If Hoya fans around D.C. are looking for some ways to ring in the New Year with more college basketball, Hoya Hoops has an excellent option. Get tickets to see the University of Maryland host Savannah State on Wednesday, January 2. Why? Because former Hoya Horace Broadnax is the Head Coach of the Tigers. Broadnax was a very good shooter for Georgetown and a member of the 1984 National Championship team. He’s in a totally different environment as a coach; Savannah State is an independent college with no conference affiliation and therefore no automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. We had a chance to speak with Horace about life at Savannah State and of course the old days on the hilltop.

Hoya Hoops: What are some of the challenges you face at Savannah State since the school is an independent team without a conference?

Horace Broadnax: Without a conference it doesn’t allow you to establish rivalries. At the same time, recruiting battles go on with teams that are in conferences, and basically they say, “Hey man, at the end of the year this program is not going to have an opportunity to win three games and go to the NCAA playoffs.” From a recruiting standpoint that’s tough because most kids want to at least go to a program where if they’re doing bad, at least at the end of the year they get the feeling of getting an opportunity to dance in the NCAAs if they win three games. Also, as the season progresses, guys don’t have something to play for. It’s kind of tough to motivate guys toward the last six or seven games because they know there’s really nothing to play for except for personal pride and trying to better the record.

HH: For most small schools the goal is the become conference champions, what are some of the things you and your players are looking to accomplish?

HB: If we can get better and better and keep working, maybe not this year, maybe next year as some of these guys get older, we’ll try to get above .500, get 20 [wins], and you might get an at-large NIT bid. That’s kind of down the road, but things need to be in place, guys need to continue to work hard. It’s kind of like Knute Rockne speeches with these guys, try to get them to transfer the things that they learned in basketball to life, because they’re not going to be playing basketball all their life.

HH: You haven’t shied away from tough competition - your schedule includes 7 games against teams from the big 6 conferences. What’s the value of those games?

HB: It’s a necessary evil. Here at Savannah State and a lot of smaller colleges where the bigger colleges pay the guaranteed games, it’s an opportunity to offset some of the costs of running the athletic department. But, I tell my guys, “If you play well during these games - over a four year period you’re probably going to play anywhere from 25-30 of these games - if you play well in these games, you’re going to have an opportunity to play at the next level whether it’s the CBA, NBA or overseas.” I think if we prepare for these games all the time, then we should be able to take care of everybody else that we play. It’s tiring for these guys because it’s a lot of games. We went to Nebraska and got hit upside the head, we went to Wisconsin and got hit upside the head, so it wears on these guys psychologically and physically, so hopefully we can scale back on some of these games.

 

That’s all there is for today. Check back on Monday for Part II of the interview where Coach Broadnax talks about his upcoming game against Maryland and about the 1984 Championship team.