[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello, welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications.
Thank you for listening. We always appreciate your time. Our guest today is former Shocker basketball player Matt Breyer. Matt was hired as basketball coach at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Am I pronouncing that right, Matt?
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Yes, you are. Yep.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Nacogdoches, Texas. That's a good name for a city. He was hired in March. Matt spent the previous two seasons as an assistant at Texas Tech under Grant McCasland. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wichita State under coach Greg Marshall. Matt also worked for Mark Turgeon, video coordinator at Maryland and as an assistant for former Shocker assistant or Earl Grant, College of Charleston. Matt played for the Shockers from 2004 to 2008. That put him on the 2006 NCAA tournament team. Played on the NIT in 2005. Started at guard for three seasons. Averaged a career high 12 points as a senior. Led the Shockers in assists in 2007. He was a regular on the athletic director's honor roll and ranks among WSU career leaders in three pointers and assists. Matt, describe Stephen F. Austin and why that was the job you week.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Well, it's a great job. It's, you know, it's, it's got an unbelievable facilities.
The investment in athletics and in basketball in particular is for the Southland Conference. It is, it's at the top.
You know, the alignment between the president, the athletic director, they all match. I've been, I've been at places that have, have had that similar alignment and we've always had success.
So I thought that was really important, you know, in looking for a head coaching position. And I love Texas and it's obviously where I'm from. It's my home state and I just really like the people.
People out here in nac, in East Texas are tremendous people. Very similar to, to the people out in West Texas and Lubbock, which I really enjoyed my two years out there as well. So just a great opportunity.
Have, have had a ton of success here.
NCAA tournaments, NCAA tournament wins. They've done it all. It's been done. The, the support here is incredible. And, and it was really a no brainer once, once I was given the opportunity.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, let's go through that. I looked. SFA had 18 straight winning seasons before last season, five NCAA appearances, two in the NIT. In that span, people will recognize Brad Underwood's name. He coached at Oklahoma State and out Illinois. He was coach there for Three seasons, won NCAA tournament games.
What makes SFA such a good basketball job? Location.
You talked about the commitment. Give us a thumbnail version of why there's been success.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're centrally located to Dallas, Houston, Louisiana. You can kind of get to a lot of different areas.
It's a brand right now because of the success, but it definitely doesn't happen without commitment, without a fan base.
The support, not only financially from an investment standpoint, but also just the support from the community is what the players enjoy the most. And that's why when you get them here and you get them on visits, you can really sell that aspect to them because that's really what they're looking for other than a good program with good facilities and good coaches and all that. They want, they want people in the gym, they want, you know, community supporting them. And that's what we have here.
Hi, this is Rick Muema, president of Wichita State University.
Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University.
Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: So I learned that all freshmen coming into Stephen F. Austin get their own axe handle and, and they can decorate that, take it to football games, bang on the seats, which is a pretty good, it's a pretty good souvenir.
What's the 32nd recruiting pitch?
Why should a guy come to Stephen F. Austin and play basketball?
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the facilities, you know, when you come in here, It's a Big 12 practice facility.
We've got everything that you need within. It's a one stop shop here.
We've had great success. People want to play in the NCAA tournament. So come here.
We're going to have, we're going to, we're going to have the best job in our conference and we're going to be able to put the talent out there that I think will give us a chance to win the, the league and, and ultimately, you know, what everybody's dream is, is to play in the NCAA Tournament. And the success that we've had in the past shows that this is a place where you can do it and just got to sign up and, and show up.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Your arena is nicknamed the Sawmill. Stephen F. Austin really leans into all the lumberjack stuff.
Describe the Sawmill.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's a 7,000 seat arena. It's a bowl shaped, it's all one level. So there's the staircase, there's no, you know, second level, there's no concourse. And then Something above it, an upper deck, I should say.
So the concourse runs around it at the top.
It's very similar.
San Diego State, even though it's not necessarily as big as San Diego State. It's the similar. Where the. It's just one level, concourses on the top, but it's the. The seats are right on top of you.
Very similar to Coke arena, where on the baselines. Those seats are right there. It's very similar and it's a great home. It's a great home court advantage.
When I was at Sam Houston for those three years, we came here every year and There was minimum 4,500, 5,000 people here. There was 7,000 on senior night my last year.
And it's a. It's a place that can get really loud, the ceiling's low.
It's a. It's a great. It's a great place. As long as you can fill it up. It's a great home court advantage.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Here's some Lumberjacks trivia for you, which you're the second Stephen F. Austin coach that has a connection to Wichita State. Do you know who the first one was?
[00:07:03] Speaker B: I actually do because I actually met with his son. His name's Harry Miller.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: There you go. Okay, very good. Yeah. Harry Miller coached Stephen F. Austin from 84 to 88. That was when they were making the transition from Division 2 to Division 1. He had some success, went to the NIT one year. Harry Miller coached the Shockers from 71 to 78. Took him to the NCAA tournament during that. Okay, so you're up on that. Very good.
You have two starters back. Keon Thompson and. Am I pronouncing this right? Chrishawn Christmas.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Okay, for all the Lumberjack fans who are tuning into this, tell us, describe the, Describe the team. What do you got going on this this season?
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so we're able to bring back two guys.
Keon's point guard, Cece Chrisean. He's a. He's kind of a four man, a little undersized, but. But he's physical, athletic, plays hard, always won everywhere. He's been great kid, coachable. Keon is really talented athletically.
He's big, strong and physical.
You know, shoot is shooting the ball better this summer than he has in the past.
He's going to have a big year for us, cc. Have a good year for us as well. And, you know, we've got. We had to sign, we signed 13 new players, so we have a roster of 15.
So we, you know, we got right to work in The. In the recruiting, you know, transfer portal, the junior college ranks. We did sign a couple high school kids as well. And I really like our mixture of youth and experience.
You know, we're not the. We're not the tallest team or the most physically imposing team at the five position, but what we do have there is we have guys that can really move and run and are athletic and that our guards are all very physical, stocky, you know, strong guards. I mean, it's probably the.
I would say probably one of the most physical guard units that I've coached in my career, spanning all the way back to Wichita State. So, you know, it's an interesting. It's a different group. We have. We have a little bit of every way we can play. We could play small, we could play a little bigger. We can put a ton of shooting out there as well.
So I'm excited about our group. I think we've got a chance to be really good.
Are we there yet? Absolutely not. But, you know, I think the. The mindset is right. I think the summer was really good for us.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: I'm sure every coach is searching for how do I speed up the process of chemistry and team building. I'm looking at 10, 11, 12 new faces.
What have you landed on? How do you. To kind of speed this process up?
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I think being around each other is most important. Putting them in situations where they can be good teammates to each other, right, where maybe they have to go through something hard together in practice or maybe they can, you know, speak about something in their life that they've gone through where everybody on the. In the team, you know, that's a part of this program gets to hear that. And so there's a. There becomes a little bit of a def. Different connectivity because you understand where they're coming from and what they've been through.
So we've done some. Some of that stuff. We went, you know, the typical team building stuff. Went bowling. We did take our team out to the baseball field, which was.
Which was a lot of fun. Hit, hit off the. Hit off the pitching machine and had a competition with it. So that. That was a good time. And you know, we'll do all the typical stuff. The team retreats. We'll. We'll do all that in the fall. But I think just being around each other, being genuine, being, you know, when you're together, like put the phones away, you know, talk.
We're big on that. You know, we're. The phones are. When we eat team dinners, the phones are not. Not with us. So, you know, you gotta, you gotta be able to speak to people, you gotta understand people and, and know where they've been and know, know what they're, you know, trying to get to ultimately with their dreams.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: The no phone thing, that seems like a smart idea.
Wichita State fans got a good look at North Texas in recent years. So we know Grant McCaslin, Ross Hodge, those guys can really coach some defense.
Describe their defensive philosophy and how you bring. What parts of that will you bring to Stephen F. Austin?
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I think most importantly, you know, just the accountability defensively, the structure, the solid foundation of what defense looks like. I think that's going to be the most important thing that people see.
You know, we're not going to be out there gambling and giving up layups. We're not going to be, you know, hopefully not going to be doing anything silly and, you know, and just giving up wide open threes. The guys that are, that are good shooters, like, we'll be, we'll be very scout heavy, but we'll have a base defense that'll be physical, but it'll also be very solid and try to make people work to get good shots.
I feel like when in college basketball especially, the more you make people work for good shots, you know, the more it wears them down to not only turn the ball over, but they get frustrated and then they, they take early shots, they take bad shots, and you know, I think that, that defensively will be a huge deal and then ultimately you got to rebound the ball. And so we've always been a really good defensive rebounding team.
So defensively, if you're talking on that end of the floor, you got to finish it, got to finish the possession with, with a rebound. And, and then that ignites, you know, your transition offense and your ability to go score on the other end.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Take us into your first team meeting as head coach. What did you say? How did you prepare? That feels like a, feels like a big moment. Did you have some words of wisdom? How did you get things started there?
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I try not to overhype any of it because, you know, like, I'm just, I try to tell people I'm who I am and, and I'm not necessarily trying to be anybody. I'm not, you know, I feel like working for Coach Mack the last seven years, the last two especially because, you know, Ross, Ross Hodge took the North Texas job.
I was given a lot of freedom to, to do a lot coaching wise. And so, you know, not that I led the meetings, not that I did But I was able to really stand in front of the room and talk and, and you know, show film or scouting reports and just do a lot of stuff on the day to day basis. And so I felt like it really prepared me for, you know, stepping in front of the room for the first time where I'm the one calling the shots per se.
So, you know, just really telling them what I think is important for our program. And ultimately that's accountability.
You know, that's being a good teammate, it's being coachable and then owning up to your mistakes. Like, look, nobody's perfect, but if you've got, if you're going to make excuses, then it's not going to work. And so just own up to your mistakes. Let's move on from them, let's learn from them, let's get better.
And then, you know, at the end of the day, let's, let's have fun. And ultimately that's all everybody wants to have fun. But most of the time you only have fun in sports and athletics when you're winning. So let's, let's all these things are going to help us win and that'll help us, you know, have fun.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: So people have the timeline correct. So Grant McCaslin was coach at North Texas then he moved to Texas Tech two years ago. Ross Hodge was his assistant, took over at North Texas the past two seasons. He's now at West Virginia. And Ross Hodge coached former Shocker Ramon Clemente in junior. I like to, like to remind people about that. What do you think the biggest difference will be? Moving over that one seat from assistant coach to head coach?
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I think just the, every, every decision, you know, within a game, within practice, you know, meeting with administrator, just, just all the things that come with, with being a head coach and those responsibilities, you know, are definitely different. But honestly, I think the biggest change and the biggest thing for me that, that maybe I underestimated a little bit, but it's, it's normal now is just how many people want my time and you know, how many people want to talk or, you know, want to get lunch or meet or. Which is great because that means we have great, you know, support here and people that care and that's, that's really important to me. And I wanted a place like that.
I've been at places where they don't necessarily care as much about basketball and I don't, I don't, I didn't enjoy that as much. So that's probably been the biggest adjustment, you know. And then obviously once the season starts, you know, just handling adversity as a head coach will be new.
I'm not going to sit here and say it's. It's not going to be new. It'll be new, and, you know, we'll figure that out. But I'm hopefully I'm able to keep myself grounded by having a good staff.
Feel like we put together a really, really good staff. And then ultimately, like, I'm able to go home and. And I've got a really good support system with my wife and then my two kids. Man, they're. They're. They keep. They don't care if we win or lose. So when I go home, I better be. I better be dad, whether we. We win or lose that day. So I think. I think I've got a good support system to be able to handle that stuff, but that'll definitely be my biggest challenge.
You know, when I look in the mirror, it's like, okay, how are we going to handle success? How are we going to handle failure?
Especially for me as an individual.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Here's my first Matt Brier trivia question. In which statistical category did you lead the Missouri Valley Conference in Not once, but twice.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Not once, but twice.
I am going to go with.
Man, that's a good one.
Is it just conference?
[00:17:16] Speaker A: No, I think it was all games.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: All games?
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah. But you were tops in the Valley.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Okay, I'm gonna go.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: Yes. I can't be 100 sure of that. It did not indicate that in the record book. It said led the Valley in this statistical category. I'm assuming it was all games, but could just be the 18 Valley Games.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Man, I did it once, but not twice. But twice, huh? Wow. That's a good question. I'm gonna say.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Three point percentage, assist to turnover ratio.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: And that was. You know what that was. I was actually gonna say it, but I. But I thought I only had 2 to 1 twice, so maybe that was good enough.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: I guess as a point guard, that. That should have been first on your mind. 06 and 07.
Then this gets even better. Who are the other Shockers to do that more than once? They've been tracking this since 97. Three shockers have led their conference in assist to turnover ratio more than once. You and two others.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Fred Van Vliet.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Correct?
[00:18:17] Speaker B: You said me and two others.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Yes, you, Fred. And then we're looking for one more. He's probably not a guy that people think of as a. As a point guard. He played a lot of point guard, but not only point guard.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Okay. The only Other one I could think of. It wasn't on the same team though. Correct.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: No. Well, he and Fred were teammates for one year.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Okay. Was it Clevin Hannah?
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Nope. Clevin was before. Yeah, Would have been before Fred. That was, That's a good guess.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: They were teammates for one year.
Is it the, the point guard from Oregon?
[00:18:57] Speaker A: No. Malcolm Armstead? No.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Mark Malcolm? Yes.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
Landry Shamit.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah, I would not have guessed that.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's three, that's three really good shocker names. Fred Van Vliet, Matt Breyer and Landry Shammit led their conferences in assist to turnover ratio. Okay. Your father, Ed, coached at Belton High School in Texas. You mentioned that. Yeah. Growing up in a basketball family, did this just make coaching your career choice? Pretty much from a young, young age, Yeah.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: I think if you go look at my back back. I don't know if they still do yearbooks in high school, but when we did yearbooks back in, in high school and you know, it was, they would always ask you the questions and people would answer, what do you want to be when you grow up? And it was from when I was a middle schooler. I wanted to be a co, A basketball coach, but I actually wanted to be a basketball coach and a teacher, which is hilarious because I don't know what subject I would teach maybe other than math. I do like math. I, I, I don't like calculus or pre calculus, that type stuff. But I do enjoy numbers and, and analytics to a certain degree.
So I would top math, but I would not have thought I would have taught, coached in college when I was that age. But as I got older and when I got into, you know, got out to Wichita State, I realized that that definitely wanted to be a college coach. And so coaching has been in my blood from the very beginning. And I've always wanted to be a coach from, you know, when I was old enough to know exactly what I felt like I wanted to do.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: So you played for two successful coaches at Wichita State. Were you keeping a notebook? Were you filing away things mentally? How did you kind of benefit and take from what you learned during your time here as, I guess as a player and as a GA and, and apply that going forward?
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think just mental notes, you know, more than anything. I'm not, I was never a good like school note taker. I've gotten better at it as I've gotten older, becoming more organized, but definitely taking mental notes, you know. And I, and I said this, I think in my press Conference man. I've really worked for, played for and worked for, like, really, really good coaches.
And there's some things like that I've noticed. Hey, you know what? Maybe I wouldn't do it this way, right? Or maybe I would do it a different way.
But there's a lot of things that ultimately, the biggest reason, if you asked our athletic director, Michael McBroom, why I was hired or a big reason, you know, he. He thought that was the. I was. The guy was because I've never had a losing record as a coach. And so it's one of those where I've been around, and it's not because of me. It's because of the people I've worked for. And I've been around a lot of winning programs, and I know what that looks like now. It's just. Now it's my job to put together the staff, put together a roster of character and all those things to, to. To then, you know, take everything that I've learned that helps a winning program and that they all look the same to a certain degree. And so I got to go in there and I got to. I got to go in and. And do what I know is going to help us win and. And do that every day. I can't skip any days. I can't skip any steps. And so I think that's. That's something that I probably took more than anything.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Texas Tech played Drake in the NCAA tournament last season. Here in Wichita downtown Interest Bank Arena. I'm Fascinated by Ben McCollum. Just been crazy successful at Northwest Missouri State and then at his one season at Drake. He's now at Iowa.
What did you learn about Ben McCollum and what makes him successful? Preparing for that game.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Really smart.
He.
His players knew exactly what they wanted, what they needed to do, and they knew their roles to a T. There was no. You never saw somebody trying to do something they couldn't do.
And I think that's really important nowadays because everybody wants to be, you know, maybe something they're not on the basketball floor because of people telling them they need to do this to get to the NBA or need to do this to make money. Like, if you can get your guys to just do what they do best and do that all the time, then I think you have a really successful team. And that's one thing that I really noticed, just watching them offensively especially just really solid, worked to get great shots.
They knew who needed the ball in their hands late in games, not a ton of set plays. And like A bunch of really hard actions to guard. They just knew exactly how to play. They had great iq, they moved the ball, and then they had obviously good players that could go make plays at the end of the games when they needed it to.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: It's a great, great description. I was at the game when they played Missouri, and you could just tell how they picked them apart, that they just knew exactly what to do and made all the right adjustments. It was really fun to watch them kind of. I watched them on tv, but it was fun to watch them watch them from the arena. Definitely.
You played in an era where there were transfers. You know, that 06 Sweet 16 team. Cameron Bradley transferred, Kyle Wilson transferred. Not as common as they are today.
How are you adjusting to this, this change in, in college basketball?
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, I think just it is what it is. And, you know, I think some of it's good, some of it's bad, but I'm certainly the, the one thing I'm not going to do is complain about it because I think if you're sitting there complaining about, you're wasting time and it's not going to change. Right? So just go out there, figure out who fits your roster the best.
Figure out who fits me personally as a head coach, and, you know, look, just treat people with respect, coach them hard, because you got it. You have to coach them and you have to get them better. And you, you hope the guys you bring in you vetted their character enough and their basketball character enough that they can handle the coaching and they all want the structure and want to get better and all the things that, you know, help build a successful program.
But ultimately, like, at the end of the day, if you treat them the right way and you're having success and you're winning the support financially is here to, to do what we need to do. And, and, you know, most importantly, you got to retain. You got to retain your players that are good players that you can keep to build a program. And some guys you're going to lose. That's just part of it.
You know, I'm not naive to that fact, but I'm not going to sit here scared of it either.
You know, it's. Look, if we can help somebody and they get to the point where they need to go play at the highest level, then go play at the highest level and then we'll get the next guy to do the same. And I'm not, I'm not shying away from that fact, but I also want to build a program, and I don't want. Just want, you know, one guys for one year and leaving every year. So it is important to me for retention purposes that we build this thing the right way and, and ultimately, you know, it's just part of the deal and, you know, you can use it to your advantage. You know, I think I said this to somebody else. I mean, back when I played, it was very hard to take over a job that maybe just had an unsuccessful season.
Right. And then to turn around and win a conference championship in year one because you just. The transfers, you. You had to sit out a year or it just was hard. Well, now there's, there's no.
The expectations are to. To flip it immediately. So that's a positive to me. You know, if you make it a positive, then it can be a positive. So that's the way I view it.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Big change for everybody. And I think everybody is, is working their way through all the, all the pros and all the, all the cons of things are going.
You have twin sons. You mentioned that. How many times have you played the highlights from the February 14, 2006 game against Creighton for them? I've played zero, because nobody's going to believe that.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Honestly, I've played at zero.
I've showed some of my, my, the, the kids I've coached or the young, the young adults, I should say now that I've coached, I've showed probably them more than I have my kids. Honest. Honestly, my kids don't care about what I did back then, at least not yet. They will at some point, but I just, I enjoy, you know, I enjoy getting on my hands and knees and being a. Being a horse that they sit on top of and ride and just. I just have fun with them. So I couldn't care less about what I did as a player with them. But at some point, though, it will be fun to go back and, and, you know, show them, bring them back to, to Kokarina and walk around the concourse and, you know, just show them stuff that, you know, that dad did. And I think that'll be really cool whenever it's that time.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: I don't think PJ Kuznard is shy about talking about the Tennessee game that, that season. So I give you full permission to talk about the Creighton game. For people who don't know, big game in the evolution of the program under Mark Turgeon and Matt Breyer hit a three pointer in overtime, buzzer beater to beat the Blue Jays. That was a big deal. And that day was a pivotal day. I Think the Shockers moved into first in the Valley it. And on their way to the.
To the Sweet 16 that season. Toughest place to play in the Missouri Valley Conference.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: When. Well, the old Missouri Valley was definitely Creighton.
Yeah, definitely Creighton.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: That would be a good.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Although a close. A very, very close second was when they were rolling with Southern Illinois.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Very close. That was going to be my next. Yeah, that was going to be my thought. You have to give SIU arena definitely some consideration there. Your senior year. Shockers routed LSU 67:47 at Koch arena, led by seven at halftime and really just poured it on after that. I always look back at that game as. Here's the first big flashing light that Greg Marshall was a really good coach in that program had, you know, was going in the right direction. Do you remember that game as an important moment in that season?
[00:29:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, looking back on it, I mean, yes and no. Obviously, we didn't have a ton of success after that.
You know, I know I had my concussion. I was out for a while and we've had to. We dealt with a lot of stuff that year.
But, you know, it was. It was.
We beat LSU and uab, I believe, back to back right before Christmas, and. Or maybe it was UAB first and lsu, I can't remember.
But, you know, those. Coach Marshall never. I mean, he could really coach. I tell people all the time he was an incredible coach, motivator. He. He got people to do, you know, what. What he wanted them to do. Like, however he needed to do it, he did it. And so he was able to be super successful. He's ultra competitive, he's fiery, obviously, and he's a really good coach, you know, and so I think that was a. That was evident when, from the first day he stepped on campus at Wichita State. And obviously the results, you know, show for themselves.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: That was a talented LSU team, several NBA guys, Marcus Thornton, Garrett Temple, and yeah, I just look back on that and said when things went. When things went well, Greg Marshall knew how to get things going, and that was a good indicator of what was to come. We mentioned PJ Cuznard. He's your former teammate, now assistant coach at Wichita State.
Did you ever think he would leave Houston? That's my first question.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: He was only going to leave Houston. Okay. And I say this in a humble way. He was only going to leave Houston if it was for Wichita State or if he was going to come work with me. And that's. That's my brother. It's. It's family for life.
I'd do anything for him.
And you know, when, when the opportunity came up, he, man, I was, I was really happy for him. And you know, he called me about it. I said, you have to, you have to do it.
You have to, you have to take this opportunity. You know, it's such a.
He. When he left Wichita, he never thought he would come back. Like as, as a, as something that's part of a basketball program. And so the ability to go do that and to be a part of something special again with Coach Mills.
Look, PJ's a great person.
He's just a great human being. He's got great energy and life about him and he cares about people.
He's not trying to use them for his gain.
And people in Wichita notice that, they love him for that. And he's a legend around Wichita because of those things, not just because he was a great player.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: I should be clear, he is coming to Wichita State from the city of Houston, not the University of Houston. PJ had been back in Houston where he, where he grew up and he coached a high school team and coached summer league team, that kind of, kind of thing. Yes, people are excited. Will you coach in quarter zips or suit?
[00:32:04] Speaker B: You will never see me in a suit unless I am instructed to wear a suit for one game.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: I appreciate that. I like the quarter zips. Definitely winning at Syracuse, that 0607 team.
Where does that rank in the Matt Briar files of basketball experiences?
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that was awesome. I know Syracuse was a little down that year, but I didn't care and still don't care.
I actually almost blew the game, weirdly enough. I think we were up huge and they came all the way back. I mean that place is massive.
Great arena, great fan base. I threw a cross court pass. I want to say we were maybe up one at the time.
I think it was less than a minute. I threw a cross court pass. They picked it off and I had to sprint back and got got very fortunate. I tried to, tried to block his shot from behind. Obviously I was not going to block his shot, but I scared him just enough that he missed it and I think they ended up getting the rebound. But we got to stop late and won the game. I think PJ maybe blocked a shot or something, but. Yeah, no, that was a great, that was a great win. That was those four Saturdays. I don't know. You know, I don't know if people remember, but we played four straight Saturdays on the road. We were at George Mason when they unveiled their Final Four banner. We won that game, which was a heck of a win.
After that, we went to. Was it lsu, I believe, right?
It was either LSU or Syracuse, I can't remember, but I think we went to lsu, beat big Baby in them, and they had Garrett Temple on that team, I believe, as well.
Then we went to Syracuse, won that, that game. And then we went to Wyoming, who had actually two really good guards that year and beat them. So four straight Saturdays, all on the road, man, it was, it was such a jump start for that year. And I think we got all the way to number eight in the rankings before we had some major injuries and sicknesses and stuff derail us. But that was, that was a, that was a, that was a cool win at Syracuse because, you know, before Bayheim retired, not many people went in there and won.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Definitely. That was a fun. Yeah, those four Saturdays, that was definitely a fun stretch. Is there a non conference game you've got in the back of your mind, hey, I'd really love to coach at Cameron Indoor Stadium or the Palestra or someplace like that. Is there someplace here you're going to keep in the back of your mind and try to get scheduled?
[00:34:25] Speaker B: You know, not really. I mean, obviously, you know, being a head coach again and going up to Kokarina would be awesome.
You know, I've been there a couple of times now as an assistant, tried to get Coach Mills to, to. To bring us up there this year, but he didn't want to do that, which I, I certainly understand. And I know you guys are going to be really good this year, so it would have been a hard game for us to play and. But yeah, any of those places, you know, went to, went to, you know, Allen Fieldhouse for the first time this year, and we came away with a win, which was special, so maybe never play there again. So I can end there 1 0, but yeah, Duke would be awesome. Got my butt kicked in there a few times when I was at Maryland, so. Yeah, but ultimately, like, you know, I think just, I'm just, I'm excited about the opportunity. I'm super fortunate and blessed to, to have this opportunity. I know not many people get this, and a lot of people work their entire careers for and they never get the opportunity, so certainly don't take that for granted.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Matt Breyer is the new head basketball coach at Stephen F. Austin State University. He's a former Wichita State basketball player.
Matt, thank you very much for your time.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Thanks, Paul.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] Bradshaw into Wingate. Wingate's going to dribble it a couple of times and throws it in the hands of Kuznard. Threw it away. Kuznard to Ryan Martin for the dunk. The Shockers are going to the Sweet 16.
It's all over. The Shockers up 7, 3. 7 seconds. 2. Jeffer by Smith is no good. Wichita State to the sweet 16.
