Mid Massachusetts News

Kit Hughes:
Thank you everybody for being here. What a great day to be a Crusader. Before I get to introducing our guest of honor, there's certainly a few additional people I just wanted to take a moment to recognize. First off, I want to thank our players for their support and trust and communication throughout this process. I could not have asked for you to handle this any better than you have, and I'm so excited for what's next for each of you. We're all here for you, and I know that the best is yet to come for Crusader men's basketball.

I want to thank the coaches and athletic directors across the country who I had the opportunity to speak with over the last few weeks. Whether expressing interest in the position yourself or sharing support for someone else, I appreciated your time and enthusiasm for the position at Holy Cross. Throughout these conversations and our process in general, it was reinforced to me just how special and exciting an opportunity Holy Cross basketball represents in the basketball community. Thank you.

I want to thank all members of the Holy Cross alumni community who stepped forward to show your support of our program and our student athletes during these challenging times. As I've said before, this is your program, and I'm grateful and motivated to know that there's nothing we cannot accomplish here on Mount St. James when we work together. Your legacy and rich history and the rich history of Holy Cross basketball is exactly why this is such a highly sought-after position, and why there's such strong belief that this is a program that can, should and will win. That this is not just a good job, but a great job. I'd like to particularly recognize Lorn Davis of the Class of 1990 and Ron Perry of the Class of 1980 for their close counsel, participation and support in our process. You're both tremendous ambassadors for our program, and I'm so thankful for your support.

I'd like to thank the members of my team here on campus who assisted in the search process, most notably senior associate athletic director Nick Smith, whose work these last few weeks has been nothing short of superb. Thanks, Nick. Additionally, thanks to faculty athletic representative Sarah Petty, vice president for enrollment Cornell LeSane, as well as members of campus leadership for your time and support as we worked to identify the next leader of Crusader men's basketball. Particular thanks to President Rougeau here today for your support and belief in us through this process.

As I shared with many, this was not something where I was going to lock myself away and make a decision solely on my own. This hire called for a robust, competitive and inclusive process that leveraged the strength of our community to find the perfect fit for our program. We were going to do this consistent with our values and mission as an institution and truly work for and with each other. I'm so grateful for everyone's support.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Dave, Kathy, and their daughters Claire, Sara, and Molly for believing in Holy Cross, Crusader basketball, myself, and our leadership team at the college, that this is the best possible position for your family that aligns with your own family values, the best opportunity for Coach to resume what has already been a remarkable head coaching career. I'd also like to thank my family for their patience and understanding as I worked relentlessly through this process. I know I've been a bit distracted lately, but I'm always grateful for your love and support.

So why Dave Paulsen? As we began this process, we sought out to find the ideal leader based on a few very specific criteria that we felt important to a fresh start for our program. We prioritized head coach experience, a connection to our area and conference, as well as a deep understanding and appreciation of what makes Holy Cross special, a true belief in our mission as a college and the impact that basketball can have on our student-athletes and community.

I've been taught that often the best predictor of future success is indeed past success, and we looked for someone with a demonstrated track record of successfully building both championship programs and championship caliber people. Someone who understood that building a team and a program are two different things, and that our program would be built comprehensively with the support of many, both on and off campus. Someone who could build robust, genuine and lasting relationships with students, staff, faculty and our alumni, as well as the Worcester community.

This place has always been about people, about maximizing our strengths and about serving others. Our next leader needed to understand those things, and in all of these ways, Dave Paulsen distinguished himself. He not only met every criteria that we established, but he exceeded them. He's exactly what is needed in this moment in our history as a program, and I'm thrilled to welcome he and Kathy today to Worcester and to the Holy Cross campus. Crusader Nation, it's my distinct honor to introduce to you the 19th head coach in Holy Cross men's basketball history, Dave Paulsen.

Dave Paulsen:
Thank you. I'd like to thank, first of all, President Rougeau for the opportunity to join the Holy Cross community, to Kit Hughes, members of the search committee, the members of the alumni council, all the people I met during the interview process for this wonderful opportunity. I am overcome with excitement and emotion to have the chance to join the Holy Cross community. I want to thank Keith Urgo, head coach at Fordham, Ed Kull, director of athletics at Fordham, and the Fordham Community for two great years. In these past two years, I think I've learned and grown, and it was great to be back at a Jesuit community for those two years and really see how you can have excellence on the court, in the classroom at a place like Fordham, and very much what Holy Cross is all about. 

I'd like to thank my family, my daughters Claire, Sara and Molly. They have been scouring the internet, Twitter, to see where their dad was going to end up. I called Claire out of the blue. "Where are we moving to?" "No, Claire, it's not that. What did you put on my visa the other day?" But daughters of a coach, they've moved, they've seen the ups, they've seen the downs, and I'm very, very blessed to have three great daughters. 

I want to thank my wife Kathy. She's my best friend. She's been through all the ups and downs. There's no such thing as a weekend. There's no such thing as a night off. Signed the memorandum of understanding on Tuesday at 5:00, and I told her, "I'm leaving tomorrow at 6:00. I'm coming up to Holy Cross. I want to meet with each one of the guys." She's like, "Normal people actually have a little transition period before they take it." But she's my best friend, she's a great supporter. We are in the market for our 15th house in 31-plus years of marriage, and she hasn't hit the transfer portal yet. I'm shocked and really, really blessed.

Why Holy Cross? Kit and Nick and Kath and I just came from Bob Cousy's house. Like, are you kidding me? Bob Cousy? This is a program with so much tradition and heritage and success, and it's just an honor to be a part of that. National championships, Patriot League championships, NIT championships, and then student-athletes who leave Holy Cross and achieve at a ridiculously high level and go on to positions of leadership across the whole gamut. That's why I chose Holy Cross. Coaches, to be able to go on the George Blaney practice court and the success that he had.

My introduction to the Patriot League was R.J. Evans going off for 31 points against us. He's still got a picture he showed me when I walked into the office, but also Ralph Willard, maybe one of the best coaches. I remember my first year at Bucknell coaching against Holy Cross, and it was the very first time I ever felt like I was playing checkers and he was playing chess. But just such a legacy of great coaches and great teams and great players. I think Holy Cross has distinguished itself as a place that's about excellence, and we want our men's basketball program to have that same quest for excellence as what's going on in the chemistry labs or the econ classrooms.

That's what Holy Cross is about, and I believe in the Jesuit mission of education of the whole person, and I really believe that today, intercollegiate athletics is the ultimate experiential laboratory on this campus. I will have the best teaching atmosphere of anyone on this campus, because I get these guys for two, two and a half hours a day, six days a week, six months a year, for four years, and we're going to see their highest highs and lowest lows, and we've got teachable moments, and we want to win championships. Make no mistake about it. We want to win Patriot League championships. We want to be regionally relevant. We want to be nationally relevant, but it's a means to an end to a lifetime. The next 40 years, it's not just about the next four years.

To the guys on the team: you didn't choose me, but I chose you. And you have to understand, it's about Holy Cross, and I am committed to you guys. It was important to me. My wife said, "You really have to leave tomorrow at 6:30?" I'm like, "Yes, because before we do a press conference, before we do all the pomp and circumstance, I want to meet every single guy," and not just the surface, "Hey, how you doing?" but find out who you are. Okay? And that's my commitment. I chose you guys. We had a break. Nick scheduled me from 9:30 to 6:00. I asked if he was going to let me have a sandwich or anything in there and he said no. But I did sneak away for a minute. I called my wife midway through the day, and I said, "These are exactly the types of kids I want to coach," and I mean that.

Now, we're going to be about business when we get on the court. But to me, the ability to have a lifelong relationship with the student-athletes I coach, to push them. We're going to be pushed, okay? We're going to demand excellence. But to jump in your lives with two feet, not just about what's going on between the 94' by 50' on the court, but every aspect of your life, that's what we're about.

What does it mean to be a Holy Cross basketball player, and what's it going to mean to be a Holy Cross basketball player? For the fans, for the alumni, it's going to be about playing for the name on the front of the jersey every single day. It's going to be about playing with toughness and grit and resilience, and yet joy. Okay? Quite frankly, in some of the films I watched last year, you didn't see a lot of joy on the court, and we're going to restore the joy. We're going to restore the winning. But it's the best game in the world, all right?

And we're going to play with passion. We're going to play with energy. We're not going to win them all, okay? But we are going to be passionate about pursuing excellence. We're going to be a team that dives on the floor for more loose balls than anyone in the country. We're going to take more charges. We're going to play with a toughness and a resilience and an unselfishness, because that's what Holy Cross basketball has been, and that's what we're going to be about.

What does it mean to be a Holy Cross basketball player? I think it's critically important that Holy Cross basketball is completely enmeshed on this campus community. All right? And I think that that's something that we are going to refocus our efforts, to know that these guys will represent our team with unbelievable distinction on the court, in the classroom, supporting other teams in the Greater Worcester community. 

I am unbelievably excited to be the next coach here. I can promise, I want to welcome everyone. I want to welcome everyone to our practices. We will be visible, and we will be engaged on campus. And I told President Rougeau, I told Kit, my wife and I, we are excited to be back at a place where our family is completely enmeshed with this college community, so on campus, supporting other teams, supporting concerts and things like that. We want to be visible. We want our guys to be visible, want to engage. We've got a very, very passionate alumni community, a lot of unofficial assistant coaches, but we're looking forward to engaging with all of our alums and welcoming you back.

The passion, the energy, it's one of the things that makes this position really, really, really special, and we want to engage with the Greater Worcester community. This is a great area. My only interactions with Worcester prior to the last few days was driving up that hill, usually in a blizzard in February, playing a game and leaving right out the doors afterwards, but just having the chance to get around the community a little bit, it's a great, vibrant, thriving community, and we're excited to be a part of it. So a great time to be a Crusader, and thanks everyone very much.

Question: It's been nine years since the program has had a winning record. What's it going to take to change that, and how long is it going to take to change that?

Dave Paulsen:
Well, I think what it takes to change that is a simpler question to answer than how long, but I think if you concentrate on the right things, then the length of the time is a little bit shorter than some people think. I mentioned a little bit, we got to make certain that every single time our guys step on the court that the most important thing is that they're playing for the name on the front of the jersey, and that we're the most connected, cohesive group in the country, that we're playing for each other, we're playing for Holy Cross. And if you do that, that's the first step.

I think we have to be a team that prevents losing before you can try to attack winning. In my experience, in all sports, more games are lost than are won, by turnovers or poor decisions, or maybe not everyone being on the same page, or lack of attention to detail, or focusing on the scouting report. And I think if we can just really concentrate on being the best team in America at the things that require no talent. Be a team that doesn't turn the ball over, be a team that keeps the other team off the foul line. Hold teams to one shot and not give up second shots, get back in transition. Make sure we're taking good shots, the right shots.

We can't guarantee if we're going to knock down the shot or miss a shot. You can play great defense and somebody can get ridiculously hot, but if you concentrate on the things that you can control, then you can be a lot better. I think one of the biggest things for, all throughout history, but certainly today's generation of student-athletes is the ability to move on to the next play. They're going to hear this from me ad nauseam. Next play, next play. You're going to screw up, and it's so easy for today's student-athletes to dwell on the mistakes they made, or maybe celebrate the successes they had. We've got to really be able to bounce back to the next play. 

As a team went 7-11 in the Patriot League last year, and I think given the talent that's returning, it shouldn't be a seven-win team. It should be capable of winning more than that, just by focusing on the things we can control. Obviously, we've got some spots to fill for the upcoming season in terms of on our roster, and so we're already very, very aggressively in that process as well. But I expect to be competing for Patriot League championships in the very near future.

Question: How have the interactions been with the returning players, and do you envision the roster remaining intact?

Dave Paulsen:
The interactions, as I said, were phenomenal. These are really, really bright, articulate, dedicated young men. They're exactly the guys, the types of guys that I want to coach. You know, it was the first interaction, and it was the first thing to me – a little bit later, we're having our first team meeting – but I wanted to make sure the first introduction was just me one-on-one for 30 minutes with each guy. And really, we didn't talk about much basketball. It was more me getting to know who they were and what's important to them, and what they've liked and what they haven't liked, and just kind of hear from their perspective. And then this afternoon we'll have a team meeting, and then tomorrow we'll get on the court. 

And I think these guys know, when you play pick-up basketball with another guy, you find out the character of another player. That is the best indicator of who this other person is. He's selfish, he's unselfish, he knows how to play. And I think for us, the ability to get on the court and sweat together, and really for me to be able to understand what each guy can do, and for them to understand who I am and how I am as a coach, I think that'll begin the process.

So I think it's too early to know for sure in terms of what's going to happen, but I do know, in talking with these guys, they're committed to each other, and I think that they really feel connected to Holy Cross. And I think some of the experiences during this search process, in the ability to engage with some of the members of the men's basketball alumni community, I think a lot of these guys understand the special place that Holy Cross is, and the special place that Holy Cross basketball exists in this universe. But also the outcomes, not only for the next four weeks or four months, but for the next 40 years for these guys. It is a life altering experience, the opportunity to play and study at Holy Cross, and so I would hope and believe that we're going to see great continuity with the returning guys.

Question: Historically, the Hart Center has been a tough place for visiting teams to win, something that you mentioned with your Patriot League experience. Beyond just winning basketball games, what's the key to engaging that passion that we've seen in the past here in this building from fans and alums?

Dave Paulsen:
Well, practicing hard with great energy and passion every single day, that's a skill. Now, that has to be developed, and playing the right way is a skill that has to be developed. But I will tell our guys, if somebody goes in the Hart Center, and they sit in the top deck and they're not a fan of either team, who would they want to root for? Are you the type of team that they want to root for, where you're playing with passion, you're playing with energy, you're playing unselfishly, you're diving on the floor for loose balls, you're giving every ounce of effort that you have? Because if you're that type of team, then the fans are going to come back. Whether you win or lose, we want our team to be a type of team where somebody says, "That's a group of guys I want to root for."

And some days, you're going to end up on the short end of the score, but I think that's what you have to have. And we live in a world where sacrificing for others is hard. That's a skill, and that's something that doesn't come necessarily naturally. But when you see it, when you see a team that is fully connected and fully passionate, you want to root for that team.

I had the great privilege this year of being an assistant coach at Fordham. A place that was picked eleventh in the A-10, a school that really, to be honest with you, has been a bottom feeder in the Atlantic 10 for the longest time, finished tied for second, won 25 games, and galvanized the entire college community. When I was coaching at George Mason, we used to go to Fordham. We thought it would save time to have the fans introduce themselves to the starting five, because nobody was there. You couldn't get a seat in Rose Hill Gymnasium this year. And the students would literally line up for two hours beforehand and come.

And yes, we're winning, but you wanted to root for our guys, because I've never been around a group of guys that dove on the floor, played as hard, played with as much emotion. So I think when you do that, the winning takes care of itself, and the fan support and the excitement takes care of itself, and that's the goal. And we hope that that'll happen really, really quickly.

Question: How do you hope to see Worcester and the Worcester County community getting involved with the program, and what can you do to engage them?

Kit Hughes:
Well, I think us getting out and engaging with Worcester and the city and the surrounding area, that's what needs to happen first. And so I know that our guys have done quite a bit of service in some of our local schools and have already done a great job. They're great role models for the young people in the community, and so that's something we're looking to continue and certainly enhance moving forward. But just getting out and continuing to build relationships, critically important to what we're doing, and being out and being recognizable and accessible so that people know that this is a place where they're welcome to be, and they're wanted to be, but also just finding opportunities to serve.

And so whether that's getting with youth teams or leagues or the schools, like I said, our alumni community, there are so many different pockets that we can engage with. And so I think coming up with a real plan, especially starting up, it's conversations coach and I have already started having, and what that looks like moving forward and throughout the rest of this spring and beyond, I think that's something we're both really excited about. So I think that's key first, and then as he was saying, becoming the kind of team that people want to support. And as we do that, I think it's going to be a really exciting time for the program.

Question: How soon in the process did Dave emerge as the front-runner?

Kit Hughes:
Dave's track record, as I talked about earlier, jumped out immediately. It jumps out immediately. I mean, it's kind of undeniable success, and certainly somebody wanting to learn more about. And when we started to look at some of the criteria we had set out, said, "Absolutely, this is somebody we need to really dig in on and learn about." But as I told the guys at the beginning, I knew what I was looking for. I wanted to know what they were looking for. I knew what I was looking for, I wanted to know what our alumni, what they felt, and members of our community, so I could inform a lot of these conversations I was about to have based on these things.

And I wanted it to be an incredibly competitive process, because I think that we have, as I said, I think we have a great job, and I think that somebody that's willing to fight through a really competitive process to truly compete for something because they want it so badly, ultimately, picking that person, that's the kind of person people want to play for, and that's the kind of person people want to support.

And so, yes, Dave was somebody that we were looking at from the beginning, very early, and had a lot of belief in and excitement about, but we were committed to running a really thorough competitive process, and that's what we did. So at the end of it, he was still there, and still excited and engaged. And at that point it was clear that he kind of, as I said, had exceeded everything we were looking for. We couldn't have been more excited to agree to bring him here to Holy Cross.

Question: What is your vision for success at Holy Cross?

Dave Paulsen:
The first thing, the measure of success is that I have a relationship with these guys all the way through for the next 40 years. And some of the guys that I coached in my days at Williams, we stay in touch all the time on the phone, texts, the group threads, at their weddings, find out their job promotion or their children being born. And that, at the end of the day, that's why I do what I did, those relationships.

And so how I would measure success is a relationship that I have with these guys starting tomorrow, but also 30, 40, 50 years down the road. How I measure success is how close-knit these guys are for the next 40 years, and how they stay connected with their teammates, because there's nothing like what you get to do in collegiate athletics. The sacrifices they make are unparalleled, but the chance to be together and really be a team and bond and go through the ups and downs and just be so close, I just don't think it happens anywhere else.

To me, a reasonable expectation is every kid who plays four years for me here at Holy Cross should participate in at least one NCAA tournament. I think that is a very valid baseline expectation that with our tradition, with the academic excellence of this institution, with the unbelievable facilities that we have here, with our location in just a great footprint geographically to recruit talented student-athletes who fit at Holy Cross. Every kid, in my opinion, should play in least one NCAA tournament.

Now, that's a baseline. We want more than that. But I think that's a reasonable expectation for every guy, because that is a phenomenal experience. And I think that's one that every guy that plays for me, I want them to have that opportunity. 

Original source can be found here.