Lindenwood University Basketball Talk with Coach Kyle Gerdeman

Gary D Stocker (00:01.188)
It is basketball talk with Linwood University head men's basketball coach Kyle Gooderman, where each week during the season we talk college basketball, the NCAA, the OVC, college careers, experiences, and much, much more. Coach, always a pleasure to have you on the show. Had a couple wins since we last chatted.

Kyle (00:19.18)
Yeah, yeah, we've we've had a good little stretch and you know guys guys have really worked hard. I think to to get us in a good position to be competitive and give ourselves a chance to win and we've been able to do that. So it's been a been a fun couple weeks.

Gary D Stocker (00:32.756)
So you made the drive up to Charleston last weekend. And from my observation, it was kind of a game of two halves. Talk about what happened there.

Kyle (00:40.078)
Yeah, I thought in the first half, thought Eastern Illinois really was the aggressor. I thought they were physical on defense. They were really aggressive with their offense, played at a faster pace than we maybe even anticipated. So I thought they kind of had us on their heels quite a bit there in the first half. And we were able to manage to just keep it to single digits at halftime.

And I thought that in the second half we really turned it around with everything that we had talked about from doing a better job in defensive transition to handling their physicality more. Us ourselves being more physical, of being the tougher team in the second half. They shot 54 % on us in the first half. And I think we held them to 31 % in the second half, which is an incredible job by our defense. And we beat them pretty good on the glass, is important.

was just proud of our guys because you get into the first, we talked about it before the game. It was our ninth game of the season, but it was a conference game. So it was way earlier than normally you get. So you kind of get thrown into the fire there with some scheduling issues and have to move the game. So for us to be down on the road in a conference game at halftime and to come out and have that response in the second half, was really pleased and happy for our guys. And of course, they were really excited about being able to get the win.

Gary D Stocker (01:44.222)
Yeah.

Gary D Stocker (02:04.388)
So Culver Stockman was in town this week and I teased you before we started recruiting that recording that your ability to teach shooting must be exceptional because your guys shot over 70 % from both twos and threes in the first half. What was the magic there coach?

Kyle (02:20.098)
Probably coaching, don't you think? No, I don't know. I think our guys, they did a really good job and they've done a good job all year of really moving the ball, sharing the ball, making extra passes, turning down good shots for great shots. And I thought they did an excellent job in that game of just playing.

Gary D Stocker (02:21.691)
Ahahaha!

Kyle (02:42.616)
playing the right way offensively, playing to our strengths, and it created a lot of open shots. know, me and you kind of talked about the difference between open shots and contested shots and.

Something that we really take a lot of, we put a lot of stress on is taking really good threes. Don't take bad ones, don't take contested ones, trying to find rhythm ones. And I thought Clayton Jackson was really good distributing the ball. I he let us in assist. think he had seven, he made some really nice drives and kick outs for open shots. MacKaye Cooper did the same. Both those guys at the point are playing really good for us right now, just kind of running our offense and leading our team. And I think it just kind of went from there.

Gary D Stocker (03:22.406)
And we know what a talent Jadis Jones is. And there was a play during that first half, he went basket to basket and had a dunk. And comment on what you've seen Jadis do so far this year.

Kyle (03:33.774)
I think really improve his all around game. I think his game has really expanded. One thing that we talked with him about in the off season was improving everything. I mean, he had a really good freshman year. But I don't think it wasn't an all conference player of the year type of year. And I think he has the talent to do that.

You know, you see his rebounding numbers are almost doubled from a year ago. His field goal percentage is higher, his free throw percentage is higher, his assist numbers are up. You know, so in every area, his numbers are better than they were at this time a year ago. And I think a lot of that's just a credit to him of really having a really good understanding of what he is as a player. But I'm not too sure he's got it all figured out yet either because I think there's still a lot more. You know, I think those drives where you see him go.

Coast to coast, basket to basket. I think he can do those things a lot. I think he's got the ability to rebound and push it himself and be kind of a point forward at times. He's a good passer, he's a good ball handler. He can do a lot of things for us besides just score the basketball. And I think that's what I hope people don't miss is there's so much more to it for him. And that's not even scratching the surface on what he is as a person and a leader. And the energy he brings to us on a daily basis is just off the charts.

Gary D Stocker (04:56.03)
And we were talking again before we started recording this morning about being courtside and how I enjoy doing that. And I've noticed Jadis, especially on the defensive end, taking kind of a leadership direction, traffic cop kind of role on the defensive side.

Kyle (05:09.963)
Yeah, you know, I think he was, you know, it was, it was fun to watch him last year as a freshman with some older guys around him. you know, that had been in school four or five years and he still had that, that vocal leadership. I think he probably, I wouldn't say shied away from it, but probably maybe didn't go all in the way he has this year, but, his.

His leadership and his ability to communicate with his teammates, hold each other accountable. Not everything is just a high five or a pat on the back. Sometimes he's saying things to guys that, accountability, keeping each other accountable. Hey, we got to do better here. We got to rebound harder. Hey, you got to be in this spot. So his ability to have the confidence in himself to do that, but get his point across in a way that his teammates respect him is really special.

Gary D Stocker (05:57.852)
And then think it's a week from tonight. We continue with the OVC season and Western Illinois comes to town. They've had a slow start so far this year.

Kyle (06:04.991)
Yeah, we've seen them a lot, know, just watching games and you know, somebody asked me the other night before the game, you what kind of stock do you put into, you know, the records for other teams? And I think it's hard to put a lot of stock into the records for teams in our conference because, you know, mean, obviously teams that are winning, they're playing well, you you got to look at who everybody's playing, know, I mean, everybody's playing, you know, guaranteed games, they're playing, you know, we're playing Texas Tech and Indiana and all the teams are doing that. So.

I think everybody's kind of after the same thing and that's just trying to improve in the month of November and early December to get yourself ready for conference and you know everybody can improve during losses, everybody's easy to improve during wins I think but you know it's just it's interesting when you see it and you know I think what we know about Western Illinois is you know they've got a big physical team. I think it's good for us that we saw Eastern Illinois kind of be physical with us because that's what we expect from Western.

And so maybe getting that example of what that game was like, I'm expecting that's what Western will be like for 40 minutes is just a tough physical game. And they've got a style that's different than ours. So you gotta kinda get out there and see who's gonna get it to work a little bit.

Gary D Stocker (07:15.973)
Well, Coach, finally, I guess I want to see if I can't get some of your time for you to teach me how to do those three point shooting. I'm planning on signing up for the really, really old basketball league, and I'd like to be able to hit seven out of 10 threes that I hit. Maybe we can find some time on your calendar for you to teach me.

Kyle (07:31.521)
Well, we'll have some camps this summer you can sign up for. We don't have those dates yet, but we'll be sure to get those camp dates too and you can sign up and come on in.

Gary D Stocker (07:39.764)
Yeah, I can run up and down the court once. Coach, always a pleasure. Wish you the best on the game against

Kyle (07:47.842)
Sounds good, thanks.