By snoadmin
After directing former UCLA standout Aaron Afflalo and the rest of the Compton Centennial High School Apaches to a state championship in 2004, men’s basketball assistant coach Rod Palmer named three factors leading up to consistent success as head coach in the high school ranks.
“Discipline, conditioning and fundamentals are three things that I stress out of my players,” Palmer said. “If you get these things across to your players, you will do well.”
Palmer steps onto the Long Beach State campus for the first time as an assistant coach, completing head coach Dan Monson’s staff that will be overseeing a new LBSU lineup looking to adjust quickly as the defending Big West Conference champions.
Palmer, much like fellow assistants Vic Couch and Eric Brown, has led prosperous campaigns in southern California.
Palmer was the varsity boy’s basketball head coach at Compton Centennial for nine years (1998-2007).
His squads reached the California Division III State Finals twice (2002, 2004) and won the CIF Division III-A championship in 2006.
Prior to Centennial, Palmer was the head varsity coach at Compton High School for four years (1993-97).
Palmer said he intends to be “a link between high school coaches and the coaches here,” and develop a stronger recruiting edge for LBSU basketball based on his expertise to recognize prep talents throughout the region.
“I just build a bridge between the better high school programs and coach Monson and the staff here at LBSU,” Palmer said.
Now working in the collegiate ranks, Palmer said communication would become easier compared to high school because of the heightened experience and talents of college players, but time would certainly be against him and his players.
“Basketball is all about creating habits,” Palmer said. “Time is monitored by NCAA [rules and sanctions], and time will help us be faster in maintaining habits.”
Palmer added that he sees little change in how he will coach college players, because basketball is “universal, and never going to change.”
“How we send our messages may be different, but getting the head coach’s point across is the main thing,” Palmer said.
And getting victories will be the ultimate goal for LBSU next season.
“I think success is in terms of wins and losses, without sugarcoating anything,” Palmer said. “We will try to get this team back to where it was – the NCAA Tournament.”
Upon those final words, coach Palmer readied himself for a recruiting trip along with the rest of Monson’s staff, knowing what to do and who to look for to get it.
Despite the magnitude of the competition being different in college basketball, Palmer will stand with the same mentality that bred his prominence as a high school head coach.
