Lucas at Large: Krabbenhoft’s work at Wisconsin not yet finished
April 06, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
It turns out his time as a Badgers player and staffer was just the start
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — What's the most important word in basketball?
Kelby Krabbenhoft, a rawboned Division III banger on the low block, taught his young son to answer the same way whenever he prodded his friends to ask the question in their company.
"He kind of had fun with it when I was a little boy," Joe Krabbenhoft remembered of the exercise with his dad and the standard reply. "Between me and him, it was a simple word."
Finish.
"What it meant," he explained, "was to do the job the right way."
Finish.
"To never leave anything undone," he added. "To continue to work hard."
That was not only on the court, according to Krabbenhoft, but in all walks of life.
"It probably doesn't mean much to anybody else but me and him," he conceded. "But we always used that word … finish. That was one of the lessons that I took from him."
Maybe it's only fitting, then, that Wisconsin's Greg Gard has hired Krabbenhoft for his coaching staff since it will allow Krabbenhoft to "finish" what he started here as a player and video coordinator.
There's little doubt that he will do the job the right way.
Besides, he's always had trouble saying "no" to Gard dating back to his college recruitment which began when he was a sophomore at Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Krabbenhoft was 16 when he verbally committed to the Badgers midway through his junior year. Gard was the primary recruiter and made a lasting impression on Krabbenhoft and his family.
"I saw the look in his eyes," he said, "and I believed him when he was telling me things. We just hit it off. We enjoyed talking about family and life and, of course, basketball.
"This was a guy speaking about values that I hold true to my heart. Honesty and integrity. Hard work. Doing things the right way. Similar words you've heard spoken about the program."
That sold him on Wisconsin. It didn't take him long to establish his identity. Early on, Gard called him a "Don't-worry-how-you-get-it done type player who doesn't worry about headlines or spotlight."
Over the years, the Badgers have won a lot of games with those players — glue guys. And now Krabbenhoft will be recruiting them for his alma mater; not that he will limit himself or stereotype.
"I came to Wisconsin because he (Gard) sold me on all of those things," he said. "And I watched him work and teach the game with Coach (Bo) Ryan and things just clicked in my mind.
"I thought, 'This is the way I believe the game should be played. And this is the way I would recruit and do things — sharing the experiences I had with my mentors and coaches.'"
Once his playing days were over — including a professional tour/odyssey that allowed him to see the world, from South Korea to Greece — he came back to Wisconsin to get started in the business.
"I learned a lot (as a video coordinator) just being behind the scenes and in the coaches locker room," he said. "I didn't say a lot. I wasn't ready to. It wasn't my place. But I listened to the communication between Coach Ryan and Coach Gard and Coach (Lamont) Paris and Coach (Gary) Close (who he's now replacing on the staff).
"It was such a different perspective. As a player, you think you know so much and you don't. I'm sure it will be that way for the rest of my coaching career. That's just the way I approach things.
"There's always something more I can learn," he stressed, sounding very much like Gard.
The next step in his education brought him back to Madison.
"Although I'm confident and ready to do all the things I need to do as an assistant coach, I'm not naïve enough to think I can't learn something new about the game and about relationships," Krabbenhoft said.
"It started that year," he said of his introduction to the profession in 2012-13. "That's when you've got the suit on and you're not worried about turning it over and getting taken out of the game."
Since leaving Madison, Krabbenhoft, now 29, has continued to grow the last three years thanks in large part to former South Dakota State head coach Scott Nagy, who just took the Wright State job.
"I was just a young kid that was a video coordinator, so I'm thankful to Coach Nagy for giving me that opportunity," he said. "I was able to sell that program because I believed in it, I loved it.
"There's a different way to run offenses and a different way to construct your ball screen defense. But the values were the same. Coach Nagy believed in those things the same way.
"It's not rocket science. There's no secret to it all (coaching). It's about relationships and trust and hard work, and those things will never change."
Finish.
Kelby Krabbenhoft taught him well. So did his mom, Heidi.
"That's where it all starts," Joe Krabbenhoft said. "All those words and phrases I've used about life and hard work and discipline and being humble comes from my mom and dad, and my family."
Joe married his high school sweetheart, Sara, also a coach's kid. "She grew up knowing what it was like being around the game," he said. "She has a lot on her plate, too; she's 32 weeks pregnant."
The couple has two young boys, Joe and Tristan. The former is Joseph Kelby — obviously named after his 6-foot-6 grandfather who played hoops at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Kelby Krabbenhoft, 58, is the president and CEO of Sanford Health, which is based out of Sioux Falls and has 27,000 employees, including 1,400 physicians.
Joe's younger brother, Louie, works in the Sanford legal department. Louie Krabbenhoft was a starting left tackle on the Augustana College football team. He got his law degree from Kansas.
Joe's older sister, Sarah, also competed athletically. She played basketball at Concordia. This shouldn't come as a surprise, but she was a co-captain. Leadership runs throughout the family.
As such, Joe Krabbenhoft has always tried to be there for his teammates. And his close friends — something that can be traced to a tragedy that he confessed, "Changed the course for my life."
In the summer of 2003, Krabbenhoft was boating with friends on a Minnesota lake near Fergus Falls. The boat, driven by John Masterson, struck a jet-skier, Masterson's sister, Lindsey.
Krabbenhoft jumped into the water, got her back in the boat and administered CPR.
Lindsey Masterson didn't survive the accident. She was 19.
"I still think about it often," he said softly. "This August will be 13 years."
Krabbenhoft admitted that he doesn't like talking about it much.
"But just the whole way that it went down kind of forced me to grow up," he said. "And I'm not saying that I was strong enough where I didn't need anybody.
"I learned on my mom and dad. I leaned on Sara (his wife to-be). I leaned on my pastor. I needed to be there for the brother of Lindsay. To this day, I don't know if I have closer friend."
Krabbenhoft still stays in touch with John Masterson.
"I don't know that we go a week or a month without communicating," he said. "He's one of those guys when we get together, it's like we never left middle school.
"He's married and working and living in Sioux Falls. He's as big of a basketball fans as there is. I'm sure he'll be busting out the red and white now."
The Masterson kids lived right down the street from the Krabbenhofts. Their father, Tom Masterson, who played basketball at Minnesota, is a doctor in Sioux Falls.
"They've supported me every single step of my career," he said of the Mastersons. "In the same way, I've always kept close to them, and not just because of what happened. It has been so many years (since Lindsey Masterson's death), and that's something that is still huge in my life.
"Not many people know about it. But I sure still think about it."
It helped shape who he is today. "As a coach of young men," Krabbenhoft said, "to be able to talk about experiences like that is far more important than putting the ball in the hole."
Finish
