Four Questions with Jay Ladner

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Southern hospitality

There’s an appeal to schools hiring former players as a coach. There’s an inherent cache with fans and boosters. They know the traditions, the underlying issues, and they already have a matching wardrobe. (OK, the last one isn’t a thing.) And while it doesn’t always work out (See: Chris Mullin and St. John’s), sometimes it’s perfect, like Penny Hardaway and Memphis.

Jay Ladner knows the drill at Southern Miss.

He was part of the school’s 1987 NIT title team and led the Golden Eagles to a 25-8 mark last season, technically the most wins in school history.

“It’s a blessing in a lot of ways because you're able to navigate a lot of things where we have to kind of be creative to raise funds for different projects. And sometimes it’s challenging because you know everyone. And sometimes they expect complimentary tickets because I might’ve played youth baseball with them. (laughs). But I would not be here if I had not played here. Southern Miss has been very good to me, and my family.”

So Mike Miller talked with Ladner about that history, this season (his fifth), and what’s ahead for Southern Miss.

Q: Some might say any losses hit you harder because you’re an alum and a coach. It’s like this double wave of emotions hitting you. And dealing with expectations must weigh on you as well.

Jay Ladner: Sometimes. Let me just say this, the lows are probably a little bit lower, and the highs are a little bit higher.

I think a lot of people were very supportive of me coming from Southeastern Louisiana. I'm very grateful and because I knew so many of them, I felt like for a while because of our struggles, it wore on me. It was a tough deal. It’s been a tough rebuild, and I took all that personally. If we lost, I felt I was letting people down. But that’s behind us now. We had a great season last year and we’re excited about where we’re headed.

Q: You’ve had some losses — that’s not a typical McNeese State team you faced — that probably surprised you a bit given the experience on the team. What’s surprised you thus far about the 6-5 start?

Ladner: We had anticipated having Neftali Alvarez back, and he's out with a chronic foot injury. That was an all-league guard we really miss. I did think we'd be better early, but we just really struggled the first few weeks to shoot the basketball. The guys that were struggling — Austin Crowley (a 35.4% from 3 last season), Cobie Montgomery — these guys consistently made shots in practice, and are good shooters. But our just rhythm and chemistry just wasn't quite there. That’s been better the last five games, but we're still not quite there yet.

And yeah, I told Will [Wade] the other night, this wasn’t a typical Southland Conference team. This wasn’t who we signed up to play. (laughs) But that’s a credit to Will and the high-level team he’s assembled.

Q: You just had a high-level player of your own play his first game this week in Andre Curbelo. How would you describe what he brings to your team?

Ladner: He’s been unbelievable, but to be frank with you, we’d just about given up on him being able to play this season. We thought he’d be a slam dunk on the waiver. We met with our compliance people, and agreed that he met and exceeded the seven standards the NCAA sets out. But we couldn’t get any type of communication back from the NCAA. And then all of a sudden, ‘Boom!’ it just kinda happened in a whirlwind.

He’s a special player. He hasn’t even practiced much, but just with his presence out there it makes a big difference. He’s incredibly smart, and he can make a big difference for us. I’m very excited to see where he’ll be in 2-3 weeks.

Q: The timing couldn’t be better with Ole Miss on Saturday. It’s wild that you could see one unbeaten team this week, and then another in just a few weeks in James Madison. That’s uncommon for this type of year. Is there any advantage to being the team on the other side of that? Does an unbeaten team stress about not losing?

Ladner: There’s something to that, but I think Chris [Beard] probably has that covered. I saw something on ESPN that said he’s had 3 or 4 different teams start 10-0. He probably handles it better than I did. Last year, we started 8-0 and I know we started getting a little tight at times.

They’ve got a heck of a team with [Moussa] Cisse and [Brandon] Murray now eligible and some big wins along the way. They’ve beaten Memphis, and not many teams are going to do that this year. But we’re looking forward to Saturday. It’s gonna be a great crowd on the Mississippi coast in Biloxi.

Southern Miss plays Ole Miss on today at 2 pm.