Q&A with former Penn basketball assistant Scott Pera

After two years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Penn basketball under coach Jerome Allen, Scott Pera left last week, moving to a job on Mike Rhoades’ staff at Rice. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with Pera about the move and the trajectory of Penn basketball.

Daily Pennsylvanian: What was the reasoning behind the move to Rice and what is your relationship with coach Mike Rhoades?

Scott Pera: Coach Rhoades and I go back 20 years. When coach Rhoades was a college player at Lebanon Valley college, I was the high school coach at Annville High School. They were located about four blocks apart. We were very friendly during his playing days and it grew as we grew older and fortunately life has taken us to the point where we are both Division I assistant coaches all these years later. Each spring we both have our opportunities and maybe try and get head coaching jobs and Mike has been involved in a few [job openings] recently due to his success at VCU. We always talk about coaching together and how it’d be a dream of ours. When he got this, he called and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

DP: Obviously assistants move around a lot but how did coach Allen and rest of the staff react to the move?

SP: First of all, those guys are some of the greatest people, not only that I have gotten to work with but that I’ve ever gotten to know. They handled it as I thought they would handle it: professionally. It couldn’t have been more professional in how they handled it and I hope they felt that I handled it professionally as well. I certainly cannot say enough good things or how much I appreciate the kind of human beings coach [Jerome] Allen is, coach [Ira] Bowman, coach [Jason] Polykoff, coach [Mike] Lintulahti, they’re a great group of people.

DP: What was it like working with coach Allen, both how the dynamic between you guys worked game to game but also considering that you came in with a whole new staff in 2012?

SP: There’s always an adjustment period when new people who don’t each other come in but like I said, they couldn’t have had their arms more open and been more warm to me being part of the staff. Working with coach Allen, I learned a lot, not just about coaching basketball but also about life in the two years I spent with him. I’m just really appreciative about my time spent at Penn.

DP: Can you talk about your relationship with coach Bowman, Polykoff and Lintulahti? How do you think they’ll adjust since they may have bigger roles in the future?

SP: I don’t make those decisions. Coach Allen will make those decisions with the staff but obviously I think those guys are bright coaches with bright futures whether they move up at Penn or are hired by somebody else. They’re caring guys who want to teach kids about life as well as basketball and they’re going to be terrific coaches no matter what situation they’re put in.

DP: There has been a lot of criticism of the Penn program recently. What do you think about the direction of the program with the team struggling the last couple years?

SP: Obviously, one of my biggest, I don’t know if I want to use the word regret, but obviously, we all wanted to win more basketball games. My time spent at Penn I will always look back as more favorable and pleasant but I wish it could have come with more wins. That’s what we’re in the business to do and unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

As far as moving forward, I have the utmost confidence that coach Allen will win more games and, whatever words you want to use or clichés, right the ship or get it right, just based on how hard he works and much he cares and the types of kids we have coming in this year will really benefit the program. And the recruiting moving forward should be a plus as well.

DP: How important over the last few years has been your relationship with senior captain Miles Jackson-Cartwright, who you had known for a while before Penn?

SP: First of all, I really enjoyed coaching Miles. I enjoyed being around Miles, all the times I got to spend with him. Again, I think we both look each other in the eye and just wish we had won more games together. He probably feels bad about that and he has no idea the level that I feel bad about that, because I know how hard he worked and I wanted to see the results be related how hard he worked. But personally, I think very highly of Miles. I look forward to Miles hopefully being a friend of mine for the rest of my life and I look forward to seeing what the next step is in his life.

DP: What can you say about criticism with regards to the team’s player development and players not taking the next step forward?

SP: There are reasons why the perception on the outside of things occurs the way they think they occur. You have a staff of guys teaching and developing everybody on the team. Did it translate to the wins we all wanted it to? No, but by no means do I think any of that is related to somebody’s perception on the outside of what they think somebody should be doing. I guess those people, whoever they may be, should get into coaching if they think they’re so smart.

DP: Now that you are away from the Ivies, what do you think about the balance of power in the Ancient Eight? Why is Harvard, at least by perception, head and shoulders above everyone?

SP: First of all, I think it’s a very good league. Obviously Harvard has done a lot for raising that bar or that perception nationally of what time of league this is. You look at the type of games that Columbia lost this year at Michigan State in the last minute, the game that Yale lose by one to Providence, these [games against] high major schools. The Ivy League has closed the gap in that fashion and it is a very difficult league. Yes, Harvard has had its run but over a 25 or 30-year period, Princeton and Penn has pretty good runs. It is up to the rest of the league to catch [Harvard] right now but I think things are cyclical and with the strong coaches that are in the league, you never know how things can turn. Certainly I have tremendous respect for Harvard and what coach Amaker has done.

DP: As someone who has worked both within and outside of the Ivy League, what are your thoughts on the fact that the Ivy League does not have a postseason tournament?

SP: It’s kind of mixed. I’m an old school, traditionalist kind of guy so the fact that the Ivy League has stuck to their guns through all these years has been kind of interesting. On the other side of that, when you’re a coach in the league, you’d like to see some form of [a tournament], possibly with the top four or with everybody involved. Whatever way they want to come up with for it would be fun and I think it would be entertaining because the Ivy League name right now basketball-wise has a pretty good perception and if they did something like that, it might bring more attention to it. But I don’t make those decisions and maybe presidents don’t want that kind of attention brought to it. It is hard for me to say and I can see both sides.

DP: Kyle Smith, one of the biggest proponents of the Ivy League Tournament, has really helped bring the Columbia program up. What have you seen from coach Smith and Columbia in your two years coaching against the Lions?

SP: I think he’s done a really good job having a system that he believes in, recruiting guys to those holes and getting pieces that [will do] what he wants them to do. They got some wins early [in 2013-14], got some confidence and they had a really good year. They have the core of that group coming back so there is no reason that they couldn’t continue to play at a high level.

DP: As recruiting coordinator at both Arizona State and at Penn, what are the unique challenges of recruiting in the Ivy League and at Penn compared to other places?

SP: I’ve been asked that question a lot from people in the business that knew I was at Arizona State for the time I was there. I really enjoyed recruiting at Penn. I think obviously it is a first class university. They have incredible facilities. They have a great commitment, a great past, a terrific staff and obviously the Palestra. So I enjoyed it. Are there challenges? Yes, but trust me, there are challenges at the Arizona State level as well. They’re just different challenges. Here [the challenges are] academic. At Arizona State, they are different things. It is how you embrace those challenges and know that there are plenty of kids out there. There are some really good students that want to become part of the Ivy League so I enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to being at Rice, a high academic school as well, and continuing to recruit those kind of kids.