Lindenwood University Basketball Talk with Coach Kyle Gerdeman

Gary D Stocker (00:01.476)
Welcome back to Basketball Talk with Lyndenwood University head men's basketball coach Kyle Gerdeman and coach for the first time in many, many months we had basketball last night.

Kyle Gerdeman (00:11.5)
Yeah, it was exciting to get the guys out there and friend of the home crowd. We had a good crowd here for an exhibition game. So it was fun.

Gary D Stocker (00:20.89)
Yeah, and I'll look forward to seeing a lot more games during the year. And then I noticed as the game was coming down toward an end, that really both teams had similar kind of shooting percentages. For a 10 point gap, that was kind of interesting.

Kyle Gerdeman (00:35.02)
Yeah, yeah, thought, you know, I think offensively I thought both teams both teams played pretty well. You know, I thought, you know, for us, you know, I think scoring, you know, 76 points was was good. I think if we scored somewhere around that in our last in our close scrimmage against Ball State. So I think seeing some improvement offensively is good for us. I think the negative side of those shooting percentages were probably both teams would feel like they were too high. You know, I don't think defensively.

We're probably not where we want to be right now, but a lot of teams aren't. If you look at these exhibition game scores across the country, a lot of them are really high scoring games. But like I said, I think if you can look at it either way, you can either be frustrated about your defense and be happy about your offense, or sometimes it's the opposite and you struggle offensively, but you're really good defensively.

Gary D Stocker (01:14.874)
Thanks

Kyle Gerdeman (01:30.034)
And I think right now I'd rather have a good offensive team and we can continue to build our defense over the days and weeks to come and see if we just can't get a lot better as time goes on.

Gary D Stocker (01:40.248)
And one of the things, coach, I pondered last night and just kind of get your comments on that, watching college sports in general, but college basketball, it's really a process, isn't it? The games are events, but it's really part of a process.

Kyle Gerdeman (01:52.194)
Yeah, I think even more and more there's a process there and we've talked about it before with just so many new players and transfers and just the way college basketball has changed. I just think it takes a lot more time and then you throw in the thing with us. We've had so many little injuries along the way. I think the guys that have been practicing every day have obviously been doing good and you can see the improvement in them. And then we've got four other guys that have been.

know, banged up for a month that, you know, have missed a lot of practice time here and there and that kind of slows your process down a little bit. You know, I think it's part of probably the problem we have defensively is, you know, two of our returners aren't out there that know what we're doing on defense, they're experienced. So I think that that all adds to it. So, but I think minus the injuries, I think it's still, I think it's still a different process than it used to be because it just takes a lot of time, I think, anymore to get guys on the same page of what your system is, what your style of play is.

what your expectations are. They have to get used to all of that. And so even though we have six returners, we have seven new guys and it just takes time and process.

Gary D Stocker (03:01.722)
And I noticed that the coach, you might've put your hand on your forehead late in the first half, because you were seeing a lot of passing turnovers. And I'm guessing that's associated with some new players joining the program.

Kyle Gerdeman (03:12.986)
I think so, I think it's also, you know, it's a combination of a lot of things. think, you know, one trying to play a little bit faster pace offensively sometimes leads to some turnovers and some mistakes. You know, what we try to avoid is the uncharacteristic ones. know, we're not going to have a game where we have zero turnovers. know, what we talk about is how we turn it over. it within what we're trying to do offensively?

Or is it because you know, maybe you were a little careless. Those aren't good turnovers. Maybe you were trying to do a little bit too much. Those aren't good turnovers. You know, so I think we always go back and watch them and we kind of we put each one of them into a category. But you know, I think that you know we turned it over 20 times in the first exhibition game that we played and we turned it over 14 times last night. The thing about the ones last night and I think this is true. How the season goes when you play games that the thing that hurt us last night was.

You look at 14 and you don't think that's a bad number, but they scored 19 points off of those turnovers. So that's the thing that really hurts you is that, you you go into it and so here's a 10 point game at the end of the day. And I think it was a six point game with like three minutes left, something like that. And then if you go back and you look at it and then you lose by 10 and you think, well, you know, we give up 19 points just off of turnovers. Well, that that's enough to be the difference in the game.

And so that's what becomes a little bit frustrating about it, but why it's so important to take care of the ball, value every possession. And again, you can't have the lazy ones, you can't have the uncharacteristic ones, you can't have the turnovers where you're out of the offense or trying to do too much, because they're just too unexpected. If we're trying to feed the post, if we're trying to make a post pass, which is within our offense and we turn it over.

We can live with that a little bit and you also have a better opportunity to get back and maybe get your defense set and stop it. But when it's a lazy pass up top or it's too many dribbles and the guy steals the ball, those are hard to recover from. I think that was just a good example for our guys last night that that's how important it is that you take care of the ball.

Gary D Stocker (05:18.286)
Let's talk about a couple of players. Milos Nenadjic, impressive from the first time he stepped on the floor last night.

Kyle Gerdeman (05:26.539)
Yeah, I thought he did a really good job. You know, it's been new for him. You know, he spent four years at University of Maine and didn't really have a big role there. And so it's been fun to watch him because, you know, I think when we recruited him and kind of watched film on him and tried to figure out kind of what he was, we just kind of liked what we saw even from the limited film.

thought our system really fit his skill set and so far it has. He did a nice job against Ball State a couple Saturdays ago when we scrimmaged them and he did a nice job last night and I think he's still a work in progress. I think he wants to be a really good player. I think he's excited about what he can get out of his senior year and I think that means something for him to be engaged and know he's a big part of what we're doing.

But yeah, he's been impressive and again, I think he can still get a lot better and I think that's what really excites me about him.

Gary D Stocker (06:24.43)
Yeah, I was sitting next to President Porter last night and I said, I wonder how the OVC teams will handle Milos because he was impressive in a lot of ways, doesn't he?

Kyle Gerdeman (06:32.268)
Yeah, well, think the one thing is, if he continues to play that well, it won't be a secret. people will be ready for him. I'm sure Texas Tech will be ready for him by the time we get down there.

Gary D Stocker (06:39.52)
That's true.

Gary D Stocker (06:45.698)
And then Jeremiah Talton back after a year out, his three point shot is so fluid.

Kyle Gerdeman (06:48.874)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I was happy to get him back out there and I know Jeremiah has just been. He's just been so excited to be to be healthy again. You know he went through a lot, not just the not just the the surgery that kept him out all year. Then he you know he got banged up in a car accident that you know he was really you know blessed to come out of there really with just some some bumps and bruises over the summer. Then he had mono for three weeks when school started, so it has been a heck of a stretch for him.

Gary D Stocker (07:13.498)
Move.

Kyle Gerdeman (07:18.85)
to get back on the floor and be healthy. And he's still trying to get himself in better shape. But I think the good thing is what you see last night is really what we missed last year and what we're excited to have back. And that's a very capable three-point shooter, a guy that really plays hard, understands what we're doing. So it's just good to have him healthy and back out there. four minutes left in the game, he's cramping in both legs.

I'm not surprised we played him way too many minutes and he's out of shape, but he wants to be out there. So I think he would do that all over again. I think he would play those minutes every night.

Gary D Stocker (07:57.87)
And you mentioned being in shape and conditioning. And I noticed both teams last night, their free throw shooting percentage was, how do I put this nicely? Not so good. Yeah. OK, we'll go with your word.

Kyle Gerdeman (08:06.178)
Yeah, Yeah. You know, I don't know. We talked about it last year. You know, we don't shy away from it, man. I expect guys to step up here and make them, you know, and it doesn't matter if it's the first free throws of the game or if you're tired. You know, the expectation is, know, 75%. You know, you got to be able to do it because it becomes empty possessions and it's almost like a turnover, you know.

It's good to get a foul. It's good to get to the free throw line. It's something we talk about. We want to shoot 24 free throws a game. You know, we only got there 15 times last night, so we're not really on track where we need to be from that standpoint. But if we want to shoot that many, you need to make them. And you know, again, just like the turnovers, you you look at a close game there, this stuff adds up for you. So, you know, we go nine for 15 and shoot 60%. Well, you know, it would have been nice to have been, you know.

13 for 15, it just keeps the score where it needs to be. So we gotta continue to work on it and guys gotta take ownership in it. And you gotta step up there and make them and I'm sure their coach feels the same way. It's a big part of it, especially when you throw the ball inside and when you have aggressive guards.

Gary D Stocker (09:23.012)
So you're headed first official game of the season. You're headed to Texas Tech. in the next couple of days, talk about what your expectations are for that, Coach.

Kyle Gerdeman (09:32.494)
It's going to be, you we've played some really big games to start the year, the last couple years. You know, we opened up at Nebraska and it was a tremendous, you environment. After that we went to Iowa State, which is one of the best environments in all of college basketball. And I think that Texas Tech is probably going to be everything that you can imagine.

They've got a great program. They've really built it. Their fan base is tremendous. They've pumped tons of money into their athletic programs. You see with their football team this year. So I think for the first game, we're going to step into a madhouse in all reality and then unfortunately a team that's ranked, I think, 10th in the country preseason. So it's going to be all we want. But I think we do a really good job, I think, as I think the coaching staff does, the assistants.

of really getting with the players and understanding what our goals are in this game and what we're after. I thought last year we handled these games really well, even though we didn't win them. There's a lot you can learn from it. There's a lot of challenges you can have beyond the scoreboard. And I think that's where we spend a lot of time in these early games is concentrating on playing as well as we can play. And you worry about the score later on when you need to.

Gary D Stocker (10:54.412)
So basketball season has begun for the 2025-2026 season. Coach and I will be back every week for the Kyle Goodman podcast. So make sure to share the podcast with your friends and family and neighbors. And we'll continue to look and talk about the Linwood University men's basketball coach. Always a pleasure, best of luck this season.

Kyle Gerdeman (11:12.697)
Sounds good. See you soon.