Q&A With Lance Irvin, SIU Associate Head Coach

Finally, the long-awaited posting of the first ever one-on-one interview done by TBDS.  We hope to do more of these in the future.

We figured we'd start with Southern Illinois University Carbondale associate head coach Lance Irvin.  Even though Irvin is in his second year with the Salukis, he is the team's most experienced coach having assisted under Matt Doherty (Southern Methodist) and Quin Snyder (Missouri), among others.

Coach Irvin was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about what his new title actually means, the rigors of recruiting, this year's Saluki squad and what would have happened to Ronnie Fields had he never had gotten in that car wreck.

Q:  You got the promotion to be associate head coach, what responsibility does that hold?

A:  The responsibiility of that is that I'm doing more stuff than what I was used to.  Number one it gives you an opportunity to coach a little more in case Coach Lowery got sick or wasn't able to show up.  Then, I'm in charge of that.  You get an opportunity to coach the game, which is every college assistant's dream. 

Number two is that you're responsible around the office when he's gone.  So when coach is out of town and there's an administrative meeting, I've got to go to the meeting.  If he's out of town and his TV show is on, I have to fill in for him to do his TV show.  I get to speak at functions around the community.  There's just a lot of things I have to do, and also you're taking care of the players and knowing what they're doing each and every day.  Not that I wasn't doing it when I was an assistant, now that things are magnified when things go wrong, if things go wrong.

Q:  What brought you to SIU?

A:  The thing that brought me to SIU is that it's been a winning program.  Over the last 10 years SIU has won a lot of games and any time you have the opportunity to be a part of a winning program, you always jump to be in it.  I knew that Chris Lowery is an up-and-coming head coach and he was giving his assistants opportunities to coach on the court and letting them do things off the court.  And that was the thing that attracted me to Southern Illinois.

Plus like I said earlier, we had been winning and the tradition of winning had been established here.  By Coach (Bruce) Weber, Coach (Matt) Painter and Coach (Rich) Herrin before that.  I thought it would be a good experience to come here and work for Coach Lowery.

Also, I like the administration.  I had known (Athletic Director) Mario (Moccia) when I was at Missouri.  I liked the things he was doing when he was Assistant AD, so I knew he was going to take the program in the right direction.  I've been a part of some programs where the administration wasn't supporting wasn't the basketball program.  And if the administration is not going to support the program, you're going to have a short-lived career.

Q:  You attended a head coaching clinic, talk about that a little bit.  What was that like?

A:  I went to the ACE Program, Achieving Coaching Excellence, which the Black Coaches Association throws.  It was a three-day experience where it was great.  They put you through different scenarios.  They really, really help us with media training.  The put you through stressful situations in the media training.  They ask you big time questions.  And then on the basketball court, they take you through different drills, different scenarios.  Off the court, they bring in newspapers and media and they ask you questions like, "What if a kid gets in trouble at two in the morning, how would you deal with that?"

It was good.  They put us in an etiquette class because when it's time to have an interview, you want to eat with the right fork, say the right things and get in and out of your seat in the proper way.  Just having the opportunity to do that and be with some other assistant coaches from across the country was a great learning experience.  I wouldn't trade that in for the world.

Q:  There is a shortage of black and African American head coaches in college basketball, I think, but if you look at this staff, that's got to be a step in the right direction, right?

A:  I think it is a step in the right direction.  One of the things is that we all want to be known as really good coaches whether you're African American or whether you're not.  When you look at the sidelines, often you don't see as many African American coaches as you see African American players out there or even African American ADs in the collegiate field.

It's good that Coach Lowery has given us the opportunity to coach and show people we can do more things than just go out and recruit talent.

Q:  One of the interesting things about SIU's coaching staff is that all of you can still ball.  Which one of you has the most game?

A:  You know what, and I really do hate to say this, but I'll probably give the nod to coach (Brad) Korn because he's younger than I am.  But if you have us all playing at the same time, and we all compete and we'll all battle each other.   Coach Korn can still play.  Marcus Belcher can still play.  Koby Altman, who we just brought in from New York, he probably has the best crossover out of anybody in this program.  Including Kevin Dillard and Kendal Brown.

Matter of fact, it depends on what day you catch us on because I can still play and I'm a good defender.  Whichever day you catch us on, that's the best player for that day.

Q:  You mentioned Koby Altman from New York, and you're a Chicago guy.  Who's got the better basketball scene?

A:  Being from Chicago, I'm going to say Chicago.  We don't like to give New York credit for anything, they don't like to give us credit for anything.  I used to work for a coach by the name of Matt Doherty, who's from Long Island (N.Y.), and we used to always talk about who had the better players.  He used to throw out Kareem, Michael Jordan.  And I used to throw out Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre.

But if I'm from Chicago and don't say Chicago has the best players, (Chicagoans) will say I'm not from Chicago.  So I'll say Chicago has the best players.

Q:  When you're out recruiting, what do you look for specifically in a player?

A:  It depends the head coach I'm working for, because certain head coaches can coach certain style of players.  Coach Lowery likes tough, physical players.  He likes guys that are good athletes.  Now, we're looking at athletes that can score a little bit.

Number one, you have to make sure he's a good student first and foremost.  On the court, I look for toughness.  If I think you have a hint of softness in you, I'm not going to recruit you because you can't play for Coach Lowery.  We like players that are athletes and we like guys who are versatile that can play more than one position.

We're starting to like big guys that can run a little bit like Nick Evans.  He's basically the prototypical five-man that can run the floor, play both ends of the court and block shots.

Q:  How do you sell a recruit on coming to Southern Illinois and compete with the Big 10 schools, Big 12 schools and SEC schools of the area?

A:  When you've won six of the last eight Missouri Valley Conference championships, one thing you try to touch on is winning.  Kids like winning.  Going to a Sweet 16 a couple of years ago and being on TV.  They understand Coach Lowery is a marketable coach because he's been winning and everybody says he's a fabulous coach.

That's how you market SIU.  When you've got one of the top business programs, you've got to market academics as well. 

But the main thing the kids want to hear, believe it or not, they want to hear if you're winning.  If you're winning, that's trendy now.  Losing is tough to sell, but when your winning, you can always sell that first.

Q:  Talk about your coaching history a little here.

A:  I come from a heck of a coaching tree.  My father used to coach and coached AAU basketball when I was little.  So, growing up with him I always mention him first.  My brother Byron played in the NBA and he coached in the (NBA) D-League.  (Ed. Note: Lance's brother Nick Irvin is the head coach at Morgan Park High School in Chicago.)

 Larry Eustachy, I played for him at Idaho and I worked for him too.  I worked for Larry Farmer who played for John Wooden and took me to see Coach Wooden.  Quin Snyder worked for Duke and worked for Coach K.  Having the opportunity ot learn with different coachces that know so many different things, it's great.

Then there's the Matt Doherty tree, a North Carolina guy.  I coached under Tom Richardson, who I worked for at Illinois State, he worked for Coach Stallings at Vandy, who was a Purdue guy under Coach Keady.

Yeah, it's a lot of schools, but I wouldn't trade my experience for the world because I've learned a lot of basketball.

Q:  Do you ever think you're in your dad shadows?  A lot of times, that's the first thing that gets brought up when your name is mentioned.

A:  I wouldn't call it a shadow because my dad raised me to be my own man, but he did a great job putting me and my brothers out there in the world and get to where we're trying to go.  I think most fathers would love to help their sons.  Mayor Daley helped his son.  Jesse Jackson helped his son.  Having my father help me is huge.

I'm going to help my daughter Brooklyn, so I think every father should help to love their sons.

Q:  Now, I'm going to be very (Ed.: italics = emphasis) careful with this question.  Your dad runs a very prestigious AAU program.  Are there players on that program that can help SIU?

A:  I think so because it's a program that has been winning for the past 20 years.  As much as we've won over the years, sure there are players that can help SIU.  Just like Mike Mullins, who has a great AAU program that can help SIU.

My job is to find good student athletes.  Whether it's my father's team, Mike Mullins' team, whoever.  I'm going to recruit palyers on anybody's team that can play. 

Q:  Will SIU see any of those players and what are the chances?

A:  We'll see.  I'll say yeah.  We've had players that have played for my dad's program.  Tony Freeman played.  Ryan Hare played.  We'll probably see some in the near future, but nobody knows what the future holds.

Our job is to bring in quality players in no matter where they're from.  I'm not just going to be pigeon-holed as being a Chicago guy, I've been doing this for a long time.  Throughout my career I worked in Texas.  I recruited players from Dallas.  I've been to California to sign players.  I've been to Portaland to recruit players, New Orleans.
 

I can, and will, travel all over the country to sign a player.  I think that's the biggest misconception about me because I'm from Chicago.  If you're going to make a career out of this business, you better have some contacts somewhere else just in case that area dries up.

So, if I want to feed my wife and my daughter like I promised my wife's father I would, and my mother, you've got to recruit other areas.

Q:  What's the best part of the Chicago basketball scene?

A:  The best part is knowing we have the reputation of playing hard and playing tough.  Anytinme you come across people that ask about Chicago, one of the first things they say is that we want guys from Chicago because they're tough and they understand the game.

When I was little, I had the opportunity to play against Tim Haradaway, Maurice Cheeks, Mark Aguirre, guys like Nick Anderson.  There's always somebody that's really, really good that you're going to have to play against.  And you better be able to play and you better be tough.  We don't mind knocking you down and if you're out there crying and hollering for a foul, you're not going to get a foul.

It toughens you up.  Also, people in Chicago are real critical, too and they'll heckle you if you're not playing hard. They'll get you mentally and physically too.

Q:  Is the ultimate goal to become a head coach?

A:  Yeah.  That is the ultimate coach.  I joke with the players that when I eventually get  my own job, with 19:55 left in the first half, I'm calling a time out because I can finally call my own time out.  A goal of mine is to be a head coach, and like most assistants, we all want to be the head coach.

Quick Hitters:

Q:  Favorite basketball movie:  I was going to say "Love and Basketball" but I'm going to say "Cooley High."

Q:  Most obscure place you went to see a recruit:  That's a great question.  I went to a small high school on the border of New Mexico.  I also remember going somewhere in Maine where it was so cold.  Oh, was it cold.  I can't think of the city, but I remember it was cold.  I got sick immediately; as soon as I got back to Chicago.  I was sick for three or four days after that.

I used to drive through a county near Wichita, Kansas and there's a little dirt road you can only go one way both ways and if you went over the 45 speed limit, you were going to get a ticket.  But I never got one because I drove real slow.

My first recruiting experience, I went on the road and was supposed to get the kid that lived by Fairfield University.  I got lost.  Didn't know where I was going.  Drove around 45 minutes to an hour.  I finally called a cab, it came and got me, took me to the young man's house and took me to the game.

Q:  The team you would like SIU to schedule?  Who do you want to play?  I want to play U of I (Illinois).  It's a Big Ten school and it's close.  I wouldn't mind playing them.  I think the fans would love that game.  What do you think?

Q:  Anyone outside of Illinois?  I love the warm weather, so I'd like to play Arizona.

Q:  Best high school basketball player you've ever seen?  Ben Wilson.  He was a couple of years older than me, he ended up getting shot in Chicago his senior year.  He was the No. 1 player in the nation.  He could do the stuff Magic Johnson was doing.  And knowing him, it was a shame. 

He could shoot the basketball, he could pass, he had handles.  If you ask most people in Chicago who was their top two or three basketball players of all time, they're going to say Ben Wilson.

Q:  Final question:  If Ronnie Fields never gets injured... (Irvin laughs) I'd still be at DePaul.  (Laughs)  I mean, we signed Ronnie Fields when I was there and that was when we had started getting Chicago players again with Coach Joey Meyer.

I might still be at DePaul or I might be the head coach, you never know.  But everything happens for a reason, it just made my experiences a little bit better.

(Editor's Note:  After the interview, Irvin indicated to TBDS that Ryan Hare would be enrolling in Southeastern Iowa Community College and will continue his basketball and educational career there.  Irvin said Hare has moved on from the situation that caused him to be dismissed from the Saluki basketball team.

We here at TBDS wish Mr. Hare good luck in his future endeavors.)