Q&A: In return to Penn State, Adam Fisher determined to deliver success

A 2006 Penn State alumnus, Adam Fisher knows the Nittany Lions' men's basketball program intimately.

Serving as a student manager during his tenure as an undergraduate for head coach Ed DeChellis, Fisher acted as a graduate manager for Jay Wright at Villanova in grad school, got his first job at Boston University, then returned to Penn State with Patrick Chambers as its video coordinator and director of player personnel before leaving for the University of Miami in 2013.

Now, after an eight-year experience at Miami under head coach Jim Larrañaga, including the past six as an assistant coach for the Hurricanes, Fisher has returned to Penn State as associate head coach for Micah Shrewsberry.

Blue White Illustrated caught up with Fisher this week to learn more about his experience in Miami, his return to Penn State, and his first weeks back with the Nittany Lions. Our conversation, edited for clarity, presented below:

What has Coach Jim Larrañaga meant to your career?

Coach L has meant everything. It was a really tough decision to leave Miami. A) The weather, to be honest. But he was the other person. He gave me a chance to become an assistant coach.

It was a crazy story. I was going to go to Bowling Green. One of our assistants at Miami got the job at Bowling Green, the head job. He said, ‘Coach Fish, let's go. You're coming with me.’ I said, ‘All right, I'm just gonna check with Coach L.’

Coach L said OK. I was getting ready to leave on a Monday. On Sunday night, he called me and said ‘Hey, I want you to come back.’ I was like, ‘Oh. Great. To be an assistant in the ACC?’

He is like, ‘No, to be the ops guy again.’ I was like, ‘The ops guy again?’ And he said, ‘Look, the next time someone leaves, I'll elevate you.’

And at that point, I had to make a tough decision, but I trusted Coach L. It had only been two years, but I trusted him with my career, so I thought about it, I called him back and said all right, I'll come on back.

Three weeks later, one of our other assistant coaches becomes the head coach at Louisiana Tech. So I don't think any of us thought it would be that quick, but true to his word, three weeks later he said, Hey, do you want to be an assistant in the ACC and I jumped through the phone and was like, ‘Yep. Let's do it.’

He is one of the greatest coaches I've ever been around, but also one of the greatest people, so I owe him everything.

Were you ready for that job when you got it?

I think you always think you're ready, but then you're probably not ready, no matter where you are. Coach L. Coach (Eric) Konkol, Coach (Michael) Huger, Coach (Chris) Caputo did a great job of mentoring me. I'd sit in and listen to recruit calls. They let me be involved in everything, so I always knew who we were recruiting. They'd keep you involved.

He prepares you for your next step. Whatever it may be, he prepares the video coordinator to be an ops, and so on. So I did feel prepared.

But, I mean, it was the ACC. I'm on the road and I look to my right and I'm like sitting next to Coach K and then I'm sitting next to Calipari when we're recruiting. I'm like, ‘Oh man.’

But Coach L prepares you for it and he was a great mentor during that transition. When he went on the road, I went with him. He always wanted to teach me, and that's something that I hope to pass forward at some point to someone else. On the first four or five road trips, I was always there with him, and he was kind of showing me the ropes in person rather than tell me about it. So I'm always grateful for that.

What specifically did you learn from him that will prepare you for this opportunity?

I learned from him how to treat people. He just treats everybody (the same), he is first class, no matter who it is. Your walk-on, your star player, the bus driver, and athletic director; he treats everybody the same with a great amount of respect. I think that's something that I will always take, the way he interacted with everybody.

And his ability to stay positive, through any situation. He always would find the positive in things. We had a no complaining policy, so when the head guy is not complaining about anything, there's no way as an assistant you're going to complain.

So that made me look at things like, let's not worry about what we don't have, let's be grateful for what we do have and what we had at the University of Miami and be able to show that to people. We didn't have the best dorms, and they built brand new dorms last year, but he never made that a negative, he just talked about all the positive things that we had.

What was the learning curve toward becoming a recruiter?

You jump on the phone a lot. Especially early on, you cold call people. ‘Hey! Adam Fisher, University of Miami!’ They're like, ‘Who?’

But you build relationships. I was lucky enough, I spent a lot of my career in Pennsylvania in the Northeast, so I had a lot of connections with people that way. So that was something, but it's a relationship business.

For me, I try to be a people person. I grew up in a family-owned business, so I learned from my mom and dad, and grandfather. It's about people. When you have a restaurant in a town and hotel for 50 years somewhere, your family knows a lot of people where you grow up. And I watched how they interacted, and it was all relationship-driven. So that's something I try to do.

You got to make genuine relationships. If you're calling somebody only when you need something, obviously they're gonna be like oh, here it is again. So it was about building genuine relationships. Maybe not like a huge, huge network, but I tried to hone in on maybe a smaller group that I had good relationships with and build those.

As a young man yourself, who did you feel closer to with your relationships through the recruiting process, the coaches, parents, and handlers or the recruits?

I try to connect with the kids. So that's something I try to take great pride in. You're going to have to talk and reach out to a lot of people in certain situations, but for me, I hone in on trying to get to know the young man and… a family member that's close to them, because I think at the end of the day, everybody's going to give you a lot of opinions. But to me, family is so important. That's why I came here. Coach Shrewsberry, his family so important. So I think we try to find guys that fit that.

I would try to find people that their families are important. Not that the high school coaches, AAU coaches aren't, because they're influential and they do a great job for all these guys. But I tried to hone in on being close with the kid, and then branch out and develop great relationships with the coaches. Those guys do an incredible job. They make no money. They're driving from where to where in vans every weekend. So my hat's off to those guys, the AAU coaches and the high school coaches, same thing. The number of hours they put in for those kids away from their own families, it's unbelievable.

You take this job with a reputation as a recruiter. Where do you feel like you are with Xs and Os at this stage in your career?

I guess I better learn quickly now that I'm in the Big Ten.

Coach Larrañaga does his staff like football. We had an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator, and then a scouting coordinator who does every single scout.

So for the first three years that I was an assistant, I was the scout coordinator. So that was probably the biggest transition for me. I had to watch every team, five or six games, prepare the video, prepare the scout team, go through everything in practice. And here I am as a new assistant, I mean, that was a tough transition, but it let me learn so much. It was so hard, but I was so grateful to do that.

I had every scout for three years. When you're playing in the NCAA Tournament and you find out on Sunday night your first opponent, I'm rushing back to the office. I started watching three, four games because I got to present everything to Coach L in the morning by eight. And then when that's done, you got to prepare for possibly the other two opponents. We might play Thursday in the NCAA Tournament and by Tuesday, I'm already working on the other two. But then you got to refresh yourself. So that was helpful.

And then the other thing the last two years, I've been the offensive coordinator, and that has helped me grow. Coach L and I would meet before every game, the day of the game, what we're trying to run. And he gives you the ability. He'll look at you at a timeout and hand you the whiteboard. I remember the first time he did it, I was like, what? ‘Draw it up, draw it up, draw it up!’ So that stuff I think has prepared me because he prepares you.

That was something the last few years, being the offensive coordinator was something that I took great pride in, trying to figure out all our players’ strengths individually and put it together, but also studying the opponent's defense to figure out, ‘Hey, we know how they're going to play this so we have to do this to be successful.’

You’ll defer to Coach Shrewsberry, but if you could summarize it, what style of basketball is your preference?

I think we're still going through it here, but I believe in an NBA-style offense, which is a lot of pick and roll, spread the floor, let players make plays. They can't be robots and we've talked already about that. We've got to give guys freedom and space to do what they do best. So I think hopefully we're going to look into that; spreading the floor, pick and roll, making the right reads, and having multiple guys do it.

It's not just a point guard, a two, a three, a four, and five. Our four man's gotta be able to handle the ball. Maybe he's in the pick and roll. So I think that's things that I relate to because that's what we did, We always wanted to prepare our guys for the NBA, so we didn't want them to get lost if it's a pick-and-roll, spread-style offense right now the way it is.

I mean, you look at the NBA, five men pick and pop, shooting threes, that kind of stuff. So we worked on all that. All our guards worked on stuff that our bigs did, and the big worked on stuff the guards did so that we were skilled in all those areas.

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What’s your relationship with Shrewsberry and how did those first interactions unfold?

Coach Shrewsberry was with the Celtics for six years. Coach Larrañaga's son was also an assistant with the Celtics. I didn't know Coach Shrewsberry that well, we had exchanged a couple of texts here and there.

And then we played Purdue in the (ACC/Big Ten) Challenge this year, so when he came to play at Miami, he came over and talked. And I always joke with him because (at Miami) I'm the offensive coordinator and we had 14 points at the half. Now, we did come back to beat Purdue.

But, we spoke that day and I just loved his energy, and just got his phone number. They beat somebody and I'd be like, Hey coach, great win. And I knew he ran the offense there, so I might text him wow, what a play on the base OB at the 18:22 of the second half. But besides that, not much.

I had texted him congratulations (when he got the job). I just said, Coach, I want to congratulate you. I'm so excited for you and your family. My alma mater is in great hands. I know you'll do great things at Penn State, not thinking anything just like hey thanks. He probably got 1,000 of those. And then about an hour later, he texted me, ‘Hey can you talk tonight?’ Again, I'm thinking maybe, 'Can you help me out with anything at Penn State?

We spoke that night we had a long talk and offered me a position there, and again, we were so caught off guard. We're getting ready to sign our lease in Miami on Tuesday, so the timing was good, but he was great. When you talk to him, and you hear his core values, and he didn't have a plan to be a head coach, he had a specific plan for Penn State, that I think the community and the alumni will see here soon as he continues to spend time here. And that was special to me, and the family atmosphere. He talked about my wife Rebecca and daughter Alivia by name on the first phone call. Those were little details that are special to us that we were like, ‘Wow, we want to be a part of this.’

Had you ever envisioned returning to Penn State when you left?

No. Probably not, especially after the winters in Miami were 80 degrees. But no. The old staff did an amazing job. Great, great coaches, all those guys. But I did not see myself, to be honest, coming back.

Did you keep tabs on the program while you were in Miami?

I love watching them. As I said, I think Coach Chambers and Coach Ferry last year did a great job. They competed. The COVID season, I felt so terrible for them, but I've always watched them when you can, and the Big Ten Network is everywhere, right. You're in a hotel and a Friday night, you're watching the Big Ten game because that was on TV or Sunday CBS.

So yeah, you watch it a lot and you root for them because it's my alma mater, so I just wanted to see Penn State win. It's something I take great pride in.

In what ways is that prior experience and familiarity with the program helpful in this transition?

I think it's been big. It's the little things like, Hey, let's go downtown, where to go to lunch. Now, a lot has changed since I've been here downtown, but… the thing that makes Penn State special, and I know you've been here a long time, it's the people. So a lot of the people I knew, whether it be the athletic department or the community, or for Coaches vs Cancer are all the same. So I think that's where I can help Coach with those relationships because it's genuine in State College.

This is a great town. People know when you're fake and when you're real, and that's why I think they're gonna love Coach Shrewsberry. But I think that transition, seeing some of these familiar faces that knew me when I was a student when I was 18, 19, then came back to work, and now here I am with a family, I think that's special for me. To see Steve Jones get to see me, and finally hopefully meet my daughter and wife, those kinds of people, that's special to me

What's the balance of how you're spending your time right now?

It's a great balance, to be honest, because obviously, we know the portal. A lot of guys enter the portal across the country, not just here, but across the country. So you're trying to figure out who on the previous team is coming back. So that takes up a lot of time.

But then you're trying to figure out okay, if so and so come back, what do we need? If so and so don't come back, what do we need? So I think you figure out those lines, and we hit the portal, we're calling people, we're looking at everything. So that, I think, is a fine balance right now that we're figuring out. Once we figure out exactly who's coming back, then we'll know exactly what we need.

And I think Coach has all that, but right now, he's about building relationships with the players that are coming back. I know there's always a lot of talk about the guys in the portal, but I think the guys that have returned, that's who we should be talking about. I celebrate those guys. They had a tough decision. And for them to come back, those are the guys we want to talk about, and then hopefully some of the other guys will join them and we'll be able to celebrate them as well.

I think he's building his culture right now. And I think that's important. I think the basketball stuff will come once we know who it is, but the guy was in the NBA for six years. He didn't coach NBA players, he coached NBA all-stars and developed them. When it comes to the basketball, I'm not worried at all about that, he'll get it going. But I think right now figuring out who he will have to coach, that's important.

How have you seen his credibility received in the program?

I think he's got a lot. I do. Because, as soon as you talk to him, he seems genuine. You see the NBA guys supporting him.

Nowadays, social media is so big, so when you see guys, they're busy in their season and they're willing to do quotes. You see Brad Stevens wearing Penn State gear. Do you ever think Brad Stevens and his whole family would be wearing Penn State gear and telling us he is coming to a football game?

That's the stuff that he brings that all these guys want. They all want to go to the NBA. Every player you recruit, every kid on your roster, and here's a guy who's done it, and he's done it at the highest level, he's been at the Eastern Conference Finals. So I think that credibility factor is right there.

We've had a couple of workouts. The guys like what we're doing. It's a lot of NBA skill development stuff right now, so I think they bought into that. Hey, this is what worked for Jason Tatum. Gordon Hayward wasn't getting recruited and he develops him.

So I think that credibility because of his NBA background, and the fact that Coach has won everywhere he's been. Did any of us think Butler would go to back-to-back national championships back in the day? Purdue has been so successful. The Celtics are so successful.

Everywhere he's been, success has come, so I think the guys know that, and then when they sit down with him one on one, they see the genuineness of him.

I won’t dwell on it, but we also can’t pretend that everything is normal right now. How has COVID impacted the transition and what challenges has it presented?

COVID has presented a great challenge. It's a challenge for the players. They've gone through a lot this year with COVID. All of us that have been in it have. Then you add moving. You're starting to build a staff and I moved out of Miami a week ago. It's different with COVID and things of that nature.

Then the players, you'd love to have them over, eat meals, get to know them, but still, there are restrictions. We're still going to get our test twice a week in COVID.

So there are challenges and Coach has been creative and reaching out to the guys and figuring out how to do it socially distanced in the office so that they get to know us because that's something important. They're not going to come in and trust us right away. Trust is something you build, so that is what we're trying to do now is build that relationship with all the current guys.

Are you able to have workouts right now?

We can do workouts. We worked out a couple of times already. So we can do that. You can do both (individual or team workouts), but right now, we've gone with the whole team just to get the group together.

What do you think of the players you’ve worked with so far?

Excited, especially with the guys coming back. A couple of the younger guys, I didn't get to see. I knew some of them in high school but hadn't seen them last year. I'm excited about them. There's some great leadership here.

And the energy. There's change. Everything's new right now, so there is a little bit of an energy, and our job is to keep that energy keep going in a positive way. But right now, they've been great.

My hat's off to our players. Greg has done a great job with strength and conditioning. Saz has done an amazing job keeping guys healthy and COVID. And I think, a lot of credit to Nick (Colella) and Talor (Battle) because they were huge during the transition, and they're Penn Staters.

As you know, there's something special about when you go here. My diploma is already on the wall. It's the first thing I put up when I got here. There's a pride about when you go to school here, and I think Coach saw that, and that's why you see a lot of Penn Staters on the staff.

Penn State fans have endured rebuilds many times. What’s your expectation for where this program is currently against the vision and goals Shrewsberry has set?

We're not looking to rebuild. We're looking to win.

Do we know that's difficult? This isn't Disneyland and poof, here comes Coach Shrews, and everything's perfect? No, we get that. There's a process.

But I think when you have a guy that's won everywhere he's been, he's got a great formula for it. And honestly, I think with all the guys coming back, that was big for us. There are really good players here.

You've seen how close they've been in recent years and to have those guys back, and this portal is changing the landscape of college basketball. It allows you, in my opinion, to get better quicker.

I don't love the portal, but it allows new coaches to figure things out because guys don't have to sit in the right situation, (depending on) how the NCAA rules on certain things. So I think that allows you to get better quicker.

We want to win. That was something we talked about in the first phone call. We don't want to be in a rebuild situation. We want to win, but we also know this is the best conference in college basketball in the last five years right now. It had nine teams in the tournament last year. You don't have to go 27-4 here and get in the tournament. It's not a one-bid league.

We've got to be good. And we know this is the best league in the country. If we're competitive and compete and we're in that top seven, eight, nine, you get in. We want to be one, two, three, four, we get that, but we also realize hey, you've got to build to get there. But we know a great step is, hey let's become one of those teams that get in the dance because we have the most teams in our league of anybody in the country.

How much are you looking forward to June 1 and the return of in-person visits to campus for recruiting?

I think it's huge because we know we've got to do a great job in the state. We know we've got to do a great job within driving distance of this place to get really good student-athletes.

And we're people persons. Our whole staff wants to be around people. Even you, I wish we were doing this together, sitting down at the Waffle Shop wherever it may be in the office but it's on zoom. I think the more you see this campus, even my wife who had only been up here when she was like a kid. We loved Miami. She's been at Arizona. She saw this campus and like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is beautiful.’

So getting people here is so critical for us, and it's a great first step. So whenever the NCAA does formally announce everything, I know we'll be ready, but we want to get kids up here. We want people to see State College, and see the energy around this place, and why it's so special.

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