Diary Series: Kevin Kuwik, Asst. Coach - Dayton

With the season in full swing, obviously the focus every day is to do everything in your staff’s power to squeeze every possible win out of this year’s team.  That involves getting a great feel for your team individually and collectively, day in and day out.  In Head Coach Archie Miller’s first year here at Dayton, we had the benefit of a trip to Europe this past August, which allowed us to get a head start on putting the pieces together for the 2011-12 Flyers.  Some of those efforts came to fruition in past weeks as we were able to travel to Orlando and win the Old Spice Classic, defeating Wake Forest, Fairfield, and Minnesota, and then to grind out a recent victory over No. 16 Alabama here at UD Arena. As we continue to do daily individual skill development and film study with our current team, hopefully we will be able to continue to tweak our system, put our players in a position to succeed, and get great effort and execution from them on a daily basis as we head into Atlantic-10 conference play.

At the same time as we grind through the current season however, we must always keep a focus on the future of the program.  There is an old saying, “It is much better to be a great recruiter than a great coach”, and there certainly is much truth to that.  Being able to put great talent on the floor gives your team much more leeway in terms of being able to overcome mistakes and miscalculations both by players and coaches.

Carving out time each day during the season to focus on recruiting is often difficult, but so instrumental to your ultimate success, whether it be getting out to high school, junior college, or prep school games and tournaments to evaluate prospects, or spending time on the phone with coaches and scouting services to identify new prospects, gather further information on current ones, or just to develop relationships in general.

One thing I always think it is important to keep focus on as a recruiter is “the fit.”  I truly believe that the difference between a good recruit and a great recruit is ‘the fit’.  That can mean anything ranging from how that prospect ‘fits’ your style of play, your coaching style, your locker room, your projected depth chart, or even your campus environment.  Sometimes it is easy just to listen to the recruiting service ‘experts’ and go for the highest rated prospects out there.  But to me, there is a true art in finding the three-star or mid-major-plus prospect who might in fact just be the better ‘fit’ for your current situation than a four-star or high-major-minus player.  And to me, that is where some programs separate themselves from their peers, or close the gap with programs in conferences that are perceived to be more highly-rated.

No matter how you choose to go about it, there is no doubt that college basketball uniquely challenges each staff to coach for the present while recruiting for the future, and hopefully we are striking the right balance as we try to build a championship program here at the University of Dayton.  Go Flyers!

* * *