Editor’s Note: For the last few years, we have reached out to all of UVa’s three assistant hoops coaches to do a question and answer feature to talk about the end of the previous year, the offseason, and the opener ahead. Today we run the second of those interviews as we talk with assistant coach Brad Soderberg. If you haven’t, check out the first Q&A in this year's series with associate head coach Jason Williford.
A year ago when we did this, we were talking about how after the UMBC loss you woke up early and couldn’t sleep so you went out to the lobby of the hotel and got a coffee and started thinking about the way you guys were going to have to own that thing, that you couldn’t run from it. Now, here you are a year later and you’re coming off what I assume was the greatest moment in your career. So I’m going to ask you to look back on that day after. What was it like? And what have the last few months been like since then?
To say that the difference was stark is the biggest understatement of history. You hit the head with the way you asked the question. It was the pinnacle of my 34 years in coaching by far and I think that any coach who has gone through it would say the same thing. When you follow up a year where you have arguably the most painful loss of your career and then you get to the mountaintop, I think it adds something even more special to the national championship. I don’t think you can properly describe the exhilaration of that win in light of what happened the year before. And how has life been since then? Well, I hate to disappoint anybody but it’s kind of back to normal. Really, it is. We had this great thrill of the win and the ceremony in Scott Stadium, and the banner raising I’ll never forget that of course. But shortly after we got home from the Final Four, we’re back recruiting based on the NCAA allotted days and the open events. You’re just right back at it. So, not that much difference.
To go from that experience in defeat to the pinnacle like you said, how did that help to frame things for you and give you perspective both in terms of the pursuit of a championship but also the way basketball and coaching and life all fit together? How have the last two years changed you?
I don’t think it’s changed me but it’s validated a lot of things that I had been taught by my own father, who was a high school basketball coach, by Dick Bennett, who was my college basketball coach and then who I assisted in Wisconsin, and now from everything Tony (Bennett) has built at UVa. What I mean by that is that Coach talks often about the ability to find young men that you can lose with. When you first hear that, it kind of makes you roll your eyes. You think, ‘What are you talking about? Find guys you can lose with?!’ But his point is very, very much on point in that no matter who you are as a coach or player there are going to be times when things just go south. Hopefully, not to the extent they went south for us a year ago but the point is that you have to keep chipping, keep knocking, keep doing what you do. You have to enjoy the process and trust it. So, to me the national championship was more of a validation of everything that I’ve learned and seen from the Bennetts and the people that I’ve been around in this business.
The noise among national media types had been that UVa’s style couldn’t win in the postseason. 'They can’t do it.' Once you guys, for lack of a better description, slayed that dragon, what’s next after that? As you look at this season and this roster, what do you see from this group and what are the challenges you have to navigate?
I never felt like we needed to slay a dragon. I’ve always been very comfortable with the “Bennett Way” as I call it because I’ve been with two Bennetts now. But I feel like it’s not a better or a worse way to play. It’s just a way to play and in some situations, it allows those rosters that aren’t dripping with McDonald’s All-Americans to have a chance to win. If people have a problem with it, that’s more their problem than ours. So, I don’t really think we slayed a dragon. Specifically to what’s at hand, I think what’s really positive is that we’ve got four guys in Kihei (Clark), Mamadi (Diakite), Braxton (Key), and Jay (Huff) who have logged a lot of quality minutes in very intense settings in very high-pressure situations. From there, however, our experience drops at a big level. I’m not saying there aren’t talented kids on our roster because there are. They just haven’t played. Beyond those four guys, we’ve got guys who have either never stepped into a college game or have played very few minutes. So here’s what the crux of the issue is: The proverbial target on your back is definitely there but do we have enough firepower to fend that off? That question will be answered as we go along.
Offensively, this is going to have to be a different team given what you lost from the perimeter. I don’t think it’s wrong to say you’re a year early in terms of being able to have your roster withstand those kinds of losses. This is a program that historically brings guys along so that you can do it that way. You’re probably a year away from where you would normally be. So in terms of offense, how do you frame what you need from these guys versus what you got from your roster last year?
I think fans who follow us closely could answer that one very easily because it’s clear that a year ago the Big Three, for lack of a better description, were perimeter players. Now, if you took a survey of who people think will be our top two scorers this year they’re both primarily interior players in Mamadi and Jay. So, right there, you can see that you’re going to have to do things differently than we have. But what we can’t do differently is be unsound with the ball, try to force a pace that’s not comfortable for us. We can’t all of a sudden be who we’re not. We can’t take shots that are marginally good shots. We have to be really sound with the ball and be willing to do what’s necessary, be it wait for a shot or shoot early if it’s there. I think it’s going to be much more difficult late in shot clocks to get shots. I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge.
You mentioned Jay and Mamadi and the shift to the inside. I know a lot of folks focus on losing the Big Three but losing Jack Salt was also a fairly big deal not just from a leadership standpoint but also a physicality standpoint. He really was essential and helped you guys set the tone sometimes. In your opinion, is it fair to expect Francisco Caffaro to be that way right away this season? Where is he in terms of his development in terms of being close to that standard?
First of all, I’m so happy that you just recognized Jack the way you did because his part in what happened for our program can’t be understated. He was such a big brother to everyone and kind of a guy that made sure that what Coach Bennett stood for took place every day in practice, every day on the court. I’m really glad you said that. I think that there could be many, many similarities to Jack in the years to come for Big Papi plus the ability to score a little bit more efficiently around the basket. To me, that’s very exciting. I think right now the only difference is that he’s got to get to a place where he’s constant. See, Jack never stopped playing. That was, to me, his biggest thing. Yeah, he was built like a wall and he could knock a guy down at any time in the game. But the thing that really stood out to me was that he was the most continuous player I’ve ever seen. He’d dive on the floor and then block a shot and then run the floor and run back on D. He was continuous. And I think that’s something that Francisco has to learn in order for him to be at his best. As it relates to being willing to lay his body on the line and be physical and wanting to play physically, I think that’s an area where he’s going to be just tremendous for us in time.
Last one: You mentioned a minute ago that you have a lot of new faces that include “new” guys and guys who just haven’t played a lot of college basketball or haven’t played a large role. Of those young kids, what have you seen from them so far in practices and what has stood out to you about that group?
What I’ve seen is a great, great willingness and desire to do what we want them to do. They want to be a part of this system. I don’t mean compliant in the sense that they’re robots or anything like that but they are compliant in that they genuinely want to keep this thing going and they’re so attentive to everything that’s said by the coaches. That has struck me the most, honestly. Each of them has something that is special. For example, I think Casey Morsell has a chance to be a tremendous on-ball defender. When I see him get in a stance, it just looks right because he’s already so put together physically for a first-year. That’s exciting to me. So when the other parts of his game develop, he’s got a chance to be special. I think Kody Stattmann, even though he's not a first-year, he's still a young guy who we need to lean on some this year and the book’s still out on him a little bit. He’s 6-foot-7 and he plays comfortably on the perimeter, has the ability to get to the rim off the dribble really well and finish above the rim. His shot has not been where we’d hoped it would be day in and day out but he certainly has that ability and has a beautiful stroke. Hopefully as time goes on, that thing will fall in. I think Justin McKoy, the energy that he’s brought on the offensive glass, hit attentiveness to what we’re trying to do, his intensity, it’s all been special. It’s now just a matter of time until he understands all the bells and whistles of the Bennett system. And lastly, Kadin Shedrick, he’s had some stretches where you’re like ‘Whoa, this kid could be really good’ and then he has some moments where he looks like a first-year. But I think there’s a lot of excitement among our young players but as you pointed out earlier in this interview, because we had three underclassmen leave for the NBA, these guys might not get the normal maturation that those guys got when they had older guys ahead of them. So, it’s going to be an interesting year to say the least.
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