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Griff Aldrich: My college coach, who I had worked with, and we had a ton of success when I was there as an assistant, he had transitioned to William and Mary, and he had an opening on his staff. And it was the lowest paid, and I was going to go from whatever I made back then, $125,000 to $18,000.

Natalie Blazer: Oh my God.

Aldrich: And I was dating my now wife. And I told her, I think I'm going to get this position. And I think I'm going to do it. And she was all for it, which was a great sign. And literally the night before, I get a call from him saying, Dean Smith, the former legendary North Carolina coach, called him and one of the former North Carolina players, Joe Wolf, who just finished a 13-year NBA career, was trying to get into coaching.

Blazer: Aww.

Aldrich: And I was like, Coach, if I were you and I was picking between Joe Wolf and Griff Aldrich, I would pick Joe Wolf.

[Music Playing]

Blazer: This is Admissible. I'm Natalie Blazer, Dean of Admissions at UVA Law. We are back for season seven of the show. And I am so excited about today's season premiere episode. My guest today is Virginia Men's basketball associate head coach Griff Aldrich. Coach Aldrich is in his first season at UVA after serving as head coach at Longwood University for the past seven seasons. He is reuniting with head Coach Ryan Odom after serving as Coach Odom's director of recruiting and program development at UMBC from 2016 to 2018.

As an undergrad, Coach Aldrich played college basketball at hampden-sydney and helped lead the team to a 7931 record during his career, which included two NCAA tournament appearances, and he was team captain his senior year. After graduating from Hampden- Sydney, Coach Aldrich enrolled at UVA Law and earned his law degree from our fine institution in 1999.

After law school, he enjoyed a successful career in law and business for 16 years, all while maintaining his love for the sport of basketball and for coaching. I cannot wait to get into all of this with him today. Welcome to the show, Coach Aldrich, and thank you so much for making the time to be here.

Aldrich: It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Blazer: So I mentioned when I first invited you to be on the podcast, I am a huge sports fan. I love nothing more than like a story about an athletic prodigy or some sports dynasty. Any sports documentary that's out there, I've seen it. No matter what sport really, but especially when I have a strong connection to the team like I do with UVA. So I know listeners are going to get a sense of that in our conversation today. But because this is Admissible, I promise it's all going to relate to law school and law school admissions, especially since you, Coach Aldrich, have your law degree from UVA Law.

But I also think lessons in sports applicable to practice of law and life and vice versa. And so I'm really excited to chat about that. So starting at the beginning, you grew up in Virginia Beach.

Aldrich: Correct.

Blazer: Did you always love basketball? Did you play a bunch of different sports?

Aldrich: Yeah, I grew up-- my father was in the Navy, and so we bounced around a little bit and he ended up in Norfolk. And so we grew up, or I grew up in Virginia Beach, really from fifth grade on and was in Northern Virginia and McLean prior to that, but loved sports, all sports growing up, but really fell in love with basketball. And I have to be careful. I fell in love with the Duke Blue Devils.

Blazer: Oh, boy.

Aldrich: And Coach K's early years with Johnny Dawkins and Tommy Amaker and Mark Allery, Jay Bilas, players like that. And it really-- Danny Ferry, it culminated in a loss in the National championship to Louisville in I think '85, '86. And I just grew up Saturdays and Sundays watching ACC basketball on Jefferson-Pilot. And it was so fun. And my love for the game really developed at an early age.

Blazer: And so you played at the college level. Was that a dream of yours?

Aldrich: Oh, absolutely. No disrespect to any Hampden-Sydney alums who may listen to this, but playing at Hampden-Sydney was not my ultimate dream. But genetics and just pure ability kind of stunted my dreams and my ultimate trajectory. But yeah, I always wanted to play in college and got an opportunity to play at hampden-sydney because I got an academic scholarship to go there.

Blazer: Oh, wow.

Aldrich: And so that was kind of the impetus along getting to play for Tony Shaver, who was a great coach at Hampden-Sydney and then later on at William and Mary.

Blazer: How did you find it. Balancing the academics and the sport?

Aldrich: Well, if I'm honest, I literally told my kids this yesterday as they're starting school and kind of challenging them to go for it and maybe not do what I did. But my grades were good enough in high school that I knew if I was recruited by anybody, I could get into the school, and I could use basketball to get into the school. But I probably pursued basketball, certainly in the high school time frame with more energy and intensity than maybe I did my academics. And that probably flipped, quite honestly, in college.

Blazer: Interesting.

Aldrich: I probably got more serious about making sure that the academics were on point in college than I did in high school.

Blazer: Well, you got into UVA Law. So I think that part goes without saying to some extent--

Aldrich: Which I always thought was an accident.

Blazer: Yeah.

[Laughter]

I don't think so. So you became captain. What was that like? What takeaways do you have from that experience?

Aldrich: I think sports and one of the really interesting things in even in our conversation before we started, just thinking about how sports inform so much of life, but also how law school has really-- and the practice of law has really shaped my life. Sports is probably, in my personal experience, was the place where I really started to get to experience leadership in an organized format.

And I'm sure you can get that whether you're in theater or band or debate as well. But sports was the format that I grew up in. And getting to exercise those abilities, I think sports and fields and courts, they're laboratories. And as a young man, I was able to tinker with, OK, what works, what doesn't work, how do people respond, strengthening my voice.

And I'm sure a lot of this is subconscious where OK, people are responding to this, so let's do more of that. Oh, people aren't responding to that. Do something else. And so I think that was really formative for me growing up was kind of getting those leadership opportunities at a younger age.

Blazer: I'm curious, so you're playing basketball. The team is doing well. At what point are you like, I'm going to apply to law school?

Aldrich: Yeah, well, interestingly, I always thought I wanted to coach in college.

Blazer: Wow.

Aldrich: And Ryan Odom, now the head coach here, he and I were teammates at Hampden-Sydney. And his father, former UVA assistant, was head coach at Wake Forest at the time. And so the dream or the plan was really actually for me to go be a graduate assistant and go to Wake Forest law school with Coach Odom.

And so the real story is we were actually on a trip with the Wake Forest basketball team in the NCAA tournament. I'm pretty sure it was Milwaukee. And right before we left, I had gone to back then the post office and gotten my acceptance letter from Virginia. And so Ryan and I were talking and said, hey, by the way, I just got into Virginia Law School.

Well, he, of course, knew his parents had a great affinity for Charlottesville and loved the school even though they were at Wake. And so he told his mother, who immediately told her husband. And he immediately told me I was no longer welcome to join him at Wake Forest. So--

Blazer: Aww.

Aldrich: Which was great. But fast forward three years, if you actually-- I don't if they still do this, but for all of the graduates of the law school, they list where you're going, what you're doing next.

Blazer: They don't do that, but that's nice.

Aldrich: But we had that at least in 99. And at the top I was one of the first names with last name Aldridge. It said Wake Forest men's basketball because I was going to go be the GA and actually ended up going to Hampden-Sydney instead.

Blazer: Oh, that's funny. Do you remember anything about your application process?

Aldrich: Absolutely. I actually had another kind of odd twist that's probably not as well known. I was diagnosed with cancer--

Blazer: Oh, gosh.

Aldrich: --the summer before my senior year of college. And so that actually did not allow me to play basketball for the first semester. And so that actually gave me a little bit more free time as I was recovering from surgery and dealing with that. So I took practiced for the LSAT. I still remember the Friday of parents week and going and staying in this dodgy little hotel outside of Farmville, Virginia, so I could stay away from all the noise of the fraternities and everything else.

Got up, took the LSAT. And I remember I got my LSAT score and being like super excited. And I was heading to the gym, and I told some of my team, hey, I got this on the LSAT. And of course, they looked at me like, number one, we don't care. Number two, we don't what this means.

Blazer: Wow.

Aldrich: But yeah, I definitely remember that. I remember the interview process or the application process. And back then, I don't if you do this, there was an optional interview.

Blazer: So now we interview everyone who we're considering admitted. So you have to be interviewed to be admitted. But that's interesting. So how did that work?

Aldrich: So it was optional. Dean Blackburn. It was Dean Blackburn. And funny story, we went, and I drove the hour or 15 minutes from Hampden-Sydney to Charlottesville. And I had in a little Manila folder my resume, a cover letter. And I was set for my interview and maybe some references.

And Dean Blackburn opened it up, looked at it, and he's like, I just want to talk. And it was so great. He was so disarming. And I think we talked for an hour and a half.

Blazer: Wow.

Aldrich: And it was I was like, oh, this was great. And when I got in, I was like, oh, it was because of my interview with Dean Blackburn. Fast forward to when I arrived on grounds, I ended up probably the first week seeing Dean Blackburn, and I was like, he and I clearly had such a connection. He's going to remember me. And that was the reason I got into Virginia.

And I said, Dean Blackburn. And he goes-- and I said, Griff Aldrich. And he goes-- he looks, hey. He goes, Duke? And I said, no. And he goes, Yale? I said, no. And he just goes, ah, and walks off. And I was like, maybe he didn't remember who I-- maybe I wasn't as--

Blazer: It's hard to remember everybody. But this is why I try to sometimes keep it generic when I see people. Oh, that's funny. I love that you took the opportunity to do the optional interview. I mean, we did not have any option. So it's interesting that they went from optional interview to nothing to now we require it. So it just goes to show things have changed.

So you like me went straight through from undergrad to law school. And I remember reading in an article that you said, like you had one foot in the undergrad mindset, one foot in the law. And when I read that, I realized that's exactly how I felt, although I didn't realize it at the time. So, like, how did you navigate that?

Aldrich: I think first semester, just through fear probably. But I probably, in all honesty, not as well as I could have. If I'm honest, that's probably an area of-- and I don't if anybody could have really helped me with that. We had-- I had older students in our section who just I'm sure they looked at me like, wow, he's so green. And--

Blazer: I doubt it.

Aldrich: But they had just been out and they had worked a little bit. And I remember my second and third year we lived off campus, and we lived across the street from a guy who was in our class but was going through the Jag program. And I remember thinking, golly, that guy gets up at 7:30, and he's at the library by 8:00 for class before he's reading before class at 9:00. Like, who is that? And now I'm like, yeah, I get it. He had young kids. He was trying to get out of the house probably.

Blazer: Ah, I see.

Aldrich: But I think I was probably 1, 2, if I'm honest. I went to law school because I wasn't really sure what to do next. I knew that I wanted to get a graduate degree, and obviously Virginia is fantastic law school and was fortunate to be a part of it. But I don't think I had that maturity that sometimes comes in a little bit more purpose behind, OK, this is what I'm trying to accomplish from my three years in Charlottesville.

Blazer: And I don't think that's necessarily uncommon.

Aldrich: Sure.

Blazer: Many more people now do work before. And I also I remember reading something to the effect, again, that something that deeply resonated with me. And I'm sharing it because I think it will resonate with listeners. You said something to the effect of like, it doesn't matter how much I study.

I am just like, not on the same playing field with these people. And like to me, that's absolutely how I felt. Even just within my small section, I was like, who are these people? But what I tell incoming students now and what I tell applicants now is like, that's where you want to be. You want to feel slightly out of your depth and like you're surrounded by smarter people. And again, everyone feels that way. So it can't be that everybody is smarter than everybody. It's just it's-- so I share that because I think it's so relatable.

Aldrich: And I think it's healthy. I think we preach certainly at Virginia, one of the first core pillars or core values of the program is humility. And a lot of students at Virginia rightly, have been the best and brightest wherever they've been, whether it's high school or their undergrad. And so to swim in deeper waters is probably a healthy thing. And I think it's broadening.

We always tell basketball players, if you're the best player in the gym, you're probably not in the right gym. You're going to grow by being challenged. And I think that was-- I think that was again, probably similar to athletics, it also depends on how you respond when you realize the waters are deeper, how do you respond? Do you swim harder? Do you have a sober assessment of yourself and a healthy assessment of, hey, it's OK, I don't need to be this smartest or-- and as I've certainly learned as I've gotten older too, just because you're the smartest doesn't mean you're necessarily going to be the most successful lawyer, partner, businessman, coach, what have you. There's a lot of, as you intimated, different characteristics that go into helping kind complete the picture.

Blazer: I remember the way I dealt with that feeling of like, I'm not. I was like, well, I'm just going to have to outwork. And like, that has sort of always been my mentality. Like, I'm not going to be the smartest, but I will-- I'll just do what it takes, execute. So I think what you said is so important.

Like first of all, looking up to and leaning on people who you admire, I think is so important, but also recognizing what you could bring, like, how are you going to keep going in an environment like that. I read that you still played basketball in law school. And I'm curious, did you play with other law students? Were any of them good? What was that like?

Aldrich: Yes, yeah, we played-- typically we played at North Grounds. And it was interesting. I was on Monday, I was working out. We're getting the courts resurfaced at JPJ, and so those courts are offline. So I actually took some players to the AFC, which wasn't around when we were here. And they've got some courts there. And one of the old gentlemen who used to play at North Grounds was there, and we reconnected. It was kind of crazy.

Blazer: That's cool.

Aldrich: But yeah, we would play usually I want to say most afternoons. I mean, we played a lot.

Blazer: Wow.

Aldrich: And there was a strong contingent of guys, and it's funny. Mark Stansell who--

Blazer: Oh my God.

Aldrich: If you know Mark--

Blazer: The summer before my senior year of college, I was a paralegal at Baker Botts. And he was like a third-year associate. He was one of the very first UVA Law grads I ever met. Funny.

Aldrich: Yeah, Mark. Mark was in my small, small section, and we played all the time. He was--

Blazer: I can see that.

Aldrich: Yeah, he was one of the first guys. Simon Davidson--

Blazer: Simon Davidson.

Aldrich: He played all the time.

Blazer: He runs the Charlottesville 29. Yeah.

Aldrich: And so he-- so we played. But we actually and interestingly, we had a intramurals team made up of law school students. I don't think Mark played with us, but Scott Brown who was from Alabama. Matt, I can't remember his last name. He played at football at Notre Dame. Clint-- can't remember his last name. He played at football at Yale and maybe Duke too. But we had--

Blazer: Had this athletic of group.

Aldrich: And we would always play in the University-wide IMs. So we had a great team. It was a lot of fun.

Blazer: I don't if they did this back then, but every year there's a student faculty basketball game.

Aldrich: Oh. OK. No, we did not do that.

Blazer: Which is just great. I love seeing our faculty get out there and like--

Aldrich: I would like to see that.

Blazer: 25-year-olds. For those who don't, North Grounds is the gym that is-- the law school being located on North Grounds. We just call it North Grounds, but it's the rec center right next to the law school. So like very convenient. AFC is the much bigger, much newer facility like on central grounds but still very close by.

Aldrich: Yes, it's great.

Blazer: Yeah. OK. I could spend this whole podcast talking about your time in law school, I really could. I want to transition to your career. I'm curious because I as soon as you graduated law school, you went you did go into coaching. So when you were a law student, were you like meeting with career services? Were they saying, what are you going to do? How did that work?

Aldrich: Yeah, I think-- so when I was in law school, I coached at a local private school, Covenant. And so I was always I always had that itch. And I kind of had the thought, if I'm going to try coaching, I might as well try it. And then I can always go back to practice law. And so I did the clerkship deal. I clerked in Charlotte, I clerked in Dallas, clerked in Norfolk.

And I was really pursuing the law firm path and thought I was going to do that with a little bit of uncertainty. And so I actually accepted a position with a firm in Dallas.

Blazer: Oh, wow.

Aldrich: And then probably in the spring after I finished coaching at Covenant that third year, was like, man, I think I've got to try this coaching deal. So I called him and I said, hey, can I defer for a year? Would that be OK with you all? And they said absolutely. And so I went. And I ended up taking the bar down in Texas, which was a joy and then came back and ended up coaching at my alma mater for a year.

Blazer: What led you to then say, OK, I did the coaching thing, now I'm going to pivot?

Aldrich: Yeah, two things really, or three things. First off, I was at a wedding of a very close family friend, and I got some real advice from the groom's father, who kind of really challenged me, which I really respected. And he kind of said, I think got it backwards. I think need to go do the law thing first. And your faith is a very big thing for me. And I think wasn't so much in law school or undergrad, but it has certainly become more so.

And I think I really felt like it was a blessing to go to Virginia. Did God call me to go practice law, and am I am I ignoring that? And without a clear sense of conviction, I probably needed to do that. Number two, I will say I resonate with what you said. OK, I'm going to work hard, and I'm a performance addict.

And throughout life was like, OK, I'm trying to climb. And it needs to be some place of meaning and value and prestige. And I think after that year of coaching, I was like, I don't if this is going to be prestigious enough. I'm an assistant coach at a Division III school. I'm not going to be OK just-- I said I'm coaching because I want to now help kids and love the game. And I know that's what I am saying, and that's the right thing to say. But I need to I do need to, quote, unquote, "make it" in this world. And I'm not going to be OK if I don't.

And so that's a completely separate journey. But I think that really informed a little bit of, wait a second, I'm not on the right path to climbing the performance ladder. And so that was I think probably a big impetus. And then the third thing was I had 40 grand of student debt. And 40 grand back in 2000 felt like a lot of money. But I should have just kept it and let inflation rip it apart. But anyway, so those were the three things. Some counsel and then I think my own kind of inner demons pushing me to do something that I felt was prestigious.

Blazer: Again, I love that because it's just honest and it's relatable and it's what anyone going to a top law school I think would feel. But what I love about your story is that, yes, you went and practiced law for many years, and I want to talk about that. But you never let go of--

Aldrich: The coaching.

Blazer: The coaching side. So just talk briefly about what was practicing law like because now suddenly you're like, OK, this is what I set out to do. How was that?

Aldrich: I think I practice it Vinson Elkins, for 12 years, and I was really fortunate and blessed. I was in the corporate group down in the Houston office and just had some awesome people. It felt as a group, they were hard-charging but very collegial and develop some lifelong friendships and in many ways really shaped who I am today by teaching me how to work hard.

I wasn't-- I am not a naturally detail-oriented person, which is a problem if you're a corporate lawyer. But they taught me how to do that in a loving manner. And so I still have incredibly fond memories of my time there, was really hard. You talk about what you said earlier. Well, I'm just going to I knew I wasn't as gifted as some of those attorneys there, and-- but I know you're not going to outwork me. And so I think any success that I had was in large part due to just kind of, OK, well, I'll just try to outwork you.

Blazer: As I mentioned, like during that time, you were still doing the coaching, right? And so did you have a sense in your mind like that you were going to return to that?

Aldrich: Yes. Yes.

Blazer: What was your thought process?

Aldrich: Every-- so I wanted to pay off the student loans. And so I was chipping away aggressively at that every month. And I really-- I had colleagues who bought Mercedes when they-- and I continued to drive the same car. I drove and lived in a modest apartment and couldn't get a date so I could save money socially. So that all worked.

But every spring, the college basketball hiring cycle happens. And every spring I would fantasize about-- and so I really, for several years thought I would get back into coaching. And finally, after about I think it was my third year, I had finally paid off. In my second year, I had paid off all the loans. In the third year, my college coach who I had worked with and we had a ton of success when I was there as an assistant, he had transitioned to William and Mary, and he had an opening on his staff. And it was the lowest paid, and I was going to go from whatever I made back then, 125,000 to 18,000.

Blazer: Oh my God.

Aldrich: And I was dating my now wife. And I told her, I think I'm going to get this position. And I think I'm going to do it. And she was all for it, which was a great sign. And literally the night before, he had to wait for a state institution, the two-week period or whatever, 10-day period. And I get a call from him saying, Dean Smith, the former legendary North Carolina coach, called him and one of the former North Carolina players, Joe Wolf, who just finished a 13-year NBA career, was trying to get into coaching.

Blazer: Oh.

Aldrich: And I was like, Coach, if I were you, and I was picking between Joe Wolf and Griff Aldrich, I would pick Joe Wolf. That-- well, in one way it was really good because it again, from a faith perspective, I was like, all right, you've really closed this door, God. And so now I can kind of clear my mind. I'll keep coaching the way I was coaching on the AAU. And I can kind of put the college thing to the side.

And I think it probably freed me up emotionally and mentally to just dig into what I was doing at the law firm and coaching. We ended up moving to London with the law firm. And lived there for almost five years.

Blazer: So great.

Aldrich: Yeah, it was amazing. And so being able to do that, I'm not sure maybe I would have done that if I was still kind of thinking, oh, maybe I'll coach basketball.

Blazer: Yeah, you mentioned detail oriented, which like, it sounds like such a small thing, but it is such a big thing in legal practice. What other overlaps? Like what do you see as skills that are necessary from the coaching and lawyering perspective? Like, where did you feel like OK, I identify these traits?

Aldrich: Yeah, one of my biggest-- so I was a deal lawyer. And so one of the big things, and this is probably no different with litigation where you're trying to put a process together, OK, here are all the steps that we need to go through. And part of the practice of law, especially at complicated level, there's so many balls you're juggling.

And-- but you also have to be really detailed, like your job is not to let anything get through the cracks. And so you've got to be really organized to make sure, hey, I know, OK, here are all the things that need to be going. I need to be pushing all of these different work streams forward to make sure the deal's going. And then in 2003, in Houston, the energy boom was going nuts. And so you weren't just working on one deal. You were working on four or five.

I remember one time I was like 10:00 at night, and I'm in the office and I get a call from our general counsel client of ours, and she's almost apologetic because she knows how hard it-- how crazy the industry is. And she goes, Griff, I'm so sorry. We have another deal. And you were just like, but that was so great because again, what we were talking about earlier. You're being tested to your limit. And you're realizing, oh, I have another level to go.

And so I think you're asking about the practice of law, I think just project management and organization and details and doing things at a high level. One of the things we try to do at Longwood is one of our main core values was excellence. We wanted to strive for excellence. And I think what was critical for our players to see is that the staff, what we did was excellent. The locker room was excellent.

Like if we did gear, the gear was excellent. If we gave them a handout, the handout was excellent. Yeah, and so it just is like, hey, we're not some dodgy just throwing stuff together. Like, this is done at a very high level. And so I thought that was really important. But you saw that from my time practicing law.

And then I think the other thing is I'm probably naturally this way. And it's funny, like Ryan Odom, he's an optimist. Things are always going to work out. And I'm alway, yeah, what if it doesn't? What if it doesn't work out? And--

Blazer: You need both.

Aldrich: You need both. But I think obviously the practice of law is always, OK, yeah, this feels like it, but, OK, what if it doesn't work out? And when you're working on a deal, OK, what-- I mean, even basic stuff. Well, OK. Well, we need to have we need to have a backup plan because steel can't fall apart because something on our end. And so I think that mindset was probably really ingrained in me from-- and I think that's-- I think it served us-- served me well throughout my career.

Blazer: Contingency planning. I mean, that's what you get-- that's what lawyers are getting paid the big bucks for, right? So it's like, how you respond to adversity or uncertainty or change. And I love what you said about the excellence on our application. We ask-- it took us a long time to come up with six traits that we think are important for the practice of law because there are many. But we ask applicants to tell us about resilience, diligence, integrity, maturity, empathy, and ability to engage across differences.

Any one of those, they're welcome to tell us, how have you cultivated that in your life? How have you exhibited that in your life? And I did notice going back to Longwood that you also had these core values. And you sort of touched on this with UVA. How did you get to Longwood? Because--

Aldrich: Yeah, that's a great question.

Blazer: Because you left the practice of law and ended up at Longwood?

Aldrich: No, I left the practice of law.

Blazer: And you were at UMBC?

Aldrich: I was at UMBC.

Blazer: Oh, great. Because I want to talk about that. University of Maryland, Baltimore County for people who don't know-- I can't imagine who doesn't. But I just get chills thinking about it because-- was it March 16th or 17th? It was mid-march. It was March Madness.

Aldrich: It was March Madness.

Blazer: 2018. I was living in New York City. UVA basketball was number one seed. I remember I went down to the village with my friend and we sat at the bar. We got there early. We had all our UVA stuff on. And well, history was made because UMBC was 16-seeded. And never ever before had a 16 seed beat a number one seed. But that is what happened.

Aldrich: That is what happened.

Blazer: And you were there?

Aldrich: I was there.

Blazer: At UMBC for that.

Aldrich: I was.

Blazer: What was that like?

Aldrich: Surreal. Surreal because UVA, I think for us, Tony Bennett and I say us, our staff at UMBC, we were trying to build a program. And we were just so tickled to be in the tournament. And Tony Bennett was like the gold standard. He is the gold standard, how he ran the program.

And I remember after we won our conference tournament, knew we'd be in the NCAA tournament. The staff was talking. And it was unanimous. OK, we'll play anybody. We're just happy to be in anybody but Virginia, anybody but Virginia. Yes. And of course, when they said it, all the UMBC-- there was a watch party. Everybody was like, going nuts. And all the stuff was like, oh, hey, Yay, this will be fun.

Blazer: Oh my God.

Aldrich: And so-- but that particular team it was an older team. They had a lot of older players who were confident.

Blazer: The UMBC team?

Aldrich: The UMBC team. We had actually played SMU, Arizona, and Maryland that year earlier and had competed with SMU and Maryland very well that year, and Arizona for about 30 minutes we had played them well. And so there was a little bit of, hey, we can play with these guys.

It was down in Charlotte. And there was probably 80% of the Charlotte facility was Virginia fans, rightly so they were-. And about 10 minutes into the game, it was like a tie game. And I remember thinking, wait, we can play with these guys.

Blazer: Oh my God.

Aldrich: And then I remember in the second half-- it was tied at halftime, 21-21. And then we just got on a blitzkrieg to start the second half. And I remember thinking they play so slow. I don't know if they can score enough to catch up. We were up 16. And--

Blazer: This was the big criticism that they played slow.

Aldrich: And I was like, I just don't think they can score fast enough. But it was crazy because they'd call a timeout out, and it was dead silent in the arena because I think everybody was just in shock and probably including us.

[LAUGHTER]

But we were having-- it was just-- that's one of the beautiful things about March Madness is that the stars can align.

Blazer: Totally.

Aldrich: And it gets contagious. We made a couple of shots and then everybody's making shots, and then we couldn't miss. And they were starting to go, oh, boy. And it snowballed.

Blazer: Listeners cannot see. But I'm like literally just closing my eyes as if I'm watching it again because it is what is so great about March Madness and sports in general. I have goosebumps head to toe. I'm curious as surreal as that game was, as much as it, like shattered, just all these records and everything, I feel that if Tony Bennett and UVA had not come back the following year, to win it all, it would not have the same lore. That's part of--

Aldrich: It's incredible. I mean, again, I think it's a testament to Coach Bennett and a testament to those players. And that's a neat thing. You talk about sports, about redemption and--

Blazer: Resilience.

Aldrich: Resilience. And it's such a cool, such a cool story.

[Music Playing]

Blazer: Wondering which standardized test to take for law school, when to take it, and how to study to best maximize your score? If you're new to Admissible or just need a test strategy refresher, check out season one, episode one, where Sebastian joined me to talk about his process, one that ultimately made him a successful candidate for UVA Law.

SEBASTIAN: So I was mostly self-taught. I was mostly just doing a lot of practice tests. I thought that was a great resource because ultimately, as you will read and hear from people all the time, the LSAT is a learnable skill. Very few people start out extremely proficient. I think that is something that separates it from, say, the GRE. The LSAT is a completely different animal. And I think there's a huge return on investment if you're willing to put in that time. So I was doing a lot of that on my own, spending whatever hours I could find in the day, doing those practice exams, and really trying to work at that.

Blazer: So you left UMBC and then went to Longwood?

Aldrich: The Longwood story I'll share a little bit about that just because it does involve UVA Law. Oh, so the president of Longwood University at the time was Taylor Reveley. Taylor Reveley is a law graduate.

Blazer: All comes back to UVA Law.

Aldrich: It all comes back to UVA Law. So--

[Laughs]

Tell you how smart I am. I didn't realize I was about two to three years into it. And I asked Taylor, I said why weren't we better friends at law school? He goes, well, you graduated in May and I started in August. I was like, oh, OK. So he started-- he actually went to Princeton, and then got his Divinity degree at Union Theological in Richmond, and then he ended up going to law school after getting his seminary degree. So he started in '99 right after I finished.

But in short, he our circles kind of bumped up against each other. He went to college with one of my best friends from high school. Our wives actually were years apart, but had gone to the same high school in Houston. So he knew of my story, and we had met a couple of times. And so he knew of my story about leaving law to go coach, and I think was looking to build a program. And they had really struggled for a long time at Longwood.

And so he thought, I kind of need to think outside the box here and try to find a different-- not just a coach, but find somebody who can do that. I think the other thing that probably attracted me to him was I understood that community. Yeah having gone to Hampden-Sydney, which is 5 minutes away from Longwood.

And so I think there was a natural OK, this is a guy who knows the community, who the community will at least resonate with because he played basketball at Hampton-Sydney. And so I think those are some of the main attractions would be my guess.

Blazer: And I read, I think, that--

Aldrich: But it made no sense for him to hire me.

Blazer: But I mean--

Aldrich: Well, to be honest, at the time, I wasn't even technically coaching. I was--

Blazer: You were doing like, recruiting?

Aldrich: Well, I was the I was organizing the recruiting. I was doing-- I was basically helping Ryan run the program. But I was doing less of on court stuff. Just the way the NCAA had it structured. So he took a huge risk. He and Troy Austin, they took a huge risk to hire me.

There's a popular basketball journalist, Jeff Goodman. And Jeff is-- he's great. I think he was with CBS Sports at the time. But he termed my hiring, quote, unquote, "baffling." And so he and I are he and I are friends now, but I did-- he texted. He text and asked guys questions for updates and stuff. He asked me for an update later that same year. I said, bafflingly, Jeff.

[Laughter]

And he's like, come on, man.

Blazer: That's amazing. Well, it did go very well at Longwood. How long were you there?

Aldrich: Seven years.

Blazer: Seven years. I read, I believe that forget about the basketball performance, but the academics. Like the student athletes were, like, performing better academically. I'm curious, was that intentional? Was that a goal you all set? And how did that play out?

Aldrich: I think this honestly goes back to what I learned probably in my legal practice, is you're working in different offices, you're working in different groups, and the quality of the people. You really-- yeah, the culture is important and the values are important, all that. So much of it ultimately comes down to are the people quality.

And the talent is-- obviously you have to have some level of talent. That's why I love your questions about character traits in-- because the true test isn't going to be whether somebody is really smart. The true test is going to be, do they have the character plus the ability to go on and do wonderful things? And it's the same thing with sports.

When you think about the great athletes stay in basketball, like Michael Jordan was elite. Not because-- there's a lot of 66 guys. There's a lot of what made him elite was he was the fierce competitor, which requires unbelievable mental toughness. Kobe Bryant outworked everybody. And that takes toughness and resilience to do that. Steph Curry, same thing.

And so that was definitely the philosophy at Longwood is we're not going to sacrifice on character. We're going to really prioritize that. We also really wanted to match the students with-- or the players with the University. Do they fit the University? And do they fit who we want this program to be about? And so I think that's just critical.

And I probably didn't even realize it as much. I probably was thinking more from the standpoint of is it going to fit? And then is it going to be accepted by the administration? I probably didn't really missed that the fans gravitated incredibly to, hey, these are really good people. And we-- and silly me for not seeing that on the front end, but the fans, everybody wants to win. But we were very much-- when President Rivlin and I were talking in the early days, we wanted to win the right way with the right people.

And I think at Virginia, it would be no different. If we won a national championship, but did it with sketchy practices and individuals, I don't think people would really embrace that. And that's something that I think is near and dear certainly to me and Coach Odom.

Blazer: Well, and it reminds me of UVA Law. I said we had orientation for first years on Friday. And, I said something to the effect of when you meet a UVA Law lawyer out in the world, I don't care if they graduated in the '80s, '90s, 2000s, you know this is a good person who's good at their job.

And I love that shorthand also you saw that in your basketball program because at the end of the day, like when people are rooting for a team, they're rooting for the people. And it makes them so much more connected to the people. You mentioned that you organize the recruiting. OK. And like, obviously a lot of college basketball is about recruiting, same as in my job as an admissions Dean.

So the same way that raw athletic talent as we've been saying, same way as a super high LSAT or super high GPA don't necessarily translate to success. Like, you could be the most athletic person out there, doesn't-- you could fall apart mentally. Same thing, you could be super smart on paper and not really have the lawyering skills. When you're out there recruiting, what do you look for, and how do you know, like, OK, this person is going to be good?

Aldrich: Well, at Longwood, it's probably a little bit different than what it is here at Virginia. But some of the themes are the same. One of the main things that we're looking at, I'm looking at is how do they play. Are they playing hard? Are they playing consistently hard? Do they play hard in spurts and then take time off? Do they-- or are they-- what is the, quote, unquote, intangibles?

With the intangibles being your what shows up on the stat sheet. But what are the other things that you're doing? Are you making your team better? Are you a hustle player. You can be a star and still be a hustle player. We call that motor. How's your motor?

Blazer: Motor. Love it.

Aldrich: Is your motor running high? Do you-- and the second thing is their understanding of the game, their feel for the game? Are they just talented or do they actually have an understanding of the game? And so maybe I would characterize or analogize that in the law school admissions game of you could be crazy talented, but you're not really understanding what's going on in the game. But you can make a shot if the ball gets passed to you. So maybe that's a super high LSAT score. But you probably can't find your way from the airport to the law school.

Blazer: Or you have just-- you don't really have a purpose for law school. There are tons of smart people out there, but what is your purpose?

Aldrich: What are you trying-- yeah, and/or what is your personal purpose? Do you have a feel for life, and what you're-- yeah, how does how does law school fit into my journey? And so I think those are things. And then certainly talent. Like, can you shoot the ball? Can you dribble the ball? Things that things of that nature.

But I would tell you, we say this all the time is there's plenty of people who have talent. The question is, do you have the talent and the character? And so probably the same is true. Maybe not at it was true at Longwood that there was plenty. You get to the higher points at Virginia basketball and Virginia Law School where the pool of kids with appropriate GPAs and LSAT are probably smaller.

But I think you're still chasing character over I'm going to give up a couple of points on the LSAT, or maybe five or six points on the LSAT if this person is an elite human. And one of my law school roommates, Bart Epstein, he either graded onto Law Review or wrote on, I can't remember which, but Bart is a went to a SUNY school in New York. He drove a taxi, cab in New York City at some point. He taught Princeton Review at some-- he was just kind of had an unorthodox but just-- and I think he got in off the waitlist.

And then he absolutely crushed it. But a lot of what you're talking about, the resilience and things like that. He had that in spades.

Blazer: And those are my favorite stories when we take chances on people. A couple of years ago, someone off the waitlist graduated number one in her class.

Aldrich: Exactly.

Blazer: I mean, I love nothing more. And we're in a privileged position, obviously, to have people on our waitlist who that smart. But it's why-- it's the same threads we've been talking about. Not necessarily like an underdog story, but more of like you see people, and you see their potential. And then they prove you right, which is like one thing that I love about this job. OK, I want to talk about your return to Charlottesville. So, what's it like being back? How long have you been back?

Aldrich: Yeah, so we-- Ryan got hired in, gosh, late March. And I was hired same, right around the same time by him. And so have more or less been back since late March. And we had our head down--

Blazer: I'm sure.

Aldrich: --for trying to put the roster together and get organized. It's really only been the last couple of weeks that kind of feels like the seas are calming a little bit.

Blazer: OK. OK. Good.

Aldrich: And so you put the roster together, but then the roster comes in June for workouts, and then you're recruiting again. And then-- so now we're kind of stable and ready to launch for the year.

Blazer: That's good. So that was going to be one of my questions. Like, what are your day to day priorities now? But it sounds like a lot of the hay's in the barn so to speak.

Aldrich: Yeah, well, now the life cycle of or the annual cycle for basketball is, starting maybe if you start in the summer. All the kids, the guys usually come in mid June and you have workouts. And they do summer school for about eight weeks. And during that time, you're doing recruiting. You're on the road recruiting high school events and things of that for high school players.

Then in August, you give them about two weeks off, and then they come back. And then you start school. And so we'll jump right into preseason on Monday when classes start.

Blazer: Wow.

Aldrich: And so we'll start practices and things of that nature. And then scrimmages start in mid October, and kind of see where we are. And then the games start November 3.

Blazer: Oh my gosh. I can't hardly wait. So I do want to talk about how the game of college basketball has changed.

Aldrich: [Laughs]

Oh, boy.

Blazer: Specifically, I guess I have two main questions. NIL, Name, Image, Likeness, I would love to talk about that. And then I'd also love to talk about the transfer portal and like a school like UVA that's so as we've said person-oriented, community-oriented, like how has that impacted it?

Aldrich: So yeah, and maybe I'll start with the second question first, the transfer portal. And I do think, one of the special things about Virginia, and obviously I've not spent any time at Harvard or law school or Yale Law School or-- but one of the things that I feel very fortunate and blessed and maybe it's just because I'm attracted to this is one of the special things about Virginia is had elite, elite people, but it was also very collegial.

It was very-- with maybe a few exceptions here and here because we're human. And-- but there's a caring and there's a human element and component to it. And you use the word empathy, which I think is something that I personally really need to grow in. But it's something that is you feel it. And I would say the same thing at Vinson Elkins where I worked in that court.

It was hard charging, but there was definitely a caring human element. I mean, yeah, we wanted to win, and we wanted to beat Baker Botts and the New York firms, et cetera. But at the same time, we were a team. And I felt that way. I think that's really important. And I think Virginia as a University certainly has that.

There's something about honor and integrity and being about public service and in the community. And, and when I say public service, sure, It could be the world, writ large. But service often to me is those who are right around you first. If you think about concentric circles, it's those circles that are the closest to you.

I think that actually gives Virginia a real chance to be different than maybe a lot of our peers because we do have something to sell that matters, hopefully-- if you recruit the right kids, if they care about that. And so that's something that I think we really want to recruit kids that fit Virginia.

And I think we feel very fortunate this year with the team that we've put together is that they do they do fit Virginia. But the transfer portal, it's really hard. It is unlike anything that we experience, I think, in the real world. I mean, maybe investment banking is a little bit like this. I felt like, investment bankers, they'd get their bonus in about the February time frame. And then there was a shuffle. People-- there would be shuffling.

Blazer: But not to this extent.

Aldrich: Not to this extent. There's a million examples of how it's been a good thing for kids, but there's probably 10 million where it's been problematic. And it's probably not a popular opinion or to say that the transfer portal is a bad thing, but I think in totality, I think it's doing more harm to the players.

I don't know-- it's really complicated because they do need to have the freedom to be able to, at this point, be able to get fair market value for what they're-- so they do need to have the freedom to be able to move if they're in a toxic situation. So it's really hard. But on the other end, you got kids who don't graduate. And if you transfer to three different schools, and you're losing credits every time you transfer, you can't tell me that Katie, transfers three or four times, is on an academic track.

And something near and dear to me, a lot of these are people of color and from lower income environments at times. And college was supposed to be a stepping stone onto a higher trajectory. And we exploiting them? Is the system unintended consequence, exploiting them while trying to benefit them, the unintended consequences? Kids aren't developing again as people.

Blazer: Well, it's hard to when you're moving around because the team, like the beauty of a team like UVA, is you have years together and with your coach, with your coaches in the community. Like you're being nurtured and--

Aldrich: You're being developed.

Blazer: You feel part of a team. Exactly. And like, this is the least of the downside. But like from a fan perspective, I'm following them.

Aldrich: Yeah, they're your people.

Blazer: And then suddenly they're gone. You're learning the new players every year. So it's-- it's really tough. It's really tough.

Aldrich: And I a little bit of what we talked about earlier about, needing to be in an environment where you're not the best, where you can grow, where you can expand, where you can be challenged. Well, inherently most kids, if they're not getting what they want, then OK, maybe it's the wrong environment. Let me-- I'm going to go somewhere else. And you see that happen a lot.

And let me be clear. A lot of times the coaches are saying, hey, you need to go on too. So I don't want to just say, hey, it's these kids who are ungrateful and moving on. No, a of times the coaches are now using it. Hey, you're not good enough. I recruited you, you not good enough. We're going to-- you need to go find another spot.

Blazer: So is there a universe-- I don't know enough about the transfer portal, but is there a universe where the team is doing well, everybody's happy, and so people don't transfer?

Aldrich: There is not a shortage of studies that say that continuity, teams that have continuity are going to outperform those that do not. And that's not to say that teams that can't be put together. But continuity matters. But again, if you put yourself in the position of that kid, he's like, I'm super excited school x could win. But to be honest, I'm trying to go play pro. And if this coach is only going to let me run to the corner and shoot 3s. I need to have the ball in my hands because I'm willing to give up being on a good team.

And of course, one of the things again, that's not real world, in the transfer portal, coaches say the most outrageous things to kids in the transfer portal. And so, oh, you're going to be this, you're going to be that.

Blazer: Like to entice them.

Aldrich: And where in the private sector, going back to investment banking, if you do that, and it doesn't work, your reputation is shot. But there is no accountability with the coaches of, hey, this coach has a reputation of luring these kids and not executing because it's just a uninformed market. And it happened so fast. And so you can do whatever you want to try to recruit the kid, tell the kid whatever you want, and you get him in the boat and then hopefully it works out. And if it doesn't, oh, well, we'll do it again next year. And obviously that doesn't work usually because you can't have 10 guys who all think they're going to be the leading scorer.

Blazer: Yeah, and like I'm all for best for the student athletes. But I feel like when you look at them all as individuals, of course, there's not going to be continuity, people aren't going to be happy here. And like, again, it's hard to have a team-- like even just thinking about the UVA team from 2018 to 2019, imagine you have all new players who didn't go through that UMBC loss, they're not winning the-- So I'm curious like NIL. How is that impacting things?

Aldrich: Yeah, so NIL for listeners who don't know, it's basically, it started out that NIL was probably reasonable, where if an athlete was truly being paid for their name, image, and likeness, usually for a skill-- I think it actually started with somebody who wrote a children's book and it was offered to be published, but it couldn't be because it would violate NCAA rules, which had nothing to do with their athletic ability.

And so that kind of got-- and of course, the fear was what's happened, which is, well, people will just end up paying you to play. And what's basically happened is NIL has now converted into-- and this is a shifting sand. My bet is next year at this time if we talk, it'll be very different even than what it is today. It's just an evolving situation. And it's very complicated.

And it's really hard because you're trying to balance this notion of amateurism with the fact of the matter is that college athletics is a highly lucrative business. And at Longwood, we went to the tournament twice. And one of the reasons we went to the tournament is the University really supported the basketball program. And that helped us build the program.

But the return on investment-- the basketball program was a marketing arm. It was a marketing arm of the University. And that's not a bad thing. The players certainly benefited incredibly, but at a higher level at Virginia, at Alabama football, you're now not talking about-- you're talking about billions.

And it-- so there's just this complicated thing of, man, there needs to be some sense of equity-- excuse me, or yeah, of equity in the institution versus the players.

Blazer: Sure.

Aldrich: But of course, people don't want to go to employment because that creates all sorts of issues. And then you've got the Title IX issues which, of course, are all over this. But where we are now is that basically universities if you opted into a recent court case and NCAA settled with some former players. But now that the institutions are permitted to pay up to $20.5 million per year to student athletes. And the idea is-- and that can come directly from the University. And so that's now--

Blazer: That's a lot, or is it?

Aldrich: Well, when you think about the total budget of. Some of these. And when you think about-- and the truth of the matter is some of these television contracts and things like that have really been supporting. You can't run a major college athletics department just off of John and Susie Q comprehensive fee.

And so there's philanthropy, there's ticket sales, but those are a drop in the bucket relative to the TV contracts. And so again, it's significant. And I will share one-- some people might be going, well, why are we doing all of this? And Matt Weber who works in the president's office here at Virginia, he spoke to our team when we did a tour of grounds and trying to connect all of these new players to one another and to University of Virginia.

And one of the things that his-- I'm going to butcher what his PhD was actually on, but a rough synopsis of it or summary was basically how do you build a morale, and how do you build a sense of community at a university, what should a University be doing to try to do that. And he told us at the end, probably the strong-- or not probably. But one of his conclusions was the strongest way to do that was a vibrant athletics program because it unites. It caused you to go to a bar, in New York City to go watch your alma mater get torched in the NCAA tournament.

But there's 100,000 people going to Michigan football games and Texas football. And then you think about what it does for the alumni and how it brings them together. And it brings a sense of community and pride. And President Reveley at Longwood, he said this is something that's unique in the world.

Yeah, when you think about the University of Oxford Yeah, they've got their accrue team. They've got their squash teams. But it's not-- it doesn't have the ability that college athletics in the US, where it really can galvanize and bring together a community, again, of all different stripes, diverse political beliefs, diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientation. And it can bring so many different people together. So it can be an incredibly positive and unifying force. But it's going through some choppy waters right now.

Blazer: It is. I have so many thoughts about that because when I think about what it is about sports that I love, it is the individual athlete stories. It's the team, redemption stories. It's the dynasty. It's the whatever. But it's really also the community of other fans. So my husband went to Georgia.

Aldrich: OK. Yeah. Great. Go, dawgs!

Blazer: Go, dawgs! What we call it in the fall is like our Saturdays have an organizing principle to them. And that is like, when are the games on? And I love that. I love to see, even if they're not Georgia fans, other fans because it's just like, this is, not to be too dramatic about it, but I feel like this is what almost being human is about, is the cheering and the energy and the stories and all of that.

Aldrich: I think it hits kind of a-- again, I'll go to my faith like who we are as people, our soul, our craving to be connected, our craving to have something bigger than ourselves and something-- I mean, you think about how people go absolutely berserk. I mean, absolutely, and in no other way would they ever. Maybe some concerts, they might behave the same way, maybe. But it's just and I think it taps into a chord that is deep into humanity.

Blazer: I love that the connection to something bigger than yourself. I think that is so what it is. So before we wrap up, what are you most looking forward to about your first season?

Aldrich: Well, first off, I'm just excited to be back in Charlottesville.

Blazer: Do you have any favorite spots in town?

Aldrich: Man, I'm relearning all the new spots.

Blazer: Yeah, a lot has changed.

Aldrich: I will say I told my wife or no, I told Ryan the other day. I said it was wild because as I was recovering from an illness, and I had to go run a quick errand, and I was hungry. And I just pulled into Bodo's.

Blazer: I knew it.

Aldrich: And I was just like-- and I like Bodo's. My son, who's 13, he's a classic 13-year-old punk. And he-- I was telling him about this angelic experience of eating my Bodo's bagel. And I finished the story. He goes, hey, dad, this is from the back seat. I said, yeah, he goes, hot take. Sure. Bodo's is overrated.

[Laughter]

So I said, bite your tongue, son.

Blazer: Charlottesville blasphemy. That's funny.

Aldrich: No, we've enjoyed that. IVN, we've gone to. We've gone to Duners and CNO. So that's been fun to go back to some of those. I think I only went to those when law firms were taking us to dinner. But I went to Bel Air market the other day for lunch. So it was-- so it's been good.

Blazer: I saw just yesterday maybe in the there was a University communications about proving grounds.

Aldrich: Yeah, that's going to be sweet, I think.

Blazer: So for listeners who don't, I believe this is going to be like a four part documentary about the basketball team. That's so exciting.

Aldrich: Yeah, and I think those who are interested or curious about this program, and it's a great way to learn about honestly Coach Odom. And he's got deep connections. And again, I go back to the special specialness-- I'm not sure that's a word-- of the University and Charlottesville. And that, I think will be captured in that. I haven't seen it, but I think he's going to share a little bit about his childhood and experiences.

But I think it'll be a great way to-- I thought, we thought it was really important for fans to get to in a very quick way who Coach Odom is. And in the new, as you said, transient world of college athletics, we want to tap into the excitement and the enthusiasm of the UVA fan.

I mean, Virginia fans love basketball and rightly so. What Coach Bennett built here is incredible. And one of the incredibly neat things, I believe is Coach Bennett and Ryan's values are so closely matched as just people. They look alike.

Blazer: I was going to say they look alike.

Aldrich: They look alike. They coach in the same way for the most part. Their style play is could not be any more different. But I think what we hope is that a lot of the values that everybody loved about Virginia will really be carried through. And Ryan has talked to Coach Bennett on several occasions about, hey, what do we need to hold on to here in your view?

Because I think trying to connect today's teams with the teams from Terry Holland and Tony Bennett and Jeff Jones and those eras are so important. But yeah, the proving grounds will be a great way for fans to get a sense of the a vibe. And my hope is similar to what we were talking about the law school and Vincent Elkins about being about excellence, but also with a really human element. I think that's what this program will really be about, will be chasing excellence, but with real care and love.

Blazer: Yeah, which is exactly how I see what we do at the law school and UVA as a whole. And I think it all comes back. It does it really does all come back to the people. So you get the right people in the program, whether that's basketball, whether that's law school. I'm excited to watch because everything I've read about the team, everything I've read about and Coach Odom, I just remember one of the players, like, adopted a kitten or two kittens or something.

I'm like, I'm excited. I'm so excited to see them play. I'm excited to get to them. And I think it's just a great idea in any transition. Like, hey, OK, what's going on here? Like who-- because the Virginia fans are primed. We're like, all right. Like, who are we rooting for? What are we doing? Yes, so I think that's awesome.

OK. Last question before we go. I think pretty much everything we've talked about is directly applicable to anyone. But I think law school applicants, I think it's obvious how you've used your law degree, sort of as there's a ton of overlap. And what we've talked about, whether you've been practicing, whether you were in your finance days or your coaching days, most listeners of this podcast are probably considering law school or applying to law school. What advice would you give to them sort of at this stage of the process?

Aldrich: I think I was a was a junior who didn't what I was going to do. And my mom and others said, well, I was thinking about law school or medical school. And because-- and took biology and didn't like it. And so I was like, it's not going to be medical school. So kind of went the law school route not-- And again, to me, it was such-- what I learned in law school and what I learned in practicing law, a lot of people have really negative connotations and comments about big firm practice.

I learned so much about myself. And it was an incredible training. I know you did as well, worked at a big firm. And it was so good in so many ways. And that doesn't mean that if you go to a big firm, you're committing to make stay there for eight years and try to run for partner, and that's going to be your career. But I just, I learned so much.

And I learned so much about myself. It sharpened so many skills. It stretched me in so many ways. And I could not endorse going to law school more because I think it really shapes how you think. And for me, I was 22 to 25, so right before I launched out into the world, it was really formative for me. And really, I think has really impacted my whole way of operating, both as a lawyer and as you said, throughout, even as a coach so often, how I would evaluate film.

In opponents, you're looking at things in just such a different way that I'm not sure I would have had I just gone out and gotten a job or had just gone right into coaching. And so I'm really grateful. And then, of course, the people that you meet in law school are-- I mean, it's some of the most dynamic-- especially at a place like UVA. You're going to meet and bump into people who are just going to go do incredible, incredibly inspiring things. And so that's a lot of fun. And you get to cheer them on and say, yeah, I went to school with them.

Blazer: I knew them. Yeah. I told our one Ls last week when they got here, you are going to learn these critical thinking skills that will apply to every area of your life, like you said. It's not just reading cases that now suddenly you're thinking differently. It will just transform the way you see the world.

And I think that's awesome. And I-- and the skills, like you said, you learn in as a practicing law, just the details the organization, all that stuff I think it's going to help wherever they go.

Aldrich: Absolutely.

Blazer: You have been so generous with your time.

Aldrich: Nah, this is great.

Blazer: Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Aldrich: It is my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[Music Playing]

Blazer: This has been Admissible with me, Dean Natalie Blazer at the University of Virginia School of Law. My guest today was class of 1999 alumnus and associate head coach of the UVA men's basketball team, Griff Aldrich. For more information about UVA Law, please visit law.virginia.edu. The next episode of Admissible will be out soon. In the meantime, you can follow the show on Instagram at @admissiblepodcast. Thanks so much for listening, and please remember to rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts.