Cincinnati’s Nick Van Exel talks about his new career as a coach, why he’s beginning at tiny Texas Southern and who he’s called for coaching advice (run time is 3:29; transcript is below the jump).
Lost Lettermen: This is Jim Weber from LostLettermen.com and joined by Cincinnati’s Nick Van Excel, now an assistant coach at Texas Southern. Nick thanks for joining us.
The question we always get is, what is a former NBA star that made millions being an assistant coach at a small school like Texas Southern?
Nick Van Exel: Well first I live in Houston so my plan was when I first retired I’d try to get into coaching two years after I was done. I would take two years off then try to get into coaching.
But it’s a little more difficult to get in once you take that time off. With me being in Houston and this opportunity presenting itself, I just decided to take it because if people wanted to know I was coaching and knew how serious I was and committed I was to it, I thought that Texas Southern would be a great start.
They would know my commitment to it if I can handle a year at Texas Southern.
LL: And what did you do during that time off? Was it just a lot of golf and hanging out at the beach? What were you up to?
NV: It wasn’t the beach, I can’t swim. But there was definitely a lot of golfing.
LL: So what’s the experience been like at Texas Southern this year?
NV: It’s been pretty good, it’s been pretty good. The head coach, Tony Harvey, he’s giving me a platform to exercise my voice. I’m able to coach the guys, I’m able to speak, I’m able to yell at them and get on them a little bit. So he’s really using me in the way that I don’t think I would’ve been able to be used at any other place. He’s really given me an opportunity to learn the craft.
LL: Now I know you had a little bit of a temper in your playing days. Does that flair up on the sidelines now?
NV: No actually it’s totally different. It’s way different. I’m not a player. I was just really emotional as a player. That’s not me in every day life. People have to really separate the two and I’m way different on the sidelines.
LL: Now I know you’re working with Vin Baker down there. Is this something you organized together or you walked in and said, “Oh my gosh, Vin Baker is coaching with me.”
NV: No, you know I was here. I signed on in, I want to say August. And I think Vin just signed on some time, I want to say, probably December, something like that.
He just joined the staff not too long ago. He and the head coach were pretty good friends so he just decided to bring him along because he wanted to get into coaching as well.
LL: So what’s that been like for you to work with another former NBA player?
NV: Actually it’s good because I work with the guards and he works with the bigs. If anything, it should be helpful to the players to get some pretty good knowledge from guys who’ve done it at the highest level; our bigs and our guards.
So it’s pretty good for the players, actually.
LL: Now who do you reach out to the most to get advice? Obviously your old coach is Bob Huggins. Do you reach out to him a lot in West Virginia?
NV: Oh definitely. I’ve called coach several times this year. A couple other coaches. I even call some former players that I played with in the NBA. Things like that, just to get knowledge to help me to understand certain things and how to deal with certain situations that come up while I’m here coaching.
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?”
2 Comments
I’m was wondering what Nick was doing. Glad to see he is coaching and some those college students some of his professional moves.
Will Nick be coaching at Texas Southern next season?