This is probably the easiest interview I have ever conducted. He has read most of my interviews, so he knows what I like to ask and he is great at answering the exact question asked. It is safe to say since we are pretty good friends there is a pretty high comfort level between us.

The picture on the left is from a post-game press conference. The one in front of the car is from a trip we took down to Nashville to go to Bethel World Outreach Center. The other three were when I barged into a planning meeting with Wright State Assistant Coach Will Rey when they were preparing for the South Florida game. He is probably the only coach in the country that would let me interrupt him for 15 minutes while I took photos for this story just 24 hours before a big game. It would probably be more representative to show a picture of him stealing food off my plate. That is the real Ed Schilling. But he is so quick and so sneaky that he will never get caught on film in the act of stealing my food.

So here is a in-depth interview with the man entrusted with the Wright State Basketball Program.

CigarBoy: As the Raiders work their way through their December schedule can you give a little scouting report on the Wright State Raiders?

Schilling: Well I think right now we are trying to figure out the identity of the team, loosing Cain Doliboa and Jesse Deister, both to graduation. We are trying to figure out, OK, what do we need to do to be able to win? How do we need to play in order to win? We have two players that are probably our go to guys in Vernard Hollins and Seth Doliboa. I think with those two guys, the offense is going to flow through them. I think we have other guys that can score, but I think Vernard and Seth will be the guys that we’ll play through to get other guys shots and things like that. I think defensively we are predominantly a man-to-man team. I think our defense is significantly improved over last year. In offense we are really looking to share the basketball, a lot of motion, a lot of movement. Defensively we are going to try and get after people and really create stops defensively. That’s probably our primary focus right now is to become a consistent defensive team.

CigarBoy: What’s this team known for, or will be known for I guess I should say?

Schilling: I think we play together a lot like the big league Princeton teams and stuff like that. Hopefully we are going to be a team that shares the basketball, and we’ll be difficult to defend possession after possession. We’re going to make you guard us. If you break down early, well, hopefully we can score early in the shot clock but we’ll also be able to have the patience and consistency together to be able to grind teams out at the offensive end. Defensively, hopefully we are going to make every pass and every play difficult. We are going to be very solid fundamental team on the defensive end.

CigarBoy: Describe for me the Horizon League this year.

Schilling: The Horizon League. I’ve been in the league 6 years. This is my sixth year now and I think it’s going to be by far the best this league has ever been, top to bottom. I think on any given night, there’s really no cupcakes. There’s no easy game, especially among the top 6 or 7 teams. For example last year, UIC finished sixth in our league. They go and win the conference tournament and take Oklahoma to an 8-point game in the NCAA. That was our sixth seed last year! They’ve got about everybody back. Milwaukee, who finished third, has everybody back. Perennially Butler and Detroit are always post-season tournament type teams. So I think it’s one of those seasons that, going into it, you don’t know who the number one team is, or who the number four team is, or the five team. You could almost put them in a hat and shake them up. We’ll just have to see how things play out, but I think it’s going to be the most competitive, most exciting Horizon League in history.

CigarBoy: You played four years, as a starter in the MAC. What’s the difference between MAC basketball and Horizon basketball?

Schilling: Probably just the tradition and the name recognition. I think a lot more people are familiar with the MAC just because of the name and the schools have been around a long time. Look at Miami, they’ve been there since 1809. Look at Wright State it’s 35 years old. So I think just the ages and the name recognition. One other thing, the MAC is pretty much made up of smaller towns. You don’t have the major metropolitan media markets in areas that the Horizon League has. Look at the Horizon League. You’ve got Dayton a city or metro area of nearly a million people, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland, two teams in Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay, cities like that which are major cities. The thing that makes that good is that as this league continues to improve and gets better name recognition. It’s going to be a league, I think, that doesn’t have a ceiling in terms of the exposure and how great this league can be. Whereas the MAC is as good at basketball that they’ve had over the years…. I played with Ron Harper, you see the Wally Szerbiak’s and guys like that. The cities are so small that you are never going to quite get the major recognition that maybe you deserve just because of the size of the city. That’s not a limitation for the Horizon League in terms of future growth.

CigarBoy: Describe for me in a few sentences, what’s your coaching philosophy?

Schilling: Well, my coaching philosophy is I’m going to try and make the players I coach the best players, the best people, and the best students they can possibly be. I’m going to try and impart that on a daily basis. Must of that in terms of basketball, is teaching about sacrifice, about dedications, and unselfishness. Those types of ideas are the ones that are going to make us a successful basketball teams and in the end, going to help them become successful men that are going to be ready to be successful in a job, and being prepared to lead a family. So ultimately that’s what I’m about. That’s my philosophy to try and help our players become the best men, the best students, and the best basketball players they can possibly be. In terms of X’s and O’s basketball wise, offensively we want to be a team that really shares the basketball and are difficult to defend. Guys that are going to take good shots and have some freedom to play but at the same time, we don’t have guys that are going to be selfish. I want to have an unselfish basketball team. Defensively we are going to be a team that each possession matters to us. We are going to try and guard people. Obviously you aren’t going to pitch a shut out but we want to be a team that’s difficult to score against. Sometimes we do that by mixing up the defensive plans man-to-man then switch it up playing some junk defensives as well. Pressing some, just every time making the team have to play well to beat us.

CigarBoy: What is your recruiting philosophy? Do you have a base? Do you start in Dayton or maybe the area of Ohio/ Indiana and go out from there?

Schilling: If you were to take a compass on a map and draw anywhere from a 4 to 5 hour radius, that’s where we are really going to try and primarily recruit. You are going to get into Indiana, obviously all of Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky. You take that 4-5 hour range, and we want to make sure we know every player in that area/radius given the positions that we need to recruit. Obviously some years you are going to need one position, the next year you may not need that position. We are going to recruit that 4-5 hour radius extremely hard and I think as you look just over the last year or two, that’s where we are predominately getting our players. Now if you have the time or we need to go get a Junior College or something that’s different, but just in terms of straight recruiting, we are looking to go within a 4-5 hr radius.

CigarBoy: Can you talk about the type of players you recruit and how you recruit them?

Schilling: The first thing obviously before you can do anything, they have to have the ability to play and help us win at this level, in trying to win our league. When I look at a player I say, is he the type of player that can help us win the Horizon League? Then if that’s true, we begin to look into their character, as much as you possibly can given the NCAA rules. So we are going to look and talk to the coaches and the counselors, talk to anybody we can talk to. The AAU coach, anybody we can find that can give some insight into a player's character. Are they going to be the type of young men that are serious about academics? Are they serious about getting a degree? Are they coachable? Are they the types of guys who love to play the game? Those are the basic four things we are going to look at. In terms of athletically, how does he play? Is he a selfish player? If he is, then he’s probably not going to fit in real well here. If you’ve got a guy that does not want to be coached, and there are a lot of guys like that out there that now, they just want to play and they don’t really have a desire to be corrected. Well, that player’s not going to fit in real well. A guy, whose vision of college is coming to party and do those types of things, is probably not going to fit in. So what we are really looking for is a guy that’s really interested in getting his degree. The academics are important to him. Somebody that loves the game, that wants to become great, that wants to be coached. When they have those ingredients, then we go after them with everything we have. We are not giving in on that criteria. Our recruiting pool is probably a little less than others. We are not recruiting hundreds of guys. We get fairly narrow on who we are going after. Eventually, for each position we have, we’ll end up offering 3-4 players, per position, that we have a scholarship for. Then whichever one of those accepts the scholarship first, that’s who we take. Obviously we are willing to extend a scholarship to somebody that we believe can come in and help us, at some point during their career, lead us to a Horizon League championship.

CigarBoy: Who helped you form your coaching philosophy? How’d you become the coach you are? What lead you to those philosophies and how you do things?

Schilling: I think first, probably my dad. He was a college coach when I was growing up. So I was going and watching him play when I was real young when he was playing some professional basketball, industrial league type stuff. I’d always be tagging along and watched. Then my dad was a college coach so I would go with him and he would recruit. He was a NAIA coach back in the day. So I would go with him to recruit. I remember, as we would sit there, he would quiz me, as we’d watch. My dad lived in Indianapolis, played at Butler so we’d go to the Butler games. He’d say, “all right they are in a zone, how do you attack a 2/3 zone?” I would say, “You want to go with the one guard, dad.” So we’d go through those type things. Then growing up playing high school basketball, I played for two guys that are both Indiana High School Hall of Fame Coaches: They both have completely different styles. One coach really got the most out of his talent. Really worked on individual improvement, things like that. Where the other one was a team coach. It was all about a system. An offensive/defensive system. The players needed to fit the system way. So it was a great blend for me. Even when I was in college, I knew I wanted to become a coach when I couldn’t play any longer. Each year I’d work the Five Star Camp and had an opportunity to coach against and learn from the best coaches in the game, the John Calipari’s, the Rick Patino’s, to guys like Will Rey and Jerry Wainwright and those type guys. So those were kind of my mentors coming up as I got into coaching. Then as a high school coach, I began to transform and shape my philosophies given my personality. Then obviously working for John Calipari gave me a completely different look at the game. The biggest thing I got from him is work can be accomplished when teams play extremely hard and what can be accomplished when the intensity is great and the passion is great. John Calipari, in my opinion, is about as good there is in the game at getting his teams to play hard. So I think there’s a lot of players and a lot of people that have helped form the philosophy, none the less being Will Rey my number one assistant. He’s really helped shape my philosophy too. Bringing his experience as a high school coach, a Division I head coach, a Division III head coach, he’s helped shape my philosophy as well.

CigarBoy: You are probably known for two things, being a basketball coach and also for being a Christian. How do your Christian beliefs, your Christian faith, impact what you do as a basketball coach and anything else you might do in your life?

Schilling: Everything I do goes through that. Everything that I am, everything I try to do, everything I try to be comes through the lens of trying to serve the Lord. I think as I coach my basketball team, I think of the scripture, that says, "do all things for the glory of God, serving unto God not as to Man." In another place in the Bible it says, whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly at unto the Lord. So, whether I’m coaching a game or a practice or I’m speaking to a Rotary Club, or whatever club it might be, I’m going to do it to serve God and the Lord is my audience. That’s who I’m trying to please and I think if I do that, if I treat people the way I want to be treated, if I coach each practice, or regardless of what I’m doing. If I’m doing it with my whole heart, then in turn, I’m going to become the best coach that’s possible. Everything I’m doing from the start of my day, I’m trying to see okay, what does the bible say? How am I to act? How am I to talk? What is my personality to be like? What’s my character supposed to be like? Then as I continue to read that word, and pray, I spend time with other believers, which will hopefully happen is I will become more like Christ. My vision of how Jesus would be, he would be a guy who would be tremendously passionate, he would care about his players, he would try to make them the best that they could be, correct them when they needed correcting, and encouraging them when they needed encouragement. So, everything I do as a coach, as a father and as a husband, I’m trying to do it to please God. Fortunately by Jesus’ work on the cross and by his giving of the holy spirit, we can continue to improve and continue to become more and more like the example that Jesus set for us.

CigarBoy: You are one of the few coaches that actually have a web page. It’s a pretty unique web page. I’ve seen a lot of coaches’ web page and it’s I won this, I did this, I did this, I did this and contact me here if you want to congratulate me. How did you get an idea to do a web page and how did you get an idea to do a web page that is so unique? I’ve never seen one like it.

Schilling: It’s kind of funny. I was actually sitting in on a staff meeting for Bethel World Outreach Center in Tennessee. It’s the church Morningstar. You’ve heard Champions for Christ and things like that, but Rice Brookes is kind of the President, or whatever, of Morningstar International. So I’m sitting in on the staff meeting and the Catina’s were there. I don’t know if you are familiar with the music group the Catinas but they are actually going to be performing at the Final Four this year fin New Orleans, but they are one of the hot groups out there in Christian music. They were talking about some of their fans-type stuff and their web site and I thought, man, why don’t I have a web page? This is an opportunity because I get lots of calls from high school coaches, players, and young kids who ask me, “hey what do I need to do.” And I thought this would give me an opportunity to do some basketball stuff for high school coaches but yet at the same time, I can share my faith. Everything from a verse for the day to different articles and things are on there. I was an English teacher for a little while when I was a high school coach and I actually really love to write. I don’t have a lot of time for it with three kids now, but this give me a platform and a place/arena to actually to do some writing when I have the time. One of the other things is, that just very practically, I can put my bio up there so when I do speaking engagements instead of having to go fax the bio every time, I can just send them to the web site. But more than anything, it’s just an opportunity to share my faith, share what’s important to me and just pray the Lord would use it for his glory and not my glory.

CigarBoy: Tell me a little about Champions for Christ. You’ve gone on a couple sports related, overseas mission trips. I guess they figure it’s two things you love, God, and basketball, then put them together. You’ve gone to the Philippines and you’ve gone to Lithuania. Talk to me about what Champions for Christ does and what those two trips did for you.

Schilling: Just this year in the spring, I went to the Philippines and later in the summer I went to Latvia and Lithuania on the same trip. What it does is we are just using the vehicle of basketball, we sell into them taking a team of current or former professional players and we go play against their top teams. Hopefully what we are trying to do is say, “hey, you can be excellent and be a Christian.” Then hopefully, as we gain their respect through basketball, then they can see something different in us and we said it’s the Christ in us is the reason we do what we do. Then when something happens, we get a bad call or when this happens or whatever, you don’t hear the normal things coming out of our mouths. You don’t see the actions that you would maybe see in someone who’s not a believer. So going and doing that is one way. The other thing is we do a lot of clinics whether it is coaching clinics or clinics for young people. We really serve these people then in turn; we get a chance to tell them what makes us tick. I think after they see us play, after they see that we are there to serve them and to help them and give them what we have, then they are receptive to the gospel. Ultimately, that is what we want to do is share with them what it is that makes us, what makes our lives, and what’s important to us. Then out of that, about everything that Champions does, the vision is to ultimately to plant a church or to sell into an existing Morningstar church, a Christian church. There have been a lot of things birthed out of these type things. In Lithuania, we are hoping to birth a church there. When we went to Latvia there was already a church there so we really tried to strengthen that church, encourage them, and build it up. In the Philippines, it started with no church there and now it’s about a 6,000-member church right in Manila. There’s a big article in Charisma magazine about Champions for Christ, a big 12 page article about all the NFL guys like Mark Brunell and all these guys at Jacksonville that started with a Bible study out Champions for Christ and it actually birthed into churches. So just out of the little Bible study in Jacksonville with Mark Brunell now it’s almost a 1,000-member church. So that’s kind of a vision of Champions is to use athletics to share the gospel and to ultimately to plant a church or to sell into a church.

CigarBoy: You don’t actually play? Are you coaching or are you playing?

Schilling: I have played, yeah, I can still play a little bit but the teams we played in Lithuania that year, those teams are close to NBA type teams. They were really, really good and so I just coached. I let other guys who are still in their prime do it. I would still like to play but I just don’t have the time to continue to play and with different injuries . . .

CigarBoy: Did you play in the Philippines, where they are about 5’7” . . .

Schilling: Believe it or not, that’s pretty good basketball there but I did play in the Philippines. Of course the heat is about 1000º there with the humidity and everything but I did play a little bit there.

CigarBoy: Let me go back to Miami University. Why did you choose Miami University to play basketball?

Schilling: One I wanted to stay close to home where my parents could come watch me play. I wanted a school that was recognized as a good academic school and I wanted a place where I could play right away. All though I had Big 10 schools and schools like that recruiting me some, I wanted to go where I could play right away and my decision was a few other things. I actually went to Miami’s basketball camp when I was like in 7th grade. I went there and thought, man; this would be a great place to play, so I had something formed into me at the time that kind of drew me to Miami. Then when I was offered a scholarship there, I went there on an unofficial visit and saw Miami on a beautiful fall day and looked at my position, as the Senior point guard, was graduating, I would have an opportunity to contend for a starting job and that’s what happened. I ended up being a four-year starter there and things like that. So it turned out to be a very good decision for me.

CigarBoy: I guess the obvious questions is, since your dad’s in the Butler Hall of Fame, your father-in-law is in the Hall of Fame, your mom was a cute Butler cheerleader, and you married a Butler cheerleader………didn’t Butler recruit you?

Schilling: They didn’t really recruit me for some reason. I would have been very interested. I don’t know if they didn’t need my position that year or what. They ended up not recruiting me. Purdue was recruiting me. I had home visits with Iowa, Navy, Miami, and schools like that. Navy when they had David Robinson but Butler didn’t recruit me. It’s hard to go someplace where they don’t recruit you. (chuckling)

CigarBoy: What was playing at Miami like?

Schilling: It was a great experience especially given the opportunity to play with a guy like Ron Harper. Obviously you play with the guy, maybe one of the best ever to play in the MAC. He was just a phenomenal player and being able to play in some high level games early in my career was special. I remember in my second game as a college player, playing at Purdue, only 20 minutes from home, and beating them in Mackey Arena. Some of the different experiences, playing against Bias at Maryland was great.

CigarBoy: Is that the Purdue game you and Harper combined for 41 points?

Schilling: That’s right. He had 39 (laughing). But, so it was a great experience for me, getting a chance to compete and play against some of the best teams in the country and also being able to compete for the championship. We didn’t win the championship every year, but yet at the same time we had opportunity. We were competitive and that’s one thing we’re trying to do here; give our guys an opportunity to play against some of the best teams in the country like a Michigan State or Louisville, or whomever, but to also be in the thick of it for a conference championship. We’ve been right there in the upper echelon the last couple of years and that makes it fun. When you are actually playing with the eyes on being a champion and winning a championship it is just something that makes the college experience just so much better.

CigarBoy: I want to come back to Wright State. What’s your philosophy on scheduling? I guess it’s a lot trickier now than it was 15 years ago. It’s really becoming an art as much as a science probably.

Schilling: It’s one of the most challenging things for a mid-major type program that are trying to move up. Scheduling is one of the hardest things we do as coaches. To be able to get one of those top 20 type teams on your schedule is next to impossible. We got Michigan State on a two-for-one because they had a player from the area on their team, Andre Hutson so we were able to get that. It’s very, very challenging. It’s very difficult to put together a schedule if you want to play some home games. If you want to just go on the road, you can play everybody but that doesn’t help your teams, it doesn’t help your fans, doesn’t help you build the program. We’re trying to get a blend of playing some high level teams and then playing some local rivalry type games. We’re fortunate, we get a chance to play Miami, Toledo, Akron, Ball State, some teams like that I think have increased and helped our schedule. Playing a team like South Florida, who is kind of like one of those top 30 teams. Fortunately Seth Greenberg is willing to come here and play then we’ll return the game next year. It’s hard to get those types game. Then I like to give them a chance to compete. I always try to play at least the one, top 10-type team. Last year it was Cincinnati, year before it was Michigan State, we’ve played Kentucky in the past, but this year we are going to Louisville’s tournament. We’ll get a change to play against Manhattan who went to the NIT last year, won 20 games. Then hopefully if we can beat them we get a chance to play Louisville who should be a top 20-type team.

CigarBoy: The NCAA selection committee I guess has clearly come down on the side of strong RPI, which no one knows exactly how the RPI is configured because they don’t release that information. How does that complicate scheduling? Has that changed how you scheduled in the last two years?

Schilling: Oh definitely. It used to be one of those things where if you could get 20 wins, you put yourself in a position to get an NCAA tournament bid. Look at Miami my first two years, we were at-large both years. Now days, given the RPI and all that stuff, I’m not sure we’d be able to get in. So it’s no longer just win 20 years or win your league championship. Look at Butler last year. They won the league but loose in the first round of the tournament. It’s one of those things that you could spend all night trying to figure out. But the bottom line is, you got to win and you’ve got to play good games and you have to win those games. Planning a great schedule and not beating any of those great teams doesn’t help you any more than playing all really low Division 1 times and winning them. There’s a blend there. The bottom line you gotta’ be prepared to try and win 3 or 4 games in March and if you do that then you put yourself in a position to for sure go to the NCAA tournament. You try and strategically plan and schedule but the bottom line is there’s no exact formula for how to do it. There’s no formula other than being in the Big 10 or the ACC or something like that and finishing with an above a 500 records. (chuckle) So it’s really very difficult so we just have to do our best and schedule the best teams we can and try to win those games.

CigarBoy: What are your long-term goals for the team? How far up the basketball ladder can you take a Wright State?

Schilling: That’s one of the things you don’t really know. You look at Wright State and the potential that’s there, its such a young university. I think we have a very nice facility that can continue to grow. When people come here, we know we aren’t going to loose a player because of our facilities. Certainly our basketball arena is going to be one of the attractions here. I think our city is a big enough city with quality fans that we are going draw people. The league is very good so I look at it a little bit like what John Calipari did at UMass when I joined him at the end of that run. He took a program that was at the very bottom of the barrel and over a period of eight years they were number one in the country. If you look at some of the things, obviously what he did has never been done before and has never been done since. But I see Wright State as a type school that doesn’t have the feeling that it is stuck with where it is like lot of other jobs. We are in a conference that’s in major metropolitan areas. I think also that we are a type university that can continue to grow and as the name gets out, I think more and more people are going to say, hey, you know what? They really have a lot to offer with their medical school, their engineering school, things like that. So, my long-term goal is to continue to be part of the building of Wright State basketball. Each year we become a little bit better and hopefully we get into the NCAA tournament and begin to knock off some people. I look at UMass as kind of the blue print and say, hey; can we do what they did? Obviously it hasn’t been done since and had never really been done before, but you know what, that’s my vision and we are going to shoot high. That’s the goal we are after.

CigarBoy: So when you wind up somewhere, where do you think it will be? Do you have a ……..

Schilling: I don’t know. That’s one of those things that I’m going to continue to seek the Lord and obviously you have to have opportunities and offers before you can do anything. I’m very content here. I love Dayton. My family loves it here. It’s close to my in-laws and my parents so it’s not a place I’m looking to get out of but if an opportunity came open and I would certainly commit it to prayer and see if I felt led by the Lord. Is this would be a place where the Lord would have me to be, at a place where I’d have a greater platform to serve him? Then that would be certainly something I would entertain but it’s not something I’m looking for.

CigarBoy: I’m going to name a coach and you give me a few words about him. Tim Buckley?

Schilling: He’s a great guy. He has a great sense of humor. He is just a terrific worker. Really gets after the recruiting. A guy I have a whole lot of respect for.

CigarBoy: Scott Drew?

Schilling: Young coach. A very good friend. I’ve known him since I was a high school coach. I’m so excited to see him get an opportunity as a head coach. He’s signed some great players already. I think the sky’s the limit for him. He’s just a terrific young man, a terrific Christian and I think when it’s all said and done he’s going to be as great a coach as his dad was.

CigarBoy: You know, I couldn’t get him to say anything bad about you? I tried. I tried to get him to give me just a little scandal but he couldn’t. They couldn’t do it, both he and his father. OK, Larry Farmer?

Schilling: Quality man. Has great presence about him. Just a good-hearted guy.

CigarBoy: Todd Lickliter?

Schilling: Another great friend. A guy I’ve known for years. Good at basketball as I’ve ever seen. Just in terms of X’s and O’s, and teaching of the game, he’s a superstar. It’s neat to see him through the adversity that he’s had as a coach from the different, crazy things that he’s had, the tough breaks that he’s had, to see him in the situation that he’s always dreamed of and making the most of it. Just a great friend and again, I think he’s brilliant as a coach.

CigarBoy: Phil Martelli?

Schilling: Phil Martelli is hilarious. I think he’s very funny but at the same time has a great level of intensity. A silly guy that is certainly doing great things with that program.

CigarBoy: Oliver Purnell?

Schilling: I don’t know him particularly well as a person but yet I know him well enough to speak to him and to talk. I think he’s very solid in his approach to basketball. He keeps the game simple. His teams play hard. Obviously that program is doing great things and he’s been right in the middle of making it happen.

CigarBoy: Thad Matta?

Schilling: I think he’s another guy that’s a rising star in the game. Talk about a guy that’s made the most of every opportunity. He gets an opportunity at Butler. They give him an opportunity and he strikes gold. Then he goes and gets one of the top jobs in the country with Xavier and hires a tremendous staff that really compliments him well. I think they are going to be a team that, for years and years to come, are going to be contending for a national championship.

CigarBoy: Now would you say anything different if I told you he has been reluctant to do an interview with me?

Schilling: (chuckling) Well, he’s not perfect. It’s a good thing that we all have room to improve. He might be a little intimidated actually….of you.

CigarBoy: I keep it toned down. John Calipari?

Schilling: Oh gosh, I would not be where I am today without him. He gave me the break of my life. Hired me and let me go with him to UMass and then to the New Jersey Nets. He’s probably the primary mentor guy that I know that is as loyal as the day is long. Right now, if I picked up the phone and said coach I need you; he would be here today. He’s a great example of loyalty. He’s a great friend and for my money, there is no better coach in the country. Obviously I’m biased, but if you say who’s the best coach in the country? It’s John Calipari.

CigarBoy: Seth Greenberg?

Schilling: Seth’s a guy I go way back to Five Star with. Just a savvy basketball mind. He’s got so much on the ball. He’s got great charisma. I just remember him at Five Star one time taking over a team. The coach wasn’t there, he had to leave and he takes over. He’s got them pressing, and he makes the guys play better than they are. He did that when he was working the Five Star camp. He’s got great intensity and passion and he just wills his team to play above their potential, above their abilities.

CigarBoy: Rick Pitino?

Schilling: Rick Pitino is a guy that I’ve looked up to in my entire coaching career. He’s the guy that you point to and say, man I’d love to be like Rick Pitino some day as a basketball coach. He is the one that as I got into coach, that this is the guy that everyone pointed to as THE coach of our time. I got to spend a few days with him. I’ve known him from a distance at Five Star. Just a motivator, a great coach, he just has the whole package. Being able to lecture, to speak, to teach, to coach, he’s got the whole package obviously. Wherever he goes, he wins.

CigarBoy: Steve Alford?

Schilling: Steve Alford, one of my best friends in the world. We talk at least once a week. Tremendous man, a great Christian, loves his family. He’s in the game for the right reasons. He wants to make a difference in people’s lives. A very, very good coach. A tremendous worker. He gets out there and he’s always willing to learn and wants to get better. I think he’s a man that’s going to be able to go through adversity and come out on the other side. There’s a handful of guys that that you would say, if I my son ever became a player, who would I want him to play for, and I would say if Steve Alford wanted to coach my son, my son would go there.

CigarBoy: Buzz Peterson?

Schilling: Buzz is a guy that’s hilarious. He’s funny, he’s just as personable and caring a man as I’ve been around. He truly treats people like he wants to be treated. He will sit down with anyone. He’s not a respecter of positions. He’ll treat a guy off the street the same as he would treat the president of his university. He just cares about people. Obviously has a great pedigree as a coach, playing under Dean Smith (and the experience he’s had as a coach. But above and beyond all the basketball accolades and all that stuff, the thing about Buzz is just what a solid, fun, caring person he is.

CigarBoy: I get the idea that you, he, and Steve are almost like the Three Musketeers. You hang out, talk all the time.

Schilling: Definitely

CigarBoy: You’re all about the same age, you all played pretty big-time basketball, and you all got three kids.

Schilling: Yep that’s us (laughing)

CigarBoy: Bob Huggins?

Schilling: I don’t think anyone in basketball gets his team to play harder than he does. There are a lot of things you can look at as a coach. One of the main things I look at is how hard to their teams play. Nobody are teams play any harder than Coach Huggins’ teams. He’s always treated me very well. He’s a guy that motivates a different type of kid and gets them all to play hard. That’s a tremendous asset. He’s parlayed that into the highest level of coaching.

CigarBoy: Perry Watson?

Schilling: I think the thing that makes Perry Watson great is that he has great control of his team and his program. Those players do what he wants them to do and night in and night out, you are going to play well to beat his team. I have just great respect for him. He keeps the local players home and he’s really capitalized on his Detroit City contacts and kept good players home to play for him. Then when he gets them, he has great control over them and they play fundamental basketball.

CigarBoy: Bruiser Flint?

Schilling: Bru is a guy that helped me tremendously when I was at UMass. I think he’s got great charisma but the thing that really impressed me when I worked with him at UMass was, he could jump and get on those guys. Yell at them and all that and he was able to do that because they knew that Bruiser Flint cared about them as human beings. Bruiser Flint cares about his players. He will do anything for his guys. I think, as part of the Coach Calipari family is that Bruiser is loyal, he cares, and he’s a good person.

CigarBoy: Barry Collier?

Schilling: Excellent X’s and O’s guy. A great tactician. Really gets his teams to defend. They’re no nonsense. It’s very blue collar. They’re going to guard you; they are going to execute on offense. He built the program the right way at Butler, has good kids that do the right things, and in a very blue collar way, goes about winning.

CigarBoy: OK Coach, the important things now. What are your five favorite restaurants?

Schilling: First of all, any place that YOU’D be willing to pick up the tab would be my favorite, but that’s just not going to happen so I think I’ll leave those out. Any Ruth Chris, Montgomery Inn - The Boathouse in Cincinnati. What’s the one in Boston? Grill 23 that’s it. The Blue Moon Café in Dayton in the downtown Oregon District, and the Carnegie Deli in New York City, preferably with Howard Garfinkel having any number of things.

CigarBoy: What’s on your CD player right now?

Schilling: Right now there’s the Lakewood Live CD which was made from a Church in Lakewood, TX. Anything Israel Horton does. He does a lot of things with the Champions. They’ve got about 5 different CD’s from the conferences, the Champions for Christ conferences, so there’s a bunch of those I listen to. Also the Catinas. They’ve got several good ones. I love the new worship one. Michael W. Smith, I love that CD called Worship

CigarBoy: He’s got Worship 2 out now. Do you have it yet?

Schilling: I don’t have it yet but I saw it. Then I like the Passion CD’s, Passion One Day was the first one and now they’ve got a new one out, Our Love is Loud, that’s good. Probably the Champion’s CD series are my favorites.

CigarBoy: As you wake up tomorrow morning and you are looking at your day, what is that day like with you? What do you do from the time you get up until the time you go to bed?

Schilling: Oh geez. On a normal day I get up at about 6am, I go downstairs, I do my pull-up trainer, and in between each set I read the Bible so I get a couple chapters of reading in as I do my pull-up trainer. Back upstairs, shower, get dressed, get the kids up, make breakfast for them, make sure they get ready. I drop my daughter off at school at East Dayton Christian and I usually take Little Eddie with me to give my wife a few more minutes. Drop him back off at home and then I’m here at the office by 8:15/8:30. Spend about an hour or so with prayer and worship. I am praying through the day, praying for my family, praying for my team and friends, stuff like that. Then I’m on with the day. I work straight through to practice. Plan practice with my staff, whatever things I have to do - meetings, appointments all that kind of stuff during the course of the day. Practice at 3:45 during this quarter. As soon as practice is over I’ll go home so I get home between 6:00/6:30, and we eat dinner. I usually clean up the kitchen after dinner then I’m with my family until we get the kids to bed around 8:30, Eddie about 8:00 and Christiana at 8:30. Then I make recruiting calls, write recruiting letters, anything that I still need to do. Then an hour or so with my wife talking, we pray before we go to bed, get some time in the Word before I go to sleep and I start over the next day.

CigarBoy: One of the first things you do and the last things you do.

Schilling: I try to get at least an hour, hour and a half in of uninterrupted time with the Lord. Prayer, worship, I keep a prayer journal.

CigarBoy: So the stuff you are doing with the pull-up trainer is kind of extra reading?

Schilling: Oh that’s recreational.

CigarBoy: (chuckling) Recreational Bible reading….

Schilling: Then at night I at least read whatever the Proverb is for that day so if it’s the 13th, I’ll read Proverb 13. If it’s the 14th, I’ll read Proverbs 14. I think there’s basically one per….how may Proverbs are there, 31 or 30? Hold on I’ve got it right here. I’ll tell you here quick.

CigarBoy: I think 31?

Schilling: Thirty-one Proverbs so one for each day of the month and then I’ll so some other reading as well. So that’s my day. Obviously some days are subject to change but that’s kind of the outline of the day. Some days I might have to make a lot more phone calls at night or write more letters but during the course of the day, unless I have a lunch appointment, I usually bring my lunch so I can work right through.

CigarBoy: Final question, when you get up in the morning, what excites you?

Schilling: Just getting with the Lord, serving my family, trying to grow my relationship with God. As an outpouring of that, trying to make a difference in the people I coach. Trying to do the best I can in regards to what I do. I want to become the best coach I can possibly be and that fires me up. I want to be the best husband I can be, the best father I can be. So just a general quest to try and be excellent in whatever it is I find my hand doing. If it’s at home with my family I want to try and do it the best that I can. So more than anything, just trying to serve God regardless of what it is I’m doing.

CigarBoy: It’s a wrap. I think somewhere in all those words we have a good interview

Schilling: Well at least I didn’t have to feed you. That was good!

CigarBoy: You lucked out!