Newly minted as the women's head coach at Texas State, Chris Kielsmeier comes on the podcast this week to talk about a variety of topics, including program building, learning from tough times (including an early Covid-19 diagnosis), entering a new conference, fundamentals, building chemistry and much more! We also throw in a little Harry Caray for old times sake as well, so enjoy the conversation!

If someone is going to pressure you, you can't just break that pressure; you must ATTACK IT! In today's podcast, we discuss various ways that you can attack pressure defenses and make them pay for being overtly aggressive with you, things you should be implementing in practice to attack pressure and late game thoughts. In addition, there will be an "Attacking. Pressure" drill list and press breakers video on the next edition of "The Opening Tip" newsletter on Substack, so be sure to check that out to supplement today's pod! In addtion, we've got a great quote from Coach Meyer and a discussion of one of our great modern coaches in Tom Izzo!

One of the golden rules of coaching is to not allow non-basketball things to trip up your career, and not taking care of your program's inventory is one of those things that you can control with simplicity. In today's episode, we talk about how to take care of your inventory, some important things that you should want and the importance of collecting inventory quickly. In addition, we have a great qoute, and we discuss one of the greatest (short) careers in coaching w/ Pete Newell.

As we wind down the summer and we give our players some time off from either AAU or our program (or both), we need to start planning ahead to when our players come back for individual workouts and how we're going to work with our players. In this pod, we discuss strategies for individual workouts, how to structure them and what you should be working on. We also have a great quote from workout guru Alan Stein and a re-examination of a legendary coach whose legacy is both confusing and also deceiving . . .

Especially when you are builing a program, you need to identify the teams that you NEED to beat, and this season will be true for every team. Who are the teams that you need to put in a little extra preparation and emphasis for tactically? What team is standing in the way of your team getting to where you want to go? Here are some thoughts on how to go about this process, including a great quote from Wayne Dyer and some reason why you should study Norm Sloan, one of the great forgotten coaches in our game!

Every program, in this day and age, has to do some modicum of fundraising to afford what was once considered extras that have now become mandatory expenses in a quality program. In today's pod, we discuss what to do and what not to do when it comes to the structure of your fundraiser, how to distribute those funds and what you, as a coach, should and should not be doing! In addition, we've got a great quote from Coach Meyer and a discussion on the "40 Minutes of Hell"!

Your "Improvement Season" progress needs to be measured and have an analytical component, so how do you do it? Not only do you need to have analytics, you also need to make sure that you're working on the right things, building culture and keeping things fresh for your program. In today's podcast, we talk about all of these things and more, including a great quote from James Clear ("Atomic Habits") and one of America's most underrated coaches (with a personal connection)!

Scott Gullion, the head boys basketball coach at Scottsbluff (NE) HS, comes on the podcast this week! Coach has a great story of coming back to his home region after his apprenticeship with Nebraska basketball and how he worked his way up the ranks, taking over the helm of the Bearcats 10 years ago. We discuss his influences, how he's grown as a coach, failures before success, reloading this season, scouting, program and player development and much more! This was a really fun conversation with an up and coming coach in Nebraska!

As Coach Meyer would say, it's not called "Zone Offense", it's called "Zone Attack"! In today's episode, we discuss various plans of attack that you should be implementing into your zone offesne, regardless of what you run. We also discuss one of my favorite drills that you can run to prepare for any zone defense in practice. In addition, we also break down a great quote by Robert Greene, and we discuss one of the greatest coaches that was at the same school for over four decades!

For most coaches, perhaps the most difficult relationship(s) that we navigate in our career is our relationship with our players parents. In this episide, we discuss ideas for a preseason parent social, the benefits of it, different ideas for running a social gathering and some outside the box suggestions for the coaching staff. In addition, we've got a great quote from James Clear, along with suggestions for studying one of our great modern coaches, Tara VanDerveer.