A Pen And A Napkin

For most high school programs, the players that you have in your program are going to be pulled in multiple directions, whether that be by other sports, school activities or family activities. You have to show your human side and have some understanding, but you also have to hold players and families accountable for their non-emergency absences. In this pod, we discuss how to create a positive absence policy and how to clearly define repercussions, In addition, we have a quote from one of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, and a discussion of the predecessor to Dean Smith at North Carolina . . .

Ball handling and passing are two of the three ball skills of the Holy Trinity of player development, but they need to be emphasized DAILY this upcoming season. In this podcast, we discuss how you should implement ball handling and passing in your practices, ball handling techniques that you should be working on, and the difference between in-season and off-season development of these skills. In addition, we have a great quote from Coach Wooden and a study of one of the more underrated modern coaches who people often forget that he won a national championship!

As humans, most of us bounce back fairly quickly and strongly from failure, but where many of us get tripped up is when we experience too much success. In today's podcast, we discuss stories from my career of how success took off the edge, creating adversity in your team, anticipating adversity and more! In addition, we've got a great quote from the Roman philosopher Pliny the Younger, all while discussing the man who had more success than anyone else, yet remained grounded as a teacher his entire life . . .

Preparation is key for everything we do as coaches, but pregame scouting report information and implementation are vital to your team's success! In today's podcast, we discuss putting together scouting reports, what you should and should not include, how to present that information to your team and how to implement it in your practices! In addition, we've got a discussion on one of the great coaches and basketball influences of the last 50 years!

Each and everyone of us have our shortcomings, both as human beings and as coaches. Some of these shortcomings we are aware of, while many of these things we are not. In today's episode, we discuss our personal and professional "Blind Spots", what we can do to both diagnose them and make them a better part of our personality. In addition, we've got a great quote and a discussion of one of the all time greats, Adolph Rupp!

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!