A Pen And A Napkin

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 fu...

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!

You're really going to enjoy this podcast with Garrett Hickey, the head boys basketball coach at Norwalk (CT) HS and creator of the #sharethegame Twitter feed. In this pod, we go through a bunch of different topics, including networking, creating your own coaching portfolio, practice set up, teaching and communicating styles in practice and creating a program portfolio. We also go through a little...

In the second half of our two-part pod on preparing for special situations, this week we talk about two special situations that we're all going to be in at some point; the comeback game and the delay game. Thinking about what to do when you get to these situations long before they happen is really important to your teams' success! We wrap up with thinking about what to do in the last :05 when you...

South Dakota State University MBB HC Eric Henderson comes on the podcast this week to talk about a variety of different topics. Amongst many things, Coach Henderson talks about his background as an educator, learning from such great head coaches as TJ Otzelberger and Greg McDermott, SDSU's "Five Character Traits", situational basketball, the transfer portal and much more! Enjoy this conversation w...

Pop open the champagne, it's a happy ending after all ( . . . at least for ALMOST everyone . . .)!!!! Casey Hall and I review the season finale of "Winning Time", entitled "Promised Land". At the end of the episode, both Casey and I put out our "wish list" for Season 2, so enjoy our review!

We all know that we're going to be in pressure situations when we get into our season, so why not use this time to start thinking about what you're going to do next season? In this week's "Foundation Friday", we take a look at the Special Situations chart that we've developed to help prepare our teams for these situations. Next week, we'll go over the 2nd half of the chart!

For episode #125, Ed Schilling, the men's assistant coach at Grand Canyon University, comes on the pod! Coach Schilling has one of the more unique resumes that we've ever had on "APAAN"; one of the few coaches who has coached at the high school, high Division I level and NBA level; success has followed him at every level. We chat about his journey, what he's learned along the way and we have a gre...

The first season of "Winning Time" is winding down and Casey Hall and I are here to continue to review every last episode. In this week's episode, "An Acceptable Loss", we discuss the individual battles that some of our characters face and attempt to overcome, along with discussions on Hollywood real estate. Enjoy!!

There's four major pillars to "Improvement Season" that could/should be addressed; your schemes, your analytics, your skill development and your culture. What are the keys to taking all of these things from bad to average, average to good or good to great? On this "Foundation Friday", we take a look at all of these concepts and how to address them.

Welcome to "California Dreamin'", Episode VIII of "Winning Time". Before we get to the episode itself, Casey and I chat about the headlines with the show and it's characterizations of Jerry West and other concepts of the series. After that, we dive into the episode itself and give our reviews in our various categories.

Heather Grafing, the GBB HC at Central Lyon (IA), comes on the podcast this week! Coach Grafing, who has built an impressive program, including a 2022 state runner-up, discusses important influences in her career, making a run to the state title game, playing an uptempo system, her "Pillars of Success" and much more. Great discussion on the intricacies of building a solid program from top to botto...

Welcome to Episode #300 of "A Pen And A Napkin"! Last week, we discussed individual player improvement during "Improvement Season", but it is also important that we take this time to improve the team as well. Here's some thoughts on what you can do to improve your team from top to bottom throughout May, June and July!

Joe Hesse, the 3x state champion head coach at Humphery/ Lindsay-Holy Family (NE) comes on the podcast this week to chat about a variety of topics! We talk about his influences, the strength of basketball in his community, some of his favorite drills, his belief in zone defense and much more! Terrific conversation with one of Nebraska's greats!

Our latest review of HBO's "Winning Time" finally delves into the greatest rivalry of the 1980s; Celtics vs. Lakers, and Bird vs. Magic. In this episode, "The Invisible Man", we continue to break down the series, including the evolution of Paul Westhead as a coach, along with the evolution of the Lakers team. Enjoy the return of Casey Hall as we delve into one of our favorite episodes!

As we all start to dive in to the off-season, it's important that we have a system in place to tangible measure our players accomplishments and improvement in order to get the buy in we need. In this podcast, we discuss some of the strategies that we have used in order to get our players to put in the work necessary to have as good of season as possible NEXT season!

British Basketball League (BBL) pioneer and legend Vincent Macaulay comes on our podcast this week! In this great conversation, we chat about building and growing the game in a country where basketball is not a traditional sport, changes to American basketball, using the 3 point shot, influences in Coach Macaulay's career and much more. It's a great opportunity to learn about the game from a compl...

Our latest reviews are in . . . and they're not good for "Winning Time" Episode VI "Memento Moir". With Casey Hall out of town, Marc Kruger steps in as a guest commentator to help me break down this episode, including a question that probably needs to be asked; was Earvin "Magic" Johnson a good person?

Fundraising is one of the most important things that our programs can do to help build up your program; however, sometimes you're not sure as to what to spend those funds on or how to properly ask people for funds. In this pod, we explore topics where you can reinvest fundraising dollars, where to do it at and how to raise even more money for your program!

Welcome back to "Winning Time"!!! In this episode, which Casey and I subtitled "The Kareem Episode", we dive into, what some would now say is the under-rated career of the NBA"s all-time leading scorer, along with the other things we liked from this episode. Before our actual review, however, Casey and I took a few minutes to discuss mental health and how that has affected us in the last couple of...

Rechelle Turner, the Head Women's Basketball Coach at Murray State University, comes on the podcast this week. Coach Turner chats about a variety of topics, including her jump from the high school ranks to being a Division I head coach, defending your players, inequity's that still exist in women's athletics, transition defense, running a quality summer camp and much more! Great conversation with...

Coaches are always emphasizing the details of the game, but how can you communicate and emphasize these intangibles that are necessary for success in a tangible way? One of the ways that you can do that is through a "Hustle Board", a way to measure your teams effectiveness and toughness, both as a team and on an individual basis. Here's some ideas on how to build this concept!

Josh Thompson, Boys HC at Bishop McGuinness (NC), jumps on the podcast this week to discuss a variety of topics, including the UNC-Duke Final 4 matchup, a unique school nickname, making that first deep post-season run, player development, delegating responsibilities to assistants, out of bounds plays and philosophy, and much more. Great conversation with one of North Carolina's best!