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Each week Lindenwood University Head Men’s basketball coach Kyle Gerdeman talks men's basketball and much, much more. We'll talk about basketball, future Lindenwood University games, past games, players, the OVC, the NCAA, academics, careers, and many other interesting topics.
Gary D Stocker (00:01.59)
It is! Welcome!
Kyle Gerdeman (00:04.607)
You
Kyle Gerdeman (00:09.454)
I thought you were going to say it's Friday and it's Thursday.
Gary D Stocker (00:15.792)
Take two. Don't be picking on me. I'm old and senile.
Welcome back. is basketball talk with Linwood University head men's basketball coach Kyle Gurderman and coach Gurderman finally basketball after eight months had to be nice.
Kyle Gerdeman (00:31.948)
Yeah, yeah, it was good to get started. Seasons obviously, we're underway now and got the first one out of the way and the second one tonight. So things will start moving really fast.
Gary D Stocker (00:45.328)
And so we talked about this last week, but in Texas Tech top 20 team, and it showed they did some things well for sure on Tuesday night. What did you learn about your squad during that game?
Kyle Gerdeman (00:55.876)
You know, I think that...
One, liked our resiliency. Those games are obviously a big challenge. We've talked about that before. I thought we did some really good things along the way. I think that what we've done here in the preseason leading us into the first game, being shorthanded without Jadis Jones, without Ineas Futrell, without Don Tres Williams, those guys are gonna play a big role for us. And we haven't had them in a game yet. They didn't play against
ball state they didn't play in the the Carbondale exhibition game.
They've been in and out of practice. So I think what I've seen that showed up again on Tuesday was our guys show up and play. The guys that are available, I thought they did a really good job. I thought they tried to do the things we were asking them to do. And so you have some, I guess I wouldn't, I you could call it adversity. It's not like it's major adversity, but playing shorthanded is always different. And so I think for what we've seen and what they did Tuesday to be able to fight that game out for 40 minutes.
as long as they could play it the right way. Try to have good possessions offense, try to play good possessions of defense. I was really pleased with that. And then from there, it's kinda like we've talked about before. Now we get into the film work of it. We gotta go watch our mistakes. We gotta go watch the positive things that we did. We have to learn from it and get better and I think we'll do that.
Gary D Stocker (02:22.917)
And I guess two observations from the game itself, a tough shooting night for your squad, but the good folks from Texas Tech buried 17 three-pointers. That's a big number.
Kyle Gerdeman (02:32.174)
Yeah, you know, it was really strange because, you know, thought both teams got off to a slow start, missing some shots. And then, you know, we grabbed an early lead, but, you know, then they really got going, I thought, in a stretch from probably, you know, probably like eight minutes in the middle of the first half. And then you see the numbers at halftime, and, you know, it kind of hits you. I didn't realize they had made 12 threes in the first half and went 12 for 23.
But you know, it's funny. mean, basketball is. It's you know there's a lot of runs. There's a lot of you know different halves can be different and that half was a lot different because you know in the second half you know they they shot 30%. They only made five threes. You know, so there's some. There's some defensive things that I think we can take away with that. There's also just some missed shots that they missed open looks that we have to correct, but you know the percentages I think are.
are always interesting to watch and trying to figure out how much of that did we have to do with that? Whether that's our offensive percentages, could we get better shots? Do we need to make easier ones? Do we need to take better ones? And then the same thing when you're looking at your opponent's percentage. Was their percentage high in the first half because of a lack of defense? I know we gave up some points in transition. But then in the second half, I thought we did a better job of contesting shots, making it a little bit harder on them. And maybe that had something to do with it.
That's kind of the way we evaluate it.
Gary D Stocker (03:57.946)
And you've said many times before, there will be, and we know this, will be tough shooting nights, whether it's against the top 20 team or not top 20 team. There'll be nights when the ball just doesn't fall.
Kyle Gerdeman (04:02.827)
Yeah.
Kyle Gerdeman (04:08.001)
Yeah, and I think, I look back on it for our guys that we hope are consistent shooters.
And Mackay Cooper was was two for four and Miloš was one for three. You know, Jeremiah was two for seven and you know he probably you know I think of those seven shots he took I think four of them were probably wide open and if we go back and look at it the two that he made were probably wide open. You know think the ones that he missed might have been a little quick might have been challenged and that's where we have that fine line of you know how you improve your shooting percentage which we've talked about before on here you know coming off of last year and I think that's something that will will be interested to pay attention to.
to.
Gary D Stocker (04:46.62)
So you open the home version of the pre-conference season. You've got the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacists at Highland. What do you expect him to see tonight?
Kyle Gerdeman (04:55.693)
Like we talked about right after the game, can we improve in a short amount of time? We have some specific things that we know right now we're not at the level we need to be. For example, our defensive transition is just not very good. It's not fun to say that, but you have to be able to admit those things so we can all understand it and wrap our head around fixing it. So again, but I think how much can you improve? We got back yesterday.
At 1030, we practiced at two o'clock. I thought we had a good hour of practice to help get ourselves ready for tonight. And I think guys have to be ready for the challenge of showing up and trying to play better than we did on Tuesday night. And that's regardless of the score, regardless of the outcome, this time of year is about getting better and improving our team.
Gary D Stocker (05:47.3)
And I noticed that I was leaving the women's game yesterday. After all the screaming kids, most of them had left. What'd say? can't. You had a couple of guys out shooting at what, one o'clock, something like that. So that's a little dedication you've got to be pleased with.
Kyle Gerdeman (05:57.399)
Yeah.
Kyle Gerdeman (06:04.749)
Yeah, I think we have guys that want to be good players that take their you know, they take the individual side of it very serious and you enjoy to see that because you don't always get that. But I do think we have a do think we have a core group of guys that are really focused. I think we have guys that whether we were playing top 10 team in the country or not, I think they wanted to play better, you know, and you know, we talked about some things while the game was going on and you know, guys were kind of taking ownership in the
in the moment of, I'm better than that, or no, we can play better than this, or we can defend better than this. And so I think that when you hear those things in the moment, when you see it, even when you get back off the road, it would have been easy for guys to just kind of drag in from getting back from the airport in an early morning where we left at four in the morning and not do those things. I think it says a lot about the type of guys that we have in the program and what they can develop as a team.
Gary D Stocker (07:02.052)
And then lastly, let's do something that no coach likes to do. Let's look ahead to the game after this. You're at Schaffetz on Monday, St. Louis University. I can't remember the last time that Linda Woodman took on the SLU program.
Kyle Gerdeman (07:06.356)
All right.
Kyle Gerdeman (07:14.485)
Yeah, it'll be fun. think they have a really, really good team. I think they're much improved from a year ago. So it's going to be interesting. They played a really fast pace offensively, really sharp in the half court.
So it's gonna be a great test for us, a great challenge for us. But I think it's something that at the same time we have to enjoy the game a little bit. We've got guys from St. Louis, we've got guys from Missouri. I think they always enjoy those type of games. They'll have plenty of family and friends there. So I think it's a game that I think we have a lot of respect for their program.
know a lot of the coaches on their staff and vice versa. it's just a, it's an early non-conference game that you go down and you try to play as well as you can early in the year and kind of see what happens. But I think that, I think everybody will kind of enjoy it at the end of the night.
Gary D Stocker (08:08.272)
So joining us now in the podcast is Assistant Lindwood University basketball coach, Justin N.
So joining us now is assistant, Linda Wood basketball coach, Justin Anderson. Justin, thanks for making time to join us. It's finally good to see some basketball being played, isn't it?
Kyle Gerdeman (13:05.749)
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you coming on. It's that time of the year.
Gary D Stocker (13:09.5)
Yeah, and I enjoy basketball in large part because it's a fun sport, but I've been to a few Lindwood football games this fall and I've gotten wet. And to the best of my knowledge, it rarely rains on basketball games.
Kyle Gerdeman (13:18.335)
Yeah.
Not very often, not very often. That's why we picked that sport.
Gary D Stocker (13:25.286)
So that's right. So Justin, second year at Linwood, tell us a little bit about your basketball coaching and playing history, if you would.
Kyle Gerdeman (13:31.951)
Yeah, I guess we'll just start from the beginning. I played at Quincy University. I'm originally from DeKalb, Illinois. I played four years at Quincy University for two different guys. The second guy that I played for is a guy by the name of Marty Bell. He actually asked me in my senior year to stick around and be a GA. And it's kind of where I got my start at, two years of a GA at Quincy University and got some really good...
really experience there uh... spent a couple years of the couple different you goes five years that uh... two different you goes practically college in lakeland community college uh... one out of kansas one over in illinois uh... and then back to court university for three years in assistant spent three years there uh... four years at western illinois
last four years i was that else here in saint louis at maryville university work for the same guy that i work for a crack so and i have done obviously came over this stuff couple years ago so lucky enough to get here
Gary D Stocker (14:29.252)
And then what does Coach Gurderman have defined for you as your roles and responsibilities for the squad?
Kyle Gerdeman (14:34.766)
Yeah, so I help coach with the offense. That's basically my main role. I kind of do a little bit of everything. I kind of help in any way that I can on or off the floor. I do a lot of the film work as well. But like I said, have a...
very diverse background in lower level college coaching. So when you started Jukos and you're at lower level D2s, you do everything. anywhere I can kind of help pitch in and.
help the staff in any way I can. I try to do that. But primarily, once we get into the season, I'm doing a lot of the offensive stuff. calling the plays, running plays, doing some of the offensive development stuff off the court. So those are my basic roles, and then a lot of the film as well offensively.
Gary D Stocker (15:31.452)
One of the that Coach Gurderman and I were talking about a couple minutes ago was in the game at Texas Tech, tough shooting night, and we know those are going to happen from time to time. What kind of guidance do you give players when the ball on those nights, those days when the ball just won't?
Kyle Gerdeman (15:47.393)
Yeah, it just it kind of varies. know if it guys that you that you know you've been through it and we obviously we've had the guys here for the summer and guys that haven't gone through it you kind of know and you look at the numbers we stat in practice. So you look at the numbers and they're shooting pretty good percentages. You just try to keep in the stick with it and you know, tell him you know those shots aren't going in. Hey, good shot. Keep shooting will you know will live with those you know guys like Jeremiah told me we're just trying to you know shower him with confidence. Just hey man, you gotta open shot.
Take it, don't ever pass down an open shot. We'll live with it all day. So you just kind of try to give them as much confidence and just realize that, especially for some of those really good guys who, you know, we've got some older guys that have played a lot of college basketball and their numbers show that they are good shooters. The averages will eventually, the numbers will eventually average out.
the shots will start to fall for those guys. So we're not overly concerned with them. Now, guys, we don't shoot it as well. You're probably trying to convince them to drive it more, get the paint. Maybe we never want to discourage the shots, especially wide open shots. call them green shots. But if it's not a great shooter, you're trying to get those. We can get that shot in last 10 seconds of the shot clock. You know what mean? Let's fight for the best shot first.
Gary D Stocker (16:44.476)
You
Gary D Stocker (17:04.348)
And so you were in Texas Tech this week and a decent little crowd that I saw on ESPN. And this is a bunch of 18 to 23, 24 year olds, whatever that may be. What's it like for them as you watch those young people in such an environment like you'll see at places like Texas Tech and later on in Indiana?
Kyle Gerdeman (17:07.48)
Yeah.
Kyle Gerdeman (17:23.446)
Yeah, it's actually really interesting just to watch them. When we get to the arena, when we get there for practice, they're kind of a little bit in awe. They're kind of looking around going, we don't have this at our place. So there's a little bit of that. And these are the teams that these guys have probably grown up watching.
I'm not gonna make any bones about it. They probably didn't grow up imagining that they were gonna play at Linenwood or dreaming to play at Linenwood. That's their local, know. So they're probably looking at the Texas Tech, who's the top 10 team in the country and had a lot of success in the last couple years, is like, hey, this is the type of place where I've always dreamed of playing. And then, you know, when you get in the game and then there's the crowd and there's an atmosphere and their fans are yelling at you. it may be, for some of our younger guys, it may be a little bit overwhelming at first. We have quite a few older guys who have been through.
Gary D Stocker (18:14.662)
Yeah, yeah.
Kyle Gerdeman (18:15.326)
We haven't played in Mizzou last year. They've all played in some big time places before. So we were at Oklahoma. A lot of it isn't super overwhelming. think, you know, with the transfer portal and so many guys moving from level to level, you know, a lot of those teams have guys that were at mid-majors last year, you know, or low majors last year. So it's not as overwhelming as it once was back in the day. And then our guys are all good players and they played on AAU.
programs that are really good. And so they've played with a lot of these guys before. once you get out there and start to hook it up, it's really not as overwhelming as you would think. just initially, it can be a little bit that way.
Gary D Stocker (18:55.312)
So, coach's special guest today has been his assistant coach, Justin Anderson. Justin, thanks for making time to join us and we'll look forward to watching some basketball tonight and throughout the pre-conference season. Of course, when the OVC rolls around in late December, we look forward to seeing a lot of good men's and women's basketball here at Lindwood.
Kyle Gerdeman (19:11.182)
Absolutely. Appreciate you having me.
Gary D Stocker (19:12.732)
So for those of you watching and listening to the podcast, thanks for making time to do so. Make sure that you share the podcast link with your friends and family and neighbors and whoever else you can think of. My name is Gary Stocker and thanks for watching Basketball Talk with Linwood University head men's basketball coach, Kyle Gerdeman.