Krystkowiak is the 10th head coach in Bucks history. (Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Bucks announced on Wednesday, March 14 that Larry Krystkowiak had agreed to a multi-year deal to become the new Bucks Head Coach.

He joined General Manager Larry Harris at a press conference the following morning at the Bradley Center.

Did the job opportunity with the University of Utah play into this decision?

Larry Krystkowiak: From my perspective, I didn’t feel like I had two jobs going on simultaneously. There was some interest from the University of Utah – I interviewed with them – and then things happened pretty quick, starting yesterday. Beyond that, I don’t know the timeline and the relationship or what the thinking was. Those questions would be probably be better left for Larry (Harris).

Larry Harris: Evaluating the season, the ups and downs – and the injuries were a part of that as well – more and more frustration built. It really came to a head on Tuesday. That’s really when I felt that, regardless of how many games were left in the season, it was time. At that point, it was just a matter of getting together. As in any professional sport – it’s no different here in Milwaukee – your owner, Senator Kohl, is the ultimate decision maker. So when we spoke, he said ‘yes, this is what we need to do’. So that accelerated the process and the fact that we play the San Antonio Spurs right away. Having said that, it was an evaluation like it was every year. It’s been documented very well in the media that every year, everybody is evaluated. Well, that evaluation was going on as the season was going on. Having said that, I was just observing what Larry was bringing to the table. And I knew one of the things that I really feel very strongly about in sports is – don’t get me wrong, X’s and O’s are very, very important – but communication is huge. I just think that the best coaches – and he played for one of them, Phil Jackson, and my father is a very good coach as well – the thing is, communication is key. If you have that level of commitment from your players, and respect, you then can get them to go through a wall, where you play defense and play the right way. And then when (that’s demanded of them) and they’re not doing what’s expected, then they understand why they’re coming in and out of games. Yes, (with) the University of Utah, the fact that we were aware of that situation, which was well documented – it accelerated the fact that we were aware of that situation, but Larry was the guy I wanted to go to. Larry was the guy that I felt that for the things that we needed as a young team, he knew our personnel. He had been with me now for – he talks about the days (with me) as a video coordinator and him as a player – it really developed when he first got here this year and through the first 65 games of the year for us and us understanding him at an assistant level. I saw the connection that he got with the players and his passion and his energy. He’s really a no (nonsense) guy and I think the players will appreciate that. He understands that defense is important and that in order to win you have to play defense. You have to instill that every day and you have to have a structure and a passion and everything to be able to get your players to be able to do that. So once I made a decision to move from Terry (Stotts), it was very quick that we knew we had to get somebody in today. And we’re evaluating different names and so on and so forth, but this was the right decision to hire Larry at this time. For our situation, for our young team, which I think, as I will state again – we were a playoff team when the season started. There is no different agenda. Our feelings are that we’re going to be healthy next year and we’re going to be a playoff team next year as well. That hasn’t changed. And I think today as we have 18 games remaining, we’re going to try and win every game we can. We’re going to try. He wants to win every game, I want to win every game. I’m not telling him who he has to play. I’m never going to do that. He’s not going in saying, ‘well, we’ll just see how this goes and we’ll worry about next year and just focus in on that’. He wants to win tonight. There is no different agenda going on since we’ve hired Larry as of today.

Was this decision made based on how the fans have been reacting this season?

LH: The fans are important. But I will say this, I think the fans understand that, as an organization, if your expectations are to be a playoff time and your expectations are that you’re trying to get into the second round and, yes, you have injuries and there are some situations that came out throughout the year, some ups and downs, losing close games and so on and so forth, those are all evaluated. But the decision to make a change was one of basketball. The fans are a part of that basketball decision in the sense that, yes, they were not happy with the product. I was not happy with the product. So I hope they’ll have enough faith in me that I have corrected that problem and that we are moving forward in a much, much better direction. So I don’t know if that answers it, but it was a basketball decision. If a fan tells me that we need to go trade for this guy or that guy, it’s not that I’m going to do that, but I’ve always reached out to our fans and I’ve always reached out to our season ticket holders. I converse with them through different types of literature throughout the year. The e-mail site that we deal with, it’s a one-on-one basis and they’re aware of all that. I know how much passion they have for this team and it does come into consideration when you’re thinking of the big picture. The fans are the ones that pay the salaries that everybody’s excited about. They’re the ones that make this thing go. They have to come into account. You have to make them somewhat a part of the process. They’re obviously not going to make the decision for us, but they are important, no question about it.

Larry Harris, this is the third coach you’ve hired since you’ve been General Manager. What is different now as opposed to what you were thinking when you hired Terry Porter and Terry Stotts?

LH: First off, I believe in the players. I think they’re the most important piece of the puzzle. If I didn’t think the players were good enough, then maybe we’d be doing something differently. But I really believe that what I’ve seen, regardless of injuries, that I’ve seen the potential that this team has. Not just for this year, but for years to come. I think that for the first time (since I’ve been GM), I really believe that we have a nucleus that the fans in Milwaukee will understand that they can now get behind a Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, obviously we have some free agents, you have Bobby Simmons, you have Mo Williams. (We’re) trying to do some things now, we’re trying to build a nucleus. Obviously we have a draft pick that we’ll throw into there are well. We have some creativity that we have to add this summer. For the first time I feel like we have a foundation and I need to find the right piece to make this foundation work.

What did you see in Larry Krystkowiak?

LH: Larry, having played in the NBA, he was a student of the game back then. As was Scott Skiles when he started. You also have a young man that went to high school, then went to the CBA, then he goes to Montana and takes the team twice, as the head coach, to the NCAA tournament. To say that his experience as a head coach is limited only because it’s the minor leagues because it’s the developing of young players and was successful … we have a young team, which is important to me … Don Nelson had to start off game one somewhere. Phil Jackson had to start off game one somewhere. There has to be a belief and hopefully the people in this room, the people that are listening to this, the people that are seeing this, have a belief that the organization sees the potential in Larry that he now is the guy that can make all of the things that puts our team together – the youth, the inexperience, the excitement – this (he) is the guy that’s (going to) make it all work. It’s all going to work. I believe that.

Larry Krystkowiak, is this something you feel you’re prepared for?

LK: I want to avoid felling like I’m trying to sell myself. I honestly feel that as a player, I reached the pinnacle of getting to the NBA and trying to maximize that situation. If I didn’t feel ready (for coaching), I really wouldn’t be interested in biting this off. I’ve been evaluating myself this year, wondering if I have what it takes, and there’s really no doubt in my mind – I am ten times more comfortable as a coach then I ever was as a player. I feel strongly about that.

Why do you feel that way?

LK: I feel like I can kind of control a situation. Maybe as a player there were enough variables involved, injuries number one – not knowing if you were going to be a part of it. I think that a number of those years – four years, five years as a player – being injured was probably the biggest thing. It was always one thing or another that kept me from being able to perform. As a coach, I felt an incredible buzz today at shootaround to actually be able to orchestrate a shootaround and come up with a simple game plan and get after it. The other facet to this situation is it is a great group of young guys. It’s a great group of players. If you were at our practice yesterday, you would have thought we were fighting out for home court advantage in the Eastern Conference. Kudos to them for staying with it and I feel like we can finish it off strong.

(As for) the experience, anytime you’re a head coach – I was the head coach for a seventh grade YMCA team one year, I coached in high school for a year, CBA, college, assistant, head coach – anytime you’re standing up in front of a group and addressing them and coming up with a game plan and deciding what you’re going to do is valuable experience. And the thing about it, playing in this league for nine-and-a-half years, that’s almost a thousand games in itself. And I didn’t just play, I was paying attention to the Phil Jackson’s and the Del Harris’s. I knew I was going to coach and I made a little bit of a mental scrapbook with a number of the guys’ tactics and what they did (including) a lot of negative learning, a lot of what I wouldn’t do as a coach. It’s been an accumulation. I know in some people’s minds this has happened really fast and undeservingly, and I’m only here to stand up and tell you that it’s going to work. You have to have faith and it’s going to be taking some baby steps, (but) we’re going to improve. It’s going to start this evening. But it isn’t going to happen overnight and there are no grand promises other then that we’re going to get the ship sailing in the right direction.

Are you going to bring some toughness to the position?

LK: I’m going to be myself. As I said, I only knew one way to play the game and I really only know one way to coach it. I hope that some toughness will bounce off it … I’m not going to have a whole lot to say. I’m pretty limited in speeches and that kind of stuff, but hopefully some of that edge will get absorbed into some of the players.

When was the decision made to let go of Terry and bring in Larry?

LH: Tuesday was the day we felt we needed to make the change and we were playing on Thursday. So when we made the decision on Wednesday we knew we needed to do something and in my mind I had already been working on what was going to be the next step if we did this. The process being accelerated was mainly due to the fact that we are playing tonight against San Antonio. But I will say this – knowing that the University of Utah had the relationship they did with Larry certainly if we were going to do something in the area of Larry (which I felt was the area we needed to go) we needed to do that as well. But it was more about San Antonio tonight than the University of Utah.

Fans were getting frustrated with the team’s inability to close out games. Did that play a factor?

LH: I think that frustration is the same frustration I had. I think, like in anything, you want to give the person the benefit of the doubt that it’s going to get better, hoping things will turn around, there's an injury here and there and thinking we can turn the corner. You keep holding and hoping. I kept patience as long as I could and it just came to a point where I could not let the organization down, I could not let the fans down, and I could not let the team down to say that ‘this is ok’, to think that this is acceptable and we will just deal with it when the summer comes – because it’s just not fair to everyone involved and really it is not fair to our season ticket holders. If they’re not happy with the product, they’re not coming back next year and they are the most important piece to this puzzle.

There were some games this year where Andrew Bogut would have a good first half and then take only one shot in the second half. Will more plays be called for him now?

LK: Well Andrew is a big part of this offensive as well as the defense. There have been games this year – one game in particular where he had nine field goals in the game and there was only one play called for him. There has been a lot of talk about how we need to call more plays for Andrew. I think one of the strengths that he has is his energy level, his ability to get up and down the floor, his enthusiasm. I think the style we are going to play initially – where we’re not getting too carried away with a bunch of sets, but we are going to get people in the right position to make great basketball plays – puts him in a position of strength. I’m really curious to see the type of numbers that he puts up through that when you put the ball in his hands Andrew knows we have a great relationship, but Andrew knows he is a piece of the puzzle. He would be the first to tell you that. He is not expecting any extra attention. We’re not going to be best friends because we got to know each other this year. I respect all 15 guys out there and the expectations and the bar are going to be held high for all of them. We’re just going to work our way through it and try to figure it out. We don’t have a training camp right now, so to redesign an offense and come up with this master plan when we had an hour shootaround just a few minutes ago is crazy. We’re just going to take what we have, simplify it, and put people in position where they can succeed.

Will you be able to improve the defense even though this team may not have the most talented defenders?

LK: I don’t necessarily buy into talent and defense being synonymous. I think in any sport, if you have somebody you would consider a poor defender, I think my goal as a coach would be to get him to become an average defender and if you have a good defender I would like him to become a great defender. Collectively, hopefully everybody can take a notch up the ladder. We need to practice defense a lot more than we have. In fairness to Terry (Stotts), a lot of it’s the schedule, a lot of it’s the injurers we’ve dealt with. We had a hard time sustaining repetitive practice time. I will even go back to training camp with Andrew Bogut missing almost the entire training camp. He is the guy that has played all the games this year and he’s also the guy during training camp where we were working a lot of defense schemes and trying to find your identity that we didn’t have. I don’t want to make excuses, but a lot of it is schemes, knowing personnel and what’s in your heart and up between your ears and the importance's of wanting to stop somebody. That’s going to be embedded in our team and, quite frankly, if guys don’t play defense, I am in a position where they don’t have to play.

Did Terry Stotts see this coming?

LH: No. When I spoke to Terry (about my decision), I probably spoke to him for a half an hour about it. He was not shocked but he did not expect it. When I walked in his office, it wasn’t any different from any normal day other than the message was different. I would say there was a little relief for him because this was a very hard year for him. A lot of expectations, also certainly with some disappointments with the injuries and not being able to close out games. But I will say this – the half hour that I spent with him he was very disappointed that he could not deliver for the fans. He wanted more for them. Obviously, for himself, he wishes he could have done what he deemed for himself record-wise. Overall, he and I had a very good conversation and I thought he was very respectful of the opportunity he had. I would say he certainly did not expect it.

Why was there ever talk of an interim coach?

LH: I think that it was just a matter of timing because we wanted to get something out that we were letting (Terry) go and we were looking at that point. Certainly, we were hoping that Larry would take this opportunity that we presented to him. There was an interim period where we came out with something in the paper that said we will now be looking to someone (on an interim basis). Once we were able to get together as a collective unit – Senator (Kohl), Ron Walter, Mike Burr and myself – we were able to get together and decide … We wanted to be more aggressive, we knew who we wanted and we were going to make every effort to make that happen. The interim to me was kind of just a gray time there for three or four hours. There could have been something that (didn’t) work out and (we would have) had to go in a different direction. It was the right thing to do at that time.

f all of this was decided on Tuesday, why wasn’t Terry notified until Wednesday?

LH: In my mind (it was decided on Tuesday). We all didn’t get together until Wednesday as group – Senator, Ron Walter, Mike Burr and myself. For me we, (I decided on Tuesday that we) needed to make a change.

Did you speak to any of the players prior to making this decision?

LH: No, I never spoke to any players prior to that. Once the decision was made, it was right after the media left (practice). There were no players in the building at that time either. When I made that change and let Terry go, I immediately called a few players to let them know. Then I went and met with our people regarding the media and the press release. Then we got back together to start putting the formal proposal together for Larry.

Is there anything specific you’re going to try and implement?

LK: If you look at the good teams in the league right now, the one thing that you notice is the high assist total and guys are sharing the ball. We are going to push the tempo. I feel like we got Mo (Williams) to start with at point guard (and) he gets out and pushes the ball well. We have some bigs that can run. The key for us before we start thinking about offense is really going to be securing the rebounds. We are near the bottom, if not at the bottom, of securing defensive rebounds. We are also at our near the bottom in defensive field goal percentage. That’s a really bad combination when those two things go hand and hand. Usually, if you give up two offensive rebounds and they score, they’re shooting 33 percent. All of a sudden, somehow, teams are shooting 48% or 49% and still getting those offensive rebounds. It’s pretty poor on the defensive end and that’s where our focus is going to be. Offensively, we’re going to share the ball. We have great shooters. We’re going to get some guys in position where they can come off pin downs. As I told the players this morning, it’s not going to be about a set that ‘this is our play and its designed for person A’, which is what happens in the game 70- to 80-percent of the time when that play is over and you don’t get that option you were looking for then what do you do. I really think we can improve in the area of some draw and kick basketball, spreading the floor out, coming up with some bigs and setting some pick-and-rolls and keeping the ball moving.

Real similar, there were about three or four bulleted points this morning before we had shootaround. Part of it is respecting each other, respecting the coaching that was going on, simplifying things we were going to talk about, schemes, we were going to talk about personnel, and I mentioned the same thing I said here with a lot of determination and the mind set to play defense. (Defense is) not really what I would consider talent, it might be a gift in some regards, but it’s more about making up your mind that that’s going to be important. We’re going to play hard and finish the season in a positive note and start changing some of the things that were broken and go from there.

Do you wonder if you would prefer college over the NBA?

LK: No. Number one to me is the NBA. It’s basketball in its purist form. The focus entirely is (placed on) how you’re going to get your team better in practice, how you’re going try to win the next game. When that is over with you’re starting to watch more film on the next game and the cycle continues. College is a little different ball game. I am not the best recruiter. I don’t like necessarily like telling young kids everything they want to hear and how many minutes their going to play and I wasn’t good at it. I would have struggled with that without a great assistant coaching staff. I am trying to play to my strengths. I feel like I know the game well enough. I can communicate well with the players and I can figure out how to get a team better and how to win a game and what better place to do that than at this level of competition.

Did the team ever quit on Terry Stotts?

LK: No. That is a very valid question, but as a credit to our players – to a man – there were opportunities to quit and our guys never did. And our players kept battling hard. Now, outside looking in, some of our efforts at times (were low), but I don’t see that as quitting on Terry. I see that as quitting on me and our franchise. At times they didn’t play hard enough, but I don’t think it was an attempt to try to undermine Terry in any way.

LH: Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, I think some of the interviews I saw with Michael Redd and some of the other players, and when I did speak to some of the players, they were shocked. It wasn’t like any of the players were saying ‘it’s about time’. There were more than a couple of occasions that we addressed the team on not quitting. No matter what the score, what our record was, or where we were, it wasn’t about quitting. I’ve always said we can’t be confused with playing well/playing hard. And sometimes we do not play well. For the most part in an NBA season, you’re not getting 82 out of 82 games in effort. It’s just not going to happen. We’d love to do it, but it’s just not going to happen. But when you’re this late in the season and you had an effort like you did against Toronto, it’s not an indication that ‘did they quit on Terry?’, it’s an indication we need to make a change. That was not a statement at all about Terry and I never felt they quit on Terry. None of the players ever came to me and said they couldn’t do this anymore. That never happened because Terry Stotts would have never let it happen. He prepared and worked the best way he could. He just couldn’t maximize what he could get out of these players. He worked everyday to be prepared and I think the players respected that.

What happened in all of those close games that the Bucks didn’t pull out? Was it a matter of instruction or execution?

LK: I wouldn’t go as far as instruction. Execution was a lot of it and it is also what Larry (Harris) is talking about. You reach a certain point and it happens on a number of teams. Early in a season, if you win that close game and the baskets are falling and you’re able to chalk up the win, then all of a sudden the next time you’re in that situation you‘re not backed into the corner. You feel better about that. It’s a case and point from last year. 13 wins the start of last season in games decided by six points or less. Was it instruction? That’s the question. Terry is winning all those games. This year maybe it’s the basketball gods coming back and saying ‘you won all those close ones’. Part of it is up between your ears, though. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A number of different things go into that. Whether it is a person stepping up or us faulting, how much is mental? I am just hoping to put an end to it.