NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — This isn’t the first time I’ve written about how Dan Geriot isn’t used to the grind of a college basketball season.
Geriot was in the NBA in various roles, including assistant coach
for the Cavaliers and Pelicans, over the last 10 years. It’s an 82-game season with constant travel, few practices, and mostly known commodities. College basketball is different. The MAAC specifically is different – as is every league.
After losing to Saint Peter’s last Monday, Geriot quipped that he was struggling with the adjustment.
“Every game is different in the MAAC,” Geriot said. “That’s definitely something that we’re struggling with. Every game is different, every pace is different. That’s something we’ve got to continue to go through and control.”
The Gaels responded with two wins, beating Merrimack and Manhattan at home to improve to 6-5 in the MAAC. That’s not close to enough for Geriot, he’s still far away from a place where he feels he understands the league.
“I think I’m going to be sitting here in 2040 and being like I still haven’t figured out the MAAC,” Geriot said on Saturday night.
He does still have some observations and some key differences from the way he operated in the NBA.
“It’s tough and it’s physical. It’s a night-in, night-out thing. Rest is for the weary in this league,” Geriot said. “You gotta put your shoes back on and get back out there, and that’s something we’re learning and feeling. I think that’s probably my biggest reflection on it is if you lose on a weekend, or you lose and you win, it’s a long time before the next game sometimes. Where I’m coming from, it’s blink, get your sleep, get to a practice facility, then fly somewhere the next day. It’s really about understanding the ebbs and flows.”
In the offseason, Geriot’s process-oriented player development approach was calculated and controlled. The Gaels were tracking a ton of data in every practice, trying to get numbers on lineup combinations and more. Now in the middle of the season, he’s looking at it from a different lens.
“We’ve changed how we practice,” Geriot said. “We’re practicing in more of an uncontrollable environment, is the best way I could describe it.”
Geriot says that he’s had to change the way he views coaching the sport, something that two of his best friends, Columbia head coach Kevin Hovde and Fordham head coach Mike Magpayo, have discussed with him.
“Hovde and Magpayo have gotten some laughs at that expense,” Geriot said. “They’re saying ‘you’re back in it,’ It’s muddy man, college hoops is great, it’s different. When you’re all pristine and shiny in the NBA, you can have process things that we talked about a lot, but I’ve had to continue my process mindset, but understand the ramifications, what we’re after, especially with this team in particular. And that’s why I think we got to this singular mindset a lot better.”
Not only is the travel schedule different in the NBA, but Geriot was used to having more information at his fingertips. Even with everything that websites like Synergy, CBB Analytics, and more provide, the NBA just has a different level of data, especially for the teams to collect themselves.
Additionally, with the added responsibility of being a head coach, he’s not quite able to get as stuck into the information the way he’s been able to in the past.
“It’s so interesting, a decade of the NBA, with everything that’s at your disposal, you find yourself in a vortex of information and film,” Geriot said. “Now it’s how am I finding it in college? Where am I finding it? I think we have a great staff here, I mean you guys know I rely on my staff a lot all the way through the player development assistants, analytics team, all of that. So that’s been helping us, how are we finding our data, our film, our improvements.”
On Saturday night, Geriot’s Gaels took down Manhattan, coached by John Gallagher, who said that he recruited Geriot back when he was an assistant at Lafayette in the early 2000’s.
With the MAAC Tournament fast approaching, February can sometimes be a completely different season from January. Just ask last year’s Iona team or the Siena team of 2022-23 for evidence.
We’ll see how Geriot responds. Iona takes on Fairfield on Friday before getting Sunday off.
