TOM's Talks | SJU Head Coach Billy Lange

as well. One who's moved on to be a college head coach is South Jersey native Billy lang. Lang has just completed his first season as the head coach of Saint Joseph's University. In my third installment of Tom's Talks, I visit with Billy lang Well, coach, Thank you so much for doing this. You're my third guest, but fret Nott Jordan was the third pick, so you're still in good company. And as I said to my other guests, Todd McCulloch and George Lynch, you too are one of

my all time faves. We know you've moved on to Saint Joseph's University. We're going to talk about that, but first, how is your family, your immediate family, your parents, and how are you guys doing in this time of quarantine if you will, Yeah, thank you, Tom. You can see as soon as I knew I was going to get on with you, I made sure I was representing the logo of my favorite NBA team of all time. Thanks for having me. This is an honor to be here

with you family as well. We've got four boys, all at different stages of puberty and teenage years, so we're trying not to cannibalize each other during this time right now. But we're healthy, which is the ultimate blessing to have, and so are my parents and my ninety six year old grandmother who is doing well quarantine Din, everybody's good

right now. We'll keep it going that way. That's great. So, as a college basketball coach at Saint Joseph's, the season was just about to end when everything got shut down, I can only imagine what it was like to touch base with your players, make sure they were okay, and then sent the template for this time. That is really unprecedented, particularly for you in a period after your first year.

So we lost our last game of the season, which was the first round of the Atlantic ten Tournament in a real nail biter against George Mason at the Barclay Center. We were in New York, ironically, and then got on the bus and came home. I had dinner with my staff that night, and just as we were eating, the announcement came out about the Rudy Gobert and the cancelation of the season. So we had already kind of set our goodbyes and we were on spring break, so the

guys were already home. Little did we know they were not going to come back, and that has since changed everything. But everyone's going through this, so I there's very little stress level amongst us as coaches. We missed being with our guys. It was an abrupt end of the season, and obviously we were all looking forward to work attitude that we were going to be able to restore here in the spring, particularly coming off the season we had. But we had energy and we were ready for it.

But now it's different and we just have to adjust to the difference. How did you feel this season went. I mean, we followed it. Obviously, Ryan Dailey had a tremendous year, But I always described your first season as coach at Saint Jo. You know, it's it's funny because in many ways the record obviously is disappointing for players, coaches, fans, constituents, the whole bit. You know, when we lost Taylor Funk seven games into the year, we already were a group.

It had a very small margin for any sort of error that was on kind of like our pre mortem list, like we can't lose one of these guys, and we lost him, so that that hurt. But I will say this, of all the years off coach as a head coach or an assistant, this was one of the most rewarding in this facet. This was one of the most competive, competitive, spirit filled, engaged groups I've ever been around, from day one till the end. I mean, there was never a

sign of disengagement. The reason of some of the games might have seemed that way time, but it wasn't. These guys came to work. We might have had two bad practices all year. So my experience with Brett in the first few years with the seventy sixers gave me a different lens on that type of process than I probably would have had if I didn't have that experience with the seventy sixers, and we were able to keep the

focus on the game rather than the gap. And over the last three weeks of the Atlantic ten regular season, outside of maybe three or four teams in our league, we were playing as well as anyone. We just weren't winning, which that is the result we all want. But we were able to step back and see where the trajectory of the group in the program were going, and we felt excited about it. So disappointed in the record, but not disappointed at all in the process and the games

we made them very encouraged. Speaking of the program and when you speak the recruits and certainly going forward, when you talk about the rich history of Saint Joseph's basketball, McKinney line them O'Brien or undefeated, Phil Martelli, Mike Phantom. I mean, it's an incredible program. I must be the

great selling point of tradition of Hawkhill. It's easy for me, you know, growing up in South Jersey and really growing up on Philadelphia basketball from high school through college and the NBA, Like this is what you follow, right, This is a passion. This is just part of growing up in this in this Delaware valley area. It's easy for me, It truly is. And with each passing day, I'm learning

more and more about the tradition. Like you just brought up a couple of names that wouldn't roll off the tongue necessarily if I know, I mean nah, but I mean it's it's everything, and so um, you know, talking about guys like Brian Work, you know, and like these type of players have created such an incredible legacy in history here. It truly is across the country of all

college basketball, one of the best stories. So we just have to continue to tell it, and we have to modernize it in a way that is kind of really able to today's youth, which that's what we need because we're recruiting. When I go back to my first year in the NBA nineteen ninety five, we actually practiced at Saint Joe's and the Sixes. Of course, the practiced there for many years before, and where I went to high school and where I went to college and played basketball.

That setting was exactly like that. And so for me to be back on campus, I used to go to mass at the Chapel at noon. At the time, it was the Green gym and the the Red gym and arena and played picked up there. I mean it was a great atmosphere, and that too, I would think as a selling point as a great university. It is, and basketball matters a great deal. You know, all the sports at

Saint Joe's have great tradition and they all matter. But one of the pillars that this school is built on as the tradition in the history of Saint Joel's basketball on Hall Hill, from great coaches, the great players, to great memories, to great competitions in the Big Five and

in the Atlantic Ten. And there are so many students that I had met over the course of my one year here and I would say, like, how did you get interested in Saint Joe's And most times it relates back to a brother or a sister, or a mother or a father or or an uncle who a grandparent who introduced them to the idea of the university through some sort of basketball related vertical. Right, So it's it's a big deal. It's just part of the blood of

Saint Joe's. And then part of that if the outreach is the Big Five, the City Six, the rival Rays, the games at the Palestra, the battles with the Villanova that's another slice of what you I would think would bring to young people that want you want to play basketball for you, I mean, I hope so, because that's how I see it. You know, we play in a really good league in the Atlantic Ten. But outside of that, you know, think about the things you get to be

a part of. You get to be a part of the Big Five, which is incredible, right, And you get to be a part of a five, part of a competition that actually has a name to it in the Holy War, Right, So you know that's cool. I mean, and Villanova has been such an elite level program for the last decade that a chance to actually have that type of built in competition year after year is truly an opportunity for us to continue to grow our own tradition. We'll have more of my conversation with Billy Lange in

a moment. In this time of social distancing, Novacare Rehabilitation is offering physical therapy from the comfort and safety of your home through their new tel A Rehab program. Novacare will virtually bring their services to you so you may heal, build strength, and get back to the things you love. Tell a rehab let you easily connect with one of Novacare's licensed therapists through web based technology that is Hippo compliant. For more information, visit novacare dot com. Now back to

my conversation with Billy Lang. So you spent two stints coaching at Villanova with coach write your coach and Navy Academy and other jobs in terms of assistant coach on that collegiate level. What's it like to be in a program now and all of those all the things you've learned and now putting them in place and beginning to put them in place as you go forward. Yeah, I

mean outside of my own Let me back up. So I've had great mentors first, you know, from Speedy Morris at LaSalle to her McGee at what is now Jefferson University, but I was there when it was Philadelphia Textile, to Jay Wright, to Brett Brown, to my father who I played for and grew up on their obviously going those games.

So like, I take a little bit of everything that I've learned from them, and then I've had my own tenure as head coaches, once in Division three and once at the Naval Academy, which you alluded to where I can harken back on successes and failures, you know, areas where I feel like, hey, I was pretty good good and areas where I need to be aware that I was weak. And then put all that together, and now it culminates in an opportunity to be a head coach

in the Big Five at Saint Joe's. And this is probably about as ready as I would have been for a position like this, and yet I still have so much more to grow, So I'm excited for that as well. So you speak of your heritage and your pedigree, and your father was a coach at Eustace and you played at Rowan, but it all goes back to Saint Rose and Hadden Heights and you have a special group there.

And I know you lost one of your friends, but I mean that was I would think a basketball clearly you were successful, but built the foundation of how enjoyable. And again you were a basketball family with your dad being a coach, But that must have been really special and something that you really treasure. My South Jersey heritage is you know my father, you know doctor John g and any who. Many people like I didn't work for him at LaSalle, but I played under him at Rowan

University at Glass pro State is when I started. He was a huge influence. I learned a lot about the mental part of the game from him. But my grade school days back to Saint Rose, which not many people could even mention Tom, but you're on it under a

guy by the name of Timmy Lenahan. And of all the names that I just mentioned to you, from Hall of Famer and her McGee to NBA head coach and a successful head coach, and Brett Brown J Right's got two national championships, you know, Timmy Lenahan, who was my grade school coach, is on par with them in terms of the influence that he had on me, particularly from

a player development standpoint and an inspirational standpoint. I learned so much, you know, and as an influential person when you're in grades fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, and then I carried that relationship on to my twenties. He was one of the first calls that came in when I got the Naval Academy job. Wow, so blessed, and the South Jersey part of me will never leave. It's who I am, but not only am I from there. The

significance of those mentors that I had. Those opportunities I had playing for those coaches were a huge part in my ascension as a head coach, and then the professional team, obviously the Sixers. You I know how long you've been married only based on you took your wife on a date to the two thousand and one NBA Finals, So you've been a lifelong Sixers fan. And then six years ago. I suppose you, seven years ago you get a job to coach pro basketball players and bring your development skills

to professional players. What was that experience like? Oh, Man, I mean Tom, I will say this, I could have stayed with the seventy six Ers for the rest of my life. I loved being a part of that organization and I loved being in the NBA. I could have stayed in the NBA for the rest of my life. It's just truly an opportunity that I had to be at a place that I hold in high regard. Was the only reason that I was pulled from there. This just was an epic for me. For me, being at

Saint Joe's is a dream. The opportunity I had to be with the seventy Sixers was a dream too, and in many ways. It was perfect for the type of person that I am. I actually enjoyed the process part of it, you know, the it was painful to win ten games, particularly when you're playing eighty two of them. But the enjoyment of watching guys like Robert Covington and Jeremy Grant and then drawing and learning from guys like Brett and Lloyd Pearce and Mike D'Antoni, you know, chatiskey.

These were memories, true memories. And to think I'm like looking at that logo over your shoulder right now, and to think that I actually had an opportunity to coach this team when I stood in line to get a poster signed by Doctor J after they won the eighty three championship. To just be some small part of the history of the Philadelphia seventy six is a is a blessing.

So you mentioned the eighty two games schedule and being a basketball guy like yourself to be part of that grind in terms of just how the games keep coming, the preparation and as a head college coach, you have a myriad. You have ten or twelve things you have to really be good at, and a lot of them are off the basketball court, but to be have all basketball, to manage the relationships and work with guys and work with the coaches, develop game plans, everything that goes into it.

As Coach Brown says, it's like drip drip that doesn't stop in a way, as you guys say, in a perverse way, you probably like that. Yeah, I loved it. I mean I'm very regimented to begin with and very disciplined. I love routine, so is NonStop. People think you get a lot of downtime, but you don't. Like you're on it.

You know there's a game that's just right behind you, right after you close the other one out, and you learn how to not waste time and to cut to what's most important, as we learned under Coach Brown, and to try to help your guys the best way you can.

I love that now. Where it's helped me actually in college more so than when I was in college before, is the discipline of like getting things done in a efficient manner and cutting fat out helps me in all those other myriads of ways that you have already mentioned, whether it's recruiting or fundraising or staff development. You know, understanding how to build a schedule for the day. The

NBA has helped me tremendously. The discipline and diligence it takes to sustain a level of energy throughout a season has paid huge dividends for me as I entered back into the college space. And we'll enter back into your personal life. As you mentioned with your boys. Certainly, now, I know we're social distancing, but I imagine there's some

backyard and there's some basketball going on. As a father, and each one of your boys probably has a different personality, what's it like helping to guide them and not being overly pushy? Like, what's it like that balance? And also getting in the gym and watching your kids play must

be I mean, I know it's a great yeah. I mean, you and I had so many conversations about our children and watching them grow and develop, and sports just offers so much for their overall holistic development, not just the basketball. I mean, in this time of the pandemic, when we're all socially distanced and squeezed in on our quarantines, I can't imagine what it would have been like ten to twelve years ago. At least now they've got technology to

go distract them for a little bit. But what I've enjoyed with this, you know, my kids have grown up with incredible resources when it comes to basketball, whether it's being able to get in a cool gym or have an NBA player development coach show them something, or guys have going over guys that Joe's. But what they miss out on is something You've alluded to earlier, is just like getting to the playground at Saint Rose and playing.

So a few of my favorite memories have been our wicked juno games at the kitchen table after dinner, a lot of cheating going on there, some just organic conversations that happen, being able to see the way they exist, watching my wife and just growing like an incredible affection for what she has to do on a day to day basis when I'm out about doing what I've got

to do. But what I've really enjoyed is like going to my window and watching my boys set up chairs on the driveway and pouring their own passion into their own pouring their own work into their own passion is what I should say. Where As a lot of things for kids these days are organized, but now they're being forced to figure out how much do they really love something because it's been taken away, and that's been pretty neat to see because it's really not like that that

much right now. For American youth in sports, everything is pretty structured and organized, so to see them going creating their own structure has been pretty well. Coach, I totally enjoy catching up with you. We wish you the best to you and your family and your program. We'll talk to you you down the road. Thanks so much, coaching Tom. I miss you. I miss our conversation, so thank you for having me. I look forward to the NBA getting back and the Sixers making a great run in the playoffs.

All right, thank you, Billy, Thanks for listening to Tom's talks with me Tom McGinnis on the seventy six Ers podcast network. Check for new episodes every weekend.