Patch Chat: UConn Men's Basketball Team Manager Robby Spiesman

Robby Spiesman may not be running the court tonight when the University of Connecticut takes on Butler in the national championship game, but he's certainly done his part to get to the Huskies to where they are. 

As one of the managers for UConn's men's basketball team, Spiesman, a 2008 graduate, is responsible for helping to make sure everything runs smoothly on-and-off the court. 

Spiesman served as a manager for the basketball team for two years and another four at High School East, under coach Peter Basel. Now a 20-year-old junior at UConn, Spiesman took a few minutes out of his exciting day Monday afternoon to speak with Patch from the site of the NCAA title game in Houston, Tex.

Describe your feelings right now just hours away from the national championship game?

It's a little nerve-wracking because you can sort of sense winning the championship and everything that would come with it.  It would be such a great feeling. We're here in Houston. It's a beautiful day. Hopefully I'll get to walk around a bit. There's not really much for us to do today as managers. We just have to make sure the players are on time to all of the team meetings and meals and stuff like that.  Today coach [Jim] Calhoun elected not to do a shoot around because the team is a little tired since they've been playing so many games lately. So today we can relax a little bit, but it's definitely nerve-wracking to say the least .   

What does the job of a team manager entail?

On a normal day, we should have practice. When we are at school, it's different. We just sort of show up and help fill up water bottles and that kind of stuff. But also during the practice, we have to help with the drills--pass out basketballs, rebound for the players, type up stats, record stats. When we are on the road, we need to make sure the players are on time for everything. Call them up, let them know when the team meals are, when they have scouting report meetings, stuff like that. During the regular home games and away games, we just sit behind the bench and give them towels, water bottles during the game.  But during the NCAA tournament, we are not allowed to be on the court during the game.  So for these games, we can just sit back and watch.

Where did your love of basketball come from?

As a little kid, I always loved basketball. It's my favorite sport. I was a big New Jersey Nets fan and I've always watched all their games. I was a UConn Huskies fan also growing up. My mother went to school at UConn so I was always a fan and that's why I wanted to get involved at the beginning.  One day I want to work for an NBA team in the front office so I thought this was a good way to get involved and make some contacts and just learn the game too.

Not many people were picking UConn to make it to the championship game, are you surprised at all that the team made it this far? 

Well, going into the season, we had one player who I knew would be the top player in the county and that's Kemba Walker, but besides that, we lost our next three top scorers from the year before and we have seven freshmen so I didn't really know what to expect.  Nobody even picked us to make the NCAA Tournament starting the year. I remember helping out in the summertime, I could see that Kemba was definitely going to be one of the top players in the country, but he's [Walker] done a great job of leading the freshmen. Jeremy Lamb is a freshman and he's definitely stepped up and contributed...We ended up losing a lot of games in the Big East, finishing 9-9 going into the Big East Tournament. Then we had the amazing run at the [Madison Square] Garden and that jumped us back up again to the national spotlight and we've been able to keep it going.

Who is your all-time favorite basketball player?

Probably Jason Kidd, but my all-time favorite UConn Husky is Emeka Okafor from his 2004 run to the championship. Actually now I might have to say Kemba Walker. What he's done this year is really amazing. Kemba Walker is going to graduate in three years and head to the NBA draft and he's one of the nicest people you can really be around. I don't know if many people know that.

What it’s like to be all over national TV? Do your friends and family turn on the TV and go “Look, there’s Robby again?” 

Yeah, I get a lot of texts and emails from family members seeing me on the bench. People who I haven't spoken to in a while will text me, stuff like that. It's really overwhelming sometimes, but definitely fun for sure.

What does the team have to do well tonight to win?

Rebounding is a major key because Butler may not have the talent that we have, but they work really hard. They have the kid Matt Howard, who is a pretty imposing rebounder. And, of course, they have Shelvin Mack who can score.  But I think if we rebound the ball, if we make some shots and they play hard, we should be cutting the nets down.

What's your final score prediction?

I'm gonna say UConn 63, Butler 51.