KJ Live - Tyson Wheeler

other countries. Let's welcome Tyson Wheeler to the show. What's up, Tyson? What's upkay Jee? I appreciate you having me on. I'm excited. I know you got all the U best guests on here, so I'm excited to be on here and very humble. Well, I thank you. I don't know if I have the best guests, but I have the most people I think are the best, and so I think that most important and you fall into that category. My man. Congratulations on your tenure at the U mass uh coaching right now,

you're a free agent. Uh, let's talk about the process for you. Kind of the day, day to day grind of of a college coach. Having coach finished the season now has to look for another situation. Talk about what that looks like. Well, I think, Um, you know, obviously it's gonna this is my thirteenth season coaching, so, UM, I've been in for a while, going by pretty fast. So you know, I remember playing for ten years professionally and I thought that was a long time. And I'm

already passed that as a coach. Um. You know, it's a process. You know, it happens in the business. You don't win enough, they let you go. So you know, for me, you know, I have to try to find a new job anywhere in the country. You know, I've been coaching now for thirteen years, like I said before, and I basically always been on the East Coast. Now you know, I'm looking to, you know, make a move. You know, I don't mind staying on the East Coast

close home. I'm from Connecticut. Um, there's some openings in New England that I would love to work for. UM, but you know, I have to keep my options over yeah you do. UM, talk a little bit about just how maybe the coaching game has changed from when you were a player being recruited by attend of schools to now being on the other side doing the recruiting recruiting players. How much has the game changed in that twenty five years, Spanners,

So it's changed tremendously. Um. You know, back when we were getting recruited, it seemed like coaches were everywhere at the park, at the Y M c A, at high school practices, at games. You know, you pull up and the coach will be there, And I think that was very beneficial for us in our evaluation of our talent and where we should be playing. UM. I think nowadays, as as a college coach, we don't get as much

time to really evaluate the kids. Uh, we may see him two or three times because we're flying all over the place because we have a shorter period to evaluate them. So then we rely on scouting services UM and not our own eye. So it could be kind of messy when you you see a kid played great one weekend, and then you might see him play three weeks later and he just plays okay, So you're not very sure

if he's at that level. But then the dynamic comes where if you're at you Mass, you get a Miami that offers him in the A C. C. So now you're like, Wow, I'm never gonna get this kid. But I think he's at the Atlantic ten level. And before I was coaching at Fairfield University in Connecticut in the mac um so it was a dynamic where I thought the kid was a MAC level kid and he would

get offered by a big East school. So it's been it's changed a lot, and I think back when we played it was a little bit easier to evaluate us. Is that because the there was more flexibility with like budget or is that because the n t a A wasn't so strict in terms of the viewing period and things like that, or is it a combination both, Like why why are coaches nowadays not allowed to see players

as much as they were in the past. I mean, they're restrictions on the n c A. They allow you a certain amount of live periods we can go out to watch and evaluate talent um. There's tournaments all over the country. There's so many AAU programs. You know, I'm sure back when you were playing, you played on one team and basically all your boys from up and down California on one team. You know, in New York you had all the best players on two teams at Gauchos

the Riverside. So you know, now it's a very watered down. Parents are making teams just so their child can play. Um, there's about ten teams just in one city of a lot of talent. Now, now, is daddy ball so bad? I always ask this question, is I want to hear from the hooper? Why why is daddy ball so bad? At your eyes, I don't think it's bad at all. I think you're trying to do the best thing for your child exactly, and they don't get the opportunity to

be seen. And you want your child to get a scholarship and get that opportunity because like I said before, there's not enough tournaments or enough time for college coach to evaluate those kids. So if your parents can get you on the team with some other guys that can play and get you on the scene to be seen, that that's there, that's good for them. So I'm not mad at them at all. No, me, neither me neither.

And the game was so different as far as the AU there's there was just so much more emphasis on AU and things like that. As a recruiter, and this would be kind of my last one talking about that. How much do you know back in the day got the AU affiliation wasn't necessary for a guy's coach to get players. It seems like nowadays, you know, it's one

of the prerequisites sometimes you're getting the gig. How how much how important is that or is that overblown and overstated the streets and you know media or whatever your you mean, like, um, the the like an assistant coach having like a good relationship with the AU director or maybe an affiliation may have coached for them in the past, etcetera. Is that is that really is? Does that really give you a leg up in today in the landscape of

today's college coaching game, It absolutely does. I think, um, you know, you are so prominent now and all the kids are there. And again, a lot of high school I mean sorry, a lot of college coaches don't go to high school games as much. They concentrate on AU and then end on the directors and and the coaches in the AU circle, um to get kids, you know, because whatever level you're at, you're gonna recruit to the

AU programs in your area and across the country. So you know, it does a beneficial for coaches to know a lot of AU programs. One thing I would say about me that I have an advantage because I played basketball and I could recruit all over the country. It makes us because people may know my name and that just may start the conversation. And I can say I'm at Atlantic ten school and somebody in California might not want to go to school in California, so that might

give me a lego. Absolutely, that's good, man. You gotta use everything you've got. It is a competitive world. Use players out there, and now there is And speaking of good players, man, I want to I want to flip the script to the transfer portal because you know there's a thousand, you know, players in that thing, and you

know you're getting guys are getting good quick. But by snatching guys out the transfer portal now with the emphasis on getting older and experienced college basketball players for college programs, does this make the three to four star high school player less relevant than he has been in the past. Kind Of like that guy that tweeter you feel like

you can develop. He may give him a shot as a coach because you think he can be something out of development, but you don't anymore because you gotta I did average two of the game, and you know a D two you got you know, you got to cook. Yeah, I mean it's a it's tough. It's tough. You can go both ways with its positive and negative. UM. And it also depends on what level you're at. You know, you you would love to get a kid at a lower level that's a three or four star because you

wouldn't be able to do that before. UM. And then you can get transfers that were playing in the Big Ten that average three or five points, but you can see that they're pretty good. They come to the Atlantic Tent and the average ten to twelve points, but they couldn't do that at the Big Tent level. So you're more apt to try to take a kid that played in a bigger level come down, and then a kid that's at a lower level that's always had aspirations to

play up like myself. I did work as a freshman sophomore at to say a St. Peter's, well you St. Peters for example. Now those kids are gonna be looking at like they could play in the Big East at a stick home. So that it's it's it's all over the place, and it's good and bad with it So do you think it's good for the game? I mean, do you think this is something that you could say this is good for for the balance of competition and college basketball? A lot of teams got good quick. They're

able to make, you know, deep runs. You see some teams out there with these kind of guys that are making runs and and that are good when you don't expect. Is this good for the game? Um? I think it's good for the game because college coaches don't get a uh a long period of time to become great. You know, when we were coming up again, uh you know, we had coaches that coach for ten or twelve years and

may Haetta had three or four losing seasons. Now, if you're not winning after three years, you're on the hot seat. So you have to you have to win right away in order to keep your job, which is unfortunate because now you're not being you're not able to develop the younger kids. So now you're probably not gonna want to get a young kid because you only have two or three years to be good. Yeah. No, that makes total sense. And this is something I think that started has been

happening for a little bit now. Probably I'd say around. Well. I felt it in two thousand fourteen fifteen when my son Will was just difficult to get him a look and I couldn't understand why. But then as I started to look at the makeup of rosters around the country and start to understand the different themes associated with what coaches were doing, it kind of made sense that because I was thinking of it like our time, like why can't you get like now you better believe it, my boy?

You know the type of thing. But it's like, like you just said, hey, man, I gotta win now. I don't have no time for one roster spot to being to being unknown. I need a prom commodity. I'll take a guy that played in the MEAK or you know, the Horizon League that I a thousand points score. They don't miss the king of this he was doing it. I was like, dang, he bringing all these thousand points score and I'm like, oh, there we go. All right. But but all that to be said, that's the game.

Competition is still competition, but you gotta you gotta adjust and adapt. Um. The final thing on the college thing, man, uh, the current college climate, the n I l you know, when it first came out you know, I was really interested to see how this would affect the players, the athletes mindset. You know what would this motivate people? With this? Get guys and girls you know, in the gym, on the track, working hard and the way, Hey, I want to be the most market I want to be the best.

I want to look good or or did it or is it something that hey, I'm you know, are these kids responding to it with complacency? I want to know from a college coach, I don't know if your guys had any and if they did, you know, what is your sense of how they responded to it? I would say overall general, overall, um, the synopsis of it is

there's good and bad in it. You know, you have some players that are really good, uh, that can that are marketable and they'll get the those type of deals where they can make some money or some clothing deals. And then you have some players that are getting it because they're on a team, but they don't play a lot, but they'll film themselves uh more marketable and they're just working out just because of the n I L deals or to get likes and so you know, it's a

it's a gift and a curse. I guess you can say, you know, there's some really good players that are making really good money as they should and they're helping uh you know, um establishment make money and that putting some money in their pockets. So but then there's some players that shouldn't have en n I l deals what they do. Um, but it's coolos to the kids. I mean, if they can get it, they should get it, you know. I think I think really it's all about, you know, the

lens in which we view it. Now, if we view it through our lens, we might say something like, hey, you know, kids are getting it when maybe they shouldn't. But we have to realize that the game is totally changed. So so who gets it and who deserves it? That's just it's up to social media, it's up to your following, it's up to your soul. So so you might have the most game, you might average twenty game, but you're

not the best on social media. And that is and I see this with U. C. L A, where you got a guy like Hamie ha Kennis, who's who's really good on social media, But there's these other guys that are you know, a little bit better and they're getting a little bit more notoriety. Um um that this Uh, I forgot what it is. But they gave like this all the bench guys left in the tournament. They gave him a whole uh N I L deal. So every guy that was like a walk on or that rode

the bench. Yeah, so this is now becoming. They're becoming stars their performance on the bench. They're cheer leading their school spirit. Like I'm telling you, Dog, I would kind of like I was my freshman year wearing all the town like I wouldn't Hey, I would have got an N I L deal. Bro would have been like on Fatburger or something. Man, hey man, Christine to get the starting local man too big starting local back and dog but free on me. Hey but I want to be

cracking man. But so but I like that part. It's gonna be interesting to see just how big this stuff gets. You know, you see the high level at least the elite guys getting you know, Mercedes Bins and Beats by Dre and you know these high level brands, and so that's interesting, but it still needs to be sorted out, you know what I'm saying. So Fox Sports Radio has

the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app search f s R to listen live. Yeah, but looking back two days of old man, when we were young bucks dude and we could run around real fast and you know, go through our legs behind the back. I crossed you over a

lot back in the day. But looking back on that area at it out of the dog, I wanted to revisit You're run through the march madness, the whole tournament because I always found found it interesting that you played for coach Herrick who recruited me, who I played for, what a national championship? He was fired the year before, and now the very next year he's taking you guys on your own magical run. Can you just talk about and that was in its first year. Can you just

talk about that? You know, coach Herrick as getting coach Eric as a coach with everything you heard about and knowing his pedigree with U C l A and ultimately going on that run. But guys like Catino Mobile and Lamorrow. Yeah, so Lamar wasn't with us at that point, but at the school. Yeah, yeah, that counts. That counts and having a good time. But uh no, it was a great to get coach here. Um, myself and Antony Reynolds Dean

were on the search committee. You know, we were uh what they call it now player the player now the search firms. We were the search firm. So Antonio and I and some of the you know, the A D We had a list of coaches and his name came up and I was like, that's the coach I want. You know, he coached tyas Edne. I was a small guard. They were up and down. I love the U c l A offense. You know, we played the flex offense

with Al Skinner and I love that as well. But Contino didn't love it, you know, because he didn't get to handle the ball. So when when coach Hare came and he put the U c l A offense and he let Cotino handle the ball, and that really roses Stock. So I know Contino loves coach Hair because of that. He got to handle the ball. And so you know, we had a veteran team. Uh, we knew we could be really good. Coach Hare came in and I thought Ty said and he was great because he was a

small guard. They won a national championship, like you were talking about you guys want a national championship and he was a little guard. So I was like, Okay, this is gonna fit in perfect with the way I played. And when coach Hare got there's like, Tyson, you need to pass more. You're you're you're shooting too much. You need to understand the game. Or I was like what now what the year before? What? What? What did you do the year before? Like what kind of what were

you coming into it? The confidence level off of what type of performance? Well, we we lost, for dude, we were up against for Due in the tournament first round, uh, and we gave up the lead and lost. I was averaging about fifteen points a game. I was a career average about fifteen points a game and six assists. So you know, I never wanted to score more than fifteen points. I definitely tried to, but I never got over fifteen. But I well, the most important for me is to

get assist, lead the league, and try to win. So you know, I came in with some bravado that you know, this is gonna be our team. My team, me and Contino. Coach Harris gonna come in. He's gonna coach us up. And then he was like, yo, Tyson, you need to stop shooting so much. I was like, oh, man, come on, coach, That's what I do. But it helped me out tremendously. You know, I had learned to be a better point guard. UM, we want a lot more. We got to lead eight.

At what point did you during the season did you know that you guys could do something special? Like was there a turning point? Was there a game, was there a performance that you guys had you might have beat somebody going on the road or I don't know, was there a moment or did you guys kind of have a steady flow during the year. Um, we started off really hot and then we you know, we I think we won our first like three or four games. We got it to the top twenty five for the first time.

And then we went to play yukon Umlilo Me and Kevin Freeman, Richard Hamilton's UM. So we knew and it was a close game. We're up and down, we were up, UM, but that at that point we knew that we were really good. We went to Cincinnati on Super Bowl Sunday and played them. I had the flu and we were right there with Kenyan Martin the helicopter. They had a dynamic team, let all the Yeah, so we we played really well. We lost, but the games we were in we felt we were one of the best teams in

the country. So we had that mindset. Uh, we were older group, so we had to play that way. But we we had a tough schedule. We went out to Stanford, play Stanford in a Cable Car Classic and we're up again and we lost the same exact way we did it in the lead eight against him. Yeah, that was a tough loss. Man. I thought you guys had the magic.

I thought you guys had it going, especially after what you beat Kansas in the round before or the round of thirty two or yeah, that was the second second round, second round. Every state year old coach God favorites the head coach. So was Marcus Brown on that team? No, he wasn't. Okay, thank god, thank god he's on there.

He's on their staff. Now, okay, okay, okay, So whendn't you get into the later rounds of the tournaments sixteen elead eight time and which we're looking at now out you know, we're watching teams like you know St. Peter's or underdogs, right when when you get to those rounds, what do you think it takes to continue to advance in the world, Because I would consider you guys an underdog that year. Although you may not consider yourself a underdog, I know I feel like you guys were underdogs. What

does it take to keep advancing? Um? I think just making sure that you guys are playing as a team. That's the most important thing. Um, Sharing the ball, being locked in defensively, being locked in on the scout that was really big for us. You know, every team we played in that tournament, we scouted to a team and guys all were locked in. Um. I think, you know, taking care of the balls, chief rebounding is very key, and then you know being able to score. You have

to be able to score. And I think, as you see in the tournament, guard plays to me the most important. You know, if you have some elite guards, they're gonna get you over the hump, and you got some elite rebounders, they're gonna help you win games. Yeah, you see that with St. Peter's Miami, they have really exciting guards and I like the duo down with Miami as far as

Wong and more. They're pretty, they're pretty exciting getting in the open floor D. I always thought when Coach Herrick and I played for for two tournaments one we one we went all the way when we lost in the first round. But I always thought that his coaching, uh, as we got closer to the tournament time, he started to treat us more like pros. It was less it was less about uh, you know all this other stuff, and more about our rest, caring about us, and it

was about player empowerment. It was about making us believe in our game, making us believe that the six, seven, eight, nine months before all the work now is when it really mattered. And this is why you did it. I always I wondered, is that something that you felt as well? Absolutely, I mean that that's powerful that you say that, because I'll say in the Kansas game, you know we're going

back and forth. Then we started, the Tide started two shifts and coach coach Harro could see it and what he did was kJ What he did was Tyson's your turn. I want everybody to clear out. You're taking this guy, Preston Murphy. It's your turn. They can't guard you. Patino he can't guard. We we forgot about the offense and it turned into a one on one game and he saw that, and our confidence was so high, and our

guys that came out the bitch like Preston Murphy. He was getting busy and he's like, I'll just give me a ball back. Give me the ball back. I got him. I was like, go to work. But that's a great point you just made because that's exactly how it happened for us. Now. I think that's one of his best qualities as a coach man is where he understands that he knows how to lock that he knows how to lock in with you when you're locked in, like he gets there with you and it's like okay, right, because

he's done that with me. Man. I dropped. I dropped thirty six on How, thirty on Washington, you know, cal twenty five and a half. And when I when I got rolland I'm talking about he's calling it, I forgot what play it was. It was something off I won four off the pipe. I would I would either enter it and then cut off that thing and get to the block, but he just kept getting me down there. So now, whatever it was you know we're doing handdogs. I would be the inner guys. I run the guy

like ten straight times. He's just kept calling the dogs and I just kept hitting and but but that was I felt like, you know, I always like would ride or died from coach Herrick because he would he would have that at confidence like in you. You know, it's at absolutely and that's what that's why we went so far. If you look back at our statistics in those games, we had different guys leading and scoring, and we have multiple guys and double figures, and he's just in different games.

So you know, one game it would be Antonio will have like fifteen and tenant then Luther Clay, who was a top five player coming to high school, uh would have ten, and that I would have penty to the Presson would have sixteen, Josh King would have So we were rolling and we thought we should we could have went to the final four. No man, and you guys were right there. You go down in history. Is one of those type of you know, best of teams that

didn't make it. One of the toughest backcourts that we've ever seen on the college level. You and coatino um I appreciate that here, No, I let it talk to cat man. But but on the rim man, you guys man, looking back on just you know, having seen a bunch of backcourts, dog, and having seen a bunch of ball players, really good guys in the backcourt together, like y'all, there's more than just be two really good guards, one good shooting guard, one guy. It's a style, it's a rhythm,

it's a flare. It's a sweetness associated with the way y'all got y'all buckets. Okay, so I'm telling you nobody did it sweeter than y'all too got lefties, are you kiddy? Dog? I'm a fan fact. There is still a fair now, my man. Uh. Of all the teams that are left as far as are underdogs that are in the sweet six, team, what team, if you have one, do you think is most capable, most built, most ready to make that run to the championship game, not just the final four, but

to get all the way. I mean, because you remember, like teams like Indiana with Mike Davis and Butler, these teams that made it all the way to the championship game, they were like, damn, they almost did it. Is the A team is there a team like that that's remaining in the Sweet six, team that you think get all the way to the to the title game. Well, I would say, yes, there is. I mean, I love UM Arizona, Okay, I love Houston. They play each other. Yeah, you know,

Houston is tough. I'm a very big Purdue fan because he runs some great things. UM Providence. I gotta go with my boy cool. I think they can get to Elite eight. Okay, okay, But you know who also is playing really well? Your squad U c l A. You know, Nick does a great job of getting those guys to play hard. They have a point guard that gets guys shots, but he's also scoring a lot more than year. You know, in the tournament, you need a little guarden to get

buckets for you. Absolutely U. So, I mean there's there's so many good teams in this Texas Tech is playing really well. Villanova looks good. I mean, I don't know. I mean, it's tough to decide, but there are a lot of good teams that can go all the way.

I think it's gonna come down to Arizona and contag And I think because they have the most depth as far as size guards, and like x active type dudes that can come in and make a play on the college level when you have this plethora of dudes, like when you watch Arizona plate man, like the way they play the game, their transition game, how quickly they get it out, how intent they are on high low, that focus, and then it automatically gonna open stuff up like it's

gonna wear on you a lot of Look, they got it. They got off easy against TCU. The stuff at the end of that game, that was why. I don't know if you saw that, man, boy, Oh hey, Arizona fans is out here, try to defend it. I'm like, look, man, y'all, fella, y'all fellas just went too far. That's it. Just leave it at that, bro, There's no nothing but all that to be said. If day Lind Terry and that dog on co Loco, that seven foot, if they keep on

doing what they do, it's gonna be tough. But man, my bruins, man, we gotta see what's up behind me. His ankle um mix still is not I don't feel like he's comfortable with certain rotations and the way eyes are playing with certain guys, so he's he's you know, in and out and a lot of guys right now still at this stage. Yeah, you gotta figure that out. But I gotta respect him because I gotta trust him because he's my coach and he got us here. So yeah, yes,

sir man. But man, dude, I appreciate your time tonight. Man. I know you can do this all night. Man. I got nothing going all brother, Man, I I appreciate you getting with me, bro um. This is it's an interesting time for you. Man. I wanted to talk about I want to just hear about like your actual process of of of the coaching search. But you know, I know that's probably something that you know, just kind of I

gotta keep that. But maybe maybe maybe one day you you'll write a book, uh, and I can help you out and I'll find out there. Oh I got play of information for him book. Hold on a bit. Hold over that, man. We gotta get you higher. So we're hopefully somewhere on the West coast. Man, come out to l A getting the good sun out there. Baby. Hey all day, man, But I appreciate you for coming on. Bro. It's always a pleasure. Yeah, I appreciate you. Man. Next, I'm gonna get on Baron David's show, so I can

talk about the point guards. He got all the great point guards. I know I'm not the best, but come on, man, you need how that bed man. You see what he's on he got, he's got a good show. He's got some solid dudes and there. You need to be on there. I can't be got that level. Baby, you'd be good man. Brother, I appreciate you. Thanks all right, brother,