AMHERST — UMass coach Derek Kellogg can already detect a change in his interactions with Adam Ginsburg.
“Now our conversations are a little different because he sees things a little more from a head coaching perspective,” Kellogg said.
Ginsburg, who is beginning his 18th season as an assistant coach, including the ninth with Kellogg, will be the head coach of a USA basketball team at the Maccabiah Games in Israel.
The Maccabiah Games are a multi-sport competition among Jewish athletes from all over the world. It’s held in June every four years. The 2013 edition drew 9,000 athletes.
Ginsburg will coach the under-16 junior team with UMass director of basketball operations Matt Vogel as his assistant coach.
“I’m really excited about everything that comes with this. I’ve met a ton of people that I otherwise wouldn’t have met,” Ginsburg said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for the past 20 years.”
Maccabi USA held two tryouts, one each in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, to narrow a field of 75 participants, who traveled from all over the country, to a team of 12 that will go to Israel.
“The Maccabi organization runs it really well. Our goal was to run as equitable as tryout as possible,” Ginsburg said. “You’re trying to find out who are the best players and who fits in the team concept.”
Once Ginsburg and Vogel identified players they wanted, they had to convince the players to commit, not only their time, but money as players pay their own way.
The squad has four Californians, four from the New York/New Jersey area and one each from Oregon, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama.
Without knowing what kind of talent other countries possess, Ginsburg wasn’t sure how his own team stacked up, but he liked the competition between players and was surprised where depth lay.
“I expected the pool of players to be more guard-oriented, but the depth among the people that tried out was at the combo-forward sport, which I was not expecting at all,” Ginsburg said. “There was limited size, but I think we’re going to have a couple good big kids. The toughest spot to choose was the forward spot because there was so many.”
He said Team USA will look a lot like UMass as far as its offensive and defensive sets.
“We have a very short time to work together, but style-wise I think it will be very similar to what we’re doing here,” Ginsburg said. “We want to play up-tempo.”
That’s almost required. FIBA rules use a 24-second shot clock, so the team couldn’t hold the ball long even if it wanted to.
Team USA will convene for a mini-camp in the spring and then for four days in June before flying to Israel.
In the mean time, Ginsburg has charged Vogel with staying in touch with the players. Ginsburg said he admired how well Kellogg has made sure committed recruits feel connected to the program — to UMass, the current players and their fellow recruits — before arriving on campus.
Ginsburg said he and Vogel are taking a similar approach to team building from a distance, using email and social media to be in regular contact.
“It was important for me that Matt got to do each part,” Ginsburg said.
He said like most assistant coaches, he’s thought about what it would be like to be a head coach.
“You visualize how it would be, but it’s different going through it,” Ginsburg said. “It’s made me a stronger assistant coach also. You understand a little bit more what that head coach role is and how to improve in assistant position knowing what Derek has to go through and what he faces.”
Kellogg is enjoying seeing Ginsburg go through it.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for him to put on his resume. I’m really happy for him,” he said. “Maybe I’ll fly over to see the finished product.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage