Defend the Block 66 - Chris Hunter
MGoBlue Podcasts with Jon Jansen
The Varsity Podcast Network
4.8 • 754 Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2021
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the busiest people around Michigan men's basketball, Director of Basketball Operations Chris Hunter, is our guest this week, as he breaks down his important role in the creation of the Wolverines' recently-released non-conference schedule (5:00). Hunter also discusses the situation around the regularly-scheduled home-and-home series with Kentucky (12:00), his role and evolution as a member of this staff (15:00), and his early reviews of the Wolverines (23:30).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Schedule making in college basketball is hard. Think about all you have to take into account just from a |
| 0:04.2 | basketball standpoint. You want to provide your fans with home games and hopefully a few marquee ones. |
| 0:09.3 | You want to prepare your team for conference play. You want to have a good NCAA tournament resume, |
| 0:14.0 | and the non-conference is important in that. But you also don't want to just schedule all power |
| 0:18.0 | conference folks or just schedule all games where you are a heavy |
| 0:21.8 | favorite to win. It is all a delicate balance. Oh, and then you throw in the whole student |
| 0:26.7 | part of student athlete and try to work around classes, holidays, exam week comes in during the |
| 0:32.5 | late stages of the non-conference slate. So much more, it is a challenge to be sure. Like most things around |
| 0:38.4 | Michigan men's basketball's program, schedule making is a team effort, but the man who runs |
| 0:43.0 | point is Chris Hunter. He's the director of basketball operations. Remember last year when |
| 0:47.2 | Michigan had to quickly pivot in early December from NC State to Toledo in the late |
| 0:53.4 | stages of the non-conference due to a COVID issue with |
| 0:56.0 | the Wolfpack. Well, Chris was at the forefront of that, and he's been at the forefront of |
| 1:00.0 | cultivating this non-conference schedule for Michigan. Now, hopefully this season, nothing like |
| 1:05.5 | that is necessary. But even with months and months to prepare, it's an art and a puzzle all at the same time. |
| 1:11.6 | But if the non-conference is executed properly, both in the scheduling and then, once you get to actually playing the games, |
| 1:18.5 | it can and should be a foundation for a championship-type season. |
| 1:23.0 | The Wolverines have designs on doing just that in 2022, and Chris Hunter was key in mapping out the first |
| 1:29.1 | few destinations for that lengthy journey. Chris is our guest today as we talk to Michigan's |
| 1:34.8 | Director of Basketball Operations about scheduling, coaching, what he's seen from this year's team, |
| 1:39.2 | all next here on Defend the Block. We're talking Michigan basketball. Welcome to Defend the Block, |
| 1:45.3 | where we'll take you inside the basketball programs with interviews, analysis, and so much more. |
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