Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk is entering his 16th season as the leader of the Toledo men's basketball program and has led the Rockets to five Mid-American Conference titles in his tenure, including four in a row from the 2020-21 season to the 2023-24 campaign.The Rockets open their season on Monday at home vs. South Alabama in the third-annual MAC-Sun Belt Challenge.

One of the things you have said you're most proud of is the fact that your program just keeps winning. In this new era of college basketball, how has your approach to roster building changed?

Kowalczyk: The whole process of building a roster has changed drastically. Particularly in the last two years, and even more so in the last nine months. Going from NIL to revenue sharing to the transfer portal, it's a different time in athletics. I know a lot of people may not like some of it, but I personally find some of this stuff fascinating.

How has the transfer portal impacted your program?

Kowalczyk: This season I think we're going back to what made our program successful, and that's recruiting high character men from great families who are really skilled and can shoot, as well as being tough. I think if you look at the transfer portal over time, it's been really good to Toledo. There are a lot of guys that helped build this program that were transfers. They were guys that wanted second chances after the first exposure to college basketball didn't go as planned.

When you look at last year, it seems like the team was missing a strong paint presence. You were able to add Ohio State's Austin Parks from the transfer portal. How does his skill set fit into this year's team?

Kowalczyk: I've been really happy with Austin. He's a better player, better person, better worker, better teammate than I thought he would be -- and I had high expectations coming in. There's a little bit of unknown when you recruit somebody who didn't play a lot at a higher level. We also have Chris Riddle from DePaul who had a similar experience to Austin. They both didn't get a whole lot of opportunities, and sometimes it's hard to evaluate them because there's not a lot of film on them. You have to go off your gut instincts and what you remember from their high school days. We tried to recruit both of them out of high school.

After winning four straight conference titles, your team finished fourth last year. Do you think there was some complacency that factored into the way the team performed last season?

Kowalczyk: I wouldn't say it was complacency. I think we just had a team that didn't have the same chemistry that we did in years past. We didn't have the same togetherness or culture. Whatever it was, it was lacking and not everyone bought into their roles.

You want your team to play with emotion. How can you regulate that if things are going good or bad in a game?

Kowalczyk: I think you need to have emotion when you play basketball or any sport. I think fans want to see that. They want to see how much you care and that there is emotion whether it's in the ups and downs of a game or the ups and downs of a season. You obviously need to have some even temperament, but at the same time when you play or when you coach, you have to have energy and enthusiasm and emotion.

Defense has been a huge emphasis in the off-season. What have you done to improve your team's performance on the defensive end?

Kowalczyk: We've had some good defensive teams here, but last year we weren't. We have to get back to really guarding the basketball and stay in front of the dribble. We have to guard ball screens better. There has been a huge emphasis every day in practice on defense and we do multiple drills just to defend ball screens. That was an area we weren't good enough in last year.

You're entering your 16^th year as head coach at Toledo. What has been a big key to your success?

Kowalczyk: I think if you look at our program, our guys get better and that's due to our player development. It's about our relationships with the players, and I think the older I get, my relationships with the players are better. We have a great coaching staff here that cares about our young men and how they develop on the court and as a person. I think that's been a big key to our success over time.

What can people expect from your team this season?

Kowalczyk: I think you'll see a team that's going to play fast. We need to shoot more threes. The last couple of years we didn't shoot enough, but that was mainly due to the fact that we weren't built to do that. In this day and age, you have to play fast and you need to shoot threes. We have to get better defensively and that's been the biggest emphasis of the offseason.

Where do you see your team ranking within the Mid-American Conference?

Kowalczyk: I'd like to think we're right there with everybody. We had won four championships in a row before finishing fourth last year. Our program and fan base felt like it was a bad year. There are some programs that would be happy about finishing fourth, but not here. We have get back to where we are in contention to win another championship and to play well in March for three games in three days.