A Pen And A Napkin

Really excited to feature Bruce Dall, the girls basketball coach at Cedar Rapids Prairie (IA) High School. Dall, the 2024 National High School Basketball Coach of the Year, has won multiple state titles and has chosen to make the leap to a higher classification in Prairie, and we discuss those changes and how it has affected his philosophy. In addition, we talk about being in shape as a coach, peaking at the end of the season, pressbreaks, pressure defense, half court defense and much more! A really fun conversation with a terrific coach!

As summer turns to fall, it means that we are taking more and more steps towards the start of our seasons! To prepare for your season, your players need to both be in shape and bond over situations that could generously be called "shared suffering". This week, Tony and I break down numerous different activities that a coaching staff can put their team through to get them ready for the upcoming season, both inside and outside the gym. In addition, we have trivia, a discusssion on both the WNBA playoffs and bubbling gambling issues in basketball. We finish up with a preview of the NBA's Southeast Division. Enjoy!

Here is part II of our two part series breaking down the clinics and drills that were shared at the USA Gold Camp in Omaha over Labor Day weekend! Excited to have John Jungers from Omaha, Dominic Amorosa from Houston, Texas, Ryan Hintz from Kansas City, Missouri and Brandon Shaver from Lake Travis, Texas discussing topics to help players and coaches grow while working with some of the best youth players in the country. Enjoy!

The topic was so good last week that we had to divide it into two podcasts! This week, Tony and I dive into the second part of our pod about leadership in your program and how you can be the best leader possible for the program. We addressed leading by example, staying calm, having high standards with minimal rules, be a developer of a whole program and have great passion for your job! We also have trivia, some TWIB topics, including predictions for the WNBA brackets and a preview of the NBA's Central Division. Enjoy!

This week's interview series is of the "Quick HItter" style; we've got four coaches that worked the USA Gold Camp with me in Omaha a couple of weeks ago, and we're going to break down their clinics and what they did in their clinic. Brandon Henderson discusses rebounding, while Karen Self chats about finishing around the basket. Ras Vanderloo talks about 3 x 3, while James Bush comes on to talk about the camp and learning from other coaches. This was alot of fun to put together, and we've got part II next week!

Being the leader of your program means so much more than the X's and O's (although you have to be technically sound as a teacher as well). As the CEO of the program, you need to refine your leadership skills to benefit everyone in your program. This week, Tony and I were going to talk about all of these concepts, but our conversation was so good that we're going to split it into two weeks, so enjoy part one of our conversation, with more to come next week. In addition, we will talk trivia, the Kawhi "no-show" endorsement deal, Caitlyn Clark out for the year, the passing of George Raveling and our predictions for the NBA's Atlantic Division!

USA Basketball Gold Medal winning coach Scott Fitch is our guest for episode #292! Coach Fitch led the U16's to another gold medal this summer, and he comes on this week's podcast to talk about relationships, things you canlearn from international basketball, his full time job as a social media speaker, organizing your game day, building a culture and much more! Coach Fitch comes from a family of coaches, and the influence of his father is evident as you talk to him. Enjoy this week's podcast!

Lute Olson is, at times, forgotten in the history of college basketball, but this week, Tony and I are here to make sure that Coach gets his flowers for his career. Starting out as a high school teacher and coach for 13 years, Coach Olson got his start at Long Beach CC before moving on to Long Beach State and the University of Iowa. After nine years in the Hawkeye state, Olson moved on to the University of Arizona, where he took a dormant program to a blue blood for the next 25 years. We discuss Coach Olson's career, his influence and his accomplishments. We also have trivia and TWIB to chat about!

Omaha Westview (NE) GBB HC Jason Simons makes his maiden voyage on APAAN this week as he discusses a lot of great topics! We chat about his move from a smaller school to a bigger school, player development, starting a program from scratch at Westview, the importance of good administrators, favorite drills and much more! Coach Simons has taken his program to the state tournament by year 3, and this year they go from the hunter to the hunted; listen to see how they're going to handle that shift! Great podcast!

NEW PODCAST ALERT!!!!!!!

The game of basketball has been around since December of 1891, but have we ever really settled this question . . . what team, at the game's highest levels, has been the most dominant single season team ever? We're not just talking about the NBA or college basketball, but the most dominant basketball team ever? In this new series, we're going to use math, the eye test and debate to try to figure out which team is the best basketball team ever at the four highest levels of the game (NBA, Men's and Women's College Basketball and the WNBA). We've selected 92 of the greatest teams ever, and by the end of this exercise, we'll be able to say which team was truly the greatest ever!

We start our series with the team that I fell in love with basketball with, the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers. From "Fo, Fo, Fo" to Dr. J winning his one and only title, this is a legendary team whose place in the game is cemented forever. The question is, just how high do they rank? You'll have to listen to find out!