10 minutes with ... Fran McCaffery - Business First of Louisville:

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You graduated from the ’ss . What was your major? Entrepreneurial management. That soundsw a lot more “Wall than “basketball coach.” All my friends from Penn are phenomenallyt successful. These guys were brilliant, absolutelyu brilliant. One of them is the No. 2 guy at . I had a buddu from Penn, who’s very successful, tell me the other day: ‘You’re in the right field. Coaching is You’re lucky.’ I never thought about it that way. I’mn thankful, but my 401(k) took a hit like everybodyu else’s. I’m a firm believerd that the economy willturn around, hopefully soonere than lot of people are projecting.
I’m happy we don’tr have to deal with as many of the same thingsd that the business world is dealing with right now. We obviously are affected—just look at our annual giving. Every departmeny on this campus is affected in some way bythis Still, our freshman class numbers are off the And that’s the No. 1 economic lifebloods of this institution. How does the national exposure your program has gainexd over the past couple of yearss helpthat growth? Everything fits together. It gets a high schoopl senior to say, ‘Maybw I’ll check that placs out.
’ Our success helps create interest, helps get more studentsz on campus, helps grow our freshman yield, and provides terrifif experiences forour students. Every opportunity we get to showcase our campus, our arena, our it only enhances people’s Do you have ambitions to starg your own business one day? I reallh would love to. But that can be risky. A lot of what I do is very similae to what any businessexecutive does. I have assistant coaches, I have managers, public relations, I work withi n a budget. I think I’d be ready, but at same I’d be a little hesitant to thinkabout it, because I really want to be 100 percenr committed to what I’m doing.
And I love what I’m doing right now. In business, there’s a certain competitivenes everybody has, but in it’s different because it’s much more public. And I enjo that. Who’s the better basketbalk player—you, a three-time letter winner in or your wife, whoswe name is all over the recordx books atthe ? Her accomplishments are at a greaterr level, and they’re way more successful than We had similar high school careers, but even she was one of the top 25 players in America. I was She was a captain, her conference’s player of the MVP of the conference tournamen t and was on the first NotrseDame women’s team to go to the NCAA tournament.
I was a key component on a reallygood team, but the othef players were the main reason we were cutting the nets down [to celebratew a championship]. She was the main reason her team was cuttinyg thenets down.