Turned around in two seasons: A conversation with Pitt State men’s basketball’s Jeff Boschee

By Nick Butler

A well-lit office overlooks the basketball courts in Pittsburg State University’s John Lance Arena in Pittsburg, Kansas. A brown desk sits in the middle of the room, pressed up against the right wall. In a rolling office chair sits PSU men’s basketball head coach Jeff Boschee, facing away from the windows that oversee the courts. The walls are filled with plaques, rewards, and memorabilia collected by Boschee throughout the years. Boschee, entering his third year as head coach of Pitt State’s men’s basketball team, talked about the early stages of his career and how he got to where he is now.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity

Why did you start coaching basketball?

When I was playing at KU, probably after my sophomore year, I knew if I was to make a living professionally as far as the NBA, I should start to pay a little bit more attention to Coach Williams, who was my college coach—the way he did things and ran practices.

I talked to him and a couple of other assistants about getting into coaching when I was done, and I thought it would be a good way of staying in the game of basketball. All I’ve ever known growing up is basketball. It’s why I decided to stay in it.

You started coaching at the Barstow School in Kansas City.  What has that school meant to you?

Yeah, it means a lot … I was at Blue Valley Northwest for two years as an assistant, and then that job came open and I went over there. The thing that job allowed me to do is that it allowed me to grow and mess up, and nobody really noticed and cared.

We had some talented kids for the level that we were at, but kids that had never been pushed. I remember the first day of practice we had one kid late. I asked why, and he said he’d had to go to the gas station to get some 5-Hour Energy for practice. He thought that it was okay. I lost it on him, and that got their attention pretty quick. I told them this wasn’t a recreational program—to take this seriously and try to win some games. I felt like, for the most part, I had a group of players that were pretty competitive, basketball-wise. They just needed to be pushed a little bit in the right direction.

The biggest thing is that I was able to try different things. Some worked, some didn’t.

You were successful at your last job at Missouri Southern. Why did you make the switch to Pitt State?

This had always been a job that intrigued me. We played Pitt State when I played at KU, and so I knew about the school. And I knew about the school when I grew up in North Dakota because North Dakota State and Pitt State always played in the Division II football playoffs quite a bit.

So I knew about the school, and my wife is from Kansas, so getting closer to this area was good for her. I just felt like the resources they had here, the support for their athletics department, was unwavering, from anything I’ve seen. It reminded me of a mini-Lawrence. The financial support, resources, and facilities—it just felt like it would be a good place to get a new look and start over, to try something different.

At Barstow School in Kansas City, I helped turn that program around. That was something that I wanted to do again. Jim [Johnson] asked me about coming over here. I knew that they had been down for a few years and were trying to build this thing back up to where I feel like this should be.

I feel like Pitt State basketball should be like they are in football. I don’t feel like there is any reason why the basketball program can’t be like that. Amanda [Davied] has done it on the women’s side, and the football coach has done it on the football side. Why not men’s basketball? I wanted a new challenge, and that’s why I came over here.

What has it meant to you to turn the Pitt State program around in the time that you’ve been here?

Well, it means a lot, and there is a lot of people that go into it. It is not just myself. My assistant, Jamahl [DePreist], has been with me for a total of six years, so we have a good comradery, a good connection together, and we understand how each other work. He understands me, and I understand him. So that was one of the big things coming over here and taking over the program, was bringing him with me.

As a coach, it is hard to explain. I know we had a good year last year, but we wanted more. As a head coach, you never feel like you have fully turned it around because you always have next year and always have the next game, so it is constant pressure to keep on building this thing up. I’ve never felt or looked at it as we have turned this thing around. It is a constant battle. Especially in the wake of all things going on, and with the transfer portal and all that, it is hard to maintain and keep it up.

The thing that I was most proud of [last year] was that we did it with the majority of the guys we had from the year we went 8-20. We had some misfortunes our first year … We had some things happen to us that we couldn’t control, and we were able to build. Even though we were 8-20, we felt like our guys had a positive mindset or outlook on the season.

As soon as we knew that we weren’t going to make the MIAA Tournament that season, we started a ton of individual work in practice. We still worked and did scouting reports on the team we were playing, but we did a ton of individual work, and we tried to get the guys that we had that first year better for this past year … We didn’t turn the program around and have a more successful season in the second year than the first because we brought in a bunch of new players. We did it with the majority of the guys that we had returning from my first year.

What are some goals that you have for your coaching career?

Everyone asks me if I want to go up to the Division I level. That is not a goal of mine. A goal of mine is to have good teams. I want to have a competitive team that can strive for a conference title. I love the Division II level. It is more pure basketball, it is not as transactional or business-sided. So the biggest thing is being present in the moment and trying to fight for conference titles and national titles … I don’t have aspirations or dreams of being a big Division I coach. I just want to be wherever I am happy. And I am happy right now.