In Episode 160 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy sits down with Easton Bazzoli, head men’s basketball coach at Gannon (PA) University, the 2026 Division II national champion, to talk next-gen leadership. Among the topics discussed are building the foundation for a successful organization, actions veteran leaders should take to build up their next generation of leaders, and how establishing clear principles and outcomes free up leaders from the burden of dictating tactics.
“The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.
Watch Episode 160 now:
“The Trusted Advisor” is also available on Amazon Audible, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and Spotify. Subscribe today!
Full episode transcript via Apple Podcasts:
00:00:07.360 –> 00:00:14.700
Roddy: Welcome to another episode of the Trusted Advisor podcast and video series powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association.
00:00:14.920 –> 00:00:20.500
Roddy: Our goal on the pod is to accelerate the success of today’s and tomorrow’s leaders in the retail IT industry.
00:00:20.740 –> 00:00:22.140
Roddy: I’m Jim Roddy back with you again.
00:00:22.140 –> 00:00:23.480
Roddy: Thank you so much for joining us.
00:00:23.840 –> 00:00:33.420
Roddy: Now, frequent listeners and viewers of our podcast know that we talk with leaders from both within and outside the RSPA member community about their leadership journeys and what they’ve learned along the way.
00:00:33.580 –> 00:00:40.660
Roddy: This is one of those ventures outside our industry with a leader who’s achieved great success in an area that I’m passionate about, college basketball.
00:00:40.660 –> 00:00:45.920
Roddy: So I’ve learned firsthand there are many lessons from the sports world that can be applied to business leadership as well.
00:00:46.260 –> 00:00:57.240
Roddy: Our guest today is Easton Bazzoli, who just finished his second year as the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Gannon University where I played for way back in the day from 1988 to 1992.
00:00:57.600 –> 00:00:59.800
Roddy: In my hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania.
00:00:59.800 –> 00:01:05.560
Roddy: Now Coach Bazzoli has put together one of the best two seasons starts to a coaching career in NCAA history.
00:01:05.900 –> 00:01:22.240
Roddy: 61 wins, only 10 losses, two conference championships in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, two NCAA tournament appearances, and he capped that off in April this year with Gannon winning the 2026 Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship.
00:01:22.240 –> 00:01:28.520
Roddy: And you are darn right, I drove 11 hours one way from here in Raleigh, North Carolina to Indianapolis to watch it in person.
00:01:28.640 –> 00:01:32.120
Roddy: Coach Easton Bazzoli, congratulations and welcome to the podcast.
00:01:32.380 –> 00:01:32.700
Bazzoli: Awesome.
00:01:32.700 –> 00:01:33.420
Bazzoli: Appreciate you, Jim.
00:01:33.420 –> 00:01:34.280
Bazzoli: I’m glad to be here.
00:01:34.660 –> 00:01:36.900
Roddy: It is so great to talk with you.
00:01:37.200 –> 00:01:41.520
Roddy: And so we’re going to dive in and talk about your championship a little bit later in our discussion.
00:01:41.740 –> 00:01:47.180
Roddy: My wife and daughter, my friends can’t get me to stop talking about Gannon winning the national championship.
00:01:47.260 –> 00:01:51.800
Roddy: But I want to first talk about some challenges that you faced at Gannon and how you navigated those.
00:01:51.840 –> 00:01:56.820
Roddy: So you arrived in 2023 as the top assistant to do head coach Jordan Fee.
00:01:56.820 –> 00:02:01.320
Roddy: In the prior season, Gannon had, by far and away, its worst season in program history.
00:02:01.460 –> 00:02:03.940
Roddy: Only three wins and 23 losses.
00:02:03.940 –> 00:02:08.340
Roddy: My junior year, we were 17 and 13 and fans were berserk saying everything was falling down.
00:02:08.420 –> 00:02:10.440
Roddy: You can imagine what it was like with only three wins.
00:02:10.440 –> 00:02:13.940
Roddy: But you and Coach Fee turned over almost the entire roster.
00:02:14.120 –> 00:02:17.980
Roddy: You finished with the best record in school history, 32 and 3 your first year.
00:02:18.060 –> 00:02:20.600
Roddy: You won the region, advanced to Division II Elite 8.
00:02:21.640 –> 00:02:31.300
Roddy: I’m just curious, as one of the key leaders who just took over an underperforming organization, what were the first actions you took besides recruiting better players?
00:02:31.300 –> 00:02:35.900
Roddy: What did you have to do foundationally to give everyone the opportunity to build on?
00:02:37.100 –> 00:02:47.280
Bazzoli: When I thought Coach Fee led with and just became contagious, he just changed the expectation within the direct people involved.
00:02:47.320 –> 00:03:01.580
Bazzoli: Our players and the staff, I thought there was a quick foundation laid from our very first team meeting of the expectation is different than whatever you think it is, and it’s higher than whatever you think it is.
00:03:02.600 –> 00:03:03.960
Bazzoli: I think that that just matters.
00:03:05.320 –> 00:03:29.700
Bazzoli: There was a clear vision that he laid for what day-to-day operations have to look like for what we’re trying to accomplish, and we really didn’t give that what are we trying to accomplish, but we weren’t going to put a floor, and we weren’t going to put a ceiling on it, and just lay an expectation of this is what winners look like, and that’s how we’re going to attack each day.
00:03:30.760 –> 00:03:32.880
Bazzoli: But I don’t know that there was anything bigger than that.
00:03:32.880 –> 00:03:38.040
Bazzoli: I just thought that right away, we had five guys returning from the year before on that team.
00:03:38.040 –> 00:03:42.260
Bazzoli: We had nine new players that had never been here before.
00:03:42.260 –> 00:03:49.040
Bazzoli: So, I mean, really, it was 14 new guys that were new to us, but there was an expectation.
00:03:49.240 –> 00:04:06.260
Bazzoli: I think even some of the guys that signed and believed in this thing and thought we could win right away, I thought there was still an expectation that maybe they were coming in as well, like, maybe we can win 10 games, maybe we can win 15 games, maybe we can win 20 games, you know?
00:04:06.540 –> 00:04:29.860
Bazzoli: And I just thought that Coach Fee is unique in the way that he set that expectation right away, that we weren’t going to put any sort of floor or ceiling on it, but we do have a, we are going to lay that, hey, this is how we approach every single day and we’re going to approach it as if we’re going to be a really successful winning program right away.
00:04:30.160 –> 00:04:30.720
Roddy: Yeah, interesting.
00:04:30.720 –> 00:04:35.100
Roddy: And Coach Fee is definitely a true believer, like he, that, you know, exuded very much through him.
00:04:35.100 –> 00:04:39.120
Roddy: And one of your predecessors, Jerry Sloak, I remember, they lost to Findlay, a very close game.
00:04:39.120 –> 00:04:41.940
Roddy: Findlay was number two in the country and people were congratulating him.
00:04:41.940 –> 00:04:45.920
Roddy: And he said, there are no moral victories at Gannon University, right?
00:04:45.920 –> 00:04:49.680
Roddy: Like we have this expectation that we’re going to beat everybody who we play.
00:04:49.800 –> 00:04:54.640
Roddy: I’m curious, how much film, if any, did you watch of that three and 23 team?
00:04:54.740 –> 00:04:58.280
Roddy: Because he had some guys, like you said, a handful who did come over with you.
00:04:58.280 –> 00:05:02.380
Roddy: Did you get to watch much of that team on film to see what you were walking into to some degree?
00:05:02.860 –> 00:05:03.320
Bazzoli: Sure.
00:05:03.600 –> 00:05:04.020
Bazzoli: Yeah.
00:05:07.140 –> 00:05:14.440
Bazzoli: We watched all the guys that wanted to come back pretty substantially and then I wasn’t around for it.
00:05:14.440 –> 00:05:17.340
Bazzoli: Coach Fee got to sit in on a couple open gyms.
00:05:17.340 –> 00:05:19.680
Bazzoli: I mean, honestly, there were guys that didn’t want to come back.
00:05:20.680 –> 00:05:27.140
Bazzoli: That showed up to this thing as well, but it was good for him to be able to just see them in person and see how they carry themselves and things like that.
00:05:27.140 –> 00:05:34.420
Bazzoli: So he got a little bit more than in-person view and then I was able to just watch the guys that did want to come back and try and be a part of this thing.
00:05:35.640 –> 00:05:45.460
Bazzoli: The guys that fit the character piece that we were looking for and fit the work ethic, it was, if you want to come back, this is what it’s going to look like, all of that.
00:05:47.560 –> 00:05:55.080
Bazzoli: But it wasn’t for anything other than just seeing, what is this guy like to do, what’s his strengths and weaknesses that we can see.
00:05:56.180 –> 00:06:00.100
Bazzoli: It definitely didn’t have anything to do with team or philosophy.
00:06:00.100 –> 00:06:03.040
Bazzoli: It was just get a little bit of a grasp, just like we do.
00:06:03.040 –> 00:06:06.040
Bazzoli: I mean, it was like treating him like any other recruit.
00:06:06.080 –> 00:06:08.140
Bazzoli: We’re going to watch film and try and evaluate.
00:06:08.740 –> 00:06:09.200
Roddy: Got it.
00:06:09.200 –> 00:06:14.320
Roddy: It was like watching them playing for the AAU team, but it happened to be the same arena that you had before.
00:06:15.040 –> 00:06:30.240
Roddy: So coach, because I’ve followed Gannon Basketball closely now for over 40 years, I’ve heard a lot of what you’ve been talking about, and you say the key to your program success isn’t just recruiting tall guys or shooters or athletes, and you just mentioned it a second ago, you focus on high character guys.
00:06:30.380 –> 00:06:33.280
Roddy: I’m curious, how are you able to judge that?
00:06:33.380 –> 00:06:38.720
Roddy: Because the business leaders listening to this, they have to judge that before they bring somebody into their organization.
00:06:38.740 –> 00:06:44.560
Roddy: How do you assess before you work with somebody on a day-to-day basis if they’re high character or not?
00:06:45.100 –> 00:06:48.140
Bazzoli: Yeah, I think a lot of it just comes in conversations.
00:06:49.640 –> 00:06:54.060
Bazzoli: I don’t think that you can judge anybody, any book by its cover.
00:06:55.400 –> 00:07:04.340
Bazzoli: But if you have enough conversations, it’s just like opening that book and you start to figure out what this thing is really about and figure out what this person is really about.
00:07:04.340 –> 00:07:06.420
Bazzoli: So we’re trying to do that.
00:07:06.420 –> 00:07:08.540
Bazzoli: We’re trying to have conversations with the individual.
00:07:08.540 –> 00:07:16.480
Bazzoli: We’re trying to have conversations with the people that are directly involved with them and doing our best.
00:07:18.080 –> 00:07:23.760
Bazzoli: We are far from perfect, but I do believe that we have great humans in our program.
00:07:23.760 –> 00:07:37.940
Bazzoli: I think that if anything, we’re able to decipher that in those phone calls, those Zoom calls, the on-campus visit, the interactions when we take them out to dinner, all of that stuff.
00:07:38.600 –> 00:07:48.000
Bazzoli: We’re just trying to use all of that as part of our evaluation process to see if they fit the kind of people that we want to have in our program.
00:07:49.380 –> 00:07:51.460
Roddy: Do you have something that’s almost like a buy the book?
00:07:51.460 –> 00:08:00.960
Roddy: Here’s the questions that we’re going to ask them, here’s our plan, or is it basically we’re going to see them play and talk to them, we’re going to bring them on campus, we’re going to have dinner, like it’s just in those environments and see how they react?
00:08:01.020 –> 00:08:02.900
Bazzoli: Yes, so both for sure.
00:08:03.320 –> 00:08:21.020
Bazzoli: We have a list of questions and not even essentially a list of questions that are written down, but a list of questions that are in our minds that we’re going to ask every single guy and then every single one of those players, coaches and the people that are involved with them that are pretty routine.
00:08:21.020 –> 00:08:28.980
Bazzoli: And then the rest is really organic, see where those questions lead us and see what kind of conversation that leads to.
00:08:28.980 –> 00:08:33.120
Bazzoli: Again, some guys are really talkative, some guys are a little bit more quiet.
00:08:34.600 –> 00:08:40.800
Bazzoli: I’m not against either, it’s more on how do they handle themselves in those situations.
00:08:40.980 –> 00:08:46.700
Bazzoli: And a lot of times you can find in one conversation, does a kid have maturity?
00:08:46.800 –> 00:08:50.560
Bazzoli: And does he know how to have a conversation with an adult?
00:08:51.120 –> 00:08:53.260
Bazzoli: And I just think that stuff matters.
00:08:53.460 –> 00:09:08.540
Bazzoli: I’m not saying they got to be the most professional person in the world and they got to be wearing a suit or anything, but they’ve got to be able to have a conversation with an adult and be able to show some maturity.
00:09:08.540 –> 00:09:13.740
Bazzoli: But also, I like it when a guy knows how to smile and laugh.
00:09:13.960 –> 00:09:18.640
Bazzoli: And if a guy knows how to do that, we’re usually going to be able to figure out how to make it work.
00:09:19.200 –> 00:09:29.460
Roddy: Yeah, and from watching your team the last few years very closely, and one of my friends actually came to the National Championship game with me, and I kind of got him addicted to Gannon and watched him online.
00:09:29.500 –> 00:09:36.720
Roddy: There’s very little on your team preening or showboating or getting people’s faces or things of that nature.
00:09:36.720 –> 00:09:45.640
Roddy: I’m not saying they’re walking around like robots or anything like that, but it seems like on the spectrum of what you see in games today, it’s very much on the lower level.
00:09:45.640 –> 00:09:54.560
Roddy: I’m curious if that’s something that you screen for, or is that something that you weed out, or it seems like it’s an uncommon thing that we see.
00:09:54.560 –> 00:09:55.340
Bazzoli: Yeah, good question.
00:09:55.680 –> 00:09:58.720
Bazzoli: We don’t screen for it per se.
00:09:59.020 –> 00:10:03.200
Bazzoli: The reality is a lot of the guys in the recruiting process, they do all that stuff.
00:10:04.260 –> 00:10:12.200
Bazzoli: But they’re also not playing a style at that time, that if you’re doing that stuff, it immediately affects what you’re trying to do next.
00:10:12.200 –> 00:10:14.620
Bazzoli: So we look for that.
00:10:14.620 –> 00:10:16.820
Bazzoli: It doesn’t mean if a guy is just doing it all the time.
00:10:16.820 –> 00:10:20.000
Bazzoli: If it affects the next play form, that bothers us, for sure.
00:10:21.160 –> 00:10:30.120
Bazzoli: But the reality, if you play traditional style of basketball, most of it is, whether you like it or not, most of it actually doesn’t affect the next play that much.
00:10:30.120 –> 00:10:38.600
Bazzoli: You know, so like I wouldn’t be totally against it if I felt like, you know, we were going to jog back on defense and then get sad and then play.
00:10:38.600 –> 00:10:44.580
Bazzoli: Like go ahead, stick your hand up because you made a three, you know, like I want our guys to be excited for each other.
00:10:44.580 –> 00:10:48.220
Bazzoli: Like I don’t want us to be, I don’t want us to be robotic.
00:10:48.220 –> 00:10:53.520
Bazzoli: Like I want us to have emotion in when we play, but I want us to be able to use that in the right situations and at the right time.
00:10:53.520 –> 00:11:00.280
Bazzoli: I think if you’re playing a competitive sport and you don’t have emotion, I’m like wondering where your pulse is.
00:11:00.280 –> 00:11:04.380
Bazzoli: So I want us to have that, but I think there’s a right time and place for it.
00:11:05.120 –> 00:11:08.580
Bazzoli: Make an opponent call a timeout before you express it.
00:11:08.580 –> 00:11:11.440
Bazzoli: Allow your teammates to do all that stuff on the bench.
00:11:11.480 –> 00:11:19.160
Bazzoli: Like our guy that just made a three, he may not be doing it, but I’m almost upset if not every single guy on our bench isn’t doing it for him.
00:11:19.320 –> 00:11:30.760
Bazzoli: So I think that we definitely want to screen for that to an extent, but a little bit more on, all right, is it affecting the next winning play?
00:11:31.240 –> 00:11:44.560
Bazzoli: Then when they get here, just coming to that understanding of, all right, because of how we’re going to decide to play this game, if you take a second, two second, three seconds to do that, it’s going to affect exactly what we’re trying to accomplish next.
00:11:44.560 –> 00:11:48.820
Bazzoli: So we just don’t have time to do it in this style of play, and that’s kind of how we express it.
00:11:49.040 –> 00:11:49.600
Roddy: Interesting.
00:11:49.600 –> 00:11:51.780
Roddy: Yeah, I never even quite thought about it that way, right?
00:11:51.780 –> 00:11:56.900
Roddy: You can’t spend time giving your gyrations because you’ve got to pick up full court there.
00:11:56.900 –> 00:12:05.920
Roddy: And your bench, folks want to watch on YouTube, the National Championship game is there, your bench is definitely enthusiastic up every play, and they do that all season long.
00:12:05.920 –> 00:12:09.680
Roddy: So all right, so that was the first challenge turning around the program.
00:12:09.680 –> 00:12:18.500
Roddy: I want to talk about your next challenge was that the head coach that we mentioned earlier, Jordan Fee left for Florida Atlantic after the season, and you were named Gannon’s head coach.
00:12:18.500 –> 00:12:30.500
Roddy: So my stats are right, you’re only 29, you had no head coaching experience, and now you have to lead a program that just won 91 percent of its games, won its conference, made a deep NCAA run.
00:12:30.680 –> 00:12:32.880
Roddy: I’m curious, what were your initial feelings?
00:12:32.880 –> 00:12:34.280
Roddy: Was it jubilation?
00:12:34.280 –> 00:12:38.060
Roddy: Was it, I feel the weight of the program on my shoulders, or was it a mix of both?
00:12:38.060 –> 00:12:40.940
Roddy: I’m curious, what was your reaction when you were tapped on the shoulder?
00:12:41.080 –> 00:12:42.560
Bazzoli: For sure, a mix of both.
00:12:44.380 –> 00:12:53.820
Bazzoli: Obviously, you’ve got to be excited about it because you know you’re taking over a program that has had so much history of success.
00:12:55.280 –> 00:12:58.680
Bazzoli: There is, you know this is a place that you can win at.
00:12:59.360 –> 00:13:03.780
Bazzoli: We’re in the middle of a multi-million dollar renovation on the facilities.
00:13:03.780 –> 00:13:07.000
Bazzoli: You got like this is we’re heading in the right direction in a lot of ways.
00:13:07.000 –> 00:13:13.300
Bazzoli: So there’s a lot of things that you, I mean, it’s just natural, like you got to be excited about it.
00:13:13.820 –> 00:13:16.180
Bazzoli: You got to be excited about it when you don’t have a job either.
00:13:16.180 –> 00:13:18.400
Bazzoli: You know, like my boss just left.
00:13:18.400 –> 00:13:20.360
Bazzoli: I don’t have the option of going with him.
00:13:20.580 –> 00:13:23.080
Bazzoli: I’m jobless if I don’t have a job.
00:13:23.080 –> 00:13:24.540
Bazzoli: So I think that that helps.
00:13:24.540 –> 00:13:30.000
Bazzoli: Again, I was fortunate like Coach Fee is one of my closest friends in the world.
00:13:30.000 –> 00:13:40.220
Bazzoli: And what he did for me as an assistant, I thought was really unique where he allowed me to be involved in so many things to where I knew our president well when the time came.
00:13:40.220 –> 00:13:42.060
Bazzoli: I already knew our athletic director really well.
00:13:42.060 –> 00:13:43.320
Bazzoli: I knew our administration.
00:13:43.320 –> 00:13:48.260
Bazzoli: So I think that mattered and it helped make the transition a little bit more simple.
00:13:49.220 –> 00:13:51.040
Bazzoli: Obviously, you win 32 games.
00:13:51.040 –> 00:13:55.800
Bazzoli: There’s a lot of people that want to keep the things going the same way after the way it was.
00:13:56.440 –> 00:14:05.180
Bazzoli: But then there was for sure stress because I would have told you for probably since I was about 26, like, okay, I think I could take over a program.
00:14:05.220 –> 00:14:17.420
Bazzoli: You got a lot of, not even saying it in an arrogant way, but I’ve had great mentors and coaches that I’ve worked for that have thrown me in the fire and put me in situations to be as ready as you can be.
00:14:19.000 –> 00:14:24.300
Bazzoli: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envision my first time going, okay, I’m gonna go and I’m take over a program.
00:14:24.300 –> 00:14:28.120
Bazzoli: That’s a good program, but they just haven’t been winning a bunch of games.
00:14:28.340 –> 00:14:36.080
Bazzoli: And if we win 16 that first year, as I’m figuring things out, it’s like, well, great, that’s eight more than the year before.
00:14:36.380 –> 00:14:38.640
Bazzoli: So you think that’s how it’s gonna be.
00:14:38.640 –> 00:14:43.460
Bazzoli: And then you’re like, oh man, we lost the first two games of my career.
00:14:43.760 –> 00:14:49.780
Bazzoli: And I’m sitting there going, well, we just lost the same amount of games we did all year until the Elite Eight last year.
00:14:49.780 –> 00:14:52.040
Bazzoli: So what am I doing?
00:14:52.620 –> 00:14:54.900
Bazzoli: So I think there was definitely a level of both.
00:14:55.000 –> 00:15:09.500
Bazzoli: I felt prepared in a lot of ways, but for sure, I think again, I don’t know if I would have had a pulse if I didn’t feel a level of weight and probably good stress of the kind of program I was given the opportunity to take over.
00:15:09.720 –> 00:15:11.160
Roddy: Sure, no, thank you for that.
00:15:11.160 –> 00:15:15.420
Roddy: And so you alluded to, right, you didn’t have decades of coaching experience to rely on.
00:15:15.580 –> 00:15:19.060
Roddy: So I’m curious, like, what did you rely on to guide the program?
00:15:19.060 –> 00:15:26.840
Roddy: Like, what actions did you take, like at that point going forward, or had you taken previously that gave you, you mentioned you thought you were ready at 26, right?
00:15:27.120 –> 00:15:32.020
Roddy: Even earlier, what gave you that genuine confidence that you could lead a program to more success?
00:15:32.840 –> 00:15:36.760
Bazzoli: Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, yeah, I didn’t have a decade of experience.
00:15:37.020 –> 00:15:37.540
Roddy: Right.
00:15:38.000 –> 00:15:45.740
Bazzoli: You know, I think the first things that come to mind are the people that I’ve been able to play for and work for right away.
00:15:45.740 –> 00:15:55.960
Bazzoli: You know, I just, I felt like because of my past bosses and then my college and high school coach, I just, I felt prepared.
00:15:55.960 –> 00:15:59.240
Bazzoli: You know, I felt like I knew how to run practice.
00:15:59.240 –> 00:16:05.120
Bazzoli: There’s no adjustment to my experience because I’ve been put in those situations as an assistant.
00:16:05.120 –> 00:16:06.640
Bazzoli: You got the practice plan today.
00:16:06.980 –> 00:16:11.920
Bazzoli: Go ahead, draw it up and, you know, I’m in there and I’m coaching, but you’re leading.
00:16:11.920 –> 00:16:13.760
Bazzoli: You know, this is your practice today.
00:16:14.660 –> 00:16:20.220
Bazzoli: I had sides of the ball that were given specifically to me to have complete ownership over.
00:16:20.420 –> 00:16:32.100
Bazzoli: And so I think that, you know, I’m just fortunate to work for those people that gave me responsibility and probably the responsibility before I really deserved it or earned it.
00:16:32.100 –> 00:16:40.980
Bazzoli: And was able to maybe make some mistakes at a young age and then learn from it and then make another mistake and learn from it.
00:16:40.980 –> 00:16:52.620
Bazzoli: So the majority of basketball stuff is where I felt the most prepared because it just didn’t feel an adjustment to, like practice didn’t feel too different to me.
00:16:52.960 –> 00:16:56.020
Bazzoli: Games felt a little bit different, but not overly different.
00:16:56.480 –> 00:17:04.920
Bazzoli: I think it was more of the other stuff that was the biggest adjustments, the off-the-floor things of, hey, this is my final decision on a specific.
00:17:04.920 –> 00:17:07.240
Bazzoli: I don’t get to just give advice and walk away.
00:17:07.240 –> 00:17:23.360
Bazzoli: Now, I’m responsible to make final decisions, but that’s where most of my confidence in preparation, I just think came from being fortunate to play for and work for really, really good people early in my career.
00:17:24.140 –> 00:17:24.600
Roddy: Thank you for that.
00:17:24.600 –> 00:17:29.860
Roddy: Is that a lesson for veteran leaders who are looking to build up the folks underneath them?
00:17:29.960 –> 00:17:36.000
Roddy: You talked about giving them, you got responsibilities where you had things that you could make mistakes.
00:17:36.000 –> 00:17:43.200
Roddy: I’m sure they did just let you say, go ahead, do it on your own, but they gave you responsibility whether it’s offensively, defensively, running a practice.
00:17:43.260 –> 00:17:46.780
Roddy: Like a lot of coaches and a lot of business leaders don’t do that.
00:17:46.780 –> 00:17:50.540
Roddy: They have to be involved in everything or leading everything in every area.
00:17:50.700 –> 00:17:55.340
Roddy: Is that, I guess, advice that you have from being on the other side of it that really helped develop you?
00:17:55.340 –> 00:17:56.700
Roddy: Is that what you would say to veteran leaders?
00:17:56.700 –> 00:17:58.460
Roddy: Like give folks a chance.
00:17:58.520 –> 00:17:59.160
Bazzoli: Yeah, absolutely.
00:17:59.160 –> 00:18:01.180
Bazzoli: It’s something I’m still trying to preach to myself.
00:18:02.060 –> 00:18:03.960
Bazzoli: I don’t think I was great at that my first year.
00:18:03.960 –> 00:18:05.620
Bazzoli: I think I was better at it this past year.
00:18:05.720 –> 00:18:19.880
Bazzoli: I’m fortunate with an associate head coach here, Mike Chalice, that’s like he’s uniquely good and really, really special and is a huge role in the amount of things that he runs in our program and that helps.
00:18:20.400 –> 00:18:34.820
Bazzoli: But one of the big things that we went into the first games of my career and we were just all just there, coaching the same thing, looking for the same things, no defined roles, no defined what we’re trying to look for specifically, and I thought it cost us.
00:18:34.820 –> 00:18:40.420
Bazzoli: Unfortunately, I was able to learn from that and then give more responsibility and clear responsibility.
00:18:40.600 –> 00:18:52.560
Bazzoli: I think it’s one of the things that, especially as I’m sure that veteran leaders feel, but I think young leaders feel it too, or it’s like I just feel like I’ve got to control everything, and I just don’t think that’s the case.
00:18:52.560 –> 00:19:16.900
Bazzoli: The best leaders that I’ve worked for didn’t feel that way, and my hope is that we’re sitting here and there is the confidence in promoting from within and doing those type of things because we’ve prepared them for it, and put them in situations to at least have the opportunity to prove that they are prepared for those extra opportunities and things like that.
00:19:16.900 –> 00:19:18.380
Bazzoli: So yeah, absolutely.
00:19:18.380 –> 00:19:19.700
Bazzoli: I think it’s extremely important.
00:19:19.860 –> 00:19:34.120
Roddy: And how overt were those mentors, those head coaches for you in terms of, I’m giving this responsibility because I’m preparing you to be in this seat or as a head coach at some point, and you can tell me not in my business, but have you and Coach Chalice had that conversation as well?
00:19:34.180 –> 00:19:38.260
Roddy: You’re not just here to serve me, I’m doing the higher level stuff, you do the lower level stuff.
00:19:38.680 –> 00:19:43.660
Roddy: I’m building you up, that’s part of the plan here, and that’s part of what you need somebody to sign up for.
00:19:43.920 –> 00:19:46.980
Roddy: How overt is that from a leadership and mentorship standpoint?
00:19:49.060 –> 00:19:50.180
Bazzoli: I think it depends on the leader.
00:19:50.180 –> 00:20:02.640
Bazzoli: I don’t think I realized it in the moment in my first job, but I felt like there were a lot of things at my first job by the time I was wrapping up my time there that I was the head coach of.
00:20:02.660 –> 00:20:13.540
Bazzoli: And again, I don’t think I was, in some ways I was, I was told, hey, your job is to recruit really good players and present really good players to me, and your job is to run the defense.
00:20:14.320 –> 00:20:20.880
Bazzoli: And it may not have been maybe the specific wording that you’re using, but I definitely feel it now.
00:20:20.880 –> 00:20:24.820
Bazzoli: And I think it was similar in working for Coach V.
00:20:24.820 –> 00:20:31.960
Bazzoli: And I view our program right now like he, Mike Chalice as the associate head title for a reason.
00:20:31.960 –> 00:20:33.760
Bazzoli: I believe that we have two head coaches here.
00:20:33.760 –> 00:20:39.820
Bazzoli: I mean, the guy is a head coach and he just so happens to be working with me right now.
00:20:39.820 –> 00:20:42.500
Bazzoli: I think he’s really good.
00:20:42.660 –> 00:20:48.280
Bazzoli: There are things that he does in our program that I don’t even think of anymore because it’s just him.
00:20:48.880 –> 00:20:50.420
Bazzoli: He takes it over and he runs it.
00:20:50.420 –> 00:20:57.060
Bazzoli: And if that’s true always, if I’m fortunate enough for him to be around for a long time, then great.
00:20:57.060 –> 00:21:00.960
Bazzoli: The next guy, it might be a little bit different where I got to take some reign back and some things.
00:21:00.960 –> 00:21:17.940
Bazzoli: But then my hope is that that’s always the case, is that we’re sitting here in a position where we’ve got guys that feel that and feel like they are put in positions to take advantage of opportunities and really feel ownership over a specific role or job.
00:21:18.860 –> 00:21:19.280
Roddy: Got it.
00:21:19.280 –> 00:21:19.820
Roddy: Thank you for that.
00:21:19.820 –> 00:21:23.860
Roddy: I’ll just interject a personal Gannon’s story here, and it ties in with the leadership lesson.
00:21:23.960 –> 00:21:28.540
Roddy: The coach also has to really communicate to the assistants to make sure everybody’s on the same page.
00:21:28.560 –> 00:21:36.540
Roddy: Because my first practice, my senior year, we had a brand new coach who was an older guy, local high school legend, and he came in and he was like, no, here’s we have to do it this way.
00:21:36.540 –> 00:21:39.360
Roddy: It was like, I had to say off the side, that’s not how we do it.
00:21:39.580 –> 00:21:46.120
Roddy: Coach, you get to ring you by your throat if you teach that again because they weren’t on the same page that way.
00:21:46.120 –> 00:21:48.100
Roddy: So that’s about the veteran coaches.
00:21:48.180 –> 00:21:51.220
Roddy: What advice do you have for fellow young leaders?
00:21:51.220 –> 00:22:00.720
Roddy: Whether it’s business or basketball, what actions do you recommend for young leaders so they can have the biggest impact on their current situation and then also advance their career as well?
00:22:01.280 –> 00:22:03.720
Bazzoli: I think the biggest thing is just remove all ego.
00:22:05.700 –> 00:22:13.080
Bazzoli: I don’t think that we can be good leaders if we have ego and we’re sitting there thinking that we are just right about everything.
00:22:16.220 –> 00:22:33.020
Bazzoli: I am very aware of my flaws and very aware of the things that I’m not good at and I’m constantly seeking to find what else I’m not good at so that I can, so that I mean as much as anything so that I can tell my assistant coaches to pick me up in these areas.
00:22:33.360 –> 00:22:36.140
Bazzoli: I know that there are times that I can be forgetful.
00:22:36.140 –> 00:22:43.140
Bazzoli: So I tell my new assistant the other day, like, hey, I know I’ve got this on my plate.
00:22:43.300 –> 00:22:44.720
Bazzoli: It’s on my calendar.
00:22:45.120 –> 00:22:53.980
Bazzoli: If for some reason it’s getting close and you’re like, hey, I’m not sure, just shoot me a text and remind me, hey, coach, remember, you got this.
00:22:53.980 –> 00:22:56.720
Bazzoli: Like, I just know I need that stuff sometimes.
00:22:59.540 –> 00:23:06.380
Bazzoli: I know that there are things that are really, really easy for me to see on a basketball floor.
00:23:06.380 –> 00:23:08.720
Bazzoli: And then there’s just things that I don’t see quite as well.
00:23:08.720 –> 00:23:17.540
Bazzoli: And I think I’ve hired well with guys that see those things really well, and I can really lean on them to help guide us in those areas.
00:23:17.540 –> 00:23:22.920
Bazzoli: So yeah, I just think, you know, I think ego is a killer.
00:23:23.020 –> 00:23:24.600
Bazzoli: So yeah, avoid it.
00:23:25.060 –> 00:23:29.440
Roddy: So there’s been ego lists, but then there’s also that candid communication that you have, right?
00:23:29.440 –> 00:23:32.280
Roddy: Hey, here are the areas that I have a shortcoming in.
00:23:32.440 –> 00:23:33.460
Roddy: I need you to help me, right?
00:23:33.460 –> 00:23:36.800
Roddy: You’re not relying on your, your assistants be like mind readers, right?
00:23:36.800 –> 00:23:39.880
Roddy: It sounds like you have a very candid back and forth with them.
00:23:40.120 –> 00:23:41.360
Bazzoli: Yeah, I try to for sure.
00:23:42.480 –> 00:23:43.120
Roddy: Excellent.
00:23:43.140 –> 00:23:48.980
Roddy: Well, and I hope from a forgetful standpoint, I won’t, I’ll name the head coach Tom Chapman got in an auto accident, my freshman year.
00:23:49.240 –> 00:24:07.160
Roddy: The assistant had to run the team out at a game at Edinburgh, and one of our top players off the bench, he just forgot to put him in, in the second half, and I was helping him probably carry equipment up to the room that you’re in right now, and he confessed to me like, I just forgot, I can’t believe I forgot about Mike Crawford being on the bench there.
00:24:07.160 –> 00:24:09.760
Roddy: So it happens, that’s for sure.
00:24:09.760 –> 00:24:19.080
Roddy: So before we get back to some questions with Coach Bazzoli, we want to thank these channel focused companies who support the RSPA community, and make this podcast and video series possible.
00:24:19.180 –> 00:24:26.200
Roddy: Our gold sponsors are Blue Star, Cokard, Epson, Global Payments, and Scantz.
00:24:26.240 –> 00:24:32.060
Roddy: So Coach, you alluded to it earlier, you run a version of what is known in basketball as the system.
00:24:32.540 –> 00:24:41.100
Roddy: So because this is a business podcast, not a basketball podcast, I’m going to resist the urge to ask you about your defensive rotations, our audience wouldn’t care as much about that.
00:24:41.380 –> 00:24:56.700
Roddy: But I’ll explain to our audience that the system at a high level, it’s aggressive, up-tempo basketball, relentless pressure, you alluded to it, full-court pressing, shooting quickly, like not just holding on to the ball, and you’re also utilizing like nine, 10, 11 or more players.
00:24:56.700 –> 00:25:10.300
Roddy: So what I want to ask you about related to the system is, so as a new leader, how did you determine when to rely on what are considered like system best practices versus having the confidence to just go with you believe in?
00:25:10.360 –> 00:25:14.720
Roddy: A lot of listeners in our audience now, they’re second or third generation business leaders.
00:25:14.720 –> 00:25:21.860
Roddy: So the easy default for them is to do what dad or mom or the previous president did, or just what the plan by the book.
00:25:21.880 –> 00:25:29.020
Roddy: Can you talk about deciding when to try your own strategies as a new leader versus sticking with what’s been done before what the book says to do?
00:25:29.840 –> 00:25:33.660
Bazzoli: Oh, I think that’s a tough question.
00:25:34.980 –> 00:25:39.260
Bazzoli: Like my cop out answer is I have such a belief in what we do.
00:25:40.520 –> 00:25:42.560
Bazzoli: I really believed in it as an assistant.
00:25:42.800 –> 00:25:49.940
Bazzoli: So it’s, you know, I think we’ve all got to, I don’t think that we can do something that we don’t really believe in.
00:25:49.940 –> 00:26:01.620
Bazzoli: And I think that in those decisions, as we sit there and go, like maybe I don’t believe a ton in what we’re doing and I’m not the primary decision maker.
00:26:01.900 –> 00:26:07.140
Bazzoli: I think it’s my job in those situations to voice my opinion.
00:26:07.560 –> 00:26:13.180
Bazzoli: And then if we don’t move in that direction, my job is to figure out how to believe in it.
00:26:14.020 –> 00:26:16.720
Bazzoli: Because we all got to be moving in the same direction.
00:26:17.100 –> 00:26:25.860
Bazzoli: So I think, man, when I got the job, it’s like I already had so much belief in it, but I also knew I’m not trying to be Jordan Fee.
00:26:25.860 –> 00:26:30.500
Bazzoli: I’m not trying to be anybody that does what we do or a version of it.
00:26:30.500 –> 00:26:56.340
Bazzoli: So I think that there are the most important thing and the things that maybe we do a little bit differently than other quote unquote system teams is other things I think are consistent in mentality and philosophy with the system in general, but are tailored to maybe a little bit more of my personality or that I really believe in those ways.
00:26:56.340 –> 00:26:57.780
Bazzoli: So I’m not trying to be other people.
00:26:57.780 –> 00:27:04.680
Bazzoli: I definitely, I think that we can look the exact same way in a lot of things, but I’m not trying to teach it in the same way because I’m not that person.
00:27:04.680 –> 00:27:06.760
Bazzoli: I’m trying to teach it the way that I know how to teach it.
00:27:06.760 –> 00:27:17.440
Bazzoli: So, but yeah, I think that when you get those opportunities, it’s like if it was successful and you don’t believe in it, why would you believe in it?
00:27:17.440 –> 00:27:38.960
Bazzoli: And if it’s just a couple of specific philosophies, I think the most important thing is that the, or practices I should say, I think the most important thing then is that if you’re going to implement something new that maybe you believe in more, doing it this way than another way, go into it with no ego, but align the philosophies with the general.
00:27:38.960 –> 00:27:49.140
Bazzoli: I just don’t think you want to have branches of what you’re trying to accomplish, that then all of a sudden it’s like, this is the core beliefs and philosophies of what we want to do.
00:27:49.460 –> 00:27:54.500
Bazzoli: But this, I really believe we did it with this mindset that’s just the opposite.
00:27:54.660 –> 00:27:57.700
Bazzoli: I don’t think that those things, I don’t think that those things align.
00:27:57.700 –> 00:28:04.300
Bazzoli: You can do it this way as long as it’s in alignment in the core philosophies of how you want to function.
00:28:05.100 –> 00:28:05.520
Roddy: Got it.
00:28:05.520 –> 00:28:11.560
Roddy: So the business analogy, I don’t know if you’ve read any of Jim Collins stuff, but he taught you the author of Good to Great.
00:28:11.740 –> 00:28:16.680
Roddy: But he has something where he talks about a flywheel, how one thing really drives another and drives another.
00:28:16.680 –> 00:28:26.060
Roddy: To your point from a basketball standpoint, you might want to, hey, let’s hold on to the ball, be like, that totally goes against the philosophy of constant pressure, constant pressure all the time.
00:28:26.060 –> 00:28:41.340
Roddy: So is that part of what it is, is you’re making the decision, you’re constantly making sure it’s aligning with your principles and your philosophies, and that’s why it’s so important to go into any leadership position where you have to have principles and philosophies as opposed to just whatever the leader wants to do.
00:28:41.340 –> 00:28:43.560
Roddy: Is that, I guess, a real guide?
00:28:43.560 –> 00:28:48.600
Roddy: I guess it keeps your ego in check and also make sure that you and your coaches and your team are aligned.
00:28:48.720 –> 00:28:50.520
Roddy: Is that part of it, having those principles?
00:28:50.520 –> 00:28:51.800
Bazzoli: Yeah, absolutely.
00:28:52.100 –> 00:28:57.080
Bazzoli: I think that we can do what we do a bunch of different ways.
00:28:58.160 –> 00:29:07.940
Bazzoli: But for us, I don’t want to implement anything that would then be the opposite of, like you said, like for us, it’s having that constant pressure.
00:29:07.940 –> 00:29:14.360
Bazzoli: If we don’t have constant pressure, if this is against constant pressure, then it’s probably not what we wanted to do.
00:29:14.360 –> 00:29:22.740
Bazzoli: Figure out a way to, if you really want to do that, you really believe in it, figure out a way to include the same constant pressure philosophy in it or don’t do it.
00:29:23.660 –> 00:29:24.220
Roddy: Got it.
00:29:24.220 –> 00:29:24.980
Roddy: Thank you for that.
00:29:25.580 –> 00:29:30.060
Roddy: Let’s talk about meshing those philosophies and strategies with the team.
00:29:30.060 –> 00:29:33.440
Roddy: The players are responsible for the execution of all that.
00:29:33.960 –> 00:29:39.540
Roddy: What I’ve heard from you and Coach Fee and other successful system coaches, you’re very clear about the outcomes.
00:29:39.540 –> 00:29:44.700
Roddy: We’ve talked about it already without even asking you to spell it out, relentless pressure, always aggressive.
00:29:45.360 –> 00:29:50.000
Roddy: If your players get that, the tactics really follow more naturally.
00:29:50.240 –> 00:30:01.600
Roddy: Is it correct to say that making the desired outcomes very, very clear to your team, preaching those as opposed to controlling them like a remote control game or a video game or something like that.
00:30:01.720 –> 00:30:05.720
Roddy: Does that really accelerate the implementation of strategies and tactics?
00:30:05.800 –> 00:30:13.840
Roddy: You’re preaching the principles a lot, so they can go and figure out on their own what aligns with those principles as opposed to you just preaching tactics.
00:30:14.140 –> 00:30:26.660
Bazzoli: Yeah, definitely my preference is to be in a situation where we’re saying, you know, again, I’m sure there’s a million things in the business world that you could come up with these exact examples.
00:30:26.660 –> 00:30:30.620
Bazzoli: The one I’ll give is in basketball of we don’t want the ball to be inbounds.
00:30:30.800 –> 00:30:33.580
Bazzoli: We don’t teach people how to keep the ball from getting inbounds.
00:30:33.880 –> 00:30:35.540
Bazzoli: Different guys are going to do it different ways.
00:30:35.540 –> 00:30:40.020
Bazzoli: They got to be, but the desired outcome is don’t let the ball inbounds.
00:30:40.080 –> 00:30:56.560
Bazzoli: So, you know, I think that, you know, if we have two guys with completely different skill sets, completely different athleticism, completely different size, and we’re trying to say, hey, this is how you do it, I just, I think that it becomes a little bit more difficult.
00:30:56.560 –> 00:31:03.300
Bazzoli: And then it takes maybe some of that responsibility and ownership that that guy gets to take and use how he wants.
00:31:04.040 –> 00:31:11.740
Bazzoli: When it’s like, and as long as you’re playing within the confines of the game, do it however you think you can best do it.
00:31:12.100 –> 00:31:14.660
Bazzoli: And if that’s not working, try it a different way.
00:31:15.100 –> 00:31:20.400
Bazzoli: But if it’s working, I don’t care if it looks the same as the other guy, because it’s working.
00:31:20.920 –> 00:31:22.840
Bazzoli: So I think that’s a great point.
00:31:22.840 –> 00:31:25.540
Bazzoli: That’s exactly how I prefer to do it.
00:31:25.940 –> 00:31:26.300
Roddy: Got it.
00:31:26.300 –> 00:31:33.860
Roddy: So you’re saying you might have a guy denying the inbounds on one side and he’s like doing the traditional right opposite hand in and somebody else could be open stance.
00:31:33.860 –> 00:31:36.580
Roddy: But as long as the ball doesn’t get inbounds, like it doesn’t matter.
00:31:36.580 –> 00:31:38.340
Roddy: You’re just focused on the outcome.
00:31:38.560 –> 00:31:39.280
Bazzoli: Absolutely.
00:31:39.560 –> 00:31:39.940
Roddy: Okay.
00:31:40.240 –> 00:31:41.600
Roddy: Can I ask how hard is that?
00:31:41.600 –> 00:31:47.720
Roddy: Because a lot of leaders want to have things look this is the way that I think is the way to do it.
00:31:47.720 –> 00:31:52.600
Roddy: Or is it going back to we said earlier about be egoless if they’re getting the outcome role with it.
00:31:52.600 –> 00:31:54.480
Roddy: Is that essentially what it is as a leader?
00:31:54.680 –> 00:31:55.040
Bazzoli: Yeah.
00:31:55.040 –> 00:31:56.760
Bazzoli: I mean, I think there’s a combination of both.
00:31:56.760 –> 00:32:03.300
Bazzoli: I think we have a responsibility as leaders to set people up for success.
00:32:04.160 –> 00:32:08.620
Bazzoli: So it’s not like it just happens for everybody.
00:32:08.620 –> 00:32:10.420
Bazzoli: You know, it doesn’t just happen where they figure it out.
00:32:10.420 –> 00:32:17.680
Bazzoli: Sometimes you got to help guys figure it out and we can point to some other people that we’ve seen, hey, this is how this really successful guy has done it.
00:32:17.800 –> 00:32:22.620
Bazzoli: And I think that you can implement a lot of the things in his mentality to do it.
00:32:24.040 –> 00:32:26.060
Bazzoli: And then, I mean, it’s the same thing I do as a leader.
00:32:26.060 –> 00:32:33.860
Bazzoli: I watch other leaders that I think do things really well and listen to their podcasts and try and call them and talk to them.
00:32:33.920 –> 00:32:35.840
Bazzoli: And I go, man, you do this really, really well.
00:32:35.920 –> 00:32:37.020
Bazzoli: How do you do it?
00:32:37.180 –> 00:32:40.760
Bazzoli: So I think we should be looking at trying to do that the same way.
00:32:40.960 –> 00:32:49.500
Bazzoli: But then also, I can’t remember the exact example you just gave, but we used using it like a joystick.
00:32:49.600 –> 00:32:52.640
Bazzoli: That’s not how it’s going to work in the biggest best moments.
00:32:52.640 –> 00:32:56.980
Bazzoli: You may have to start in that direction where you feel a little bit more control.
00:32:57.260 –> 00:33:06.480
Bazzoli: But if you’re well into this thing and you still feel like you need to have total control, I think it says as much about us as leaders as it does about the individual.
00:33:06.920 –> 00:33:16.320
Bazzoli: I think we want to be able to get to the point where we’re guiding you and take our hands off and allowing you to make those decisions and trusting that.
00:33:16.660 –> 00:33:22.580
Bazzoli: What we’ve done in practice, now when the moments come, you’re prepared to do without me holding your hand.
00:33:22.760 –> 00:33:23.040
Roddy: Yeah.
00:33:23.040 –> 00:33:24.040
Roddy: Teach them how to play.
00:33:24.040 –> 00:33:25.580
Roddy: Don’t tell them what to do.
00:33:25.880 –> 00:33:30.700
Roddy: Because if you’re only telling them what to do and you’re not talking, they’re not going to know what to do.
00:33:31.360 –> 00:33:42.360
Roddy: Along those lines, I heard you, I don’t know if it was on another podcast or it might have been a post-game press conference, you talked about, you had a quote, you push your players through positivity instead of punishment.
00:33:42.780 –> 00:33:44.700
Roddy: I’m curious, what does that look like?
00:33:44.700 –> 00:33:47.780
Roddy: Because I’ve seen a lot of coaches who do the opposite.
00:33:47.780 –> 00:33:50.140
Roddy: There’s no positivity, it’s all punishment.
00:33:50.140 –> 00:33:53.360
Roddy: What does it look like to push people through positivity, not punishment?
00:33:53.820 –> 00:33:54.380
Bazzoli: Yeah.
00:33:54.380 –> 00:34:01.940
Bazzoli: I think for one, again, we’ve got to probably play to our own strengths, even as leaders and things like that.
00:34:02.640 –> 00:34:04.600
Bazzoli: I’m naturally an encourager.
00:34:05.080 –> 00:34:07.880
Bazzoli: It’s just not difficult for me to be that way.
00:34:09.980 –> 00:34:13.800
Bazzoli: When I see someone do something good, it’s just natural for me to encourage them.
00:34:14.000 –> 00:34:21.380
Bazzoli: If I see someone do something poorly, but the effort to do it well was there, I’m just a natural encourager.
00:34:22.100 –> 00:34:24.840
Bazzoli: It’s just easy for me to go, go again, you’re good.
00:34:25.060 –> 00:34:26.880
Bazzoli: You’re going to figure this out, go again.
00:34:26.880 –> 00:34:28.080
Bazzoli: Your effort is there.
00:34:32.000 –> 00:34:38.300
Bazzoli: I don’t even necessarily believe that the negative reinforcement is a bad thing per se.
00:34:38.380 –> 00:34:44.380
Bazzoli: It’s probably if you do just one or the other all the time, it’s probably, I think there’s probably a mix of both.
00:34:44.380 –> 00:34:54.500
Bazzoli: I think we need to, again, we need to as leaders when we hire or when we recruit, I think we need to hire and recruit people that will fit us.
00:34:54.760 –> 00:35:03.000
Bazzoli: If someone, I think there are people out there that need to be screamed at all the time to be able to get things done the way they need to get things done.
00:35:03.280 –> 00:35:11.440
Bazzoli: I tell guys in the process before they make a decision to come in and play for me, if you need that, I’m not your guy.
00:35:12.140 –> 00:35:16.940
Bazzoli: I’m not the guy that’s going to be losing my mind and practice every day or screaming on the sidelines.
00:35:16.940 –> 00:35:18.260
Bazzoli: If you need that, that’s fine.
00:35:18.720 –> 00:35:23.960
Bazzoli: I don’t necessarily feel like that’s a bad thing, but you and I won’t mesh that well.
00:35:24.340 –> 00:35:28.080
Bazzoli: You won’t become the player you want to become if you come and play for me.
00:35:29.200 –> 00:35:37.940
Bazzoli: I try to be up front with that in that process because, again, for me, it would just not be natural for me to be losing my mind all the time.
00:35:38.200 –> 00:35:40.060
Bazzoli: It’s natural for me to say good job.
00:35:40.060 –> 00:35:50.100
Bazzoli: It’s natural for me to probably be more of an emphasis on the effort in things than, again, even in, we just talked about outcomes.
00:35:50.100 –> 00:35:55.060
Bazzoli: Well, if the effort’s there, I just believe I’m probably naturally pretty optimistic.
00:35:55.060 –> 00:36:01.240
Bazzoli: I believe that outcome that we want is going to happen at some point, so I don’t need to lose it on that specific outcome.
00:36:01.280 –> 00:36:01.700
Roddy: Yeah.
00:36:02.100 –> 00:36:02.600
Roddy: Interesting.
00:36:02.600 –> 00:36:08.480
Roddy: I was going to say, I played with some guys at Gannon who needed that being pushed and screamed that in order to get going.
00:36:08.480 –> 00:36:11.860
Roddy: I can point them out on the all-time roster if you want me to.
00:36:12.040 –> 00:36:16.240
Roddy: But they needed that to get to practice sometimes even, let alone what they did at practice.
00:36:16.240 –> 00:36:21.560
Roddy: So I also want to share with you, so my career at Gannon, when I was a walk-on for four years, I sat at the end of the bench.
00:36:21.660 –> 00:36:25.120
Roddy: I did the radio for like 10 or 11 years or something like that.
00:36:25.120 –> 00:36:30.000
Roddy: But when I wasn’t doing that, I would always sit in a row right behind the opponent.
00:36:30.020 –> 00:36:33.160
Roddy: So I could almost listen right in on their huddle.
00:36:33.220 –> 00:36:39.460
Roddy: I can tell you, I’d say 90 percent of them fit into that punishment, negative.
00:36:39.460 –> 00:36:43.760
Roddy: It was just nothing but clashing, clashing, clashing, insulting.
00:36:43.760 –> 00:36:49.360
Roddy: I’m thinking like, oh my gosh, now there are very few who do it the other way.
00:36:49.860 –> 00:36:54.360
Roddy: So I haven’t sat behind your bench, but from what I can’t see, I’d say you’re not a lunatic.
00:36:54.360 –> 00:36:55.800
Roddy: Some of these other guys are lunatics.
00:36:55.800 –> 00:36:58.320
Roddy: I’m not going to have you name names or guess anybody.
00:36:58.980 –> 00:37:01.620
Roddy: So it’s obvious if you can see somebody ranting and raving.
00:37:01.620 –> 00:37:09.200
Roddy: But in your huddles, is it more collegial and cooperative than it is just, I’m the drill sergeant barking out orders?
00:37:09.200 –> 00:37:12.040
Roddy: Is there a give and take with you and the players?
00:37:12.040 –> 00:37:15.400
Roddy: It sounds like there is with the coaches, but is there between the coaches and the players?
00:37:15.720 –> 00:37:16.640
Bazzoli: That’s a good question.
00:37:19.040 –> 00:37:20.840
Bazzoli: My hope to that answer is yes.
00:37:21.080 –> 00:37:21.840
Bazzoli: That’s my hope.
00:37:21.840 –> 00:37:22.900
Bazzoli: That’s my belief in it.
00:37:23.080 –> 00:37:32.760
Bazzoli: It would probably be worthwhile for me to spend time with some of our players and ask them if they feel like what I believe is happening is happening in their minds, too.
00:37:33.940 –> 00:37:38.020
Bazzoli: Because my belief is that, and not to say I don’t ever jump on guys in a huddle.
00:37:38.020 –> 00:37:39.120
Bazzoli: You know, I do.
00:37:40.160 –> 00:37:46.880
Bazzoli: But I would say that the majority of what we’re doing is pretty collaborative in those moments.
00:37:47.320 –> 00:37:51.120
Bazzoli: I want them to feel a sense of responsibility and ownership when they take the floor.
00:37:51.140 –> 00:38:04.280
Bazzoli: So if that’s definitely the goal and the hope, again, my belief is that it’d be worthwhile for me to spend time with some players and go, hey, how do you feel is what I think is happening, actually happening in your minds, too.
00:38:04.280 –> 00:38:08.060
Bazzoli: But I would feel relatively confident that that would be yes.
00:38:08.680 –> 00:38:09.060
Roddy: Got it.
00:38:09.060 –> 00:38:09.580
Roddy: Thank you.
00:38:09.880 –> 00:38:15.140
Roddy: Gary Manchel, who I don’t know how much you’ve crossed paths with in the head coach at Mercyhurst University.
00:38:15.140 –> 00:38:18.120
Roddy: And so I’ve crossed paths with the whole bunch during my time in Erie.
00:38:18.620 –> 00:38:21.000
Roddy: His players, like they were all very much on the same page.
00:38:21.000 –> 00:38:23.200
Roddy: I just remember one huddle, this is against Gannon.
00:38:23.240 –> 00:38:27.240
Roddy: He must have said 10 times, don’t let the ball in the high post, don’t let the ball in the high post.
00:38:27.320 –> 00:38:28.960
Roddy: Two passes, the ball goes in the high post.
00:38:28.960 –> 00:38:31.900
Roddy: He turns around, he’s like, is anybody listening to me?
00:38:31.900 –> 00:38:34.960
Roddy: So you’ve got to be able to have folks go back and forth.
00:38:34.960 –> 00:38:37.900
Roddy: There’s a communication of what you’re saying and are they listening?
00:38:37.900 –> 00:38:42.420
Roddy: So and I want to talk about, so leaders want to be close with the people that they lead.
00:38:42.420 –> 00:38:43.860
Roddy: You’ve just talked about that.
00:38:43.860 –> 00:38:48.360
Roddy: They want this bond with them, but they also need to have hard conversations with them.
00:38:49.160 –> 00:38:52.800
Roddy: So if done wrong, those hard conversations can really damage the relationship you talked about.
00:38:52.800 –> 00:38:54.300
Roddy: Sometimes you have to get on guys.
00:38:54.560 –> 00:39:01.620
Roddy: I’ve heard you say in a lot of your interviews how much you love your guys, but you also have those hard conversations with them.
00:39:01.620 –> 00:39:05.240
Roddy: So how do you balance the love and the hard conversations?
00:39:05.540 –> 00:39:08.660
Bazzoli: Well, I don’t think you do love people if you don’t have hard conversations.
00:39:09.560 –> 00:39:11.180
Bazzoli: I don’t think that you genuinely love them.
00:39:11.180 –> 00:39:22.920
Bazzoli: I think you care a lot more about yourself if you’re only want to have the comfortable soft conversations that don’t lead to the things that you believe in.
00:39:23.180 –> 00:39:23.880
Bazzoli: I just believe that.
00:39:25.360 –> 00:39:31.380
Bazzoli: It’s like if your buddy’s walking off a cliff and you don’t want to tell him something he doesn’t agree with.
00:39:32.200 –> 00:39:34.740
Bazzoli: So to me, it’ll go hand in hand.
00:39:34.740 –> 00:39:36.160
Bazzoli: Truth comes with love.
00:39:36.660 –> 00:39:45.880
Bazzoli: I don’t think if we’re lying to people, if we’re telling them things that they want to hear that is just not true, I don’t think we love them.
00:39:46.340 –> 00:39:48.760
Bazzoli: So to me, it’s very easy.
00:39:50.420 –> 00:39:55.700
Bazzoli: It doesn’t make the conversation easy because I am like everybody else for the most part.
00:39:55.700 –> 00:39:59.800
Bazzoli: I feel like in that area where I don’t like having uncomfortable conversations per se.
00:40:00.960 –> 00:40:05.520
Bazzoli: But if I actually love these guys, then I better tell them the truth.
00:40:05.520 –> 00:40:14.360
Bazzoli: I better put myself in those positions where I am going to tell them those things or I don’t really mean it when I say that I love them.
00:40:16.240 –> 00:40:23.900
Bazzoli: If we’ve got a guy that can’t shoot the 3 and he loves shooting 3s, and I just say, keep going buddy, you’re doing great.
00:40:24.440 –> 00:40:28.940
Bazzoli: No, I don’t really love him or his teammates for that matter.
00:40:28.940 –> 00:40:39.560
Bazzoli: So if we’ve got guys that aren’t about other people before they’re about themselves, to me, that’s not love.
00:40:39.560 –> 00:40:43.920
Bazzoli: So you can’t have one without the other in my mind.
00:40:43.920 –> 00:40:44.280
Roddy: Yeah.
00:40:44.280 –> 00:40:48.500
Roddy: Again, it sounds like you’ve had all these conversations at advance during the recruiting process.
00:40:48.600 –> 00:40:50.400
Roddy: What type of person are you looking for?
00:40:50.400 –> 00:40:53.680
Roddy: Somebody who you can have that candid relationship with.
00:40:53.680 –> 00:40:57.580
Roddy: It’s not that it suddenly springs upon them that you’re going to have a candid conversation.
00:40:58.220 –> 00:40:59.120
Bazzoli: Yeah, absolutely.
00:40:59.560 –> 00:41:16.400
Bazzoli: I think for me, I can look in scripture and look in Proverbs, and the lies come from the enemy, and truth comes from your friends, and I think truth is where you see love.
00:41:17.220 –> 00:41:17.860
Roddy: Well said.
00:41:18.340 –> 00:41:19.440
Roddy: A couple of questions for you left.
00:41:19.440 –> 00:41:21.920
Roddy: I do want to focus on the National Championship.
00:41:22.100 –> 00:41:26.840
Roddy: I’m just curious, what did it feel like to win a National Championship?
00:41:27.100 –> 00:41:34.360
Roddy: To work crazy hard over such a long period of time, and then to achieve the ultimate goal.
00:41:34.360 –> 00:41:35.280
Roddy: What did that feel like?
00:41:36.280 –> 00:41:37.260
Bazzoli: In the moment?
00:41:38.180 –> 00:41:38.560
Roddy: I don’t know.
00:41:38.560 –> 00:41:40.340
Bazzoli: In the moment, it was cool.
00:41:44.040 –> 00:41:46.980
Bazzoli: It’s hard to have perspective in the moment, to be honest with you.
00:41:46.980 –> 00:41:54.220
Bazzoli: It’s like you’re there and you’re enjoying it, and I loved watching our players celebrate.
00:41:54.780 –> 00:41:58.980
Bazzoli: But I didn’t have this moment of euphoria in the moment.
00:41:59.560 –> 00:42:00.300
Bazzoli: It was cool.
00:42:01.600 –> 00:42:03.260
Bazzoli: It was fun to be a part of.
00:42:04.880 –> 00:42:11.020
Bazzoli: You feel a sense of accomplishment for sure for all the work that goes into it.
00:42:11.640 –> 00:42:23.840
Bazzoli: I felt such a sense of gratitude for the kind of people that we had in our program and to be able to do it with, again, people that you genuinely love and you love being around every day.
00:42:25.260 –> 00:42:28.760
Bazzoli: I felt more of a sense of gratitude for those things than anything.
00:42:28.980 –> 00:42:37.160
Bazzoli: I’d say at some point, two months later, for about a day, I was like, wow, that was crazy.
00:42:37.460 –> 00:42:39.700
Bazzoli: You get that perspective a little bit.
00:42:39.740 –> 00:42:48.060
Bazzoli: Then for me, outside of that day, a couple of months later, it was right back to the process.
00:42:51.340 –> 00:43:03.700
Bazzoli: The process was every bit as fun as the moment, because I think it’s easy to then look back at the process and just be like, hey, you don’t get even the opportunity to accomplish this without that.
00:43:03.780 –> 00:43:08.800
Bazzoli: So yeah, it was fun, but there wasn’t like this.
00:43:09.400 –> 00:43:12.100
Bazzoli: We weren’t living on Cloud9 for weeks.
00:43:13.200 –> 00:43:13.620
Roddy: Right.
00:43:13.620 –> 00:43:14.260
Roddy: That’s interesting.
00:43:14.260 –> 00:43:15.840
Roddy: There’s almost a surreal element to it.
00:43:15.840 –> 00:43:22.960
Roddy: I can just say speaking personally, going to so many games like, oh my gosh, I’m watching Gannon play, you know, with an NBA arena.
00:43:22.960 –> 00:43:25.280
Roddy: Like that itself was really strange.
00:43:25.280 –> 00:43:34.860
Roddy: And on CBS and seeing, you know, all the Gannon logo around and then to actually win it, it was just like, like I thought I was going to break down and sob like a baby because I’ve wanted Gannon to win for so long.
00:43:34.860 –> 00:43:37.340
Roddy: But I was like, well, this is, this is really good.
00:43:37.340 –> 00:43:39.680
Roddy: Like it’s, it was just a strange feeling.
00:43:39.680 –> 00:43:40.640
Bazzoli: It’s way better than the other way.
00:43:41.200 –> 00:43:41.880
Roddy: It’s for sure.
00:43:41.880 –> 00:43:43.440
Bazzoli: It’s way better than the other way.
00:43:43.600 –> 00:43:46.060
Roddy: It would have been a long, long drive home for me.
00:43:46.120 –> 00:43:46.960
Roddy: There’s no doubt about it.
00:43:46.960 –> 00:43:49.180
Roddy: I’m sure for you as well, you put in even more time.
00:43:49.180 –> 00:43:55.820
Roddy: So, and so I know coach, how much your national championship meant to the Erie community.
00:43:56.540 –> 00:44:01.460
Roddy: The folks who are listening to this don’t know, but Gannon doesn’t have exactly the youngest fan base.
00:44:01.880 –> 00:44:08.020
Roddy: In America, lots of those folks have been going to the games, and like every game in Erie County since the 1960s and 70s.
00:44:08.280 –> 00:44:11.900
Roddy: So after the game, I was spending time with a lot of them out in the concourse there.
00:44:11.900 –> 00:44:19.780
Roddy: The most common feedback I got was, man, I thought I was going to die without seeing Gannon win a national championship, like it was something super, super meaningful.
00:44:19.780 –> 00:44:21.580
Roddy: So I guess, what does it mean for you?
00:44:21.580 –> 00:44:25.540
Roddy: You just talked about how you react and your team reacted to it.
00:44:25.540 –> 00:44:37.180
Roddy: But when you deliver on something that wasn’t just important to you, but it impacted so many other people so positively, how did that feel as well to interact with people afterwards and how meaningful it was?
00:44:37.760 –> 00:44:39.220
Bazzoli: Yeah, I thought that was really cool.
00:44:39.600 –> 00:44:42.260
Bazzoli: I thought it’s something that we preach to our guys all the time.
00:44:42.560 –> 00:44:44.740
Bazzoli: This matters to more than just us.
00:44:46.620 –> 00:44:49.320
Bazzoli: This is something that a lot of people really care about.
00:44:49.320 –> 00:45:07.880
Bazzoli: And then afterwards, our guys interacting with our families and fans and season ticket holders and all of that stuff, I thought that was really unique because the way they embraced our players and myself and everybody in the program was, it was just obvious.
00:45:07.880 –> 00:45:13.260
Bazzoli: You say all these things, you’re telling these guys, and they feel that the whole time for sure.
00:45:13.560 –> 00:45:21.000
Bazzoli: And then you see that and then we get back on campus a couple of days later and there’s a thousand people just waiting on us to get here.
00:45:21.000 –> 00:45:30.760
Bazzoli: And I’m thinking, you know, they might be 50 people and then all of a sudden, the one side of the stands is packed and they want to sit and talk to everybody for an hour afterwards.
00:45:30.760 –> 00:45:45.300
Bazzoli: So it was really cool to see that too, because our guys were so, you could tell in the moment, they were so grateful for each one of those people that showed up and have cared for so long.
00:45:45.960 –> 00:45:46.660
Roddy: Excellent.
00:45:46.660 –> 00:45:47.280
Roddy: Wonderful.
00:45:47.400 –> 00:45:56.060
Roddy: So coach, I can’t thank you enough as somebody who, I’ve been going to Gannon games, we’re following the team since the mid 80s.
00:45:56.060 –> 00:46:03.020
Roddy: I know that’s well, well before your time on the planet, but it was a dream as a young Gannon fan, to see them win the national championship.
00:46:03.480 –> 00:46:06.520
Roddy: Between my freshman and sophomore year, we had a coaching change.
00:46:06.520 –> 00:46:11.140
Roddy: Rob Duquette came in, he had been fired by Marquette, and then John Riley.
00:46:11.140 –> 00:46:12.440
Roddy: I don’t know if you’ve talked to Rob.
00:46:12.440 –> 00:46:14.160
Bazzoli: I know John Riley, yeah.
00:46:14.160 –> 00:46:19.260
Roddy: And so Riles was his assistant, and so Riles had coached me the year before, had me work in the office.
00:46:19.260 –> 00:46:23.620
Roddy: Again, it might be the exact same office, and right now I’m stuffing envelopes so I could get to know Duquette.
00:46:23.620 –> 00:46:27.500
Roddy: And so he actually said to me, like what’s your goal for the team?
00:46:27.500 –> 00:46:30.100
Roddy: And I told him, win a national championship.
00:46:30.100 –> 00:46:30.960
Roddy: That’s what I’m here for.
00:46:30.960 –> 00:46:32.640
Roddy: I have nothing personally that I want in it.
00:46:32.740 –> 00:46:34.860
Roddy: If you can do that with me on the team, great.
00:46:34.860 –> 00:46:39.020
Roddy: If you think it’s better with me off the team, like I just want Gannon to win a national championship.
00:46:39.040 –> 00:46:43.480
Roddy: And I just remember walking down the stairs and thinking like, oh my gosh, I just gave him permission to cut me.
00:46:43.580 –> 00:46:46.360
Roddy: Like he’s going to be like, I think we can win it without you.
00:46:46.360 –> 00:46:53.580
Roddy: But to see it happen and to have it be without knuckleheads, it was just super, super meaningful.
00:46:53.580 –> 00:46:57.520
Roddy: So I can’t thank you enough again for spending time with us today.
00:46:57.560 –> 00:47:01.680
Roddy: And again, for all that you’ve done and really setting a leadership example for other folks.
00:47:01.680 –> 00:47:03.900
Roddy: So I’ll give you the last word before we close out.
00:47:04.240 –> 00:47:07.620
Roddy: Just in terms of anything you’d like to share with our audience to wrap things up.
00:47:07.620 –> 00:47:07.940
Bazzoli: Yeah.
00:47:07.940 –> 00:47:09.500
Bazzoli: Well, listen, I appreciate you having me.
00:47:09.500 –> 00:47:11.120
Bazzoli: Like this is awesome.
00:47:11.520 –> 00:47:14.800
Bazzoli: I think you are a great example of why Gannon is such a special place.
00:47:14.960 –> 00:47:21.860
Bazzoli: There’s just people that have been a part of this program before that really, really care and care at a different level.
00:47:22.060 –> 00:47:33.780
Bazzoli: Just not just the guys that just maybe show up to the game here and there, but the people that are invested in our players and want things genuinely to be done the right way and to go well.
00:47:34.540 –> 00:47:42.860
Bazzoli: So I’ve been really fortunate to be able to work at a place like this, to be surrounded by people that are aligned in what we’re trying to do.
00:47:45.820 –> 00:47:53.020
Bazzoli: I’ve had great staff and great players that are just overwhelmingly selfless.
00:47:54.740 –> 00:47:59.360
Bazzoli: That’s been our ticket and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to just be a part of it.
00:48:00.140 –> 00:48:00.600
Roddy: Wonderful.
00:48:00.600 –> 00:48:03.060
Roddy: Well, thank you and congratulations again, coach.
00:48:03.280 –> 00:48:05.500
Roddy: So that does it for this episode of The Trusted Advisor.
00:48:05.500 –> 00:48:12.620
Roddy: If you enjoyed our discussion, be sure to subscribe to the RSPA YouTube channel and The Trusted Advisor podcast so you never miss an episode.
00:48:12.620 –> 00:48:19.280
Roddy: Before we go, big thanks again to coach Easton Bazzoli, my alma mater, Gannon University for sharing his wisdom with us today.
00:48:19.460 –> 00:48:27.260
Roddy: Thanks also to RSPA Marketing Director Chris Arnold for his production work, Joseph McDade for our music, and last but not least, thanks so much to you for listening.
00:48:27.320 –> 00:48:34.220
Roddy: Our goal at the RSPA is to accelerate the success of our members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections.
00:48:34.240 –> 00:48:37.720
Roddy: For more information, visit our website at gorspa.org.
00:48:37.760 –> 00:48:41.140
Roddy: Thanks for listening and goodbye everybody.
