Then & Now: Bill Jackman

Then & Now: Bill Jackman

Compiled By Dave Brandon

(Photo Courtesy NU Media Relations)

Bill

Jackman is a native of Grant, Nebraska, and played for

the Huskers from 1985-1987. The former forward is one of

the most heralded recruits the state of Nebraska has

ever produced, as he signed and played one season with

Duke before transferring to NU. The former Academic

All-Big 8 performer played a key role on both the

1985-1986 NCAA Tournament team, and the 1986-1987 NIT

team.

HHC recently caught up with Jackman,

who is our latest guest in this Sunday’s edition of

“Then & Now.”

HHC: Bill, thanks a

lot for taking the time to join us. Before we get into

the interview, we have to set the record straight – were

you 6’8”, as some of the media guides say, or 6’9”, as

others say?

BJ: I’m officially 6’8 and a ½, so split

the difference. (Laughs) Different media guides have

picked different things.

HHC: (Laughs)

Alright, now that we’ve got that straight, let’s dig in.

You played high school basketball at Perkins County High

School, and helped lead your team to a 78-4 record,

along with two Class C state titles. However, as an

individual player, do you feel that the medium level

class hurt your development at all for Division One

basketball, or is that claim overrated?

BJ: I think it did

from a competition standpoint. On a game in game out

basis, you prepare for guys at the level you play at,

and not only that, but you get used to and trained in a

reactive way of how the officials will call the games.

In general, from an offensive

standpoint, I thought it was a disadvantage playing at

that level at the time, but turned out to be … Well, at

Grant, they didn’t let us in the high school gyms to

practice, because they didn’t want kids tearing up the

gyms. So, we always had to play outside. My practice

arena was my court at home, my driveway. And then we’d

play in the park all the time, and because you couldn’t

play in the gym, and whenever you did during the season,

it was a special thing. So, there was something special

about it during the season. So that didn’t hurt me as

much, it was just the quickness of the game that was a

lot different.

In general, so many of those who

are great in high school at a sport aren’t in college,

and that’s because they didn’t adjust to the speed,

size, and quickness of the game. And if you don’t

practice against that or play against it all the time,

there is way to emulate that, so it’s easy to see why.

I think that was more evident to me

AFTER I was in college, because I played against some

really good players. Speaking of after college, I worked

for a couple of years, especially after Danny Nee said,

“you’re a better student than you are athlete.” That

kind of hurt my basketball ego, because I was an

academic All-American. So, he said, “No, you’d be better

off to start your career rather than play basketball,”

because I was thinking about playing in Europe.

So I moved to Texas, and after

spending one year in Austin, got promoted to Houston,

and started playing basketball since I didn’t know

anyone. I fell in love with it again like I used to be

in high school, and I played hours on end. And because

of that, I kept getting better and better. Then, I

started playing against some great players in Houston. I

was playing against Hakeem, Clyde Drexler, Moses Malone,

guys like that in the summer, along with some European

pros. And it was something you couldn’t emulate in

Nebraska.

Later, I had a chance to go

overseas and play in Venezuela, Columbia, Mexico, Spain,

etc., and after playing and competing at such a high

level in Houston, and playing that level for three

years, it made the speed of the game that much easier

for me.

So, if you play against a top level

all the time, you learn to compete at that level, and

then it becomes easier when you play against others. So

playing against that higher competition makes you a much

better player. So yes, to answer your question, I think

the level hurt me a little, because I became much better

after.

So the long way to answer is that I

loved Class C, and I think there are lots of great

players. But by virtue of playing at that level and that

speed, and the way the refs called the game, it was

much, much different from D-1, and hard to emulate that.

HHC: Your senior season of high school was

1982, and was one of the best years in Nebraska history.

Besides producing yourself and former teammate Dave

Hoppen, the state also produced Vic Lazzaretti and Kerry

Trotter, who both played at Marquette, and Ron Kellogg,

who went on to play at Kansas.

Do you feel it was pure

coincidence that so many gifted players came out at

once, or was there something to that?

BJ:

No, I think it was just coincidence. I think growing up

on the average year, you had 1 or 2 major D-1 players

from Nebraska. And coincidentally that year (1982), we

had 7 or 8. Plus, in addition to those major D-1 guys,

you had people like Dana Janssen, who was the all-time

leading scorer at Wesleyan, who wasn’t mentioned in the

same breath, but should have been. Then you had Bart

Kofoed, who played at Westside, and he wasn’t like a

Dean Thompson Westside, but he went to Hastings one or

two years, then ended up in Kearney. Then, he played in

the NBA for several years.

The

talent level that year was unbelievable. Rising tides

raise all ships; I think the same think happens in

athletic levels like that. Kerry Trotter and Ron Kellogg

were just at such a high level. When I was a sophomore,

Kellogg was the first guy I’d ever known that was a

super stater as a sophomore. But because he was so good,

it made Trotter that good, and it made everyone raise

their level of game.

So, I

think you see that at all levels, and that’s why college

basketball recruiting is so important. You get one great

player who rises, like (Waymon) Tisdale at Oklahoma, and a guy like that just raises the teams level,

and everyone wants to play with him, and it makes their

team so much better.

HHC: You were

ranked as one of the nation’s forty best high school

basketball players your senior season, and this lead to

you signing with Duke. What made you choose the Blue

Devils?

BJ: Coach K. Duke was and still is a

tremendous program. And at that time, it had gone

through a couple years of slowness with a new coach.

Nobody had heard of him, and he was a new guy and

unknown. But he was just such a tremendous recruiter. He

answered all our questions, he was a guy you could

trust, and in fact, he was the “go to guy” for us.

A lot of

recruiters came out to Grant, and as it turned out, we

asked him many questions and used him as a sounding

board. And he was a guy I could trust. At the time, my

father had passed away the summer before my senior year,

so in a sense, he was a father to me. And like most

great recruiters do, they recruit the Mom’s, and let

them know that when their sons go away, they will take

care of them.

He’s

turned out to be exactly like that, and not just with

me, but with guys like Danny Ferry, Johnny Dawkins,

Christian Laetner, etc. Just a tremendous coach and guy.

HHC: Did Moe Iba come close to landing you

out of high school?

BJ: Yeah, that was my second choice. I

loved Nebraska. I think the difference was that Coach K

was just a terrific recruiter. He said, “We’re

recruiting these 6 players, and here’s where I see you

fitting in. We’re not going to recruit another small

forward, and if you do what we think you can do, we

don’t need to recruit another one at your position.”

They had

watched me at several camps, but Nebraska was my second

choice at the time.

HHC: You

played one season at Duke, in 1982-1983, and even

cracked the starting lineup a couple of times as a

freshman. Talk to us about your experience at Duke, and

what you remember most about it?

BJ: It was a great experience, because I

played with some great players. My freshman year was the

#1 recruiting class in the nation, with (Johnny)

Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas, etc. And Duke had a

nice squad of guys who were there at the time. Chip

England, Tommy Emma, and some nice players who hadn’t

had a great season the year or two before, but with the

new coach, there was a lot of potential there.

HHC: We actually interviewed Jay Bilas,

your old freshman roommate and current ESPN analyst

awhile back, and he said that the team was sad to see

you transfer back to Nebraska. What made you choose this

decision, and do you have peace with the decision in

your heart?

BJ:

Duke was a great school and I enjoyed the experience.

It’s a super school with a lot of good people, and I

still have friends from Duke. I think my decision, most

of it had to do with my Father passing away right before

my senior year of high school. That was a bad deal, just

in the sense that I had two older brothers and two

younger brothers. The younger one’s were in high school.

And, my Mom was having a tough time with my Dad’s death,

and had my dad been living, I’d have known things were

okay back home. As it was, my Mom came out once, but I

was studying all the time or practicing. And I tried to

spend as much time as I could with her, but it was less

than optimal, which I felt bad about.

I just

wanted to go back closer to the family and brothers, and

I loved Nebraska, I think Nebraska people are super. So,

I think that was a big decision. Plus, at the time, and

hindsight is 20-20, but Duke was having a tough year. We

were 10-17, and I think 11-17 the next year, or

something like that. We had the #1 recruiting class in

the nation, but the student newspaper at Duke said,

“Coach K has had his time, that he was a great recruiter

but he couldn’t coach.” So, there was a lot of

instability at Duke.

And then

the Durham newspaper picked up on it, and said, “We

agree with it, we don ‘t think Coach K can coach, and we

think somebody else will take it to the next level.”

So at

the time, I thought maybe there was instability, and

Nebraska had Dave Hoppen as a freshman, and were going

to the Final 4 of the NIT. There was a lot of stability

there, and also, the upperclassman at Duke helped me

decide, because a lot of them were saying, “You ought to

transfer, this is not a good ship to be on.” And that

enhanced my decision a lot.

And, it

is what it is. In hindsight, I loved playing at

Nebraska, but I should have stayed at Duke. And I know

that, I saw Bilas at the Final 4 last year, and we

really had a nice chat, and you never know, they were

talking about that class my freshman year. And three

years later, had I stayed and been with them, I would

have gone to the Final 4 and been #1 in the country.

They beat Kansas in the Final 4 and played against

Lousiville, losing 72-69 in the finals. I heard it about

100 times from friends or fraternity brothers at Duke,

but when Mark Alarie said it, it hit home. He said, “If

we had you, we would have won the national

championship.”

We’ll

never know, but Alarie and several others have told me

that they wish I would have stayed. I actually saw Coach

K six weeks ago here in Dallas. George and Barbara Bush

were there, along with five best selling authors, and

one of them was Coach K. So, I saw his wife and

daughter, and I gave them all a big hug and just chatted

with them, and it was great to see them again.

He’s

created something very, very special there at Duke. He

invited me back to play and be a part of their 20-year

reunion for the class of 1986. He said, “You didn’t

graduate with that team, but you ought to come back and

be a part of it.” They’ve really created a Duke

basketball family, and a lot of places talk about it,

but they really do have something special and do it

there.

Having

said all that, at Nebraska I had some great years, and I

loved my time there.

HHC: And we’d like to delve into that now!

Your first season on the court at Nebraska was

1984-1985, and you guys finished 16-14, along with a

nice run in the NIT. Individually, would you agree that

the season was kind of a roller-coaster ride for you, as

far as starting strong and finishing strong?

BJ: Yes. It was a sophomore year for me,

and my redshirt year had been terrific, because I got

really strong. But that year was up and down for me

personally, and after it, I was really looking forward

to the last two year’s of playing. We had some nice

talented players to look forward to.

HHC: 1985-1986 was a memorable year in

Nebraska basketball history, as it marked the first

modern day NCAA Tournament appearance for the Huskers.

Before we talk about this, we’d like to get your

thoughts on the “illegal practice” that took place at

Mabel Lee Hall. What do you remember about it?

BJ: No comment. (Laughs)

HHC: Ahh, fine! (Laughs) Now, onto

brighter things. In that same season of 1985-1986, you

guys won 19 games, and made the NCAA Tournament for the

first time in school history. How rewarding was that

season for you, especially considering the adversity

that the team had to overcome with the Dave Hoppen

injury and Moe Iba job speculation? 

BJ: Unfortunately, that was the year I

didn’t play much. We were very happy as a team, and I

tried to do everything I could to help support the team.

But I played some at the beginning, and I came off the

bench there in mid-season, but then late in the year, I

just didn’t play at all. That was the same year people

were telling and screaming to put me in, and the more

they did, the less I played. So that was frustrating,

and it really tested me.

It was

kind of the middle of the road, as far as what am I made

of? There was never a doubt in my mind to quit or

anything, but the next year, when I played and we had a

great year, a lot of people said, “I’m glad you stuck in

there and hung with it.” But to me, it was part of it.

Hopefully you play a lot, but sometimes you don’t. And

if you don’t, you can only do the things you can

control. And that was one of the things I couldn’t

control.

I

respected him (Moe Iba) and his decision, but it was a

tough year, no doubt about it. And what made it really

difficult was that our team was doing well and I wasn’t

playing at all. At the same time, my class at Duke,

where I would have been a senior, was #1 at midseason,

and #1 the rest of the year, winning the ACC

Tournament. 

So all

that was very difficult, because a lot of people would

remind me of it. I loved Nebraska and liked the people

though, and I know that God had a purpose for it.

HHC: We talked

to Moe Iba awhile back, and he told us that he was

forced to resign by people not directly associated with

the basketball program. With this in mind, did his

resignation following the first-round tournament loss to

Western Kentucky surprise you, or were you guy’s kind of

expecting it?

BJ: He was forced out then, huh?

HHC: That’s what he told us!

BJ:

Wow… Well, I think we were surprised by his resignation

because he had taken the team the farthest it had ever

been. We make the big dance after high expectations, and

then they let the coach go. I think it shocked

everybody.

He’s a

good man, Moe is, and he knows basketball. His Dad was a

terrific coach and leader, and his Dad would show up at

practices periodically, and was a joy to be around. Moe

knew his basketball. A friend of mine from Duke was a

shooting coach in the NBA for awhile, and he used to be

Grant Hill’s shooting coach. But, he used to see Coach

Iba, who scouted for the (Detroit) Pistons for awhile,

and he’d always say how good of a man he was. And, I ran

into the Athletic Director from Texas Tech last night,

Gerald Myers, and we talked a little bit. We played

against them several times at Texas Tech, and he’s good

friends with Moe, and I know that all of the old coaches

have a lot of respect for him.

He did

things the right way, and was an honest guy who

recruited players the right away. It was unfortunate

that things happened that way, because we had just lost

that game in Charlotte, and he told us that it was his

last game, and that he wasn’t going to be coaching

anymore. It was just kind of a somber mood over the

team, you know? The season’s over, and it was just a

somber mood for everybody. And I know there was a lot of

uncertainty among the coaches, and it was just a tough

period.

HHC: Your

senior season of 1986-1987 was the first year of the

Danny Nee era. Before we talk about the season in depth,

talk to us about what the transition of coaches was

like. Was it difficult to change systems before your

last season?

BJ:

No, not at all. My motivation was that I wanted to play,

and whatever it took, I wanted to play. So, I worked

out, worked out some more and then ran and lifted. And

I’d go play in the playgrounds, and just keep playing. I

tried to do whatever it took to be out on the court,

because I knew what it was like to ride the pine and I

didn’t like that.

HHC: In your own words, describe what kind

of coach and man Danny Nee was?

BJ: Danny was fun; he opened up the game.

He was fun to play for, and such a motivational coach. I

think he knows his basketball, but he knows players and

how to motivate them even better than that. He tried to

individually motivate them by what made them tick.

He was a

very disciplined coach, although I know that things

changed later, but he was very disciplined at that time,

and we needed that. We’d come from this season of

disarray, and there was a lot of frustration in the

system. The fans were tired of 7 passes and shoot a bad

shot, and getting beat 45-40. They wanted to see

basketball. I think everyone felt constrained in the

system, because it was just too much of a noose. And as

a shooter, which I am and was, you’ve got to let

shooters just shoot the ball. You just do, you just pick

the best ones out and let them shoot.

I

remember we played UCLA my sophomore year in the NIT,

with Reggie Miller and all of those guys. And the score

was like 10-8, and I had 3 of our first 4 baskets, or

something like that. And I was 3 for 3, but I missed a

shot, and he took me out, and he never played me the

rest of the game. Period. And Danny Nee said just the

opposite. He’d say, “Jackman, you’re a shooter, so shoot

the ball. Then shoot again and shoot again. If you miss

it, so what?”

And that

kind of shocks you after you kind of get trained a

certain way, but that’s the way basketball should be

played. So, it was so much fun to play for him.

I

remember one of the first days of practice he told us

that we had to do things right both on the basketball

court and in the classroom. If you missed class, you’d

have to get up and run for an hour at 6 A.M. And 4 or 5

guys missed class, and they did in fact run for an hour,

and then we had to practice later that day. So, you

learn quickly not to miss class.

But what

happens is if you have a disciplined system, which Danny

did at the time, it rewards people for doing the right

thing. And we did a lot of things as a team. In the

summer, we all stayed in Lincoln, working in the

morning, and then in the afternoon we ran and lifted

together. We just did things together and got to know

each other. We had never done that before.

In

reality, we didn’t have that talented of a team. Sure,

we had some nice players, but we didn’t have a center on

that team. I’m not a center, I’m a natural 3. You had

very good players in (Brian) Carr, (Bernard) Day, and

then you had everybody else. Anthony Bailous was a

terrific athlete, Henry T. Buchanan, Derrick Vick, Joel

Sealer, Mike Martz, and everyone. We totally gelled as a

team.

So that

was really, really fun, but it was fun basketball, so

that’s not surprising. You get rewarded for the right

things. If it’s the fist pass and you shoot a good shot,

so what? If you make a bad pass, so what? We’ll stop

them on the defensive end. As a player, you want to be

motivated and rewarded, and really just mix it up. It

was just really a fun brand of basketball, so that

carries over into all the practices.

I know

they made a big deal out of practices and how

motivational they were, but they were just fun. In the

past, it was every man for himself, but when Danny came,

they put you on a line, and if one of the team members

missed a free throw shot at the end of practice, you

ran. If you hit both shots, you didn’t have to run, and

you could go back to the locker room. And I’ll tell you,

that last season, half the time, we’d stay until the

very end until the very last guy made his free throws.

Things

like that create so much togetherness and teamwork, and

not just from the guys who make their shots, but from

people who miss. They see that “Hey, we are in the fox

hole together, we’re charging together.” And trust me,

that meant a hell of a lot.

We went

to dinner together, we partied together, and that

carried over to the Beau Reid’s and guys like that who

carried that on for a little while. We had a fun year,

and we weren’t the most talented team, but we won some

games we shouldn’t have won because of hard work and

good coaching and a little bit of luck.

HHC: On the

court, 1986-1987 proved to be a huge success, as you

guys finished 21-12 and went deep into the NIT.

Individually, you led the team in rebounding, and were

selected to the Academic All-Big 8 team. Talk to us

about what you remember most of your senior season at

Nebraska?

BJ:

While at Nebraska, I built a lot of character, and have

lots of great memories, especially of that senior

season. It was classic, we went to New York, and this is

in the Holiday Tournament up in Rochester. And I think

it was Butler, Rochester, Nebraska, and somebody else

(San Francisco). And it wasn‘t a big tournament, but it

was Nebraska’s first win of a tournament, I think ever.

Or if not, in 40 years or something.

But just

the fact that we won, and the drinking age was 18, and

Coach Nee just bought us a case of beer. (Laughs) And he

was from New York, so he said, “You guys have to have

some Ale, because that’s what we drink here.” And we

told him that we wanted to party with the trophy.

I still

have pictures of Keith Neubert drinking out of this big

trophy. And Danny Nee came in and said, “That’s awesome

guys, rock on.” I told coach the trophy would be in the

case the next 100 years and never be touched again, but

tonight, we were partying with it. And he was totally

cool with it.

That

year was also great with the NIT trip to New York City,

which we really earned by beating Marquette, Washington,

and Arkansas. And we were just on such a high, and I

know that in the past, teams would go (to the NIT finals

in New York) and have a difficult time practicing and

hate the trip. But Coach Nee said, “Guys, you earned

this trip, so have fun, and practice isn‘t until

tomorrow.”

So we

had all day and all night to enjoy what we earned. And

what a thrill for him to coach at Madison Square Garden,

and for us players to play there. We didn’t do the

Hoosiers thing where they do the tape thing, but he

said, “Stop, and come here to center court. Look around,

there’s Bill Bradley’s banner, there’s Walt Frazier’s,

and there’s World Championships. I grew up here, and

this is the place guys, nothing is better than this. But

also, look at the baskets, they are both 10 feet. So

remember that it’s the garden, but its normal

basketball.”

So its

kind of what he did, saying it’s a special place, but

it’s not unlike the Devaney Sports Center. So things

like that made things fun and very memorable.

HHC: We were

going to ask for a Danny Nee story to add to our list,

but you’ve already done that for us! We love that guy.

BJ: Oh yeah, definitely, I liked Danny a

lot. And over the course of his career, and he and I

have talked about this, but I was sad to hear that the

discipline broke down. And I’ve been asked many times

what his issue was, and I don’t really know, but I had

heard about different players saying they were tired and

not practicing on that day, and it punishes other guys

for doing the right thing. And when the system breaks

down, all hell breaks loose, no matter how good of

players you have.

They had

some really nice players that wanted to play hard, but

just had some real bad apples on their teams. I wasn’t

there, but from what I hear, it sounds like they didn’t

manage those guys that well. They wanted to win so much

that the system broke down. The best programs make the

rising tides raise all ships and do the right thing, and

its unfortunate that happened there.

HHC: When was

the last time you talked to Danny?

BJ: We had a great conversation his last

year (1999-2000). I called him up, and hadn’t had a

heart to heart with him in a long time, so he and his

wife and I all went to dinner. I thanked him for the

discipline he instilled in us, because he was hard on

us, but he was caring, as opposed to being a tough guy

who didn’t give a crud about you. He would say, “Son, I

believe in you, that’s why I’m yelling at you, and

that’s why you’re going to run.” And that motivates you

to do more. My friends who have played with Coach K over

the years, that’s what they say they love about Coach K.

While you’re in the program, it’s very challenging,

because he’s always pushing you to maximize yourself as

a basketball player and person. And you appreciate

yourself more and more out of the program. He doesn’t

allow you to just get by. And he instills that in you

the four years that he has you, and it carries over.

But

besides that dinner I had with Danny, I also remember

one time speaking with him at a high school athletic

banquet. I spoke first, and he went second. And it was

really good to hear his motivational speech to

non-players. He just had a lot of wisdom and great

things to say, but what I liked most was, and it was

either Grand Island or Kearney, but somebody had dropped

me off, but I drove back with him to Lincoln.

I just

enjoyed talking about life with him that whole drive,

just as far as what he saw for me in my life and even

about his life. He was the one responsible for me in a

good way. He said, “Whatever you do, get a job outside

of Nebraska. I know you love Nebraska and love the

people here, but it would be to easy and comfortable for

you to stay here.” And I said, “But I want to stay

here.” And he said “But if you stay here, you don’t have

to be challenged, because people will recognize you, and

I don’t think they’d know who you are. You need to go to

a place where nobody knows you, and find out who you

are. You can always come back, but if you don’t leave

Nebraska, you’ll never leave. And when you’re older,

you’ll wish you would have, because when your 35 or 40,

you won’t have the opportunity to leave because of

golden handcuffs.”

When I

sat down with him and his wife at that dinner years

later, I was just thankful for that, and I told them

that, because while it was very challenging going to

places where I didn’t know anybody, it was character

building and just kind of helped me figure out who I was

and what life was about, and the direction I wanted to

go. And ultimately, it kind of led me to basketball

again, and it was my choice this time.

HHC: And

speaking of that, what has Bill Jackman been doing since

1987, and where is he at today?

BJ:

Well, in 1987 I moved to Texas and worked for a company

called Data Documents, which was an Omaha based company.

I worked for them one year in Austin, and two years in

Houston. And like I said, when I moved to Houston, I had

been tired of basketball, but I fell in love again with

basketball there. I started playing two and three times

a week. And there were some times in the summer where we

would have 17 or 18 NBA players and just me and another

guy. I was one of the guys who kind of ran the gym, and

it was such good basketball, because if you lost, you

might sit for two hours. So it was a very high level.

So I did

that, and then quit my job after a couple NBA players

said, “You are crazy for not playing anymore. If you hit

the right team at the right time, you have a chance to

play in the show.” So I played professionally for a

couple of years. I tried out with the Houston Rockets,

and then went to Mexico for six months, New Zealand for

six months, and tried out with the Omaha Racers. And, I

played in the Global Basketball League in Lousiville

Kentucky and Albany Georgia. I played in Columbia,

Venezuela, and kind of finished in Spain.

All in

all, I played with 18 teams in 3 years, but loved it. I

was single at the time, and just played all the time and

just stayed in shape. In Columbia, I saw guys who could

jump out of the gym that were terrific athletes, but I

knew I could score on them from playing in Houston, and

it made a difference. I scored 30 a game in New Zealand,

and sometimes 20 or 25 in Columbia. My goal when I was

playing was to go as far as I could and see as much of

the world as I could.

Like I

said, the NBA is just another level. In a perfect

situation, I could have made it, as a shooter and

scorer, but every team has their shooters and scorers,

so they weren’t going to call my number.

After

that, I was roughly 30, and went to a business school in

Chicago and got an MBA there. And was in school with two

of my younger brothers, and went to New York City and

worked at Goldman Sachs for just over ten years. And

then I’ve now opened a high net worth office of Morgan

Stanley. I’m married to a girl from England, Zoe, and

we’ve been married 11 years with 3 kids, and they are

all tall.

HHC: And are

they going to play at Nebraska?

BJ: (Laughs) Gonna try. I’m raising them

on the Huskers. I do still follow the team some, and I

have some friends that email me, plus I check out the

scores. And, I’ve met Coach Collier and think he’s a

great guy, and I want to wish him the best.

HHC: If we set you up an e-mail account at

[email protected] , would you be willing

to take some e-mails from the fans?

BJ:

Oh absolutely, I’d love that. I’m glad you guys are

doing this, because they need that mentality there of

developing a long term winner and legacy with a coach,

where you just have one guy there forever. We had it at

Duke, they have it at North Carolina, and they had it

there with Osborne.

But you

need former players coming back and being coaches in the

summer at camps, or talking to players before games in

the locker room, just the old recognizable alumni.

Utilize them and bring them together as a family, which

is something I don’t think they’ve done well there.

But if

they do things like that, and with recruiting, when they

recruit a kid, playing an away game just for him at

least once or twice during his career, it will help a

ton. Coach K scheduled a game at Colorado just for me,

Bilas got one out in California against UCLA where he

was from, etc. Just stuff like that, and I know they

can’t really do that until they start having a little

more success, but I really want to see them win and do

well, and I think this will help a lot, so I’m awfully

glad you’re doing this and to be a part of it.

HHC: Great. Thanks a lot for your time

Bill.

BJ:

Thanks again.<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">