 I'm Rusty Kamori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the head coach of our University of Hawaii men's basketball team. He is Coach Iran Ganat, and today we are going beyond basketball. Hey, Coach Iran, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Thanks for having me. Really excited, looking forward to having a good discussion with you and growing from this as well. Coach Iran, you've been just a fantastic coach for us here in Hawaii, and I want to ask you if you can first share a bit about your background growing up. Yeah, I mean, pretty simple. Born in Philly, grew up in Jersey. I know it's surprising for some people to hear of my East Coast backgrounds, because this is a year 20 for coaching for me, but all in the West, but grew up in New Jersey, went to a small school, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, I knew I played there to your captain, but my playing career was not going to continue. I loved the game, so wanted to still be around it, wanted a coach, and I got my first opportunity at St. Mary's. Spent three years at St. Mary's under Randy Bennett, went four years to the University of Hawaii, came back to the St. Mary's for five years, and now in my second stint at Hawaii, going into my eighth year as a head coach, so it's been quite a journey. It's been an awesome journey with great people. My wife here, we've been married since 2015, we raised our daughter Ziza, who just turned 11, is in basketball camp, so life is good. Now, Coach Iran, tell me about your relationships with legendary coaches Riley Wallace and Bob Nash and Larry Little. Yeah, I mean, one of the unique things is I've always been, that's the way I was raised, you study and immerse yourself into the culture and the program, state, all those things, to understand what you're part of, nothing better than representing a team, but also here we represent a state, obviously the university, a great university, and a great athletic department. So to get the odds weren't great, but how lucky was I to be able to learn under Coach Wallace the one year I could, because it was his last year, and learn under Coach Nash and Jackson Wheeler, and again, meet the guys, former players, former coaches who would come in and out, and Larry Little and Riley were really close, obviously they worked together, a coach worked for him, and so again to know him over the years, because when coach retired and he'd moved to Vegas, they were kind of inseparable in Vegas and at the final fours, and really sad to hear of his passing, he was such a great mentor to me, he was so good to me and so many people, and obviously my first in at Hawaii, you see him guy like Red Rocha coming in and out with obviously Coach Nash had played for him, so just the amount of former players, former coaches that I could be around, and players that I was able to coach, whether it was here or same areas, what an honor, and even as I, you know, now in my 20th year coaching, former, you know, really historic head coaches at our profession, any profession, anybody I could be around and learn and grow, I'm just so grateful that people, it was important to them to give back and hopefully I'll do the same, you know, a couple years ago we did our hundredth year anniversary here of our basketball program, and just to see those guys I had met earlier, meet new faces, bring former players, former coaches, managers, any support stuff back and celebrate the whole year, it was awesome. Now, Coach Iran, what is it about coaching that you love so much? You know, you always got to answer that, it's like, why do you play, why do you do what you do, why is so important, and so that's an easy question for me, I wanted to coach because I love the game, I love to compete, I love being part of a team, and then I love, you know, the challenges that come with that, so that's just, you know, the coaches were so influential for me, and we have kids, you know, guys at a critical time in their life, 18 and 22 year old guys, and so because they were so influential for me, it's something I wanted to do to give back, so again, I love the game, I love to compete, I love being part of a team, and don't take lightly the influence I and we have on these kids at a critical time. Now, Coach Iran, I love talking coach to coach here. Now, what do you feel the greatest coaches or the greatest leaders do? You know, more than anything, they promote and create an atmosphere that allows people to be successful and to grow, and they're consistent with that, so everybody talks about culture, that's not easy, it's not easy to build and it's not easy to protect and continue to maintain, so I think more than anything, the great coaches obviously put people in a situation to be successful and to grow, to fail, to succeed, to keep going, to keep moving forward, but more like I said, they provide an atmosphere that's consistent in terms of encouraging those qualities. Now, in terms of your leadership style, how would your players describe your leadership style? That's a great question because I'd say what I would hope it would be, and maybe those are two different things sometimes, and part of it I'd say, one thing I'd say is I hope they say improving, because just like we, you know, growth mindset is so important, you ask your guys to get better, we better be doing the same, so at the end of the day, I think it's consistent, demanding, but not the meaning, it's such a tough balance because you love your kids, and just like when you have a daughter, but you have to challenge them because you see what's ahead for them and how challenging the world is, so you have to create, again, a great atmosphere, I hope they say that he creates and his staff creates a great atmosphere for us to succeed. That's not easy, but it's necessary for us to improve, he's very consistent, he's very fair, he's very direct, he's very truthful, both with the good and the bad, and he's always there for us, so I think those are the things that are probably the most important for me, and it's hard to say I and me, you're asking me those questions, but I represent us, we, us, our, and our staff. No, I like hearing that, Coach Iran, and yeah, I mean the greatest coaches are always learning, which makes them greater and greater, I mean that's just, that's what happens if you're a great leader, and you've been building a culture of excellence with your team since becoming head coach in Hawaii in 2015, what, what do you really want your team identity to be like? You know, someone told me after a coach, we have to replay them, it's probably the best thing, when he sent me this message, I was like, bingo, that's what I'd like people to say about our team, and he sent a message after a game that said, your guys play like they love each other, so more than like, it's cliche, but team, team, team, they're tough, they play hard, they play for each other, they love each other, they're together through good and bad, but that one message I got was like, that is if I picked one, man, there's not much better you could say that or here, and so you got to continue to make sure that Hawaii basketball, when you play us, no team's going to play hard, they're going to play tough, they're going to stick together, and man, do they support each other, and you could see that with our teams on the floor, it's consistent with the X's and O's, let's say offensively, you play together, defensively, you play together, the special teams, facts, the press, the rebounding, they're together, their bench supports each other, when the players come out, they support each other, again, going back to, I can get more messages to say, well, your team plays like they love each other, we're in pretty good shape. And coach Iran, what I love about your team, you know, I always say that we're all in one of three situations in competition, we're either winning, losing, or tied, but your attitude and effort should always be the same, there's so many competitors where they, when they're losing, they perform differently versus when they're winning. And your teams, I mean, it doesn't matter if they're winning, losing, or tied, they're just, they're playing tough, I mean, how hard is it for you to get them to practice how they play in games, and to play in games how they practice? Well, we make everything a competition, and, you know, as you know, when you go through the motions, you'll, you're built, you're creating some bad habits, it takes a long time to build good habits, it doesn't take long to break them. And so the consistency, like we talked about earlier in practice and the wayroom, big on achievers on the court, off the court in the classroom, no one way, you know, some people say, well, I'm here on the court, I'm like this in the classroom, and there's one way. And so more than anything, we thank the parents of our players, because we gravitate towards guys with great character who understand that, and we have to catch them in moments when they slip. We're, it's human nature to be average, human nature is at times to let down, human nature is at times to hang your head, to celebrate too much, we want to enjoy success, we want to, it's got to hurt a little bit when you don't have success, you just can't have it out of control. Because it is, and basketball obviously would a great team sport, all sports. But if you hang your head, you're giving up a layup, you know, and if you celebrate, you know, same thing, you're going to get burned by it. So, you know, you're always constantly fighting human nature. And so the messaging from our staff, and then the leaders in our program, and they become each of the younger guys, the younger guys become the older guys, they show the way. But you see it at every level, everybody's got to fight that. And so the more we can catch it, the more we are, your teammates can catch that. It's human nature, but how quickly can you get back on the right path? So there's consistency in the messaging with our team, and we try to promote competition, everything we do to enforce that. Yeah, and just having that awareness is so important. But like you said, it's all, it's human nature. And, and coach Iran, what are your top priorities as head coach? It's a great question. I think we wear a lot of hats, all head coaches, as you know, and especially here in Hawaii, and the hats keep growing with all the new rules and things going on nationally. But at the forefront, it's number one is always make sure we got the right people. You could have the right X's and O's and all this and all that, but the right people aren't bored. Nothing really else matters. So I think I talked to you before, when I hire, we hire its character, talent, investment, great people, great coaches, great mentors, people want to be here. And the same with our players is great people, great players, and they all want to be here. So I think it's important to continue that message and make sure, number one, that when we are first, our meeting every morning is about our guys in a good place, everything good, and we go through each guy. And so, as you know, they're going through challenges and more challenges than generations before us with all the social media challenges they're faced in this COVID world. So, number one, I think it's making sure the right people are on the bus and the right people are staying on the right path. And then we talk about the X's and O's stuff, the program building that we're all dreamers in our program that we're supposed to make it better than we found it. We're supposed to think outside the box. I want our team and the staff and players that are innovators and dreamers, and I want to encourage that as well. So, making sure that our program is being run right in every area. And that's something that you spend a lot of time daily because, as we all know, it could slip in a second. I totally agree with you. And Poacheron, what do you do to get your team to buy in to your coaching philosophy? You know, I know there's a lot of consistency with my answer is because it's about bringing the right people. But to be honest, one of the things that takes it up a notch in terms of what you just said is they, if you wanted to buy in, they got to be invested. So they have a voice and they've earned the voice. And it's great to hear these guys' difference. We have incredible human beings on our program, staff, players, and I tell anybody, as COVID is hopefully improving and you can be around them more, go introduce yourself. They will introduce themselves. They're impressive. It's our number one commodity. But on top of that, it's more than just what they do on the floor. These are intelligent young men, future leaders, great husbands and fathers in the future and all that. So it's great to hear, like one of the things we do that creates that buy-in is we start every year with letting them know about the history of the program, the history of Hawaii, history of state, history of the university, the athletic department. That creates a buy-in. Now they know to build for the future. I know this is something I've said since year one. You have to honor your past, honor your past. You got to know your past. So that's number one. And then two, you've got to, once they've earned the right and they do pretty quickly because who they are, you listen to them. I mean, we've learned as much from our players as we do from our coaches sometimes. They're on the floor. We're not on the floor. And the more they feel like they have invested, the more they invest and the more they're engaged. And I think that creates the best your team can be. And that's all, you know, there might be some ups and downs when you empower young men early, but the long-term benefits are significant. Now, you and I know the importance of team bonding and what do you do to enhance team bonding with your team off the court? I know you're not briefly talked about this before, but there's so much we do. And first of all, we eat together and nothing brings people together like food. So as often as we can eat together and as often we can eat family salad together, we do. And that's one. Then there's the one we talked about and immerse yourself in the culture and understanding who you represent. Do a lot of community service. Giving back is really important. So great team bonding. We've been to the Children's Hospital. We've been involved with Special Olympics, homeless shelter here, coaches versus cancer in the reading program, which has been great. So, you know, eating together, community service, and then we'll do stuff like on the road. We'll go to whether it's a game together or some kind of fun event together involved with the military obviously here in the bases. And we'll get again, get them involved in the deaths and ideas for team events. We hear their stories. Everybody, every year is a new team. And it's always good to hear each story out. There's nothing I love more. When you say, why do you coach? Because you can see a guy improve and grow. But we've had guys from all over the mainland, all over the country, internationally, learning about different cultures, it's awesome. And so every year we kind of start with each of these guys' stories, their backgrounds, their family situations. And there's nothing like that. So yes, the community service, the food, team fun events, going to the beach, sporting events, non-sporting events. I'm sure there'll be some new ideas that our guys present this year, which is gonna be great. Oh, I love hearing all of that. And you're right. I mean, just to do things off the basketball court is so valuable to enhance the bonding. And yeah, definitely eating makes everybody happy. And Coach Iran, I want to talk with you a little bit about my books because you're a coach. You're somebody that definitely goes beyond the lines. And my number one priority as head coach was to develop champion athletes of character first and then great tennis players second. And I know earlier you mentioned about character. Tell me more about the importance of character to you. Well, it's like when we go around and we recruit a guy. Sometimes you recruit a guy and the first thing you see is their town. But we all, we have kind of as a staff, how good a worker, how good a teammate. Does he love the game? Does he love to compete? Does he love being part of a team? Does he low maintenance off the court? Does he want to improve? How is he in the classroom? How is he in the community? So all those things need to be checked off to be part of our program. And so in the character piece, obviously allows you to, because we all know you're going through some ups and downs. We've certainly had them from our first year to then, you know, rehabilitating our program, stabilizing our program and then here comes COVID. And then as we all know, we all deal with injuries and things like that. But we've never fallen off a cliff. It's not really where we want to be because the next breakthrough is something important for us and is coming. But when teams go through some of the stuff that we've been through, they can fall off a cliff. And so why, when people ask why have you guys not, it's because we have a great character and our guys stick it together and they look out for each other and they care for each other. And those guys, to be honest, are the ones who improve. So there's a lot of guys who may be further ahead from other kids at a certain age, but we kind of gravitate also towards people who we say the arrow is going up. You know, maybe he's got to get stronger or he's got to develop a skill set, but this is one of those guys you don't want to bet against or you don't want to compete against. His arrow goes up and other guys might be higher at a certain stage, but their arrow is the same or they'll be passed up. And once those high character guys pass up another kid, it's over because they don't know any other way. They're just, hey, they have success and they're hungry for more success. The earlier it comes, they look at it as a great opportunity to get better. And so that's, as you know, easy to say hard to do, but you got to find those special young men and then you got to, as a staff, it's a incumbent upon us to support them in a way they can make their next step. And Koucheran, the mental part of the game is huge. Not just in the game, but just having the right mindset in life in general. How do you get your team to have a championship mindset in basketball and in life? Well, we're fortunate. You know, we have a guy on our staff, Mike Thomas, who's the winningest player in school history, who's been on our 15-16 NCAA tournament. I've been part of five NCAA tournaments. John Montgomery has been part of, I think, more than that. And so, yes, on staff, we need to make sure we have guys who've been through it, what it takes. And then as you know, and we talked about earlier, just the opportunity to learn from different coaches, different sports, business leaders. I told you we're involved with the bases. And so we have kind of, yes, well, here's what we know, but it's always good to bring new voices. So we'll, I was telling you earlier, watching Nadal play tennis, you know, watch, make sure our guys are watching the NBA finals or any sport or business at their peak, and either watch how they do it or listen to them, learn from them. So your books, I'm an avid reader. Sometimes there's a lot of articles we share with their team. Here's a book we share with their team. Here's a guy we found out was in town. We want him to speak to our team, you know, coach the guy who's wanted to be a championship, to speak to our team. Or there's other guys at any sport that's been at the top of their game. So the simplest way I can say is, here's what we believe we need to do. And we've been there to do what we want to do, to win at a championship. And we kind of continue to have that embedded in everything we do. And then whenever you can bring a different voice in any field, because you can, as we both know, like, yes, I'm the head coach, you've been a coach. But there are the similarities between just being the best of what you do. The, the, the vehicle you use, whether it's basketball, tennis, business, I learned a lot from people who have nothing to do with basketball. And so the leadership books and different sports, different business avenues, I think that's what we try to complement what we do internally with our program. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we can, we can learn a lot about mindset from anybody and from whatever sports or business. And, and coach Iran, you mentioned earlier about some of the past UH basketball coaches that, that you admire. Who is one coach that you really admire and why? Such a good question. I mean, I know you, we were going to talk about it. First of all, the coaches who coached me, I'm going to end with one as a one off, but I remember every coach I've had. And so the influence they had on me, I'm so blessed and fortunate to be around great people. I went from my youth coaches to my freshman coach, JV coach, varsity coach. I went to play under, you know, my third home in a ten of my high school, Lee Wimberley at Swarthmore College. Then I started my coaching career. All those guys are huge. Randy Bennett at St. Mary's, the great coaches in the country. Then I went to work for Riley Walls, both those two coaches, obviously the winningest coaches at their respective schools. Bob Nash, I mean, it's, it's not often, that's why I tell people how blessed I was to not only play for and work for great coaches, but great people and mentors. And so those guys are all incredible for me. If there was one coach outside the direct, and I follow that I didn't play for a coach, it's probably Greg Popovich. For a lot of similar reasons that I, and I've been fortunate to been to his training camps and he was really close with Randy Bennett. He was really, really close with my college coach. So he gave us some access that you maybe not going to have before. And just to watch, it's so funny. These guys are pro guys and just like our camp, and we're telling our guys, we start with the fundamentals and the basics and the culture. And it's not different at the elite level. But if there was one coach to answer your question outside of the guys I played and worked for, it would be Greg Popovich for, not to obviously as the winningest coach, one championships, but the way he does it on an all-encompassing level, how he cares about his guys as players, as people off the court in all areas, how he's very balanced with what's going on in the world, certainly someone I look up to. Yeah, Coach Pops, I mean, he's definitely coaching them for life and to really be successful in life. And I like that you said that. And Coach Aron, what's an important lesson you learned in life so far? All about people. I know you've probably heard me say it all over this show, but it's all about people. And I say it's our recruits and our guys. If you do what you love, first of all, you're never going to be good at anything if you're not happy. And in order to be happy, you got to do what you love, wear your love with people you love, which I'm doing now. The last caveat is you got to do that where you're improving. There's nobody's happy if they're not getting better, right? So to be able to coach the game with the people I get to work with on staff, players I get to coach, the administration I get to work with, the people in the community in Hawaii, in Hawaii, obviously. So I'm doing what I love, where I love, people I love and I'm growing and getting better. I'm challenged by people here and our staff. So the best thing I can say is because if I, anyone around me says, hey, he loves the game, he loves to compete. But if I was just like for anybody, if you were doing what you love, but not with the right people, you might not love it. So the best thing I can say is in every decision I've made, and I encourage people to do that, is make the decision number one about people and do what you love, wear your love with people you love, and that you're getting better. And Coach Irvan, you've been building a lot of great relationships because really that's what it's about, what you just said there. And because it's all about people, like you said, and that's about relationship building. And I want to ask you, Coach Irvan, what are some of the bigger challenges that you deal with as coach? Well, I mean, our challenges are always as a coach is, let's say, on an overview, making sure our program continues to run in the highest integrity, on the court, off the court, in the classroom, and keep it that way with all the challenges going on. Now, in terms of coaching our individual kids, to continue to what our job is to foster team, the foster team, and with the challenges going on. So we talked earlier about how tough it is for the youth, and even as they get to us at 18 and 22-year-old, defining success has changed for some of these guys. They have the challenges, yes, from COVID, and not having some of the things that we were fortunate to have during that time. Because I've always said that COVID has been very difficult for everybody, every profession, but can you imagine if it affected our childhood? And then two, with social media and the pressure that these kids face, we didn't have to deal with that to that extent, certainly in generation before me. It's now, we grew up where kids want to do well, they want to please, they want people to be proud of them, and that's a great thing. But it used to be you want to make your parents proud of the people that you care about, you know. And now people have defined success a little bit too much in terms of what people they don't even know, think about them. And so with all these distractions that kids have now and the challenges, if anything, and it's a great challenge, hey, we live for challenges as coaches, right? So how can I continue, or how can we as a staff continue to encourage team and continue to find success for team for our guys with all the challenges that enforce at times the opposite? Coach Iran, I want to ask you one more thing before we wrap up. You just started again, you restarted your Hawaii men's basketball kids camp. And tell me about that right now. Well, I mean, we always want to, like I said earlier, like a leg, you know, make things better than what we found it. So we used to, Hawaii used to have two four day camps. That's not enough. We introduced an August camp, really successful. And then this last weekend, we had a team camp never had before. But in 2019 was the last time we were able to have camps. And so those were record breaking numbers. And then we haven't had camps in three years. So there's nothing better, just like we say with our guys, but same with kids, we got great kids in the community who come to camps every year. We get to see them during the course of the year, but when we see them for camp, you see the jump they've made, they've grown, they've got better. And then all the kids we talked, we talked the same time you and I are having, we had with our campers. So it's about relationships. When you come in the gym, do you go grab a ball or do you go and choose yourself somewhere? Because a lot of you guys know each other, but there's about a lot of other kids you've never met that you will now become friends with for life. And now that the camps can come back. So there's nothing better than the community, there's nothing better than the kids in the community. And just to see these guys running around the stand share center and our practice gyms with our players and with our coaches, see the smiles on their faces to provide an atmosphere for them, an environment for them to work on their skills and fundamentals, things they can take home with them. It was tough to not have a lot of things over the last three years and certainly camps were one of them. So just to see them run back on the core was a moment. And now we're going to build back to breaking numbers again and adding new camps. I think we'll try to add a parent-child camp in the future. Here comes our team camp and I think it's awesome. And I know our kids, one number one, we bring in great character because, you know, some of the most recognizable people in the state of Hawaii are the student athletes at UH. And certainly we, basketball guys are tall. They don't have a helmet. So people recognize them. So heck yeah, they better be pretty influential for these young kids. And I have said this over the years, but you work your tail off in life to be in a position of influence so you can give back. And so if these guys or our staff are in that position, we better do our part. I feel strongly that we do. We'll continue to do better in that regard. But seeing things come back and seeing these campers is another avenue for us. And it's exciting. I'm so happy that things that the kids camp is back for you. And Coach Iran, I want everybody to support you and your team. You're a man of great character, a great coach. And I really want to thank you for joining me on the show today. I appreciate it. And we'll continue to do our part and we'll continue to improve and do better. It's such an honor. I'll finally invite you to the show. So I'm excited to be on here. And I appreciate the time. Thanks Coach Iran. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKomori.com. And my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Coach Iran and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.