Ryan: My philosophy as a coach starts with people, both with the players and the coaching staff. (General Manager) Jermaine Anderson and I worked hard at putting together a roster with a lot of talent, but also players who are high character individuals. They’re all looking at this opportunity as a time to grow and develop their game. Same goes with the staff we’ve put together, great people that have a passion for the game and helping people get better. Everyone is excited about the opportunity to come in, work hard and use this opportunity to improve.

I’ve always been a believer that better people make better basketball players, and that’s a big part of my background as a coach who’s spent a lot of time helping guys develop their game. High character, humility and sacrifice, are characteristics I look for in people I work with, and we have that throughout this organization.

My job is to put our players in a position that play to their strengths. We’re going to play with good tempo, and the ball is going to move quite a bit. On the defensive end we’re going to be disruptive and we’ve got a very athletic group that will allow us to pressure teams. There might be a game where maybe it’s just not our night and we can’t hit shots, but you’ll never watch this team and say that they don’t play hard enough because that’s just not in their DNA.

Eddy: How different is your approach to coaching a team in a tournament format versus a 20-game regular season?

Ryan: It’s completely different. Through a 20-game season over three-and-a-half months you’ve got practice days, you’ve got time between games to clean things up, and you can take a few losses early on as you grow and the team gels. There are still a lot of the fundamental things that you’ll do to prepare for any type of season. But in the Summer Series it’s such a quick turnaround between games. 

We’re going to do the best we can to find that balance where we’re getting the necessary work in, but also get our players the rest they’re going to need. A lot of our teaching will need to be done through film. For our staff it’s going to be a lot of work and some sleepless nights just because of that short time in between games. We’re going to learn on the fly quickly because of the round robin and then single elimination format. We’ll have a few games to get our legs underneath us, but at the same time we’re playing for seeding in the bracket.

Training camp is seven crucial days where we have to put in our system and principles, and the guys have to learn to play together. At the same time, I want to keep the workload down a little because we don’t want to wear them out because once we tip off July 25 we literally play every other day.

Eddy: How difficult is it heading into the Summer Series where you’ve never seen your opponents and don’t really know what lineups and matchups you’ll face?

Ryan: It’s something I’ve never done in terms of coaching in a tournament setting like this where you’re playing so many games so quickly, with the different resources and things you’re going to have to use to create an advantage. 

It’s going to be interesting watching how the other teams play. They all have to play six games as well, and we’re only going to face them once. We’ll have to dive into the film and watch the games live when we can to see how other teams are operating.

The teams we play in the first three games could look completely different down the road. From the coaching side it’s going to be fun. For me, it’s critical to give the players as much of an advantage as possible without overloading them with information. That’s going to be the tricky part because as coaches we tend to over-analyze a lot.

Eddy: You’ve coached a few of the Honey Badgers in the past with Raptors 905. Does that make the transition into this job a little easier?

Ryan: It does. I’m a relationship person, and not only did I coach some of our guys in the past, but I’ve stayed in touch with them and stayed involved in their development. Whether that’s sending things I see on film, or just having conversations to help them deal with where they’re at in their respective seasons. They know what I’m about and know my approach to the game, and I know their approach. 

There is a lot of open dialogue between myself and the players, which I think is extremely important. These guys are the ones who are going to be on the floor executing. I’ve got to do my job and be prepared so I can put them in the best possible situations to be successful. At the end of the day if the players aren’t comfortable, it doesn’t really matter what we do as coaches. I think having that comfort level and having a relationship with a lot of these guys going into it will definitely make things a little easier.

Eddy: To what extent did you collaborate with Jermaine Anderson in building this year’s roster?

Ryan: It was a lot of fun. There were many unknowns—would there be a season? What would a season look like? There was so much work to be done that you kind of lose yourself in that which was nice, especially during the pandemic because it gave us something to lock into and focus on. Working with Jermaine has been amazing. He’s such a great guy, and we see the game very similarly as far as how it should be played and the kind of people we want involved in our organization. Jermaine has some great relationships with guys, and I’ve got some great relationships with guys, so to be able to come together and collaborate on the roster was a fun challenge. 

When I accepted the coaching job from John Lashway, I told Jermaine, ‘you’re the GM, so I’m not going to interfere. If you want my input, or if you want me to reach out to some guys, let me know.’ The only two things that I asked for is that I want guys of high character, and I want guys that are going to come in and look at this as an opportunity to get better. I want players who want to outwork people and are serious about their development because those are guys I relate well with. Jermaine was looking for the exact same thing, so it was a lot of fun for both of us. We’re very happy with the result.

Eddy: You’ll be playing on the road, but with no fans in the stands. Does that affect your preparation for the games?

Ryan: Not really, you don’t plan for the fans when you’re preparing for games anyway. It may be a little different for the players at first, but as a competitor when the ball goes up, you’re so locked into the actual game and the task at hand that you normally drown out the noise anyway. It might actually be a little easier for the players to focus on what they need to do since there won’t be any outside distractions.

Eddy: With players having spent months in self-isolation, and Brianté Weber and Derek Cooke, Jr in two-week quarantine leading up to training camp, how important will it be to create team chemistry and maximize a very brief time together before the games begin?

Ryan: It will be very important, but the fun part for the players and coaches is just getting the opportunity to get back to doing what we all love. A lot of these guys haven’t played a game since March, so the opportunity to get into the gym and be around other players and coaches again is going to mean a lot.

With everything going on in the world right now, and the self-isolation and quarantining these past few months it’s going to be fun to be back in the gym and seeing people smile and enjoying what they’re passionate about. Don’t get me wrong—there is going to be a lot of work because seven days of training camp to prepare for a long stretch of games with little prep time in between, is a big challenge. Training camp is going to be tough, but I’m just looking forward to getting back in the gym and seeing these guys do what they love.

Eddy: What can Honey Badgers fans expect from this team after finishing as runner-up last year?

Ryan: When you look at our roster a lot of people are talking about the talent. But to me the biggest thing is that when you dive into each guy individually and look at their respective careers you notice that they’ve left an imprint and lasting impression that they play the game the right way. They compete at a high level day-in and day-out, and that’s something consistent across the board.

These are high character guys, and when you get a group of individuals who all share a lot of the same qualities and characteristics as people, it’s going to make for a fun team to watch. One thing I know for sure is you’ll never question their effort.

You’re going to see a lot of ball movement and guys playing together. You’ll see us picking up full court, trapping, constantly pressuring the other team’s offense, and being as disruptive as we can be to try to force turnovers. All-in-all it’s going to be a group that plays for one another on both ends of the floor. I’m excited! It’s a great group, and these guys are all excited to get going. It’s going to be a fun team to coach.

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Maria Suriani

Manager, Operations & Community Engagement

msuriani@honeybadgers.ca