A Conversation with Stan Van Gundy

Since departing Detroit following four seasons as the head coach and president of basketball operations for the Pistons, Stan Van Gundy has joined the guest coach clinician rank-and-file, traversing campuses around the nation to share his treasure trove of knowledge to an eager crop of high school coaches.

The 12-year NBA head coach capped off his busy week in Cambridge as the guest-of-honor for Harvard Basketball’s annual coaching clinic on Sunday, following in the footsteps of his younger brother and current ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy who visited Lavietes Pavilion in 2008.

Not hiding his trademark boisterous personality nor his vociferous coaching style, the elder Van Gundy dedicated his two-hour session almost exclusively to transition offense principles, guiding his audience step-by-step through a variety of spacing and ball distribution schema. Spiced into his technical scrutiny of flare screens and analytics was a bountiful mix of humor (i.e. praising coach Tommy Amaker for hiring “non-shooter” assistants who could deliberately miss during drills). Quickly, it was clear why “SVG” had been a staple in the league for so many years.

During the coaching clinic, Van Gundy focused on his transition offense principles and philosophy. By Henry Zhu

During a mid-day lunch break, Van Gundy sat down with Crimson Sports and Harvard Magazine and shared some of his broader thoughts about Amaker’s program, the Ivy League, and his career as a whole. Here are some of the highlights of our discussion:

Impressions of Harvard Basketball:

“It is incredible the difference in this program. Before Tommy got here there was certainly no national relevance to Harvard and for a lot of the time, there hasn’t even been Ivy League relevance to Harvard. Now it’s the gold standard...it is incredible what Tommy has done and the level of guys that he has recruited.”

On the Ivy League:

“The level of coaching in the league right now is probably as high as it’s ever been….as much as the recruiting in the league has gotten better, I don’t know in the Ivy League if you are ever going to be in the position where you can just go out and select guys to come in and fit your system. So you are going to have a philosophy and system that you are going to have to tweak all the time. So you go from Jeremy Lin as your best player and now you have a big guy.”

“What Tommy has done here has not only elevated Harvard but indirectly elevated the entire league because you have got to be at a higher level now to compete in the Ivy League.”

Advice to Current Harvard Student-Athletes:

“We all fall victim to looking ahead, particularly when you are in college...also realize that you are never going to have this moment again and savor this experience at Harvard and of being on a very good team and program. It will not only help you the rest of your life but also these guys will be bonded forever...don’t forget about right here and right now and enjoy it.”

On Tommy Amaker:

“I remember him when he was a high school player...what you see in Tommy Amaker is you’ve seen the guy be in situations where he has been in the top and you have seen a guy be in situations where he’s struggled with adversity. He was talking today about getting fired at Michigan. The thing that I’ve noticed with him and I think anybody has been in our profession and watched him would say is he has handled it all with class.”

“This program obviously is very special to him and it is [about] winning games, but he’s a guy who really sees the whole world and basketball is relatively small part in this whole thing. He relishes his basketball program’s role on a very special campus and the role it can play. It is sort of a rallying point, something for the school and community to get behind. He is well aware of all the important things happening on this campus.”

Plans for his Own Future:

“There are days I wake up and really miss [coaching] and want to get back to it right away, and there are other days and I’ll turn on the TV and I’ll watch a friend of mine and his team is having a tough night. You can see the anguish and you say, 'Boy I don’t miss that at all, I can just grab a beer and sit down and watch the game, and he can’t.' So I don’t know… when we hit the spring time and even year to year we will see. I don’t know what we will do.”

— Staff writer Henry Zhu can be reached at henry.zhu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @Zhuhen88.