Boston College Athletics
Men's Basketball Coach Steve Donahue Speaks
May 22, 2010 | Men's Basketball
May 22, 2010
Boston College's new men's basketball coach Steve Donahue sat down to answer some questions and outline his plans for the future of the program.
Talk about your first six weeks on the job. What has been the biggest change/adjustment from Cornell to BC?
It's hard to just look at it as Boston College and my transition here. It also involves a lot of personal transition and that's a large part of my life - and for my assistants as well. It involves moving, finding a house and getting acclimated to the area. That all plays in to the things that I'm trying to do. With the team, I think getting to know the guys very well and their getting to know me. We're trying to build up trust and develop a connection with each other - and that means the players and the coaches. I think that's been the biggest challenge. It's all new for the players and the coaches.
Can you offer your thoughts on the players in the program? Any early impressions?
I think we have a group that wants to be really good. They've been very open to everything that I've suggested and things that we implemented in the offseason. I think we have really good specific goals to make these kids better on and off the basketball court, and I've been very happy with how they've been received and how they're proceeding to make those things happen. I think that's a big step for this group. The guys who have stayed with us are looking to get better in every aspect of Boston College basketball.
Can you talk about the departures of Rakim Sanders, Brady Heslip and Evan Ravenel?
I think each situation is different. I respect all of their opinions and the options that they wanted to take to move forward. They felt that for them it was better to leave our program. As a new guy coming in, I respect their wanting to do that. I almost respect it even more that they didn't feel that they would want to be a part of this and they let it be known early on so they don't stop our progress, as opposed to someone who's going to linger and knows it's probably not the right situation. I think that all three players made great decisions for themselves and it helped us in turn to go forward without them. I wish them nothing but the best and I think all three have tremendous futures ahead of them. I expect that they'll do very good things wherever they may continue their education.
Recruiting is obviously an important part of college basketball. What do you see as the greatest selling points of Boston College?
I think, first and foremost, when you're talking about Boston College, you're talking about one of the greatest academic institutions in the country. This is not only important to a student-athlete for his four years here, but for the 40 years that they're not here. I think that's our greatest selling point - that you can go anywhere in the world and people understand what a great education you received. That's the type of student-athlete that we want in our program, someone that values that greatly. I also love the aspect that we're in a city that can attract kids from all over the world because of Boston's reputation, its cultural options, and the vibrant environment that exists in this city. I think that can attract great people as well. And, obviously, for sure, there's the lure of the ACC. For a kid who wants to be challenged athletically and achieve great things at the highest level, I don't think there's anything better than the ACC.
Is there a certain type of player that you'll be looking to bring into the program?
It's not a specific type of player. It's a specific characteristic. I love kids who are "energy givers" as opposed to "energy drainers". I love kids who have a great passion for basketball, a great passion for being a great teammate and who want the best for Boston College basketball, more than their individual accolades. I'm looking for that type of individual to help us move this program forward. There are a lot of other things that we look for in terms of basketball specific, but those are the type of kids that I want to coach.
Do you have plans to bring in any other players before the start of the 2010-11 season?
Here's what I'll say. We are in what I call "Code Red". Recruit every day. The lifeline of our program is recruiting. Players make your program. We are doing everything we can every minute of the day, in terms of recruiting, to make our program better. We will do everything we can to make sure that we're looking at every avenue to find the right fit for Boston College in this class and I'm confident that we'll be able to do that.
Everyone here - and across the country - was wrapped up in your Cornell team's success this past season and its run in the NCAA Tournament. What can BC fans take from that team? What style of play - offensively and defensively - do you plan to bring to Boston College?
I think what caught the imagination of the basketball fan with our team was, the comment I always got was, it was fun to watch. I would hope that people enjoy basketball being played unselfishly, with great passion, hard work, perseverance and all of the unselfishness that exists on offense and defense. I think that's what the players that played for Cornell performed like this year. The style of play for us will be one where we continually talk about playing fast. What I mean by that is I'm going to find players that obviously push the basketball on the offensive end and make quick decisions with the ball. It doesn't necessarily mean taking quick, bad shots. We're going to take a good shot as quickly as we can, and continually put pressure on the defense before it's set. It doesn't mean I need the most athletic guys, but I need a very high skill level, a very high cardio conditioning level and a very good athlete to perform this way. On the defensive end, I think you'll see a group that plays to the strength of our personnel, but we will vary our stuff quite a bit. I think it fits the way we play on offense. We'll have intelligent players who are able to switch the defense from 3/4 court pressure to halfcourt to our standard man to man. You'll see, when it's all said and done, 75 percent of it will be man to man. That's my assumption right now, but I believe BC fans will see a brand of basketball that's fun to watch, that's unselfish, that relies heavily on skill and toughness with kids who can play athletically in the ACC.
What are the biggest changes you'll bring to the basketball program?
It's hard for me to speak in terms of changes because I've never been here. Everybody that follows Boston College basketball closely knows Boston College basketball better than I do. What I'd hope you would do is see a team that you can be very proud of in every aspect of how they go about their business - whether that's on the court, in the classroom, in the community. Every aspect of it I would hope that people would understand that we're recruiting kids that play to the image of Boston College. That's very important to me that we do all those things as we are successful on the basketball court.
Can you give us some insights into Steve Donahue? What makes you tick?
I don't like talking about myself so that's hard. Honestly, me personally, I think I'm an open book. I try to treat people like I would want to be treated. I love every aspect of being a basketball coach. I love the teaching. I love the relationships. I love that it's a group of guys working together to overcome obstacles. That's what drives me. All the other things are really nice. I love that people feel proud of Boston College basketball if we are successful, but that's not necessarily why I coach. I coach for the intrinsic values that I get daily by working with young people. My life is pretty simple. I have a great family that I love spending time with. I'm raising four kids and I'm enjoying them and, obviously, my second family is Boston College basketball.
Can you talk a little bit about your staff?
It's extremely important to me that we have great role models for our players and not just guys who will talk the talk, but will live it day in and day out. These players will see tremendous family men, husbands, fathers, mentors and teachers. They will lead by example. I think as the Boston College community gets to know these guys they'll understand what I'm talking about.
Joe Jones was a head coach at Columbia, a very difficult place to win, and he brought them to the top of the Ivy League in terms of wins. He got Columbia in the upper echelon year in and year out. He does a tremendous job mentoring kids. I always thought his teams played extremely hard, unselfishly. Going against him in recruiting and knowing his personality, I couldn't imagine anyone being a better recruiter for Boston College. Joe is a terrific relations builder, a person who reaches out to people. He's extremely unselfish and egoless. I think he'll be an incredible coach for us.
Nat Graham - I coached him as a player at the University of Pennsylvania and worked with him the last five years at Cornell. He's extremely intelligent and has an incredible ability to gather information, evaluate talent and develop relationships in recruiting. Nat is someone who gets the most pleasure out of teaching the game of basketball on the floor. There are not a lot of other things that he loves more than working with kids, making them better. I think you'll see tremendous individual improvement in our players as the season goes along and one of those reasons will be because of Nat's ability to teach the game.
I've known Akbar Waheed for 11 years. He was an assistant at Niagara after playing there. He made a huge impression on me as I got to know him. I never even talked about, if I ever got a job, would I hire him, but he was always a guy that I thought would be a tremendous addition to our staff if I had the opportunity. He's a tremendous role model for kids. He has a great work ethic. He has an outstanding ability to recruit and form meaningful relationships. I think he'll be a great teacher of the game. I just don't know that because I haven't worked with him.
Woody Kampmann comes here after spending three years as an assistant coach. He's a great organizer. I thought he did an incredible job at Cornell in organizing our underclass recruiting. He's a diligent worker. He has a tremendous ability to follow up throughout the recruiting process, overturning every stone that needs to be overturned. He's someone who can run our recruiting from an organizational point because he can't have contact with recruits. He's someone who will really do a great job organizing our procedures as we go to recruit - for all the assistants and me. Woody is also another great role model for our guys.
