Dan Dickau answers your questions on the latest episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - What's happening everybody, Christian Pedersen
00:03 joined by Dan Dickow back for another episode
00:05 of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:07 You're catching us on a mailbag edition.
00:08 This is where we take fan submitted questions
00:11 that you guys have sent to us on social media
00:13 at fan nation zags.
00:15 I'm just gonna start saying all of the apps
00:18 because I'm tired of keeping up with the artists
00:21 formerly known as Twitter and if now threads
00:24 and all of the apps.
00:25 Our social media person is amazing.
00:28 The content is everywhere.
00:29 You can also just get us on the website.
00:31 Dan, let's answer some questions.
00:34 People wanna know a lot of different things
00:36 and one of them that got sent in,
00:37 I thought it was kind of interesting.
00:39 They wanna know what's going on with coach few and team USA.
00:42 He seems like he's the only college guy involved
00:45 in this whole thing 'cause coach K is now retired
00:49 but what exactly is his role?
00:51 'Cause this seems like a pretty big honor.
00:53 - Oh, it's an incredible honor when you look at it.
00:55 So team USA, coach K led it for a number of years
01:00 and there would be a few college coaches,
01:04 a few NBA coaches that would typically join the bench
01:08 and help out.
01:08 So this year coach few is a part of Steve Kerr's staff.
01:13 So Steve Kerr, obviously one of the most celebrated players,
01:18 coaches in NBA history, Golden State Warriors head coach.
01:22 He's now the head coach of team USA running things
01:25 and his three assistant coaches are coach few, Ty Lou,
01:30 who's coached in a number of NBA finals
01:32 as a young coach in the NBA and Eric Spolstra,
01:36 who's won NBA titles, who's a future hall of famer.
01:38 So it just kind of shows you the amount of credibility,
01:41 the amount of respect that coach few has
01:45 amongst the basketball world
01:47 and the best of the best he's included in.
01:50 And I think what it shows you is just
01:53 how he's grown as a coach.
01:56 He has been part of some of the different team USA teams
02:00 in the past at other levels,
02:02 but now this is the men's senior national team.
02:05 So this is essentially a stepping stone
02:08 to be able to be a part of a coaching staff in the Olympics,
02:11 which when you think about it, that's pretty dang cool.
02:14 So it's an impressive thing to put on his resume.
02:18 He's definitely earned it,
02:19 but his role as an assistant is now much different
02:23 than it is for him at Gonzaga.
02:26 If you kind of watch some of the clips of practices
02:29 and workouts leading up to their games,
02:32 you're gonna see him in a whole different role
02:34 than you would see him at Gonzaga,
02:35 where he'll be shagging balls,
02:38 he'll be rebounding for guys,
02:39 he'll be in drills where at Gonzaga practices,
02:42 he's the one kind of occasionally doing,
02:45 showing things in drills, but he's not rebounding for guys.
02:48 In the Gonzaga role, he's typically putting people,
02:52 coaches, managers, et cetera,
02:54 in positions to go through drill work, skill work,
02:57 how he sees it fit.
02:59 In Team USA, he's immersing himself in an all new role.
03:02 And I think that's good
03:04 because you never wanna stop learning.
03:06 And I think for Coach Pheu
03:08 to be around those other three high-level coaches,
03:10 be around the game with a different viewpoint
03:14 of international basketball and how they play,
03:16 I think it's only gonna enhance his productivity
03:20 and how good of a coach he is at Gonzaga.
03:22 - I'd be curious, you know Coach Pheu decently well,
03:24 do you think that having that break to go shag balls
03:28 and play that different role
03:29 is something that he is struggling with,
03:31 letting go of the team and he wants to be in control,
03:33 or do you think this is a nice little break for him?
03:35 - No, he definitely views it as an honor.
03:38 I mean, look at it this way.
03:40 I mean, if you don't want to take on the,
03:45 added, expectation is not the right word,
03:47 but if you don't want to accept the honor
03:50 of being a part of something, it's very easy to say no
03:53 and keep six extra weeks of your summer.
03:56 We all know how he loves to fish and do different things,
03:59 but he's got a tremendous amount of pride in his country.
04:02 He takes the invitations from USA Basketball
04:06 with a lot of honor.
04:07 And so he wants to join and represent our country.
04:10 And I think that's unbelievable to hear.
04:13 And I think that's unbelievable to hear and see
04:16 and to know that he wants to take, you know,
04:19 four, five, six weeks, whatever it ends up being
04:21 out of his summer and being a part of it.
04:23 - And if you said this is truly a stepping stone
04:25 to being on that Olympic coaching staff,
04:27 an Olympic gold medal probably helps in Gonzaga recruiting.
04:30 So it all feeds back to that same thing.
04:32 Last week on a podcast,
04:34 we talked about how the tournament schedule,
04:37 the season opening tournament, not the March tournament,
04:40 the season opening tournament schedules
04:41 have started to come out and Gonzaga knows
04:43 that they're headed to Maui.
04:45 And we had some people writing in,
04:46 when is the rest of the schedule
04:47 gonna be coming out for Gonzaga?
04:49 - Well, speaking of that Maui Invitational Tournament,
04:52 unfortunately, with all the devastation
04:54 of the wildfires in Maui
04:56 and prayers and heartfelt thoughts go out there,
05:00 that's just devastating.
05:02 Who knows where that tournament's held this year?
05:05 You know, I have not seen anything in regards to
05:07 if the line of Civic Center escaped the fires.
05:11 I haven't seen anything yet
05:14 that they're talking about moving locations.
05:16 I know during COVID, the Maui Invitational was played.
05:20 I believe it was in North Carolina one year
05:23 and then the other year it was in Las Vegas,
05:25 I know for sure, but we'll see what happens there.
05:28 But in regards to the rest of the schedule
05:30 for Gonzaga and when it will be released,
05:32 I would imagine in the next two weeks or so,
05:36 you know, typically Gonzaga has been
05:38 one of the later schools that I can remember
05:41 in releasing their schedule.
05:44 Many times it's because they got
05:45 so many different moving parts
05:47 and the moving parts are scheduling of high level games
05:51 that are made for TV.
05:53 So it would be, you know,
05:55 lining up the two schools schedule with an ESPN
05:58 or with a CBS for a neutral site location.
06:01 And then to add one more layer to that,
06:04 you gotta make sure that the arena
06:06 that you want to play in and the location
06:07 it has an available date.
06:09 So for example, I know Gonzaga played a few years back
06:11 in the Jerry Colantulo Classic in Phoenix.
06:14 Well, that arena is where the Phoenix Suns play.
06:17 So it's not as easy as,
06:19 hey, I wanna play this school on this date.
06:23 It has to line up with the arena schedules
06:25 and the location schedules as well.
06:27 And so that's one reason because Gonzaga has always had
06:29 so many kind of moving parts of their schedule.
06:31 It's been announced and released later,
06:34 but you see most of the WCC's now schedule now
06:39 have been out for the non-conference.
06:41 So, you know, that usually gets released first
06:46 and then the school's WCC schedule
06:49 with the league comes up with
06:51 is announced shortly thereafter.
06:52 - All right, so right around the corner.
06:55 Final question that we got this week,
06:57 and remember you can follow us wherever you get your podcasts
06:59 by searching for Gonzaga Nation.
07:01 You can also subscribe everywhere
07:02 on all of the social media apps at Fan Nation Zags.
07:06 You can send your questions to any of those.
07:07 You can send it to Dan directly at DanDickOut21.
07:11 Dan, somebody wants to know,
07:14 what do you think's gonna get this last scholarship spot
07:16 for this year's squad?
07:17 - Yeah, there's one more scholarship left
07:21 and you've seen Gonzaga at times leave an open scholarship.
07:25 You've seen many other schools leave a scholarship open.
07:30 And a couple of reasons why is you never know
07:33 you might reward a scholarship player
07:36 early on in the school year
07:38 if they've made tremendous strides
07:40 or they're becoming kind of a piece of the program
07:43 that you wanna reward.
07:45 Many times you wanna keep a scholarship open
07:49 because in the transfer portal these days, you never know.
07:52 Somebody might be frustrated
07:54 and decide to transfer halfway through the season.
07:58 And if you have an open scholarship available,
08:02 you can take advantage of that
08:04 and bring on another talented player.
08:06 So I don't see any more movement going right now
08:08 in regards to Gonzaga adding a player
08:10 between now and the start of school.
08:12 But that being said, it's happened before.
08:15 - I like just keeping one in your pocket.
08:17 I had not conceived of that.
08:18 I thought that, okay, like they got all the scholarships,
08:20 they gotta use them, but no, play that one close to the vest,
08:22 just keep it as a just in case.
08:24 Those are all the questions we got for you this week, Dan,
08:26 on the mailbag edition of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
08:29 Make sure you guys subscribe to Gonzaga Nation,
08:31 leave a five-star review,
08:33 and talk to you guys next time we get.
08:37 Any more basketball news?
08:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]