Last year, Bruiser Flint’s team was shunned by the NIT selection committee. The Dragons haven’t forgotten that slight—and believe that they’ll be able to prove their doubters wrong in 2011-12.
By Tim Hyland
After the Drexel men’s basketball team lost 62-60 to VCU in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament last March, the Dragons returned to Philadelphia … and just kept on practicing. And why not? In their minds, you see, their season was not over.
With a 21-10 record and wins over Old Dominion, VCU and even mighty Louisville on their resume, the Dragons seemed assured of a bid to the postseason NIT. As it turned out, however, the invite never came—and as they prepared for the 2011-12 season this summer, Flint was clear about one thing: The Dragons have not forgotten the slight. “We have a sour taste in our mouths after what happened at the end of last season,” Flint says. “That gives you a reason to fight.”
Flint, who has compiled a record of 170–133 in his 10-year run with the Dragons, sat down with Drexel Magazine in late August for a conversation about the season that was, the season to come, his thoughts on the rising fortunes of the CAA and more.
Is it fair to say the CAA has improved a great deal in recent seasons?
Oh yeah. The players have definitely gotten better. All you’ve got to do is look at the fact that we’ve had five or six NBA players come out of the league in the past few years. That just tells you the level of talent has escalated. I always tell people, when George Mason had their run to the Final Four [in 2008] what that did was tell people that we have good teams in the CAA. We no longer had to worry about walking into a recruit’s living room and being asked, ‘So, who is in your conference?’ It was about credibility for the conference. And last year, it wasn’t just that we got three teams into the tournament that was important, but also that those teams won in the tournament.
Speaking of the tournament … there seems to be an awful lot of politics that goes into the selection process.
Tell me about it [laughs]. But again, that goes back to perception. There’s no way we shouldn’t have gotten into the tournament back in 2007 with the record we had and the teams we beat. All of the things that they say you have to do, we did.
You guys have a lot of talent, and you’ve been picked to win the CAA this year. Does that change the way you approach the season?
Not necessarily. I’m going to holler and scream just like I always have. That won’t change. Now, if you’ve got a good team and the guys all understand their roles and responsibilities, then I don’t need to holler as much.
Are you the kind of coach who writes up concrete goals every year? If so, what are those goals for this season?
I really believe winning comes from doing the little things. You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself. That being said, if you don’t come to college with the idea of winning a championship—I mean, I shouldn’t have to tell you that. You should want that. With this team, I think it’s more about what we can improve on. We’ve got to shoot better from the perimeter, which is something I think we addressed in recruiting. We fouled a bit too much last year, and we were a bad foul-shooting team. Those are the things that have to be our goals, and if we can improve on that and also do the things that we did last year, we’ll give ourselves a better opportunity to win a championship.
Finally, care to share any predictions for the season?
I’m not a guy who is a predictor. I don’t make any predictions. But do I think we’ve got a chance to be pretty good? Yeah. Yeah, I do.