Big day, big day for a lot of reasons.
Spotify unwrapped right, that's out today, all over social media.
So I was a little surprised to find out.
Porter my number one band this year. Lord Huron, I thought they'd be on the list. You got yours, right, you got your Spotify.
And rap today? I did.
I did.
Our old boss, Cavon is a nerd. He was texting me about mine, but he's all about Amazon Music.
So Amazon, Yeah, he's a nerd. Cavon's a nerd. Pandora too. Probably give me your number one band this year. It was. It's surprising. It was Willy Nelson, Willie Nelson.
All right, well, we're gonna play a little music from our Spotify and rap today.
I don't know if our next guest is a music fan.
I've never interviewed him, but he's a hell of a basketball coach Gavin Peterson on a Thursday, Coach, how.
You doing.
Doing great? Thanks for having me, guys.
So the question obviously is are you a Spotify guy? And then the follow up is did you get your Spotify and raped?
No? I am not annoy I did not. Okay, Okay, I don't think I've had much time other than focusing on the task at hand. The last couple of days.
Yeah, I was gonna say, Coach, I don't know you.
This is the first time interviewing you, but I know coach doesn't have my whole life. You guys are lunatics, and so are you one of those grinders all you doing is watching tape getting ready for the next one.
Yeah, it is. We choose to do this, We get to do this, right, it is. It's definitely one of those things. I'm an early morning arrival guy at the office, have been for many years, and that's not going to change. It's just now there's a lot more added to the
plate of responsibilities, and I welcome that. It's just trying to find that balance to focus on in between the lines basketball stuff that pertains to our team and our opponents, and then also wearing the hats that you need to in order to lead this program from all different facets. So yeah, still trying to figure it all out. But for the most part, I'm having fun doing it, and.
That's what it's all about. Coach.
And since this is my first opportunity to interview you, I will ask you some questions about yourself. I know, coach, you don't love to talk about themselves, but you've been at Utah for nine years and I just want to know about your background. When did you get the basketball bug? And then when did you know that you wanted to get into coaching. How did that all kind of come about?
You know, I think just basketball has been a part of my life ever since childhood. My father, Craig Peterson, referee collegiate basketball for twenty plus years, and so my first introduction to Salt Lake City was during the Whack Tournament back in nineteen ninety or nineteen ninety one something like that, where it was at the Delta Center and he was appreciating that and he brought me along to tagalong. So basketball has always been kind of a part of
my growing up. I was always around the game, always loved the game. Then it wasn't until after college when I went to graduate school at the University of Hawaii and I got to work with the legendary Vince Goo who is the all time winning his coach at the University of Hawaii. But he gave me a chance to be a manager slash grad assistant, and it was at that point where I thought, man, this is pretty cool.
A lot of the detail that goes on behind the scenes, a lot of the game prep, the practice planning, player development, relationship building with the young women, everything. I just kind
of gravitated towards that right away. And you know, being the only show in town in Hawaii, at the University of Hawaii, It's just I didn't know that opportunities would present themselves, but lo and behold, it did, and I was able to be at the right place at the right time capitalized on those and you know, fast forward twenty three years later and here I am so just It's always been a part of my life and grateful for the breaks that I did receive along the way.
I read that your wife, Karen also has coached basketball.
Is that correct?
Hi? Yes, my wife Karen, my better half. She actually played three years at the University of Oregon. Then she transured back home to Canada to finish off her playing career in Canada, and then she started coaching. That's how we met. She was coaching at Sacramento State while I was at Idaho State, and then we both worked together three years at the University of Idaho. So yeah, she totally gets it. She gets the demands and the time it takes to be successful at this level. Doesn't always
like it, but she's understanding about it. And I'm so thankful to have her in my life in terms of allowing me to pursue my goal of my dreams and at the same time allowing the family to have some excitement and give them something to be proud about.
Two basketball coaches as parents.
I wonder if your daughters wake up to whistles and clipboards in the more, what what's that like as a partnership with two coaches?
You know it is, And it's funny. Karen's coached our girls junior jazz team. Now they're in the Bantham League and she's coaching still our youngest, but she's ready to hand them off. Sometimes we just want to be parents and cheer on and love up our kids. But yeah, our kids don't know how good they have it in terms of my wife has a great basketball mind, was a great player herself, and so it's just funny they still look at us, at mom and dad. So if we ever get into the gym and hey, let's work
on this today, I get the eye roll. I get to like, you don't know what you're talking about look and it's like, Okay, this is cool. I'm a parent.
I love it. I love it.
Hey, give me the origin story of your relationship with Coach Rob. You know she came on the show a lot. She was a good friend of the program, and you know you were with her prior to Utah.
How did you guys connect? How did that come about?
Yeah? So you know, back when I was that Idaho State I actually met Lynn in Tasmania, Australia, when we're recruiting at an under eighteen national event down there, and I remember that vividly because the gyms have no heat and she was freezing her tail off. She had to go to the store to buy blankets and gloves and all these things. And I'm coming from, you know, working at Idaho State up the road in Pocatella. What's cold? And she's, you know, coming from Stofton, California, where it's
not that cold. So I just was like, this is not that bad. So I always remembered that, and then we've had some common friends that kind of kept us in touch. So when she did have an opening on her staff at the University of the Pacific, I've always
respected her from Afar. I was at the University of Hawaii at the time and we had just competed in the Big West Pacific was leaving for the West Coast Conference, and I just I was intrigued about the chance and the possibility to join her staff, and unselfishly I wanted to learn from one of the best in what they were doing offensively, and at the time, there's a lot of dribble, drive off and pour out one in things that we started to do here at Utah but have
kind of gone away from a little bit. We still have some tendencies that we do run. But it was just kind of a great opportunity for me to join her staff, learn from her and also bring something of value to the table in which I was able to, you know, head up the defense at Pacific and kind
of did the same thing here at Utah. And it's just a relationship that you know, we started out as you know, working alongside one another, became good friends, and now she's one of our family members, her her family, it's just they're part of our family. And so excited for her and her opportunity. And at the end of the day, I get a great opportunity as well, so it's a win win for everybody.
So it really is such a wild industry because I believe coach Rob hopped on the show forty eight hours before she received the job offer to go to Los Angeles, and you know, she had received a very well earned contract extension through twenty thirty prior to the season. So when I got the alert and look, that's that's an opportunity you got to take. And I totally understand and I'm very thrilled for her because she is She's dynamite, she'll be great. But but what was that what was
that time? What was that timeline? Like for you, Gavin, when did you hear the news and what was the process that ultimately led to you moving over a couple of seats on the bench.
Yeah. We I found out Sunday morning, the day before our McNee state game. And you know, she called me into her office and which you know sometimes happens but rarely, like it was random. She after practices here, I need to talk to you to come to my office. So I'm like, oh crap, Well, like what's going on? You know, like you just got to start thinking, like I know, I didn't do anything, so it ain't me. But she sat me down and she goes, Okay, I'm well, I'm
gonna tell you it's gonna blow your mind. And it really did. So she broke the news to me. I immediately stood up off the couch and gave her a big hug, and I was like pumped. I was like, oh my god, that's awesome, like WNBA, like professional head coach in LA, like that is awesome. And then I sat down and I'm like, okay, now what that mean for us? Like, are you know? Then there are a lot of questions, and so she just basically hinted at the possibility of me being able to take over here
and that our administration wanted to talk with me. And so it was a whirlwind of emotions. Excited for her, kind of concerned about what the future was going to be, not only for myself before our players. And then later that afternoon, after meeting with Mark and Charmel from our administration, they basically said, hey, you're our guy. There is no
interim tag. We believe in you. And so it's very humbling, very gratifying to know that the hard work and the loyalty that I've shown over the course of my career went noticed and it was just a proud moment for me. And then so we have to go through Monday versus McNee State without being able to tell anybody until we told our team Tuesday. And the reason we did that was we wanted our players to be able to focus on the game not be distracted. Also, give us one
last go at it together. Uh, And it worked out great. And I know when you have to enter into contract negotiations, you know in the professional level, all those non disclosure agreements and all those type of things they have to enter into, So I get the sensitivity sensitivity of it all. But I think we handled it the best we possibly could, uh, and everything came out for the better.
Gavin Peterson as our guest head coach of the Utah women's basketball team off to a great start. I wonder, Gavin, as you know in in the industry, as they say that it's always a little tenuous when you take over for a legend and and coach Rob changed the standard
around here, right. I mean, we have three straight NCAA appearances, we have three straight twenty plus win seasons, we have players being drafted in a pro basketball So I wonder how much of your stamp you will put on this program and how much of just the continuation, you know, the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If that makes If that makes sense, So just kind of walk us through that dynamic.
Yeah, I think, you know, being alongside her for the nine years that she was here, I was given a lot of freedom, a lot of responsibility to do things that would better our program. With those responsibilities and with the leadership that Lynn provided, she you know, without knowing and maybe she was intentional about it, but it's prepared
me for this moment. And so I'm excited to kind of continue the legacy that we started her nine years ago and have you know, has built into a national brand and when you talk about Utah women's basketball, it resonates with people, and people immediately start to think about our high powered offense. So, yeah, what my stamp is going to be, That's the farthest thing from my mind.
I feel like we have great people in our program, from our players to our coaching staff and our support staff, and my job is to make this as smooth as a transition for everybody and keep the stability of the program going in the right direction, and whatever my stamp may be, it will organically happen. It's nothing that I'm going to be setting out to do intentionally. It's just
going to happen naturally. And you know, I'll let people in the media and the people in the stands figure out what that's going to be, because I'm not concerned about that at all. The one legacy that I did hear from people that they want us to continue is dressing up, and so I'll still be in my suits, our staff will still be dressing up, and we're going to look the part when we take the floor.
Love it now.
As you referenced earlier, from what I've read about you, you have made your name as a defensive basketball mind.
Is that fair to say, Gavin?
You know, it's funny how some of those rumors get started, but no I have. I've been given that. But over the last few years, we do a lot of basketball talk behind the scene offseason, so I'm equally as much of an offensive mind as a defensive mind. It's just Lynn really trusted me to handle a lot of the defensive decisions that have gone on over the last nine seasons. But to be honest, our biggest change or our biggest jump on defense when we improved, Lynn had a lot
of hands on in that. And so you know, she's selling herself short too if she doesn't give her some credit for our defensive improvements over the last three years.
Sure, And the reason I bring it up just for context is I wanted to ask you because you know, the thing that always has stood out to me when I've watched teams play the Linn coaches. She's clearly, very very bright with how you guys execute offensively with your spacing and share the ball. And so I wondered if if you could kind of explain, and you you just
did in a way. But you know, as a guy who was tasked with helping out on the defensive side, combined with what you learned from coach Rob offensively, how do you combine those two nolge you know, those two pieces of knowledge that you do have to maximize the potential of your roster.
Yeah, I think it's kind of being consistent with how it has been over the last few years. With my voice being heard by our players in the gym, I've had a lot of people say like, well, how's it going to be Now you're going to have to be the disciplinarian. Well, ask every one of our players. I've done enough disciplinary action or holding them accountable to some of the things that we do, so that's nothing new. I have a lot of experience with Lynn, both of us.
I mean, we worked so well together. So like the whole good Cop Bad Cop analogy, We've done that really well over the course of our twelve years together at Pacific in Utah. So I think just staying consistent. I think our kids know when I'm gonna you know, if I'm being quiet or not calling them out on little detailed things, they know something's wrong, and they've pleaded with me, do not change. You keep being on us, get on us, don't let anything slide. They actually love being pushed to
reach their potential. And again, I am so fortunate and lucky to have this situation unfold in front of me because I know every one of our players. I know their families, we've recruited them here, I know our coaching staff, I know our administration. So it's really I won the lottery in moving over a seat, and I'm just so thankful and humbled and honored for that. Off community so I wanted.
To get your take on the dynamic of how collegiate athletics has changed over the past few years. You know, we talk about it a lot with you know, the football side of things, and how some really high powered, powerful coaches have tapped out of really high paying good jobs because they don't want to deal with the new reality of what college football or college basketball has become. You're a new head coach, Gavin, but you're not a
new coach. You've been doing this two decades, so as you've watched the changes from your prism in your kind of piece of real estate, how have the changes in collegiate athletics affected women's hoops?
You know, I think it's a great time to be women's basketball player at the Division IE level. I think a lot of opportunities are opening up for people, not always just within the lines, but outside of the lines with nil and all these good things that come with it, revenue sharing coming down the road next year. So it's a great time to be a part of women's basketball
as it continues its trajectory. With that said, though, it really has become a lot more complicated and in the recruiting process, it becomes a little more complicated as well. Our strategy, our foundation, and our principles with recruiting. It's not going to change. We want recruits to pick the University of Utah for our program, our university, our city, everything about the program. What you get on top of that with NIL and revenue sharing, that's just the icing
on the cake. And you know, I've got to get updated with a lot of the you know, rulings that are happening, you know at the court levels what that means for us as we move forward. So when I do get in front of recruits, I can be as clear and you know, to the point and be truthful with what I'm telling them because you hear a lot of stories about people being promised promised X amount of dollars, which is not the case because nobody knows what that's
going to look like yet. But yeah, it has changed, and you know, I love what I do, so I'm going to change with it, and I'm going to try to do my best to make sure that Utah women's basketball stays nationally recognized and stays relevant as a perennial Top twenty five program.
So Craig and his men's basketball team with the jump to the Big twelve. I mean, the Big twelve on the men's side is just a nightmare, and it's good on the women's side too, Gavin, But the PAC twelve for the women's basketball side of things, I think was a little bit deeper and probably overall in my opinion, better than the Big twelve on the women's side. So it's not going to affect you as much, at least
from the outside looking in. But I did want to get your take on how changing conferences has affected the program and the challenge that you now have in front of you with this new Big twelve slate.
Yeah, I don't think it's affected us too much. Now, you know, our recruiting has stayed the same. We recruited a lot of Midwest to begin with. I think that just helps solidify our name recognition in those states. So I'm excited about that to continue to recruit that area. And then it's kind of an exciting time. It's new. There are new cities, college towns that we're going to
have to fly into and get acclimated with. But yeah, the competition is the competition, and we have some really good teams right now in the top twenty five, and it's cool to be not mentioned because I think that puts a chip on our shoulder and keeps us hungry and motivated to keep climbing that mountain. And you know, we were just in the Cayman Islands and TCU is there, so we got a good close look at them, and
they're a great team. I think they play South Carolina either tonight or tomorrow, but you know, they're still undefeated. We played Baylor a year ago. We lost I think by seven points early in the year to them, So you know, we're familiar with and we're excited to face some of those top twenty five teams and they're going to be great opportunities for us to get that you know, key victory, key win on our resume come postseason time.
So again, great opportunity in front of us once we get to Big twelve, Big twelve play, we're going to be excited about it.
I thought it was really cool to hear Kennedy last night talk about, you know, growing up in Utah going to jazz games and having the opportunity to play at the Delta Center. You guys, you stopped Utah stay pretty good, but what was that experience like for you guys to go down into an NBA arena, play in front of your fans and come out with a win.
Oh, it was awesome. I was like on cloud nine from the morning I woke like I woke up at about five thirty six am. I'm like, I'm ready, let's go. Like I didn't have to get motivated to get on my pelotone bike and ride like I was just jack. Then we got to shoot around and I was walking around. It's just like, man, two months ago, I was at a UFC fight right here. I was a huge Bulls fan when Michael Jordan was playing growing up in Honoluluoy It's like, this is the bucket he made. Like I
just was. I was in heaven, just taking it all in. I've been to jazz games, I've been to many other events, concerts and whatnot in that arena. So it was really cool. And then before the game, you know, I lost eyes with Kennedy and I'm like, how cool, man, You're the homegrown kid from Utah and you get to play here in the Delta Center. So take it all in, have fun and just try to stay as focused as possible
while having fun. And they really did. They came out, locked me into the game plan, and they sustained that for forty minutes, which is not always easy to do when you're up big. But I'm so proud of our players the way they did that, and again, cool experience. I'm telling anybody who give me a listen, I think that's something we need to do annually and would love the opportunity to do that to promote women's basketball and women's sports here in the state of Utah.
Well, Gavin, I appreciate the time, congrats on the promotion.
Off to a great start.
We always have space for you here, so if you want to hop back on, please let us know and best of luck the rest of the way.
Okay, awesome.
I look forward to the next time. Always appreciated, guys.
And go you all right, Gavin Peterson, head coach of the Utah women's basketball team.
They're off to a seven and two start there.
L's came at Northwestern and then at home against Mississippi State, but two very close games.
It's a good team.
They beat Notre Dame, the number three team in the country, smoked Utah State last night at the Delta Center. Back in action on Sunday, against Princeton at not rice cycles.
That would be different at the Huntsman Center.
Hey, you know what, let's fill rice cycles for the Utah women's basketball team. But Princeton is the opponent coming up Big twelve on the women's side is good, but not as not as much of a gauntlet as Craig and his men are going to be facing. And of course cheering for Gavin and also cheering for a good friend of the show, Lynn Roberts and her new gig at Los Angeles as the head coach of the Sparks.
So good stuff there.
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