On the latest episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast, former Zags' All-American Dan Dickau talks about how Gonzaga players are utilizing their final days of the offseason.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hey everybody, it's Christian Pedersen
00:04 joined by Dan Dekau back for another
00:05 Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:07 And this one, like we actually are coming to you
00:12 with what I feel like is we've reached a major milestone.
00:16 And that is summer break is almost over.
00:19 School is almost back in session
00:21 and therefore the college basketball season
00:24 is almost about to begin.
00:25 And Dan, you mentioned last week
00:27 when we were on the show talking about
00:30 kind of where we were in the craziness of all this summer.
00:34 And you were mentioning the players were off
00:36 on their own last little like stretch of summer break
00:39 before coming back and getting locked into camp
00:41 and getting things started with the school year.
00:44 So I'm curious, like, can we tell people
00:47 that like college basketball season
00:49 is like almost right around the corner, yeah?
00:52 - Yeah, I mean, we can start saying
00:53 it's right around the corner.
00:54 I know it's less than 11 weeks away from the first game.
00:59 So less than 80 days, 75 days-ish
01:04 till the first true game of the season.
01:06 I think my math is right if I look at that.
01:10 So, you know, let me look at that real quick.
01:13 We got all of September, all of October,
01:15 first games usually around the sixth.
01:17 Yeah, we're right there about the 75 day mark.
01:20 So it is right there.
01:21 When you say end of summer, you know,
01:23 I think this is an important time for players
01:25 to just get away, you know.
01:28 Nowadays, and we've talked about this
01:29 a number of different times on different podcasts.
01:32 Nowadays, there's so much control
01:33 in the world of college basketball
01:35 with summer school, with practices,
01:38 with individual workouts and strength workouts.
01:41 The coaches have their fingertips on guys
01:44 literally, you know, 24 hours a day
01:46 in regards to their schedule.
01:47 You know, so it's a great chance for them to get home,
01:50 hang out with friends, hang out with family,
01:52 clear their mind, get in the gym
01:55 and just be creative with it.
01:56 I think that's a big thing that's missing these days
01:59 for a lot of players is just the mindfulness
02:02 of being creative to impact your own future in your game,
02:06 I think is missing.
02:07 But, you know, you look at Gonzaga's roster
02:09 and follow some of the guys on social media,
02:12 like Nolan Hickman, he's back in the Seattle area.
02:15 He just ran a camp for kids
02:19 through his Give Back Foundation.
02:20 So he's doing positive things.
02:22 Ben Gregg was playing in the Portland Pro-Am
02:24 a week or the last couple of weekends down in Portland
02:27 where former zag Kyle Wilter plays
02:29 and some other really good players play.
02:31 But he also kind of did some things.
02:34 He's doing a backpack raise for kids
02:38 in that Portland Clackamas area where he grew up
02:41 to kind of give back
02:41 and help them get ready for school.
02:43 So chance to get back, get away from the core group
02:46 that you're gonna spend.
02:47 I mean, literally, if you think about it,
02:49 you know, guys will start trickling in
02:51 right before Labor Day.
02:52 School starts at Gonzaga right after Labor Day.
02:54 So this is probably their last full week at home.
02:59 So it is the end of summer.
03:00 And once you hit that September mark in practice,
03:05 there's classes starting, all that.
03:06 I mean, you basically, the team is your family.
03:10 You see them every day for hours on end,
03:13 September, October, November, December, January, February,
03:17 hopefully deep into March.
03:18 And if things all go well, portions of April.
03:21 So you're talking about a good seven, eight month stretch
03:24 with the same guys.
03:25 And so it's very important that guys are getting a break
03:30 so they're refreshed coming back to Spokane.
03:33 - Pretty awesome though that you mentioned in all of that,
03:36 that these guys are taking their time off
03:39 to do charitable efforts and give back.
03:41 And that really seems like, you know,
03:43 it's kind of leadership and qualities that you want in kids
03:46 on your roster.
03:48 - Yeah, Coach Few's always done a good job
03:51 of finding high character guys.
03:53 There's a phrase that's spoken a lot in Gonzaga circles,
03:58 he's a zag or they're a zag.
04:01 And a lot of it has to do with team over me
04:05 and understanding that, you know,
04:06 there are other parts to your experience at Gonzaga
04:11 other than just putting the ball in the basket.
04:13 And we've seen that from a number of different guys
04:16 over the years.
04:16 You know, a recent great example of that
04:18 would be Roger Bolton and some of the things
04:20 that he was doing in the community
04:22 in his short two years here.
04:23 So, you know, I think that's something that many times
04:27 when people look at, hey, who's Gonzaga recruiting?
04:29 Oh, maybe he's, you know,
04:30 he doesn't fit a fan's particular eye,
04:35 but Coach Few and staff look at the big picture.
04:37 Like what's the skillset?
04:38 What's the character?
04:40 How do they fit in together?
04:42 And how are they gonna, you know,
04:44 be a big part of what we do?
04:45 And hopefully, you know, impact positively what they do.
04:50 And so I think Gonzaga does a nice job of looking into,
04:53 you know, all facets of a player
04:54 during the recruiting process.
04:56 - When it certainly is interesting,
04:58 or it's always a great opportunity at least
04:59 to highlight the good moments of social media
05:01 and being able to follow these kids.
05:03 Normally it's social media is what gets them in trouble
05:05 or yada yada.
05:06 I like, it's a lot of bad cliches for a reason.
05:08 And it's great to see them being able to post this.
05:11 It's also though, you know,
05:14 the kids don't ever really fully unplug
05:16 maybe the way that you were able to in your day
05:19 and or get away from it.
05:20 But with them coming back in about a week or so,
05:24 maybe two to get really dialed in,
05:26 like what do those first, you know, what is it?
05:29 Five practices, 10 practices,
05:31 like what are those first couple of weeks on campus
05:34 for the Gonzaga team look like?
05:35 - Yeah, it's really changed over the years.
05:37 I mean, you know, 20 years ago and even, you know,
05:40 12 years, 10 years ago, you know, you get back to school,
05:44 you do your conditioning tests,
05:45 you start up with individual workouts
05:46 and you play open gym probably three to four days a week.
05:51 And then you have your strength conditioning workouts
05:54 probably three days a week.
05:55 Now with the way the NCAA has changed their calendars
06:00 in regards to where coaches can be hands-on, you know,
06:04 you can, you still get your strength
06:05 and conditioning workouts.
06:06 You still have your open gyms.
06:08 You still have your individual workouts.
06:10 But what the NCAA has allowed is they've started
06:13 to allow group workouts a couple of times a week
06:17 and then quickly built into five-on-five practices
06:21 much earlier than years past.
06:22 I mean, it used to be, you know,
06:25 the term midnight madness came about
06:28 because the NCAA had a date where
06:30 it was like a hard and fast,
06:32 okay, October 15th at midnight in your time zone,
06:37 you can start practice.
06:38 And so, you know, many schools took advantage of that
06:43 and said, okay, we're gonna start practice right at 1201.
06:46 Other schools, you know, they're like,
06:48 okay, guys, get your rest.
06:49 We're coming at six for two days
06:51 and we're gonna have two days for the first, you know,
06:53 week of practice and make it a training camp, so to speak,
06:57 based around players' class schedule.
07:01 You know, but that's slightly shifted
07:02 and changed a little bit over the years
07:04 because they've allowed more hands-on work earlier in,
07:08 you know, the school year.
07:09 But, you know, you still see a lot of these schools
07:12 and programs make a big deal
07:14 about a midnight madness type event.
07:16 Kansas is the one that comes to mind the most
07:19 when you hear that name,
07:21 'cause they've always done a good job
07:23 of bringing recruits and Fog Allen,
07:27 or Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas is,
07:30 I've heard stories of how, you know,
07:32 even for a midnight scrimmage,
07:35 it would be sold out, packed,
07:37 a crowd would be going nuts.
07:40 And so that's something that a lot of coaches
07:42 and programs aspire to have, but there's only one Kansas.
07:46 There's only one or two schools
07:47 that can get that type of a response at midnight.
07:51 And they do it to get recruits on campus a lot of times
07:55 and really kind of sell the deal in the recruiting process.
08:00 Now, Gonzaga, they've done the, you know,
08:01 they've done that midnight madness years ago
08:03 when that was the drop-dead date to start.
08:06 You know, over the last eight to 10 years or so,
08:09 they've started up the,
08:10 they call it craziness in the kennel
08:13 where it's essentially,
08:14 hey, we get a few weeks into school,
08:17 usually about a month.
08:18 This is typically, I think, the first weekend in October
08:21 and they line it up with like the Gonzaga school calendar
08:25 where it's a fall family weekend.
08:27 So a lot of families will be coming
08:29 and visiting their college sons and daughters
08:32 for the first time.
08:33 And they kind of have this opportunity
08:35 to see what the kennel is really like.
08:37 Because again, we know a lot of students go to Gonzaga
08:41 because they know about Gonzaga
08:42 through the basketball program.
08:44 So, you know, those are just a couple of things that,
08:46 you know, unique tie-ins to the dates
08:49 and the reasons behind those dates
08:52 and how things have slightly shifted over the years.
08:55 - Fair enough.
08:56 So give the people like,
08:58 where does the,
09:02 how do people get excited right now
09:04 without getting overly excited and wasting it?
09:06 Like, do they need to start paying attention
09:08 in two weeks, in 10 days, like in a month?
09:12 How much more time do the fans have?
09:16 - Well, obviously with us at Gonzaga Nation,
09:19 you know, we try to provide content
09:21 so people are excited year round, you know,
09:24 and give you just enough coverage during the off season
09:26 where you can feel like you stay in the loop
09:28 and you have, you know, some insight
09:30 as to why things happen and how they happen
09:33 and all of the kind of things behind the scenes.
09:37 But, you know, at the same time,
09:40 now that we've got a, you know,
09:44 a clear cut start to a school year
09:48 and that's when people start looking at,
09:50 hey, college football,
09:51 and if you're a true basketball fan,
09:52 basketball's right around the corner.
09:54 So, you know, fans are gonna be, you know,
09:56 tuning in a little bit more to what we do
09:59 and we're providing a lot of content.
10:00 We're currently working with Zags Collective
10:02 as we've talked about,
10:04 where we're gonna be releasing quite a bit of content
10:07 and interviews with the current players.
10:10 You know, we've already recorded a couple of them right now
10:13 for players that are out of the country
10:16 because the NIL rules are unique and different.
10:18 You know, the international players,
10:20 for them to participate in NIL,
10:22 they can't be on United States soil.
10:23 So we're doing some unique, creative ways
10:26 to interview and connect with them
10:29 and help their experience at Gonzaga
10:32 alongside the Zags Collective.
10:34 - I absolutely love that.
10:36 Hopefully you guys are all ready for what is coming.
10:38 Hopefully another great season with Dan and company
10:42 is right around the corner for your enjoyment.
10:44 Make sure you subscribe to Gonzaga Nation
10:45 wherever you get your podcasts.
10:47 Dan, before we let everybody go,
10:49 this is always a WCC-wide themed episode at some point.
10:53 And I just gotta ask,
10:54 is there any last notes on conference change right now?
10:58 It seems like it has settled back down.
11:00 It's fine if there aren't any,
11:01 or you just wanna round it out with that?
11:03 - Yeah, it's settled down for sure,
11:06 but I think a lot of it is, it's gonna happen soon
11:10 because you look at those Pac-4 schools now,
11:12 Oregon State, Washington State,
11:15 you know, they're in the most precarious position.
11:17 They've gotta figure out something
11:19 that makes sense for them quickly
11:21 because nothing against those two schools,
11:25 but they kind of lack the name cache
11:28 and then they also lack the endowments
11:32 and the alumni financial base that a Stanford and a Cal have.
11:35 And that's one of the reasons
11:36 the ACC has been sniffing around Stanford and Cal.
11:40 Would have thought we would have had an answer by now
11:42 if Stanford, Cal were going to the ACC,
11:44 which because there's no answer,
11:45 I would imagine and expect they're not.
11:48 And the last that I read over the weekend was,
11:51 you know, those four schools are trying to stay together
11:54 and figure out, you know, how they can, you know,
11:58 move forward branded as the Pac-something,
12:01 whatever it may be.
12:02 So whether they try to poach some schools from the WAC,
12:05 the Mountain West, it's hard to say,
12:08 but, you know, I don't think this is gonna linger on
12:12 too much longer in regards to those four schools.
12:16 And who knows at that point,
12:17 is there something presented to Gonzaga
12:19 and other WCC schools that makes sense
12:21 maybe to create some unique merger of some sort,
12:26 you know, because that's one of the things
12:27 that I heard floated over the last week or so,
12:29 a Pac-West conference where you have the four packs,
12:32 four schools that are left,
12:34 most or the majority of the WCC now,
12:38 nobody wants to share which schools they don't want
12:41 included in that merger of league.
12:43 And then a few schools from the Mountain West,
12:45 I think that has some really real possibilities,
12:49 but I haven't seen anything that makes me think
12:52 there's anything concrete in the future
12:54 coming out in the next few days.
12:55 But we can say that now, and remember two weeks ago,
12:59 nobody figured Colorado was leaving,
13:01 and then the next week, Arizona, Oregon,
13:04 Washington, Arizona State, Utah, all those schools.
13:07 - Yeah, there's no sense in us trying to lock in
13:08 any of this content at all,
13:10 because we try to say, "Oh no, it's done."
13:12 And then like, yeah, waiting in the wings
13:15 is a complete reorganization of five more conferences,
13:19 the second we hit stop recording this episode, so no.
13:23 But yeah, I'd stand entirely with you on that Pac-West
13:25 being a great idea, if for no other reason,
13:28 then I don't want it to be all East Coast
13:30 and Midwest conferences absorbing everybody.
13:32 I would like to see a brand remain out here,
13:36 and I feel like Gonzaga hopefully has a major,
13:38 major part to play in that.
13:40 - Yeah, and one of the interesting things
13:42 that started leaking over the weekend
13:45 is Apple is really interested in getting into live sports
13:50 and the streaming aspect of it.
13:52 So now that we hear that, who knows,
13:55 Apple may buy ESPN at a good value, a good price.
13:59 But with that, where were the Pac-12 schools
14:03 in really kind of being patient?
14:05 I know they were very patient,
14:07 otherwise they wouldn't have held on so long
14:09 before jumping ship,
14:10 but had a couple of those schools
14:13 waited just a little bit longer
14:14 because it sounded like there was a deal on the table
14:17 for Apple to have the broadcast streaming rights
14:21 for the Pac-12 or the Pac-10,
14:23 'cause UCLA, USC, and UCLA were leaving.
14:26 But it sounds like Apple could be back in the picture
14:31 to broadcast some of those schools' games.
14:33 - I know that you don't particularly watch a lot of games
14:36 in some sort of consumer fashion
14:38 'cause you're sitting about three and a half feet
14:40 to the side of the court,
14:41 enjoying living your best life, calling these games.
14:44 But I would love it if you would go check out
14:48 what Apple is doing with MLS and Major League Baseball,
14:51 because it's really interesting,
14:54 and sometimes it's extremely hit or miss,
14:56 but I feel like more of the error and the miss
14:59 is on who they have as the broadcast team
15:02 or what the cost is.
15:05 And it's not really on the deliverables
15:06 of how easy it is to go to an Apple TV app
15:10 and then find a game.
15:11 It is amazingly simple and well-engineered technology.
15:14 So I think that if they get their teeth
15:17 into something like a PacWest conference,
15:19 they'll change the college broadcasting game,
15:22 'cause it really doesn't seem like people wanna sit
15:25 at a TV and flip between ABC and Fox
15:28 and just kinda watch whatever game is being fed,
15:31 and then they wanna go find the game they wanna watch.
15:34 And I think- - A lot of it is now
15:36 a second screen experience.
15:38 I mean, you'll watch the game on TV,
15:40 and then you'll have your laptop or your iPad
15:43 or your phone on your lap,
15:45 and you'll watch a second game,
15:46 or you'll scroll through Twitter
15:48 for the fan experience of it.
15:50 And I can only imagine there are people that do that
15:52 sitting in stadiums watching football games
15:55 or in arenas watching basketball games.
15:57 So I don't think broadcasting as we know it
16:01 over the last however many years
16:04 is what we're gonna see five, 10, 15 years from now.
16:09 I think there's going to be some creative
16:11 and unique things that come about.
16:14 And I think the companies that are most forward thinking
16:17 and ready to move and adjust to the technology
16:21 and the platforms are gonna be the ones that have success.
16:24 And that also means the schools and the leagues
16:26 that are open to change
16:28 are gonna have some success with that too.
16:30 - Yeah, it certainly seems like Gonzaga is poised
16:32 to be like one of those like brand influence leaders
16:35 of like changing how the modern day landscape
16:38 of college broadcasting
16:40 or colleges and broadcasting interact.
16:43 That seems like something for another podcast though.
16:47 Anything else for the WCC or Gonzaga this week
16:49 that we need to close it out with fans
16:50 before we say goodbye?
16:52 - Nope, all good here.
16:53 - Fair enough, my man.
16:55 Look at that.
16:55 Just like that, all good here.
16:57 Summer is over.
16:59 Next time we speak to you guys,
17:00 we will be at orientation, I guess.
17:04 We'll try and have a look this year.
17:06 But yeah, no, welcome back to the college.
17:08 Basketball season next time we talk to you.
17:09 Make sure you subscribe to Gonzaga Nation
17:11 wherever you get your podcasts.
17:13 Leave a five-star review, rate us,
17:16 follow us on social @FanNationZags.
17:18 Talk to you guys later.