Our old pal and Towson Tigers head coach Pat Skerry returns to WNST to discuss the recent success of his local program and to properly measure just how far it’s all come since he walked into our studio almost 14 years ago. His journey and commitment to local basketball and winning has led them to a top seed in the CAA Conference tournament.
Pat Skerry, head coach of the Towson Tigers, discussed his journey and commitment to local basketball. He reflected on inheriting a winless team 14 years ago and building it into a successful program. Skerry emphasized the importance of retaining talent through high school recruiting and developing players for long-term success. He highlighted the Tigers’ current 11-game winning streak and their upcoming CAA tournament, where they aim to secure their fourth consecutive 20-win season. Skerry also touched on the impact of the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) rules and the importance of stability and commitment in college sports.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Towson Tigers, Pat Skerry, local basketball, winning season, player development, NIL impact, recruiting strategy, conference success, tournament preparation, home games, player retention, coaching stability, program growth, community support, future plans
SPEAKERS
Pat Skerry, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positive this was going to be a good one. I always say, Towson, Baltimore, W N, S D, Towson, Baltimore. We are a Towson radio station, and I don’t have this guy on enough. Sometimes he’s busy, and I like to leave coaches, but I run into this guy around town, sometimes once, twice a year, where we wind up in the same room. It’s been a little while since he’s visited. He has the hottest team in the land these days. And as much as we talk copping around here, because we’re copping flagship here, and I was over copping on Saturday, our friends at Towson Pat scary is just crushing it. Let me just throw myself on the mercy of you and saying I have invited you on at various points, and you have these aggressive schedules in season and then out of season, like I always think I should have a crab cake was scary. Out of season, we’re gonna come, we’re gonna sit, we’re gonna talk about what you inherited here and all that, but you’re playing some great ball right now, and I’m really happy for you, man. I remember the day you showed up here, trying to build something here in our community. I hope you’re proud of yourself right now. Pat, scary,
Pat Skerry 01:02
well, but, you know, I feel fortunate. It’s, you know, the area and the institution have grown. And you know, Nestor, the appreciate having me on the best part about the job is the, you know, kind of the relationships that that you make over the over the years with your your players and staff, and we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of talented guys, both players and staff come through. So I’ve enjoyed that piece. Think while you’re in it, it’s like, how do you how do you get better for the next game? Because that’s the next thing that’s on the schedule, right? You’re only defined by your last game. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 01:39
I remember you getting here. I had to go back and do the math, because it feels like a minute ago. Minute ago. It’s been 14 years. So I go back to 2011 and I don’t know whether this Yahoo was a web reporter that followed you around and you inherited really a mess. I mean, it was a winless basketball team. It’s a long time ago. I have a long memory for I remember Terry true acts, you know, I, I remember the playing game and the, you know, in the what was it? Was it? It wasn’t big south. It was even before the Big South and coast, ecc, ecc. Thank you very much. The old, old Providence guys know this stuff. But College, Charleston, Rhode Island, Assistant, Providence, Assistant, Pittsburgh, Assistant. When you rolled in here, I would have said, 2025, scary is going to be coaching Jordan, you know, some leaving, going places, all that the game has changed so much from the N i l side, and I don’t understand it, and I’m this our first conversation since it started. So I want to understand a little better how it’s affected you, but you’ve made a life here. You know, there’s a lot of coaches that you see this resume. You’re like, they’re going to go on to the Wake Forest and I’ve had some of those guys, the dino audios, that came through this town. And I’m just going back to skip Prosser, you know, just so many people have come through, and they wind up moving along. You made a life here, and you must love it here. You must like me.
Pat Skerry 02:58
Yeah, we do. We’ve been fortunate to be here. You know, I always said when I was when I got the job, the opportunity was a, you know, people, what’s a good job? To be a good job is where you can win, you can make a living and hopefully not worry about them firing you, you know, and 1000 meets, all those things I’ve had been fortunate to work with some really good athletic directors and presidents, and I’m working for two great ones right now, not good ones, great ones. And I just feel like our whole University’s kind of on the rise. And as you know, because you’re from, it’s a really great area to live in. There’s just a there’s a lot to do. We live, like, five miles from campus. My son, oldest son, goes to Towson so that that you know that that’s that’s been good, that we haven’t had to move it around. Well,
8Nestor Aparicio 03:46
let’s talk about your basketball team here. A little bit more than that, just the Nio. Let’s start with that, because I think that that’s that will help me understand where you are. You know, I’ve had different coaches on and I don’t do as much sports as I used to do. Everybody sort of knows that I used to make a life around chasing all of you around on a daily basis and and checking in with you a couple times here and again, the N i l thing has drawn me away from the game I don’t watch. I almost came over. Saw you play a week and a half ago. I had some friends that went by. I was going to come over. I didn’t. I’ll come and see you play. But part of it for me is going out and doing is I don’t identify with the N i l thing, even with the chirps down, with the sport down. And I’m trying to understand that I went to that Cal Ripken senior foundation thing when he brought Jay right down, who I heckled on the old Towson center floor when he was the coach a Hofstra back in the day on behalf of the Tigers. But like coaches stepping away from the game, coaches of your era, coaches you looked up to stepping away from and saying, This isn’t the way it used to be. How much is it changed for you at a Towson level? We know it’s changed globally, but I’m sure it’s changed dramatically for you as well.
Pat Skerry 04:53
Yeah, you know the look and it’s it to me, it’s at the point. Doesn’t really matter what I what I think about it. You know the truth? Is, is out of the tube. We’ve been fortunate. We’ve been able to retain a lot of talent. We try to focus in recruiting, on finding really, not just good players, but great kids from good families, hopefully have similar values. And then what can we do to retain and this is our first year that we are doing some things with n, i L and be quite frankly, you know, we’ve, we’ve had as much success since COVID as Charleston and Wilmington at the top of our league, and we’ve got to get even more committed in that space in order to retain talent. I’m not saying that we don’t believe in the transfer portal or anything like that, but we’ve tried to recruit good high school players, especially from this area, develop them, and now, when they have success, we’ve got to continue to invest in them. They don’t want to leave, they
Nestor Aparicio 05:55
want to play ball for you, and they want to stability be somewhere four years, right? Like, yeah, and that kids everything. But that’s been going on as long as you’ve been doing this. Doing this, back to Steve Francis and Gary Williams, 2530 years ago. So like the rental player and the player that’s going to be here for a minute that’s not really in it for four years to get a degree, I would think that that’s been squeezed out to your point, like you’re going to come here and you think of yourself as a four year player and as my player and as getting a degree in whatever your degree is going to be. That there, there’s a difference between that person and a person that thinks they’re going to go to the NBA or make a living playing basketball, right?
Pat Skerry 06:35
Well, there’s both. You know, we’ve had some guys that we have, like, think 16 or 17 guys playing in Europe right now, some doing very well. Other guys are in the business world, right? So everyone’s path is different. It’s just like, you know, for us to we’re going to play division one basketball, and we’re in a true mid major conference, right? It’s rated 15th best conference in the country this year out of 32 leagues. So if we’re going to play at that level, and there’s going to be expectations, our behaviors have to match what we’re being compared to, Charleston, Wilmington, Hofstra, right? We’ve, we’ve been able to win at that level, but now we’ve got to continue to invest and, you know, unfortunately, like some people, I think, struggle, like paying players and you know, it that is what it is, Nestor that’s not going back,
Nestor Aparicio 07:30
and if it changes your relationship with them, you know, from a coaching say, That’s what I keep hearing from all the real coaches, the big goals and, like, I How about the UCLA coaches say they’re delusional, and I’m like, oh my god, like, Jesus. I don’t want to say
Pat Skerry 07:44
how other people do, because I’m not with other people. I’m not coaching our guys any differently. Where we’ve got some nil, we’re gonna have to get more. I’m not changing how I coach guys if they and I also, if a guy thinks it’s better for him, we’ll help him find something else. You know, I’ll remind you, we’re the first school in the country that had a guy leave pre and I L as a transfer. Very good player, Zane Martin, and then went to New Mexico and then called us to come back, and I took him. And, you know, some a lot of times the grass is not green, right? Usually, the grass is green when you water your yard, that’s usually when the grass is green. So we’ve got to be in a position to water our yard so that we can keep the grass nice and green. You
Nestor Aparicio 08:28
know, I got all that John Wooden that that Terry true AX gave me back in the day. So you’ll get me crying if I start talking about Terry Truex Pat’s scary is here he is. The other Pat’s cats are playing at home this week, Thursday night, William and Mary. Hope you don’t hear this on Friday or Saturday, but Saturday afternoon, Hampton is in as well. Home games the gym. When did the gym Come on? Was it? Did you ever coach in the Towson center? You were in the new you did right? Because I get it all mixed up, but you moved buildings Correct?
Pat Skerry 08:59
Yeah, when I, when I was fortunate to get the job, we were just about to stop breaking ground on the arena. We moved into it my third year. So it’s, this is the 11th year of it. It’s, it’s still spectacular. This has arguably been the best crowds we’ve ever had. Our ad. Steve eigenbrot, staff have done a really good job with their marketing efforts. But you know, one of my fondest memories here in the Towson center is when we had that record setting turnaround. We played the last game in the Towson center. We were banned from playing in the postseason because of our academics some sins of the past, and we shut the building down on our 18th game, which was an NCAA record for turnaround. That was the last game ever played in the Towson center, great win over Hofstra. That was back with Jerrell Benner, man and Thomas and that three and some, some guys that really helped us get the program off the ground.
Nestor Aparicio 09:52
Well, yeah, I missed the old Towson center. Knows memory. I got Rick Emmett from triumph coming on next week. They had a famous concert at the Towson. Center that was broadcast on MTV many years ago, but the new building is beautiful. And, you know, I see people over all the time. Let’s talk about your let’s talk about your players and the players that have been winning games tough week. I didn’t wait for you to lose a game or two to fight you on I swear I wanted but you were too busy winning. And I’m like, and you have an aggressive schedule. I mean, this time of year, it’s very, very busy. I’m appreciative you take a little bit of time talk about your team and your hopes for what’s going to happen next month. Pat, sure,
Pat Skerry 10:25
and I’ll tell you, along with the 1000 center, we’re going to turn that in over the next couple years into a fully dedicated practice facility, and all from man, woman, basketball, volleyball, and then also some artificial turf that our other sports needs. So I love
Nestor Aparicio 10:39
that it’s still there. You know, bones are good. Our bones are good
Pat Skerry 10:41
in that building. We just need to restructure it. But, yeah, I love the group. We’ve got good players. Like said, 10 guys came back from a 21 team so that they’re here for the right reasons. You know, we’ve got, we’ve got a lot of good players. I mean, you know, Williamson tahata may talk, Suleiman Jones, Hicks, Lowry, like all these guys, played a lot last year and came back. We’ve got a lot of local guys from all the Catholic schools and private schools in this area, and we want them all to stay home. We signed three for next year. Nestor, all the six St John’s, Mount St Joe’s. So we want to build a fence around this area and keep all these kids right here in Towson,
Nestor Aparicio 11:28
well, you’re, you know, your accent leads you right back to New England. So you remember the street ball being played here, and the dunbars and the legends of the muggsys and wingates and Russ and all the stuff that went on here back in the day, we still see kids from here go on to all sorts of play Nova, all sorts of places and play, keeping young people here and the streets that bring the basketball here. Has it gotten in your time last 1015, years? Recruiting for you apparently has gotten better locally, but I’m not up on the even the high school circuit to know where the action is these days. For you in recruiting in Baltimore, is there enough talent here to field a championship team for Towson, 70 80% local kids?
Pat Skerry 12:13
Absolutely. I mean, the baltimo Catholic League, DC Catholic League, and then the AU teams here in Baltimore, down in DC are the best in the country. And I it’s not a secret. So every school in the country comes in here to recruit that’s, that’s the challenge. But, you know, sometimes you can’t keep a guy right home from Baltimore because they want to get away. Which, which, I totally get. I was 18 months, yeah, we, we’ve had unbelievable success. Like, like, kids an hour away, hour and a half away, like, you know what I mean, they come here. We have a really, now, a true campus feel with, you know, 9000 kids living on campus, and a lot to do. And
Nestor Aparicio 12:56
I painted a student union there. I’m very impressed. I came over last year, when Dr Ginsberg came in, I heard his first speech there, and
Pat Skerry 13:06
he’s, let me tell you something, that guy’s a rock star, he’s authentic, He’s smart, he’s a worker. We’re lucky to have him. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 13:16
by the way, Pat scary is here. He is heading up the Tigers basketball program. They’re at home this week. You can catch them and catch them before tournament time. So give me the tournament situation for your league and for what you’re doing. Drill it all down for me, because you know me, I’ll go back to the East Coast Conference. I’ll go back. I go to all the old conferences, but the new way of doing things, and the n, i L and all of this, you still can win a national championship, right? Pat, you’re still qualified, right? You’re
Pat Skerry 13:43
still division 1,000% where division one or where we’re committed to, you know, getting into March Madness and trying to make some magic happen. We’ve our tournament starts. We have the date in front of me, but it starts in a week from this Friday down in in DC, at the events and entertainment center where the G League and the WNBA team play. So it’s a great, great little gym, yeah, 5000 seats. It’s they do a great job with it there. And then what happens is, Friday, there’s two games. Saturday, there’s four games. Then the quarter final starts. Sunday, we’re locked in. We’re four. We got two more game, but we’re locked into the one seed, so we’ll play noon on that Sunday against the winner the eight, nine game. And if we’re fortunate enough to go on the semifinals on Monday,
Nestor Aparicio 14:33
see, you get to sit around all weekend. You’re that team. You’re the one that just gets to sit and watch everybody else play. That’s pretty much it is. There’s good and bads to that. So let’s you know. And there’s also the warm up this weekend. You want to win some games and get some momentum going, because it’s been a rougher week for you, right? But we
Pat Skerry 14:48
need to play well Thursday night against the very good William Mary team. That’s, that’s, that’s the only we’re not going to change anything we’ve done. We’ve got some things we’ve got to get better at. You only get so many opportunities. One of these to put the costume on and play. You know, we don’t get to play 82 games. We play, you know, 31 plus a tournament. So our guys will be excited to play against a good opponent in front of a good crowd.
Nestor Aparicio 15:11
Well, it’ll look good if you get the 20 wins, right? We got to get you at least the 2021 22 so when we get you up on the brackets, you know, when you guys are all sharing to see where you’re but next weekend’s your big weekend. So what we’re telling folks, obviously, is, if you love Towson, get down to DC next weekend and support team on the tournament, right? Yeah, noon, then you win, you play what? Monday or Tuesday you were playing? Right? It’ll
Pat Skerry 15:33
be Monday night and Tuesday night. Those games are on national TV. You know, we’ve been in the semis the last three years. So tough, tough last 32nd losses, but some great games and games that have showcased how high level basketball our league is, and that tournament will be very good. There’s a lot of good programs. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 15:53
I feel bad about not having you on, but I feel like I picked the perfect time to have you on. Right now. Tell everybody you’re playing on the ninth of March, noon in the the first game of the tournament. Win that game you play Monday night. Win that game you play Tuesday so at least for nothing else. Pat, if we’ve done nothing in this conversation, it’s now in my calendar, 910, 11. Towson Pat, scary tigers, playing ball, putting that together to make sure that I’m supporting you guys, because on the night of the 11th you’re playing to get in the tournament, my wheels make it to DC. You know, I go. We appreciate that, brother. We appreciate that. Why don’t wear black and gold for many people? You UMBC, but off season, but black and gold around here, you know, that could be trouble. Pat scary is the head coach of all. Thanks. Towson tigers. He has come such a long way from tell everybody what you inherited when you got here 14 and a half years ago, like, what that story’s long gone. And it was this amazing story that we shared, that we talked to you about, about what you found with, I don’t see a broken program, but a program that you had to build from the, literally, the ground
Pat Skerry 16:54
up. Yeah, I think the one thing that, and you know this, that gets lost, I I don’t think we were committed before. You know, facilities, nutrition, academic, strength and conditions, staffing. I think a lot of times, people just blame the coaches, you know. And it you know coaches, imma use an old adage, coaches can win games. Administrations help you win championships. And you know, I’ve worked for some good people, so we invested in the program and it look at Nestor. We we do certain things, and we try to develop habits. I think we’ve had some success doing that, but we’ve had a lot of good players. None of this happens without good players. There’s never been a Hall of Fame coach without a Hall of Fame players. So we, you know, it all comes down to, can we get guys and get them better, and then keep them right, and we but you know, like, this is a big week. We’ve never won over 20 games for four straight years at this place. We’ve got a chance to do that. So I hope our guys are going to be as consumed and obsessed with that as as I am about it, you
Nestor Aparicio 18:05
know, I think anytime, and I’ve been doing this 34 years now, you know, so all of you, all of you coaches, I’ve already dropped the dino audios and the true axes and the jaskol skis, but I could go through the, you know, Tom over at UMBC, 25 years ago, Tom Sullivan, all these coaches that came through in trying to do not what Maryland’s doing, or what you know they’re doing at these other places where there was always a lot of money, always a lot of television tonight, but you came in here and you’ve kept this job, there’s now a point where, like, I’m thinking, if I had a 17 year old kid, where would I want my kid to play. And I think knowing there’s going to be a coach there for four years, knowing that I’m sending my kids somewhere to get an education and stay that that would be more paramount than ever in this transfer portal thing, I think you have something special to sell when you go out. And it’s not a shock that the stability of what you have is what Steve Bucha he wants with the ravens, as much as I don’t like the Steelers, Tomlin that at least you know what you’re getting when you come to the program. And I would say that, dare I say, and you’re not going to say, but 95% of the other programs that these kids go around anywhere, not just here, anywhere, there are coaches looking for the next thing, looking for the next program, kids looking for the next thing that, I think what you’ve done over there’s built a pretty honest program of saying, I’m still going to be here. I’m not looking to leave, I’m looking to stay. And that I think that’s unique in your business. Pat, I really do.
Pat Skerry 19:28
I appreciate you saying that like so we love the place. And you know, you know, I’m sure you feel the same way about the successful business you’ve created. I’ve every day I’m jacked up to say, hey, how do we try to do this a little better? If I ever didn’t feel that way, then I would do it somewhere else. I wouldn’t do it at all. But, or if
Nestor Aparicio 19:45
you feel like you’re at a place where you can’t do it better for whatever reason, yeah, yeah. Well, I
Pat Skerry 19:50
hope that, yeah, you hope that doesn’t come around. But they’re right. That’s always who you’re working for, and what’s the commitment level, right? All
Nestor Aparicio 19:59
right, man. Well, look, you got to get back out. Get your whistle, towel off a little bit, rest your voice. You’re gonna have to yell at the officials, you know, at some point here before we gotta help them out. Yeah, we gotta help them out. Pat, scary is here. He’s in front of the beautiful house and arena. Get on over and see them. Thursday, see them. Saturday, catch them at home. Senior Day. Saturday, yeah,
Pat Skerry 20:18
yeah, yes, sir, yes. Four o’clock game in Hampton. I was just
Nestor Aparicio 20:21
guessing, but I know how this works, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And by the way, next Sunday at at noon, they’re going to be playing the big ones when they really count to get into the tournament. And I hope to welcome you back honestly two weeks from now, you’ll, you’ll be a 15 seed playing against, I don’t know somebody, but you’ll, you could be, I’d
Pat Skerry 20:40
love to get back on. Yeah, you if we’re fortunate enough to get there, I’m there whenever you need you don’t care
Nestor Aparicio 20:46
where they seed you, right? You’re not going to complain about your seating, right? No, if you win the tournament, right, you got, let’s win the tournament first all. Right. Pat, scary here at Towson, my thanks to everybody over Towson for always being good. There was Sean. Everybody over there is great, because we’re here and they’re there, and I drive by your campus at least twice a week. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson. Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive and Tigers basketball. I.
