Q & A with Renee Ladner

Q & A with Renee Ladner

 

Q: WHAT SORT OF THINGS HAVE YOU BEEN DOING SINCE YOU MOVED INTO THE HEAD COACHING POSITION?

A: The first thing that has changed is that I wake up every morning trying to think of ways to beat Tennessee and Georgia and all those teams we will be facing. As an assistant coach, I never woke up thinking about who I might face later on down the road. Basically, I am learning how to follow up. I always was an assistant in recruiting. Now, I am learning how to recruit in a better way. I am thinking about making offers, trying to decide who I want and what position we need. Carol (Ross) had a really good insight on how that all worked, but again she had been doing it for so long. I am getting ready to hit the recruiting trail. I will be out from the beginning of July to the end of July. I was always the coach that took care of the team at home. I made sure everything was in order here, while the other three coaches were on the road recruiting. I am getting ready to make that transition. Every day I wake up and try to find something that we can do a little bit better.”

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE THIRD ASSISTANT COACH POSITION?

A: I think I have in mind exactly what I need in that position. At this point, out of about 15-20 different resumes, I have not found exactly what I want. I need someone who is an experienced coach. I want a person who has been a game coach, either as a head coach or a first assistant. I need someone there who can mesh and blend with everyone in this office. I need someone who can develop post players since I am very guard oriented. I would like someone who loves to scout and loves strategy. I guess that’s asking for a lot. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and I need someone who can wear a lot of hats, but really zero in on the scouting end of it and someone who is a good teacher. I have some feelers out and I have an idea on bringing some people in, but I am not prepared to offer the job to anyone at this point.”

Q: TALK ABOUT YOUR SCHEDULING PHILOSOPHY AND WHAT OLE MISS FANS CAN EXPECT TO SEE THIS YEAR?

A: I don’t think you will see much change in the way I schedule compared to the past few seasons. I don’t think you can have a really easy non-conference schedule and go into the SEC and expect to beat anyone. It just doesn’t work that way. I think we will play a mixture of three-to-four really difficult games that are comparable to what we will see in the SEC and then we will have some games we will expect to win. We will get tested early to find out where we are and what we need to work on. Naturally, you better find a way to win about 10 games in that non-conference period, because when they SEC rolls around you need to win at least seven. I don’t think there is a magic number, but you need to find some teams who are going to test you early so you can get the kinks worked out and you will be prepared for conference play. Anything too easy will get you killed in conference play. We have some rigorous games already lined up. We have to return games at Miami and Penn State. We are playing North Carolina State here and those three games are all in a row. So there will be no rest for the weary during that stretch. However, that will be a great preparation for us heading into the SEC because you never get to take a night off in our conference. We have some great options for our opening game, both of which are exciting, but it is not set in stone just yet.”

Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK THE ELITE EIGHT RUN DID AS FAR AS PUTTING THE OLE MISS PROGRAM IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT?

A: I think the Elite Eight run made us the “Belle of the Ball.” We are absolutely out there in every capacity. Every where we go, whether it’s within our state or around the country, people walk up who I have never met or seen in my life and tell us how much they loved our team. It gave us a face. It gave us a name. I think Ole Miss had always been out there, but we had been on the backburner for a little while. I think people were pleasantly surprised to see our run. I think we did build a fan base. What it has done for us is making scheduling hard. For the very first time, we have people not wanting to play Ole Miss. It gave our kids a chance to feel a touch of success on that level. Until you have been there you don’t really know what it’s all about. Now that they have been there they have a great understanding of what it takes to get there and why you want to be there. I think our kids now expect to make a run in the tournament. Prior to this season, we were always hoping to win a game or two. I think now they expect to win versus just getting there.”

Q: DO YOU THINK THE TEAM YOU PUT ON THE COURT WILL HAVE THE SAME LOOK AND FEEL AS THE ONE THE NATION SAW IN LAST YEAR’S TOURNAMENT?

A: Absolutely. I am a defensive coach. I played in high school and college for Van Chancellor and that is all I ever knew. When I coached in high school that was how I coached and my six years working with Carol were the same. I only know how to play at one speed and that’s full speed ahead. I don’t think we will veer from that. I was watching our kids at camp the other night and they were having a scrimmage with the campers and they were trapping on the baseline. So, they love it. I think that is what our natural inclination will be. We will press, play tough defense, trap, steal it and be off on a fast break. We will keep that style, because it’s really all I know.”

Q: WHEN YOU BRING A RECRUIT ON CAMPUS, WHAT IS THE EASIEST THING TO SELL?

A: Academics. The new FedEx Academic Center has been absolutely our best seller. We had some kids come up for unofficial visits recently and they were so impressed with it that we almost did not have to show them very much of the campus. They also love the community feel to Ole Miss. It’s a beautiful campus we have here and most of our recruits love that, but without a doubt the FedEx center is our biggest selling point right now.”

Q: WHAT IS THE TOUGHEST THING TO SELL A RECRUIT?

A: I would say Tad Smith Coliseum. It is near and dear to our hearts because we play here and it’s a part of who we are, but a lot of the kids who come on campus have better facilities at their high schools. So when I can look at them and say I have a brand new practice facility coming in and show them a blueprint of it, once again they are in awe because they have seen what we have done recently at the IPF and with the FedEx Center. They have seen the campus and they know we are not going to sell this facility short. We are going to make a beautiful facility that is very much needed and that will be very useful.”

Q: ALONG THOSE LINES, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR A RECRUIT TO SEE THE BLUEPRINT OF THE PRACTICE FACILITY?

A: It’s extremely important. I know when it’s all said and done its not about bricks and mortar, it’s about the people and the feel of the campus. Especially with girls, it’s more emotional with them. With them how they feel when they visit is very important. I know they enjoy the feel of our campus, but when they go to other schools and see what they have in place, it can be overwhelming. A lot of times parents can be dazzled by the capacity and largeness of things in place at other schools. We are very visionary here though and we know it’s a need for us to have a practice facility so we can now sell both the parents and the recruits on how important we think having this new facility is for our programs. We need that facility to help us not only on the court but also in the academic world. Our kids will all be able to graduate on time because they won’t have to stay around extra to take classes they could not fit in due to us having to share practice time like we do right now.”

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RENOVATING THE TAD PAD’? IS IT POSSIBLE OR SHOULD A COMPLETELY NEW BUILDING BE CONSIDERED?

A: I am not sure a new building is necessary, but definitely a complete and total renovation is a must. They have talked about it on several occasions, basically blowing up and starting over and making it user friendly. I think we can use the same facility, but you have to really understand what you are trying to sell and get a building that can do that. We have tradition here at Ole Miss. If you come to play us in the Tad Pad its hard for a visitor to come out with a win. The teams who come in here don’t enjoy playing in our facility. Right now, we can’t even host a double-header or a tournament in the Tad Pad’ because we don’t have the locker rooms to house multiple teams. Someone with a good idea and a good plan needs to come in here and visualize and see what our needs are. That needs to be done as quickly as possible. We need to be able to have our own tournament. We need people to want to come to the Coliseum. I think it could be a great old facility. It could easily be another great product we have at Ole Miss, but it’s in desperate need of updating.”

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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