The Grounded Theory Podcast

Amorey Womack is a licensed real estate agent with Ascend Real Estate Advisors. Mo and I were teammates at Webster High School so it was crazy enjoyable to chop it up with him. Amorey grew up training at WITTS with Corey Fraizer in the same gym as Jayson Tatum, Tyler Cook, Xavier Sneed and many other top talents to come out of St. Louis. From there Mo went to Cardinal Ritter high school, then tran...

Carl Givens is a strength and conditioning coach and owner of Given100. He also is currently in charge of strength and conditioning for Harris Stowe Athletics. Born and raised in St. Louis, Carl played basketball and football at Chaminade high school and football at Westminster college in Fulton, Missouri. After pursuing NFL opportunities, Given100 was born. In this conversation we talk about his...

Freeze Calipari aka Jarell Graham is currently the assistant coach at Confluence Prep Academy here in St. Louis. Freeze has coached some of the best talent St. Louis has had to offer throughout the years when they were kids and has coached multiple nationally ranked AAU teams. Being in the mix for so long, he's coached with and against lots of NBA guys like Cam Boozer, Darius Acuff Jr., Thomps...

Dwayne Polk is currently the head coach at Lutheran North high school here in St. Louis. He played, then later on came back to coach at, Vashon high school. After being highly recruited and ranked top 30 in his class, he chose to play at St. Louis University in college. After playing professionally in the PBL (premier basketball league), he began his coaching journey as the head coach at McCluer N...

Greg Gentry is currently an assistant coach at Clayton high school (St. Louis, MO). Growing up in California he played his freshman year at Taft high school in Los Angeles along side Larry Drew II then finished high school at Durango high school in Spring Valley Nevada. After a cup of coffee at Cosumnes River Junior College in Sacramento, Greg went on to finish his playing career at Fontbonne Univ...

Andrew Keck graduated from Vianney High School (St. Louis, MO) in 2018. From there he caught at SEMO for 4 years before getting drafted by the Atlanta Braves where he spent 3.5 years in their minor league system. He currently is the owner of AK12 Baseball Performance Lab where he helps current players with their catching, hitting, pitching and overall game including mindset. Tons of fun insight ch...

Aurelio Stucco hooped at Whitfield high school in St. Louis, Missouri as part of a team that was probably the best in their schools history that included then Mizzou commit Torrence Watson. After graduating in 2019, Stucco decided to forgo playing in college and began passing on his knowledge of the game to the next generation. He did private and group training as well as team coaching for Larry H...

Danny Brown is the head coach at United Health Sciences Pharmacy, an NAIA in St. Louis, Missouri. A Houston Texas native, Danny played college basketball at St. Louis University before going on to play professionally in many countries including Venezuela, Cypress, Paris and Australia. After his playing career, he returned to SLU to join the coaching staff and helped the team to multiple conference...

Mac grew up in Chicago and played D3 basketball at Beloit College in Wisconsin. He was teammates with my guy Gulf who was on episode 9 of the podcast. Mac went on to play professionally in Japan for Kyoto BB. He also played Semi Pro basketball for Lacrosse Showtime. From there he returned to Beloit to coach Women's basketball and then Mens hoops at William Woods University. We talked about pla...

Robert Kennedy grew up in Venice Illinois, played for the St. Louis Eagles, JUCO at Mineral Area, D1 at Murray State and then a brief stint overseas in China. From there he went on to coach for the St. Louis Eagles/Brad Beal Elite, Women's Semi Pro team the St. Louis Surge and is currently an assistant at University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy (UHSP) here in St. Louis. Great conversation w...

Born in Nagoya Japan, Bram traveled 6,000 miles to play college basketball at Missouri Baptist University here in St. Louis and is currently getting his masters in ES. Bram has served as a skills trainer at Larry Hughes Basketball Academy and is currently in charge of player development for Missouri Phenom girls 7-8th grade, assistant coach at Whitfield high school and Go Live guys 2031 and does p...

Max Datoli is a Certified Yoga Instructor and Certified Personal Trainer. Having played Division 1 soccer at Saint Louis University, Max has a cool perspective on yoga as he can relate to the mental and physical demands of being a high level athlete. Max has a very holistic approach to yoga and life and it was great chopping it up with him Go get at him for in person and virtual yoga classes, athl...

Breven McMullen played high school basketball at Park Hills Centeral in Park Hills Missouri. From there he spent a semester at Link Year Prep then went on to play college basketball at Missouri Southern, Mineral Area and Missouri Baptist University. After his playing career, Brev decided to focus fully on helping the next generation of athletes through performance training. He has joined my guy Le...

Mike Sutherland hooped and Lutheran North and graduated in 1999. From there he played at South East Missouri State. After his playing career, Mike dipped his toes in strength and conditioning training for the next generation of hoopers before falling in love with skills training as the owner of A1 Fitness. It was awesome to chop it up with him and have him share his knowledge of the game as well a...

Matt Enright recently committed to Austin Peay University in Tennessee after 3 years at UMSL where he was part of very successful teams who made it to the Elite 8 and Sweet 16. Matt and I were teammates at Webster Groves High School where he would go on to win a state championship his senior year. He is also the owner of Endure Hoops where he does skills training for other players. We talked about...

Chris Forrest is the Associate Head Men's Basketball Coach at Missouri Baptist University. Before that he was a head coach at the high school level at Tower Grove Christian Academy as well as Lutheran North on the girls side. He also has 10+ years experience as a skills trainer which makes for an extremely unique perspective on the game. Christ is also a former coach and trainer of mine and has ha...

Justin Mathes is the head coach at Webster Groves High School where he is fresh off a 4th state title in 9 years. 2 as an assistant (2017 and 2018) and 2 as the head coach (2022 and 2025). This was an extremely insightful conversation about Xs and Os, coaching styles, analytics and lessons learned throughout the coaching journey. Including the time being the assistant under Hall of Fame coaches Ja...

In high school Courtland played for McCluer North, Tower Grove Christian Academy and St. Louis Christian. In college he played at Rend Lake Community College, Illinois Central and Missouri Baptist UniversityNow he is a basketball trainer at Larry Hughes Basketball Academy, in the process of getting his NASM certification to be a personal trainer in the weight room, and the owner of Nxt Level Appar...

Miles Nettles aka Jet is an assistant coach at St. Louis Community College and plays in the TBL with the St. Louis GriffinsJet has moved the game forward as a player and continues to leave his mark as a coachGo follow my guy on IG @notjet5ive

Keyyaun Batchman went to Chaminade high school, played for Brad Beal Elite and graduated in 2019. He went on to play in college at Mineral Area Junior College, Lindenwood University, Missouri Baptist University and Maryville University. We talk about the mental pressures of being an athlete. The role social media plays in it. The journey to trying to make it pro and the importance of getting outsi...

My guy Adyn is a freshman guard at Neosho Community College in Chanute, Kansas. We talk about his journey to finding God, how it has helped his life and performance on the court, as well as the life of a JUCO hooper and how he got to throwing down east bays

DeMarco Barnett has coached at U-City, North point, and with STL Phenom AAU team Go follow his training page on Instagram: @thepakbasketballAnd his personal: @coach_k.i

Lamarr Howard is a basketball referee at the high school and college level. He also mentors the next generation of referees with Big Game Officials. On top of this he is a Webster Groves alumni so you know he's good peopleGo follow his IG: @game_official_howard https://www.biggameofficials.com

Alex King is the 1st Assistant Coach at Jefferson College in Hillsboro Missouri Go get at him on IG: @alexking32

Great convo with a man of many experiences. We talked about studying for the bar exam, personal training at the Y, boxing, playing rugby watching the UFC in the Sphere, going to watch the olympics in France, learning the piano, buying art