Paul Hogan, NHTI’s athletic director and men’s basketball coach, captured his 500th career college win with a 92-80 victory over Vermont Technical College on Jan. 21. Now in his 15th year at NHTI, Hogan began his college coaching career at his alma mater, Plymouth State University, which was considered just a college back then. He has also coached at middle and high schools in four different N.H. communities.
Last week, Hogan sat down with the Insider to answer any and all questions about his accomplishment, whether he could coach himself and what he’d change about the game of basketball.
What did it feel like to reach 500 wins?
Well, I don’t really focus on things like that; it’s more the day-to-day with the team and what we have to do next to keep trying to be successful. Sometimes it’s being the glue of the team to keep them all together because you have injuries and sickness and changes in players’ lives that come up on the horizon on any given day. So it’s not really about the winning; you want to be successful, and you want to see the players be successful, on the court and in the classroom, and you really want to see them grow up as young men. Young men that can contribute to society. But the win was nice. Vermont Tech is a great rival and we did it in a classic style. We played great for the first 10 minutes, they played great the next 10 minutes, then in the second half we did really well in the last 15 minutes of the game.
Is there one win that stands out more than the others?
You know, it’s hard to differentiate between NHTI, Plymouth State and some of the other places I’ve been, so it’d be unfair to do that. Certainly, the national championship game was very exciting and a thrilling, exciting win and wonderful for the school and that team, but there’s been so many teams. Look around my office and you can see a bunch of team photos, and my office at home is filled with more pictures of teams and players and coaching staffs and all the relationships that go into being here, but there’s been a lot of great games.
Did you ever think your coaching career would turn out like this?
You know, when I was coaching junior high school a long time ago I hoped I’d become a varsity basketball coach and it just didn’t seem like that was even gonna happen. Then like anything else that you do, you have to prove to yourself and others that you can perform the task and do the job. Once I got a varsity job and realized I could do that and then I had the opportunity to be involved at the college level, I realized, you know what, I can do this, too. Then history kind of made its bed here I guess and I’m a go-go-go guy and I just keep going on to the next exciting chapter.
If you were to equate yourself to one NBA coach, who would it be?
That’s a great question. The NBA is so different than coaching at the collegiate level. I certainly like Brad Stevens, the Celtics coach. At this point in my career I’m pretty low key and I try to be very reflective and I always like listening to his press conferences. I’m not real argumentative on the floor, whether it be practice or games, so he seems to be someone I’d have a comparison with.
Have you ever wanted to give yourself a technical? Do you guys get called for more than other teams because you’re from the Tech?
(Laughter.) I’ve had a few technicals in my life, but not many. I think I’ve had three since I’ve been here at NHTI in 15 years, so technicals tend to be pretty selective, and I certainly don’t want to get technicals because I respect officials for what they do. Sometimes you use technicals to motivate your players to get them a little more fired up, so that’s the purpose for me with technicals.
Would you, the coach, have been able to coach you, the player?
Absolutely, and I think that’s part of my philosophy. I think you learn things about yourself as a player. Like what you need to do to do your best and those are some of the same things I try to do with the players I coach. So one of the things that is one of my cornerstones is believing in yourself, that you can do it and to play fearless. I really hope our players play fearless. I hope they’re not looking over their shoulder and just play aggressive. So yeah, I would coach myself I think pretty well and get a lot out of Paul Hogan the athlete.
If you had to guess, how many wins will you have when your coaching career is over?
I take it year to year at this point. The travel is extensive at this level. It’s a lot of wear and tear, so I take it year to year. I want to make sure that I can give the players the best chance always on the floor and develop them. I still absolutely have the passion for being on the floor. I love being in the locker room with players, practices are a blast, as well as getting to know the assistant coaches that I have. I’ve had some great assistant coaches over the years.
If you could change one thing/rule in the game of basketball, what would it be?
I would eliminate more timeouts. I think you’d place greater value on your practices, and I think this is overall in sports. It’s nice to have timeouts – trust me, I use timeouts. I prefer if I could go through a game without calling a timeout ’cause then you have developed your team to the point where they know exactly what you want to do and they can fight through the good and the bad during the game. The runs, the other team’s high, the other team’s lows, they can adjust on the fly. I think it also places greater emphasis on the practice time, making practices really worthwhile and useful, so it doesn’t come to the coach calling a timeout and designing a play.
What’s the best thing about coaching at a school like NHTI?
You meet a lot of really interesting personalities. We have a short time with them. Some players are here for a year, some are here for two years. We’re in the USCA, so occasionally a player will stay for four years, but often times I have players for one year and just as I get to know them they’re moving on. People always ask me, I’m on the phone all the time with different college coaches to help our players move on and they’ll always ask me, ‘Do you mind if this player moves on after one year?’ And no, if it’s the best for the player, let’s move them on, but that’s a little hard for me because I’m starting over fresh with a new team the next year. If we have six or seven kids back, that’s a pretty good number. Typically we have three or four, some years we have two or three.
We noticed you’ve coached a lot of sports in your career; anything you’d love to coach but haven’t? Anything you’d never coach?
I think if you can coach, you can coach anything. I just think you have to learn the finer parts of the game, but if you’re really a coach you can do just about anything. At some point in time I’d like to learn a little bit more about golf. I’m a hacker, but I’d like to play a little bit more. That would certainly be a sport that’s a challenge and an interest. I always thought lacrosse was a great sport, and it’s going to continue to grow in this country and this region. I’ve enjoyed all the sports that I’ve coached. Baseball was wonderful, but we need to change how we teach it if we want baseball to continue to be America’s pastime as we know it. I served as an assistant bowling coach a couple years ago, just so I could learn about the sport and I’m no expert. I’d need to spend a lot more time with it. Part of the reason I did it was so that I would know how to help our bowling program grow and prosper.
If you weren’t a coach, what would you be doing?
I would probably be doing something in the recreational area, lifetime fitness. I’m a big believer in fitness, lifetime activities, so I’d be doing something out there that wasn’t coaching. I run basketball camps in the summer and I hope to do that for a long time.
Guilty pleasure?
So my soft spots is what you’re asking for. Well, black raspberry ice cream is a real treat. I try to limit it to mostly in the summertime, but that’s something I really enjoy having. I also love peanut butter on crackers. That’s one of those things, especially in the winter months, I could have peanut butter and crackers all day long.
Hidden talent?
I think I have a creative mind. I’m kind of an idea person. I teach sports marketing here and I teach sports marketing and finance for Plymouth State graduate school, and I’ve discovered over the years I think I have an ability to be able to look at things and develop ideas around a thought, whether it be for profit or just for fun. It’s become clearer as I’ve got older. I’m on a lot of committees and I find myself coming up with a lot of ideas to help better the committee or help make the event or function better, whether it be from experience or thinking outside the lines.
