Episode #22: Jordan Fee

Jordan Fee begins his first season as the Assistant Men's Basketball Coach at NCAA D1 Florida Atlantic University after an amazing first and only season at NCAA D2 Gannon University where he turned the a bottom of the conference team into a 32-2 Elite Eight performance in the 2024 NCAA D2 National Tournament in just one year.  Amazing turn-around!

Learn more about Jordan Fee here:  https://fausports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/jordan-fee/1570https://fausports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/jordan-fee/1570

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Welcome everybody to significant coaching podcasts. I'm coach Matt Rogers and great to have you back. I've got a spectacular guest for you today. His name is Jordan fi. And I first learned of Jordan. I think it was through Twitter. I kept getting these. Tweets about this team. Gannon university. I'm in Pennsylvania. And I started doing my research and watching their film and I was like, wow. These kids play fast. They play aggressive. They're intense. They're playing with tons and tons of confidence. And I was like, I got to get to know this coach. So I actually called Jordan fi who was last year, was the head coach again in university. And it came to find out that he was in his first year. It was his first ever head coaching position. And not only was his team playing well, but they were dominating. And I was just really intrigued with his story. And Long story short, Jordan led Gannon university to the division NCAA division to elite eight last year. In his first season. And it's not like he was taking over a program that was already wedding. I think Gannon won three or four games the year before he took over. And in that amount of time, he went from a team that was at the bottom of NCAA division two and took them to the elite eight. They went 32 and three last year. And I just really enjoyed talking to. To Jordan last fall. And I would text him. And I remember just telling him, listen, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but you know, when I was 26 years old, I was the youngest college head coach in the country. There was nobody younger and I, and I could not have felt more unprepared for that experience. And I. There were times where I let other voices. Kind of interfere on what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be as a coach. And I just let them know, Hey, you're doing everything great. Your kids are playing with joy. They're playing with intensity. And, and the winning. Was. Was just the result of how he was coaching. And I just want them to know, just keep doing what you're doing. Because man, it was fun to watch. So to give you Jordan's backstory, he's now the assistant coach at Florida Atlantic. He'll be the lead assistant for a. Coach Jacob's down there. Coach Jacob, who was one of the top assistants for Baylor for all those years, all those great Baylor teams is now taking over the Florida Atlantic program division one. Jordan left GaN. And after one year it was really hard on his heart. Leaving those kids that did so much at Gannon and they did so much together, but he knew this was. The best opportunity for him to be who he wants to be and be the coach he wants to be. So I really appreciated talking about that decision and that transition. A little bit about Jordan before he went to Gannon. He was considered in a lot of circles as the premier assistant coach in all of division two, he was at Nova Southeastern for the better part of six, seven years. Before that he was a great high school player. Jordan played at Grove city high school in Western Pennsylvania, where he scored 1200 points playing for his dad, Don Don's one of the best coaches, best high school coaches ever in Pennsylvania. He then went on to the air force. Academy. Where he played there for a year. And then he played at division one university of Detroit mercy, where he had a great experience, but he really realized that he wanted more playing time and wanted a better opportunity. So he transferred. To west Liberty, university of west Liberty. Where you helped them win two conference and regional championships. So Jordan is just a, was a fantastic guard as well. And player. Before his coaching career. He's the type of coach I get excited about. Because he sees the game the way I see it, he, he wants to play fast. He wants to play in your face. He wants to make, you have to feel that pressure for 40 minutes. So when I listen to Jordan, talk about his coaching about what kind of leader he wants to be, what kind of mentor he wants to be. Just gets me excited. Just. Spends since tingles up my spine. Because I love coaches that care about doing it right, doing it their way. And making sure the kids that they're coaching have a great experience and that without a doubt is Jordan fi. And that is why I would guess judge Jacobs. Jordan to be on his staff as they take over this great division one program and are going to lead it to. Great Heights. I'm sure. So without further do, I've talked too much. I'm going to let Jordan fie talk for himself. Here's the great Jordan. Coach, first thing first, congratulations on a great seat and an amazing season. And, and I've seen some of your interviews throughout the year and you and I kind of texted early in the fall and, and, and I want you to take this the right way because it's, it's, I want it to be very complimentary. I started hearing throughout the season, a little swagger in your voice. Like you were starting to, you feel like we were onto something and we were, we were doing something right. And that's, and it takes years for most guys to get there. Did you get that sense? Am I misreading that? I don't, I don't know that you're misreading it. Maybe just as a group, we had a little bit of a swagger because you started to know who we were becoming. Yeah. So yeah, you're probably reading it. Right. Did you, did you find it challenging? Cause you, you came in a group of guys that really didn't understand how to win. You had to bring in a ton of new guys to go with them. What was the experience like for you? As a first year head coach, kind of figuring out how do I want to go about this? How am I going to meld this? Yeah. So I'd had the luxury and good, good fortune of being a part of a rebuild before with in the exact same system. So the timeline of events. I already had a pretty clear picture, not only in my head, but I'd taken a lot of notes, you know, so I kind of had a feel for what we'd done when I was the associate head coach at, at Nova Southeastern to take a group that had never seen it, never done it and transform it now. The difference, the vast difference between the two is we had a kid with us in Nova Southeastern that had played at West Liberty University on my alma mater and it had already been a part of the system. So, and he was maybe the best point guard in the country. So it was like having an extra coach on staff. That I always say David Dennis was his name. A Columbus, Ohio kid was actually probably more important, definitely more important than me and maybe more important than coach Crutchfield at times, because he was the conductor. He was on the court with the ball in his hands. He could get guys to do certain things and learn and teach and such. So we didn't have that luxury at Gannon. The other thing that people don't. You know, factor into this is like in division two basketball, your hands off in the summer. It's not like division one. So I was frantic to spend every minute allowable from the end of August through our, the start of our season, like just pouring into these guys for them to gain as much knowledge and as much time on the court as again, allowable to learn it. But a little different here, even now, like we've got guys here, it's June, we're doing workouts, like. What a luxury would have been to had a summer with group at Gannon, but it's just, it's not in the rules. So that piece is difficult in that you feel like you're spinning your wheels and you're like just going as fast as you possibly can for them to pick it up and learn what is such a unique. And sometimes difficult to learn system, one that oftentimes takes years truly but we just didn't have that luxury. So, that piece was difficult. I forgot your original question already but I think some of the fact of, you know, we had a group of guys, right, that wanted to learn, and that made all the difference. So, They, they're, you know, I think Joe Mozilla said it when he was interviewed the other day, you know, the greatest gift, the greatest joy for a coach is like a group of guys that want to be coached and like our group did. So it just made my job, our job as a staff I had two great assistant coaches and it made our job a little bit easier and that they were. Wanting to do this. And then the last thing I'd say is we'd sign. The best thing we probably did was sign for one year grad transfers. We had an incredible MBA program there at Gannon. And these guys were coming to get their, they were going to finish their MBA in one year. And. I had four guys in for the most favorite guys in the most memorable guys ever, and they ever will be in my career but but like they wanted to win so badly was their last chance, and they just kind of hung on every word that I said and they really helped lead the charge. They were all for older guys. 23 years old and they want to go out a winner and because of that, it just, it's like, again, sort of like the David Dennis thing, but in a different form, we had a handful of coaches on the court and he really made my job easier. You talked about being through a rebuild before, and you kind of understood that formula elaborate a little bit. Cause I, you know, My whole career has been rebuilt that we're at the bottom and having to, you know, turn them into something of quality value and giving kids a great experience. What are the three or four things in that formula that you thought were really great to bring to Gannon and you're going to bring to. To Atlantic. Sure. I think some of it was just the again, I talked about the timeline, like how are we gonna implement this system and get it done in time for whatever you want it to be. Practice one scrimmage. One game one. Right. Because. You know, frankly, this is a, this isn't an NBA season. Like every game is critical. And, you know, we had to be ready out the gate to be good. Nova Southeastern had won. Ironically, I was kind of, I was actually on staff before Crutchfield got down there with me. I won't go into the whole long story, but we had won. The school had won six games before we got together. So we implement a new system and we've got a, the first thing is just. teach guys a different way of playing basketball. You know, that's number one. And there's so much that that's loaded because there's so much that goes into that. But like, there's a philosophy here that we're going to essentially try to keep constant pressure on the offense while we're playing defense. And we're going to do so in a manner that's, you know, face guard running, jumping, trapping, which sounds like you've had some experience with. And then on the flip side, constant pressure on the defense through how we advance the ball, through how we look to attack, through how we look to create advantages, the pace at which we play, the shot selection, and the way we offensive rebound. So First and foremost, that's one. Two would be, you know, probably our approach every day, how we do things, and sometime we can overcomplicate it and we can slap buzzwords on a wall and we can create packets, but the truth is. Just how we we can exemplify it and how we act and the manner in which we as coaching staff does what we do right. So, we're there early, and we're getting working early and we're preparing as if it's, you If it means everything, if that day is the, the most important game or practice we're ever going to have, it's the maybe mindfulness or how and how and you know, our intention walking into it, how we treat one another the intensity at which we play with. The competitive spirit, which we play with, how winning means everything, you know, and you either win or you lose and trying to create that culture, I guess, is the word where winning is everything, you know, and if you don't win, you lose and life's the same way. And there, it has to mean something or matter or else I just can't see the point in doing it. So Again, I know that's it's probably more than three or four, but essentially it was the timeline and really mapping out what we're going to do, implementing the system, teaching what we do and what we don't do as a program as a staff culturally. And then the third I would say would just be, how can we expedite this chemistry piece. Both places, we now all three places, including FAU where I'm currently at, like we signed huge classes at Gannon. It was nine here at FAU it's 10 and in limited time. How can we create bonds, build trust? foster like a, you know, spirited love with a group in a short manner so that we can, you know, have some trust and love and success on the court. That's the most impressive part of what you're doing. It really is. And it's, it's the most impressive part what anybody's doing when the portal is such a big part of the world. Yeah. Because it's not like you're, you're saying we're going to choose to use the portal. It's, it's almost become. We have to use the portal because we can't control what kids are going to do. You know, Danny Hurley's done an amazing job of keeping kids, but now he's bringing in these great freshmen and they're leaving after you. You brought in four kids that you only had for one year. It's almost like a junior college. Coaching position. So give me some insight at Florida Atlantic. What are you, what are some of the things that you're doing for, for that high school coach that's coming into a high school position or maybe a high school coach that's been doing it for 20 years? How do you expedite chemistry? How do you expedite love and trust? Yeah, we've we just finished an event last night with our guys. We had a kind donor that took our group out, but we just spent time, you know, we ate, we tried to make it organic again, this isn't forcing guys to do stuff that they don't want to do. It usually involves eating. Everybody likes to eat, especially these grown guys. So like. They can't get enough of it. So we've loved to, to just take them to great restaurants and spend time and talk to them and ask them about their families, their lives, trying to figure out exactly who they are. I think the other piece that is missed, like through this is, you know, on top of trying to build a group and build a unit, you're also through the transfer portal, expediting the process of recruiting. So as, as hard as we try, it is, I think decent of a job as I think I'm doing. There's, I can't, I don't know these guys well enough. It's not like the, you know, I can name 50 guys for you. The Jake Moranville from Uniontown, like high school in Ohio. One of my favorite guys ever who like I'm recruiting Jake, I'm courting Jake. I'm sitting in Jake's high school gym for his AAU practices, his. I'm taking my wife to his high school games. He's flying in. We're flying up there to visit him. You know, I'm on the FaceTime with his parents and zooms with him and his parents and calls with him and his parents. And there's so what's that time span look like? When does it start recruiting? You know, when I first got into it, like it was years, right? Some of it depends on I think levels to at the division level. Oftentimes we were like a, a full year and a half out. So typically like mid end of junior year and then definitely when their junior year was, was final, like into that rising senior summer, we were a full go. So, but again, what is it now? Yeah. And sometimes, you know, we've had a couple of guys like 24 hours, right now. Yeah. So it's just the nature of it. And I don't like it, you know, if I'm being honest with you, I don't like it. I'm not a fan. It's not the way that I'd like to do it, but unfortunately I don't really have a choice in the matter. I just have to do the best with, you know, the situation that we're in, which is. You know, how well can I get connected and get to know these guys? And then fortunately for us, like we do have a summer, you know, so it's huge difference maker. We've only been with these guys for a handful of days, but already it feels like I'm not sure you'd walk into a gym as a, as a bystander and say, Man, these guys look like they don't know each other. Like I think already just in a few days, we've connected pretty well and it feels like our group and it's starting to feel like a little bit of a family. So that's great process and it's fun. It's not, you know, maybe I'm making it sound more daunting than it is. It's definitely not like I'm pretty realistic. I'm we're playing and coaching basketball again. But the relationship piece means a lot to me. So it's frustrating a little bit that I can't do it the way I want to do it, which is the way I've done in the past, which is over years and courting and really building strong bonds and relationships. So, but it is what it is. The times have changed and we've just got to adjust. What's your philosophy? You know, I mean, you're hearing coaches saying, I'm going to bring in a couple of freshmen every year. We're going to really work on developing in it, but we're really going to bring use the portal to bring in the pieces that we got to have to win. Are you in that boat? Or do you see it as you're going to take what you need to take? And in some years, it's going to be all portal and no freshman or, or do you really want that developmental piece in the program? Yeah, I mean, I think it's different stop to stop. A lot of it depends on where you're at. Like for us, look at our situation, you know, coach Jacobs is coming from the big 12. The Americans a phenomenal conference but essentially he's coming from the best conference in college basketball to here. I'm coming from the division two ranks. We retained a guy on staff, but outside of that, everybody else is either coming from another school or three of them from the NBA. So it's not like we were building this list of, of a group of guys that was in our pool to potentially recruit for FAU. Right. So it eliminates a lot of guys. The truth is we had signed, you know, five guys at Gannon this year's class before I left, which was painful for me to leave first and foremost, but second, like I didn't have this group of guys that I could just, okay. Hey, we're not, we're not going to get it anymore. We're going to go to FAU together. Fellas, it's a different level of ability, sir. That's the first piece. And then I think, I think the second piece was like, Okay, who is the group of high school guys that we can, can we start to recruit? Like, is there anybody in our wheelhouse? Are there guys that FAU had signed previously that we can retain? But we're also dealing with a situation where, you know, Dusty May did a phenomenal job, but like, he's got a couple of guys that are going to follow him, which is understandable. We got a handful of guys that are, you know, are on the fence that we need to first re recruit. So that's where we started. We love those guys, what they built here, final four run back to the tournament, like they deserve to be courted and loved by us and re recruited. And so a million factors went into that. When they, when they eventually decided to go elsewhere, we were looking at it like a blank slate and all of a sudden we've got to sign 10, you know, and so to your question though, the answer to your question would be, we signed a few high school guys in kind of thought, okay, either a development. Right over the years we have one kid that's potentially facing that maybe need to get a surgery before he can be clear that would take a year up a time so like we kind of, you know, position him into that slot but then these other guys like okay he's a really good freshman can he impact right away, how do you know a few of them were international, so we had a, maybe a better gauge because of. our history and knowing the leagues that they were in, how they impacted those leagues, what other guys from those leagues had come over here and done instantaneously. So maybe again, give us a better feel. And then the backside of that. And the last point is some of the transfers we took were guys that we felt like Okay, we know exactly what they can do in this level. A couple of them are again, 23 years old. They've done it for years, maybe at a different level whether above or below, but we can kind of forecast where they'll be here in the American, what they can do for us. So it's just like a constant push and pull and trying to fit these puzzle pieces together. But I think fortunately for us is we were two things. We were is like one, we were patient and You know, in alignment with that, we did not compromise on character. And I think that's huge. And oftentimes, like, especially in the portal era where it's supply and demand, you know, when the supply goes away, it's easy to compromise. And I'm proud of us as a staff for not doing so. I think we recruited really high character guys. Everybody can say it. It's not always the truth, but like, I know the type of individuals we have. And I think we've got a great group of guys. What comes with. Red flags, kids, kids that you're concerned about loyalty. You're concerned about commitment. You're concerned about relationships, whether that's true or not. You know, you don't ever want to pigeonhole these kids. What are you finding in the portal in terms of why a kid only stayed a year and now they're leaving and they're looking for something different? Is it because they didn't ask the right questions in the beginning that maybe their talent wasn't a good fit for that coach? What are you finding as you delve into the the portal? Yeah, I mean, I think we, I think kids get thrown a ton of shade. I think a lot of times kids get slighted. Like the truth is people choose the wrong occupations. And, you know, students choose the wrong majors. Grown adults choose, like I said, choose the wrong job, maybe the right occupation, wrong job, wrong company. Maybe they choose the wrong neighborhood to live in or the wrong part of the country to live in. Like, I think guys sometimes just, they made a bad choice. They chose the wrong system or the wrong fit. Stylistically, it just wasn't a, it didn't gel. But like, that's for some guys. The other side of it is like, we've got guys that simply they finished a major like we had a couple guys that were stated places for four years, they finished their degree, and they've got one year left of eligibility, and they want to see like, okay, I've kind of, I've given my service. Right. One year to go. I kind of want to see if I can level up, you know, and maybe what this place is looking for is a need and they need me and it's a good situation too. So I don't know. I've changed my tune early on. I was kind of disgruntled by the whole thing and like sour because we had lost a couple guys that were high, high level guys that I had worked my butt off to get. And now all of a sudden they're leaving. I think I was hurt by it and I was selfish about it. And now I'm looking at it from a different angle. Like, yeah, sure. Are there guys out there just bouncing about and they think the grass is greener always, and it's, you know, they never look in the mirror. Sure. Absolutely. There's a lot of, and there's some other guys that like, frankly, like the four guys I signed last year. They were at places three of the four did not offer a master's program, you know, so they had to go somewhere, or else they could, I guess, repeat but at the expense of what so now instead of staying because of, you know, loyalty, they. Went to a spot where into their coach's credit. Every single one of them was aided by their coach to get them began. But those guys are now walking away with MBAs concluded. They've got an MBA in their pocket. They got to experience another level a different program. So I dunno, I think there's, it's a little bit tainted and sometimes it's skewed in our view of it, I think. But there's, there's good and bad to it, but sometimes we, we overlook the good of it. No, I love it. You explained it so well. And that's really what I was looking for. I think, you know, I, I talked to just the average person that's never coached before. They don't understand what that portal is signifying. Cause we only hear the negative sometimes. And we hear the about I'm chasing money. I'm chasing NBA dreams. And a lot of times it's just kids that. They need a better opportunity. They need a healthier opportunity. Or they want an opportunity. They've done everything right at four years. Now they want to go do something else. So I love how you explained it. It's really good for parents to hear that. That's why it's so valuable. And it gives them control. It allows the kid to be the CEO of their life. Which is so important. That wasn't there when you and I were younger. I wanna transition a little bit 'cause I know you're a point guard. I'm a point guard. We're watching the NBA finals and lo and behold we got two point guards that are head coaches. Yeah, we look at the Denver Nuggets who won the championship last year. Head coach was a point guard. Danny Hurley was a point guard. How important is it the way we see the game, how we grew up seeing the game, the vision, the iq, having to be the general on the floor? Is that significant? in being able to transition to a coach to be a head coach and a leader. Yeah, immensely. That's a great question. I've never really been asked the question before. I guess sometimes people maybe just assume that's the case, but it's a great question. I, first and foremost, Jason Kidd's one of my favorite ever. Kind of kind of parallel my game to his, unfortunately, never well enough, but like I loved him as a player and I like to try to play like him. I was a pass first guy. I think he was definitely a general in every sense of the word. And then fortunate, you know, we, we know Joe. Missoula pretty well. And Joe was a great player in his own right. And Joe has been really good to me and actually spoke with our Gannon group last year on a zoom, and this has been, he's been a good friend to me and in our staff, so we're rooting hard for him in the Celtics, but I think I would back it up even a little bit further, at least for me specifically, I was the son of a coach so happy father's day to my dad. But my dad was a great coach. He was, he was a great coach. And I didn't necessarily know it at the time. I probably would have told you he's a good coach, but I had the young, immature me in high school would have been, I didn't see it clear. I didn't see the picture clearly as I continued to grow in my. Coaching career. It probably didn't take me long to look back and be like, Holy cow. I mean, he was, he was incredible. I mean, he, he was a better coach than a lot of these guys I'm running to in the college ranks. And quite frankly, a lot of his high school coaching friends were too. I mean, there was some, I, I still, I swear by this. I think some of the best pure basketball coaches in the world are high school coaches. They had to do watching my father, what he had to do. From the, to, to create a foundation in elementary and youth programs to hire a staff that went all the way down to whatever grade we had, I think. But four or fifth, I can't re, you know, but to hire a staff, keep everybody on the same page, speaking the same language. Chasing the same vision and then, you know, just, it never ended. I mean, it got to the point when I was in high school, right? Things had started to turn. You were typically a one sport athlete at that point in time. You had made a choice. It still was. Very few guys were dual athletes and it was all year round. So but, so I got off course, but the reason I say that is because I think I had an added advantage of, you I am sitting, I'm in diapers, run around my dad's court, you know, during practice you know, as I'm growing up, I'm sitting one row behind the bench, I'm in every huddle, I'm listening to what he says, I'm developing a clearer picture and sense of what the game is and how to navigate the game. How to substitute and what works, what doesn't work, how to discipline when not to discipline structure, all of it. So I think like for me personally, that allowed me to then be maybe a point guard. You know, I felt like I can be the quarterback out there. I can make decisions. I do see the picture maybe more clearly than some other guys. I can make other players better because of. The picture that I see how I see it, I can help aid them and being better players. But I think then the transition from a point guard, like you, Joe, Jason kid, these guys, like to the coaching side is very natural and a lot of ways seamless. There's so operational stuff, logistical stuff that obviously we all got to learn, but in terms of just like the continuing to see the picture clearly. And have an understanding of the game, what it's supposed to look like, why this angle doesn't work, why this timing doesn't work, why the spacing may not work or might work those sorts of things. I think it's a natural transition from playing the point guard position to coaching. Yeah. My dad wasn't a high school coach, but my dad played until he was in his 50 years old. He was still traveling and, you know, and he, he understood the game. And I remember at six or seven years old, I was, He was teaching me about angles and spin on the ball and, you know, seeing through the defense. And, you know, and I understood that by the time I started playing competitively, I understood those things. I'm seeing 18 and 19 year olds right now that Still have no concept of where to be on the floor and how to run the floor the right way and how to get the ball out of their hands. So that's, for me, that's, I asked that question because I wanted to transition back to what you did at Gannon this year, the pace of play, the speed of play, but I want to focus a little bit on the fact that what really made your team special, watching your kids play this year, the ball movement was extraordinary. The sharing of the ball, getting the ball to the shooters when they were ready to shoot. You know, and obviously your defense created so much of your offense, but what you did offensively, talk a little bit about teaching that because you can't bring in every kid and you had kids that were already there. You can't bring in every kid with that huge IQ and not every kid is a point guard not every kid was coached by a high school grade high school coach. How do you develop that IQ and that understanding of sharing the ball and seeing the court. Yeah, I mean, I'll give a lot of credit to Jim Crutchfield, my college coach, who I, and then my then mentor and colleague and now friend, but like coach was a guy that he was huge. Like one of the philosophies I'll always maintain is this, the seeing of the game, analyzing the situations. And that specific situation and then reacting to it. And the caveat of the reaction piece is like reacting immediately to it. So, you know, I would, the first thing that pops into my mind and something that coach did that I adopted, which was we would often blow the whistle in live play and stop and tell everybody to put your head down, close your eyes immediately. You know, and ask them situationally, like, okay, what's the time, obviously what's the time and score, which you'd be surprised how often guys got wrong. They just played without any semblance of like feel for time, score situation. And then secondly, where's everybody else out on the court? Is there any advantages, you know, both does the offense have an advantage if you're playing defense and then vice versa, where is everybody at on the court? Where are the biggest threats on the court? Who's the other team's best scorer? Where are they? Is there a non threat on the court? Is there somebody that we can leave and maybe because of what we did and in terms of pressing. So just having that clear picture, that's one simple thing we did. We did a warmup drill, which. It seems very elementary because it is like where guys warm up, kind of migrate back and forth, do their own warmup all the while the coaches would migrate around the perimeter of the gym. And if I raise my hand, Matt, everybody has to stop instantaneously. While they're not facing me necessarily. So they're trying to mean for us, it was three coaches trying to maintain vision, the three coaches at all times it's possible, but it's just, we're trying to brainwash them into like, you have to see the picture. If you can't see it, you can't analyze it. Right. So not analyze it. You're certainly not going to react to it immediately. So things like that, we try to offensively, we talked about just like we do here. Like 0. 5 second decision making. So being, being able to make quick decisions, but again, a lot of that comes with the ball skipped. And I'm reading, I've got a clear picture as the ball's in flight of what I'm probably going to do with it. And now I'm going to read this closeout. Like, is this man going to close out to me? Is it a one more or does he close out short? Is it a shot for me? Or does he try to read it and jump a passing lane? Is it maybe a pass fake drive for me? Does the help come then do I kick? So you can't make those decisions if you don't have an understanding of what's going on around you. So offensively, we'd play a lot out of advantages. Play a ton of transition stuff, a ton of advantage type games where guys constantly, and we're just constantly teaching on the fly, like Here's the decision you made. I didn't love it. And here's what I saw. So maybe this is what I thought made sense. So just constantly, constantly just trying to wear that. And then the last piece would be, we played more than anybody in the country and the only teams that might have played more than us would be Nova Southeastern, West Liberty University. Bluefield State University and in Coker College where the kind of the coaching tree is. So I don't know that anybody else played more than us, more basketball than us, more live play, more transition games, and then more five on five at the pace at which we were playing, which I always say this, like, if you're learning to drive, And you're on the Autobahn in Germany, and I need to probably look this up, but I think speed's unlimited on the Autobahn. I think you can go as fast as you'd like. Right? So if you're learning at a pace like that, if you're learning how to drive on the Autobahn. Well, surely you can operate, you know, in a parking lot, in a grocery store, parking lot, and surely you can operate in the back, you know, back roads, neighborhood, what have you. So I think our guys are learning their decision making is happening at a pace that it's like, it's, it's on hyperdrive. So anything less than that is easy for them. And I think over time, Although at first, like it might seem like it's too much. I can't make decisions fast enough. It slows for them as well. And all of a sudden driving on the Audubon feels like normalcy, like they're just hopping on the highway. So it's the same concept. In our system, guys, it starts to slow, but it can't slow for them if they don't have a, an elite awareness of what's going on around them. So I know that was a loaded answer and a long answer to a question, but the truth is like, it's a, it's an everyday thing. It's a gimmicky thing. It's showing film and pointing out specific examples, but That if you can't see it, you can't score, you can't get skills, you can't defend. So, and it seemed again, elementary rudimentary I'd end with this, but like watching NBA game, you know, watch the amount of times during the game, as coach often says, where there's actually nothing going on in the court at all. Guys are looking down in the stands over at the coach, waiting for a play. There's there's nothing going on. I mean, there's absolutely nothing going on. So you'd be amazed that even at that level, how guys miss things in and don't use their eyes as a tool like they should. When you're practicing at that pace, you're creating a dynamic that the, your opponent simply can't prepare for as well. So you're stepping on the court for a game. And the kids, your kids have already seen the toughest part. Of their season before they even play that game and the other team, if they haven't been practicing the way you are, they're not used to that pace. They're not used to that pressure. They're not used to you getting the ball out of your hands and getting into shooters quicker and cutting and movement. So I love the concept. I love the drill of stopping play and making the guys close their eyes. Do you do, do you use film the same way when you're watching? I want to know what you saw. Yeah. Oftentimes in, in like, we also use film for. Because of the way we play, it requires a certain intensity level that I argue is greater than, than some systems. There's no stop it. There's no lulls in the play. There can't be. So, oftentimes, our film usage is for maybe on the defensive side of things. Maybe out of our, how is our reaction out of a trap? Do we react immediately? Or is there a delay? Are we wiping our shoes off? Are we catching our breath? Are we turning, looking at stands? Do we waste steps? Are we inefficient with our movement? Same thing like, so we talk about the difference between running and sprinting. Like are you willing to sprint? You're in this foot race, it's you and I, Matt, like, let's just watch, let's fast forward the film. Three seconds. We know you guys are side by side here on one end of the court. Let's watch who wins that foot race, because if you can't win those foot races, if you aren't willing to eliminate, what could be an advantage for the offense and turn it to a disadvantage playing the way we play. If you aren't willing to, to release and sprint from a trap immediately. If you can't get outnumbered stops, you cannot win doing this. You know, it's, there's teams in a country that have done it and they'll, they'll, we always say they'll get beat 125 to 110. And it's crazy. It's mathematically, it's the wrong way to play. It doesn't make sense, but to do it, you've got to be able to do those certain sorts of things. So yes, we use film to teach exactly that. I love it. A big part of that in learning to be faster is anticipation, you know, and, and that's where the young kids really struggle when they transition from high school to college. And I think that's why the portal is where it is. You're you're 18 years old and all of a sudden you got to compete with 23 and 24 year olds Sometimes 25 26 year olds their anticipation man is boom boom boom So what does that what you're drilling and what you're doing with film sessions? Are you seeing that they're learning to anticipate he may be faster than me, but if I'm already thinking about that skip pass and I'm not watching the ball in the air and my feet are already moving before the passer even releases it, I'm going to get there faster. And they learn quickly, you know, I think I've learned quickly. And I think, which is also why I think High school coaches are better than us. College coaches is because oftentimes high school coaches don't have a choice in who they're suiting up with. Like they don't have a choice in their players. Whereas I can go recruit. The guy that can see it, analyze it, react to it. I have that luxury of being able to recruit the knowledgeable guy, the guy that sees the picture clearly, I can do what you're doing in scout and see like this works for what we're trying to do. Whereas, you know, my father and guys out there that didn't have that luxury, like They worked with what they had, right? So, but I think us as coaches can do something first one to answer your questions like, yes, those guys develop that and develop quickly. They're just immersed in it and they learn probably through a lot of failures early on. And then I think as coaches, we can do a better job of creating practice to enhance decision making. You know, I would like a bad example would be rather than stationary set shots, having two lines and have a guy that's kind of splitting the difference and in that and having on the catch, we either have the defender commit to the ball handler or stay in the gap. So a quick decision of, am I shooting it or am I one more again? So we can incorporate and enhance the level of which they have to see and think through practice. And I think as coaches, it's our responsibility. To do that. So the guys can learn through failure and through success and just through assimilation of being. Amidst that speed and pace every day, but also us as coaches, our responsibility to create games and practice where they've got to make more decisions and they're not just robots out there. I got a couple of final questions for you I really appreciate your time, but I want to piggyback on that. Cause this is a big deal for me. And I, and I want to hear your thoughts on it. You got two kids on the floor that shoot 28 percent from the three. You got two or three kids that shoot 38, 39, 40. What's that discussion look like in terms of getting the guys to understand? I gotta make that extra pass to Tyler in the corner because Tyler's shooting at a 41 percent clip. I'm shooting at a 28 percent clip. What does that conversation look like for you guys to the players? Yeah, oftentimes that like we we've got to be mature as a group and we have to understand that this is not an equal opportunity offense. And guys have to be able to, like we talked about earlier, look in the mirror a little bit and say, this is where my this is what I do well. And this is maybe where I'm struggling a bit. The truth is this, like sometimes I think we overcomplicate this as coaches and talking about shots selection, you'd be surprised, especially playing the way we play. I think sometimes mistakes are highlighted because. It, it ruins the pace. So I think oftentimes like a mistake is a huge blemish, you know, so I think in saying that guys gravitate first towards their strengths, like a guy that isn't a three point shooter. He doesn't gravitate to align very often with us. And typically the system and the pace at which we play the amount of live we play it typically self corrects it really does. Okay. Now there are times where like I've had to step in and I find the right way to do that. You know, I, I'm a guy that shoot, I, my confidence was probably killed in college as a shooter too by, you know, I could tell you specific coach that probably forced like some of the causation in me be like second guessing myself a little bit. Wait a second. Now all of a sudden, if you're second guessing that thing, you're not making shots, period. I can relate to that. So, yeah, so, so I think part of being a good coach, especially in today's era, is. being able to tiptoe and dance around those discussions. Who's the guy who we need to enhance? Who's the guy that, like, just, you from a, you know, you know, his, his form and his release, maybe his rhythm, he's not going to make shots. And how do you go about doing that? Do we continue to work on it, you know, and allow him every once in a while to take one? Is that the right way to appease it? Or do we say, Hey, let's eliminate it until the summer and let's use the summer as a time. So at its core, it goes back to like my first answer. The question was, if you don't have relationship with these guys and they don't trust you, you don't love them. They don't love you back. If you can't respect one another enough to be able to have those tough conversations, it's not going to work. It's not going to work. So each guy's different, but I think. At its core to have a mature group, they've got to understand it's not equal opportunity offense. We need to get guys the right shots. Guys, we need to get great shots. Guys in rebounding position, that's the goal of offense. And the truth is, a great shot for us could look like a lot of different things, but it may not be the same shot for every single guy. That's great. Really good advice coach and I, I, I love that your perspective and, and, and I love that you've got the time. in your position to really do that the right way, guys. Two questions that I ask every college coach because I work so much with families and so many high school kids listen to this and parents listen to this. What advice do you give to that 15, 16 year old that would love to play at Florida Atlantic someday? What, what, because you, you can't recruit everybody. You, you, You're bringing in 9 10 this year. You might only need four or five next year. There might be years where you only need three or four. What do you tell that kid? It's got that big dream and wants to play college ball, whether it's the one or something else. What advice do you give them? Yeah, I know many people would say write it down. I think there's a statistic out there that says when you write stuff down, this is a certain amount of percentage more likely to happen. You know, so I think that would be maybe a good answer be write it down. I don't think that's all bad, you know, map it out a little bit like what do I want to have accomplished by this, maybe, maybe it's just a timeline of, I'm going to attend This skills camp, because I think it can help me. And then down the line, I'm going to play with this travel club. I'm going to get, I'm going to start on my high school team and write out some of those goals. So that might be a piece of advice to start with. The second piece would be like beyond that focus on what's right in front of you. And I think sometimes when we do that, we'll be blown away once it's fast forwarded, when we look back and say, unbelievable, what we're, where we've Where we've, you know, arrived at. And I think, you know, guys have these big dreams and they've got this list of emails and they're sending out to college coaches and I always respect it. I'm not like, you know, I'm I'm applauding that, but then this, the same guy that just sent out this email, the father just sent out this email, like his son, you know, spent the last seven days of summer vacation, just sitting inside playing video games and never training and never working, never playing. So I think like your, you know, your goals have to match your practice and your, your ambitions have to, to, you know, match your discipline of your craft. So that would be the first piece of second piece. I would say like, find the most competitive games you can find. And playing them and then work on skills. And like, we've got camp this week, right? We just finished the second week camp. And I told the guys, we did some like rudimentary elementary ball, like King ball handling drills that I learned from my father. And my favorite part about King ball handling drills is like, they take nothing, like they bypass any kind of socioeconomic situation. You need a basketball. And he did a hard surface, be a garage. For me, it was a basement, you know, you don't need a hoop. You don't need a wood floor. You don't need a court, but it's learning. And now that it's. There's more knowledge out there than ever before. Certainly more than when, when you and I were going through it, like what YouTube has now and technology has the amount of information that you can gain and access if you don't, I think it's because you're probably lazy, you know, or you really don't want it. Like you say, you want it because the information is out there, you know, it is easily, I would say accessible. So my advice would be. You know, have dreams and ambitions and shoot for it. Set goals, you know set goals to attend camp. You know, I think at times like elite camps can be moneymakers, but for the guy, you know, it's maybe going into his junior year, set a realistic expectation with maybe somebody like yourself. We're like, Hey, where are you forecasting me? Where could you see me? Is it at FAU? Then maybe you attend FAU team camp or I'm sorry, elite camp, and maybe get some feedback from FAU coaches. And if they tell you they're nowhere close, then I mean, I guess respect what they tell you or whoever tells you that, and then go back to the drawing board and go back to work. But maybe that gives you some kind of gauge as to where you might stack against others or stack on their board. Are you credible? And then again, I think the, the biggest though, the biggest piece would be just focus on what's right in front of you and just get to work. If you work eventually, I believe it will show, but it's got to be. it's got to be serious work where you're not only training individually, but you're taking care of your, your body, you're doing the right stuff off the court, you're eating the right stuff, you're training, and then you're finding the best competition possible to play against and put yourself in a position to succeed. But too often, I think there's just like, there's this glamorous piece of playing collegiately. And I think a lot of times it's like it parallels with social media and this, there's this sexiness of like being in the gym and they, there's video highlight videos of this and that, and there's, it's to look cool when in reality, it's like, You're bypassing all the work that needs to be done to actually get you in that position in that seat, which, as you know, those seats are very limited. So it's just about the work and I don't think it's you can't get discouraged. I think unfortunately we're in a climate where it may take longer to get to that college roster than it's taken and it may take a detour, and it may take a different route than before it might take a prep school. It might take a junior college. It might take finding the best position for you. And if you're as good as you think you are, you know, you might spend two years and you might kill it at that school. And then you're like some of these other guys are like, you know, I've kind of proven myself here academically. This isn't going to kill me to transfer. And maybe you make the decision to enter the portal. So there's a thousand different ways to get wherever there is. But I think it's the work is imperative and that's what's most important. You can't get there without the work. Absolutely. You got to write down your goals and have a focus on what you want to do, but then you've got to back it up. You've got to put the energy and effort in and where you talk to those, those experts about what that should look like. And there's tons of it out there. Want to be a ball handler, man. There's plenty of videos of what Steph Curry does every day before every game and, you know, hours and hours and hours. Okay. Okay. Replicate that. Show me what you can do. Correct. Last question. I'll get you out of here. So you can go do enjoy your day. Same question to parents. And I want you to be brutally honest because they need to hear it and they need to understand what a high level D2, D3, D1 coach. It doesn't matter what you're looking for. What advice do you give those parents that are so focused on getting their kid there and, and they want to help them get there. But what? Yeah. What do they need to know? Well, first and foremost, I'd start with like, I'm hoping that in my future by, by God's grace, I'm a father. I'm not a father yet, so I don't know. Yeah, well, I appreciate that. I hope so, but I, I don't know what that love feels like. I've only heard what that love feels like. I do have a. We have my wife and I, Jacqueline, and I have a golden retriever, a five year old, and I know the love that I have for that guy. So if it's far beyond the love I have for that guy, it's got to be exponential. It's, it's got to be fireworks, man. So I would start with that, like, I just respect loving parents that really care. And sometimes though, on the flip side is that love is there. They're loving too hard, you know, and they're doing too much at times. And they're, they're unrealistic maybe in their expectations. And they, they see their child in the light and, you know, specifically in terms of a basketball player, maybe differently than I see it. And I think that that's gotta be hard. You know, I think it's gotta be hard for parents to go through that. And then in a situation like where it doesn't align, they may take out their frustrations on a guy like you, you know, where it's like, you're, you've got to, you've got something against my child because you don't rate them or, you know, you don't see their ceiling quite as high as I see it. And that's, That's completely understandable. You know, that's completely understandable. So I would say it's going to be a difficult thing to do, but they've really got to take a step back and allow maybe their child to succeed, but also to fail in certain situations. And I think at times I've seen it and I don't know if this is kind of what you're looking for, but I'll tell you this, like I've seen the pressures from parents really weigh on kids. and actually do more harm than good. And again, like I cannot, I get it. It's because they love their kid and they want what's best for their kid. But through that love, they get in the way. And so I think it's probably hard to do, but maybe step back and allow. You know, I guess guys like us that we would call like professionals allow us to kind of have a hand in it a little bit and maybe give some feedback and don't take that feedback so critically, but understand that that's, you know, use it to, to help and aid. And don't be, don't let it be offensive or distract you from what your child's dream is. But I think first and foremost is like, let's find out, like, does your child really want this? And it's okay if they don't, cause not every, everybody's got different paths, but. I found sometimes that often it's the parent where it's in a lot of cases, the father that wants it more for his in my field on the men's side, like his son, then the son actually wants it for himself. So, we see that they may not see it they've got they're carrying a certain amount of bias. Again, completely understandable, but I think it's a tough situation tougher now than ever. And I think if they allow the feedback that they've gained, and surely there's more than ever, because of just the amount of travel ball that's played, the amount of AU, the amount of camps that are available out there. If they can take in all that feedback, if they can find Opinions, which they value and not be offended by whatever that feedback is asked for it, but not be offended, but take it, let it soak in and then make decisions from that feedback where they find themselves is probably going to be in a good spot. It's not going to always be what they envision, but the truth is like, you know, I thought I was going to be a division one head coach at the age of 30 and that didn't occur, you know? So it's not because I didn't work toward it or it didn't, it just. Didn't that didn't happen, but I don't stop working, you know, I don't stop working towards whatever that goal might be. If that's still the goal, what have you, but again, also a very loaded and long answer to your question. I don't know if that answered it, but it's a tough dynamic. I get it. I always feel for the parents. I have so much respect for like great parents who are involved. So I think sometimes they just, they don't understand that they maybe are doing more harm than good in some situations, but at the end of the day, if they can Like I would do, you know, I'm not walking into a doctor's office and telling the doctor what I think needs to happen or not happen. Like I, I need to respect the professional in the room and use my, use my brain and my smarts to have a feel for who we're going to lean on or not stay away from in these situations, collect all that feedback and data and then devise a plan or decide what we do from it from there. But at the end of the day, if the kid Doesn't wanna be a player. It's gonna be difficult regardless. All right, I just want a yes or a no from this one, and I'm gonna get you outta here. Love a kid, great player, unbelievable talent. If you're concerned about the parent, is it possible that you wouldn't recruit that kid? It's definitely possible that I would not. So not always I've went and made my mistakes and I know you said yes or no, I'm, I'm, I'm like straddling the fence here, but I've said no. Many times because of parents and I've also looked past it some, it's burned me some, and then I've said, I've looked past it some, we've had some hard conversations, and it's worked out well, but I've been fortunate to be a part of such programs that have had such success, so I'm probably just as blindsided as some of these parents, and I've realized, like, with success oftentimes we sweep small issues under the rug and things have been really good because the amount of success we have. So I guess I'm fortunate to have been a part of programs that have had a ton of success because we don't, sometimes those issues don't creep in quite. But yeah, man, it's, it's a tough, it's a tough deal, but I. quickly go away from if I think a parent is, I don't know, crazy is probably a mean word to call it. But if I think the parents it's wrong or doesn't see the picture clearly, very rarely would I recruit the kid. Yeah. And you have to, and the longer you do this, the more you'll, you'll make those decisions because you're such a good coach. You don't have to take a kid because there's 10 more just like him. And that's what I want parents to understand. Love your kid, give them everything they need, but let them fail, learn how to be an adult, teach them how to be their own man and make their own decisions. Let them lead this process. So it was great advice coach. You were without a doubt. One of the best young coaches in the country. And I hate to call you young cause you've been doing this a long time. I'm just an old fart. I've been, I've been doing this 15 years longer than you, but I am so excited about your future. Your dream of being a division one coach. It's going to happen. I know without a doubt, but I know you've got a great year ahead of you. And I'm excited to see what Florida Atlantic does this year. And, and I know we'll be cheering for you in March and April. Awesome, Matt. Well, I appreciate your time, man. It's a quick shout out. Like I said to my father, Don on father's day, shout out to you as well and all the other fathers out there. And then I always give a special shout out to my wife because people don't realize through these transitions, how tough these moves can be on on our families and in my situation, it's my wife, Jacqueline and I, so love her and appreciate all her support and friendship. Happy for you guys. I know great things are ahead of you, coach. Good luck. Enjoy your Sunday, best wishes to your dad. And I look forward to following you down the road. Awesome. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate your time. There you have it. The great Jordan fee, man. I love this guy. I think. The sky is the limit. For Jordan fee. I'm really excited about is jump to division one and Florida Atlantic. I think he's going to be a great assistant coach there. But if I had to put some money down and I'm not a betting man, but if I had to put some money down, I'd say this guy is probably in the next three years. Running his own division one program. And very, very quickly getting them to the national tournament. He is just that dynamic. Special, special coach. So hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. As always, please, if you love this conversation, subscribe, follow me. Send me an email. If you have coaches in your world, college coaches, high school coaches, it doesn't matter. The sport that you think are significant and really special. Let me know who they are. I love getting referrals from our listeners and I'll call those coaches and get to know them. And get them on the podcast. And we'll talk to them. You can follow me on all my social media. I'm doing recruiting clips almost every day, recruiting reels from old podcasts. So you don't have to listen to an hour's worth of a podcast in 30, 45 seconds. You can get really good advice from coaches. So take a look at. YouTube. Tic-tac Twitter, Facebook. LinkedIn. You name it, I'm on it. Instagram, we're posting almost every day. So enjoy all those. And again, don't be afraid to give me feedback. I want to make this something great for all coaches and all families. And any feedback you can give me, I will appreciate good or bad. So. Great. Things are common. I have already at five college coaches. Already recorded that are coming to you. We've got Coaches, we've got D two. Coaches. And I've got one of my student athletes who's about to commit. She's probably six to eight weeks away from committing to her college going into her senior year. So I asked her to come on just so all you student athletes out there that are listing. I can hear what a high school prospect is going through and what we've done together to get her there. So I'm really excited to have you listen to her as well. She really knocked it out of the park and, and did a great job. So. Good. Good podcasts coming your way. Thanks again. Continue to be significant. Continue to make a difference in the world that you're in and just a little bit of effort. Just that extra 1%, every day goes a long way. Have a great one.