First-year Samford head coach Lennie Acuff met with the media ahead of his appearance at the Birmingham Tip Off Club, an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting basketball across the Birmingham area.
Acuff addressed a wide range of topics, including scheduling challenges, slow starts and late-game comebacks, NIL pressures, player tampering concerns, the Samford game-day experience, and his stance on potential NCAA Tournament expansion.
Acuff on getting acclimated to the season:
Yeah, you know, it’s, 13 new guys takes time and, we’ve been the epitome of up and down. Uh, we’ve also been the road warriors. We finally get to play two home games this week. We’ve had 17 games, six at home and, when you play 11 out of 17 on the road, that makes for tough sledding. In our league last week the, the home teams went nine and one and so you better take care of home, home court. And so we have Furman Wednesday night and then ETSU on Saturday, and obviously both of those are two of the best teams in our league and teams will need to play well. But I like where we’re at. We just got to keep getting better.
On whether he expects to have more input in shaping future scheduling after a demanding stretch:
Yeah, you know, I think at this level, I think I’ve said this before, you, you don’t pick your schedule, schedule kind of picks you. But, yes, we’re going to work really hard to try to get that flattened out a little bit. And, and I think if it did anything to us, you know, we, we don’t have a lot of depth and we’re playing guys big minutes and I think we kind of wore down some of our key guys. So, as… It’s good to be in a game rhythm, a practice rhythm and, you know, looking forward to Wednesday night with Furman and Saturday against ETSU.
On the reasons behind his team’s recurring slow starts and the pattern of early deficits followed by late-game comeback attempts:
Yeah, I tell you what, we just spent two and a half hours in a staff meeting trying to figure out why we were starting so poorly and we’ve got to get it corrected and, it’s been tough for me because our teams have usually started really well. We’ve usually come out of the gates well, but when you get that far behind over and over, you almost have to be perfect. And, you know, we played a Chattanooga team on Saturday that was desperate for a win and, they played like it and, and they kind of hit us in the mouth and before we got back up, you’re down 28 points. You just can’t do that. We actually cut it back to four and it was about two minutes to go and I thought we had a chance to win the game.
But we’ve got to get that corrected and, and we’re sure, we’re going to work hard on it starting today.
On whether Dylan Faulkner is already drawing outside interest similar to what Jadin Booth would have faced if he had another year of eligibility.
Yeah, it’s been an interesting journey for sure already. Some things behind the scenes that I probably can’t share, but just knowing people are already reaching out to him and you know, he still has a year left and you know, between those two guys they’re averaging 50 points a game in the league. That’s probably the most potent combination in Division I basketball. Now we just got to make sure we get some guys around him. But, we’re going to do everything we can to keep Dylan, but it’s the landscape we live in and, yeah, if Jadin had another year, there would be significant interest in him as well. He’s leading the country, made the most three-pointers in the country and, both good players and glad they’re at Samford.
On the challenge of balancing coaching responsibilities with the growing demands of NIL fundraising.
Yeah, it, it’s a huge challenge for everybody in college basketball. I’m thankful for people like Frank Bromberg and the people that support Samford Basketball. They’re investing in our program and now, you know, just having support for your budget, you can run it through the school. It doesn’t have to necessarily be NIL. And so… But you have no chance without it. You know, we’re not Alabama or Auburn but you have to be able to stay in the fight and what we want to worry about is what’s going on in the Southern Conference. That, that’s what matters. What is, what are the Furman’s, the Mercer’s, the Chattanooga’s, the ETSU’s doing? That’s, that’s the most important thing to us.
On why Birmingham-area basketball fans should consider experiencing a Samford home game in person.
Yeah, I think we want to be the kind of team that people want to cheer for. When they look out there, they see kids that are about the right things and kids that have substance to them and that’ll play really hard and I want them to know that they can make a difference. You know, you don’t have to drive to Tuscaloosa or Auburn on Wednesday nights. You can come over to Lakeshore and, and watch a good basketball game and, and cheer on the Bulldogs.
Acuff if he supports NCAA Tournament expansion from a mid-major standpoint:
Yeah, you know, I’ve been on all… I’m on the NABC board and, and in a lot of meetings. The, the thing is, I think it would probably be a good thing for mid-majors because if you’re not careful, the Power Five are going to start pushing the automatic bids out and that would be devastating for mid-major basketball. So we’re, we’re… Hopefully there’s some, there’s some relief coming. I think that’s in the works. We’ll just have to see where it happens. I, I think 76 would probably be the most they’d get to and I think that may be where we’re heading.
Samford faces two big conference games this week. Wednesday vs. Furman at 6:00 PM and Saturday vs. ETSU at 1:00 PM. A great week to grab a friend and get to the Pete Hanna Center.
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