Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to the Canadian Basketball show, your go to spot for the latest news stories and analysis on Canadian basketball. I'm your host, Lee Ben Osman.
This week I'm joined by somebody that's just coming off a national championship, won the Ontario championship the year before, just moved on from coaching in the CBL with the Niagara River Lions after seven years, win the last two championships.
Npa, osba, CBO championship. He's done it all.
One of the top coaches in Canada in my eyes. Victor Rosso, welcome to the show.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Thanks for having me on. This is awesome.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Like I said, just, just won the MPA championships.
What was that moment like for you in the program?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: I mean, I think that is.
I've had a pretty good run the last couple years, but, uh, that one, I don't know if you could top that one. Just with the guys who I. When I, I got the job three years ago, I recruited five kids and they have been with me for the last three years. And just watching them go from, you know, the, the second worst team in the OSBA three years ago to winning an OSPA championship a year, a year ahead of schedule last year, and then having to deal with Fort Erie not having been in the league and some question marks kind of around us to then, you know, going through a really difficult year in terms of trying to repeat and all the issues that come with that and the uncertainty of the future to get these guys to, to peak and to play the level of basketball they did the final weekend of the season. I mean, and you know, that that's the coolest thing I think I've been a part of, especially because they're, they went from young boys who are all over the place to men who cared about their teammates an extreme amount. And that is, it's. It's what you want as a coach for a team to reach their potential.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: I was gonna ask what makes this championship team so special? Because talking about you won the OSP last year's two points away from beating Fort Erie four. You just won the OSPAs.
We were talking about it before. Might have been more hunger with you guys coming into npa.
What was that like? What made this run so special?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: I think what made it special was that, you know, the, the culmination of three years of us never reaching our potential until right at the very end. And that is a really difficult things thing for teams to do. And you know, this group really struggled with that over the course of the year. You know, we were always a good team, but there was something missing the entire time. And you know, we have 10 guys who are graduating from this team, seven post grads and three who are graduating after their grade 12 year. And there was a long stretch there where I didn't know if we were going to be able to deal with all of the. The little issues that we had individually. I knew that the kids cared about each other a lot and that they wanted to achieve this. But when you have that many kids who are uncertain about what's next, then you really start to look at, okay, well, I need to play well every time I step on the floor. And that can take away from your ability to play well, and then it takes away from your ability to practice well and you get lost and you're not in the moment anymore. And our team kind of got lost the second half of the year start to play better basketball. But then our worst day showed up against Fort Erie and, you know, the feeling of losing a game because there was essentially a lack of togetherness, or if we were a little more together, we probably could have overcome that.
You know, that was a tough pill to swallow. And then we addressed it over the course of the March break and to see them buy in to that level when we got back, like, we played the best high school basketball that I've seen. Those kids were just as connected as they could have been. They were on plan all the time. Their skills, their mind, their caring, their willingness to overcome things, it just all clicked, you know. So it was a heck of a run.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: It's crazy because you say that, like, mid season, might have been trying to still figure out if this team still has it right, if we have all the pieces, but trying to, like, make sure you peak at the right time, right from someone that's watching from afar. When someone would ever ask me about Ridley College, I'm like, well, old machine, great coach. And those guys have been playing together for years. So I'm like, that's a team you should be afraid of coming into, whatever championship or whatever it is. But you mentioned what is stuff that people don't see behind the scenes about the run that you guys had that's like, if you knew this might hap this happened behind the scenes, you wouldn't even think we'd get to this point. But the guys came together and it made this beautiful run.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Well, I mean, after the OSPA championship game, so I felt like we, the guys on the floor gave in to fatigue and I felt like the guys on the bench kind of gave in to the, the thought of, well, it's not me, it's them. And after the game, that was the thing that was overwhelming is like, I felt like there was a bit of a togetherness issue. We've always been the most together team who's overcome. And to beat Fort Erie, we must overcome talent and athleticism. We just. They're very, very talented. And, you know, a couple days later, so that was the feeling that I left within my chest. And then when I think Monday or Tuesday rolled around and the boys were home for March break, I got a call from the boarding house and the guys left the common room and the boarding house. They were staying in a mess. And they had gotten a warning as kids being kids, kids being kids. But like, our culture is. Is very much like, you take care of the school, the school takes care of them a lot. And our coach on staff, who's the head of boarding in one of the houses where the boys were living. Cause all the students had gone home at this point, had made it very clear, make sure that we're cleaned up when we're done. And they left the place a mess. And I just knew at that moment, okay, we've got a big problem.
Our culture is not in the right spot.
The hearts are in the right spot, but the culture's not in the right spot. And that just became the goal of those next two weeks, is a group meeting while they were all away, individual conversations with each kid about why it got to a point where all of you just left and thought that it was someone else's responsibility to take care of. And, you know, you could see that fester on the court. It was happening all over the place and we just had to address it. And I think that's what you have to do with teams. You have to put everything on the table. If you're going to try to reach your potential, you. You can't shy away from conflict. And that all happened behind the scenes. When the kids came back, there was a couple little mishaps, but the leadership just really took over. And the. The care level from, you know, a bunch of the top guys like Caleb Roberts really grew up over those two weeks. I had never, you know, he's. He's a soft spoken. He leads by example, but he really started to lead, lead verbally. And I think that changed a lot about this group. And Callum Smith followed in line. And then next thing you know, we started practicing. And then there was a different level that we were playing against, you know, playing with. And we played against a bunch of the guys who go to Brock, we played against Kimball, McKenzie, like just as a warmup kind of for this. And we were playing at a level that I hadn't seen before.
And then once we got to Nationals, we played our best game every single day the whole way through.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
How do you manage, I wouldn't say egos is the right word, but like a bunch of personalities where like on a high level prep school team where you have all these players, everyone wants a role, everyone wants touches. What are your like non negotiables when people want to come play for, for you, it's like this is what you expect, this is what I need out of you. How do you manage that? And I'm guessing it's also different. We're talking about, I'm talking about the CBL in a bit, dealing with professionals and then young teenagers. Right. Still figuring themselves out, you know.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, well, our program is kind of structured in a way where the most important things need to show up on a daily basis. For me it's if you have extreme work ethic and you care, then we're going to get along really well. And that's more than just care about yourself. It's care about your teammates, care about our community and care about, you know, having a growth mindset and improving over time.
But our program is structured in a way that know these kids, the top of the pyramid for us is impacting winning. And that's what I, I believe I can help these kids with the most is learning how to impact winning in different ways and specifically on your worst day. So we attack that every single day. These kids get a practice plan either the morning of or the night before where they know these are the six games that are going to happen in practice that day. These are the rules for those games. These are the guys who are on your teams. And those games are varied 1 on 1 to 5 on 5. The teams are different every single day and they're held to their wins and loss record and they have to learn how to win every single day in practice. And then, you know, at the end of training camp, they've played 75 games in practice and the guys who are leading the wins chart at each position get the first opportunity to start. And that's how we base everything we do off of. And if you want to move up, well then we start look at, looking at week over week changes throughout the course of the year. But you've got to practice as hard as you possibly can every day. It has to mean something, it has to matter. And we're attacking, you know, you're attacking essentially your worst day because you're going to have bad days all the time. And then you got to come to practice. And now you are truly accountable to your teammates. Because if you, if it's a three on three game and you just don't feel like doing the fundamental things that we need to do, those two guys with you are going to lose that game and that's going to hurt their ability to start. And you know, we attack impacting, winning every day, six, seven times a day.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: What brought you to the prep school scene? Cause I'm thinking of like a guy that's in the cbl.
Like you would think the trajectory is kind of different, but you came this way. Tell me about that. What brought you to prep school? See what opened your eyes to wanting to coach here and then building a program.
Tell me about that. What, what drew you to prep school scene? Cause a lot of people would be like, hey, I'm trying to get out of here, but you're doing the opposite kind of.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Well, it was a unique situation.
I don't like the prep school world for a lot of reasons. I still don't.
But I was meeting with Ridley College about moving the Niagara river lines to Ridley for the summer and making it the home of the River Lions, because three years ago, Ridley was just about to finish their renovation. And we've got four full size courts, brand new weight room, athletic therapy room. It was just the perfect spot for a professional basketball team.
So we started meeting about that and what that would look like.
And then the conversation kind of turned to are you interested in prep basketball? And I said, absolutely not.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Why not? What was your, like, hesitation?
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Well, this world is crazy. This world is crazy for, you know, the handful of kids who. It's really, really good for the majority of kids. It's not. We are, we are now asking high school students, and most importantly their parents, to pay money for something that we used to offer for free.
And those coaches used to be paid for by the government. They were teachers. Now we're just charging everybody money. And all of this whole infrastructure has gone from what used to be free and caring people coaching to now kids pay 10, 12, $20,000 a year to end up paying university tuition. It hasn't changed. The ends are still the ends. You know, like. So anyways, I was not interested in prep school basketball until, uh, I started meeting with them a little bit more. I'd been to Ridley a bunch of times, but I didn't really understand Ridley. Um, and then you know, obviously I, I was, I was working at Meridian Credit Union. That was my full time job coaching the River Lions. I was looking to make the jump full time. Uh, but I had said no to a few universities and for different reasons. And then you know, once I kind of realized what it was that the school was offering and in terms of like a holistic approach, like Ridley College is a way world class boarding school. It is a world class campus. It is really, really impressive. I started to get quite interested in, needed to be a full time job, just like a university job, non teaching. So I don't teach on campus. I'm just the director of basketball in charge of all of our basketball programs.
And then it just kind of seemed to work. And at the same time I was struggling with the river lines because I was coaching 20 games a year, which is not enough and, and we kept losing in big moments. So I had started coaching my senior high school team that's close to my house and you know, I needed to like find my confidence again and find myself. And you know, I was doing that out of just purely I needed to get better at coaching. And then this opportunity showed up with Ridley and I was like, okay, I'm actually coaching at this level right now, even though it's just regular high school.
And you know, I, or right around the same time that it was happening with Ridley, I played against Caleb Roberts when I was coaching my old high school team. And I asked him after the game, like, where are you going next year? You're really good. And he's like, coach, I'm in grade 10. I was like, what the hell? And then I got the, the Ridley thing happened to work out.
Quinton Ether was already committed to the school and his dad said, hey, his, one of his best friends, Caleb Roberts is looking to come to Ridley. And I was like, this is, I can't believe this. All this whole thing just happened. Happened like that.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So it just all worked out, which is crazy. What makes or what was like the biggest difference from the CBL to prep school when you're coaching there and maybe the concepts that you were having pros with and then trying to bring it down to prep school scene too.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, you're dealing with molded individuals. Whether they are or not, they believe they're molded when they're at the professional level. And you're dealing with kids who are, you know, desperate to be coached when you're at the high school level. So you know, your approach to them is different at, at the high school. Level, I can get on them a lot harder than I do at the professional level.
But the concepts, you know, the best way to describe it is something that. Something that I can teach and introduce in 15 minutes at a River Lions practice is something that's going to take me three to six months at the high school level. You know, like, for the best example is ball screen coverages. We can. We can talk about ball screen coverages relatively quickly. Quickly with the River L.
Explain it, rep it, and they're pretty good. Like, they're. They'll get better over the course of the season, but they've done this before. They've been taught it before. They have so many reps in their mind to reflect back on. With these kids. It is. It is brand new. It's the first time that they've ever heard about this kind of stuff. And, you know, ball screen coverage is just one of them. But, you know, they know how to handle a ball screen to a certain extent, but they have no idea how to. How to be one of the three guys who aren't in the ball screen or, you know, concepts like transition offense in for the River Lions, they're just getting it like that. With these guys, it took two or three years, it took random structure, random structure of how we are going to get shots for them to start to understand what a quality shot is versus what it's not.
So it's just a lot. A lot more teaching, but it's also a lot more rewarding.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I was gonna ask, how do you balance winning at the prep school level, but also development?
Because, like, some kids want to try new things, right? They want to develop a tween. Tween Hesi. You know, like, I'm talking about, like. But then sometimes, like, I need you to do this. This is what you're good at. I need you to do this so we can win a championship. How do you balance that? And then also, like, try to get them reps where they feel like they're also, like, working on stuff they want to work on.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Well, I never say those kind of things. Like, I need you to do this to win a championship. It's always about impacting winning in every single game in practice. I really don't get too far ahead of myself.
So, like, the things that, you know, if you work backwards, the things that you have to be awesome at, you know, first of all, it's a team game. So regardless of how good you are, you're always one of five. So you need to be able to understand structure you need to know, like, whether the ball's in my hand or it's not, or I'm covering the guy with the ball or I'm not. I am always one of five.
Um, so that is the biggest area of development at this age group. We do tons of skill training in their individuals or, you know, during spares. The kids shoot. Minimum they have to shoot is a thousand threes a week. So they're getting a ton of skill development. But it's being applied to the most important thing all the time, which is how do I take that skill and impact winning? How do I play my hardest all the time? How do I rebound as hard as I possibly can? How do I make sure that we always have a plan and that I know what the plan is? Like, those are the things that, you know, everyone wants. And I realized this, obviously. I. I've. I played for. For Dave Smart, and I've been through the Carlton world.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: We'll get into that.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And like, you, you. You figure it out there. But when I was in my third or fourth year with the River Lines and I'm signing all these players, I was like, I. I'm only signing guys. There was a. While there I was signing the super talented, flashy guys, and then I was like, I'm. I'm only signing guys who impact winning in multiple ways.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: I want the Carlton Ravens.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Yeah. But, like, I want guys who can do good being one of five, whether that's the main guy or like a roll wing. And I was like, okay, because that's the most important part of the game is how can I impact winning. So let's take that back to this program and let's instill that in these guys on a daily basis. And that shows up in a lot of different ways.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you have a coaching philosophy early on and how did that adapt over time?
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's changed a lot. So I, I had a philosophy. I don't even remember it, but I grew up watching my dad's teams play and Hamilton basketball played a certain way. And then, you know, when I went to Carleton and was there for two years and then spent a year coaching and came back, I was. I found myself sounding like Dave, acting like Dave and, you know, doing all of his stuff. And then over time, I have found.
I found my voice, essentially, and I found what. What it is that I like, you know, and it's a combination of a bunch of different things with essentially a. A vision that I've been able to communicate to, whether it's pros or high school student athletes.
You know, I've been able to communicate that properly, but it's taken a long time. I still don't necessarily know.
You know, I think I have a better idea now of who I am as a coach than I did three or four years ago, but it's always a work in progress.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: People don't know you play esports basketball at McMaster, at Carleton, your pops, Joe Rasso. Obviously, I feel like everyone in the Canadian basketball space knows, but when did coaching become a thing for you? Or it's like, I want to pursue this. Obviously your dad's a duo, but it's like, I'm actually passionate about this, too.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: As long as I can remember. I mean, I. I loved competing, but I never really played basketball because I necessarily enjoyed it that much. I just wanted to win. And I wanted to win because I had seen my dad's team lose four national championships. That was my, like, driving motivation, my entire playing care.
But I always knew it.
I could shoot the ball. I was pretty tough, but I was never very athletic. I knew my playing days were coming to an end, so I always thought of the game from a coach's standpoint. And then when I decided to transfer to Carleton, I knew I was going there for three years, and I had asked Dave if I could stay on as a coach, and he said, yeah, but your teammates better see you in a light that is of a coach by the time you graduate. So I knew that while I was playing that, you know, as much as these are my friends and guys I'm competing with next year, I want to coach them, and that's really important to me.
So you always are kind of structuring relationships a little bit differently when those kind of things are on the line.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: You know, you're the first Carlton guy I believe we've had on this podcast. I gotta double check. And I've always wanted to ask, can you take me through a Dave Smart practice? Like, I've heard some crazy stories, but you can.
We can get the truth from you. What is a Dave Smart practice look like?
Living through it, coaching with him.
What does a Dave Smart practice like?
[00:19:51] Speaker B: Well, firstly, I hated Carlton with a passion until I was about 21 years old. Until you got there with a passion.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: Yes. They won too much. I'm so tired of them winning right now. Shout out to Charles Taffy.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I cannot believe they won this year. That is a heck of an accomplishment. Maybe the best one that they've ever won.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: I didn't expect it, but what is it? A day in the life at Carlton used to be, you know, you'd have a one hour individual at some point during the day. And that was like when the clock struck 11am Till the clock struck 12, you'd have film.
We would lift three or four times a week. And then practice was two hours and 15 minutes on the dot.
You know, there's shooting games that's. There's like a shooting chart at Carleton. So you start practice with alternates. You're always competing against somebody trying to move up the ladder. You have games that happen throughout practice. Very similar to the way I do it at Ridley. Obviously a lot more intense. And then in between those games were more shooting competitions. Always competing against that person to climb up the ladder. And then practice would end with same thing like the final shooting competition. And it was always a, like a plus minus the whole practice. So you'd be competing with your team. Then you're going back, you and me are shooting against each other to see who's second or third on the charts.
So it's insanely competitive.
There were some water breaks by the time I finished. But I had heard the stories before. There's no water breaks.
It pushed the limits of what you are able to achieve.
It made you incredibly tough. That culture is something that I probably never will experience again in my life. Um, in. In the sense that like when you stepped in there, like the air was different. The air was different when you were at Carlton. It was just, you know, guys who wanted it so incredibly bad who were willing to do whatever they could possibly do to. To prepare that day to work on their game. Like I, I came from Mac and everyone told me I was like the hardest working person. I showed up at Carlton and like I was the ninth hardest working person. I was watching Phil scrubbing, do everything I was doing that I was gassed. Like I was cramping in the middle of the night. I'd come in the next morning and he is in a full sweat and it's seven in the morning and it's just routine. This is just what he's doing. And I was like, this place is crazy. This place is crazy.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: What was the Scrub brothers like?
[00:22:08] Speaker B: They're just relentless work ethic. I don't know. Like they have a superpower. They don't get tired. I mean, maybe they do, but they're just the toughest guys ever. They're both quiet and they're both reserved. But I tell you, Phil's a crazy talent. Or he was in his prime a Crazy talent. But Tommy had to deal with that for a long time. Tommy was a red shirt, and he saw Phil come in and be rookie of the year. And by the time I was there in my fifth year with those guys, at the same time, Tommy had become one of the best players in the country. And he still plays ACB Spain now. You know, those guys are just as mentally tough as you could possibly be.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: A story that I heard confirmed this. You can confirm or deny this.
I don't know how accurate this is. If you didn't hit a certain amount of shots, you weren't allowed to shoot in a game. Carlton Wise was this. Is this something in the realm of, like, truth? Of, like, if you didn't hit, there is X amount of shots you can't. In the game, we're not expecting you to shoot.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Well, there is partial truth to that, essentially. Like, that was one of the wilder things to me is that the whole world was always, like, if you miss a shot, like, it's okay, you're gonna make the next one. No, not at Carlton. Make your damn shot. Like, make your shot. Like, I. I remember one practice my first year, I hit four threes in a row, and then I missed the fifth one, and Tyson Hines, who was the All Canadian player of the year, screamed at me, make a damn shot. And I was like.
I just did. Like, relax. And. But, you know. So the thing at Carlton was the. The shooting charts mattered a lot. If you're top three in the shooting charts, then, you know. And I've taken this to Ridley, although, again, high school eyes, my personality.
If you were top three in the charts, you could shoot before the ball got to the paint. If you weren't, then the ball had to get to the paint first. And, you know, we would space with three people on the perimeter and two in the post. If you were. If you were not at a level where you could make consistently open shots, then you had to be a diver.
But if you were, then once that ball came out, then you had to shoot it. So those were kind of the. The shooting rules.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah. What was it like learning the game from one of the most successful coaches in Canadian basketball history?
[00:24:11] Speaker B: It's like pouring gasoline on a fire. I mean, if you're super competitive, you'll get along with Dave Smart. Like, he is just the most competitive person I've ever met in my life. And people don't know this about Dave, but, like, Dave coached 3,000 games in two years. Like, he had nine teams when he was coaching, like, Kingston Guardsman I think it was Kingston Guardsman back in the day. He was coaching nine different rep teams. He was just going practice, to practice, to practice, to practice. And guy coached thousands of games right after he graduated university. And everyone thinks he's a savant and he's a really, really smart guy, but he put the time in to figure out, you know, these are what people's weaknesses are. No one likes to go left. No one likes to pass going left. Or, you know, this is how we can structure an offense. This is how you have to, you know, develop skill. So when you go to that world and you're around that all the time and you're a competitive guy, like, don't get me wrong, some days are absolute nightmares. And I still.
I still get. When I think about some of the difficulties and the hard times I went through, but, like, man, if you. If you want to win, if you're willing to try your hardest, you know, you just realize that you can compete all the time.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: I was going to ask, do you have a crazy Dave Smart story that you, like, laugh about now that you're like, he was giving me hell. But, you know, it helped prepare me for where I'm at now.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: I mean, I have a really funny one, but I don't think it's appropriate.
But, I mean, probably the one that sticks with me the most is, like, the Thursday night before our Friday game at Nationals. In my first year there, we were about to play Mac. And Mac is the school that I had just left, and I was the captain of that team for two years. And my dad was there, and my dad had got fired. So it was a pretty emotional time. But I had also been struggling just with living life at Carlton and playing there. And he called me into his office or he called me into his hotel room, and he was like, listen, it's okay.
You can quit. You're gonna graduate. You're gonna do your MBA next year. We'll just say that you're focusing on school. And I was like, how does this guy know what's going through my brain? That is exactly what I'm thinking. And then he's like, but let me just ask you, what do you want to do with your life? And I was like, I want to be a dad, and I think I want to coach. Those are the only two things I know. And he's like, okay, so what are you gonna do, you know, when you were going to be in those moments where you have to tell your sons or daughters or the players on your team how you're going to how you handled those difficult times. Like, are you going to think back on this moment? And I was like, damn. My perspective kind of changed because I was just jealous of the guy who was giving me my bagel at Tim Hortons in the morning because he didn't have to go through what we were going through. And then at that point in time, it just kind of changed everything for me. I realized, like, I'm not. This is not a bad situation. This is just a really hard situation. And, you know, that advice just, it shifted my perspective. From then on, Carlton was never, I was never thinking about how physically demanding it was. All I was thinking about was how I could become a leader on a national championship team, you know.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: What are your thoughts on the state of esports basketball now?
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Just thinking about it, Transitioning time. It's really interesting.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Your time was the peak.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: It was. I think it was too. And I, I think I'm a bit of a youth sports historian just having watched from the early 90s all the way up, like, I knew who all those guys were.
Our teams in the, you know, the mid to 2010s were as good as those teams ever.
But now it's. Yeah, it's just harder to have seniors, right? It's harder to have seniors because less people are going Division 1 than they were five or seven years ago. More are coming to you sports, but they're not staying for a long time. So it's interesting in that regards, who's going to. Who's going to figure it out. I still think that the guys who end up staying there longer and have real seniors who are 22, 23 years old, those teams are going to be the best. But we'll see.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: What's your thoughts now? Because I feel like on the prep school scene, when you mention esports to a kid, they sometimes laugh. They're like, no, I'd rather go juco. What are your conversations that you have with players or kids that you're like, I went through it. I know the talent level that's there. And like how this can be a jumping point for now. You can go kill it for a year and then go D1. Like, what's the conversation you have with kids now?
[00:28:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the conversation is it's become very realistic because of the squeeze of nil.
Less kids are getting scholarship offers out of high school. You know, the five stars are, the four stars are. But everybody else who was going to low to mid majors are not because transfers are going there. So the advantage to USports is that one year doesn't count towards your Division 1 eligibility. So if you have an opportunity to don't have a Division 1 offer right now, U Sports is a really good option if the fit is really good because then you're going to get to develop. And by the time you are 22 now, you're a grown man physically and your skill set, your competitiveness, your ability to understand how to impact winning is really good. Now you're going to go make a whole bunch of money because people want 22 and 23 year olds.
So it's become a more realistic option. I think the problem is how much do you sports schools actually care? Like there's only a handful who I think actually do. The coaches generally do, but the institutions, they don't care too much. So I shy away from a lot of those programs because I just know that they just, they just don't care to the extent that I want one of my players going to, you know.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it makes sense. Did you ever want to talked about it? U Sports was an interest.
What maybe stopped that and like would there ever be an interest in coaching in esports? Because I'm thinking about it, I'm like, I feel like you, I don't know, I feel like people would want to poach you.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Come, come coach esports, Victor.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Yeah, there were, there was a few different situations, but ultimately it came to the very first one that I, I kind of pulled the plug on. It was because I knew what I was going to put myself through and I just didn't feel like there was a level of care from the school that matched mine, you know. And when Ridley came up, I was like, okay, these people are incredibly passionate about their student body. They really, really want someone who is gonna lead the way I'm gonna lead and that really excites me. I just don't think at the US sports level that there's enough athletic directors who care enough about actually excellence, like actually putting something on the floor that is ultra competitive, that we're trying to win a national championship. And that's what scares me away more often than not that they're just looking to make sure that athletics and recreation and all the intramurals go off without a hitch. There's no issues with the sports programs like the university programs and we just call it a day and we move on to next year. And that's just, that's a world that I know does not mix well with kind of what drives me.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Would you ever consider say a Program that, you know, that cares. Kim calling.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Yes, I would.
But I also know that it would take a lot. Me take a lot to move my family away.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: In Canada.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: Yeah. You started coaching cbl, I feel like right when it started. Right.
What surprised you most about the league? What did you think about going in? Like, this is my expectations. And then what shocked you?
[00:31:33] Speaker B: You know, my expectation was. I didn't think it was much of a risk at the time. Like, this is a great opportunity. If this works, it works. If it doesn't, no. No league has in Canada. So what. What's worse? Right? And I just saw it as. I have an opportunity to, To. To build a program. I've never built a program before. Like, that was a huge opportunity for me. What jumped out at me was how, like the vision of the league. I thought Mike Morieli was unbelievable for the cbl. It always felt like you were working around someone who was a bull in a china shop and had a vision of where this thing was gonna grow and gonna end up one day. And like every year it got a little bit better. You know, the social media got a little bit better. The quality of basketball player coming every summer, who we could attract got a little bit better. We started to pay people a little bit more. The arena started to fill up more to the point last summer where it's like, we're playing a championship game in Winnipeg where the jets play. You know, Canada Life center is an unbelievable. It's an NBA, NHL arena. And there was a game between Niagara and Calgary and there were 8,000 people in the building. And I was like, this is exactly what Mike had always worked towards. And I just was really, really happy that I, I made that decision and stuck it out because, man, the CBL changed my life.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: What were your thoughts on Mike stepping down? Because I know he stepped down. I don't know what, earlier this year or a bit before that. What are your thoughts of him stepping down? Because he was one of the talked about it, the impact that he had.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Yeah, my. My actual thoughts are. It's very scary. Yeah, it's very scary for the direction of the cbl, because I don't know what the direction of the CBL is. There was a time when Richard Petko owned all the teams in the league. And now, you know, there are 10 teams in the league. They're all owned by individual owners. And, you know, I saw the, the demise essentially of the NBL Canada and how owners got too competitive and stopped thinking about the. The greater vision and started making it about My team and my team only. And I worry about that. Like, there has been warning signs since Mike stepped down that are like, you know, for someone who has been around, I was like, yeah, that's some NBL Canada stuff. And I know I have conversations with coaches and GMs across the league and they're worried about that too. And, you know, in this past off season, the CBL is moving to its biggest year yet. And the whole front office is different. Like the entire CBL office, that brain trust, you know, is new now, and I'll support them in whatever they need. And I really, really hope that, that we can continue the vision. But it is. It's scary times.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Yeah. You're saying it's not a good thing to have a bunch of different owners, all kind of competing interests at a time where it's like, it's still early on, right? The league trying to build it up together, like, because most people would think, wow, so many different owners interested in coming in is a good thing. But why is it not?
[00:34:18] Speaker B: It is a good thing. It just needs to be managed properly because, you know, the competitive balances and um, the, the influence that each owner will have to make things go their way. Cause it fits their individual market, um, and the rule changes, you know, like, I, I worry about the product on the basketball floor. I don't think for a, from a fan's perspective, they will notice anything different this year in the cbl. And hopefully they don't notice anything different next year. But I hear the rumblings of the changes, you know, and I just strongly believe in the Canadian content.
I really like the time of the year that the CBL is, and I think that we are a role shooter who has aspirations of becoming a main guy. And usually those things don't go well.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: I was going to ask, is like cbl, to me, it's great summer league, right? It's like a bunch of people come in during the summertime when it's like it's not competing interest with the euroleague. It's not really competing. Just maybe you lose some guys. But like, what are your thoughts on that? Where it's like, what are the aspirations from, like maybe stuff that you've heard about, like the cbo? Because you probably think the format right now is good, right?
[00:35:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's where the individual ownership and, you know, not being too greedy comes in because we, we hit the sweet spot in the sense that, you know, our season starts right around the time professional seasons end overseas, and then we finish right around the time they start and as a result we could get high level Canadians to come back. And the high level Canadians are the ones who attracted the high level Americans because they're their teammates overseas. So it added legitim legitimacy to it and guys came back and they cared instantly. You know, like there has been so many guys who are national team window guys. So many who like were passionate. Okay, I play for Scarborough now, you know, like I had Trey Bel Haynes and I play for Niagara and it mattered. And I worry that the, the interest of the league is to get more home games because more home games make more money and that means lengthening the league. And as soon as you start getting into that you start to lose the quality of player.
But the fans may not notice that. But Canadian basketball people will notice that. Right? Like you, you tired bodies. Tired bodies. But it's also we, we can't compete with the, with overseas. Like we can pay people really well for three months in the summer but it's still not going to be the same as what they get. 10 months. And those 10 months jobs you can never compete. Like when I've lost guys the last two years I've lost players going into championship weekend because their contract started and their teams were playing hardball. And I am in no position to prevent you from losing a 10 month gig that's going to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. And those situations like the how much the, the, the pros care overseas about Canada right now, the Canadian guys, I feel like if we start making changes to how we do things and affecting the timelines that they just won't care. And then it's going to be start to get closer to NBL Canada. Like this year we're moving to five Americans or five import spots on a team that's the most we've ever had.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: Is that a good thing?
[00:37:23] Speaker B: No, I hate it. Why? Because Canadian content like we have 10 teams across the country.
Seven of those 10 players in my opinion should be Canadian. I think the, the rule that Mike made about three Canadians or there has to be two Canadians on the floor at all times was awesome. It was awesome because now you can't just go and your Canadians are afterthoughts. The Canadians have to be the main thoughts and that's why our team has been good for a long time because our I put so much value and honestly assets into Canadians. I paid them really well because this is a Canadian league for Canadians, you know and we are. There are warning signs of moving towards more imports, more imports, more imports. If you move the season around any longer then you know, your quality of Canadian drops off drastically and they want to keep the quality of basketball high. So that means more imports.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: How much, it's scary how much that does that like lead to less fans engagement too. It's like okay, now I'm watching a bunch of people that these are talented people, USA Basketball players, potentially import players overseas, but I don't know half the players playing. How much of that is an issue too?
[00:38:30] Speaker B: Well, I think that that is the crux of the argument is that you have some owners who will say, you know, fans don't care. They don't care if it's Khalil Ahmad or Trey Bell Haynes.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: I care.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Yeah, and I care too. And I think that is short sighted.
I think that you know, we need to focus on each individual market and build up brands continuity in those markets and the best way to do that are with reliable Canadian players who will come back year after year and making sure that Canadians in those markets are taken really, you know, we take care of them the way like Montreal takes care of Quincy Garrier. That's really important. And I think that those, that's the way to build this league is to, is to understand where we, where we fit into the grand scheme of things, you know, and not try to step above it and become excellent at what we do.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting because like when you think about the teams, there were staples for each team of guys that would come back each time I'm wondering if that's going to go away. And then I think about you talking about two owners different, a bunch of owners now where it's like hey, I might have a connection with a guy that plays over here that's very talented that I might just ship over to come play. And then now it's not really what it was before, you know what I'm saying?
[00:39:47] Speaker B: I think the bigger problem is that there's going to become an arms race and it's already happening with a couple of the teams where it's really important to make a league like this have to be, you know, relatively equal competitively is a salary cap and we have made, we have had teams who straight up cheat. So we bend the rules and make new rules like okay, well if you want to cheat at least do it above board. Now you're going to use a designated player or this, that and the other and it's just driving up costs for people to run these teams and you know, the revenue that's coming in is not matching the competitiveness of These investors, and therefore the bottom line looks worse. And I actually don't. I think we're moving towards less sustainable organizations as opposed to. If we kind of. If we like, held true to a salary cap and, you know, coaching salaries across the league were relatively the same and people weren't blowing the budgets in certain areas that, like, we could actually build something that is really sustainable in the long run.
And all of that kind of comes back to the vision of, of the league. Like, I. I see it from every perspective on the inside, and I worry about it because I see people doing it off in different directions, trying to get their influence, spending a ton of money, and I'm like, I think that's going to crash and burn.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Victor Rosso for CBL commissioner. I want to see that. No, no, no, you don't want to see that.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: No, I do not. I got a lot of coaching left in.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
Have you talked to Mike since he left? Like, what's that? What's his impressions on, like, the changes that's happened since he's left?
[00:41:21] Speaker B: No, I haven't talked to him much. I just thanked him because he.
His work gave me a platform that changed my life.
So I haven't really gotten into that too much with him, nor do I want to.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: When you became head coach, Niagara River Lions, what was that feeling like running a CBL team? Gm, also, we'll get into. I want to get into, like, how you went about building a team. Obviously now things are changing, but what was your strategy? All that kind of stuff. But tell me, when you became head coach, what was that feeling like?
[00:41:49] Speaker B: I was just. I felt so ready for the opportunity. I know I'm. I'm not good at, like, the networking and climbing world, so, you know, I feel like I had put in enough work that I had a plan and I was ready to go.
Looking back on it, I should have been a lot more nervous than I actually was at the time, especially knowing all the, like, hardships that were going to happen over those seven years. But, yeah, that's. That's kind of my feeling then. And it just kind of, you know, kept becoming my life as we went forward.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: What was your philosophy in constructing the roster, getting guys?
Because it's had Joe Anthony on actually maybe in November ish. Around that time. And he was saying it's not just like a. You don't just start the season in January. It's like, you got to call guys. It's a long process, the planning, all that kind of stuff. How did you go about Summing roster.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: I mean, I'm helping Kimball through this right now. Always start with the end in mind. Okay? This is the team that we want to put on the floor for a championship game. This is the group of guys who we think can do it and then recruit them, start working backwards from there. It is a never ending puzzle in the cbl because not everybody can show up at the beginning of the year and stay to the end. So, you know, you're constantly working backwards from there. I made sure that we always had four or five very good Canadians.
Not just fill in guys, but actual guys who could really go.
And then, and then, you know, the American part of was a bit hit or miss for a couple years. And then, you know, I found a group that really worked. Khalil Ahmad became a superstar because of this league and that this league changed his life, but he changed our lives too.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: He was Canadian, to be honest with you.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, man, if he was Canadian, he would be. He'd be on every senior men's national team and we would know a lot more about him. But him and A.J. davis, those guys came in four years ago, and then I just stuck with him the entire time. We had some additions along the way.
Obviously, we had a lot of continuity with Canadians, which made team building easier because I was very rarely after my third or fourth year recruiting net new guys to the team. It was last year we had a player named Ron Curry, and I signed Ron Curry because Eddie Eckior called me and was like, he's one of us. Like, we need him. Okay, that works for me. If, if you know that part about him, the part that's the hardest to recruit, then, yeah, he's coming with us. Or a med hill. We played against him for years, and I just, you could see who that guy was. And I was like, I, I, I want that guy with us, you know?
[00:44:16] Speaker A: So how do you build chemistry with players who are like. You talked about it, different timelines. They might come at the beginning of the season. Some guys might come in. How do you keep that locked in where it's like, say you bring in a guy mid season, he's like, you see the talent, you're like, I might have to start this guy. Like, how do you keep it where it's like the continuity is there and it's also like ever changing, stuff happening all the time. Right? Cbo.
[00:44:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, people over talent and making sure that, you know, you, you reward your words, have to match your actions, and in that world, you, you know, you're signing guys to contracts and you're signing them to roles. And I, I never had a competitive training camp in the sense that like when I went and recruited the guys, I, whatever I told them the role they had, that's the role that they, that they were going to get. And I just put the trust in them from the start because I knew that would return down the road. And then I would invite guys to come to training camp and just tell them like, this truly is a, this is practice and chances are you're not going to make this team unless something goes off plan and just really start with there and then make sure that like guys who impact winning, who the rest of the world might not see, I value them like Kimbo McKenzie. That guy's worth his weight in gold. He worth his weight in gold. He was a, a coach on the floor. He was a leader in the locker room. I could get on these professional guys and yell if they weren't living up to standards in a three month summer league because I had Kimball who was just the ultimate leader and he'd be like, yeah, coach is right. And guys would buy into that because they want a brotherhood, you know, they want to compete for a greater good. So, you know, making sure that you, the people matter more. Because early in my career, flashy objects like super talented athletic guys. Yeah, come my way. This is going to be fun. And then I realized pretty quickly, hell no, that's a crash and burn situation. Let's find the right type of people and then, you know, if we can find the right type of people, that with also the level of talent we need, we can overcome. And we did, we overcame like we were never the most talented team. You know, we beat a Vancouver team that was loaded with talent.
Yeah, well, this is the year before Tyrese. So this is Tajay Moore who played in the NBA and who else was on that team?
Dwayne Notice was on that team, a bunch of overseas pros. Marcus Carr, like, that team was loaded and you know, we overcame them because of togetherness. Last year we lost our last five games of the season and then, you know, one, two at nationals because we overcame and there was, there was like a team aspect to it and it's so hard to find in the professional world because there's so many temptations to move away from that kind of stuff. And I fell victim to it for a long time.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: Yeah. What's it like to getting guys back? Is that like hard? What's the process like?
I mean, I feel like you had A lot of continuity.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: We had. Yeah, we had a lot of continuity. We had a. Three different versions of the River Lions in my seven years there. And every team had guys for two or three years.
I think it was just we, the front office, like Michelle Biscuit, who's our president, and Jeff Satiro, who's our president, before we made sure we took care of the guys. They all live in Thorold and Thorold in the summer. You're 10 minutes from Niagara Falls, 10 minutes from Niagara on the lake. There's kind of like a little magicalness about it. You're close enough to go to Toronto whenever you want, but it also feels like you're working on your game and you're. You're still playing professional basketball. So that whole situation was always really good. And then, you know, I just think that we got along well with the guys and the guys enjoyed playing here every summer. And everyone's a free agent every year in the cbl. And it wasn't. It wasn't that hard to convince guys to come back.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: What was that feeling like winning back to back? And did it validate anything for you?
[00:48:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it definitely did. The first one. It validated the franchise because I think we. We were awesome for five years, but we just kept losing in big games. Like, we were always first or second overall in the league, and I just couldn't. I just couldn't. I wasn't a good enough coach to win those games. So when we. When I made a lot of changes and, you know, we got over that hump and it was. That was a ton of validation for the front office, too. Like, we do a really good job. We just had never crack the code before.
And then this past year was a validation that, like, we are who we thought we were. You know, we knew we were really good. We had a veteran team who didn't always show up when the score was. We were up too much or down too much. Our plus minus was minus 51 on the year.
But when it mattered, it mattered. And, you know, we got the job done. And I think it cemented a bunch of those guys, Khalil especially. But like our group, our core group, that they're the best dynasty in the short history of the cbl and they have a chance of making it three this summer.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: Yeah. What made you step away? Is it about the discussion maybe we had a bit earlier about a lot of changes to the cbl? What made you want to.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: No, that.
That wasn't it for me. What was it? Is that I have been. I Have been coaching the last three years, 11 months a year.
[00:49:15] Speaker A: Oh, you need a vacation.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: I was. And I have two kids at home and I would love to go. My wife would too, but I have a three and a half year old son, I have a one year old daughter. I, um, and I have a wife who is. Is career driven herself. So to coach 11 months of the year for three years straight was a lot. And I just found myself, I found myself every year being like, okay, you know, the motivation comes around December. And then last year the motivation comes around January to like really start ramping up on the river lines because it's also the end of the Ridley season.
And then this year, sometime in January, I was like, oh, man, this is not. This is not coming back. You know, this is not coming back. And I, I just talked to my wife and I was like, are you okay if I don't do this anymore?
And she was like, yeah, I'm. I'm more than okay. Yeah, more than that, I'm more than okay. And I just felt like, you know, we accomplished everything I ever wanted to.
I was able to hand off the program to Kimball, who is a lot like me seven years ago, and it's going to be his, you know, his start, and he's got the right makeup for it, and I'll be able to help him along the way.
Um, the players also wanted to come back and play for Kimball, so that was organizationally really important. Um, and then for me, it's an opportunity to do some different stuff. Like, I haven't. I've coached my own teams for the last seven years. I haven't been around other people coaching their team. And, you know, there's an opportunity to be with Canada basketball going forward, and, and that's something that really excited me. So it just kind of fit.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: What's that, like, Canada basketball you mentioned.
Tell us about the role. This podcast, obviously, coming out after the training camp stuff, and I'm like, about time. About damn time. Victor, as a coach, McCann basketball.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, I'll be involved with different age group teams, and then I'm gonna have an opportunity to be around the senior team and learn from all of those coaches. Man, that coaching pool, like the assistants on the senior men's team, that's a room I want to be in. I want to learn from those guys. The opportunity to know, watch Gordy Herbert work and hopefully one day down the road be able to sit on one of those benches. That's something that really excites me. My dad coached Team Canada when I was a kid, and I've always had this, like, I just always want to be involved with Team Canada as a player. I made it to, like, the top 50 camp when I was a junior national, and that's about as close as I ever got. So to have an opportunity to actually work with them and not just kind of be a volunteer, but, you know, be wanted to a certain extent and feel like I can provide value and that. That is like an achievement of a lifetime for me so far.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: Age group stuff. You mentioned it. Do you feel like development in Canada is in a good place? Where do you feel like we're at? Good place, bad place. Progression is needed. Like, where do you feel like development is that right now?
[00:51:58] Speaker B: I think that's an ever changing thing that, you know, we're. We're starting to get right. I think. I think we were doing really good stuff before COVID and.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: And then derailed a lot.
[00:52:06] Speaker B: It did derail a lot. Like, that is a whole class and, you know, to multiple classes who didn't get to train while the rest of the world didn't really stop, you know, And I think that we're recovering from that now. I think that the intentions are really good. I think that our athletes and the skill level out there is as good as it's ever been.
And, you know, we have to.
We have to become really good at basketball. We have to overachieve as a country. You know, like, we're. We're getting to a point where we've got unbelievable talents at the high school level, the college level, and at the pros or in the NBA. But now we need to start overachieving. We need to start, you know, like that RJ group who won the world championship in 2017, which is one of the trivia questions.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Todd, I'm so disappointed you didn't get that right, man. That was.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: You know, that group overachieved. They were missing guys on the roster. Dell had got hurt. Yeah, they. They overachieved. And, you know, one day when we beat the US In a massive moment, it's going to be because we overachieved. And I.
I want to be a part of that along the way. And I think we're doing things right as a country, and our mindset is in the right spot that we are, you know, we're not just trying to be top 10. I think we're trying to beat the States when it matters the most, and the Serbia is when it matters the most. And for us to do that. You know, it's got to start at the age group level and we got to start figuring out ways to win basketball games.
[00:53:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I need the age group team to get back to, to where it was a few years back. Is there something you would change about like Canadian basketball in general that you're like, if this changed, we'd be in a completely different place.
Kind of putting you on the spot with that or like something that.
[00:53:42] Speaker B: One of the things, I'm not sure. It's a pet peeve. It's nothing that will actually change. But like all the gyms in this country are tied to academic institutions.
[00:53:51] Speaker A: Y.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: Therefore basketball is tied to academics, you know, and like there's. It's just that it's a problem. It's a problem that, you know, we don't really have necessarily in Europe. I'm not sure how you would even change this, but, you know, basketball and, and school.
Why are they connected? Yeah, you know, like, why can't I go to York University? Because I want to study business there and then play for the TMU basketball team. Like there is a. The way they kind of do it in Europe. I think that, know there's.
That is something that it just logically makes sense, but it will never change around here. That is like, if I had a wish list, it would be that, you know, we had the CBL teams, had a U23 team and they had a youth level teams and that the European model. The European model and that we could house them and you know, they could come and, and do school. But they're not necessarily competing for the school. They're competing for a club. I think that makes a ton of sense. And then it also removes the weight of school. You know, like, I have really good players at Ridley College who are excellent students, but they're borderline university basketball players. Well, they're not even considering playing in the college like the ccaa, but basketball wise, that's the perfect spot for them. But academically that's not the perfect spot. The perfect spot's university. Then all of a sudden basketball careers get cut short a little bit. You know, there's a model of development that fits completely opposite to what we currently have. That is a complete pipe dream by me. But that's kind of what I would like.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: I love that. No one's ever mentioned that. I love that. I love that point. Is there something about the coaching grind that people don't see that you're like, I'm just glad, really. Season's over. I got the NPA championship. I'm gonna hang the banner up. Like, is there something that people don't see about, like the year that talk about it now? Niagara River Lions. Put that to shelf releases and put that self for a bit. Is there something that you're like, people don't get to see the behind the scenes of like the coaching grind and what we go through.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Your mind, your mind never turns off, you know, and my wife will tell anybody this. It's like she's. She's talking to me and I having a conversation, but like, there is so much going on up there because you're thinking about. You're thinking about the scouts that need to be done, the planning, who you're playing against, how I can convince these guys what to do. Who's upset today, who had a bad day, who had a good day. Like, it's just. It's just never ending. And then when you're recruiting two teams at a time, like, you're always thinking about that too, you know? So like when, when the NPA season ended the other day, I was just so ready to go to sleep. Like, I just sat. After about five minutes, I just sat on the bench there, talked to a couple guys on the team. I was like, yeah, this is awesome. Go enjoy your night. I'm just gonna. I'm gonna relax. I can't wait to go to sleep tonight.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: Yeah. What's been the most rewarding part for you as a coach so far? Like, we talk about the two CBL championships, OSBA championship, mph. You basically won everything in cam. What we think about it, like on a high school level and then cbl.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: What's been the most rewarding?
Honestly, like, the journey has been awesome. Impacting people's lives, getting people to. To reach their potential. I think the teammate stuff is probably the most.
The most fun for me is getting people to genuinely care about each other. And like, I've told people this before, I think I coach caring more than I coach anything else. And just getting you to care and unlocking your levels of caring and not just like casual caring that how someone's doing, but like actually caring about them to the point where you're holding them accountable to things or being cared for enough that you react properly when someone actually does care about you and you're not, you know, just a hothead or too emotional.
I've seen that happen. The bonds that the guys have built at the professional world where they truly enjoy their three months together and then they all go their own separate ways and there's lifelong friendships and then at the high school level them becoming like brothers and these memories like these kids are going to have a memory of winning a national championship and you know, beating Fort Erie the team that's you know, the basketball factory in this country. Like that. That is so cool.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Victor Rasso, I can't thank you enough for for joining the pod chatting with us. Excited to watch your journey as a coach. Mentioned coaching with Canada basketball coming off a amazing season with the really college and yeah can't thank you enough for, for joining the podcast and about time like I said, coaching with cannabis. Well excited to see that and yeah appreciate you just joining us.
[00:58:20] Speaker B: Thanks for having me man. It was a lot of fun.
[00:58:21] Speaker A: This is the Canadian Basketball show your go to spot for the latest news stories and analysis on Canadian basketball ball. I've been your host Victor and we out.
