Lindenwood University Basketball Talk with Coach Kyle Gerdeman

Gary (00:01.978)
Welcome to the basketball talk with Lindenwood University head men's basketball coach Kyle Gurdeman, where each week Coach Gurdeman talks men's basketball and much, more. We'll talk about future Lindenwood games, past games, the players, the Ohio Valley Conference, the NCAA academics, careers, and many other interesting topics. Hi, my name is Gary Stocker. Coach, you've got a game out of the way from last night. How'd it go?

Kyle Gerdeman (00:27.758)
Not bad. got a good exhibition game in and I'm glad that we did it. The last few years we've only done two close scrimmages and we just thought that it might be good to try something different and have an exhibition game, kind of a dress rehearsal before you get into the real thing. And so it was really good. We got a lot out of it.

Gary (00:52.206)
And what are the areas that went well obviously, we'll talk about some more details here in the amendment, but what are some of the areas that came out of this game that you realized you need a little bit more work on?

Kyle Gerdeman (01:01.486)
Well, I think that you know, we talked to the team about this You know a couple days ago as we started to prepare and we've played Hannibal Lagrange quite a few times over the years and and there's a purpose to that because They do a really good job. They've got a they've got a really good coach. He's been there for a long time They have a great, you know offensive system and the thing about their style of play is you know, they're gonna they're gonna play slow They're gonna run their offense and they're gonna keep you honest defensively. So it's a great test

you know, early in the year in this case before your season even starts to really really find out about your defensive principles, your defensive discipline and things like that. Then on the offensive end, you know, they do a good enough job defensively that you know they make you take tough shots. You have to work to get good shots, so it's really good from that standpoint. And so then I in general, I think we saw all of that over the course of 40 minutes. You know we saw ourself with some really good defensive possessions.

saw ourselves make some mistakes against their offense, things that we talked about in the scouting report. So you get to learn that right away. And then I think we saw the same thing on the offensive end. Possessions where we were patient and strong with the ball, we got really good shots. And possessions where we got in a hurry or we didn't move the ball well enough, they're gonna guard you good enough to make you have bad possession. So I think in a grand scale of things, we saw everything from a positive side and a negative side that

that I expected and now we have some good film to watch the next couple days and try to learn from.

Gary (02:38.298)
And you brought in Jadis Jones, who was a Missouri 2023-2024 Gatorade Player of the Year. How'd his first game go?

Kyle Gerdeman (02:46.062)
You know, it was good. You know, I think that the thing for Jadis and the thing for most freshmen is they they

You get the experience in practice every day. But I think the game experience is still different. And so the more time that he can get on the court in games, I think the better and better he's gonna be. I think if I look at it from our first scrimmage game, our close scrimmage against UMKC for him specifically, I saw a guy that was more comfortable, a guy that probably played a little bit harder than he played the first game. He did a really good job getting some offensive rebounds last night.

getting comfortable on the offensive end, trying to figure out really what his strengths are. But you see it the more that he's out there getting those minutes and I think he's just gonna get better and better as the year goes.

Gary (03:36.218)
And who else, last night, stood out as somebody who had a particularly good start with that exhibition game?

Kyle Gerdeman (03:40.942)
Yeah, I thought Jaylen McDaniel was really good for us, on both ends of the floor. But really on the offensive end, he shot, I think he was six for seven from the field. He was good around the rim, which is what we need him to do. He got some offensive rebounds for us, which were important. And I think offensively, he just kind of helps us at times, just be simple. He helps us slow down. He can kind of run our offense at times from the five spot, is what we're looking to do.

a little bit. But again, I think his calmness and his skill level sometimes really helps this team. And then I think on the defensive end, he's got a good presence where he uses his size, uses his athleticism to protect the rim. And I thought he had a really good game for us.

Gary (04:25.989)
Good. I noticed in the box score that the good folks from Hannibal LaGrange only had 14 points in the second half. Did you have six or seven players on the floor in the second half?

Kyle Gerdeman (04:33.614)
No, no, no, we didn't. But I thought we had a really good energy about us in the second half, obviously. I think some of that, I think maybe our tempo and our style of play maybe warmed down a little bit. But I do give our guys credit. I think we did a much better job in the second half of really just kind of getting.

Getting solid, so to speak, on a defensive end, playing our defensive principles, pressuring the way we wanted to pressure. And I just thought we did a much better job in the second half with our team defense versus their offense. And I thought it really paid off for us.

Gary (05:13.484)
And I'm guessing you're adding free throw practice to your schedule routine for the next couple of days.

Kyle Gerdeman (05:18.606)
I think based off the first two scrimmages, we better add a lot of free throw practice without a doubt and deservedly so because you know, I told the guys yesterday when we got done with shoot around and I don't you know, some people say, don't talk about it. It's mental. Just have them shoot and I don't believe that at all. Like we call it out and if that puts pressure on them, I don't really care. You know, I believe that you have to practice and you have to step up to the free throw line and you got to make them. You have a responsibility to be a good free throw.

Gary (05:23.276)
You

Kyle Gerdeman (05:48.56)
free throw shooter. And you know, over time, if you show us you can't make free throws, then we got to put you in a different situation. But anyway, what I was telling them was, know, in the last, you know, three years ago, four years ago, I think our last year division two, we led the country in field goal percentage and three, three of the first five years we've made more free throws in our opponent's shot, which is a really big stat. You know, not a lot of people can do that.

And so we take a lot of pride in getting to the free throw line as a big part of our offense. And then obviously making them is an even bigger part of the offense. they need to kind of embrace that part of our offense and also their individual side of it because we always talk about it. Guys always want more points, right, Gary? And okay, you don't get more points by taking more shots. You get more points by maximizing your opportunities.

So if you go through our box score last night, there's probably a couple guys that should have had 10 points but only had eight because they missed their free throws. Or somebody that had four points that should have had eight points because they missed their free throws. Well, sometimes kids think, well, I need to take two more shots. And what we tell them is, no, you need to make the shots that you're getting and we go from there with it. So yeah, we got a lot of work to do there.

Gary (07:04.218)
You

Gary (07:09.082)
Good. And then you're going to jump on a bus early next week and head to Norman, Oklahoma. I'm going to take on the Sooners. I presume their basketball program is stronger than their football program this year.

Kyle Gerdeman (07:20.342)
I'd say it's a good competition right now.

Gary (07:22.36)
Hahaha!

Kyle Gerdeman (07:24.43)
It's gonna be fun. I think that you go through the preseason and you go through your practice season. You get your scrimmage in your exhibition games and you feel like you've already been going for a long time. But there's just an energy about the first game of the year. From the time we leave Sunday morning to go to the airport, it's just different. It's the start of basketball season. And I just think guys will be excited about it.

their players and fans will be excited about their first home game. And it's just a fun time, and I've always enjoyed it. And we're ready to get down there and get going.

Gary (08:04.758)
Okay, just some more, some basic questions about the program. And I know it's a challenge for coaches, but what is a coach's thought process about determining player rotations, player court time? How do coaches go about making that determination?

Kyle Gerdeman (08:16.195)
Yeah.

Kyle Gerdeman (08:19.98)
Well, you know, I think but.

But what we do, one, think for a lot of coaches, it's a long process, I think sometimes. And I think it can be a hard process because especially with the way rosters are getting built with so many new players coming in every year, transfers coming in, high school guys coming in, we've talked about it over and over. So we know what the rosters look like. But I think it takes a lot of time. And the thing that we try to do with it is we're not in a big race to get the road.

set, which some people might be, but we don't, you I think for us it's a long process. We evaluate through all of our practices. We take stats during all of our practices. Everything that we do live, we take stats on. And I think that that's important because, you know, you have an opinion as a coach of who you think is playing well and who you think isn't playing well. And you can go back and you can watch the film as most people do. But then we also compare the stats. so, you who,

not just from a scoring standpoint, who's rebounding, who's getting steals, who's blocking shots, who's getting deflections. And then obviously you look at shooting percentages. And so I think that we put a lot of time into that and that helps us maybe get an early rotation. But then I think once you get into the games, I think sometimes that's totally different. mean, sometimes you see it both ways. A guy that makes a lot of shots in practice, but then all of a sudden he struggles in the game. And a guy that maybe wasn't scoring as well in practice.

Finds his way better in the game and so you have to continue to adjust that and so for us I think we go into the you we went into last night with You know like we didn't really have a rotation when we scrimmaged UMKC We just kind of had an idea of some guys who wanted to play and that's what we did But we spent some time last week trying to really figure out Okay Who is what is our rotation for the Hannibal or Grange game? And I think we kind of did that and we stuck with it and it'll probably be similar for Oklahoma, but at the same time

Kyle Gerdeman (10:21.504)
It may not be, but I think that anyway, I think we evaluate that for quite some time, another month, month and a half to really try to settle on something. Hopefully by the time we get to by the time we get to Congress play. And I think the one thing that we kind of laughed about when we met about it yesterday before the game as a staff is that.

Sometimes, know, a lot of times you spend all this time and you think about your rotation and you get it all lined out. You get it exactly how it wants to go. And then you jump out there and somebody gets two or three fouls and somebody twists an ankle and your rotation goes right out the window. So we spend a lot of time with it and we hope to stick with it. But at times, man, it's still just, you know, doing some things on the fly and there's nothing wrong with that.

Gary (11:05.091)
So TV coverage, really in the last few years, TV coverage through SPM Plus, not just Lindenwood, but most D1 and many D2 games has become almost ubiquitous. Does that exposure impact a university like Lindenwood?

Kyle Gerdeman (11:21.454)
Yeah, I think so. I think you make the real big point there is that it's not only for us, it's going on for every, almost every school in the country has their games on ESPN+. And so I think that in general just helps the game of basketball because, mean, obviously we know there's just a lot of sports fans out there. And so when somebody can flip on ESPN +, on a-

on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night when not much is on TV and just jump around and say, let me watch this game in the Southland Conference. Let me watch this game in the Ohio Valley Conference. Let me watch this game in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The conferences that aren't on major TV, that aren't on ESPN, they aren't on Saturday afternoons and Saturday nights. I think it helps because I think more people tune into that. And so I think it's big for basketball in general.

I think when you look at it from the Linwood standpoint though, I think the first thing that jumps out at me is how much it helps with the connection with your alumni. Because, you know, so many of them don't get back around, but we hear from a lot of them that, I watch your games. Hey, you'd be surprised to know I watch a lot of the games on ESPN at night, you know. And so you hear from that and I think that's important because it helps you keep your connection, you know, not just with your basketball alumni, but your alumni in general.

And so I think that's really important. But then the other factor that goes into that is I think it's great for our student athletes because no matter where they're from, their friends can watch the games, their families can watch the games. I mean, you think about five years ago, six years ago, this wouldn't have been happening. Mom and dad wouldn't have been able to watch the game if they didn't travel in to see it in person. So I think it really helps with.

with the whole game of basketball in general, but I think it definitely helps build some pride within the athletics in your university because so many people have that opportunity to tune in and watch and see what you're trying to build and see how your programs are done.

Gary (13:26.49)
You know, even the visuals on that. I was at the volleyball game last Friday night and saw the new scoreboard for the first time. Lindenwood's facility, I think, presents better than many others. Do you agree?

Kyle Gerdeman (13:37.826)
Yeah, a lot and a lot of people say that and I think the new scoreboards are fantastic. Like they just take it to another level. But I agree that, you I think that the way it looks when you turn the game on TV, it really presents well and you know nothing against anybody else. I turn on some games at times and gyms don't present well, you know, to be honest about it. And so yeah, I think that when you look at it, you know, like I think it makes it look like, you know, I mean, we do have nice facilities.

no matter what, but when you turn it on and you look at it, I think it jumps out at you that, this is a nice place.

Gary (14:14.682)
You know, I want to be honest, I do have one complaint about the new scoreboard. So my wife and I went to the volleyball game on Friday and the camera guy kept putting us on the big screen.

Kyle Gerdeman (14:23.57)
Ha ha ha!

Gary (14:26.328)
Now I'm okay with that, but Mrs. Donker, not so much. So, you know, we have to find a way to talk to camera and say, somebody besides the old people.

Kyle Gerdeman (14:29.688)
Yeah.

Kyle Gerdeman (14:33.102)
We gotta see if we can't take care of that.

Gary (14:36.152)
That's right. High school basketball starts a little bit later. And I've shared this with you and Amy before. I'm fascinated with how coaches assess an athlete's talent.

Kyle Gerdeman (14:45.902)
Hmph.

Gary (14:50.444)
And high school is a big part of that. as the high school season gets underway, how do you manage catching those high school games that you want to watch for not just you but for your staff? So you have a good handle on who might be a Lindenwood athlete somewhere down the road or someone worthy of your recruiting time. How do go about that?

Kyle Gerdeman (15:07.468)
Yeah, I think that, you know, I think what we do when we when we look at the games that we need to get to is a couple of things. And one, I think it just starts with, you know, the guys that obviously that we're recruiting, you know, you're going to you're going to go to their games, you're going to support them, you're going to let them know that that you're there to watch them and support them and be there for them. You know, I think that's that's in general where where everything starts. And but I think after that.

Like, and we try to do this, you know, as good as we can. You know, I think you've got to be supportive of a lot of high school programs in the area, regardless if they have someone that you're recruiting right now or not. Because there's a lot of programs that, you know, traditionally, they're just going to have good teams. And traditionally, they're going to have good players, you know, year in, year out. You know, maybe a certain school doesn't have anybody that you're not recruiting this year.

But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't go over there and watch their games and support their program. And so I think once you get beyond the kids that you're actively recruiting, I think there's just a lot of schools in the area that deserve your attention. That you should go watch their games, that you should go support them. So they know that, hey, Lindenwood is here every year, whether we have players or not. They support us and we want to support them the same way. And I think it helps in the recruiting aspect of it, I really do.

Gary (16:15.866)
Interesting.

Gary (16:31.48)
had never thought that that's interesting. You know what? I'm gonna put on my Lyndenwood shirt and I'll go to some high school games this year then. All you need to see is Lyndenwood. Lyndenwood's here, Lyndenwood's here. All right. And then, you know, the personal question of the week, the Gertruman family, what is your favorite St. Charles area hangout?

Kyle Gerdeman (16:36.898)
You should do that. That's right. That's right.

Kyle Gerdeman (16:52.002)
Yeah, that's an interesting question. I feel like the majority of our hangouts end up being soccer parks and softball fields and area basketball gyms, a few golf courses here and there for all the sports that my kids play. And that just kind of dominates a lot of free time. But that's what we like to do in a coaching family and an athletic family. those places get our full attention.

But you know, I think when you when you get outside of that, like, you know, we we like to spend time at, we'll go to Main Street and, know, I still call it old St. Charles, even though a lot of people don't. But, know, we'll we'll walk around there, go to dinner down there at times. And, you know, obviously my wife and daughter love to walk up and down the street and see the shops and do all that. Yeah, that too. Yeah. You know, so, you know, we've been to Chicken and Pickle a couple of times. We like that, you know. But, you know, I think besides that.

Gary (17:39.898)
and tomorrow.

Kyle Gerdeman (17:50.178)
The one thing that I've enjoyed that's been fun about being back around here is not necessarily a specific area, but I think we've met through friends of our kids, people that they play sports with and the families that they play sports with. We've been able to build good relationships with a bunch of good people. And so a lot of times, we may just be hanging out in somebody's driveway or in somebody's house barbecuing and the kids are all together playing and doing their thing.

We find just as much enjoyment in that as we do anything.

Gary (18:24.314)
Coach, let's call that a wrap on this podcast episode. For those listening, I encourage you to share the podcast link with students, with friends, families, basketball players, and many others that you would like to be able to share it with. Coach, let's do this again next Tuesday, next Wednesday, next Wednesday, and we'll talk all you basketball team and what's coming up. Bye.

Kyle Gerdeman (18:43.436)
Next Wednesday should work.

We'll have a game to talk about.

Gary (18:48.19)
Indeed. Thanks again and we'll be back next week with another episode of Basketball Talk with Lindenwood University head men's basketball coach Kyle Gerdeman.