all right. And anybody who knows your career knows that you have a reputation as having a great work ethic, and I think that definitely carries into your pro career, which we will get to now. You spent time various points in your career with a handful of NBA teams. You've mentioned some of them already, and one of them obviously hitting close to home with the Blue Courts Blue Coats organization being the Philadelphia seventy sixers,

also the Washington Wizard's Boston Celtics, and Denver Nuggets. Let's talk about two twelve with the Sixers. A couple games of NBA Playoff experience for you in the second round against Boston. I know recently BC Sports Philadelphia air at that first round series against the Chicago Bulls, and I caught some of that, and obviously that was bringing back some memories for Sixers fans, a lot of whom uh

might be tuned into this podcast. So what memories do you take away from that experience with the seventy six ers.

I mean, it was a great experience. You know, if you remember that team, it's Drew Holliday, It's Iggy, It's it's Evan Turner, it's uh, It's it's Elton Brand, it's uh, Lou Will, it's you know that that team was stacked and it was like right before the process kind of started, right and so um, you know, as a as a as a as a rookie being able to come in and and like you mentioned in that Bulls series, UM, I didn't dress, right, I didn't dress, but I worked

so hard uh in shoot around, in practice, I mean I I just went full speed, one hundred percent the whole time and ended up earning a spot uh with with the in the Celtics series. They dressed me um and and had someone else sit so or sitting in the suit. So it was cool to kind of to kind of be there and fight for that. UM. Playoff basketball is amazing. Uh, going to I think it was Game six UM with the Bulls and then going to Game seven with the Celtics. Just that whole experience was amazing.

And I learned so much from coach Collins and and that coaching staff. UM, you know, it was it was. It was great jumping in there, you know, playing in those in those two games against the Celtics in the playoffs as a rookie was was huge. UM. And I was able to kind of build off of that and and have a certain type of confidence for the rest

of my career. Absolutely, and certainly some things that I think, UM makes sense that you'd be able to carry over into your coaching career, which will get to shortly, but unfortunately kind of had some in along the way. One with the sixers at Summer League that you've recently touched on as well, but not on this podcast, But what did you learn about yourself when battling certain setbacks in your playing career. Yeah, you know, coming off a great

rookie year, fighting for that playoff spot. You know, clearly the organization, you know, they were fond of me at that point. But Summer league, last game, even the last quarter of that of the Summer League, I fractured my skull. It was a gruesome injury. Had to have surgery like the next morning, and after that, you know, everything kind of went on hold. Of course, I tried to rush back and come back to training camp with the Sixers, tried to jump in there without even touching the ball,

just because that's the kind of guy I am. But clearly I wasn't ready to return, so had to take some more time. Jumped back in the G League, ended up hurting my shoulder that year, and so it kind of got plagued with with injuries. Um and that you know, right after that next twelve months, after the playoffs with the Sixers, it kind of really got serious with the whole injury piece, and I had like three surgeries within

eight months. And so learning that, you know, you gotta be patient with everything, and with me, I was always trying to fix everything with with work and hard work and gotta work and go crazy, and um, you know, when you have a head injury and you're you're you have a um shoulder injury and an elbow injury and you have surgery within a week of a week apart, and you just kind of have to be a couch.

Potato really helped me grow kind of internally, you know, mentally, spiritually, did a lot of reading and and that kind of helped me be centered for the rest of my career. And I'm sure it'll it heads well. It already has carried over into coaching and being able to really well now, you know, it's funny I'm making this connection now. Being injured and not really being able to play and coaching

are a lot of light. You know, you don't really have control over what happens as a coach, and of course when you're injured, you can't really do anything about it. And so that kind of prepped me for being able to be a coach and understand that, you know, you kind of have to let things happen and do what you can, but but not try to be overbearing and go crazy with things how I used to be when I was young. So we'll delve further into that transition

from player to coach here in a second. But let's mix it up right now with our Healthy Lifestyle segment presented by Christianic Care. And I meant to do this on the last episode with Heywood Highsmith, but just want to give a quick shout out to all the healthcare professionals out there on the front lines doing their thing. Can't be said enough on social media, podcast, whatever platform it is. Thank you to everybody out there who is

helping during this time. And it's a similar situation here on the Healthy Lifestyle segment as we had with Heywood on the last episode of Coach Check. It's a quarantine edition, so it kind of might change your answer for a little bit based on what type of workouts you're able to do. But the first question is the one that includes the Christianit Care mantra of for the love of health.

So what are you doing for the love of health given the current circumstances, whether it's running bike workouts, whatever it might be. I have a peloton. I've been going crazy on the peloton a lot more than I was able to do during the season, and so that's it, man, that's it. I've been doing a lot of research on what to do, and one of the things that I

kind of want to do or get as a mini trampoline. Okay, they said that, you know, jumping rope and doing the mini trampoline or like one of the things that will burn the most calories. I can't really jump rope that much, just because it's just too much impact, you know, But on the trampoline, I'll be able to, and so I'm thinking about doing that. I might order it right when we get off. I feel like the mini trampoline might be something for your kids as well. Maybe that's the

only thing. I don't want them to be jumping on it and banging their heads off the wall. So I have to like hide it and use it when I when I use them, and hide it when I'm not using it. How about when it comes to diet or nutrition, Um, I've heard you say things along those lines throughout the season. Any tips for the listeners on things that they can feel good about cooking or eating or things you're cooking

and eating during this time. I use the outside of the grocery store rule, and so if it's on the outside of the grocery store or like when you walk into grocery store, if you stay on the outside of it, you're generally good. That's where all the produce is. You know, you have your meat, your cheese, your milk, you know,

all the things that are from the earth. When you get into those aisles in the middle, that's where it gets tricky and things are just made in factories and kind of man made stuff, and so during this time it's easy to kind of start snacking and going a little crazy on your diet. But if it's stuff from the earth, if it's stuff that you get on the outside of the grocery store, then or you know, the outside kind of that loop on the in the grocery store,

you're you're generally good. And that's a good way to kind of stay healthy. Wow, I like that a lot. I haven't heard that outside of the grocery store. I'm going to keep that in mind all right. Now to your coaching career. First year as a coach. An assistant coach for the Delaware Blue Coats describe the transition from player to coach, but specifically within the NBA's assistant coaches

program and how that impacted things. Yeah, you know, the that coaching program really really helped a lot on getting prepared for what I was going to be doing this year. Um, you know, they they got us. They do a really good job in preparing you for synergy and and all these different things that we use as coaches, UH sport code and you know, UM, a lot of different a lot of analytics and film related at a lot of different film film related, analytic related, UM and just scout

related stuff. And so we had intensives on that stuff all through the summer. So when I got to to Philly and and to UH to Delaware, I was prepared and I had seen it all right, and so UM that that was That was helpful as far as the transition goes. You know, I didn't I didn't miss playing as much as I thought I would. UM, And I liked coaching more than I thought I would. I thought

it'd be opposite. I thought I'd missed playing. I wish I was playing, And I thought that I would think that coaching was kind of you know, lame, I guess. And that's just for me last year being a player and kind of wondering if I'm really gonna like it. But with our coaching staff and just jumping into it. Man, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. So many different things that you have to learn and begin to conquer, which is something

that I always liked. I liked identifying weaknesses and then working on to build them and turn them into strengths, and so kind of being able to do that as a coach and identifying things that I can do better and how we can be better as a whole, and coming up with strategy. It was just a really good experience and I'm glad I made that move early, which a lot of people probably thought I was a little crazy retiring that early, but you know, I think I

made the right move and I really enjoy it. What were some of the biggest adjustments for you, because I know I read that maybe it's just not turning it off as much as you would as a player and you're in the gym getting your shots up, practicing for a few hours, but then you can kind of have the rest of the day to do whatever you want to do, whereas when you're a coacher thinking about everything pretty much all day every day. So what were some

of the biggest adjustments for you? Yeah, I think the biggest adjustment from a player to a coach is the hours. You know, as a player, you come in, you know, get tape, go practice, go home. As a coach, we're there probably three or four hours before the first guy even gets there. We're we're talking and and planning and like you said, thinking for at least three or four hours before they get there. And then we stay and we after practice and you know, practice is what three

hours long? And then um, we stay after for a while and then talk about practice and talk about what we're gonna do for the next day and all that stuff. And so you know, for a players, maybe a three match, four hour day, um, for a coach, it's easily seven or eight. And so that was the biggest kind of difference and adjustment, um for for me, you know, and I think for any player it's gonna be that's gonna be the biggest thing. So I didn't really have this

one ready to go. And we'll get to our final couple questions at the buzzer here in a second. But and you might not have a good answer for this yet because it's so new to you, and if you don't, that's fine, But what what are your goals as a coach. I want to be a head coach. Um. You know, it's clear for me that that's what I want to do. UM.

I love being able to learn and be an assistant coach. UM. But at the goal, the end goal is to be able to be a head coach and kind of see if I can lead a group of guys in the right direction, in the winning direction. And you know, they always say that the team takes on the personality of their head coach, and I would be I'm really interested to see if that could be the case with me as a head coach. You know, So that that's the end goal, but you know, the process is so fun.

The process of being an assistant and learning has been so fun that you know at this point it's a win win situation for me. We'll have more with Xavier Silas in just a second, but first, The Moore's Sports Medicine believes that highly personalized one on one physical therapy for young athletes is paramount to a speedy and complete recovery. Learn more at nemours dot org slash PT. So let's

go at the buzzer here. Just a couple of questions to round things out, here on coach Check the Colorado Prep, Colorado Prep basketball program helping out young players on the Colorado basketball scene. What's the latest UM with all that, and maybe some information for people who might not know. Yeah, so you know, I founded this prep team. It's gonna we're gonna play on the Grind Session UH in the West Coast Conference. So a little bit about the Grind Session.

It's it's been in existence for six years. UM. They've had like seven hundred and seventy one guys go D one, nine top ten draft picks UM in the NBA and and so the they have a lot of really good things that have come out of that, and we're able to be the only team in Colorado to UH to

be on the Grind Session. And so with that, UM, you know, just create an opportunity, UM for for some guys that are in this kind of Mountain West region that that don't really get UM, an opportunity of this magnitude to get the type of exposure that you know, other teams and other states are getting. And it'll be great for me being able to be in the administration side of things and and you know, figure out the logistics,

figure out the scheduling, Uh, get the roster right. You know, all those things are are are great and I'm able to get real life reps at that and so um. You know, it's all about getting better and kind of helping others, and so I'm able to do both of those things right now. So it's a great thing. And also get to work with my dad who's going to be the head coach, and my mom who's kind of heading up our booster club. And so it's a family affair.

We're we're doing it um and it's a good way to kind of be with them and be around them. You know, they've had a nonprofit for over over twenty three years and and so they're kind of shifting and doing their you know, uh doing Colorado Prep as their nonprofit. And it's it's been great for the family. That's awesome with the whole family involved. Now, I I talked about food, so we'll get you out with a food question here

at the Buzzer. Some of the best food cities maybe in the on the NBA or NBA G League circuit. I don't I know you're interested in seafood. On a couple of the cities that we visited in the g League this year. So what comes to mind when I ask best food cities or stops on the the NBA circuit. You know, I love Chicago. They have so many great restaurants. Um Joe's Uh Stone Crab is my favorite restaurant, and I know I can get there. Um in in Chicago,

I can get there, Washington, DC. And then there's one in Vegas as well. Um. When we when we talk about like just top food spots, I always say, and a lot of people don't think about it, but Vegas. You know, when you're in Vegas for Summer League and all these different things that you have to be there for in the NBA, Um, they just have these world renowned chefs in every single hotel competing with each other.

And there's so many just great restaurants. And so when it comes down to it, if you want the most quality restaurants, Vegas is definitely the spot. There you go. I wasn't personally thinking of Vegas, but now I am. So that's that's a great note to end it on. Thanks for the time, Coach Silas, and best wishes to you and your family at this time. I appreciate it. Man. Thanks for having me on everyone, stay safe, stay home, do your part. Thanks again, and he's Delaware Blue Coats

Assistant coach Xavier Silas. I'm Matt Murphy until next time, Take it or leave it at the coach check