Episode #120: Quentin Acree

🎙 Quentin Acree: Toughness Together — The Christopher Newport Standard  

This week on the Significant Coaching Podcast, Matt Rogers sits down with Quentin Acree, Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at Christopher Newport University
— one of the premier programs in all of Division III basketball. 

Coach Q shares how CNU’s championship culture is built on humility, accountability, and daily consistency. From practice habits to personal growth, he reminds coaches everywhere that great programs grow great people first. 

Matt also gives a special shoutout to RIT Men’s Basketball Coach — and Significant Coaching family member — Dominic Parker for introducing him to Coach Q, highlighting how strong relationships within the coaching community create opportunities for learning and growth. 

And don’t miss this week’s blog at CoachMattRogers.com, where Matt breaks down what NIL really means — and how it’s impacting families, coaches, and universities across every level of college sports. 

👉 Subscribe for free at CoachMattRogers.com for weekly coaching and recruiting tips, early NCAA updates, and exclusive previews of new books, tools, and schools to connect with — all designed to help you grow your program and your people with significance. 

Transcript

0:11

Welcome back to The Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. Today we're heading to one of the premier programs in all of Division three basketball, Christopher Newport University, home of the 2023 National Champions, and a model for what great leadership and culture look like in college athletics. My guest is assistant men's basketball coach Quentin Acre, or as most know him, coach Q. Coach Q is one of those rising stars in the profession, thoughtful, grounded, and deeply intentional about how he leads. He doesn't just coach basketball, he coaches people. He's teaching players how to be consistent, how to be coachable, and how to take ownership of their journey, both on and off the court. I wanna start by thanking our IT Men's basketball coach and longtime significant coaching family member Dominic Parker for connecting me with Coach q Dom. I appreciate you, my friend. You are absolutely right. This conversation is exactly what this podcast was built for, learning from great people who lead with both heart and purpose. That's Coach Q. If you enjoy these conversations. Do me a quick favor, favorite like, and leave a comment wherever you're listing. It really helps more coaches and families find the show. And don't forget to subscribe for free@coachmattrogers.com, where you'll get access to my weekly newsletter, exclusive coaching and recruiting tips, early updates on NCAA rules and recruiting changes, and first looks at new books, resources and programs to help you connect with the right schools and coaches. Also, check out this week's blog where I break down what NIL really means and how it's impacting families, coaches, and universities at every level of college sports. Now let's get to it. Here's my conversation with Christopher Newport, university assistant men's basketball coach, Quentin Acry, coach QI. Coach q, and I'm gonna say your name so everybody knows who you are. I know the players call you Coach Q, but Quentin Acree, you are a rising star in our game, my friend. So I'm thrilled to have you on. I'm thrilled to pick your brain. Tell me a little bit. About some of the lessons you've learned,'cause you got your own hall of fame. Coach K you work for Yeah. Coach Korian. Tell me some of the things you've learned from being a part of the Christopher Newport program. Coming from Southern Virginia, which was a another D three program to Christopher Newport now under Coach KI think the biggest thing that I learned is just how much everything matters. Like people say everything matters, but when I got here, like from knee. Way we do walkthrough from the way we eat four hours before the game every single time. It's not a, it's a non-negotiable. Like that matters to him. Us, wearing the same shoes on the bus when we travel, that matters to him. Having a basketball on the road, like even if we're not doing anything, he always carries a basketball on the road for the kids to have, it just matters to him. That's one thing that just like really stuck out to me. It's just like how much, what. Some might say that's not even that deep or it is not necessary. It matters when it comes to the messages. He's trying to send the, everything that he does just to stack up when it comes to game days, preparation and things like that. Every single thing matters. And that was just very eyeopening coming from coming to this program and under Coach K. So what are you taking that. To yourself. When you get your first program and you're running your first program, how much of this will you take with you? The one thing I would take is the preparation on specifically on the game days. It didn't matter to me at first, but the four hours before. Like after him explaining it, needing time for the food to digest, it has a proper time for it to actually fully digest, showing up to the gym an hour and 45 minutes before, not a minute before or a minute after. I do think those are some things that like they always stick with me, that I truly believe I'm gonna be able to take to whenever I do have my own program. Because it's like things that like nobody ever thinks of, but it stuck out to me so much that I was like, ingrained into myself. Like when I'm doing the travel stuff, when I'm doing those things like that, as a head coach, if I get that opportunity, I do truly feel like those little things will carry on into my program. So I, I remember going through that and I know I, you and I talked I was a head college coach at 26. You wanna talk about wet behind the ears and over my heels and, it took me a year of getting my butt kicked. Greatest lessons there. Yeah. And it was like, alright, this isn't what I thought it was gonna be. This is a lot harder than it has, than I thought it was gonna be, and I have to start working smarter. So those are the things you just develop as a coach once you get in there. I remember losing my first game by 50 points. There was a Hall of Fame coach at Hanover College. They were ranked, they're always ranked in the top five in the country at that point. And I don't think they had a guy over six five. I don't think they had anybody that was just a great athlete. They just beat us up defensively. They gave you nothing. They blocked five guys out every trip on offense, and I know that's how you guys run your program. It's just Oh, yes. Yeah. When it comes to that defensive side of the ball, like that's a bread and butter right here. I like to characterize it as a defensive school that can score. Yeah. We are not the other way around. We are a defensive school that so happen to be able to score the basketball sometimes, so Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Watching you guys play it is just I, I watch a game, I'm like, how would I attack this? I'd have to move you, I'd have to move your guys so much. And there'd have to be so much ball movement to get consistent scoring that, it's, and then. Are we tough enough? Even if we have a good offensive stuff, are we tough enough to play 40 minutes with you? Yeah. Yeah. I love it. A hundred percent. That's our, toughing together is our two pillars, like the backbone of what it is. So like the toughness thing is like that's what we're gonna bring no matter what on it on a nightly basis. For sure. We don't bring anything else. We're gonna bring a dog fight. We're gonna bring a dog fight. Yeah. When did you know you wanted to be a coach? I think I always knew a little bit going through high school and stuff like that I didn't play as much. I'm super short, super little, not the greatest athletic, but I love basketball. But one thing I always like. Cater to is I knew every play from every position. I used to talk to the high school coach about, Hey, I think we should do this, we should do that. Not really understanding it. Back then, what I was doing, I just wanted to contribute, felt like I was contributing'cause I wasn't scoring baskets, but then I would say truly probably after my sophomore year of college basketball, because it was COVID, so my sophomore year was 1920. At the end of that 20 year season is when COVID hit. We didn't make the NCAA tournament, so it got canceled. So we come back to school the next year. That COVID year didn't count. Everybody's playing like six, these little scrimmages or whatever. And I just my, the head coach at that time, which is Adam Wardenberg, who really helped me make the transition from player to coach at Southern Virginia. He came into the locker room one day with this little scrimmage at St. Mary's in Maryland. I remember it. He was like. I never told anybody this. He's dressed in a team in a locker room. At the end, he's I never told anybody this, but Coach Q's gonna, he said he didn't say Coach Q. He said, Q is gonna make a great coach. He's I hear him on the sideline, like he's knowing the plays before everybody else. He's you guys should definitely just take in what he's saying, listen to him et cetera. And then from that point I was like, maybe I should take it, serious. So after that COVID year, I could have came back and had two more years. I didn't even play after that anymore. I just transitioned right into an a student assistant with the, my head coach, Adam Waterberg at the time. He asked me, was able to make that transition. And then from there just been. Hitting the ground running in the business, that's awesome. It's such a familiar story. One of my former players almost took the same path as you did. Oliver Weissman. He's the head women's coach at Benedictine now. Oh, nice. Oliver played for me for a year. Second year I went to him and said, I don't know how much I'm gonna play you, but you're such a great part of this team. You're so fricking smart and you see the game. How about you and I start working on your coaching career? I'll give you a choice if you wanna play, I still want you in the program, but if you wanna be a coach, I'd love to start getting going there. So I love that you had a coach that literally carbon copy, probably conversation. Yeah. Quite literally a carbon copy once you're part of the program still, obviously I wanted to still feel, like I was making an impact further than just me scoring, which I wasn't playing much. So once he made that, that offer, I guess I was like, you know what I might as well just do it. Good for you, man. At what point did you know, I wanna stay in the college game? I'm gonna, I'm gonna go that path and try and get myself an assistant job. Since I like,'cause from a player to the student assistant, I was already in college, I just fell in love with the D three specifically that realm. And me being like, I'm a college basketball junkie. Like I really don't care about the NBA. So I love college basketball and the coaches and the teams and things like that. So like I always knew college is where I want to be. And then now as the years have gone entering my fifth year, so it's not a lot of years, but my patience is not the greatest. So I was like, dealing with high school probably won't be the, won't be the greatest. I do. Commend all those high school coaches out there because you have tremendous patience and you have to really sit down and do some things. So like I just feel like college is that, that good medium for me where I got, I can potentially get some really good players, but knowing that I still have a role in teaching them the game. Yeah. And not having to lose my mind times 20 versus just losing my mind regularly. Being a high school basketball coach is definitely a special skillset, lemme tell you. Yes. Facts. I wanna talk about the, where division three is right now and you've got such great perspective'cause you were a player, a student assistant, now assistant coach in a very short amount of time. What are still some of those great things about being a D three athlete that you subscribe to and promote to kids that think they wanna play higher? Yeah, the best thing for me about being a D three athlete is like you still get to be a student, in my opinion. I think when you get to the scholarship level, there's so much going on that is sport related that you don't really get the time, in my opinion, to be a college student. To have that experience, like for us, like we like to say, like we, we demand three hours of your time. Is for practice, film, all that is within those three hours, but outside of those three hours, they're able to go do other things. They're able to be with each other, experience college, just outside of just listening to our voices all the time. I don't particularly think you get that a lot when it comes to the scholarship level because essentially, they're paying you to do a job like you're basically, you know what I'm saying? That's essentially what it is. They're paying you to be there. As when they say, as much as they say D three is not like that, like you still get the high level competitiveness, competed at a high level. There's many D threes that can be D ones, whatever the case may be. But if you enjoy that, obviously the academic side of it and just wanting to be a student, like I think that's the best, you get the best of both worlds when it comes to the division three. And I like I, I really hope that a lot of people choose experience just over. I'm a D two athlete or I'm a D one Hey, congratulations that you're the 15th man on individual one team. But you can play at a high level and still be a really good, college person and have that great experience. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever met a D one guy that sat at the end of the bench or gal that didn't have a little regret about not seeing how good they could have been at a lower level. I don't think I've ever met anybody. Said, yeah. I love being the 15th man. Love that. I never gotta to see the court facts. Like I, I don't and we, us being at Christopher Newport, truthfully we deal with fringe scholarship players like we have to do to maintain the level that we're at. So like we have those conversations, we have lost kids that wanted the title of, being at a higher level. And we've had some come back even on that championship year, I was not here. But there was an individual by Matt Brody really good basketball player coming out of Virginia. He went to JMU, didn't like his experience. Yep. He was one, he didn't play that much, didn't like his experience there at JMU. That big school came back to seeing UD three, got to do his thing and he won in national championship. So like you see it, I think now with those guys, especially UAA schools, there's a lot of division ones that are now coming. To be a Division three athlete, not only to continue to play at a high level, but they valuing the academic side of it. They're valuing that experience of just being a student at these schools. And I love it. I just think it's, it is a very important level that we're at and. I just hope that everybody really, truly consider what what it really means to be a d three athlete. It's pretty great. I took it for granted, 30 years ago when I was a D three athlete and I wish I'd go back and shake that kid a little bit and knock some sense into him about how cool it is just to be a part of that team and to have that jersey and be a part of that program and the community that comes with it. It's really special. Talk about the realities of playing at CNU. What do you need to get your guys' attention? We're gonna talk recruiting later, but I'm really intrigued to see, hear. What does it take to be a high level division three basketball player? Number one is obviously skill for sure. But I think that's the easy part of it. But more specifically when it comes to seeing you like. Tough and together isn't just a motto that we like to say or put on a t-shirt. Like you have to be tough to play, not only here, but I think at any high level of basketball. And I think that's a kind of what we're losing a little bit in this generation of recruits coming up. And I don't just mean, flying around getting every like that goes into it, but like the mental toughness. And the focus to do things like you have to have it every single day. Like I, I already explained, we value three hours a day, like for that three hours a day. You have to have thick skin, you have to want to be coached, and you have to want to get better. It's different between showing up, playing hard, and showing up and competing, like those are two totally. Sides of the spectrum. And I think to be at this level, to be elite at CNU, like you have to have the ultimate toughness and the ultimate level of focus to, to know that you're coming in every day doing something not for you. Everybody see the banners, we see all this stuff. But like for Coach K specifically, it's about laying the groundwork for those four, those guys that are coming here the next four years. So those are the big two things I would say. Huge. It's huge. How do we get that 15, 16, 17-year-old to understand. The, what that toughness really means. How do we get them prepared to go on this journey? Or do they, they have to get there and suffer through it like all freshmen do and learn the hard way. Or is there a way they can start developing some of those things now? I think it's a two way. I think yes, they're gonna have to go through it no matter how prepared you think you are in high school. Getting to the next level is always gonna be a different level of whatever it is. But I do think right now it's just so much of these kids are just getting fed what, how good they are. I just don't. Necessarily think that's super proper. Like obviously you don't want to kill a kid's confidence, but you want to get them through the reality of what it is because they are good high school players. But once you get to the next level, like you're only gonna just be a another player. There's gonna be other good players there. Yeah. So how can you separate yourself? I don't think that's being explained. A lot nowadays is those separators versus just oh, you already, you're a good player. You already got it. You don't got it. You got a little bit of it, but you, there's always more that you can do. And I think that mental toughness, that focus, like those are the edges that really makes good players, great players, it has little to do with the skill that you possess. I, I think a lot of times it's just the family listening to people who are unqualified. If you haven't coached at the D three level, the NAI level, the D two level, the D one level, and you haven't done it for 80, 90 practices in a season, and you know what? Weight training and nutrition and classes and travel, all that goes into it. It's not just, can you dribble in, can you shoot and play defense? I think it's just so many people are listening to the wrong people. Yes. It's not, what are they saying? It's just who are you listening to? Yep. Who told you're great. Your teammate's, dentist, father, and everybody has their own opinions. Everybody has something to say about, like you said, that's never been there. That's different. Like you gotta know, and that's what's like big for us just in the recruiting process is that honesty, that transparency for what it is to be at an elite level here. Yeah, it's obviously different in different programs, but like honestly at the elite level of these programs, there's three or four qualities that are the absolute same, so you have to have those in order to be great. And I think some of the things that families don't understand is if you go. I'd love to come to your practice at some point, but I just have an idea of what your practices look like based on what? I watch your games. Yeah. There's no making a bucket and looking at the crowd and then walking back. You're sprinting back. Every possession, you're sprinting up the floor. Every offensive possession. There's no, I'm on the floor for eight minutes and four of it. I'm working hard and four of it, I'm not. And you can get away with that with a u. You can get away with that in a lot of high school programs. Hundred percent. But you wanna go play to CNU. Whoa. You better have every, there's no, there's not even a, oh, I want to practice today. I don't wanna, I don't feel good today, or I don't feel like, don't. No, the competit, the competitiveness of elite college basketball players, they bring it every single day. You have to be a player that can withstand that every single day. That can bring that focus, that can go through that grind every single day. And that's on top of the stuff you mentioned. Yep. Like training, nutrition, academics, all that stuff that we don't even get into that much, but hey, you gotta bring it every day. I've heard the rumors that Coach K is just a real sweetheart. The greatest sweetheart ever. Yes, he's, but he's not afraid to say what he's feeling and see it, I've heard. A hundred percent. And I think that truth is what players need, though. That's right. It brings the best out of you. Yeah. And you, like you said, you've said this a couple times, you've got to want to be coached. And part of that is hearing some things that you didn't want to hear or maybe different than what you think, right? Take me into practice.'cause we have a lot of high school coaches that listen to this and we have a lot of college coaches that listen to it, but I think it's really great when a high school coach gets to hear from a college coach. What does, when you look at your two and a half, three hour practice, whatever you guys are doing, I'm sure weight training and nutrition and stuff are a part of that. Three hours a lot of times and PIOs and that kind of stuff. What does an average drill, how long does that last? So ours is set up, we got like pre-practice and then regular practice or pre-practice is just like what we're focusing on that day specifically. We go 60 to 70%, then we stretch and then we go into our practice. But like in terms of drills, it's not a lot of time because the efficiency of our practice, like we only got three hours, right? So we have to be very efficient with what we do. So there's not a lot of repeating, I would say that. Yeah, but it's a lot of player led explaining things that some player on the sideline may have not gotten. Just so we're able to move on. I think the biggest thing that you, anybody will take away from our practice, and I believe like high school coaches to continue to make your team better, is that you have to make almost everything competitive. That's right. Whether it's a drill that you're just trying to teach, how to, for example, us, how we guard ball screens, we'll go over it, we'll walk through it maybe twice. Now it's competitive now. Now they're learning. Yep. Now we're playing three V three. We're playing two V two. So now not only are they obviously applying what we just taught them, but they gotta do it in real, like real time, real action is easy to just to walk through it. So we make every single thing competitives. Let's talk about, let's talk about ball screens, because I could talk to you an hour about ball screen defense. Yep. Are you guys hard and fast on one way, or are you changing it up depending on who you're playing against? We go into the game the same way. Okay. No matter what. So we're, no matter if they've got six guys that can shoot it or uhhuh they got to at least three stem start at least. What's that? Yeah. To start at least. Okay. So we you'll let down. Yeah. So his foundation is drop coverage. Yeah, like that's, that is his, yes, we play drop coverage. Everybody in the country knows we're gonna play drop coverage. We go over the top of screens, et cetera. Now, if we have a player, which in my years that we have been here, we had maybe two or three that can come off that ball screen and really do some things, hit the dribble, pull up can. Put us in jail basically. Yeah. Then from there, coach K does an amazing job of, alright, we're not going to obviously stand here and let him kill us the whole game. We're gonna make those adjustments and he puts us in environments in practice we'll do two minutes of this defense, then we'll do two minutes of a different defense where we'll just keep switching. Keep switching. Just so once they get into the game, if we do have to make an adjustment. Yeah. Our players have already known how to do that on the fly. That's the great thing about going over top and pushing that ball handler into space is you don't see a lot of Jalen Brunsons. There's just not a lot of guys come off that in a wonder dribble, go up and knock down an 18 footer consistently, or bounce out and hit that 22 footer. So I, I love that approach and that's how I was. Do you hedge or do you guys stay flat? We drop that, you drop off everything. Yeah. We're gonna drop no matter what because the mid-range for us we strongly believe, and we definitely have, we're very analytical program as well. The mid-range shot is not the greatest. Yep. When you go to our level, specifically at D three, there's, like you said, there's not many players that can just come off too dribble. Hit it at a 60% rate. There is not. So we would rather live with that than anything else. Absolutely. I had this too. There were four funnels on the floor that we wanted every, everybody's offense to go to.'cause we knew analytically that's where the lowest percentage was gonna be. So it's just smart basketball. A hundred percent. What would you say, eight to 10 minutes a drill. Yeah. Or less. Yeah, probably. Yeah. It's probably like seven. Yeah. Yeah. Probably yeah, seven, eight, I would say seven, eight. We get through things quickly and then we, most I don't know how many programs do, but we play a lot more than we do drills. Yeah. So we learned by playing. That's by one regret. I wish I, I wish we played more when I was coaching. I,'cause I wanted to teach so much and I want us to be really technically sound and then. We play a lot of three on three, a lot of four on four, but getting up and down and playing five on five, I wish I would've done more of that. If I ever go back to coach again we'll probably scrimmage 45 minutes of practice. Yeah, like we scrimmage. Yeah. Basically 40, yeah, 40, 45 minutes. That whole back half of practice is all we'll learn by scrimmaging. We just do three minutes scrimmages, like just the best way for him. Do you guys break it up the scrimmages or do you really do a lot of teaching in that first hour and a half, and then try and scrimmage as much as you can on the back end? Correct? Yeah we'll, whatever we are going, whatever our focus is. We'll try to get that done out the way real quick, and then we'll play a lot and then teach through there, but we don't stop it in the middle of the scrimmage. We have a, we record our practices. IPad, nothing crazy, but we got a TV that we can go back and like some days we'll do three minute scrimmage. All right, go back and let's go through it real quick on two times speed. Obviously, we ain't got the time just to be sitting there watching go on two times speed and just go over like, all right, you made a mistake here. Let's how we gonna fix this? And then have them go play again. Because playing through them, at least for our group, like them playing through their mistake versus being such a drill heavy team. It's just been vastly better for this, especially nowadays. Like it's just vast better. Oh yeah. This age group, this generation, we have zero. They need to learn on the fly. Yep. I want to talk a little bit about your scrimmaging a little bit more. Heard three minutes. What's the longest you'll scrimmage in one stretch. We go three minutes. Now we go three minutes. Before that has something to do with our substitutions. So we always go three minutes for them to play as hard as they can in those three minutes. But before, I mean we used to, we did inner squad scrimmages like a whole game before we've done that, invited reps to come and do that. That's big five minutes, but we never go, if it's just us. And the coaches are reffing. Four minutes is max.'cause it goes to the media timeout. Like it doesn't, it's not beneficial in our opinion for them to go 10 minute scrimmage. Because see I was co I was coaching four media timeouts really got, became big in division three and now it's pretty consistent. So we would practice and I would rotate five out.'cause I'd run two teams of fives and we just try and run teams off the floor. Yep. Because we weren't gonna get a break in four minutes like you guys are getting what does that rotation look like for you guys? How do you tackle that to keep guys fresh? And what's the philosophy on helping guys get into a rhythm or guys playing together? What does that look like from your guys' perspective? I wish we knew our rotation right now. That'd be great. One of the questions. Yeah. It's still early. So one of the question you got a scrimmage what end of the week? Yeah. Saturday versus Shaan. We just scrimmaged this past Friday. And we have a scrimmage versus shaan like exhibition. It's open exhibition didn't get the answers you were hoping for in the first scrimmage. No, sir. Did not. I wish we did. But we did not. So I've been there. Go back to the drawing board, today's practice. And you mentioned earlier hearing stuff you didn't want to hear. Yeah. Had a lot of that today, but yeah. So in terms of the rotation, just keeping guys fresh. I mean we, that's why we do the three minutes right now. We're just still trying to figure out specifically is that like for us right now, like we found out that's enough time for our guys to really make an impact. Yeah. And have them to actually play through mistakes. Do some things like we play so fast, we have so many possessions. Like we play fast now. Yeah. The old CNU used to be, two bigs on the floor at all times, three out two ends, slower pace. Now we're, we picked the tempo up times 50 comparative to what it used to be when coach K first got here. So we just found out like that three minutes is okay, they can play you some mistakes. They can have a chance to make it up a little bit. Yeah, get a little rhythm. So that's why we are now at the three minutes it's so funny'cause Major League Baseball's kind of gotten that same philosophy. If you can get five innings out of a starting pitcher anymore. You know that third time they gotta see batters. Now all of a sudden that's where the trouble starts. Yeah. And it's what basketball players, they start getting tired after three, three and a half, four minutes, and you start getting drop off in their energy. Stop getting drop off on defense. Yeah. The rebounding. So like that three minutes, like we learn, like you can go all out, you can for sure go all out in those three minutes and not save anything. And then That's right. Figure out rotation from there. So how do rotations work then? Ideally, in a perfect world, you guys wanna play when you're playing at that pace, when you're doing 80 to a hundred possessions, how many guys are gonna see the floor in a game? Minimum nine to 10 for sure. Okay. You're gonna have, you're gonna have two minimum two rotations somehow. Yeah. Yeah. We don't necessarily go five and five, but there's gonna be 10 different basketball players at minimum on the basketball court for sure. I'm assuming you're trying to get a big off the floor faster than everybody else. Yeah, especially assuming foul trouble. They're mostly the ones that foul, right? So you gotta get them out.'Cause we will start two forwards not traditional forwards. One of'em is a traditional, one of them is not. And then we'll go, probably go a little smaller with four traditional guards than one post player. You will? Okay. Yeah. And then you can move a little bit. Yeah. We got that's one thing about our team right now is we have so many like pieces where like we have a player that can play point guard and could end up at the quote unquote four. That's amazing. Fourth guard. Yeah. So we have that kind of adaptability right now. So we're, that's why our rotation, we don't really like, we're still trying to plug and figure out Yeah. Just exactly where they can be most effective at. Does coach like to pull a couple guy, a couple starters off the floor and put a couple bench guys in? Yeah. Mix'em. Yeah. Yeah. And then maybe your point guard and your shooting guard come off together. Your one and your three come off together at some point. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is our point guard is probably gonna be the last one to come off because that's the most important for us. He'll probably be the last one starting point. I'll probably be the last one to be subbed. But then, yeah, we'll go like the five. We'll always try to take out that four, whoever the four man is, whoever the four, outta five. Whoever's not playing well in some situations, or whoever's tired the first. If the five is tired, we'll take him out and move the four down to the five. Yeah, put in another guard. Try to increase the tempo now. Yep. When they're trying to play eight, nine minute rotations. Correct.'cause they're trying to play, they play like most teams play like seven players. Where we really feel like we have that depth advantage this year. So we're gonna play with a lot of fun lineups, I think in our, so I love that man. There's nothing better. Let's put five ballers on the floor. Yeah. It's a good problem to have right now. Like we have, we got a lineup where we can put a six six center out there. That's right. You gonna go from five 10 to six six and just let's play, let's just hoop. All right let's talk about when you wanna play fast. Everybody's now trying to slow you down. So you have to then use your defense. To create turnovers and to make them have to play faster than they want. So what does that look like when teams try and slow you down? How do you get them moving faster? What are you trying to do on the other end? When teams start slow us down, say it sucks for sure. Yeah. But one thing that we try to do and what we're gonna do more this year is curate, like you said, curate those more opportunities. We don't necessarily turn teams over'cause we're very sound defense like we only average 12 turn forced turnovers a game. Still good, but not crazy. Oh, the other team's only shooting 38, 30 9%, a hundred percent. So like we, that's two rebounding. That's what we're gonna do. Yeah. But we just try, we're gonna start putting in some stuff to just force them to speed it up. Yeah. Not necessarily us trying to steal the basketball or create traps. We're never gonna trap the ball. Because we don't like putting two on the ball and leaving a three pointer open. Yeah. We're never gonna do that. But we are gonna throw some stuff where it's just speeding them up and maybe getting them outta rhythm. So instead of them running. 30 seconds off the shot clock.'cause they wanna run, set up a play. Maybe they start running their offense with 12 seconds because we sped'em up and doing some stuff. And the point guard gotta come now and get the ball back. All that stuff. We're trying to create that, not necessarily turnovers, but just like, all right, like we're not gonna sit here this whole time. We're not gonna let you do what you want to do to get, yeah, we're not gonna sit here this whole time for 30 seconds. We'd rather sit here for 15 seconds and now that's a less. Time that you had on offense, but less time that we obviously spent guarding for real. So then we can go on the other end. What's that look like q Is that forcing to a sideline? Is that denial of a post entry or a wing? What does that look like? Yeah, it's more of us just getting up into full court and using our athleticism. We got good size, good athleticism it's just us getting out. Maybe we'll take out the point guard and just let him figure out how they're gonna do it. Force their big man to dribble up the court.'Cause at most, like most fours and fives are not comfortable even at our level dribbling up the court because we've learned and seen that everybody likes to just have, get a point guard the ball. I let point guard the ball, come point guard, come get it, run this play. All that's right. Let's try to take him out. Let's force the big man to dribble it up. Maybe that wastes six seconds for them trying to get the ball across a half court in general. Yeah, that's right. So we try to mix some of that stuff up and, figure it out from there. And hopefully we just guard for 18 seconds now. It's like taking the lead singer out of the band and making him play the drums. All of a sudden that band's not as good as it was when I got Oh, yeah, a hundred percent right. Or you try to come back. It's not, it just don't sound the same, just don't sound the same. Absolutely. It's just making them do things that they're not comfortable with. So I love that. Just, it just, I gives me goosebumps thinking about all that. Ready to get back on that sideline. That's what it seemed like. Geez, I gotta get these two kids outta my house before I gotta do that. But yeah I get excited having this conversation. I always talked, I love talking about freshmen coming into college and this is gonna be close to your heart.'cause people always ask me, how long does it take for a freshman to develop? And I always thought as a four-year coach that if I could get a kid 18 months into their career where they really understood our defense. Footwork pressure, the intensity we're looking for. I've done something good that gets me two and a half years of a pretty good ball player. If I can get them there. What do you see these kids, these young guys coming into your program, how long does it take for them to really accept your teaching and your coaching? I would say the whole year. For sure the entire, it's gonna take the entire year because of just how detailed we are, especially on the defensive end. Offensive for us is easy.'cause we don't run plays, we have no we just teach spacing and how to make decisions in space. So that's still, intricate in itself. And that's hard. It's a lot. Yeah. Even though it's very simple on paper, it's still very intricate in itself. But it takes the whole year and like for us, we are not a All right. Seniors have been here, so like you guys just do it and watch the, now we throw the freshman right into the fire. Love it. We mixed teams. So like when we first started this year. Freshman point guard starting to guard, start and center. Like they're all mixed in with the guys that have been here and have played we're not doing the seniority thing or anything like that. So for them it's very hands-on and hectic at first because they have zero clue what's going on. They're just trying to learn by error, which is what we like to do. We like to create that environment. So we got some that are. Picking it up a little bit, but then there's some that it's just gonna take the whole year for them to really understand what we're trying to do. And I wouldn't say, at least for our, from my experience, that they're not trying to take the coaching. It's just that nobody teach. Nobody, they just give the, right now in high school is, are you the best player? You have the ball, do whatever you want. That's it. So there's no teaching. What do you mean pass and cut, coach? What? What do you, what are you trying to say? Cut. Where you want me to just float over here and they're gonna gimme the ball back? Yep. What do you mean don't run to the ball? Yeah, don't run to the ball. Get out the way. Please. Move out the way. You don't have to have the ball in your hand. It's, what do you mean? That's what I mean. What do you mean rim line and get my butt flat. What do you try to say there? It's a lot. It's, I tell kids all the time, just expect the first year. Just go in and learn. If you play great, if you pick things up fast, great. But just expect first year you're gonna get your hat taken to you. You're gonna get your, and if you come out of that with a smile on your face and smarter and ready to go into next year and put five, 10 pounds of muscle on you, you'll be going, you're gonna start, you're gonna start finding the reason why you went there, but it's gonna take a year. We had a freshman last year that did not play. Yeah. Probably played in nine games. Yeah. Come, turned the whole year struggled. Had a good, pretty good summer and now this year he's in the rotation top six. Love it. The sophomore jump like,'cause he just sat there. He was like, all right, I'm not gonna play. I just gotta absorb as much as I can now. I've had a whole summer applying what I've learned. And how it can help my game in turn to help the team. But now you're in a bigger role automatically and that's just good recruiting.'cause at the end of the day, you feel good that you recruited that kid. Because they're all gonna be a pain in the butt. They're all gonna struggle, they're all gonna go through. That woes me. But if they can get to that point and their freshman year, they go, okay. I'm just coming to practice every day. Whatever happens. Just I'm not gonna look at the scoreboard, man. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna go. I get a uniform head down on team, I'm still on the website. Right, a hundred percent. Put your head down and work. You have that mentality. You're gonna make it at a lot of programs. That's right. Talk to me about your older guys. You said you mix things up in practices, so the freshmen are intertwined with the older guys. How do they handle. The frustration of a kid that's not getting it, yeah. Coach, just let us play with the five older guys. Just let us play. No. You're gonna still have those two freshmen. How do your older guys handle that? As I mentioned earlier in this episode, it's coach K sold, like player led and driven. Yeah. So as us as a staff, we don't even care. Like they're frustrated. They're doing this, they're like, he don't know what you doing, whatever. Because okay, are you going? Yell to us or you're gonna have him figure it out like you got two options right now, right? You gonna yell to us or you're gonna try to get him to a point where he can at least still help the team do what they gotta do in practice right now. So like he is so big on player empowerment from the players. Like obviously as coaches we're gonna give it to him, we're gonna tell'em what they need to do, but like he wants the players to lead the players because if you have a program that is very player led. Yep. That has been his most successful years. That is what he's built here. That's the foundation he's built. So like we just let him come. Hey, complain all you want, y'all. It is what it is. I love it. My, my best teams, the teams that went to the national tournament and won conference championships, I always had seniors that would stop practice, something be bad. And they say, coach, I got this. Yep. And I could walk away, timeouts end of the game, three seconds on the clock. I had guys that would say, coach, we need to run this. This is what we need to run here. Let's do it. You get to that point, you're that's what we, that's definitely what we're continuing to build.'Cause the last four years, those guys are out. The national championship team, we have one left. Yep. So like now we're, it's, listen, this is what is required to be a good team. It can't just always come from us. Absolutely. Don't get me wrong, QI only went to the national tournament twice in 13 years, so hey, that's two more than a lot of coaches, so you gotta, who's close? You don't get those opportunities very often. You don't get those teams that have the ability to get there very often. Yeah, a hundred percent. Facts, yes, true. Talk to me about non-negotiables. I know you guys have very, you expect things from your guys. They're just non-negotiables that you just won't deal with in your program. Are there expectations that you guys talk about that this is who we are. We're not gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna die on this hill. This is who we are. We're not gonna, we're not gonna be any different. We're gonna do it this way. Yeah. One big non-negotiable that starts with the recruiting. Process is you cannot be in it for the wrong reason. And what we mean by that is we are a he is so team oriented. Everything is about the team. If you are about yourself, if you are about whatever your parents think you are, if you are about trying to make it to the league, we have players that have tried to make it to the league, go to the NBA, those are non nego. If we vet that out in the recruiting process it's done. If we try to find that out, if we kind of sense that or find that out during the year it will start with a, we're not gonna kick nobody off the team. It'll start with a conversation about buying into what we're doing as a program. If that does not change, then you are no longer a part of what we are trying to build. So that's the biggest non-negotiable. It's it's not about you, period. No matter what. It will never ever be about you, your stats, none of that. And he does not deal with the parents. Hey, my son isn't playing. No it's a non-negotiable. You are not coming up to coaching staff. You are not coming up to us. You are not talking to us about the pro. It's about what we are doing to build the program, not what we're doing to build little Johnny. That is not what we're trying to do here. Do you think he can get away with that at the high school level? No, because the high school level is I. Yes, you have tryouts, so I guess you get to pick a little bit of your team, but I don't know, it's just different. I can't even explain why it's different. It's just like high school is like everybody has to play. I feel like a little bit. I don't know. It's just different at high school level.'cause your parents are so involved. They're young youngins, they're not young adults at that point either. They're still young children, so they probably don't really under understand that aspect of it either. I think it's harder. I don't think you can't do it. I just think it's very difficult to have those messages and. How much easier would our life be as college coaches if it was happening at the 15, 16, 17-year-old level where, oh, talk to coach. It would be good. It would be a very easy vetting process. A little bit. Yeah. I would say that we're prepping them for what life is gonna be like. Yeah, a hundred percent. You got a problem with your playing time. There's only one guy you talk to and that's said, coach, you go talk to coach. Because he is the only one that can fix it. Yes. And I was always that point. If I hear from your parents, this just tells me that you and I don't have a good enough relationship. The fact that you're not playing enough is that's where it begins. It ends. If mom and dad have to talk for you, then we got problem a hundred percent. And truth be told, those, if he even gets to that point what really is the indicator for us, I guess is can you look yourself in the mirror and. Understand why you're not playing. You know what I mean? A lot of people complain about not playing or the parents come, Hey, why isn't we open practice? Yeah, mom, if you want to come to practice, you do coach, pay open practice. Open practice. I had no idea. Open practice. If you would love to come up Texas, us, we will let you come to a practice. We will. So you can see how he's doing. See what he's doing. See our, what we're doing. If you notice how little Johnny is not doing what we need to do as a program, it's open practice. I'll tell you that. How many take advantage of that? Not a lot. We'll say that. I was gonna say that. Not a lot that we have dealt with. I would say not a lot. I would imagine the boys are saying, mom, dad, no way. This is, so if it gets to that point now they're like, okay, I got it. Okay. Just talk to me on why I'm not playing. Now they revert a little bit. But yeah, see I was always afraid to have open practices, I didn't care if the ad wanted to come in or high school coach wanted to come in. That was great. But I had a problem with anybody else in my gym because I didn't want one parent there. And then maybe that week I moved that. Dad's son into the starting lineup might not have had anything to do with that dad being there. Oh, I did anything to show. Didn't wanna show that. Getting more attention. Yep. Yeah. I didn't even ever want that to be, even be, it just made my skin crawl. Yep. So I think there's a lot of courage there, but I think Coach K has been doing this long enough, he can get away with it because it's like, all right, come to my practice. But you're gonna see why like you said, you can see why Johnny's not, see, yeah. It is, it's apparent, yeah. We I would say this Coach K is an amazing coach. Like he's going to put. The people on the floor, freshmen, senior, it doesn't matter. When I went to the Elite eight, my first year here, we had three freshmen starting like it does not matter. He's going to put those people on the floor who value seeing U basketball. Yeah. Who's going to put seeing you in a position to win basketball? It has nothing to do with the year, has nothing to do with who your parents are. That's one thing that, like going through these years here at Seeing U, that I'm just like, it does not matter. The only thing that matters is who was put in seeing U in a position to help the program. Yeah it's the right way, the only way. I love it. Who's been the biggest coaching influence in your life? That's a good question. I would say who's got really got me into coaching. Pharrell is my high school coach who I'm not even in contact with anymore. He doesn't even know. One day I hope to return back to Florida to sit down and talk to him just about, the impact that he's had on me. But then since then, it's just been a whole plethora of, of a family, I got Adam Denberg, who was the head coach that I played under and coached with. Yeah. Who's now the associate head coach at Air Force, Dominic Parker, who was the full-time assistant at CNU when I was part-time. Yeah. Who's the head coach at rt? Obviously a member of the podcast as well. Yeah. I got a lineage of former CNU Sean Foley, who was at he's at North Alabama now. Yeah. Got J Great. J Jaron Dyson, associate head coach at Army. Yeah. Logan Miller who Another podcast veteran. Yep. Another podcast. Can you? Yeah. Logan Miller, who's Highland's head coach. Private school. Really good. He used to be assistant here at CU, it's cool. It's just been a family in my opinion, and just everybody, I just get information, absorb whatever I can. They've been really truthfully helpful to me. Isn't great, just giving advice through all this. So I would just say everybody's been influencing me a lot when it comes to that, and I just, I'm grateful that they're willing to, gimme some time. So exciting when coaches pass it on. I love it. What's your best advice for a young assistant trying to rise in the profession? I would just say you, you just gotta show up and be ready to work. I think a lot of people want the, what comes with being assistant, at least at the division one level, nice was all this good stuff whatever. But to really be an assistant and to be a good one, like you, you gotta show up every day and be ready to work. That was one of my best values that even got me to move into where I am. Like nobody ever had to tell me what to do. Yeah. I see a job, I find solutions for my program, for my head coach. And I think if you're somebody that can do that, it doesn't matter where the journey will potentially lead you, but like you're gonna make a great impact where you are. As long as you're making a great impact where you are, everything else will take care of itself. I literally never even talk about what I'm gonna do head coaching job or the next assistant. I have no care in the world right now. All I know is I'm at CNU. I wanna do the best job I can to make this program as best as I can. And whatever comes from that is good. But I show up every single day, same mindset, same time, and I do the work here that, that is necessary for us to be a good program. It's great advice and it's obvious. Q you embody that. You embody the work ethic and the character that a great basketball coach has. You, you've got it written all over you, my friend, that you're well on your way. Just keep doing that. Truly appreciate that. It's tell the kids. Don't worry about the scoreboard. You do your job scoreboard's. Gonna take care of yourself. Do your job. Yes. Do your job. What leadership trait do you feel like you're still working on and you want to improve on? I don't know about leadership trait, but one thing I still want to improve on is just. Being, even more vocal than what I am and how to necessarily deliver it in the right way. Yeah.'Cause as a coach, most coaches, they have frustrations, things that bother them when it comes to the game of basketball, but how you communicate that to a player. Versus just openly, being super emotional, throwing at what I call tantrums. Yeah. I think that's super important.'cause the more, I don't necessarily, gotta be stoic or whatever, but like the more clear and composed and they know that, alright, yes, we messed up on something here or whatever, but coach knows I got you like. Communicating that in a way that the player knows. Like, all right, coach is here. He gonna take care of it. He gonna let us know exactly what we need to do, and we just need to go do that. I would say that's the biggest thing that I'm going to continue to improve on. And I think that Coach K has, he even sat down and talked to me about it this year. He's gonna gimme more opportunity and practice just. Be that vocal leader to, to whoever I'm coaching in that moment. But that's the biggest thing that I just wanna, I really wanna harp on. Great answer. And it's great perspective, great introspection for you there. There's a, I'm gonna date myself here. There's a great show from the early two thousands, late nineties called West Wing and there's an episode where a consultant is working with a presidential candidate and she tells. The guy that's working with him, he doesn't have his presidential voice yet, and they're like, what the heck does that mean? Yeah. At the end of the day, it comes down to authenticity. You're speaking with conviction. You say what you mean what you say, but it's not coming from a place where you're guessing. It's coming from a place where, you know. I can already hear it in you. You've got it. It's just believing in it. It's believing that what you have to say has value, and even sometimes when you don't believe it, it's being able to sell it, that this is important. Yeah, a hundred percent right. And there're being no doubt. So that's it's, we all had to go through that. Every coach that's ever coach has to find that voice. And it's tough when you're with a guy like Coach K who's been doing this a long time and knows what he wants and knows how to say it. Now you've gotta find your own path. And that's, understand that's gonna be fun for you in that environment you're in. And you got a lot of great mentors around you that are still figuring that out and are getting really good at it too. Coach, this has been a blast. I wanna come back and do about 15 minutes where we just talk about recruiting and give, get your advice to parents and kids. You down for that. Yeah, for sure. Recruiting. That's the best of us. That's my best tool right there. I love that. Yeah. I'm, we're gonna dive into you. This is a recruiter here, so thanks for doing this. I'm just so impressed with you and so thankful that you and I got to know each other. No, for sure. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. What a great conversation with Coach Quentin Acre from Christopher Newport University, one of the most grounded and authentic young coaches you'll find in college basketball. His perspective on culture, accountability, and personal growth is exactly what the game and our players need right now. He's a young guy, but he's got very much, has an old school brain and perspective on basketball, so I love that I got to know him and connect with him I love also how Coach Q talked about developing people before players that the wins take care of themselves when your program is built on consistency, connection, and care. That's leadership at its core, and it's why CNU continues to set the standard for excellence in division three basketball. If you haven't already, make sure you favorite like and leave a comment wherever you're listening. It helps more coaches and families find these conversations and gives them confidence to do the right things for their future. And don't forget to subscribe for free@coachmattrogers.com. That's where you'll get access to my weekly newsletter, exclusive coaching and Recruiting Tips, early updates on NCAA rules and recruiting changes, and inside looks at new books, resources and Schools to connect with. Also, check out this week's blog. It's a deep dive into what NIL. Name, image likeness really means and how it's changing the landscape for families, coaches, and universities at every level. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.