Kanaskie Brings Decades of Experience to Young UNCW Coaching Staff
A head coach for 18 years, Kanaskie has worked at nine schools
College basketball is all about relationships, and fortunately for UNCW, a lifetime in the game for Kurt Kanaskie gave him all of the connections that ultimately brought him and 40 years of experience to the bench in Wilmington.
“I really think Takayo (Siddle) has all the ingredients to be really successful and UNCW has a tradition and history of being good,” Kanaskie said, “and I wanted to come here and try to be a part of that.”
UNCW marks the ninth coaching stop for Kanaskie, who began his career as an assistant under Bill Foster at South Carolina in 1980 before getting his first head coaching job at Lock Haven, a Division II program, in 1985.
Success there led him to Indiana University Pennsylvania where a 152-75 record over eight seasons helped him move up to Division I in 1996, where he took over a Drake program that had been decimated by NCAA sanctions.
After seven years rebuilding the Bulldogs, Kanaskie stepped down and returned home to take the assistant coaching job at Penn State that, nearly two decades later, landed him in Wilmington.
Working alongside Kanaskie on the Nittany Lions’ staff were James Johnson and Hillary Scott — both close friends of former UNCW coach Kevin Keatts, dating back to their days in Southwest Virginia.
Through that trio, Kanaskie eventually came to know Siddle — an impressive young coach who would ultimately rise from a prep school assistant to Keatts’ right-hand man at N.C. State in less than a decade.
And when Siddle reached out to Kanaskie in March, he jumped at the opportunity to move across the country, leaving an Air Force program he’d been with since 2014 to take on a new challenge in Wilmington.
“At that stage in my career — I’m 62 years old — I was a head coach for 18 years,” Kanaskie said. “It’s not about title or how money you make or level of play — it’s about winning and helping guys get better. It was a pretty easy decision really…”
Since coming to work for Siddle, Kanaskie has only grown more impressed with the 34-year old head coach’s approach.
“He’s a breath of fresh air in that, he’s old-school in the regard that he doesn’t tolerate anything but the best out of his players,” Kanaskie said. “ That means academically, socially, on the basketball court, and he’s demanding without being demeaning. That’s a little bit different than a lot places and yet, he’s young … he can really relate to players and he does a terrific job in recruiting and teaching. I think he has all of the attributes to have a very successful and long career.”
With UNCW’s assistants taking on "coordinator” roles this season, Kanaskie is focused on improving the Seahawks’ defense this season while also working with perimeter players.
Kanaskie understands the emphasis that some UNCW fans put on defense, and while the style couldn’t be further from that of coaches Jerry Wainwright and Brad Brownell, the goal is still the same.
“We’re going to give up some points because we’re playing fast, there’s a lot more possessions in how we’re playing,” he said. “We’re pressing, really, the entire game and it’s variety of ways — mostly out of man-to-man, but some zone pressure as well. I think we’re a little bit more uptempo and getting out and denying and pressuring in the half-court.
“Recruits want to play that way; they want to play fast, they want to get up and down the floor, they want to create transition opportunities out of their defense and push the ball offensively.”
UNCW’s defensive turnover rate is up to 20.2 percent, while Siddle said this week that he’s getting more comfortable with the presses and traps the Seahawks want to deploy. That pressure figures to go to another level with the return of point guards Shykeim Phillips and JaJuan Carr and a more consistent rotation.
“It’s easy to say and harder to do because we’re (down players) due to injuries right now, yet we’re still pressing and trying to push the ball,” Kanaskie said.
Pressure is certainly something Kanaskie understands, and not just in devising a gameplan.
For 18 years, the buck stopped with him, and now, he’s hopeful he can use that experience to help Siddle get UNCW back on top of the CAA.
“I’ve been in the position where you had to make decisions, and not just for your particular area of the program, but the entire program,” Kanaskie said. “That means the players, the support staff, the assistant coaches, so it’s a little bit different.”