Q & A: Ray Allen Introduced as Gulliver Prep’s Head Coach

It’s a new regime for Gulliver Prep with a familiar South Florida face. The Raiders introduced Ray Allen as the school’s new boys’ basketball coach on Wednesday night. Allen is a two-time NBA Champion, 10-time NBA All-Star, Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee, and Olympic Gold Medalist. Miami Heat fans might best remember him for hitting a game-tying 3-pointer in the 2013 NBA Finals. The Raiders finished 5-16 under former head coach Gary DeCesare. Gulliver Prep returns a ton of talent after gaining experience from last season. Players to watch: Walter Ray Allen III Ray Allen’s son, 2023 Walter Ray Allen III, already holds offers from Rutgers and UMass. The 6-foot-2 guard is an active defender that moves well sideline-to-sideline. Allen III has good vision as an on-ball defender and rarely puts himself in bad position. Overall, his IQ and awareness is very strong on defense. He communicates well and never takes plays off. His guard skills include a good drive and ability to finish in contested areas. 2024 [player_tooltip player_id="1163357" first="Amare" last="Sanders"] is a lightning quick prospect with solid size at 6-foot-2. Sanders has a great handle and plenty of length to separate from defenders. Sanders can score inside and out. His brother, Tony Sanders, plays at Notre Dame. 2023 [player_tooltip player_id="1176493" first="Jordan" last="Bankston"] has ability to create at shooting guard. The 6-foot prospect is an offensive weapon out to the 3-point line. Moreover, he has plenty of athleticism to score off the dribble or pull-up. Bankston is a lethal weapon on offense and 20-point+ scorer. 2025 Jacob Marquez should be one of the top freshman guards around Miami-Dade County. The 5-foot-10 prospect has ball skill and should further develop. 2023 [player_tooltip player_id="1176494" first="Denzel" last="Dorn"] has the frame to make an impact around the glass. At 6-foot-6, Dorn can use his body to create space in the paint. I think his footwork and added athleticism would make him a better player. Below are some of coach Allen’s remarks. Q: You’ve played for some great coaches like (Jim) Calhoun and Erik Spoelstra, is there anything you can implement from playing for them? Maybe some of their mentalities or something you’ve picked up on as a player that you can bring to the coaching job you have now? (Prep Hoops) A: “I think I pick up everything from the beginning to the end; my high school coach to my last coach (Spoelstra). It’s interesting because when we’re running plays during the AAU season, I would be sitting on the sideline and I would have a random play. It would pop in my head because it was something I remembered from when I played, just from my position or from a big; something you see happen on the floor. It’s all from coach Calhoun, Nate McMillan, George Karl, Chris Ford, Erik Spoelstra, Doc Rivers. There’s always something that I’ve taken from all of those coaches. I would be a fool not to try to implement that with the kids. And you’re talking about it’s different because you have great players at different positions, so a lot of things work and some don’t. Primarily/foundation-ally speaking, what coach Calhoun instilled in me was a general mentality. A lot of the things he impressed upon me and Rudy Johnson, we implement during practice. Getting them to think unselfishly and getting them to think not for themselves, but for their teammates. We used to run 28-second suicides. Coach Calhoun; we used to have to keep running it. There was a point where we would get mad at him because he keeps making us run it. But he actually gave us the rule. 28 seconds, you get over it, you’re done, you move on. There’s nothing more simple than that. As an athlete, you set the standard of the bar and now we have to try and jump that bar. Often times we didn’t and my anger as a young person would be directed at him, because I felt like he was penalizing us. In term as I got older, I realized he was teaching us because there were times we had to carry someone across the line. Even when we didn’t make it, we learned a lesson, don’t leave your man behind. Don’t leave your teammate behind to struggle. That was the lesson that I learned, so (we’re) trying to put these kids in really weird/strange situations. I tell them every single day, it’s my job to make you as uncomfortable as possible and I want to see you work your way out of it. That’s just the way the game is. I need to see you guys think together. I need to see you guys work together. I need to see you guys come up with a solution while you’re on the floor. Who’s going to get back on point? Basketball is an imperfect sport. It seems so random, but we rehearse that randomness. If I throw the whole kitchen sink at them in practice, by the time they get to a game they are prepared for all these situations. Truly, my first practice in college as a freshman, the coaches that I had knew, that recruited me, weren’t the same guys that were in the first day of practice because I thought my name was S.O.B. once practice started. It wasn’t about being nice, it was about changing me from who I was then until who I am now. The dream of coach Calhoun was to groom me into a man that now I can give back to the community. His wishes, his dreams came true, because now here I am giving back after the 18 years I played in the NBA. That started as an 18-year-old kid. My mission is to do the same thing with these young men.” Q: “You talked about inspiring and motivating young people; you feel once you start coaching that drive to win is going to kick-in and you’re going to maybe surprise how badly you want to win these high school games? (Walter Villa – Miami Herald) A: “Well, I’ve already been told that you’re a great player, you’re going to be a bad coach. I’ve already been told several times. I do know naturally my whole life I’ve been a coach in some aspect. You try to figure out a way to make the people around you better. If I coach these kids the right way in practice, then when we step out onto the playing court during games, my work is somewhat done already. Even though you still have to put people in position and make adjustments, I want the coaching to be done in practice. So, when the kids get on the court, they have this strong will to win and this competitive fire that they’ve been beating on each other so much, once they step onto the court, they have someone looking at them on the other team like fresh meat. We can beat someone else up instead of ourselves. If I can instill in them that philosophy/idea, then what it is that I am, the essence of my spirit to win and compete and want to be the best will live in them. Everyday in practice I’m doing things to challenge them and force them to compete against each other. There’s been a tendency that I’ve seen, even conditioning during preseason; I time them on everything. What I’ve found early is that they buddy run. It’s cool to run alongside my buddy, but someone has to win here. Somebody has to get a time, and who’s going to get that time quicker than the next person. And at some point, you’re going to have to have the will to win in this situation. I think the mentality is we will run in a group, but I need someone to win. That has been kind of the way in practice. There’s got to be be a winner in everything they do, because that’s the nature of sports. Every single day we want to win. We want to beat the other team, and if we lose that doesn’t make us winners. If we lose that doesn’t make us losers. We are still learning something every single day.” Q: You mentioned there were other opportunities that came along, can you talk about what they were? Maybe college or pro? (Walter Villa-Miami Herald) A: Well, I’ve been retired now for seven years. Obviously, I still had offers to play in the first couple of years I retired. Anything that came my way I shut it down. And people after a while knew that because I really wanted to spend time with my children. I never let it get too far because people understood my intent. This for me ended up being a situation that was perfect because it’s exactly what I want to do. I get to spend time with not only my sons, but their friends, which who now become my sons as well. I just try to focus on being in the community and figure out a way to build these guys. Show them that not only me, but the coaching staff care about them and we’re going to push the agenda to get them to be better than they thought they could be. Q: How do you think your experience with the NBA, particularly with the Miami Heat and their coaching staff, how do you think that translates to coaching kids at this level? A: “That’s an interesting question because I’ve been having conversations with Coach Spo’. I spent a lot of time with them over Hall of Fame weekend and talked about them having a greater presence down here so the kids feel it and then vice-versa. Last week I took the kids on a tour of FTX Arena. They got a chance to kind of see what the inner-workings of the arena looks like and I thank them for allowing us in there. I’ll take them to games because I want them to see what it looks like. In a lot of aspects, it’s not as glamorous as what they think on the outside. To be able to move in that world is a great accomplishment for anybody. I sat in practice the following week and just watched them practice. I was talking with Spo’ about some of the things they’ve been doing that I’ve added to what we are doing here. They have great motion sets. Trying to teach these guys how to move without the ball and how to be effective without the ball. We’ve had some guys come into the gym, open gym, and these guys would come and play pickup. Jimmy Butler played against some of the guys. On a random, he was working out early in the gym in the morning. The relationship is great because we want to improve basketball in this community, in South Miami, and everywhere down and beyond. The Heat organization is a great resource, not only for us, but for everybody. We know the young people have aspirations to play at the next level. We have to figure out a way to foster those aspirations the best that we can so we can allow; even if you don’t play basketball. We met a young man who is in season tickets and sponsorships. But he plays basketball and went to school for basketball. The young people, my guys got a chance to see if I don’t play, I still have an opportunity to be apart of a professional organization that still has access to players and still does business with the players. At the same token, I can have a job that I can work and really help build or grow a franchise.” Q: Do you feel like you need to have a bit of patience to get them where you want them to be? A: " Yea, of course. All of us on the coaching staff. We have to have a tremendous amount of patience. The one thing I tell all my coaches is we can’t assume they know what we are saying or talking about. One of the things I will do early is sit down and discuss basketball. I try to talk with them as much as I can. A lot of times I know they feel like I’m lecturing them and I always have a comeback, because I do. If you ask me about physics than I might say I need to look that up. But when it comes to basketball, I’ve been at the highest level you can go, at the biggest game you can play in. I played against and with some of the best players the world has ever seen. It’s my duty to transfer all of that information and knowledge to them. I just need them to make sure they think they come to me not thinking they know everything. I do find that a lot. The thing I know is I have never coached before. I coached them in the spring in AAU, but it’s learning how to talk to these kids and learning how to inspire and motivate them. Once they go out and play, the rest takes care of themselves. For the most part, it’s just the communication that’s supremely important. Not only with myself, but the coaching staff, parents, and the school so we are all on the same page. When we do that, there’s going to be hiccups. There’s going to be losses. But in those hiccups and losses, we want to make sure we bounce back and were on the same page." Q: What can Raider nation (families/friends/students/fans) expect in a Ray Allen coached team in terms of style of play? A: Well, they are definitely going to be in shape. They are not going to be tired. We are going to get up and down the floor. We are not going to be stagnate with the ball. The way I think the game should and was meant to be played; if the team can’t get back on defense, then we are going to beat them on offense and score as quick and fast as we can every time. I try to push these kids as much as I can to have them think as their tired because that’s what they are going to see in games. Make decisions on the fly. Don’t sit down and slow down. I’m always pushing, hurry up, speed up and go faster. When you come to the bench, when you go to get a water break, run. That is the way it happens in a game. I’m trying to simulate every single thing a game may present itself in a practice situation so they’re not surprised or thrown off. They’re not shocked by the speed or level that you play during a game. Furthermore, they’re able to push that narrative because we’re in such great shape. We’re going to be able to run this team out of the gym that we play against. Rudy Johnson, my assistant coach, we played together at the University of Connecticut, that was exactly the way we played. Push the ball down other team’s throats and don’t stop."