Basketball and Life: with Coach Jon Cook

Adam Scott came to Ohio Northern University in the fall of 2019 as a hyper-athletic and equally immature basketball player in search of an identity and a purpose. After a 4-year career that saw him experience more than his share of ups and downs, both individually and with his team. He experienced a COVID-marred sophomore season and a coaching change heading into his senior season. And essentially...

Matt Croci has been the head coach at Wittenberg University since 2016. In that time he has led his alma mater to 142 wins and 3 appearances in the Division III NCAA tournament, including a 28-2 record and the Sweet 16 in 2020, when the tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19. Coach Croci graduated from Wittenberg in 1994, when he was the NCAC Player of the Year and an All American, before beginn...

Tim Fralick played college basketball at both Oakland University and Saginaw Valley State University. He went on to coach collegiately at both Ashland University and Gannon University before becoming the head coach at Ashland High School (OH). He then joined the staff of the Ashland University women's basketball program, when his wife Robyn, became the head coach. After almost unheard of succe...

John Ellenwood will coach his 16th year as the head coach at Ashland University in 2024-2025. We sat down at the beginning of year 15 last September and discussed his remarkable basketball journey from a young man struggling to be a junior high player in Sylvania, Ohio to becoming a Division III All American at the College of Wooster, all the way through his quest to become a head coach (and turn...

The relaunch of the podcast in July of 2023 resulted in 20 terrific episodes! Unfortunately, a number of things occurred during 2023 that led to another interruption of the podcast and we are truly sorry for that! Thanks for checking back... Stay tuned for Episode 99 with Ashland University head coach John Ellenwood and more in the coming weeks!

Andy Moore spent 25 years as an assistant basketball coach in the college ranks including stints at the United States Air Force Academy, and in both the Mid-American Conference and the Big Ten.  He is beginning his fourth season as the head coach Reynoldsburg High School in central Ohio.  After playing for his father at Mt. Vernon High School, Andy had a stellar playing career at Division III Musk...

Brook Cupps first joined the podcast in the fall of 2020 on Episode 72. Since that conversation Coach Cupps has seen his team at Centerville win a state championship and make 3 consecutive trips to the state Final Four in Ohio's big school division. He has also seen his son be named Ohio's Mr. Basketball and accept a scholarship to play basketball at Indiana University. Did I mention that...

Cody Hartzler is in his ninth season as an assistant coach at Baldwin Wallace University in 2023-24. Hartzler came to BW after spending two years as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Washington and Jefferson (Pa.) College. Prior to W & J, Hartzler served as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Bluffton University for two seasons. Coach Hartzler also served as the assistant men’s basketball...

Jon Tropf is a northwest Ohio native, raised in Van Buren, Ohio just minutes away from the ONU campus in Ada, Ohio. However, his journey has been about a lot more than the distance between 2 small towns in the Buckeye state. Coach Tropf spent his undergraduate years at Eastern Michigan University serving as a student manager, including 3 years as the head manager. He began his college coaching car...

Nick Sales is enetring his 2nd season as the head basketball coach at RHIT, an NCAA Division III program in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Coach Sales previously spent 9n seasons as an Assistant Coach and then Associate Head Coach at Marietta College. He enjoyed an outstanding playing career at Defiance College where he was the HCAC Player of the Year and an Honorable Mention All Am...

Coach Michele Durand is making a return visit to the podcast. She previously joined us for Episode 28, when she was the recently retired basketball coach from Ohio Northern University. After a brief time away from the sidelines, and working in athletic administration, Coach Durand is set to begin her 2nd season leading the Oilers. Please enjoy my conversation about Basketball and Life with Michele...

A lot has happened and some things have changed since the podcast shutdown in October 2020. Talkin' Hoops: With Coach Jon Cook is now Basketball & Life: With Coach Jon Cook. Thanks so much for your interest in the podcast. It is great to be back!

Keith Utendorf is a Putnam County native who grew up in Ottawa, Ohio and attended Ottawa-Glandorf High School. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that he is a basketball junkie. But Keith's basketball journey has been atypical to say the least. It is a journey that has led him to be the head coach at not one, but two of Putnam County's small school basketball programs. Two programs in Ft....

Quincey Simpson is a Lima Senior Spartan through and through. His journey through high school and college, then ultimately into coaching has been an unconventional one. unconventional also accurately describes his passion for the leadership role that he plays as the head basketball coach at his alma mater. The lifelong journey that took him to seemingly every corner of the basketball world, has la...

Coach Bob Ghiloni is making a return appearance on the podcast, after first joining me for Episode 26, back in 2020. At that time Bob had only recently stepped down after 18 years as the head coach at Denison University. Three years of "retirement" from coaching proved to be enough for Coach Ghiloni and he is returning to the high school ranks after previously spending 15 years at Bishop Ready Hig...

Dre White is entering his 7th season as a head basketball coach in the fall of 2023, and all of those years have been spent at two rural northwest Ohio high schools which are longtime and often bitter rivals. It is an interesting part of the basketball journey for Dre that began as a youth in Lima, Ohio and has seen him have an outstanding high school career as a player, followed by a stellar four...

Andy Bucheit is set to begin his 11th season at the helm for Heidelberg University in 2023. Coach Bucheit played 4 years of college basketball at Wittenberg University, and began his college coaching journey as a volunteer assistant to legendary coach Bill Brown, at his alma mater in 2005. The following year, the Cincinnati, Ohio native became a graduate assistant at Ashland University, where he w...

When I was growing up I was like any other basketball loving kid. I had idols. I loved Dr. J, and of course I enjoyed the Magic vs. Bird debate. Michael would come along a little later, and I became a fan much later in his career. But for me the true heroes of the sport were the college players that I watched on television. Try to understand that I was a kid growing up in rural northwest Ohio, and...

Tyson McGlaughlin spent most of his childhood watching his father lead the basketball program at Miller City High School before enjoying a standout high school playing career at Ottawa-Glandorf High School, and then at the University of Findlay. When he graduated and began his coaching career he could not possibly have known that he would eventually serve as the head coach at both Miller City and...

Geno Ford is a basketball lifer. Practically raised in the gym by his father and legendary Cambridge (Ohio) High School coach Gene Ford, Geno was Ohio's Mr. Basketball in 1993 and went on to an outstanding career at Ohio University. He played briefly overseas before beginning his coaching career. His coaching stops include stints as an assistant at his alma mater, Ohio University, as well as Kent...

I first saw Doug Etzler play high school basketball during the 1987-88 season, when he was a freshman point guard playing for his father, Ray Etzler at Crestview High School. I followed his playing career closely, as he would square off with my twin brother twice just a couple of years later. After his stellar playing career at Crestview, Doug spent four years at The Ohio State University and then...

Neal Young is in his second season as the head men’s basketball coach at Ohio Northern in 2023-24. He took over the program on April 6, 2022. Young came to ONU after winning three USA South titles in five seasons as head coach at Covenant (Ga.) College. He guided the Scots to a 79-47 record (a winning percentage of .627) and USA South titles in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Prior to his time at Covenant, Y...

Doug Billman is an Antwerp, Ohio native who has been leading the basketball program at his alma mater since 2016. In those 7 seasons he has amassed 131 career wins and his teams have 20 or more games for the last 4 seasons. Three of those seasons resulted in District Championships and in the 2021-2022 season the Archers qualified for the state Final Four. Prior to his time at Antwerp, Coach Billma...

Jim Clay may be the single most passionate member of the basketball community that I have had the good fortune to know. I met Jim in the early 1990's when he was the Director of the Van Wert AAU program in Van Wert, Ohio. Through a connection with a mutual friend that we shared, I was able to begin coaching a team of young men as a part of Jim's program. Because of our mutual passion for the game...

After spending 17 years as an assistant coach at Ohio Northern University, Joe Campoli was appointed ONU’s head coach in 1992, at the age of 49, and became only the second first-year head coach to win an NCAA Division III national championship.  Over 13 years in which there was not a losing season, ONU teams coached by Campoli won 254 games and lost 101. His .715 winning percentage is the all-time...