bob-sabin_4_12-10-2024_153417: 0:01

Welcome to tracking the cats. I'm Bob Saban. Today is December 10th, Tuesday. As usual, our costs are being covered by Stanbury insurance, your full service insurance folks in Sylvan, North Carolina, with offices in Highlands and also over in Waynesville. Today, my co host will be interviewing. Coach Tim Kraft, the men's basketball coach at Western Carolina. They've got a good conversation going. I couldn't join them because of technology difficulties, let's say, but I think you'll have a you'll really enjoy seeing what they've got to say and additional information. You may not know about coach Kraft and the basketball team. So now take it away, Steve.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 0:48

Great to have Coach Tim Kraft with us today. You head basketball coach here at Western Carolina University and coach, I go back a long way with this program. I think it's the 63 seasons since I saw my first Western Carolina basketball team game back in 61. And I don't think we've ever had a situation like stepped into here several months ago. With only one experienced player, one guy that had been on the floor of the previous season and then one other guy that was here two years ago and just like starting a program over basically is what you were doing and talk about challenges and everything like this. And again. But you are number one in the nation in one category here as the least experienced team in division one basketball. Talk a little bit about that, the challenges that you faced when you stepped into this program several months ago.

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 1:46

Well yeah, you know, it's just part of the new era of college athletics now, which is, is really the, the, the reason that, that, you know, the roster was what it was that you've got. You know, multiple things. You've got last year's team had five seniors, right? So, you know, five guys that were graduating that weren't going to be back. And then now with the new NCAA rules regarding transfers you know, players can transfer anytime, as many times as they want, any year, as many times as they want. You know, as many pro as many transfers as they want. There's it's unlimited. So there's no penalty for transferring. So you know, basically, when there's a new coach that steps in in this day and age, you're going to have some of the roster that's going to graduate and then you're going to have the rest of the rosters is probably going to enter the portal. And then decide if they want to come back or not, if they're going to have a spot or not with the new staff and then decide whether or not they want to be a part of the new, the new staff. So that's what we had here. We had five guys graduating from last year's team. We had seven guys that could return. And we recruited all seven of them extremely hard. We, we, We wanted to make them feel like they, we wanted them here, that we really admired and appreciated what they had done here. at Western and what they had had accomplished. And coach gray and his program had done a great job here and had just come off a really good season. And the culture was in great shape. And we wanted to try to continue that, you know, continue that and continue to move it forward. And so we had four of those seven that decided to stay three of those four We're all red shirting last year, which means none of them had played you know, last season. So, so now you've got, you know, four guys that are back, that are familiar with Western Carolina and have been a part of college basketball and division one, but only one Bernard Palote that had really had any game experience. Marcus Kell, you referred to it, had had just a tiny bit of game experience from his freshman year. So then So then that left us then nine scholarships so we needed to then recruit nine new players to be on scholarship and, and also bring in new walk on players. So you know, we had 11 to 12 roster spots to fill starting in March you know, mid March. So that it was it was a long process in the spring trying to you know, recruit and fill the roster and, and get the needs that you needed to, to try to recruit. Have the best team that you could possibly have. And our coaching staff did a great job with the recruiting. And again, it was long, it was hard, it was grueling. But we, you know, really liked where we landed and we, we are excited that the four guys decided to return and then You know, are excited about the players that we brought in, but a lot of challenges with that you know, in that, that process of the spring, then you got to get them all in school and, and situated into class. And it's a time crunch. And the thing I would tell you is the people here at Western, the administration the people in the community were so helpful, you know, to, to myself and to our coaching staff to try to. All those moving parts and all the things that got to go right to, to then get your team on campus in June and get, you know, nine new scholarship guys and you know, really 12 new players on campus in school and, and rolling by the summer. And so it was a lot of challenges to it, but we got them here in the summer. We've been working really hard since June. Unfortunately, in the recruiting process, it was hard for us to get many experienced guys out of the portal. You know, we tried and had some opportunities to recruit a little, some more experienced guys, but we just weren't successful. And you know, what we, what, you know, the roster that we brought in is, is guys that are very talented and great. Kids and high character and that was, that was extremely important to us to, to, for year one, to, to bring in some, some kids that we wanted to coach some kids that were going to bring a lot of value, not just to the basketball court, but also to the Western Carolina community on our campus. The, the Jackson County community and we were really successful with that. We got a great group of guys. The, the, the, the downside is they just haven't played a lot of. minutes in division one. And so they're getting that experience. We're working really hard at it. We're eight games in right now. And conference play starts in january. And the best thing about that is that, you know, our players are going to then have more experience. So we're working on that and it's been a fun process, but certainly there's a lot of ups and downs with it. Trying to install a new system and install a new system with guys that just really haven't played very much in division one.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 6:54

Well, coach just analyze this first month of the season for us. Now, maybe what has met your expectations up to this point? Maybe what has not or what is a work in progress? In other words, you do you see the catamounts having to improve on to be competitive come to southern conference schedule? Just in a nutshell,

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 7:15

I mean, it's a good question. I think my expectations were just really just like, Hey, we want to become the best. team that we can possibly become. And my expectation is that everybody in that locker room and everybody in these these offices are going to work really hard every single day to maximize our God given potential with this basketball team. You know, we refer to this team as team 97 because as we looked into history of the program, it was the 97th team in Western Carolina basketball history. And And so, you know, we want team 97 to be the best that it possibly can become. The, the, the, the goal in mind is that, that we get ourselves to a point that when we travel to Asheville to play in the Southern conference tournament, that we have a team that's good enough to win, you know, three games in three days and cut the nets down. I mean, that's the goal. And we're, we're not near, we have not even come close to, to, to reach in level yet. You know, we're not ready for that yet. I don't think that my expectations were for us to be ready for that at this point in the season in early December. But, you know, the end goal is that by the time we get to March that we have a team that is capable of doing that. And so, you know, that might take us another few weeks. It might take us another couple months. But the, the, the, the, the goal and the expectation is that we get to that point. By the time we get to that first week in March. And so again, that just, that just everybody involved in the process. You know, all 25 players and staff and and, and, and then our support staff just working every single day, do the best that we can. As we assess our team here today, it's kind of an easy answer. When you say like what we need to improve on, we got to improve on everything. Dang. We got it. We got it. We got to improve it. Everything. We really do. We got to get better in every area. And and I think most of the teams that I've coached over the course of my 11 years as head coach would be the same. We got to improve in every area. You know, I, I, I feel great about our progress in every area. I think we've made great progress in every area. I would tell you I was really concerned about our rebounding at the beginning of the season. And that's been a pretty strong area for us. And we've done a good job on the defensive glass, even even with the fact that we've played one of the top schedules in the country. You know, looking at it last week, our non conference schedule was ranked eighth in the season, eighth in the country. And and we had, we had pretty good done a good job of keeping people off the offensive glass some really good offensive rebounding teams. And then we had done a pretty good job against some offensive rebounds. And so I really like our progress there. We got to keep improving in that area. I like our progress in terms of our overall understanding of our system, both defensively and offensively. Our ball movement has gotten a lot better. One of the things we do, Steve, if we chart overall passes in the game and we think that's a reflection on how well we play offensively. We have a pass goal that we want to meet it of 240 passes, just overall passes that we make because we're really big believers in ball movement. And you know, the last game and we lost the last game and we didn't play very well in the second half. But we, we, we had 250 passes. So that's a good sign, you know, for just the progress of our offense. The game before that against Bellarmine, we had 242 overall passes. So, so those are, those are good. Markers of, of just us having a better feel of the way we want to move the ball and cut and move in our offense. You know, defensively we got to keep continue, continue to improve. But one of the areas I'd say like that's that's glaring is we got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and being a low turnover team, which is critical. And that's an area that we haven't haven't done very well. And statistically, you look at where we're negative assist turnover ratio as a team. We have a lot of players that are just barely positive or players that are negative assist turnover ratio. And so we gotta, we gotta rectify that. We got to change that. We got to handle the ball better versus pressure. We talked a lot about that yesterday as you know, we've been talking about that a lot, you know, last couple of weeks. But, but our last game, we turned the ball over 19 times and you know, that, that was a big reason for us not winning the game. And so that, that's an area that, that is a kind of a glaring area of improvement. We got to get better in all phases, all areas, every player has to. Our coaches got to get better. I mean, we got to improve on and I'll just be honest with you. That's, that's the culture we want to have in this program is a focus on the process. A win the day, like compete to be your best every single day. And, and then, you know, the results are going to begin to show up for you. If you, if you're doing that to the best of your ability.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 12:37

Coach, Southern Conference play begins New Year's Day. A little unusual Furman Paladins here in the Ramsey Center really haven't concentrated yet on the Southern Conference. You're busy with the next two ballgames, three ballgames. But from what you've seen or heard who do you think are going to be the the better teams in the league this year. Who do you see is being the most competitive teams in the conference at this point?

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 13:03

Yeah. I mean, I'll be honest with you, Steve, I, I, I haven't looked at it a lot. Yeah. You know, I know Furman was undefeated before they just lost to Kansas. I know Samford is really had a great start. Those are our first two games, by the way, you know, Furman and Samford are our first two. So we get we definitely have a tough start. Those would be the two that I would say Off the top of my head. You know, I've watched East Tennessee State on film because they played our last opponent upstate. So I watched that almost that whole game. I was really impressed with what they look like. You know, I thought they looked really talented and physical and they played very hard. Looked You know, big athletic. You know, they obviously made a run in the conference tournament to make it to the finals last season and got a lot of those players back. So I would say they, you know, are probably one of the better teams. We played Wofford last year at Gardner Webb. And I know they have a lot of their players back. I know they kind of got off to a slow start, but they just recently beat Gardner Webb, my old school by 20. And Gardner Webbs had a good start. I mean, they got a lot of good division one wins. Eso I thought that was You know an impressive win and, and the way that they did it. And again, I remember our game and they got a lot of those guys back. I thought they were super physical, really tough. They beat us at home last year. We had a good team last year and they, they beat us you know, like handily, really. I mean, they really dominated the second half. So I, I don't know. I mean, those are four teams that I know a little bit about. I haven't Really seeing what Greensboro's done or you know, VMI and Citadel and Mercer. I just I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to it because we're just focused on our selves getting better. But I know the league's is, you know, really, really good. That's part of the reason I wanted to come to Western other than just the attire. Attraction and appeal of Western Carolina, which was a lot of that, but, you know, the appeal of competing in this league was, was exciting to me. So, I mean, I know how good the league is and it's, I, I know it's, it, it's very challenging and it will be.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 15:20

Coach, you've got before you get into that conference schedule, three more games before Christmas. I include we go to UNC Asheville rekindling of a great old rivalry goes back into the seventies with UNC actually the late sixties and then you a little trip over to Knoxville, play the number one team in the nation. Now I've got to look this up. I can't believe I can't remember this. And I guess that's when you get my age, these little brain cells start deteriorating a little bit. If we have ever, have we played a number one team in the nation? I'll have to ask Daniel Hooker about that. And then home game with Milligan before the Christmas break coach, you started coaching on the. Collegiate level some 20 years ago. What has been the most significant changes in the game that you've noticed? And most recently the impact of the, the portal and the NIL just maybe share that from when you started 20 some years ago.

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 16:22

You know, the, the portal and NIL to me is the most significant change. I mean, just. It's really changed the way you build a program and build a roster. And you know, my team's at Gardner web. You know, we typically like, you know, of our, if we brought in three freshmen, probably two of those guys, we're going to red shirt, you know, maybe all of them. And then you're going to have them for most of the time for four years, maybe five. You know, we had, when we went to the NCAA tournament in 2019 we had like three or four fifth year seniors. We had three or four fourth year juniors. We had three or four third year sophomores. You know, you had guys that when they went to college, they were thinking that they were going to play for you for four years, maybe five. And that just isn't the case now. And you know, I think every, Most of the players, not all of them, but a lot of players they're making their college decision really for, for one year at a time. And it's Hey, this seems like it'd be a good opportunity for me next season, and then they're going to reevaluate it at the end of the season. If they want to look for another school. And I think there's some, some. You know, there's some, there's some positive things about that, I think, for the student athletes. I think there's a lot of negative things that go with that, and that's certainly been well chronicled and documented, but it's just different. It's just different. And then, as you are recruiting these guys the NIL piece is, is real. And The, the, the players had at, you know, depending on how good a player they are, they have an opportunity to, to, to begin to earn some, some, some money while they're playing. Which, you know, was not something that, that. you were allowed to do. You know, just even five or six years ago. So I think all of that combined has has really changed. The way that we do a lot of what we do as coaches. The thing that it hasn't changed, Steve, is that We got, we still have a great job as college basketball coaches and we get a chance to be around these 18 to 23 year olds. Whether it's for four years or it's for eight months, we get a chance to coach them and be around them and have a chance to really pour into them, try to develop your character and who they are as people. Work hard to develop them as players and and hopefully make a lasting difference in their lives and you know that that has not changed and so we want to try to do a great job here at Western Carolina focusing on that of Of really just pouring into our student athletes and developing them in every area of their lives and and then while we're doing that you know, build a great program here that the people here in Jackson County and and Western North Carolina can be really proud of.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 19:32

Coach, there's been a tremendous changes on the, well, within the N. C. A. A. football landscape over the past couple of seasons. Things are a little bit different, really impacting F. C. S. football, which we are now. does the future look like? In your thinking for N. C. Double a mid level major mid major basketball level. You know, we've been a tremendous part of the N. C. Double a tournament. I think that's what makes the N. C. Double a tournament is the mid level teams. Again, just not. I just wonder what you

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 20:08

Yeah.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 20:08

see any big changes coming, there is going to be positive, negative over the next few years for N. C. Double a mid major basketball.

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 20:16

Yeah. Steve, another great question. You know, I mean, all of us would love to have a crystal ball and kind of, you know, be able to see what the future holds. Think the in, in, in, in all sports, you know, but I think the thing about basketball, men's and women's basketball is the the N. C. A. Tournament. It's been such a special that I don't think people want will want to change that. And you know, there's been a lot of talk about expanding the tournament. There's been talk about the power for kind of branching off and kind of doing their own thing. I would be surprised if March Madness changes. Much. I just would. And, and maybe there, there could be some expansion to include you know, more power for teams because they unfortunately, sometimes their voices is carries more weight in some of these discussions. But the N. C. A. tournament has also been such a revenue builder for all of college athletics. You know, the television contract over the years with CBS has been worth so much money that it's really gone into a lot of the funding for a lot of the sports other than football. So I think people love the NCAA tournament. You know, it makes a lot of money. And, and, and you said it, the, the, the mid major teams are such a big part of it, you know, and that's what everybody is excited about the upsets and the Cinderella's they move on to, you know, winning first round games to go into the sweet 16 and, and those stories that make it so special. I, I, I would personally be surprised if it changes much. But, but who knows? I mean, who knows? It certainly could. But then you have, you have the whole revenue sharing you know, house settlement situation that's going on that, that, that is significant in terms of the way that athletic departments can choose to operate if they want to opt in to this. This, this new way of doing things, the, of the revenue sharing, which Alex, Gary would be great to have on, to explain all that. I, I don't know all the details of it other than what I've, I've read about what he and what he's explained to me. But you know, that's, that's a whole nother discussion. And, and, and it definitely impacts the way you operate as an athletic department for us here at Western Carolina. Currently, nothing's going to change with all of that. And I think it would be probably years before if we ever changed. I don't know that it makes sense for us to, to op in at this point to the revenue sharing deal. But there's a lot of stuff out there, you know, a lot of areas of change and but in the terms of the games and the way that our championship operates. I would be surprised if we see many changes with that. But, you know, never say never.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 23:16

It's great. It's a great explanation there and great to hear your input on it. And I agree with you with all of those things. Coach, just off getting off the beaten track here a little bit. How's your family adjusting to their new environment here? you live up on the edge of a candy fork,

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 23:35

Yeah.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 23:35

I and you have some budding athletes in the family.

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 23:39

Yeah. Thanks for asking, Steve. I can tell you, man, we love living here. I mean, we I drive home, you know, and go up those mountains and turn up, make that left at Caney Fork and then pull into our neighborhood. And I'm just like, man, it's like, I am so blessed to be able to call this place home. I love walking into this office every day and the people here in this athletic department are so special and just great people. I mean, we are families excited to be here, be a part of this, this community, be a part of this athletic department. You know, long term, like building this thing into something special and and and so that that's great. And part of that is like, you know, the kids get involved, get acclimated into schools, and it's gone as well as could be expected. We have two high school aged daughters. At Smoky Mountain High School and they've, they've enjoyed being a part of various athletic teams and, and meeting friends and, and new people and and, and that's been good. They're excited about soccer season around the corner and, and competing together. One's a senior, one's a sophomore. We have two boys, 11 and seven year old boys and. their basketball seasons are just starting. And you know, we played upstate on saturday and we had three games in the craft household. You know, our seven year old was playing up at cashers, you know, excuse me, he's in the rec league at Jackson County rec. So his team was playing up at cashers at like nine a. m. We had Bennett who plays for Smoky Mountain, Whatever they call it, district or whatever. They play all the different. I know he plays for Jackson County, Jackson County. You know, fourth and fifth grade team. So they were on the road. They played at Franklin at noon. And then we were playing at three. So my wife was taking the boys up to cashers at nine, they drove straight to cashers to Franklin where Bennett and his crew got a big road win over Franklin, big rivalry game. So coach Ash and did a great job getting those guys ready for the rivalry game. And then they drove back in here just in time to watch. you know, us play at three. So a lot of things going on in the craft household. Busy time. But we are enjoying being here in color. We in Silva. And and it's the people here have really welcomed us, and it's really made for a smooth transition.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 26:21

closing here. Anything you'd like to say to the Catamount Nation, Catamount basketball fans?

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 26:27

I would say the thing I'd say to him is, Hey, any chance you got to come see this team play and support this team, please get out to Ramsey and do so. You know, we got a great group of young men there. They have worked really, really hard. And they're continuing to work really hard and that that's not going to change whether we, we win five in a row or whether we're coming off a loss like we are on Saturday. This team is going to get better. I think you've seen us play. I think we're, we are exciting to watch. We play fast. We play together. We got a long way to go. In terms of you know, getting better and, and, and the details and the things that takes that all the, all the details that go into winning you know, we're working at that every day, but, but we got a young and exciting group that that's going to grow and get better. And we would love to have you support us this season. And then, like, if there's anything we can do for the people listening, you know, our team, any things that our team can do that my coaching staff, me personally we want to be a big part of this community. We want to, we want to add value to Western Carolina University and this community. You know, we want to be there in terms of how we can serve and help and elevate everything we do here in Western North Carolina. Our basketball program wants to be a big part of that. And if there's things that we can do to help, things that we can do better reach out and let us know. We want to be a part of it.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 27:58

Well, thank you, Coach Tim Kraft for joining us on Tracking the Cats podcast. And again, Catamount's home game remaining before Christmas with Milligan. We're on the road against two biggies there, UNC Asheville this Saturday. That thing will be televised. I think on the angles network channel 62 the C. W.

tim-craft_2_12-10-2024_114128: 28:18

Nice.

squadcaster-dj2f_2_12-10-2024_114128: 28:18

of course, I'm sure we'll be able to pick up that Tennessee game to again. I've still got to do some research. The last time we played a number one team in the nation, but I'll find that out. And again, thanks so much, coach. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Very informative. And I think all catamount fans will enjoy hearing what you have to say about catamount basketball back to you, Bob.

bob-sabin_6_12-10-2024_161543: 28:41

​Thanks, Steve. And, uh, really enjoyed that. And hearing from Coach Kraft, great job. Um, coming up in the next couple of episodes, we've got some good stuff for you. We were going to have a women's basketball coach. Um, he's new this year as well. Jonathan Sipis. Uh, hope to have him on board in the next week or two, as well as Ben Pendry with the development, uh, organization at Western Carolina University. And he's going to talk about the Fill the Western Sky campaign. What they've done so far, what they're going to get done, uh, and how different the athletic facilities at Western Carolina are going to look over the next couple of years. In the meantime, that's it for this edition of Tracking the Cats. I'm Bob Saban, along with my co host, Steve White. Say thank you and see you again soon.