Matt Brady Was Pretty Great on the Tim Brando and Jim Rome Shows You Guys

Coach Brady has been working round the clock doing the media routine after leading the Dukes to the CAA title Monday night. And he’s doing a pretty terrific job. I’ve been accused by many of being a Brady apologist and well, that’s probably true. It’s tough not to be if you’ve ever spent any time with him. I’ve been fortunate to have several long conversations with Brady and he’s always come across as smart, gracious, and exceedingly honest. And as a result he’s doing a great job making himself (and JMU) look pretty great in all these interviews.

Brady was on the Tim Brando Show yesterday with guest host Jon Rothstein. I caught in on my way into work and it was awesome. Rothstein did his homework and knew his stuff when it came to this year’s Dukes. You can listen to a snippet of the interview here in which Brady and Rothstein discuss the importance of senior leadership. Brady shared these thoughts on Devon Moore:

When you have a senior point guard, more than anything else as you just mentioned Jon, you got a chance. I’m hoping that’s one of our strengths. No matter who we play, we have a point guard that will be fearless.

Rothstein went on to ask some great questions about the Big Ray and Andre Nation among others. Rothstein kept describing Nation as a “Swiss army knife” because he Andre does so many things. Not coincidentally, I really like Jon Rothstein now. The best part of the interview was when Brady had a chance to speak about A.J. Davis. As you probably know Brady suspended A.J. indefinitely earlier this season. It was a move that 1.) Took some brass ones and 2.) Worked wonderfully. I have no idea what Brady and Davis discussed during his time away from the team, but it made something click with Davis. He was arguably the best player in the CAA for the final 10 games or so. Brady raved about Davis and his new found attitude saying, “His turnaround from last year to this year is one of the most remarkable things I’ve seen in 27 years of coaching.”  And the dunks were pretty remarkable to.

As most of you clones are already aware, Brady was also on Jim Rome yesterday. And predictably, he knocked it out of the park, showing his appreciation for JMU’s history and discussing his attitude when he took over at JMU. He summed it up like this:

Probably nowhere to go but up. And that was really the case with 8 straight losing seasons when I took over the program here…There’s an opportunity, if you recruit some kids with big hearts and big dreams and you work really hard and you can make the kids better, and that’s kind of what we try to do, help kids get better at the game they love and you develop a good spirit about the team and develop a winning culture, that you can eventually win a championship.

Brady goes on to discuss some of the struggles he’s experienced at JMU and how he was on the hot seat to start the year. And here’s where Brady really distinguishes himself. JMU has been cursed by injuries under Brady. It’s been brutal. And Brady has taken criticism for discussing it so openly. As I’ve been saying for years though, it’s legit and he’s not whining. He’s just being frank about things. So to recap, we have a head basketball coach who was on the hot seat who had the stones to suspend his most talented player, worked with him behind closed doors to turn his attitude around, and discusses injuries in a matter of fact way without coming across like a whiner or attempting to absolve himself from all responsibility. Oh, and he wins despite not having a program with many times the resources of his peers. Sort of a stark contrast from another JMU head coach, huh?