When I wrote for The Advocate that Ray McCallum was expected to be Tulane's acting head coach for temporarily absent Ron Hunter (COVID concerns) yesterday, I should have written the word "I" for attribution because I had no sourcing for that info. Turns out I was wrong, and Claude Pardue got the assignment. Pardue has been with Hunter a long time and is the only one of his three assistants who had not been a head coach previously.
I just talked to Pardue on the phone about his assignment and Tulane's quick shift to preparing for Temple tomorrow at noon at home rather than traveling to play Cincinnati on the road.
On the situation:
"There's a little bit of a different approach because you are in a different seat, but having guys on the staff like Ray McCallum and Kevin Johnson is a huge asset for us. I've been with coach Hunter the longest. This is our 10th season together. Coach Johnson has the Temple scout, so not to overwhelm him so much but it's one of those things where it will be a collaborative effort. Me and coach Ray have been working together for five years now and we'll figure some things out. It's not much of a different approach. It's going to be a little bit because it's my voice instead of coach Hunter's, but it's one of those things we've been working together for so long, it's one and the same."
On cohesion:
"The planning of practice this week is somewhat easy. Coach gave me the responsibility to do that because I'm here with the guys and have a better feel. I've been doing it for 10 and Ray's been doing it for five, so we know two days before a game what it's supposed to look like, the day before a game what coach Hunter would want it to look like. It's somewhat of a well-oiled machine. But coach Hunter's leadership and the way he's build the program and him being the missing piece, us being able to carry on and continue and work for that same goal is a reflection on him more than anything."
On when found out Hunter would not coach game:
"The day before (the tweet Thursday). We found out a couple days before. I've been on the phone with him four or five times a day. We Zoom a couple of times a day. We are in constant contact, but we've been together so long it's kind of knowing what to do and knowing how a week should look with the bye week and going into a game on a weekend. The crazy thing for us we had thought we were going to play Cincinnati up until yesterday morning. Then all of a sudden the script flipped and we're playing Temple at home. That's kind of what this season is going to be like. You just take those changes as they come and on to the next."
On toughest aspect of that change:
"It's hard but it's nothing. We've been talking to the players and getting them focused when everything that's going on, this basketball season is unlike any that's ever taken place, and it's hard to understand at times because when we all played, you knew your schedule well before the season, but we had a game canceled last week, a game canceled the week before and now we have a cancel and a reschedule. I think one of the hardest things is just looking out for your players and making sure they are on the same page and they know what our goal is and our mission, so reinforcing that and being in constant communication with them."
On fourth game in 28 days:
"We need the games. We want the games. We've tried to make practice not as routine. Usually we get in our routine that we play Wednesday/Saturday, so every Monday is the same, every Tuesday, every Thursday, every Friday, those days between games, but this year it's funny because no day is the same. This Monday wasn't the same as last Monday and it won't be the same as next Monday. We're trying to let them play more in practice and set up scrimmages in practice to keep the guys' interest. They love to play basketball. It's hard. If you're playing four games in 28 days, it means you have 21, 22 days of practice. You never want to bore them. We're here to have fun playing basketball, so we want to keep it light and keep them playing as much as possible."
On Tulane being No. 1 in turnover margin in the AAC and Temple being last with two freshmen in the backcourt:
"They are young, we're young. They are susceptible to turnovers and we lead the league in turnover margin. Our teams have always been that way, so we're not asking our guys to do anything out of the ordinary in our game plan. Our plan is going to be similar to how we played East Carolina the second time. We're going to go into it and be confident and limit them to certain shots that we feel like we can be successful defending, and if we stay tight and stay on the same page and our players communicate, we'll be fine. The last two days of practice, you asked what the hardest thing was earlier, and it's getting those guys to shift focus as fast as they have to shift these days. But man, the testament to our leadership the last two days has been phenomenal. They know what's at stake here. They are going to be ready tomorrow. I can promise you that."
On Brendan Barry, a phenomenal 3-point shooter (the Dartmouth grad transfer, a distant relative of Rick Barry, is 16 of 29 on 3s and hit eight treys two different times when he was at Dartmouth):
"He's shooting I think it's 56 percent from the 3-point line. His whole career he's had the green light and he's taken advantage of it. It's a testament to our leadership and to our guys and how they've stayed together and handled everything. It's just another thing. When we prepared the last couple of days, coach Johnson did a phenomenal job of prepping these guys. A lot of times what happens when you have a 48-hour turnaround, personnel becomes as important as their actions and what they tried to get done. Strategy is going to be big, but man, if we can just lock in and know their personnel, it's going to be a strength of ours. We know. We're locked in on Barry and we're going to know where he is at all times."
On who had scout assignment for Cincinnati:
"I had the scout for Cincinnati, so we practiced early this week and were practicing for it and then we had to flip on Thursday and scramble a little bit."
I just talked to Pardue on the phone about his assignment and Tulane's quick shift to preparing for Temple tomorrow at noon at home rather than traveling to play Cincinnati on the road.
On the situation:
"There's a little bit of a different approach because you are in a different seat, but having guys on the staff like Ray McCallum and Kevin Johnson is a huge asset for us. I've been with coach Hunter the longest. This is our 10th season together. Coach Johnson has the Temple scout, so not to overwhelm him so much but it's one of those things where it will be a collaborative effort. Me and coach Ray have been working together for five years now and we'll figure some things out. It's not much of a different approach. It's going to be a little bit because it's my voice instead of coach Hunter's, but it's one of those things we've been working together for so long, it's one and the same."
On cohesion:
"The planning of practice this week is somewhat easy. Coach gave me the responsibility to do that because I'm here with the guys and have a better feel. I've been doing it for 10 and Ray's been doing it for five, so we know two days before a game what it's supposed to look like, the day before a game what coach Hunter would want it to look like. It's somewhat of a well-oiled machine. But coach Hunter's leadership and the way he's build the program and him being the missing piece, us being able to carry on and continue and work for that same goal is a reflection on him more than anything."
On when found out Hunter would not coach game:
"The day before (the tweet Thursday). We found out a couple days before. I've been on the phone with him four or five times a day. We Zoom a couple of times a day. We are in constant contact, but we've been together so long it's kind of knowing what to do and knowing how a week should look with the bye week and going into a game on a weekend. The crazy thing for us we had thought we were going to play Cincinnati up until yesterday morning. Then all of a sudden the script flipped and we're playing Temple at home. That's kind of what this season is going to be like. You just take those changes as they come and on to the next."
On toughest aspect of that change:
"It's hard but it's nothing. We've been talking to the players and getting them focused when everything that's going on, this basketball season is unlike any that's ever taken place, and it's hard to understand at times because when we all played, you knew your schedule well before the season, but we had a game canceled last week, a game canceled the week before and now we have a cancel and a reschedule. I think one of the hardest things is just looking out for your players and making sure they are on the same page and they know what our goal is and our mission, so reinforcing that and being in constant communication with them."
On fourth game in 28 days:
"We need the games. We want the games. We've tried to make practice not as routine. Usually we get in our routine that we play Wednesday/Saturday, so every Monday is the same, every Tuesday, every Thursday, every Friday, those days between games, but this year it's funny because no day is the same. This Monday wasn't the same as last Monday and it won't be the same as next Monday. We're trying to let them play more in practice and set up scrimmages in practice to keep the guys' interest. They love to play basketball. It's hard. If you're playing four games in 28 days, it means you have 21, 22 days of practice. You never want to bore them. We're here to have fun playing basketball, so we want to keep it light and keep them playing as much as possible."
On Tulane being No. 1 in turnover margin in the AAC and Temple being last with two freshmen in the backcourt:
"They are young, we're young. They are susceptible to turnovers and we lead the league in turnover margin. Our teams have always been that way, so we're not asking our guys to do anything out of the ordinary in our game plan. Our plan is going to be similar to how we played East Carolina the second time. We're going to go into it and be confident and limit them to certain shots that we feel like we can be successful defending, and if we stay tight and stay on the same page and our players communicate, we'll be fine. The last two days of practice, you asked what the hardest thing was earlier, and it's getting those guys to shift focus as fast as they have to shift these days. But man, the testament to our leadership the last two days has been phenomenal. They know what's at stake here. They are going to be ready tomorrow. I can promise you that."
On Brendan Barry, a phenomenal 3-point shooter (the Dartmouth grad transfer, a distant relative of Rick Barry, is 16 of 29 on 3s and hit eight treys two different times when he was at Dartmouth):
"He's shooting I think it's 56 percent from the 3-point line. His whole career he's had the green light and he's taken advantage of it. It's a testament to our leadership and to our guys and how they've stayed together and handled everything. It's just another thing. When we prepared the last couple of days, coach Johnson did a phenomenal job of prepping these guys. A lot of times what happens when you have a 48-hour turnaround, personnel becomes as important as their actions and what they tried to get done. Strategy is going to be big, but man, if we can just lock in and know their personnel, it's going to be a strength of ours. We know. We're locked in on Barry and we're going to know where he is at all times."
On who had scout assignment for Cincinnati:
"I had the scout for Cincinnati, so we practiced early this week and were practicing for it and then we had to flip on Thursday and scramble a little bit."
