NCDS: Russ Willemsen, Asst. Coach - Tennessee Tech ("Coaching Madness")

By: Russ Willemsen, Asst. Coach - Tennessee Tech

To most basketball fans, nothing tops the excitement of March Madness.  The Xavier and Kansas State game was one of the best games I have seen in the NCAA tourney!  When Crawford let that three-pointer go, I hung on the edge of my seat as the game went to double overtime.  Games like this make the NCAA Tournament the greatest event in sports.  When a team loses, the players have a little down time, while coaches continue to find ways to improve the program.  The off-season includes recruiting, individual workouts, summer camps, finding staff for the camps, ordering equipment, end of the year banquet, and many more responsibilities.  The off-season is always full speed for college coaches.

We made it to the OVC semi-finals and lost to a very good Morehead State team.  After the loss we headed back to the hotel, ate our post game meal, and I booked my flight to go recruiting.  I spent that entire week on the road tracking some very good players.  I went from tournament to tournament hoping to find a sleeper or some stud that flew under the radar.  Except for United Airlines losing my luggage and not locating it for 30 hours, the trip was a great success.   I had a chance to see a few players we have been recruiting for some time and also found some diamonds in the rough.

Seeing a recruit play is the easiest part of recruiting.  Selling the program and getting a kid on campus is the challenging part.  If we get a player and his parents to commit to an official visit, we have had a lot of success getting them to sign with us.  Our academics, facilities, and town are very enticing, which helps Tennessee Tech sell itself. 

One of the hardest parts of being on the road is handling academics from a distance.  Our players have tutors, assignments, study halls and teacher meetings they must attend.  Trying to coordinate and keep up with study hall hours from the road can be a challenging task.  Thankfully I have reminders programmed in my phone.  Helping the players stay on task can help ensure success in the classroom. 

In college coaching very rarely is there an off-season.  It varies from school to school, but at Tennessee Tech we have a three week period in May and one in August that players are gone and school is not in session.  I am actually getting married May 8, and our wedding plans were scheduled around my coaching schedule.  The hours are long and the days run together, but having an opportunity to compete at the national level in the NCAA Tournament makes the madness of college coaching well worth it.

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