A Pen And A Napkin

We all have mentors in our life, but when's the last time you really thought about the influence of mentors and what they've exactly done for you and your development in your life and your coaching career? When's the last time you've told a mentor what they've taught you and what its meant to you? Here's a bonus (or make-up) Foundation Friday to make you think a bit more about where you're at in your career . . .

Really excited to have Mark Downey, the head men's basketball coach at Arkansas Tech University, on the podcast! Coach Downey has had a wide variety of experiences in his career, which he shares in the podcast. Along with that, he discusses his "High Standards of Excellence", "Building People", being part of the "Glory Road" cast, "Stingy Defense" and much more. Great conversation with a great coach!

Kassie Schuett, girls basketball head coach at Gothenburg (NE) is our guest this week! Coach Schuett discusses a variety of topics, including building trust and loyalty with her players, preparing a team for a state tournament, lessons learned from a deep post-season run, player development in a small town program and much more. A terrific conversation with one of the best young coaches in Nebraska!

Summer basketball is a great way to develop your program and your individual players. It's an exciting time with a feeling of new growth and opportunity, but you also have alot of different variables that you need to consider. In this podcast, we chat about some of the things that we do in the summer to help our program grow!

University of Nebraska Men's Assistant Coach Nate Loenser comes on the pod this week to discuss a variety of different topics. Coach Loenser talks about his basketball journey from high school to being an assistant coach with the Bulls, coaching in the G-League, different coaching styles, player development and other topics. Great discussion with one of the best assistant coaches in the country!

Many of us will be watching the NBA Finals over the next couple of weeks to satisfy our "basketball junkie" needs, but what can be learned from watching these games? How can we make ourselves better while we watch the best in the world, whether it is players, coaches or front offices, show us their craft? Here's some things to think about as you're watching these games, along with my (very amateur) prediction on who I think will win the series!

We had a blast taping a "Roundtable" pod in my hometown of Sheldon, Iowa last week with Kiley Yates, Boys HC at South O'Brien (IA), Boys HC Eric Maasen of Sheldon (IA) and GBB HC Jay Schuiteman of Unity Christian (IA). We chat about summer camps, Improvement Season concepts, mentoring coaches and much more. Great conversation; enjoy!!

If you do this job long enough (and often times you don't have to do this job very long before you are in this situation), you're going to find yourself in a situation where you have to make a choice. It's better to make the right choice than the popular choice. Always.

Ponca (NE) GBB HC Bob Hayes comes on the podcast this week to chat about a variety of topics. Coach Hayes, like myself, is a Briar Cliff (IA) graduate, so we discuss the influence of Ray Nacke, former MBB HC at Briar Cliff, along with his long time assistant Ron Schultz. We also talk about his role as Principal/AD/HC, man to man defense, transition offense and building a great culture. A really fun conversation; hope you like it!

Basketball is a game of momentum and runs, but how do you emphasize and build the concepts of "streaks" into your program? How do you educate your players and staff about what you're looking for and how to create streaks during competitions? In this "Foundation Friday", we take a look at streaks in basketball, how to emphasize, measure and practice them within your program!