Lindenwood University Basketball Talk with Coach Kyle Gerdeman

Gary (00:01.647)
Welcome to basketball talk with Lyndenwood University head men's basketball coach Kyle Gerdeman, where each week coach Gerdeman talks men's basketball and much, much more. We'll talk future Lyndenwood games, past games, players as the season develops. We'll talk about the Ohio Valley Conference, the NCAA academics, careers, and many, many other topics. My name is Gary Stalker and we're starting off today with a guest. And our guest is a basketball player. And we're welcoming Markeith Browning, who's new to Lyndenwood this year.

joins us from Ypsilanti, Michigan. Markeith, welcome to the show.

Kyle Gerdeman (00:35.918)
What's going on Mr. Stalker? Appreciate it.

Gary (00:38.117)
my pleasure, sir. So let's get right into the questions. And I always like to talk about Lyndenwood, the good stuff. And so you came down to Lyndenwood. What's so far, Markeith, been the best part of being a Lyndenwood University student?

Kyle Gerdeman (00:53.358)
I just fell in love with the campus on my visit. I love how much grass it is. know, like in Michigan, Ypsilanti, where I come from, it's, you know, a lot of woods, grass, green everywhere. So that was a big thing. It just felt like home. You know, I just love how quiet it is out here in St. Charles.

Gary (01:11.176)
It is a nice location. Of course, it's only fair to ask the other end of that question. So, so far, what part of the Lindenwood University have you said yick to?

Kyle Gerdeman (01:26.166)
That's hard to say. I'd probably just say go in the class, man. I'm a grad transfer. I got my degree in communications already. So just getting myself ready to get back in the classroom, and it's always tough.

Gary (01:39.448)
I was afraid you might say something like that. So I'm guessing with such a strong college basketball career, Markeith, that you had opportunities to play basketball elsewhere. What were some of the factors that led you to join Coach Gurdiman at?

Kyle Gerdeman (01:41.655)
Okay.

Kyle Gerdeman (01:56.366)
Right off the top, was a, you know, like I just stated earlier, my grad transfer and, you know, the staff here, just, they're good guys, you know. They really care. They care about me, what's going on after I leave here. And that was big for me, you know, to really have someone I can trust and help me through this last year and help me accomplish my goals and my dreams and stuff. So I say that, him, Coach Kyle Campbell.

Coach Gerdeman, as well as Coach Bean and Coach Anderson, Coach Wachtel, the whole staff.

Gary (02:30.799)
Excellent. So you've had practices so far. The game is getting close, I know. So talk about some of the early takeaways for you from the summer practice sessions and now the fall practices as you get ready for that first game. I think it's next week, right, against here at home.

Kyle Gerdeman (02:47.51)
Yes, Tuesday. automatically, I say defense. That's what our staff preaches a lot. So I think we'll be really good defensively. We focus in on it. We emphasize it a lot every day. I think we'll be excited to watch. We play fast. Our personnel, we got guys who can get up and down the floor and shoot the ball really good. So I think it'll be exciting.

Gary (03:15.407)
That's good to hear. So let's go a little bit on the personal side. So you talked about you're a graduate student. Talk about what your undergrad major was and what your grad major is. And I have a follow-up after that.

Kyle Gerdeman (03:27.278)
So my grad major is communications. My undergrad is somewhere similar to the Lions. I'm just digging deeper into my actual major. I really don't want to change up too much. I just want to lock in on what I already got going. And that allows me to focus on basketball, too. I'm kind of familiar with the area of classes I got.

Gary (03:54.083)
So my follow up is, at some point, Markeith, your college playing basketball days will end. What's that first post-college job look like? If you could describe exactly what that first post-college job would be like, what would it be?

Kyle Gerdeman (04:10.582)
Well, I know this is every college basketball player's answer, but I think I'll be next year around this time, I think I'll be looking for a job overseas maybe, or possibly in the big leagues. God forbid I don't get hurt or anything freaky doesn't happen. But outside of that, probably coaching. I want to stay around the game. I think I got a lot to offer. I think I learned a lot, played a lot of years.

Gary (04:38.648)
Okay, there's lots of opportunities across every level of basketball for that kind of skill set. So there will be those 15, 16, 17 year old young men listening to this podcast somewhere down the road.

If there's one piece of advice, Markeith, that you would give to other men, young men like yourself, five or six years ago, that want to play college basketball like you, what would that one piece of advice be?

Kyle Gerdeman (05:06.958)
Just be ready to be an everyday guy. It all comes at you so fast. It's such a huge jump from high school where all these classes are coming at you fast and you have to have that work done and it's a big expectation and if this is really what you want to do, you got to be ready to come in here every day and work hard, be that same guy every day. You know, that's what coaches want to see. That's how you're to get on the floor. That's what makes you better.

You got to be and it's it's hard, you know, you get tired sometimes sometimes you don't feel like it but inconsistent

Gary (05:43.119)
I know that one. Even when you're old like me, you get tired all the time. So one final question, and I'm guessing it's quite likely that your family, maybe some friends will listen to this podcast. What do you want to say to them as they listen to this podcast?

Kyle Gerdeman (05:59.895)
Yeah

Too much I gotta say to him, you know, I just want to tell him I'm locked in. I'm still here doing my thing and I'm still making him proud so.

Gary (06:11.417)
Well, I guess for Coach Gerdeman's show today has been Lindumid basketball player Markeith Browning. Markeith, best of luck to you this season and beyond, and thanks for making time for the show.

Kyle Gerdeman (06:22.05)
Thank you so much for having me on. Appreciate you.

Gary (06:23.64)
My pleasure sir.

Yeah, we're good. So we'll get Coach Gurderman in.

Kyle Gerdeman (06:29.046)
Okay, well enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.

Gary (06:31.311)
Thanks, man.

Kyle Gerdeman (06:49.71)
All right.

Gary (06:51.619)
All right, so the questions are good? Well, you know, I'm, each Tuesday I do something called the College Financial Health Show. It's a financial review. We did three colleges, private colleges in Pennsylvania yesterday, and I edit it. It takes me about two or three hours to edit it. And editing went to hell yesterday. I don't know what's going on. I still haven't recovered. I spent all day editing yesterday, and it still didn't work right. So I'm unhappy with technology today.

Kyle Gerdeman (06:52.92)
What are you up to? Huh?

Kyle Gerdeman (07:10.283)
Kyle Gerdeman (07:19.394)
Yeah. So you're still working on it.

Gary (07:22.839)
Well, I released just the audio file of the video file of it it was okay but I usually draw charts, draw lines and graphics and text and all that kind of stuff and I couldn't do that so I've been trying to figure out what's going on. You asked otherwise I wouldn't have you. So the recording is going so I'll ahead and jump into it.

Kyle Gerdeman (07:36.345)
Yeah. Yeah.

Gary (07:44.217)
So Coach Goodman, welcome back. It's good to have you back on the podcast again this week. Let's talk kind of a big picture for our first question day. What is your approach to actually planning practices and the execution of those practices each day?

Kyle Gerdeman (07:58.806)
Yeah, I think probably something that probably...

sometimes we can take for granted is the time to actually plan a good practice. That's something that when Coach Hollander was here as an assistant coach with us early on, always talked a lot about and the importance of having a good practice plan. And he was right. And I think that we do it a couple of different ways. Sometimes, especially in the preseason or before you get into games, I think that you've got to figure out a way to keep practice exciting to where what we try to do is avoid the monotony of doing the same.

day after day after day. And I think that's really important. So we tried to obviously save some things and put in new drills. what we tried to do is a lot of new shooting things, different skill work type of stuff that the guys aren't used to or things that kind of make them uncomfortable. But I think after that, think you've got to have a bigger plan of, when do we need to have these defensive things on time?

when do we need to make sure we've got this in for offense? And so I think you've got to plan those out in a longer range of time. But I also think sitting down, and we do this a lot, I'll sit down a couple times a week with our staff and just say, what do we need to get done tomorrow? What are some things that maybe I'm not thinking about? I may be thinking about two or three things all the time that I know we have to get done, but then their input is always important because, and it's always good when we do it because they usually remind me of something that

that we need to work on more or something that they've seen on film that I may not have seen. And say, hey, we really need to work on the ball screen coverage more. We really need to spend more time with rebounding. So I think as a group, we just try to come up with the best plans day by day. And I think it's always been a good way for us to do it.

Gary (09:52.665)
So starting the sixth year at Lindenwood, which means you've been watching St. Louis area high school basketball for five plus years. I know you're kind of a local anyway in general. Describe just how you look at high school basketball in the St. Louis area, how you describe it, how it might compare to other regions of the country.

Kyle Gerdeman (10:12.3)
Yeah, think that you know overall, mean, I think obviously I think you have really, you have really good basketball in the area. You've got really good coaches. You've got you've got programs you know that have that have had a reputation for years and years. And I think that you get that in a lot of areas, but but Saint Louis is definitely one of the areas where you find you know really good basketball coaches and really good basketball programs. I think the other thing you get though is you get a wide variety of talent. You know sometimes.

and other places that I've been, don't get that as much. And so I think that it's a place where many levels of colleges, NAIA Division 1, 2, 3, can come here and recruit players. And I think that that's kind of unique to the area because, I don't think you get that everywhere. I think that from what people do,

Again, the high school coaches to the AU programs that we have to the guys that are doing a lot of skill instructions and coaching guys in the off season or in between during the week. There's just a lot of good basketball people around this area. And I think that that makes the basketball really good. And I think the last thing that really stands out to me is you see a lot of really good unique rivalries in the area. And I think those things are really fun. There's times where I'll find myself

and we won't even be recruiting anybody just because it's a big rivalry game. And so they create great atmospheres. And I think those are obviously the fun parts of high school athletics and for high school basketball in general. So again, I just think you get a great competitiveness in the area, tough style of play, and it's a good area for basketball.

Gary (11:58.931)
And when you go to those high school games and maybe the ones that you're looking at potential recruits, potential talent, what are some of the top things that you look for that you can observe while watching that game?

Kyle Gerdeman (12:11.084)
Yeah, I think a couple things stand out right away that I think first and foremost we look at attitude, body language.

mentally, what are you bringing to the game? Are you a positive person? Are you a competitive person? Do you have some things that maybe you need to mature on? Because those things stand out first and foremost and they don't define everybody by any means. Because what I think we try to do from that point is really get to know the kids, the young men. But that's the first thing that's gonna stand out is how you carry yourself and really understanding why maybe does a kid

have sometimes bad body language, sometimes really good body language, or why is this kid so energetic all the time, and what makes this kid a great leader? So there's so many things that you see just by watching the game without statistics being involved in it. And I think that's the first thing that we try to see. From that, I think it goes to how hard you play, what type of teammates you are, and then what is the skill that you do the best? I think that's what we try to

look for the most. So what would be the one thing that a that a player does that I can say that I'll get him on the court at the Division one level as a freshman? You know, you know, is he is he a great passer? Is he a great great shooter? You know, is he unstoppable getting to the basket? You know, what is the one thing that this player does that I know he's going to be able to get on the court as a freshman? And then, you know, I think everything else is a developmental piece of, know, what what what does he need to work on? What does he need to do?

Gary (13:32.054)
Interesting.

Kyle Gerdeman (13:51.474)
better and in the overall fit for our program. But I think the other parts are the most important, know, and I think it starts with the mentality that you see the young man, you know, presenting himself with, and then I think it finishes with, you know, that one really good thing that they do that can impact your program.

Gary (14:10.009)
So coach, the start of the season is effectively upon us. When we chat next week, you'll have played at least your first game of the year. So walk us through this opening month of games. What do you want to accomplish in that first month or so?

Kyle Gerdeman (14:23.79)
You know, I mean, I think a lot from a standpoint of really getting an understanding of what our team is about and how we're developing. And I think that, you know, one thing that we can't get lost in is if we're winning or losing, we need to be getting better every day. And we spend a lot of time talking about that. You know, I think we've already talked about it on here. You know, we try to take the wins and losses out of it right away.

because you can win two or three games early in the year, you can lose two or three games early in the year, and that doesn't define your season, it doesn't.

doesn't tell you how you're gonna do in the conference games. But what you have to do is have to have a great focus on making sure that you're improving. So we take the experience of every game. We'll watch a lot of film from every game as a team and individually and show guys positive things we're doing. We'll show them things that we need to keep working on from that individual standpoint. And then I think as a coaching staff, think we're constantly evaluating, are we doing the right things offensively and defensively that

put this team in the best situation to be successful. And I think that's what we get a lot of out of that first month of the season is the individual improvement. And then but more importantly, how do we feel about our system on offense and defense? are these the right things that we should be doing?

Gary (15:48.023)
And I'm going talk about basics. So dribbling, shooting, passing are three of the basic offensive skills. And college players have done that for a while, right? They've done a lot of dribbling drills, a lot of shooting drills, a of passing drills. How do you reinforce that and build on that at the college level?

Kyle Gerdeman (16:04.61)
Yeah, I think it's something that we try to spend a lot of time with and I tell guys and I could be wrong and it's maybe I feel like maybe we spend more time on it than others maybe. Because I think that when you recruit players, you're telling them that you're gonna make them a better basketball player. And we truly mean that and guys that come in here whether they have one year left or whether they're just starting their careers or freshmen, they all wanna get better. They all wanna be better players. And I think if you look up and down our roster,

And I think it's especially at this level, you don't have a whole lot of finished products, so to speak. You need to have player development to really improve your roster and improve your team. It's not just about going out and recruiting really talented players. It's also about developing the players you have and making them even better players. And so we spend a lot of time talking about it. I feel like we spend a lot of time doing those things in the preseason, the postseason, but also even during practice.

We probably do 20, 30 minutes a day of skill work of some type, whether that's simple passing, whether it's ball handling, whether it's shooting a combination of all three. I think that's something that can get lost on us is being able to turn our players into better players during the course of the season.

Gary (17:21.601)
I notice when I watch really all levels of basketball, the passing for example is to a shooting spot. It's not left shoulder, right shoulder, it's always to a shooting spot. And that's a skill in and of itself, let alone the lead passes for breakaways and those kinds of things. So it's always fascinating to watch those.

Kyle Gerdeman (17:33.804)
Yeah, well, I think to your point on that, I think to your point, that's a really good point because I think there's also part of that development is getting players to understand how important those simple things are. The importance of a really good pass, the importance of strong ball handling. Sometimes, and I think the passing is a good one because sometimes you can just tell young guys don't understand that an off target pass not only can throw the shooter's rhythm off, but it can also slow down the flow of your offense.

a really good point because that's something that we pay a lot of attention to.

Gary (18:08.321)
I think even lay people who don't have that in depth basketball knowledge can watch a pass to an open three and it's at their belly button and they choose to pass on the three because that timing is all screwed up because they got to catch it down, bring it back up. It's fascinating to watch that kind of stuff. And let's move ahead to March of next year. You and I will do the podcast sometime in March of next year, Kyle. And you'll have won some games in twenty four, twenty five, and you'll have lost some games. And those are all fine numbers, but beyond wins and losses.

When we chat in March, April, whenever that is, how we define success for this team and the Linda Wood program six months from now.

Kyle Gerdeman (18:46.178)
Yeah, I think that we've been pretty consistent over the years and other coaches that I've worked for probably were the same. I think the way that we always define our success is did we take this group of student athletes? Did we take this group of players?

and really maximize their potential. And I think if we do that in three areas, if we do that, growing them as basketball players, growing them as people, and growing them as students, and we maximize every area of that to where we feel that, we put everything we could into these guys, they gave us everything they had.

in return, then that's all we can ask for at the end of the day because I think that's the bigger picture outside of winning and losing. If we're winning a bunch of games, we can't lose focus on what our real focus is of taking care of these student athletes. And if we're losing a bunch of games...

We should be working just as hard with them as we always would. It's not just based on if you're winning, let's work really hard. And if you're losing, nah, let's just coast on through. We don't do that. So I think as we see.

their individual success in those areas. I think that grows into team success. Then we should be in a good spot. I think we've always been able to say that if you pour everything into your team the way you're supposed to, then regardless of winning and losing, you should be able to sleep well at night knowing that you did everything that you could do. And that's kind of where we leave it.

Gary (20:20.751)
So last Sunday night, I watched game five of the WNBA championship and we watched or I watched Breonna Stewart miss two critical free throws and I saw her make two critical free throws. How do you teach players how to react in those moments late in the game when they've got that ball and 5,000 or 2,000 or 20,000 people are watching them take that shot?

Kyle Gerdeman (20:43.106)
Yeah, I think some of it we can talk to our players.

daily, right, about just playing the next possession, having a next possession mindset. And I'm sure that's, think there's a lot of truth to that, developing that type of mental toughness. But I think the players get a lot of credit for being able to handle those moments. I think sometimes as coaches, we feel like we're talking them into everything. they have a mentality that they've grown up with over the course of their career too. And they understand that.

those moments. know, they I think that a lot of times that, you know, like the scenario, they may miss two free throws. but they know that when they, know, they have the self confidence that when they get back to the free throw line, they know they're going to make the next one, right? They know they're going to make the next two. and I think we have to give them a lot of credit, for the mentalities that they bring the confidence that people play with anymore. and really wanting to be in those moments and be successful. You know, I think all we can do is put them in those situations. You know, do we

practice game repetitions? Do we put them in a situation in practice where they feel a little pressure at the free throw line because of the way we're doing things or because we're having a free throw contest that day? So we can do all those things as coaches, but I think we've got to give the players in that aspect a lot of the credit for the mentality that they have that they've built on a daily basis too.

Gary (22:12.899)
Well, coach, let's call that a wrap on this podcast episode. And for those listening, I encourage you to share the podcast link with students and friends and families and others. We'll be back next week. We'll have some basketball games to talk about, coach, next week. And when we do that, we'll have some more details to talk about. Coach, always a pleasure. look forward to talking again next week.

Kyle Gerdeman (22:28.396)
Yeah, we'll have some more details maybe, so we'll see.

Kyle Gerdeman (22:36.322)
Sounds good, thanks.