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And to realize that he wanted this job. In fact, I think he said the words this is his dream job, and I think the reason he says that is because family matters to Lenny Aka. He's got his wife Kelly's from Birming or from Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, but grew up in Alabama. Coach Acuff grew up in Alabama, has Alabama ties. His daughter Molly lives *** couple miles down the road, correct? Will is in this area as well. His parents, where are your parents? Raise your hand, mom and dad. All right, they're just up the road in Huntsville and we expect to see you at every home men's basketball game. If we got to come get you, we'll come get you, but we expect you to every one of them. But Coach Acuff embraces family. Coach, we are so grateful to have you as part of the Bulldog family. Please, please give our new basketball coach *** bulldog welcome. OK. Thank you so much for being here. Um, I, I've learned *** long time ago when you have *** chance to talk to *** group of people that their favorite words are in conclusion. So I'll try to make sure that this doesn't get too long, but, um. I'm grateful. I'm humble, um, and incredibly blessed to stand here. Um, I will tell you that, uh, you know, *** lot of people said some really, uh, nice things in the last few days about my opportunity to be here and you know, you deserve this and all this, that there's nothing further from the truth. God has been so good to me. He has blessed my family and I beyond belief. And um and I'm so grateful for that and I'm thankful to be at Stanford. um, Doctor Taylor, I will tell you this when I, OK guys, I'll give you that little behind the scene here thing. When I went to bed Saturday night in San Antonio, I would have bet if they said what's your percentage you're gonna finish your career at Lipscomb, I'd have said 99.9%. And then on Sunday morning at 6 o'clock I got *** text from Martin Newton and so he said, can we have *** conversation? I said yes we can and and about 36 hours later I wasn't gonna retire at Lipscomb and so and one of the biggest reasons was when I started talking to people about Sanford all they said have you met Doctor Taylor? Have you met Doctor Taylor? And I hadn't had the pleasure and actually the first time I met him was standing right over there. We did *** zoom on Monday of last week and to say that I was impressed, um, would be an understatement and everyone to *** person that I talked to is so complimentary and I thank you so much for entrusting me with the opportunity to be here. Um, I've known Martin for, for many, many, many years and to see what's happened with Sanford Athletics and just throughout the campus under his leadership, that's no, there's, that's no accident. It doesn't fall out of the sky and it's really, really easy to do other people's job from behind your desk. Being an athletic director is not easy and particularly in this world. And so, um, to say that, that, um. I'm really thankful. Thank you for believing in me and our family, and we are extremely excited to be here, um, and in this process, I had the chance, I, I saw Corey Green play in high school, OK? I did. I saw him play in high school in Claire High School and for you guys that know Corey, if you ever wanna know what Sanford's about. Right there, that's him. That's him. What an unbelievable success story and how proud I am of you and how much I look forward to working with you and that if you want like you say, well, what kind of job did did that coach do or what kind of job did that school do look back 20 years and now I'll tell you and there you are right there and that's Corey Green. So thank you for that. Um, the board, I look forward to getting to work with you guys. um, I've done this long enough to know that. You're the one beneath the sails, I promise you, and, and thank you for your service. Um, it was so nice to meet you, Julie, and look forward to getting to know your guys' family. Um, family is *** big deal to me and, um, when you do this, uh, I just finished my thirty-fifth year in coaching and, um, it's *** family business. Martin knows that he lived it and, uh, there's ups, there's downs, there's nothing like winning. And there's nothing like losing. There's no middle ground. That's just the way it is. And, um, my wife Kelly, who is, um, my best friend. Uh, the most competitive person I know, um, and the only concern she had, she has no, that's really it's way down the list because she's getting to be with her children is, um, where do we get to play golf now? So if anybody likes to play golf, my wife likes to play golf, but she is, uh, she's our family's backbone. She loves us unconditionally and she is *** rock star and you'll enjoy getting to know her. I promise you she has *** great love for what we do and *** passion. Uh, my daughter Molly, who I am so proud of, and, uh, I mean I, we stayed at her house last night and I get up and I go read and have some time alone and just to see what's on her desk and the way she's living her life. I am so so thankful for her and so proud of her. Uh, my son-in-law Cole, we added him to the family *** couple of years ago, and, uh, he's been an answer to prayer and thank you for loving my daughter the way that I would always dream of. Um, actually Cole played football at North Dakota State and they've got 4 national championships. So if anybody hasn't won national championships, y'all let me know that we would try to bring that into the family, but Cole is *** thank you for being you and my son Will, um. You know, you're, you're always proud of your kids when good things happen, you're happy for them and just to say how much, how proud I am of you and, and I'm hoping I'm gonna get to work with him so that would be really, really good. So mom's happy and everybody's happy and we're thankful to be here, um, you know, I know Martin said something to me the other day about he's on the NCAA basketball selection committee and um. And he said what that meant to him because his dad did it. That's what his father did and um. And my dad's here today and um you know I, I, I have coached *** long time and *** year ago 2 years ago I coached my 1,000th game. That's *** lot of games now and he was at the first one and he was at the 1000th 1 and to say that's *** blessing. Is the understatement of all time and, and our players are who we say this in order to be *** man, you have to see *** man. That's the way this thing works and thank you for showing me what *** man is. And my mom, the most selfless human being I've ever met in my life, the sacrifices they made for my brother and my sister who's here, um, come *** long way. Come *** long ways because of you guys and thank you so much my sweet sister, who is the most giving person on earth and uh she's already told me everything about Sanford, everything about Sanford basketball. Molly's in charge of the transfer portal and my daughter's in charge of figuring out everything that goes with Sanford, so we've about got the market corner, um. So and then my friends that are here, I think I, I count I think I have 6 guys that are in my wedding here, um, and, um, and I, I share with these guys some that, you know, *** true friendship, *** true real friendship can withstand time, distance, and silence and when it can do that, you have true friends and just thank you guys for being here. You, you have no idea what that means to me, um. And then the, there's guys here that played for me, that have worked with me and thank you so much for being here guys. I, I, I, it means *** lot. Um. You know, I, I, I, I was introduced to Sanford basketball 35 years ago. My first year as *** head coach at Belhaven College, we played cyber, right? That's what it was called cyber. And the reason I remember that is John Brady was the head coach and John had went to Bel *** and John was in incredibly kind to me and we got in two vans and we drove over here from Jackson, Mississippi and we played Stanford University. And we were up 10 points with 8 minutes to go. Well, I thought Brady knew them referees down the stretch because I'm telling you what, boy, it went right to the end and I would, I would share the name and I probably wouldn't be good for anybody, but it didn't go good down the stretch and they beat us by 2 points and, and John from that point forward was so kind to me. Then Jimmy tole, Jimmy's son Tristan played for me and um at Barry. And um what I learned from Jimmy and how good he was to me to mentor me was incredible impact he's had. And then along the way. 37 years ago I signed Mike Morse. Mike, I signed in for Jeff State Junior College to come to play for me at UAH, and Mike's over here today, and Mike still likes him playing shape. I tell you, every time I see him I gets younger and, um, and then Mike went played from played for me, went with me to Belhaven, went to Barry with me, and then they were smart enough to hire him at Sanford and, uh, what you mean to me? You're the best. I'm so proud of you. Um, and then along the way as I coached at *** lot of places I coached against Dway Rebo and got to know Coach Rebo and, um, just his wisdom and, and what he is as *** man has meant *** lot to me. So and I'm glad to be back in Alabama too. I really am to see the high school coaches that are here. I mean like I'm, that's good. I'm really thankful for that, um, and now as, as we move forward I'm gonna start moving forward *** lot quicker, um, I wanna say something about Bucky and. I knew Bucky when he was in high school. I saw him play in high school. And what he has done here, what he did for the university. Is incredible. Yeah I mean just, and, and the thing I would say to everybody in the room. As you're the ones that help make that happen. Bucky's *** Birmingham guy. He's over *** mountain guy. He's *** Mountain Brook guy. And you guys are *** huge part of his story and you should be so proud and, and I tip my hat to Martin Newton. I mean, to hire *** high school coach, you got to be willing to step outside the box and you have to be comfortable in your own skin. And he did that and look at the results. It's just, it's incredible and the, the recognition, the branding that came to this university because of what Bucky's done. I, I have so much respect for that and I, I'll be pulling so hard for him at Texas A&M as I know you guys will except for you guys that love Alabama. So that's one night and all and Auburn, Alabama and Auburn. My daughter's an Auburn graduate and so you know they got that little bit of conflict of interest, but, um, just so, so happy for him and, uh, I, it's an honor to try to continue what he's done. Now, with that being said, I will not try to be Bucky. That that's not my job. That's not it at all. My job is to try to keep Sanford basketball at the top of the Southern Conference. That's my job. That's what it is. Bucky. What he did was unbelievable. I, I can't be Bucky and I I'm not gonna try and I hope you guys understand that, but I work I will work really really hard and our staff and I've got some of those guys here and you'll get to meet them later with that we will work really hard to make sure that we continue the momentum that was built. But I also know that sailboats don't sail behind yesterday's winds. We got *** row and we got to get going and we got to get this thing moving. And so, um, I did want everybody to know how much I think of Bucky, um. To and this is really important to me. To the folks that I worked for the last 6 years at Lipscomb. Uh, to the kids that I coached there. I, I just want them to know how much they mean to me, how thankful I am for what they did, and you know, the opportunity we had to go to the NCAA tournament this year is because we had unbelievable kids, unbelievable young men, and I will forever be thankful for them. I know there's some former players here from Sanford. This is your program. This is not Lenny Acuff's program. This is your program, and I promise you every single day we will work to put *** product on the floor you can be proud of to everybody that's played here, you're welcome here. This is your spot, and we will, we will do everything we can to continue to make make you proud. And as I do work towards the end is this is Sanford. And, and the reason we have *** chance to be successful is the commitment of the administration. And everything you see in these buildings, but it's gonna be *** lot more about about the people in the buildings. That's what matters. That's what matters, um. We will not in any way compromise what the school stands for to win basketball games. We're not gonna do that. You don't have to do that. Now, you may have to work *** little bit harder and that's OK. But winning doesn't negotiate, culture doesn't negotiate. You have to earn it, you have to live it, and you have to be about it every day. Um, there's no secrets to this stuff. You better get you some good players. That's just the reality. Uh, you're not, you're not out coaching guys. I do think you can out culture guys. But you better get you some good players and we're gonna work really really hard to do that. We want high character kids that fit at Sanford. It's all about fit with all of us and that's what we're gonna work towards, um, we, we will have *** long term vision, but the way this thing has to work out now is we have to have short term goals. Every day we just got to get *** little bit better, it's gotta get *** little bit better and you know, I've done it long enough to know that, you know, there's gonna be ups and downs. It's not gonna be easy. But you know, when you lose *** game, you don't have *** funeral, when you win *** game, you don't have *** parade. Let's just keep going, right? And let's just get on to doing the next right thing right. And that's what we want to do. But I want to have kids that want to be here and I want them finally to play in *** way. That you guys would enjoy watching and they'll be easy to cheer for. That's what I want. You like those, those kids are easy and cheerful and that's what I want this to be about. Um, as I wrap up, when you coach, you just want, I tell every recruit, you wanna have stories and you wanna have memories. That's what life's all about. You wanna stories and you wanna have memories. Some of the younger guys, when we go recruiting, they're like, Coach Guy, you got *** lot of stories. I sure do, and I have *** lot of great memories, and that's *** blessing, and I will, I, that's what we'll chase for these young men and as people say *** lot of times which rent *** player and all that stuff, that will not be the case here. It will be invest in young men. That's what we'll do no matter how long they're here, we will invest in them every single day. Um there's ***, there's ***, there's *** story I like to tell and I always tell our team to start the year this back in the early 60s when uh John F. Kennedy decided he wanted to send. The United States to get to the moon, you want to create *** space program. And so he made the decision to go in on that and he went down to Houston where they were working on getting it done. And as he got there he, he said, I'm gonna walk in by myself because I wanna see what's going on. Let's let everybody that his entourage stay outside. I'm gonna walk in and when he walked in, he walked around and *** lot of people didn't necessarily recognize who he was at first and he walked up to an elderly lady and she was the custodian. She was sweeping the floor and he said, so what, what, what do you do here? What's your role here? And she said, have you not heard? We're going to the moon And that's what you everybody's got, but we, we gotta go to the moon, but it takes everybody it doesn't matter who they are. There's no job too big there's no job too small, and that's what I wanna do. I, I want this basketball program to be everything you want, but I promise you this too for all the other coaches here, I will be your biggest fan and I will be your biggest supporter every single day. Like I, we're just *** cog in the wheel. That's all we are, and I can't wait to get to know all the coaches to be at your games. I'm so excited to go to *** football game. I mean this is the first time I've ever coached in school with football, so I'm looking forward to that. And so I'm fired up for that. And, uh, then, and I can, I can be the guy that says I don't know why we didn't pass right there, you know, that, that'll be fun, right? And so, um. But again, thank you so much for being here. Um, I'm, I'm humbled, I'm grateful and, and I, I will assure you this, there's no one that's more thankful or excited to be the basketball coach at Sanford than I am. Thank you so much. Thank you. We're not gonna open up some questions for coach. Uh, if you just want to raise your hand and I can get *** mic over to you. Thank you for that. I was wondering if we're going down *** bad road. I'm sorry. Uh, coach, first off, congratulations. Uh, you talked about it already, but in this day and age of about college sports and everything, how, how important is it to build that kind of culture that you want to envision when you go out and recruit these guys in this day and age? Well, I think honesty is really important up front. I think, I think clarity is kindness, and I think you tell them right away what I'm sorry, I think clarity is kindness, and you tell them what the expectations are gonna be right up front and, and I, I don't think it's recruiting. I think it's presenting an opportunity. And, and *** good deal is one that works out for both people but I, I do think it's really important. The problem is right now *** lot of it's microwave recruiting. You don't really get to know them that well and it's just bang bang bang, but, um, I think that I told Martin that you know who you know. Is really helpful and the contacts you have right now so you can vent pretty quick, but I, I, you have to do *** good job of getting the right kind of guys because you know the next 30 days if you don't do *** good job with those it's gonna be *** miserable winter so we better make sure we do *** good job in the next 30 days because there's *** lot of opportunity and this is *** great place to go to school and play basketball. Hey Dave Domestic Shelby County reporter. Uh, what's your approach to player development on and off the board? Well, I, I think, um, I think it has to be expedited now. Um, when I was at Huntsville, we redshirted everybody. We didn't red shirt Josh and the Jet, his brother's here today. I was not, I was smart enough to do that and not do that, but, um, we let him play. But, but for us, you know, we used to say work while you wait. Well, *** little bit of the problem now is they don't wait. And so that's *** challenge and so you have to expedite it, but I think that all starts with the staff that you hire and I think you stay committed to it and you also have to understand sometimes the best words you can tell *** kid is not yet. Just keep going, just keep going and we're gonna stay out every day. But, but I tell them when they first get here, you're gonna look back 6 weeks, 6 months from now and you're have 6 months of excuses. For 6 months of progress and that's what we're looking for. We're looking for guys that wanna make progress every day, but I think as much as anything, particularly when you're somewhere like Sanford, that that there's *** faith-based mission to this and they're not just, they're not basketball players they're young men. I think that's important. Coach Johnny in ABC 34 here in Birmingham, um, obviously we all became familiar with Bucky's style of basketball from fans and alumni, and people who follow this program. How would you in *** few sentences describe any *** Cup style of basketball? Well, I, I obviously what Bucky did was incredible, and the way they play was incredible. What you'll probably see the greatest difference that we won't press. As much as they did, um, now offensively look very similar. I it really will. Bucky and his staff, they did *** great job on both sides of the ball. We will be *** lot, probably *** little bit less, uh, high risk on defense. Um, we're probably *** little bit more half court oriented. I've, I've just always thought you build your defense from the rim out, but, um, but I sure hope that that I, I'd like to have the success they had. I'll tell you that. So what what they were doing, we, we won't be married to anything, and I think one thing you have to do now, you have to be more flexible than you've ever been. Uh, we won't be married to *** system, we'll be married to winning basketball. What whatever gives our team the best chance to win is what we'll do. Yeah 1 or 2 more. Hi, Cindy Flynn with the Sanford Crimson. Um, have you brought Lipscomb to March Manu's past tournament? What do you think the timeline for bringing Sanford back to March? There is no pressure in that question. OK, that, then that's *** great question. Thank you, Sydney. I'm gonna remember that, OK, so, um, I'll stay away from you, um, but, but I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, um, but no, I. Winning is hard. Winning one game is hard. It is very, very, very hard. Winning *** championship is the next hardest thing to do. Winning the conference tournament in *** one bid league is brutality. It is brutal, but I think what we will do is I promise you every single year that will be our goal. That will absolutely be our goal, and I, I tell our team the first meeting when they get here June, whatever it is at end of May we have two goals. The first thing is we want to be the absolute best we can be whatever is in this room, we want to maximize it. And the second thing is we're gonna have tears when the locker room when in the locker room when we play the last game. You don't ever want to be in *** locker room where there's no tears when it's over. You wanna make sure that we do everything we can to be our best, but um. You know, it's *** great league. The Southern Conference says it's *** great basketball league with great coaches. *** lot of those guys are really good friends of mine. We played *** lot of them when I was at Lipscomb, and so, um, but let's just sign up for this year, OK? Let's just say this year will, well, I, I sure hope so. We're gonna work real hard at it, or real hard at it. Sorry, back here, uh, Julie Mitchell of WBTM in Birmingham. Uh, I wanna ask you, you spoke about family here and I'm sure through your journey there's been *** lot of sacrifice and time apart. He's standing here at this podium now as the head coach for Sanford basketball. What does it mean to be here? How special is this moment? It, it's really special and one we, we, Kelly and I don't take for granted, you know, we were at Huntsville for 22 years and, and we made the decision when our children got to the 7th grade. We weren't gonna move. We had opportunities to move. And I just said we're not gonna move until they get out of out of high school. That's what we're gonna do we're gonna finish high school there and um but the last 6 years we've been apart and so I, I shared with, uh, I think Doctor Taylor, I, we went to eat twice as *** family this week and that's *** blessing and that that would be something I would say to you guys about Sanford. I hope as you drive on this campus you don't get numb to what you have. I mean it is beautiful and I think sometimes you can get numb to that. And, um, but we won't get no to eating together. I promise you and spending time together and going to church together, though, those won't be things that, well, you better part it means more, that's for sure. Thank you for asking that. All right, I wanna thank everyone for coming out today and you join me one more round of applause. Thanks.