Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau discusses Mark Few's role with Team USA next summer and more in a mailbag edition of the Gonzaga Nation podcast
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00:00 Hey everybody, it's Christian Pedersen joined by Dan Dickow back for another episode of
00:03 the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:04 Thank you very much for checking in with us on a mailbag edition where we take your fan
00:08 submitted questions and serve them up to Dan Dickow to pick that beautiful basketball brain
00:12 of his.
00:13 Dan, we've got a slate of international basketball team USA type themed stuff to get to this
00:18 week.
00:19 You ready?
00:20 Let's do it.
00:21 All right.
00:22 First one coming in.
00:23 Team wants to know, Team USA lost.
00:25 What does this mean for coach?
00:27 Are they going to carry the same staff over to the Olympics or is this the end of the
00:30 run?
00:31 I don't think it's the end of the run with coach few being a part of USA basketball at
00:37 all.
00:38 You know, I think if you look back over the last 10 years, he's become even more well
00:41 respected within the college ranks, the NBA ranks because of creating so many pros through
00:48 Gonzaga and then his continued involvement in more of a presence in being involved with
00:56 USA basketball coaching at a number of different levels.
01:00 You know, obviously there were a lot of eyes on on the team because that he was coaching
01:06 most recently as an assistant because it's the senior men's national team.
01:10 It's the it's the pinnacle of USA basketball and what they're trying to do.
01:15 Unfortunately, they lost in the World Cup, but they've still qualified for the Olympics,
01:20 which will be in Paris next year.
01:21 But you know, and the fact that, you know, coach few is is developed some some pretty
01:26 strong relationships from from what I've heard within USA basketball.
01:31 They appreciate and really respect his knowledge and his his ability to kind of, you know,
01:38 be an integral part of what they're trying to do.
01:42 And I think it's important for that men's national team to have a number of different
01:48 coaches with experience.
01:49 You look at Steve Kerr as the head coach.
01:51 It's hard to say if he's going to be the head coach in Paris for the Olympics.
01:55 My guess is he will be, because I think there's a continuity factor that that's necessary.
02:01 And coach K showed it and how important that was.
02:04 But when you look at how USA basketball staffs have been created in the past, coach K was
02:09 a college coach and he ran the thing.
02:12 But he had NBA coaches on his bench.
02:14 And then at times he had college coaches who might have a certain great emphasis on something
02:19 or a unique eye for something like a Jim Mayhem in the zone at Syracuse would be a part of
02:25 his staff.
02:26 And when you look at how the staff was structured, Steve Kerr, he's coached a number of championships.
02:34 Tyron Lewis coached some of the best players in the world, including LeBron James, Kawhi
02:39 Leonard, Paul George, Eric Spolstra, unbelievable job coaching with Miami.
02:45 He's had championships and coached high level guys with LeBron and Dwayne Wade and then
02:49 coach few of the success that he's had kind of evolving and molding that Gonzaga program.
02:56 You know, there's there's there's value in having a different set of eyes and a different
03:01 set of values and how you look at the game and prepare for the game.
03:04 So I don't think coach few I still believe coach few is going to be involved moving forward.
03:10 I think it's so important that staffs are put together that have different skill sets
03:15 and experiences within the game because the FIBA game is completely different than the
03:21 NBA and the NBA is completely different than college and college is completely different
03:26 than FIBA.
03:27 So you need to have, you know, different viewpoints of preparing for opponents as well as preparing
03:34 your own team.
03:35 And I would imagine coach few is still going to be very heavily involved with USA basketball
03:39 for many years to come.
03:41 You mentioned the difference in levels and styles and versions of the game play.
03:45 One of the questions that I saw pop up kind of in the thread discussing the fallout from
03:49 that loss was why is international basketball somewhere where you see guys like Dennis Schrader
03:55 show up and have a completely different.
03:59 Persona on the court necessarily than they would in the NBA.
04:02 And what's the difference there?
04:03 Do you have some experience with that yourself?
04:05 Well I think one of the things is guys play with a tremendous amount of passion and pride
04:10 for their home country.
04:13 It's not necessarily means they don't play with a passion and a pride in a sense of urgency
04:19 in the NBA or in college or for their domestic pro team in their states back in Europe.
04:24 But when you're playing for your country and the pride that you have in your country a
04:28 lot of times it's different.
04:30 You're willing to maybe shelf some individual stats and accolades for the betterment of
04:35 the team.
04:37 And some guys might shelf their stats to allow a player like a Dennis Schrader to be more
04:45 put in a position where he's the focal point.
04:49 And you saw throughout the World Cup, I think Germany we did go undefeated 8-0.
04:54 He made big play after big play.
04:56 And he showed stretches and flashes of that in the NBA.
05:00 But he's been on teams in the NBA where he hasn't been the guy, the go-to guy.
05:05 And many times those go-to guys for their national team step up, embrace it, and come
05:11 through in difficult spots, which is I think what you saw there where he hasn't necessarily
05:16 had to do that and prove that consistently throughout his NBA career.
05:20 So it's interesting.
05:23 It's fun to see that.
05:25 But then it's also interesting how teams are put together.
05:29 In the U.S., for example, so much is made about promoting stars.
05:36 Many of America's best stars, Steph Curry, LeBron, Anthony Davis, those guys didn't play
05:41 in this.
05:42 So they had other guys who were really good up-and-coming stars.
05:46 Anthony Edwards is an example.
05:48 Tyrese Halberd.
05:51 But you've got guys that maybe would have to mold into a role that they're not 100%
05:56 used to or comfortable with.
05:58 And that many times takes a lot of time to be able to figure out and understand your
06:04 role and then star in your role.
06:06 And with the U.S.A. basketball and how, I hate to say it, there's been a revolving door
06:10 at times with players coming in, coming out, coming in, coming out.
06:14 Guys want to play in the Olympics, but they don't want to play in this tournament.
06:16 They don't want to play in that tournament, but they'll play here.
06:18 That can be difficult to create a lot of continuity where many of these other countries, if you're
06:24 going to play on the national team, you're going to play on the national team.
06:27 And you're going to have a training camp every summer and/or play in big events on the calendar
06:32 for FIBA when it's necessary.
06:33 And I just think that that's one thing.
06:39 But I think people have to understand and realize ever since '92 and the Dream Team,
06:44 people across the world have fallen in love with the game of basketball and they've also
06:49 now understood how to become better at the game of basketball.
06:53 So that gap of talent and that gap of skill and even the gap of coaching has shrunk in
07:00 those, you know, what is it, 31 years now.
07:03 And so you're seeing the fruits of the labor of all the hard work from these different
07:08 basketball federations of countries across the world, you know, closing that gap with
07:14 the U.S.
07:15 Now, I do still think the U.S. is the best basketball country.
07:17 I just think at times the focus, the emphasis is more on the individual as opposed to the
07:24 collective, which I think shows at times when you put a team together quickly.
07:31 Last question we got for you, Dan.
07:32 And a reminder, you guys can submit all of these to any of us on social media @FANNationZags
07:37 or to Dan directly @DandDickHau21.
07:40 This one, like we said, closes out the international theme of all these.
07:43 And they wanted to know, since Coach Few is now a more worldly experienced coach, do you
07:48 think that Gonzaga is going to reflect any of that this year in the style of play?
07:53 Or is this more of just the chance for Coach Few to be amongst professionals and take maybe
08:00 the more off-court lessons away from it?
08:03 No, I don't think it's going to change anything in the way that Gonzaga really operates.
08:08 If you look at what Gonzaga has done with an international flavor of roster makeup over
08:14 the last 20-ish years, they've had a lot of European players.
08:19 They've had a lot of European influence in how they run their offense.
08:24 And some of the things they also do defensively.
08:27 You might see maybe a wrinkle or two here or there, but you're not going to see a drastic
08:31 overhaul because I think one of the reasons Gonzaga has been appealing to a lot of international
08:37 players is it already is played.
08:39 They play the game in a style that is very similar to what a lot of international basketball
08:45 looks like.
08:46 Free-flowing, up-tempo, continuity ball screen offense, posts that step out, can shoot a
08:52 little bit, posts that have the freedom to play dribble, handoff actions.
08:58 So I don't think there's going to be a complete overhaul.
09:01 But I am curious to see if there's a few little wrinkles here and there, maybe on some sets
09:05 or some different things that Coach Fu may have picked up.
09:09 But all in all, I don't think you're going to see changes.
09:11 I guess only time will tell if something is going to be, like you said, worked in there
09:16 down the road that maybe ends up being the key to some big win down the stretch.
09:20 Dan, thank you very much for answering our questions.
09:23 Everyone, thank you for tuning in.
09:24 Reminder, you can find us at Gonzaga Nation by searching and subscribing wherever you
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09:35 Dan, thank you very much. We'll talk to you guys soon.