B.I.A.H Podcast w/ Rus Bradburd

This post is long overdue, but seeing how there's not much basketball action taking place this week, it's a perfect time for this to drop.

A couple months back, I had the chance to talk with Rus Bradburd the author of Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson for our Hoops Talk Live internet radio show.

Rus himself has lived quite the extraordinary life as well. He played college basketball at North Park College in Illinois, then served as an assistant coach at both UTEP and New Mexico State. He coached for 14 seasons under basketball icons Don Haskins and Lou Henson. He is said to be the man responsible for recruiting Tim Hardaway to UTEP from off the playgrounds of Chicago, and is also a world-renowned dribbling wizard who has worked with the likes of Rudy Gay, Earl Watson and Jerryd Bayless. After hanging up the clipboard, Bradburd pursued his Masters degree in fine arts at NMSU, and now is an English professor at the university. Aside from "Forty Minute of Hell" he has also penned the non-fiction story of his journey through Ireland coaching basketball in Paddy On The Hardwood. On top of that, he is a contributor to Slam Magazine and works as a color commentator for NMSU basketball games.

After the jump, listen to my discussion with Rus about his book "Forty Minutes of Hell"

Getting the chance to speak with Rus was an extraordinary opportunity for myself. I did not play college basketball, in fact, I was the back-up center for my high school team and struggled to dunk a mini-ball. I was what you would call a "defensive specialist".

Yet there I was, discussing one of the most polarizing coaches in modern college basketball history, Nolan Richardson, with a man who studied him and spent days writing about him.

I can remember staying up way past my bedtime in order to watch Richardson and his Arkansas team, led by Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman defeat the Duke Blue Devils to win the 1994 National Championship. I had watched this same team defeat my Georgetown Hoyas in the second round just a few weeks ago. That Arkansas team is one of the lasting memories I have of watching college basketball and a child.

I cannot tell you how many times as a youth I spent trying to perfect the "killer cross-over" in my backyard, a move made famous by Hardaway. A move taught to him by Bradburd.

Bradburd had coached alongside Don Haskins, who is arguably one of the most iconic and important figures in the history of college sports. I had trouble understanding what exactly I had done to deserve the chance to talk to somebody with all these ties to the sport I grew up on, and the sport I live for.

It was an immense opportunity to be able to speak with Rus, and the experience was even better.