A Pen And A Napkin

Chip Daehling is the boys basketball coach at Douglas County West (NE) High School, and he has built a high competitive program the last few years, culminating in his first trip to the state tournament last season. In this week's pod, we discuss that state tournament birth, building his program, replacing a strong senior class, building an identity in his program, moving up a class and much more! A really fun podcast with one of Nebraska's up and coming coaches!!

At the heart of any defense is your defensive transition philosophy. This week, Tony and break down the importance of defensive transition, drills that you can use to help implement your philosophy and help with repping your transition, and then we wrap up our discussion with various different methods that you can transition. We have our trivia, our TWIB segment and Who's Up? and Who's Down? to cap everything off, including a discussion on Mick Cronin's "soft" comments . . . enjoy this week's podcast a day late (sorry, I was sick yesterday!)

Brandon Shaver, the head boys basketball coach at Lake Travis (TX) High School comes on the pod this week to chat about a variety of topics. Coach Shaver discusses his interview process, building a culture through his "Man Up Monday" program, getting the community involved, the importance of working camps outside of your own, networking and much, much more! Alot of good stuff to help you build. your program with. Enjoy our. conversation!!

Once you have been established and the wave of immediate responsibilities have been taken care of when you take over a job, one of the first things you may consider doing is building up your alumni network within your program. Having alumni support is always a bonus to have with your program, so Tony and I go through a variety of different ways to build your network and support from players that came before your current team. We also have trivia, another twist in the Jimmy Butler saga, the power of the SEC and much more!

Matt Sayman is our first guest of 2025, and I'm excited to have him on! Coach Sayman is the boys head basketball coach at Grapevine Faith (TX) High School, and he has built a terrific program that starts with building shooters first. We discuss that, along with his writing of the book "The Leftovers" about his experiences with the Baylor program during the last days of Dave Bliss and the first days of Scott Drew, his own "JAMODI" podcast, building their culture at Grapevine, turning his life around at age 30 and much more. Alot of fun talking hoops with Coach Sayman!

Merry Christmas, or as we say in our house "Happy Festivus"! This week, Tony and I discuss our Christmas wish lists for the game of basketball, especially at the high school level. We talk about rules, contracts, parent relationships and a whole slew of stuff that we'd love to see changed about the game. Along with that, we have trivia, TWIB and "Who's Up?" and "Who's Down?" . . .

Tony and I sincerely hope that everyone has a great holiday season!! We'll be back in two weeks, as we're taking next weekend off to spend some time with family. Safe travels and have a great holiday everyone!

Dave Slifer is in his 35th year of being a head coach at the collegiate level at the NAIA and NCAA DII ranks, and he has a great story to tell! This week, Coach Slifer and I discuss his career (with a few minutes down memory lane) while also discussing his coaching family (literally), signing a multi-year deal, winning a national championship, offensive and defensive philosophy and much more. A really fun conversation with one of DII's best coaches!

There's nothing better than having a packed, loud gymnasium with great student bodies going after it in the dead of winter. We'd all love to have a great student body presence, but how do we build that up within our programs? That's the topic that Tony and I dive into this week, and we give our thoughts, tips and advice on how to build a great student body presence at your games. We also have trivia, TWIB and our "Who's Up/ Who's Down?" segment as I jump on my soapbox to talk about the NCAA tournament's possible expansion . . . Enjoy!

It was a privilege and an honor to have on "Basketball Lifer" Clay Moser for this week's interview! Coach Moser has coached all over the country and the world, from the Los Angeles Lakers to China, and he discusses his experiences coaching with everyone from Jim Valvano to Phil Jackson. Coach also discusses networking, his consulting programs, analytics and how to come up with simple formulas to rate player efficiency, how to evaluate players, what makes great coaches and much, much more. A great conversation with one of America's smartest basketball minds!

Building your team's defense step by step, brick by brick is integral to your team's success. This week, Tony and I discuss the basic things that you should be looking at to build your team's defensive system, from offensive board coverage to rebounding on your defensive end and everything in between. Closeouts, communication and defensive transition need to be at the core of everything that you do defensively!

We also have some trivia, our TWIB segment, and who's up and down; enjoy this week's show!