Bear Insider Podcast: Cal Hoops Assistant Coach Matt Scherbenske

In today’s installment of Bear Insider Podcast, we’re talking with new Cal assistant Coach Matt Scherbenske about his path to and return to Cal, how the staff and new roster have gelled and more. You can also listen to the audio version on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any of your favorite podcast sites.

Jim: Matt, welcome back to Cal. It's a sort of a little homecoming of sorts for you. Want to talk a little bit about your background first. You grew up playing ball and in in Kentucky and Lexington and started out at ORU and then you got to play for hometown, Kentucky. What was that like being a Wildcat growing up right in their shadow?

MS: You know, it was a dream come true. I obviously grew up a huge Kentucky fan. And my father was in the army. So we moved around a lot, but I actually had my first knee surgery when I was a sophomore in high school, and I was told I'll never play basketball again. It was really cool to see you know, God kind of orchestrated all that and I got to play. I didn't play in high school. I played my freshman year, then didn't play sophomore in junior and then I got a chance to go try out at Oak Hill Academy. And Craig Smith is one of my mentors - actually just retired - but he invited me to be on the team and so I actually technically replace Kevin Durant. About the worst trade of all time.

Jim: At least you're built physically similar, you and KD

MS: If KD would have been on the team, we would've won the natty but we actually finished second that year but yeah, so that was a dream come true.  So I went from there to Oral Roberts and then I knew my career was probably going to be in coaching. I kind of felt that's what I was called to do. And so I had a chance to transfer from Oral Roberts to Kentucky and then you know, try it out there and coach Gillespie gave me a shot.  I think I played like four games and ended up having another knee surgery or two. Learned so much, it was great. It was one of those things that you know when your dreams come to fruition, from a little fifth grader saying I want to play for The University of Kentucky to actually being able to achieve that, it was it was a heck of an experience when I ran on that court

Jim: What was it like walking into the arena the first time in uniform?

MS: Oh my goodness, I think I missed my first few layups. I was just bricking it. I'm scared to death. Now it was literally a dream come true, one of those things you never forget. And then we had Midnight Madness and you're running out there and you're hearing your name called. It was it was surreal. Definitely one of those things you never forget in life.

Jim: Then after you finished your playing days, you got started coaching some high school ball and some AAU ball. Was that a fun transition for you and did it help you relate to the players being able to do it so soon after being a player yourself? 

MS: You know, it did. So right after I got done playing, I worked for a guy named Tim Grover and Mike Procopio. Tim was Michael Jordan's trainer, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade. So I was in the gym with a lot of pros like DWade and Gilbert Arenas and Kevin Durant. Helped them with their pre-draft. And so just being able to be around those guys, see that work ethic. Guys like Tim and Mike, they're elite, elite, elite what they do and so being around them. And then left them that summer and went to my parents who live in Kansas City. So moved there and got a high school job and kind of built my own business working guys out and coached AAU and drove Jimmy John's on the side. My parents were like, you gotta have a job besides coaching. And so that was probably one of the more formative years of coaching where I really knew I fell in love with it. 

I'm gonna be the head coach of the high school team and five kids quit the first three days. I ran boot camp. Thought I was the head coach at Kentucky, coaching all these, 9th and 10th and 11th graders at a small Christian school. So yeah, it was great. And then that AAU experience actually led me to kind of how I  got here at Cal. So it was it was very fun. I got to do my own thing. Kind of learned how to coach with not a whole lot of pressure. One of my players, actually was Nathan Martin, our video coordinator. So yeah, it's cool, kind of developing those relationships.

Jim: So did you get connected with Coach Montgomery's staff by your AAU experience? Did you have some players you working with that they were interested in?

MS: I coached with a guy named LJ Goolsbee at Kansas City Run GMC. And so Johnny Montgomery,  Marlon Stewart and Greg Gottlieb. I emailed a bunch of people and they emailed me back and I interviewed for what back then was called the intern. I think the first guy didn't get it and so they had to call me back. They were going on some foreign tour and said do you want the job? I'd actually accepted a junior college assistant job down in Midland and then I was like, "Yeah, I think I'd rather do that." 

So I got the job here through them and it was such a fun learning experience. We got to play in the NCAA tournament. We won a game and played Syracuse, my second year in the tournament, for a chance to go to the Sweet 16. And thinking about being with Coach Montgomery, from Jay John, from Travis (DeCuire) to Coach Gottlieb, it's one of those things that I still use a lot of that to this day, just the little nuances, whether it be offensive or defensive schemes. I try to bring that to wherever I go. 

Jim: Then you moved on to become a Bear at Central Arkansas, another Bear.

MS: I can't leave the Bears. So I got a job working there and was there for five years. That job was a new Division 1 program, from just 2 wins to dang near 20 I think our fourth year and so great, great experience. You know, I was one of the youngest assistants in the country at the time so I had a chance to actually grow and screw up with kind of like not a lot of pressure.

Jim: Not under the bright lights at the same time. 

MS: Yeah, exactly. It was a small division one program so we had to play I think seven or eight guaranteed games a year. We actually came back to Cal one year and won. So I don't want to bring that up. Now, we had some really good players. We were very fortunate to recruit some good players there. And then the door opened where I got to go to Texas Tech, and was there for two years. And we had a Sweet 16 run our first year. It was an unbelievable experience. We actually lost to Duke at the Chase Center. We were up I think four with two minutes to go. And then they had a guy named Paolo Banchero. I think him and Jeremy Roach went 8-of-8 down in the last four and a half minutes. But it was a great experience there. Learned a lot. Didn't end great, necessarily. The head coach ended up resigning just for different reasons. Mom always says it's a lesson or a blessing.

So obviously, it didn't end great there. But what I experienced with Lubbock is the people there, some great friends there. The fan base there was great. And but a lot of good people. Still had a chance to go to Sweet 16. You can't put a price on that. 

So I learned some things that I love doing there, learn some things that maybe I won't bring into this program. Being in the Big 12. You know, it's one of the best basketball conferences, if not the best besides ACC, of course. So that was a heck of an experience and then got connected with Coach Madsen again, and had the opportunity to come back here. And it was it was a dream come true. 

Jim: He's a pretty convincing guy

MS: Actually I met Coach four years ago. So I messaged him and said you didn't wanna hire me then man? Come on! But no, he had talked to me when I was in Central Arkansas, and he went a different direction, but we stayed in touch. And that's the kind of guy Coach is. So it's a blessing for me, because this business is very tough. There's a lot of hours, a lot days, weeks, months, we don't have days off. And the opportunity to work with not just a great coach but a great man is one of those things where you can't put a price on that at a great institution like this. Coach - our recruiting, I think is taking off and it's because of Coach Madsen. You have coach Madson, then you have the number one public school in the world, and now the ACC,  Bay Area as our fans are getting excited again about our program. There's a lot of stuff maybe not using the word sell, but just to be able to tell kids.

Jim: Are you finding you're getting more traction now?

MS: Yeah, the last few months have been very exciting, especially with some of the younger kids. We got that late start when we got the job. I think I drove here from Lubbock, the Monday after the Final Four, got the job on that Saturday, I believe and then drove up here and man is it was got a late start, but then we did a pretty good job putting a good roster together. We call it the Mad Dog effect. But you know, these younger kids - we're getting calls from AAU coaches that are very interested in our program and prep schools that maybe they weren't necessarily interested in maybe the last six, seven years so it's exciting. time to be a Bear, for sure.
Jim: How's the staff get along? 

MS: Oh, it's awesome. It's hilarious. You know, you got Maz )Adam Mazarei and Row (Amorrow Morgan and Ken (Moses) and JJ (Jarred Jackson) and we've all gotten really close from day one. Me, Maz and Ken I think live maybe I think half a mile from each other. And so, we're all young, energetic. 

Jim: Have you hooped with each other yet?

MS: No we haven't yet. My knees screwed up. We always talk about start playing ball. We need to. Me and Amorrow work out together sometimes, trying to get in shape. But it's just it's fun to walk into the office every day and be excited and you can joke and enjoy being at work instead of walking in and kind of putting your head down and just go into your office and sitting. It's like we're becoming one big family. 

Jim: What's your niche with this stuff? And as far as your work with the player, probably the
MS: Best looking one, obviously. I think that goes without saying. No, I help a lot with the recruiting and defense, some baseline out of bounds defense and then work with the wings and the bigs and so kind of handle everything. You know, Coach is great with that. It gives us a lot of autonomy to be able to not just be stuck into one deal or it's like, "Hey, you're the recruiter, you're this guy and you're that guy." It gives us a chance to kind of have our hands in a bunch of different pots. 

Jim: With five assistants and a head coach, obviously you could overlap a lot. But do you guys feel like you've you've kind of hit your stride being able to contribute in your own individual ways and, and helping these guys grow in their game?

MS: Oh, for sure. And if our staff wasn't even finalized with the ops stuff. Opps, video, recruiting coordinator was all maybe a month ago. And so we were all traveling. There was a time there were I think we were on the road for between Europe and here, I think I was gone like maybe 30-36 days or something. And we were all in different states, different countries. So it was one of those things where we had to kind of learn really fast how each other works and operates and so on. Now we communicate very well, text, call all the time. And we had a couple visits two weekends ago. And we're kind of still learning on the fly, because a couple of our guys were new here. And so it's great. We just kind of play off each other. And I think that's probably our staff's greatest strength is authenticity. You know, there's a lot of salesmen in our business. And for us, we'll just be who we are. Either recruits like it or players like or the family or not.

Jim: Families can really tell the difference. They've they've seen the salesman and they know authenticity.

MS: You don't have too many cheesy lines. I always ask them, "How bad are the spiels?" He's like, "Oh, man. Coach, I've had three conversations today and it's just the same thing every time. It really hit me on the visit who we are. This is our head coach. He's our leader. You know, it's a family man. And it's one of those things where I think people can see that, like you said, they can see through the quote, unquote, BS.

Jim: That shines through pretty fast. 

Matt: It's like this interview, man. Like we just got out of practice, sweating, didn't brush my hair, probably smell. But that's how we try to be recruits, but more importantly, to our current players."

Jim: Just to wrap up, what can fans expect to see out of this team as far as what you've seen so far?

MS: Oh, man, I expect a team that plays really hard and plays together. I think we're going to be able to play really fast. You know, Coach Madsen at Utah Valley, they I think averaged over 80 points. We're gonna get up and down, we're gonna be a team that will really compete. For us, that's a big, big thing we're trying to instill in the guys, that it's not only about winning and losing, but let's not kid ourselves that there is always a winner and a loser. So we're not trying to romanticize the whole process. We're scrimmaging and stuff and we're here only to get better. That is part of the process, for sure. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what it takes to win. 

So that's we're trying to instill in the guys is, "Hey, embrace the process, enjoy it, love it. Because we're the number one public school in the world, you're around great people, you have a head coach who actually cares about you." And then as we're doing that, understand that this is about winning and losing when it comes to being on that court. And so for us, just telling the fans that we want to play hard, make you all proud but the goal here is to build a championship program. So that is our goal, whether we reach it in year one, or years, two, three or four, that is our goal. I think we're well on our way. We had a great, great practice today. Very, very competitive depth. And the young guys are coming along and transfers kind of molding together and really figuring out how each other plays. In this day and age of the portal, that's one of those things you have to figure out is how you get some of these guys and then fit them together. And then the guys that are returning, how they fit into it.  

I think we're gonna play fast, we're gonna play hard, we're gonna play together and be an exciting brand of basketball. But within that exciting brand new basketball, our goal is to is to win every game. I don't think there's been an undefeated team since what? Since Indiana maybe in '78. When we lose a game, we're going to still hold our heads high and have high character but yeah, we're gonna have a very competitive team that hopefully gets Cal back to the days of winning championships and the Sweet 16. And Top Dog after the game. I need an NIL Top Dog deal, that's what I need.

Jim: Nice! I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule and good luck this season. 
MS: Appreciate you having me.