12 Essential Questions with

Ralph Willard

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12 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR . . . RALPH WILLARD

Presented by Bill Cambria (Class of 1969)

Posted 10/12/02

Looking ahead to the upcoming basketball season, and working together with CROSSPORTS, I prepared a list of questions for Ralph Willard. As noted when the first interview with Dick Regan was posted, we hope to submit questions from time to time to individuals who hold leadership roles in Holy Cross athletics.

Ralph Willard is a member of the Class of 1967 who has achieved tremendous success as a basketball coach on a national scale. In the three years since he has returned to Holy Cross as our basketball coach, he has demonstrated his commitment to success and excellence for Holy Cross basketball, and has made great strides in restoring the program and in honoring its wonderful tradition. His biographical information can be found at http://www.holycross.edu/departments/athletics/website/willardbio.html.

These questions were prepared to address recurring themes in postings on the CROSSPORTS Message Board. As before, I hope and expect that these responses will provide the impetus for additional postings. In this way, all of us can demonstrate our continuing support for Holy Cross athletics and the student-athletes who compete in the name of Holy Cross.

On a personal note, I want to express my deep appreciation to Dick Regan and Ralph Willard for their willingness to respond to these questions. I recognize it is an imposition on their time, and they deserve our thanks for making this extra effort for Holy Cross.

12 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR . . . RALPH WILLARD

Presented by Bill Cambria

1. There seems to be a great deal of excitement with the progress the basketball program had made in the last two years. What is your overall view right now of the men’s basketball program at Holy Cross?

I feel we’ve made excellent progress in two areas in particular. One is changing the mental mindset of the players from one where losing was tolerated and almost expected to an attitude of expecting and accepting nothing but a total commitment to those things that enable you to win.

The second area of progress is that Holy Cross is thought of as a quality program by coaches, fans, and media both locally and, more important, nationally. We are back on the radar screen as a program and a college.

2. In your view, are the other Patriot League programs also getting better? What more can be done to improve the national status and image of the Patriot League?

Yes, I believe the Patriot League is improving. There is really excellent coaching in this league and with the addition of American and Bucknell getting scholarship money, the league is attracting more quality players.

That being said, promotion of the league is very difficult because of the location of the PA schools and Colgate. There is little media coverage or interest and it is very difficult for all but Navy and American to get even quality mid-majors to come to their home venues. This translates into a lot of road games in the non-conference schedule and a poor winning percentage. Beating any opponent on the road is difficult in college basketball. If it wasn’t, the so-called better “Big Time Schools” would play mid-majors on the road, and obviously they don’t.

3. What is your vision of the future of Holy Cross basketball, and what needs to be done to make that vision a reality?

My vision for the program when I first arrived was of establishing respect and recognition for the program from the outside, and pride and involvement of the students, alumni, and local community on the inside. We need to market the program better locally and within the school itself and I need to keep doing what I can to market the program in the media nationally.

I am sure some of our fans have a vision of “Top 50” or better. To that, I must repeat what my mother told me as a teenager: “You must leave the neighborhood if you want something more than the neighborhood has to offer.” Right now we must accept the fact that we are in a league that will never get the recognition it deserves because of geography and scheduling, and to think that we should be different than everyone else in the league is not realistic nor does it give credit to the other coaches and schools in the league, which they genuinely deserve.

4. Holy Cross seems to have had a good recruiting year, with two young men from New York joining the program. In your view, how do the Holy Cross recruits, as a group, compare to the recruiting classes at the other Patriot League schools?

I am not good at comparing classes. Some schools have recruited foreign players and also have gotten transfers. I am pleased with our recruits, but at our level it’s primarily about projecting their development a year or two down the road. I do think that some of our fans think that because we have scholarships we should be getting a student-athlete that is superior to that of schools offering financial aid. The truth is highly recruited players want to play against the best and are also interested in playing in highly competitive environments and in front of TV and large crowds. Also, some schools are very adept at putting together aid packages that closely mirror an NCAA scholarship. What scholarships have done is allow us to compete against the top Ivy programs and the top programs in our league.

5. Recruiting is always a hot topic. What reception are you getting when recruiting now? Where are you recruiting? Is there increased interest in Holy Cross? Can we get interest from more talented prospects?

The NCAA tournament the past two years has been a great vehicle for selling the “Holy Cross Story” and the basketball program to a national audience. One of the things I am most proud about as an alum is that the quality of a Holy Cross education is now being talked about on a national level. From my perspective the NCAA tournament and the national media coverage we have received is reversing “the regionalization” the school had experienced over the past decade. I had been bothered that in my travels the vast majority of professional people I encountered had no idea where Holy Cross was or how good a school it is. In terms of attracting more talented prospects, our recruiting pool is expanding but still somewhat limited by the perception of our league.

6. Neil Fingleton will be the tallest player in Holy Cross history, while Pat Whearty and Nate Lufkin played well last year and will be back again. Going into the season, what impact will Neil have, and do you have any specific plan on how they will share playing time?

I don’t like to discuss individual players and playing time. I tell our guys that I don’t determine playing time, they do, and I truly believe that. I do think that people have to lower their expectations for Neil. He has played two years of high school and 0 years of college. He has good potential but has to have time to grow into the college game. He is a pleasure to work with and is working hard. My plans for him when he does play would be similar to Josh, but are still evolving as I work with him and evaluate his progress.

7. Tim Szatko is once again the Preseason Player of the Year; Brian Wilson seems to be our steadiest contributor; and Jave Meade plays a key role. What do you expect from them this season?

Tim, Brian and Jave all have experience and leadership that they must bring to our team. We have quality young men on our team and I think their character has been very evident the last three years. The challenge for them and the rest of our team is to keep building the attitude of winning.

8. The roster seems to be loaded with sophomores. Which players seemed to show the most improvement during the off-season, and may be unexpected contributors in 2002-2003? Tell us about Jonathan Gibbons, our new walk-on.

All the sophomores should be better this year. Most freshmen at our level are not ready to play significant minutes (unless as a team you are bad). The fact that we don’t have any summer session at Holy Cross prevents our players from staying here and really getting better physically and fundamentally as a group. This is in contrast to almost all other Div. 1 programs, and is a real disadvantage in many respects. Jonathan Gibbons is a good ballhandler and shooter who has a fierce work ethic and has shown an attitude I really like.

9. There has been a lot of discussion about scheduling difficulties due to our recent success. What difficulties have you encountered in scheduling games and what can be done to overcome these difficulties?

When I first got here, everyone was calling to play us. Now, no one will play us. Northeastern, Vermont, Hartford, Yale, New Hampshire, UMass, and Providence have all dropped us. The basic reality is that coaches feel they can’t afford to lose to a Patriot League team and our showing in the NCAA’s the past two years has made us a very credible threat. I have friends at the so-called “major” schools and they basically say “if you were in my position, would you play you?” Unfortunately, most of the fans at these schools think of our league as the bottom of the college basketball food chain and a loss would be intolerable. So, no coach wants to play a “no win” game that they might lose. With Providence, UMass, and UConn, I have tried to sell the history of the rivalry, but to no avail. There is virtually nothing that can be done to combat this as long as RPI and a 65-team NCAA field remain in place.

On this point, I have been asked at different Alumni outings what can be done to improve our RPI and possible NCAA seeding. The answer is nothing and it doesn’t matter. The Patriot League will never get higher than a 15 seed until it wins an NCAA tourney game (we are the only league that hasn’t). As a coach at this level, my goal is not RPI (we were 88 in 2001 and received a 15 seed). Any league game will bring down your RPI no matter who you play out of conference, and honestly, the only thing that matters is winning the conference tournament and that means playing your best basketball in March. Everything you do in terms of scheduling, player rotation, etc. must be geared for that to happen. This is the level of our league and we should understand the positives and the limitations that are the reality of its place in college basketball.

10. Who do you see as the principal contenders in the Patriot League in 2002-2003?

I am terrible at picking contenders. I let Larry Napolitano vote in the pre-season league polls. There are several teams with multiple starters back, and also some foreign and JUCO recruits so to me everyone looks good.

11. What more can be done to increase support for Holy Cross basketball from the student body, alumni and greater Worcester community?

Win and market. We must be more proactive with the students and alumni in getting them to attend games and support the program. Also, in the local community we must advertise and find a way to get more local media coverage.

12. Have you been following postings about Holy Cross basketball on the Crossports message board, and are there any comments you want to make about the viewpoints expressed there?

Honestly, no. Some people have made reference to the site and I commend those who put the time and effort into putting it together. I think it’s a nice place for fans to express their ideas to one another as long as criticism of the players doesn’t get personal. It sometimes amazes me that on one hand we expect our student-athletes to be regular students but demean them when they play poorly. Family, tests, girlfriends, illness, etc. affect our guys just like they do regular students, and sometimes it affects the way they play, so before you criticize think about your bad days. For my part, I feel if I have time to read the internet during the season then I must not be doing enough to make our players and team better.

Thanks for your interest and support of the program. We’ll do our very best to represent you and all the Holy Cross community with class and pride.

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