Kevin Stallings is a winner. In 24 years of playing and coaching the game of basketball, Stallings has never experienced a losing season. Before accepting the job of head coach at Vanderbilt in April 1999, he guided an overachieving Illinois St. squad to a 123-63 record with two NCAA tournament appearances and two NIT bids. Still, in spite of his record of acheivement, Stallings knows that winners are made, not born. He has learned basketball’s X’s and O’s from some of the most reknowned coaching gurus on the planet (Virgil Fletcher and Gene Keady to name two), passing along their knowledge to his players as well as his own infectious enthusiasm for winning.
We sat down to talk with Stallings about his coaching influences, his thoughts on recruiting and his goals for the 2002-2003 squad.
What are your goals for preseason and non-conference games? To become a team that’s ready to be competitive for South Eastern Conference play. To become a team that depends on each other, trusts each other and can play with each other in every sense of the word. If you look at our schedule, there are some games we should win, some where the outcomes are in question and some where most people won’t give us a chance. Hopefully, we’ll have success along the way while we are trying to become the team we want to be.
You’re facing the likes of Indiana, Michigan and Notre Dame, top-flight teams out of your conference. Talk about those games and their meaning for this squad. [Scheduling those games] sends a message to our players and our fans that our program is at the point where we’re ready for these challenges. That’s certainly important given what’s happened the last two years—because we’ve been very disappointed, although, to some degree, we’ve been very predictable. The big thing is that we’re trying to establish a program that remains competitive on a national scale. The only way we’re going to find out where we are as a team is to play opponents of a high caliber.
What are the strengths of this year’s team? For the first time since I’ve been here, we have guys that give other teams match-up problems. Matt Freije is a versatile offensive player who can play inside and outside. Corey Smith is an excellent shooter who can go inside the post because of his strength. David Przybyszewski has really improved his game close to the basket, plus he has a natural perimeter shot. Brian Thornton’s inside play has really developed and Russell Lakey’s ability to run the team has really impacted what has gone on with us. We have some situations were our team is going to be hard to guard. Hopefully, our system is developed enough that we can take advantage of how other teams try to stop us. We’re excited about our versatility and the problems we can create.
What are your thoughts on Matt Freije’s impact on the team? Matt has been a great worker since he came to campus. He has a great attitude toward becoming better and being coached, so from that standpoint he’s terrific. His skills have continued to develop. We try to apply as much pressure on him as we can in practice, but he still makes baskets. He does need to continue to add pounds—he has a major problem holding weight. If he can do that, he certainly has a chance to play at the next level because of his skills, athleticism and versatility.
The SEC’s Eastern Division is arguably the toughest in college basketball. How do you see things panning out in the East this year? Nobody’s going to be surprised if Kentucky, Florida or Georgia win. That leaves Tennessee, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. If South Carolina gets perimeter scoring and great guard play and Tennessee has someone other than Ron Slay have a big year, both teams could jump up and have a better year than expected. South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt all have question marks. I don’t know that you can look at Kentucky, Florida or Georgia and say that same thing.
What lessons as a coach have you learned from Virgil Fletcher, Gene Keady and Roy Williams? Virgil Fletcher had more influence on my life than anyone outside my family, and if I have one idol, it’s him. He’s one of the greatest high school coaches of all time. But as good as he was as a coach, he was better at developing you as a person. He has never said a bad thing about anybody. In every way a person can be influenced by someone else, he influenced me.
Gene Keady became a father figure to me when my own father passed in November of my senior year, and he still treats me like a son. Whether it’s advice, criticism or praise, he still treats me the way he did when I played for him and I love him for it. He’ll call me and say, “Now you don’t have to listen, but this is what I think.” And he’s pretty much always right.
Roy Williams has affected me professionally as much as anyone. We try to do similar things in our program that Roy does in Kansas. In my five years as an assistant coach at Kansas, Roy went to two Final Fours. That was at a time when people were looking at me as a potential head coach, so I was a lucky beneficiary of Roy’s success. Today I’m still affected by it in positive ways.
Have you imitated any of those coaches’ style? I’m not like any of them, really. Coach Fletcher may have been the best coach of the three because he never had to stand up during the game. When he put you on the court, you knew what to do. The first thing I realized when I became a head coach was that I was neither as contained as Roy nor as demonstrative as Coach Keady. I have always tried to be who I am and, as contradictory as this may sound, I’ll be the first to say that’s not always who I want to be out there. I wish I were better at times. I’m not trying to create or carve out an image. Our players know I care about them and whatever else I do, I’ll have to live with. If my players know that I care about them then that’s really all that matters.
You’re a strict proponent of cleaning up NCAA recruiting practices. What is your take on Michigan’s current problems and their self-imposed sanctions? Far be it from me to be judgmental. When we were at Purdue we always felt like there had to be things going on. Our players would talk about the cars that the Michigan players drove and things like that. In this particular situation, [Michigan] had great success with those players and a lot of good came to their school because of the success of those teams. I’m sure it still helps their recruiting today. But it’s a shame that that’s the way it was done. As far as I’m concerned, you cannot penalize somebody too much. It’s really a sad commentary on recruiting and college athletics that this kind of thing goes on.
What’s your sales pitch when you try to recruit a big-time player to Vanderbilt? That we have the best of academics and the best of basketball. We play in arguably the toughest league in America and we have one of the premier educations in the country to offer. It’s a very easy and honest pitch. Are we the best at both? No, we’re not, but we would sure like to be. It’s a beautiful place to play. We have as nice of a facility as anybody in the country, plus a great city, a great institution and great leadership here. It’s an easy sale when you get in front of parents that care about education and their kids’ lives after basketball.
What are your goals for the 2002-03 season? Our goal is to be a program that consistently plays in the NCAA tournament. Goals are ever changing and I think if we can achieve the goal of being consistent in our postseason participation, then we can start after the goal of being a team that thinks about a national championship. If you can get there consistently, then with the right things happening and the right kind of guys coming to your program, you can start thinking about Final Fours and things like that. But we first have to become a team that has the opportunity to play there regularly—which takes continued good recruiting and good fortune. We think we can get there.
