Wake Forest’s Rusty LaRue talks about his favorite memories from his basketball days at Wake Forest, his Wake Forest Hall of Fame induction, his unusual career path and what he thinks of Demon Deacon star Al-Farouq Aminu (run time is 7:01; transcript below the jump).
…….
Lost Lettermen: This is Jim Weber from LostLettermen.com and I’m joined by Wake Forest’s Rusty LaRue.
You obviously starred in basketball, baseball and football while at Wake Forest and I’m wondering, what’s your favorite memory from your playing days?
Rusty LaRue: Well probably my fondest memories are; one, being a part of the two ACC Championships in basketball. We were fortunate we had a really talented group of guys, playing with Tim Duncan. Getting the chance to win two ACC championships and go to the Elite Eight my senior year is probably the highlight I remember the most.
LL: Do you ever say to yourself, “Why did we get stuck in the same bracket as that Kentucky team with Ron Mercer and Antoine Walker and all those guys?”
RL: I have to think about that at least once a year when it’s March and I’m watching games. I think back to the team of guys we had to play against and I’m sitting there thinking, “Couldn’t we’ve been a two seed in any other bracket besides their bracket?”
And we were down a man, too. We had lost Tony Rutland in the ACC Championship game and you think “what if?” if we had had him healthy but it was a good run. We had a good year.
LL: How often do you keep in touch with Tim Duncan?
RL: Not a whole lot. I may e-mail with him a couple of times a year. He’s a busy guy and I’m a busy guy but, you know, we catch up every now and then. I had a chance to see him last year when he came back for coach Odom’s hall of fame induction and when he was inducted into the hall of fame at Wake. But every so often I get a chance to say hello to him.
LL: What was it like being inducted into the Wake Forest Hall of Fame? Obviously you had an unbelievable career.
RL: Well that was a emotional night for me. It was one of those things that as a kid I started going to Wake Forest basketball camp when I was eight years old. It was something I always wanted to do, was be a part of Wake and then to getting a chance to play here and then later on getting inducted into the hall of fame was a real thrill for me and something that’s cherishing for me and something I’ll never forget.
LL: I’m going to put you on the hot seat for a second. Which was your favorite sport to play: basketball, baseball or football?
RL: I love them all. Probably basketball was my favorite. And I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was the competitor in me because that was the one that I think everybody thought I had the least chance to be successful in or not but that was the one I always sort of gravitated to when I had extra time on my hands and in the summer to play AAU and things like that, it seems like I always played a little bit more basketball.
LL: Can you talk about what it’s like playing basketball in ACC country. It seems like down there in North Carolina they just take it so seriously.
RL: Well, they do. I think anytime … and I think it comes down to where back in the days with the big four when you had Wake and Carolina and Duke and Sate all right there together in North Carolina before Wake Forest moved. And it’s just, it’s a culture down here, it’s something that people love basketball; tobacco road.
And it’s one of those things that from the high school all the way up it’s a big deal here. Kids like it, it’s a popular sport and a lot of people play it and it’s just something that we really take really seriously.
LL: I want to ask you about rejoining Wake Forest as an assistant coach. What was your reaction when you heard Pat Kelsey had left and there was an opening for you?
RL: Well I had been kind of talking to Pat when he was thinking about leaving. He had actually interviewed for some local jobs like High Point had become available. I knew he might be leaving so I had already kind of put in a plug for myself with coach Gaudio and said hey, if he leaves, I’d love to be interviewed.
Obviously I was thrilled for him because I know Pat well and he was going to go back home. Also, for me to get a chance to interview, it was something that was exciting and I was fortunate enough to get the job and be at Wake.
LL: A lot of people don’t realize that you actually have experience as a head coach in college basketball at a D-III school, Greensboro College. Why did you decide to leave then and then come back to college basketball now?
RL: When I took the job at Greensboro, I had just finished playing and it was an opportunity for me to get in at the college level. When I decided to go from there to high school, I just felt like at the time my family situation-I had a basketball academy that I ran year round and the high school that I was going to had phenomenal facilities and they wanted me to be able to run stuff there year-round. It was sort of a no brainer and I really felt like that whether I was at D-III at Greensboro college or at this high school, that whenever the time came, if I wanted to move up to college I would be able to get to the same level from either place.
So it seemed like a no brainer. When the job came up and moving back, I just felt it was time. I had done what I wanted to do at the high school and was ready to step up at a more competitive level.
LL: How tough was it for you to leave your high school Forsyth Country Day? You were athletic director and head basketball coach there so obviously you built a lot of connections with the kids there.
RL: It was tough. I didn’t attend Forsyth when I went to high school, but having spent four years there, my kids were in school there. They still are. And the head master there Hank Battle was very good to me and any time you spend some time at a place and you get to know the kids, it’s always tough to move on because you put a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of blood and sweat into helping build something.
And we had built up to where we were third in the state at the highest private school level. We’re winning 20-plus games a year. So it’s something that was not easy lo leave, but at the same time moving on to Wake was sort of a dream come true.
LL: What’s it like going from D-III basketball and high school basketball and you’re coming into the gym and you see Al-Farouq Aminu jumping out of the gym?
RL: That’s a pleasant change, I’ll tell you. That’s one of the reasons I took the job. We have some talented kids at Forsyth but just to be able to move up where the basketball is taken a little bit more seriously and you can be a little bit more demanding on the players.
The talent level is there, you can teach a little bit more, you can show guys more of what you know because they can absorb it. That was very enticing and just something that really appealed to me.
LL: I know you didn’t coach him last year but can you talk about the progress that Al-Farouq Aminu has made this year. It seems like he’s always pulling down 20 rebounds a game now.
RL: Yeah, I got a chance to see Aminu a lot last year because I was coaching locally; the high school is about 15 minutes from Wake. The biggest thing I think for him is he does so many things. If he’s not scoring, if he’s not shooting well, then he’s a phenomenal offensive rebounder, got great hands. I think he’s really matured in his approach to practice and how he approaches the game.
And I think it’s evident in his play. He’s pulling down a double-double; leading the ACC in rebounding. He does a little bit of everything for us.
It’s just; he’s really growing up a lot, not only on the court but off the court.
Got a question or comment? E-mail him here
Liked this story? Click here for Lost Lettermen’s RSS feed and receive all our great content
Click here to start contributing to our wiki database of over 150,000 former college athletes and help us answer the question, “Where Are They Now?”
