Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Coaches Check-In Episode 1: Nick McDevitt
6/26/2023 9:14:00 AM | General, Men's Basketball
The Blue Raider men’s basketball coach chats about roster turnover, his team’s future trip to Italy and much more
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Head Men's Basketball Coach Nick McDevitt joins MTSU Staff Writer Sam Doughton for the very first episode of the Coaches Check-In Podcast, where the two discuss the excitement brewing for his team after a busy offseason in Murphy Center for the Blue Raiders.
With six incoming players new to the roster in the fall, plus a plethora of returnees expected to take on bigger roles when the season tips off in November, time is of the essence for McDevitt and his team to come together as a unit ahead of the season. McDevitt breaks down the hectic, but also fun, months after the end of the season putting together his roster, the new additions to the program, the Blue Raiders' upcoming foreign tour to Italy and, of course, the change in landscape in Conference USA for men's basketball.
You can listen to the full episode of the Coaches Check-In above. Highlights from the conversation have been excerpted below, with light edits for clarity, grammar and flow.
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From my perspective, it seems like that offseason rush started right away after the conference tournament. That roster turnover period that's so prevalent, particularly in men's basketball. With some guys coming in and some guys coming out, what was that time period, going through those individual meetings, like for you as you've gotten more of a measure of what next year's roster is going to look like and where you must go in the offseason?
"At the conclusion of every season, we have post-season meetings, individual meetings with all our players. Just really engaging what went well and what we could've done better, both for each player individually, but also as a group. And also give an outlook of where we see things going for them and for us the following season. At the conclusion of those two or three days of meetings, we had a clear picture of what next year kind of needed to look like and some holes that we had, if you go back to March, looking forward to the 23-24 season.
"We lost some guys that had key roles, but we also have some returning players that we foresee having bigger roles next year. It's time for them to step up and take bigger ownership and leadership roles for the team. We've been able to address some of those needs that we had by signing six players over the last two or three months and feel really good about where this team is headed."
What was it like finding those six guys, a couple of freshmen, a few transfers, a JuCo player, in that time period?
"Not only challenging, but honestly a little bit of fun as well. You're trying to put together a complicated puzzle, really, making sure that all the pieces fit together both in terms of ability, experience, size, and skill. There's a lot of things that go into it, because you can find a lot of really talented players, but potentially be a little bit too young. You can also go the other direction and sign a lot of really talented transfers, but you've got all juniors and seniors, and everybody on your roster wants to and expects to play about 30 minutes each. And there's just not enough minutes to go around for that many guys.
"Being able to make sure that from a stylistic approach, that they fit. How do we want to play on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively? But also, do they fit in terms of what we're looking for from an experience standpoint, an age standpoint. Jalen Jordan will be back for his seventh year of college with (injury) waivers and such. His freshman year, we were talking about it the other day, now he's teammates with a young man, Torey Alston, who's a true freshman. When Jalen was a freshman in college, Torey was in the sixth grade. And now they're teammates here at Middle Tennessee! So having the right balance when you've got such an age discrepancy, in personalities, ability, positions, it can be challenging, but it can be a little bit fun as well."
Softball coach Jeff Breeden had a 2023 roster that, similar to your roster this year, had about half of his program's players being brand new. He talked a lot about how important it was for the returnees to embrace the new players coming in and make them feel welcome. How have you felt about how some of your returnees are helping these guys get acclimated to Murfreesboro?
"That's really important, that there's a willingness to embrace them for the returners, but also a willingness to also try to assimilate and understand the team culture and team dynamics as a newcomer. And right now, we've got a really good combination of both. I used the example earlier of Jared (Coleman-Jones) with Chris (Loofe), but that's not a unique situation, we're seeing that throughout the rest of our team as well.
"Some of that is even happening at their apartments. Josh Ogundele lives with three veteran players. Watching those four become pretty close knit is really important. The more that you're a team and cohesive off the court, you can see it when you play. If the only time they're around each other or even want to be around each other is the two hours that we play a game or the two hours that we're practicing, you're probably not going to be very good. So, watching the different kind of personalities kind of mesh together has been really encouraging."
Part of that team building process you get to do every four years is an international trip, which the NCAA permits. Y'all recently announced a really exciting itinerary in Italy coming up in August. How important are these international trips for the program when y'all get a chance to go on them?
"I think they're really big, particularly when we're in the situation that we are right now. I think I made the statement earlier when we released it that it really couldn't have fallen at a better time for us. We've got about three or four guys that have been here, veteran players, that are now expected to contribute, and we anticipate them having bigger years than perhaps they've had in the past and trying to mesh that with so many newcomers.
"You've got veterans with new roles and newcomers as well, having those 10 additional practices will be important. And just the ability to spend time with each other for eight or nine days on a trip like that is only going to bring this group closer together. And we get to play some outside competition, to see how some guys react when they're starting. To see how some guys react when they're not playing against another high school guy or junior college player and really start to have a better feel for what we can expect when they return to school for the fall semester."
Listen to the full podcast
With six incoming players new to the roster in the fall, plus a plethora of returnees expected to take on bigger roles when the season tips off in November, time is of the essence for McDevitt and his team to come together as a unit ahead of the season. McDevitt breaks down the hectic, but also fun, months after the end of the season putting together his roster, the new additions to the program, the Blue Raiders' upcoming foreign tour to Italy and, of course, the change in landscape in Conference USA for men's basketball.
You can listen to the full episode of the Coaches Check-In above. Highlights from the conversation have been excerpted below, with light edits for clarity, grammar and flow.
---
From my perspective, it seems like that offseason rush started right away after the conference tournament. That roster turnover period that's so prevalent, particularly in men's basketball. With some guys coming in and some guys coming out, what was that time period, going through those individual meetings, like for you as you've gotten more of a measure of what next year's roster is going to look like and where you must go in the offseason?
"At the conclusion of every season, we have post-season meetings, individual meetings with all our players. Just really engaging what went well and what we could've done better, both for each player individually, but also as a group. And also give an outlook of where we see things going for them and for us the following season. At the conclusion of those two or three days of meetings, we had a clear picture of what next year kind of needed to look like and some holes that we had, if you go back to March, looking forward to the 23-24 season.
"We lost some guys that had key roles, but we also have some returning players that we foresee having bigger roles next year. It's time for them to step up and take bigger ownership and leadership roles for the team. We've been able to address some of those needs that we had by signing six players over the last two or three months and feel really good about where this team is headed."
What was it like finding those six guys, a couple of freshmen, a few transfers, a JuCo player, in that time period?
"Not only challenging, but honestly a little bit of fun as well. You're trying to put together a complicated puzzle, really, making sure that all the pieces fit together both in terms of ability, experience, size, and skill. There's a lot of things that go into it, because you can find a lot of really talented players, but potentially be a little bit too young. You can also go the other direction and sign a lot of really talented transfers, but you've got all juniors and seniors, and everybody on your roster wants to and expects to play about 30 minutes each. And there's just not enough minutes to go around for that many guys.
"Being able to make sure that from a stylistic approach, that they fit. How do we want to play on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively? But also, do they fit in terms of what we're looking for from an experience standpoint, an age standpoint. Jalen Jordan will be back for his seventh year of college with (injury) waivers and such. His freshman year, we were talking about it the other day, now he's teammates with a young man, Torey Alston, who's a true freshman. When Jalen was a freshman in college, Torey was in the sixth grade. And now they're teammates here at Middle Tennessee! So having the right balance when you've got such an age discrepancy, in personalities, ability, positions, it can be challenging, but it can be a little bit fun as well."
Softball coach Jeff Breeden had a 2023 roster that, similar to your roster this year, had about half of his program's players being brand new. He talked a lot about how important it was for the returnees to embrace the new players coming in and make them feel welcome. How have you felt about how some of your returnees are helping these guys get acclimated to Murfreesboro?
"That's really important, that there's a willingness to embrace them for the returners, but also a willingness to also try to assimilate and understand the team culture and team dynamics as a newcomer. And right now, we've got a really good combination of both. I used the example earlier of Jared (Coleman-Jones) with Chris (Loofe), but that's not a unique situation, we're seeing that throughout the rest of our team as well.
"Some of that is even happening at their apartments. Josh Ogundele lives with three veteran players. Watching those four become pretty close knit is really important. The more that you're a team and cohesive off the court, you can see it when you play. If the only time they're around each other or even want to be around each other is the two hours that we play a game or the two hours that we're practicing, you're probably not going to be very good. So, watching the different kind of personalities kind of mesh together has been really encouraging."
Part of that team building process you get to do every four years is an international trip, which the NCAA permits. Y'all recently announced a really exciting itinerary in Italy coming up in August. How important are these international trips for the program when y'all get a chance to go on them?
"I think they're really big, particularly when we're in the situation that we are right now. I think I made the statement earlier when we released it that it really couldn't have fallen at a better time for us. We've got about three or four guys that have been here, veteran players, that are now expected to contribute, and we anticipate them having bigger years than perhaps they've had in the past and trying to mesh that with so many newcomers.
"You've got veterans with new roles and newcomers as well, having those 10 additional practices will be important. And just the ability to spend time with each other for eight or nine days on a trip like that is only going to bring this group closer together. And we get to play some outside competition, to see how some guys react when they're starting. To see how some guys react when they're not playing against another high school guy or junior college player and really start to have a better feel for what we can expect when they return to school for the fall semester."
Listen to the full podcast
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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