A brief Q-and-A with Nicholas Podesta

Nicholas Podesta is in his second year as an assistant to Fresno City College Coach Madec. Here's a brief Q-and-A:

Q: With FCC, what is a 'must-have' when you are looking at prospective recruits?

NP: "There are definitely attributes we value greater than others. I read a great Gregg Popovich quote in response to players they draft and acquire that said, "we pursue players who have gotten over themselves." That's big with us. Fresno City places such a premium on its culture, the history, the family, and the community. Players have to be able to buy into the process and what we are trying to do collectively. A student-athlete must have the right mentality or else you're spinning your wheels. If he's all about "me," they're not going to make it here."

Q: The typical response from JC kids about adjustments they needed to make is usually about the physicality and the speed of the game but is the biggest adjustment for a junior college newcomers actually learning to play hard?

NP: "I don't know if that is something that's universal, necessarily. Each player is different just like every program is different. For Fresno City, we can't take a player who doesn't have a motor and doesn't compete. We are in the business of coaching basketball, not coaching effort or character. That isn't to say we can't develop a student-athlete and get them to play their hardest every possession. Anyone that watches us play will see that's never the issue. But if a player isn't motivated and has a lot of dog in him, they won't make it."

Q: In recruiting, do you look at the social media accounts of prospects?

NP: "The final question is something that's very important in recruiting today. We do a lot of research when identifying and evaluating prospective student-athletes, and social media is another medium for connecting with them. While I think it is important for student-athletes to be cognizant of what they put on social media, they should also not feel pressured to sanitize everything they post. They're teenagers, they're opinionated, and sometimes their opinions aren't popular, but that's okay. My advice is to just be yourself. There's a program for every player. We are a program that embraces a diverse group of student-athletes, values them as individuals, and we want to get to know who they really are. We don't want a sanitized, disingenuous presentation of who you want people to think you are; we want to know who you are as a person.

Plus, here's a Podesta feature from June 2013:

CRC's Podesta is a "there's a number for that' guy