This podcast is being brought to you by WXAV.com. WXAV. Bringing the best artists to you. This segment of St.
Xavier Sports is presented by WXAV 88.3 FM Chicago and the Xavierite. My name is Mike Rankin and alongside me is athletics director and head coach of the SXU women's basketball team. Mr. Bob Holberg, coach.
Thank you so much for jumping on and taking the time to do this. I know your busy schedule. Pleasure it's always fun to talk basketball. Awesome.
We're gonna do that today. But first I got to set the stage because I am literally sitting across from basketball greatness. I'm gonna list out some accomplishments throughout your career, your illustrious career. This season specifically you've achieved your 1000th career win, which is just an incredible milestone for you.
And you're a Hall of Fame member of a variety of different outlets starting with your high school, Leo High School, as well as St. Xavier University right here, University of Illinois Chicago, the Chicago Catholic League, the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association, Chicago Land Sports, and as well as Chicago State University. As you've been coaching since 1966, started at Kennedy High School and coached for five years there with the men's basketball team, a sounding record of 93 and 16. So eventually you went throughout your career and landed here and started in 2000.
Now first, how has St. Xavier for you treated you throughout your time here and what qualities of the school made you feel comfortable enough to call it home? Well, as you recall, this is my second tenure here. I was the first men's basketball coach from 1971 to 1977 and having left here in 77 to go to Chicago State University and onto UIC.
I was approached by Dr. Steve Murphy when they built the Shannon Center about starting a women's basketball program and invited back in 2000 to do that. I can't believe how fast the 17 years have gone. But it's so much different than it was between 1977.
You could imagine how much a place changes in 2000 in those days. The faculty all knew each other, the staff knew each other. We all sat at the same cafeteria and we parted a lot in each other's house. Now there's no party going on because you don't know who the staff members are.
So it was a very small place at that time, but it always had the qualliness of friendliness, nice people that you worked with. You enjoyed each other's company. So aside from the coaching and athletic director aspect of the job, it just has always been to me a great place to work. You were in your 17th season as head coach of the wins basketball program.
It's kind of crazy to think about starting back in 2000 that you were actually the first coach in inaugural season for the women. What does that mean to you specifically now that you've turned them into a national powerhouse at this level? Well, we were fortunate that they were instantly successful. You know, with all freshmen and one transfer student on the team, we were able to win 22 games our first year.
So we've never had a losing season. We never can close to have a losing season. And in 17 years, never had a season where we won less than 20 ball games. During that time, we've become progressively better each year to where we've called, applied several times for national championship play.
We've dominated the conference in the CCAC for years. And by dominating, it doesn't necessarily mean first place every year. But if that first place, second place, some years, and I think the number one thing that I take pride of is consistency. We've been very good over the years, never had a bad season and been consistently productive regardless of the players.
You know, every time somebody graduates, they say, well, since Ava's going to be down, they'll go, they lost. They lost so and so, they lost more constraints. They're going to be down next year. They lost Mary Kay, they're going to be down next year.
I pride myself in the fact that I don't like being down. That's not a lot of fun. I just want to follow up on that. And that's a great point because you have to continue, especially in a college setting, this isn't the pros.
You can't sign a player for years. You have to continue the recruiting process. How is that process for you? What do you look for in a specific player to call them a Cougar?
Well, I think the number one thing is you have to be good at identifying talent because in Chicago, everybody comes into recruit. So the number one thing that you face is all the division one scholarships that are offered as well as several division two scholarships that are offered. And you sometimes have to find a diamond in the rough that for some reason was overlooked. You know, DePaul or you, I see your Layola or Northern Illinois thought she was too slow, too small.
Not aggressive enough, couldn't play defense well enough. And you've got to look to all of that and find the strengths of that player and capitalize on that strength. The important thing is being able to go out and find somebody that's very good. Yet the other schools seem to be missing the boat on it.
Nobody recognizes that. And then you didn't hear it capitalizing on their strengths in order to continue to develop a good program. Right. Managing personalities.
That's a huge thing for a head coach. What are the challenges specifically in that that makes you so relatable, that makes you so personable. And as a coach, you send a message to your team. How do you relate to your players in that sense and manage their personalities?
Well, excuse me, there's no doubt in my mind in this day and age. The number one thing a coach has to be as a good communicator, you know, the days of when I started out to try to tell a player, I'm the coach and that's the way it is. And that's the way it is because I said so that style of coaching is no longer acceptable. You have to sit in your office with a player and be very good at communicating.
You got to know the differences in your players, the different personalities in your players, what motivates a player, what demotivates a player, and how to treat them all. And it's extremely important that you treat your players all well off the court. The problem that you have in coaching sometimes is trying to get them all into a basketball game. You can't get 13 girls into the game each night.
That doesn't mean they don't all get the same ice cream cone at the end of practice, you know. So being able to have them realize that even though you didn't put them in a new game, you still care about them as a person, you care about as a student, you know, one of the things I'm proudest of is every girl in our program is graduated. You know, we got to have one in 17 years that didn't graduate. You know, we wanted to transfer for various reasons, but anybody that stayed here have all come back to the degree and become very successful.
That's a great point talking about the incentive of the player to take care of the schoolwork. Obviously, that is the most important. You're here. It's a privilege to play basketball at St.
Xavier University, but obviously school is the most important. So I love that point. I want to kind of bounce back off of that because you talked about that's a specific challenge, right? It's getting 13 players to play.
What other challenges has presented themselves over the course of your coaching career? Is it like relationships with boosters, maybe relationships with players, even parents regarding playing time, anything that stands out in your mind is a challenge as a coach? Well, I think it's always a challenge to be honest with you. Sometimes dealing with parents, we have to understand if you've done this a long time, people, parents come to game to see their children play, you know, whether it's basketball, baseball or football, they show up at the game in order to see their child get into the game and hopefully do something positive.
The biggest challenge in coaching sometimes is you can't always keep the family happy. It's up to you to make the pizza taste well that night when they go out to dinner after the game or their discussion will be, you know, how come the coach didn't put you in, etc. So it's been very challenging over the years to know that you're dealing with the mom and dad's most precious commodity and that's the child. Nothing is more important than the child.
I said to a parent one time, I understand you love your daughter. I love all 13 of them. I've got 13 people each night looking for happiness out of me. So that's become very challenging because the moms and dads now with days invest a lot of money in their children when they're coming up in sports.
They put them in camps and club teams and whether it's basketball or gymnastics, they're hoping that the ultimate payoff someday is a college scholarship in basketball. Only about 2% of the people that ever play basketball starting to grammar school go on and win a college scholarship. So because of that, they always get to college and they say, well, we're all the same now. They're all equal.
They're all good. They should all be playing the same amount of minutes and you just can't do that as a coach. And as a result, keeping people happy is one of the occupational hazards of the job of coaching. Let's shift the focus now to strictly this season.
The women are currently ranked third in the country and own an 18 and two record and have a lot of aspirations to make their way to the national tournament and even make a run at the championship. What are the strengths of this team that make them that good? Well, you mentioned 17 years. It's very difficult in women's basketball, to find players who play both the offensive and the defensive end.
Many times particularly in the women's game, you've got to remember a coachman for 30 years. In the women's game, you sometimes find a girl that can play offense but can't play defense. Many times, I shouldn't say sometimes. You sometimes find very good defensive players that can't shoot and play offense.
The strength of our team this year has been the ability to put five people on the floor at a time. They can all score and play defense and make good decisions with the basketball. Another thing in women's basketball, which coaches deal with a lot is the turnover. Taking the ball and just throwing it to the other team making bad decisions with them.
I think I would say offensively, defensively and fundamentally, we're just more sound with five at a time. A lot of times, a coach has to hide a defensive player somewhere. Well, she can't play defense, so we've got to put her on the worst offensive player on the other team. We've been kind of blessed this year that I can throw five out there at the time that all will play both into the floor for me.
Now, you talk about your starting five. Now, two of them are freshmen. What can you tell me about the two freshmen in particular, Maddy Welter, as well as Chanel Fanta and their influence on what you want to do in rotation offensively as well as defensively? Well, I think they're the keys to the team because as freshmen, it's very hard to repeat myself again and get players that play both into the floor.
So, most of me, I'd mention that all came around high school as very good offensive players. Even I didn't know how good defensively they're going to be. And there's no loafing out there at practice. The two of them play very hard, and that's what blends in with Cara and Michaela and Brittany.
My returning starters who already had the offensive intensity and the defensive intensity. And now I bring it to freshman, I throw right out there, and the two of them have just blended in very well because they play extremely hard at practice during the course of a ballgame. Now, you mentioned the big three of sorts. Michaela and Cara, Kreliki and Brittany Collins, they've been so productive on various aspects of their game this season.
Talk about Cara, Kreliki. What is it about the first team all-American that makes her so valuable to this Cougars team? I think the big thing with Cara is sometimes women's basketball, you deal with a confidence level. The guys that I coached, I thought they were Michael Jordan.
You don't have that same high confidence level, which makes Cara so valuable. She has an extremely high confidence level of herself as a basketball player. She doesn't get intimidated by people getting up in her face or putting two people out in the garter. She believes that every night she's going to go out and get her 20 to 25 points.
And when you've got that confidence level and you don't have to doubt yourself, I hope I play well tonight. I hope I have a good game tonight. When you're hoping bad things usually happen. When Cara and her confidence level go, I know I'm going to get my 20 to 25 tonight.
And she has no guilty conscience. She's got a shooters mentality. You know, sometimes you've got to watch the shot that she takes in occasionally, but you don't want to take that confidence level away from her. So she's more probably one of the most confident female basketball players I've coached here.
A couple more questions and I'll get you out of here, Coach. Thank you again for taking the time to do this. I consider Michael Aladdin sort of the rock of this group. I mean, she does so many things well defensively.
She's usually guarding one of the other team's top offensive scores. She also runs the floor well and she can play various different positions defensively. What kind of expectations do you have for her specifically this year? Well, you're right.
She is the included of the team. Somebody asked me one time in one word, describe Michael Aladdin and my word was tough. She's just tough, you know. She does everything well.
She rebounds almost like a big forward. She triggers the fast break off the rebound. She can go inside. She can go outside of the tree.
She plays good defense. She's in very good shape and runs the floor. We only got one senior around the team this year and you don't want to look forward to next year, but she's going to be one starting senior. I should say she's going to be extremely tough to replace because she's so versatile.
You can count on her for so many different aspects and she's almost unstoppable going to the basket. Final question for you. And you brought up the seniors. They're five this year.
What has been the leadership like? I think the basketball term chemistry and combinations are sometimes misused. A lot of times chemistry, they talk about you're on the court chemistry. I think chemistry is something that happens off the court.
It happens in the dorm. It happens in lunchtime. It happens in the pizza parlor. That's where we develop chemistry.
The thing that we have aside from the talent of our team this year is we have 13 nice players. I don't mean nice by talent. That'd be just nice individuals. People are easy to coach.
People who like each other as teammates. People who cheer for each other. And my seniors, the ones that haven't played a lot this year have done a great job of just supporting their teammates. It's hard when you're a senior to come in and find a freshman in your spot.
You put in four years into the program. But I don't go by what you're there in. I go by how they look at practice. And our freshmen have really opened up their arms to the, I mean, our seniors to the freshmen.
And that's really helped us create good team chemistry. Under Coach Holberg, the women's basketball program has a record of 433 and 117. It's a winning percentage of 0.787. And it made the national tournament in each of the last 14 seasons.
Cougars are a model program known throughout the country, the Division II NAI level. That is doing large part to the man sitting across from me. Coach, thank you very much for taking the time to do this. It's always a pleasure seeing you.
And good luck the rest of the way. I appreciate it though. Every coach will enjoy the opportunity to talk some basketball. So we'll do it again.
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