Coach Biancardi Spills the Beans
by Bill Kintner
An interview with Wright State Coach Paul Biancardi where he talks about the Raiders, how he coaches, the Horizon League and even where to get some good Italian food.
When I arrived at Coach Biancardi’s office he came out and greeted me warmly. For the first twenty minutes we talked about basketball arenas, coaches that we both knew and college basketball in general. When the tape recorder went on for the next seventy minutes he talked very openly about his coaching philosophies, his past, as well as a few more light-hearted topics. When the tape jammed, he smiled and was happy to answer a few questions again.
One thing that is clear is that character is an important attribute that he looks for in the players that he recruits. He made it clear that he would not take a chance on character.
Another thing that stood out was that with all the talent Coach Biancardi has recruited he still believes there are a lot of question marks with how fast it will all come together. Being competitive in the Horizon League is what he predicted.
The last thing that I think readers will find is that along with the serious side of Coach Biancardi – a coach on a mission – there is also a lighter side that comes through at times during our discussion.
So kick back and enjoy this interview with one of the rising stars in coaching.
Bill Kintner: Coach, tell me about your team this year.
Coach Biancardi: We’ve got seven new guys, and four returners. I really like our team. I think we have more depth than last year. We have a lot of unknowns. And we’re very, very young and inexperienced this year. We have to get some chemistry because we have so many new and different guys.
Kintner: One thing in our prior conversation you talked a lot about was chemistry. You mentioned it a little bit here. What goes into making chemistry? And in terms of chemistry, what can kill chemistry?
Coach Biancardi: Well, what goes into it is everyone being on the same page, everyone believing in each other…everyone working toward one common goal. Chemistry has to be fostered. It isn’t something where you say, “Hey fellas, we have to have chemistry.” When they hear that they really don’t know what it means. Chemistry is something that is learned and chemistry is something that is very valuable to any team in any sport. What could kill that? Selfish attitudes. People who don’t believe in the system or people who don’t believe in other people. Agendas…… personal agendas will hurt a program. There are a lot of things that can creep in. Jealousy can creep in. A lot of negative can creep in and hurt chemistry. Hopefully you try to keep those negatives away from your program and away from your individuals.
Kintner: How do you see Wright State fitting in with the Horizon League this year?
Coach Biancardi: Competitive. I think we’ll be competitive in every game and that’s all you can ask for – to be competitive and have a chance to win every game. We finished in the top half of the league last year. We hope to possibly finish a little higher than that. We were playing for first place last year in February. I would like to do that again this year.
Kintner: Let’s talk a little about your personal philosophy in terms of basketball. What’s your philosophy in terms of overall coaching?
Coach Biancardi: Just to coach the game the way I envision it to be played: aggressive, full speed all the time. Every possession is so important. You can’t take a possession off in any game because it could come back to haunt you. Offensively, let the guys play a little bit. Don’t have them so robotic where they just have to go from A to B and B to C and C to D (and not have any freedom). Try to teach the guys how to play the game with some set plays and some alignments, along with some structure. Obviously you have to have structure. You don’t want to strangle them from an offensive standpoint. From a defensive standpoint, you know you have to be so disciplined from a defensive standpoint – individually and as a unit – to be good. So you need both ends of the court to win. I think the defense really does win championships because you can count on your defense, maybe, every night. You can’t count on your offense every night to hit certain numbers. Does that make me a defensive coach and not an offensive coach? No, not at all. We’ve got to put points on the board. I want to do that as much as possible but you have more control over your defense than you do your offense. So I think the emphasis on the defense is the reason that most coaches and most championship teams win, because they emphasize something that they’re very good at that they can control. You emphasize both the same, but you really have control over only one.
Kintner: How much does the offense feed off a good defense?
Coach Biancardi: A lot. When you make stops…… you block a shot that can feed into transition offense. When you take a charge, that gets the adrenaline going. When you can just make a stop on the defensive end I think you put confidence in yourself and there’s a juice that goes down to the other end on offense. Defense can really help your offense and it can lead to some easy baskets as well.
Kintner: What about recruiting? What’s your basic philosophy on recruiting?
Coach Biancardi: The basic philosophy, Bill, is to find the guys that we think can help us win the Horizon League on a talent level. Everything said, character is as important to us as talent. We’ve got to find guys that we believe to have good character – guys that are coachable, guys that listen, guys that are respectful, guys that have good attitudes. That’s all part of good character. If those individuals have those things (with the talent) they can become a good player here over time because this is such a competitive level of basketball. If they have bad character its going to diminish progress, stunt the growth of the team’s progress, and something you really don’t have time to deal with in this business is bad character. Now immaturity and bad character – you have to know how to separate the two. A lot of kids are immature and have growing up to do. If they’re lazy maybe they’ll grow out of that and I think that’s part of our jobs at times. But if it happens over and over again, I think we have to stay away from those kids. The third part is academics, where we feel they can do the college work and they have an interest in not just doing college work but they have a real strong interest in getting a degree. If they don’t have that then it’s not going to work.
Kintner: Do you start in Southwest Ohio then expand out from there into Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan?.
Coach Biancardi: We want to exhaust every available opportunity in Ohio. Specifically starting with Southwest Ohio because that is where we are and that’s where our name is. Ohio has been very good to Wright State. So I think we go up to the borders of Indiana and Michigan. We have some contacts up in those states and it’s very important to have contacts in areas – much better than to just go into areas.
Kintner: The class you’ve got coming in, how did it came about? You looked at some needs and filled them? Or you just recruited the best athletes you could get? How did that work?
Coach Biancardi: Well, it’s a balanced class. We have size with Jordan Pleiman and Parysh Munroe. And Everett Spencer can play inside too. . It’s a class of guards and post players. So we think we fit our needs of size for sure. We feel that we upgraded our talent and that it can help us win the league as these young men progress over time. These are freshman. They’ve got to develop into the players that we see that they can be. We’re real happy with the kids that we brought in. They’re all wonderful kids in terms of that they are the type of character kids that we want. We’re pretty sure about that and they’re all taking care of their business academically. So we’re real happy with these kids and we want them to grow with our program. That’s the most important thing. It’s a process; we have to develop them over the course of time.
Kintner: What’s the difference between coaching at a Wright State and coaching at an Ohio State?
Coach Biancardi: Basketball wise and on the court you’re dealing with players that are stronger and , faster. Some guys are more talented on paper.
Kintner: What were you responsible for at Ohio State?
Coach Biancardi: A bit of everything. You know over the years it was a seven year process in almost every aspect of the program – from A to Z.
Kintner: Did you kind of grow a little bit in terms of your responsibilities from when you got there?
Coach Biancardi: Your roles get defined a little bit more as time goes on. But you have many things that an assistance coach does. It’s not just one thing. Assistant coaches can do a lot of everything.
Kintner: Name one thing that you took away from coaching in past jobs…
Coach Biancardi: On the basketball court?
Kintner: Anywhere.
Coach Biancardi: There are so many wonderful things. It’s hard to pick the number one thing. To do the right thing for the right reason.
Kintner: Scheduling is a tricky business. What’s your philosophy on scheduling?
Coach Biancardi: To have a competitive and balanced schedule. Really, because there are so many factors that go into scheduling : opponents, dates, building facilities being available…so it’s a lot harder than people realize to schedule a game. And both people have to want to do it. If you call a school and they don’t want to play you, it doesn’t matter if the dates and the buildings are available. If they don’t want to come to your place it’s not going to happen.
Kintner: How does RPI figure into scheduling? Do you have a formula that gives you some guidelines – if one of the teams you schedule has let’s say a three-year rolling RPI of 200 or below so that even if you beat them the RPI goes down.? Do you look at those kinds of things?
Coach Biancardi: Those things are looked at a little bit but, for our program, we just have to find people that we can play here at the Nutter Center and then be able to go on the road. I mean, again, you want to find teams that are competitive and balanced. And everybody’s good. Everybody’s giving out scholarships. Some programs are up and down when you play them, but if you look at teams in the top two or three in their league this year it should be competitive. So our schedule this year is probably a little bit above competitive; it’s tough.
Kintner: Okay, I just want you to give me a sentence or two on each of these coaches: Tim Buckley.
Coach Biancardi: Loyal, hard-working, a good friend. Great coach.
Kintner: Barry Collier.
Coach Biancardi: Program builder, charismatic, very good at what he does.
Kintner: Rick Pitino.
Coach Biancardi: Set a lasting impression upon me as a youngster when I went to his practices at Boston University. One of the elite in college basketball.
Kintner: Todd Lickliter.
Coach Biancardi: Good coach. Nice person.
Kintner: Sean Miller.
Coach Biancardi: (Chuckles) Sean, on a trip to Canada, with the Big East all-stars played feisty, competitive, tough. Great person. Will do an unbelievable job at Xavier.
Kintner: Brian Gregory
Coach Biancardi: Hard-working, diligent, dedicated to his profession, has done and will do a very good job at Dayton.
Kintner: Charlie Coles.
Coach Biancardi: Like your grandfather – a guy you can just absorb a lot of knowledge and experience from. I got to play him this year. One of the best in the business.
Kintner: Phil Martelli.
Coach Biancardi: What you see is what you get. A great guy. Charismatic and caring. What can I say, he’s Italian. A good guy and very personable. Easy to get along with. Very good at what he does. As a head coach, he’s made a great transition.
Kintner: Steve Alford.
Coach Biancardi: A player I used to watch on TV. Has moved up in the ranks of the coaching profession now in the Big Ten. Does a good job at Iowa. He is a good person and good family guy. He’s got Iowa ready to break through there in the Big Ten. A good person to be with. Insightful. I do believe he is one of the best in the business and I don’t say that about everybody.
Kintner: Jim O’Brien.
Coach Biancardi: Jim O’Brien? Full of integrity. A person who always does the right thing for the right reason. Obviously, a guy who’s come up from the ranks over time. Started as a high school coach in Pittsburgh. Somebody I really admire.
Kintner: Finally, Pete Gillen.
Coach Biancardi: Funny, witty, full of life and passion, intensity. I mean wherever he goes he gets the job done.
Kintner: Now I want to talk about food. Since you’ve been around, you’ve traveled coast to coast – and this is being read by people from coast to coast. And they want to know where a traveled guy eats. So if you could, give me your top restaurants.
Coach Biancardi: I don’t go out to a lot of restaurants. I eat in the hotel a lot (chuckling) because of the lack of time and fatigue to be honest with you. You know when I go to Boston I know where to go because it’s my home city. I don’t think you can get a bad meal in New York. In Ohio, Trattoria Roma in Columbus – they’ve got great Italian food. Right here in Dayton, Mamma Di Salvo’s, obviously I like Italian food (both laugh). But I’m not a big restaurant guy. I don’t know names of restaurants. One that I do go to that is good wherever you go is The Palm in New Jersey, in Washington D.C. – last year at the final four I think there was one in San Antonio. I know good food but sometimes I don’t always know where to get it.
Kintner: Stick with me I know where to get it! If we looked on your CD player, what CD’s are sitting on it?
Coach Biancardi: My personal music CD players? Because there’s the TV ones…
Kintner: Let’s stick with music.
Coach Biancardi: There’s a combination of Rod Stewart, Elton John, Madeline, Disney (because we travel with the kids we have to have music for them), and then when the kids are not in the car I listen to Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Shania Twain. I’m trying to think who else. Oh, Phil Collins too.
Kintner: An eighties guy.
Coach Biancardi: I’m an eighties guy.
Kintner: So am I.
Coach Biancardi: And we have the music for the kids: the Madeline, the Disney’s, the Amations…all that good stuff.
Kintner: That one-hour a week you don’t spend on basketball …….
Coach Biancardi: …watching films and all that stuff?…I’m with my family. I mean they’re the heart and soul of what I have. I enjoy being with them. I love being with my wife, I love being with my kids, and I like it whether I am just with my kids or I am just with my wife. I enjoy that – and I enjoy all of us being together. That’s what I enjoy the most. I try to work out; I try to get in my one or two work-outs in a month (CB laughs). I try to play a little golf in the summer because I I enjoy being outside. It’s such a great game to play.
Kintner: Final question. What excites you when you get up?
Coach Biancardi: : What excites me when I wake up in the morning? Getting one of my daughters off to school. That excites me every day because you never know from day to day how that’s going to happen. That’s exciting for me. I enjoy it. And, going to work. I’m glad that I have the family that I do. I’m a big family person and truthfully, I am glad to just go to work and have the family that I do. I have simple pleasures in life. And my career and my family are my greatest pleasures.
Kintner: Thank you coach.
Coach Biancardi: I enjoyed it.
