On Saturday, the Iowa Wolves will hold a local player tryout at Mayo Clinic Square in Minneapolis. More information can be found here. Before the tryouts, our Kyle Ratke was able to catch up with Iowa coach Scott Roth for three quick questions.
KR: When it comes to open tryouts, what’s your mindset as a coach? Are there in particular things you are looking for?
SR: Right now, the biggest thing is the fact that the league does it, they’ve been doing it for years, it’s more of a promotional thing for the entire league. It allows people from all over the country to have a chance to go try out for teams in certain areas. The hope is that you find the next Jonathan Simmons or at least a guy who’s capable of making the roster and have some impact as a guy kind of off the radar. More than anything, you hope you stumble across somebody. That’s what our hope is that we find a guy who can make the roster and he can come into training camp and we can see where he’s at. And if you get real, real lucky, you get that Jonathan Simmons guy.
KR: And I don’t think anyone expects you to find the next big thing. That’s hard, obviously, but it’s happened before. Does that change anything how you and your coaching staff handle it?
SR: You’re just looking for someone who can make the roster at the end of the day. Your mindset going in, you go in open minded. You’ve got to be able to quickly evaluate the guys. . . (Players) have a chance to go into the Wolves facility and see the facility and practice there.
KR: It hasn’t been too long since you were officially named coach of the Iowa Wolves. How has your relationship with President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach Tom Thibodeau, along with General Manager Scott Layden been?
SR: Getting hired at the beginning of (last) season in pro scouting, I got to know them well. Obviously, I go way back with Scott Layden in the fact that I played for his dad and Scott was on the staff when I played for the Jazz. So, I’ve known Scott for quite a long time. And with Coach Thibs, the first year (in Minnesota), I played under him and head coach Bill Musselman. I’ve known both for quite a long time and like anything else, it’s kind of a small niche community, the NBA, and everyone kind of knows everybody. It was nice to work with them during the year when there was no coaching jobs available and kind of see what was going on here and the foundation they were laying in their first year. Getting a good feel for what to expect moving forward coaching this team.