	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

INDIANA UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 25, 2017

Tom Ostrom

Bloomington, Indiana

TOM OSTROM: Yeah, you have to cover a lot of ground, with very few exceptions you're not recruiting the same guys at dayton that you are at Indiana. So guys are talking to me about players who I've heard their reputations but I haven't seen them before. The next two weekends it's good you have all four guys out. You just have to cover a lot of different ground and see a lot of guys. You rely on your relationships that you've had in the past, talking to different high school coaches.

It's been well-documented that we've made a lot of rounds in Indiana, and starting from there and kind of building from the inside out. But seeing, it's a big class, as everyone knows. But, again, you have to -- it's no different where you're at. You've got to find the right fit. You've got to find a guy who fits the program, that fits the community, the university, and obviously the head coach as well.

Q. What is the right fit both as a player and as a person?
TOM OSTROM: That's good. Everyone talks about the word culture, and sometimes it almost becomes clichÃ©, but it is. Everyone says culture, culture, culture, then you see a really talented guy, and you say, well, he's really talented but are you really talking about your culture there?

So there's definitely you have to have a level of talent to play at Indiana and the Big Ten to succeed. But you also have to find a guy who the coaching staff, and most importantly Coach Miller connects with, and who will fit and kind of mesh with his personality. I think that's really important.

Things like hard work and character and passion, those are all talents as well. It's not about running and jumping and shooting, which are very important as well. But we've kind of learned over the years, our staff has learned over the years, that there's a lot that comes into that. Obviously, someone who embraces expectations and the community of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Q. As far as recruiting, do you have certain areas (Inaudible)?
TOM OSTROM: I don't think that's been decided right now. Here at Indiana we haven't talked about that. There a lot of things going on. At Dayton there weren't as much guards and bigs. It was more a little bit of offense and guys who focused in. It's not as specialized. As you guys know, it's not specialized like football where you're in charge of the defensive end and it's not like that. You only have 12, 13 guys. It's more collaborative than it would be in football. You have a guy who focuses maybe more on the offense, a guy who focuses more on defense and a guy who focuses maybe on rebounding or out of bounds, things like that.

I would say even though at Dayton I was more focusing on offense, it doesn't mean look at the defense or talk about the defense. And vice versa, the guy who is in charge of the defense, in a game if he saw a player or situation that may work, he can suggest it. It's more collaborative, I think, than anything else.

Q. Just talk about your own opportunity coming to Indiana, and after Archie gets hired, the process and how quickly you knew that you were going to be coming here as well.
TOM OSTROM: Well, it's an unbelievable opportunity. I'm a graduate of the University of Minnesota, I'm from Minnesota, so I know a lot about Indiana and the tradition, and the power of the brand. So that's a special, special opportunity, and I'm very thankful. Just like you guys, I've had a lot of help along the way. I'm sure just like you guys had help along the way. I'm very mindful of that. As a guy who was a very average basketball player who just loved the game and tried to put his head down to work, I had to have some people who helped me, and I'm very grateful for that.

The process, I interviewed for the head coaching job at Dayton. I clearly didn't get it otherwise I probably wouldn't be here right now. So that process took about a week to 10 days. Coach Miller was kind enough to really support me in that process, so I did that. Then he basically said whatever happens, you have an opportunity to come to IU when the time is right.

So when he got the job, obviously, it affects a lot of people. Some good. Anytime there's a coaching change, it effects just numerous, numerous people. Again, some very positive, some negative, some kind of in between. You know, what happens, I have a wife and three small children, and you know, she was, as most wives do, asking a lot of questions and asking what do you think is going to happen.

So we went through the process, the Dayton process, and Coach Miller was patient and supportive of that process, and when that didn't work out, I moved on into Bloomington.

Q. As closely as you've worked with Archie, how would you describe his leadership style going in at times of adversity?
TOM OSTROM: One of his many great strengths, he's unapologetically who he is every day. The person you see is not different than the person I see, the players see, the person the donors see and the athletic director or the president. He is who he is. He's as genuine and as real as it gets. He is who he is, regardless of the previous outcome, which could be very positive and at times can be negative.

It's probably been well-documented that we went through some adversity at Dayton off the court, and again, that's when his leadership skills really, really shine. You find out who someone is in times of adversity. And we faced some adverse times and we obviously had some good times at Dayton as well.

But as a leader, when things aren't going well, he just rises to the top. But what you guys will notice and what everyone will find out is he is the same guy every day. He is as genuine and as real as it gets. That's no matter who his audience may be at the time.

Q. (Inaudible) what did you learn from him during that time spent, and how did that shape your approach?
TOM OSTROM: The number one thing you figured out about Billy is no matter whether it was the first year at Florida or I joined him in the second year, I should say, or after we came off the Final Four or whatever the case may be, it's just nothing can duplicate, nothing replaced work. You is work. You put your head down and you treat people right. You surround yourself with passionate, loyal, bright people. You solicit their opinions and you work.

One of the similarities I'd say Archie and Billy have is they're deep thinkers. They put a lot of thought into things. There is no decision big or small is a spur of the moment like just go with it. It's not a whim decision. They both think, they both feel in their hearts, and they're usually right if not always right, that if I put enough thought, if I put enough time in this, if I ask enough people that I trust their opinions, then I can come -- and they have this great talent of putting all 15, 20, 10 people, whatever, people's opinions in this barrel and they mix it up and come up with the right decision almost all the time. That's a great talent.

But with Billy, it's just nothing -- deep thought, getting a lot of people's opinions that you trust, and then put your head down and work. Treat people the right way and have a lot of passion and love what you do. No matter, again, what situation you may be in, it usually works out for the best.

Q. As you approach recruiting in the state of Indiana, would you do something different? I know if it was a football coach you'd say you were going to visit every (Inaudible) in the state, and it turned out to be physically impossible. You could try, but there is no way. How do you maybe really lock into the state and try to keep the best players here?
TOM OSTROM: Well, it's clearly important, and it's clearly, I think, again, I'm sure a lot of coaches in a lot of different sports and a lot of great institutions will say the same thing. You build kind of from the inside out, and you start in this great state with the great coaching and the great players. Did we hit every school in the state? Obviously, we didn't. But we tried our best to get as many as we can, and we'll continue to do that.

I think, again, you build equity in the relationships, which is just kind of, whether you're recruiting or just a business or anything else, you know whether a coach has a good player that's good enough to (Inaudible) or you treat them right. They're always welcome to come to practice. They're welcome to come to games. You embrace them with open arms whether they have good players or not, and just show a lot of respect.

Because the coaching in this state is unbelievable. It's as good as it gets. I think you start that way and the people I've encountered in a short time, they want Indiana to do well. Most of them are Indiana fans. Most of them are supporters of Indiana, so if you start with that premise that they want to see you succeed, and you treat them right and treat them with respect, and treat them the same way, like I said before, treat them the same way whether they have a great player or don't have a great player, and then you build, again, from the inside out.

But, yeah, if you're at Indiana, and you represent this great university, I think you start with the state of Indiana with all its great talent and great coaching.

Q. Coach Miller was saying that he's almost surprised to see how quickly the team responded to the change. Did that strike you too to see how guys embraced you guys?
TOM OSTROM: Kids are resilient. I'm sure there's -- whenever there is a coaching change, just like Dayton, when I talked to the guys at Dayton, they're resilient. They kind of -- even like when you lose a game, they get over the game quicker than the coaching staff does. They kind of move on to the next play a little faster.

That's just the way society is and the way kids are. 18 to 20 years old, and your worries probably don't burden you as much as they do when you're older. But they've been great. They've been awesome. They've worked really hard and done everything. They've bought in and in a short period of time they've come to try to trust us and do as we ask them to do. Their attitudes and just their body language and things like that have all been just terrific.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297