Lindenwood University Basketball Talk with Coach Kyle Gerdeman

Gary D Stocker (00:01.692)
Welcome back to a special summertime episode of Basketball Talk with Linda Wood University head men's basketball coach, Kyle Gerdeman. Coach, been a while. How are you doing, sir?

Kyle Gerdeman (00:10.956)
Doing good. It has been a while, but we've been busy in between conversations, but doing well. How about you?

Gary D Stocker (00:18.418)
Well, we're doing well, playing a fair amount of pickleball, watching a lot of basketball on TV as well. And Coach, we decided to do this as the season ran down, just kind of get a feel for, we all know how big the portal, how big of a deal the portal is these days. Talk about what has happened since we last chatted, probably in March, with Leonard Wood. What does the 25, 26 team look like?

Kyle Gerdeman (00:38.38)
Yeah, yeah, well, think I think when you start probably starting with the portals, probably as good a place for us to start as any. Because we had some we had some benefits out of it and really really navigated it pretty fortunate. I think you know we were able to keep some of our best guys were able to keep Jadis Jones who went into portal for a little while and came back and the industry trail went into portal came back. Jeremiah Talton.

Kind of jumped in the portal for a couple days and decided to come back. So we were really fortunate there with those three guys returning. I think along the same lines, think Clayton Jackson returning. He never went in the portal, but knew this is where he wanted to stay coming back as a second year guard, point guard. So keeping those guys, Jalen McDaniel will return as an inside guy. He was hurt a little bit at the end of the year, but we hope we get him back healthy. So I think-

I think first and foremost, think what we were able to keep from the roster was a really big deal for us to start our recruiting class because that's kind of what we do now is we recruit our same players over and over, which is what everybody's doing. But that's the way it is. So we were glad to get those guys back. And I think we enjoy the relationship we have with those guys, the belief that they have in us and what we can do for them for one more year to.

to help their program and so it starts with those guys, I think first and foremost. And then, I think from staying with the portal, I we got two really good players, I think right off the bat. Maki Cooper, who was a point guard transfer from Miami of Ohio, started every game there on a team that was really good in the Mac. I think they finished second in the regular season and lost in the conference championship game, one game away from the national tournament.

So we were really excited about him and another guy, Don Trez Williams, who was a Missouri guy that played high school basketball at Syxton down in the boot heel of Missouri. His senior year, he was, I think, the number one rated player in the state coming out of high school. And he went to Ebeling Christian. He was on the all freshman team in the WAC conference. And so we were able to get him back. And so we thought those two guys really

Kyle Gerdeman (02:56.27)
out of the portal really helped us. And then we signed a big kid, Milos, a 6'10 kid just last week from University of Maine. The big skilled kid has been around for a long time, has his degree, gonna get a master's degree here. Just kinda really liked what he added from a size standpoint. So those guys helped us a lot. And then I think the last guy who wasn't the last guy we signed, but the other guy we got from the transfer portal was a St. Louis guy.

Gary D Stocker (03:03.858)
What's wrong with that?

Kyle Gerdeman (03:25.902)
graduate of Cardinal Ritter, same high school as Clayton Jackson, Robert Lewis, who was at Arkansas Pine Bluff and then decided to come home and sign with us. And I'm excited about Robert because, I mean, Robert was the guy we recruited hard when he was coming out of high school a few years ago. So, you he was a guy that we had a lot of background on. We had seen him. We kind of understood his skill set, his personality and just kind of knew a lot about him. So,

I think quickly, think all those guys were really good finds for us. And I think the staff did a really good job of just identifying the guys that we wanted to replace. When you look at replacing guys like Markeith Browning and Reggie Bass, who really did a lot for us, replacing Jordan Wilde inside. I think we were able to do all those things just out of the transfer portal.

with some guys, but then being able to add a couple other guys. Kevin Anthony was another big body inside from Wabash Community College that we really like. I think the thing that we did the best of was, like I said, I think we identified guys that we wanted to go after, and we just did a really good job on those guys. Some years you get everybody that you want right away, and we missed on a couple guys, but not many, because guys like Makai and Don Tres.

They were really guys that we focused on and really wanted. So to be able to get them and not miss and have to start your process back over was really big. But we're excited about the group.

Gary D Stocker (04:59.442)
So I was at the OVC tournament in Evansville back in March and I saw, all except the Wednesday night games, I missed the 32 free throws in a row, wherever that was that night. And in my perception was any of the teams I saw, including the ones that you played on Wednesday night and lost two on Thursday night, any of those teams could have won that OVC championship that Saturday evening. Is that what your thought process is going into the next year?

Kyle Gerdeman (05:07.576)
Yeah, yeah.

Kyle Gerdeman (05:23.246)
I felt that way last year, That, you know, I thought it was kind of wide open. And I think moving forward as we start thinking about the upcoming season, I kind of feel the same way about it again. Because I think that it's kind of what you've seen from the league, I think, for the last couple years. And I don't think that's going to change. And I think the transfer portal has a lot to do with that. You could ask me.

You could ask me today who the best 10 players in the conference are and I have no idea. But I think that's just because there's so much turnover and there's so many new guys coming into our league that are going to be talented and good. And so I think that transfer portal piece really affects all of us. I mean, we lose good players, it gives us an opportunity to get better players or get good players. So I think we all use it both ways, but I think from a standpoint of how you know who's.

who's going to be the best teams in your league, I think it was really hard to tell. And so I think the thing that you looked at last year, we kind of talked about it early, was I thought SIUE was going to be one of the better teams because I thought they had the best guard in the league. And I thought SEMO had a good guard and Little Rock had a good guard before he got hurt. And so I think you look at those guys returning and you feel like those teams are going to be good. Well, now I think when you look through it and you kind of try to piece together who everybody's lost, I'm not sure who you could.

who you could say today and almost June is gonna be the best team. We may have a better idea closer to August, September, but I just think that turnover really changes a lot in your league and it makes it more competitive from top to bottom.

Gary D Stocker (07:02.77)
And from amateur hour on this side of the microphone, one of the things I have wondered about is with all of that turnover, it really becomes, the coaching and teaching becomes almost a more important part of a basketball team success than maybe even the talent sometimes. Am I right on that?

Kyle Gerdeman (07:20.394)
Yeah, I would agree, know, because I think the thing that you realized specifically, again, when you really lock in on the last few years when the portal has really exploded and affects your program is you are constantly teaching and you're constantly coaching. And I think there's a lot more to that. I think the summer is a lot more important now than maybe it was a couple of years ago when you knew you were going to have a lot of guys back. But now as you look up and

You know, most teams are bringing in, you know, six, eight, nine new guys a year. Well, you got to use your time wisely in the summer to kind of start laying some groundwork for the things that you want to do offensively, defensively, things about your program, your culture. You know, all that stuff has to get caught up on whether you have five or six returners or not, you know. So you get more guys that don't know it than do know it. So, you know, I mean, it's pretty, pretty simple what you have to get to.

And then I think along the same lines, still have the relationship piece of, know, the relationships that you build with your players as the head coach, the relationships you're trying to cultivate as assistant coaches and as staff, and the relationships that the players have to develop within themselves and their teammates and learning new teammates and being around 15 brand new guys and how that all gels together. I think there's a lot that goes into that.

Gary D Stocker (08:44.078)
You mentioned summer practices and the essence of that, for those that don't know, talk about what effectively college basketball has become almost a 12 month a year job. Talk about that and then what do you do? You talked about the summer practices. What are you going to do to get your team to where you want them to be for the regular practices when they start in September, October?

Kyle Gerdeman (08:53.325)
Yeah.

Kyle Gerdeman (09:03.638)
Yeah, well, think that carrying off what we just kind of talked about is just the newness of everybody. You get eight weeks in the summer to kind of break those weeks up wherever you want to. We hadn't done eight weeks before. We'd always kind of thought six was good enough. But we're actually going to do eight this summer, but do it a little bit different. Like June for us is going to be kind of a lot of strength and conditioning.

with our strength coach, making sure we're getting our bodies right, getting in shape because a lot of guys aren't in shape this type of year. You'll have a few guys that are really staying in shape and working out and doing the things they need to do. But the majority of guys, they're not, and I think it's probably common. So we're gonna use June for a lot of that, and we're gonna do some skill work in June, some individual groups and some specific things we wanna work on from a teaching standpoint. And hopefully that builds us up to when we get to July.

being able to have more of a full practice, hour a day for four days a week or however we wanna spend our four hours during that week. But it'll be a lot more of basketball practice. So like we were talking about earlier, more of our system type stuff, how much of our defensive system can we get in for everybody that's new and how much of our offensive style can we get in for people that are new? And like I said, I think it's important because I think that you're not gonna get everything done that you want.

And we're definitely not trying to do too much or overdo it. But you wanna feel like at the end of July when we're done, that we've got a little bit of a foundation set for when guys come back from school, everything's not brand new to them. When we do start workouts or when we do start practicing in the fall, we feel like the summer's given us a little bit of a head start on those things.

Gary D Stocker (10:50.162)
And before we started recording, we were talking about the NIH.

as you've learned since we were last together in March or so, what's the Ohio Valley Conference? What is our outlook on the name, image, and likeness, compensation requirements, rules that may become from the house settlement, and then even the portal? You mentioned that earlier. How is OVC addressing these things?

Kyle Gerdeman (11:12.684)
Yeah, well, it comes up a lot. know, I mean, we had a head coach's meeting a few weeks ago, and it was the majority of the discussion was NIL money and transfer portal and how we need to navigate it and what are things that we can do to, you know, positively impact our programs. And I think the, you know, I think the common feeling was that, you know, all the schools, all the coaches, all the programs are trying to figure out ways to

you know, improve in that area. You know, I think some have more than others, probably the same way it is at any level across the country. You know, at the power five level, some have more than others. So I don't think there's a whole lot of difference besides the financial piece. Yes, you know, we don't have the money that they have at the power five level, but I think we're still navigating the same waters of, you know, what type of money do we have? How do we generate more money? How do we spend it? You know, because there's, it's still relatively new to everybody.

But I think at this level, it gets a little trickier on how you raise those funds and how you're supported and how you're trying to navigate booster money that would normally come to your program versus booster money that you may want to go to NIL. And do those people want to give money for that? And we haven't really run into that issue at all. But I think that's one of the biggest things that continues to come up, is how you supplement that money.

And so I think that everybody is kind of in the same boat in our league and in a positive way that everybody understands you need to have it. And everybody is trying to figure out how we can we can do more. And so, you know, I think that when people aren't against it, I think at least you're headed the right direction. And so I think it's up to each school now and kind of I don't know collectively as a group if we'll ever come up with anything. You the house settlement will be will be interesting to see, you know, because obviously

Gary D Stocker (12:57.009)
Yeah.

Kyle Gerdeman (13:08.386)
The biggest part of that is kind of the salary cap, the $20 million that people will be able to max out on. And obviously, we're not going to be at that level. And I don't think anybody in our league will. But being able to make direct payments from your university could be different. For us, for example, it could be a little bit of a money saver, because we don't have to use an outside third party, for example. So I just think there's a lot there that can take place and a lot of things that each school is really

really working on trying to make this a positive and really be able to use the tool that's there to help with your recruiting and retention.

Gary D Stocker (13:48.082)
This has been a special podcast episode of Basketball Talk with Lindenwood University head men's basketball coach, Kyle Gerteman. Coach, not do this again until maybe September and then we'll crank it up again and start talking about the basketball season. It'll be upon us before we know it, won't it?

Kyle Gerdeman (14:02.828)
Yeah, it's gonna be here fast. got camps that start, our kids camps start in a week. And next thing you know, we're gonna look up and it's gonna be July 1st. then we're gonna look up after that and we'll be talking again. So it's gonna go quick. Thank you.

Gary D Stocker (14:17.539)
Take care. We'll talk to you soon.