Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike explores his recent Points to Ponder Blog Posts on the NCAA Division 1 Men's and Women's Championship teams. Specifically on the growth that those coaches and teams experienced that allowed them to have success. If you're interested in reading the full Blog Post, head to gameplanbasketball.ca . If you're looking to receive the Blog Po...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike and Brandon continue their discussion on intentional practice planning. This episode does a much deeper dive into the what's and the how's of practice planning and encourages coaches to consider the smaller details of what they include in their plans to ensure that their activities align with their intention and intended impact.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast , Coach Mike is joined by Dianna Ros, Head Coach of the University of Toronto Women’s Basketball team. Dianna shares her path through the game—from being a standout player at McGill University to national team involvement, her first head coaching opportunity at Bishop’s, and now guiding the University of Toronto Varsity Blues program. Toget...

On this Bonus episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike and Brandon sit down for a quick catchup on what's been happening in basketball in Canada. On this episode, Mike and Brandon will recap their recent trip to Kimberley BC, the Women's USports National Championship, and some of the recent NCAA basketball games.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike and Brandon sit down to chat through getting a team up and running for the spring season and the intentional thought process that goes into Planning a Practice. This is Part 1 of a 2 Part series on Practice Planning and is designed to help coaches consider some critical pre-planning elements before they get to a practice.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike MacKay sits down with Christa Eniojukan, Head Coach of the York University Women's Basketball team. Christa shares her journey from playing to coaching, her time as a teacher, her time with the National team, and balancing wearing multiple hats as a coach and mother.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Brandon and Mike explore ideas around team selection. The podcast explores topics that a coach might want to consider when it comes to selecting a team. What to consider before your tryout starts, how to facilitate a tryout with performance safety, and most importantly, how to select and deselect athletes with dignity.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Brandon and Mike sit down with Isabel Ormond to explore the ideas, habits, and philosophies shaping her growth as a coach and educator. From metacognition to mentorship, and from reading widely to embracing imperfection, Isabel offers clear, thoughtful insights that coaches at every level can learn from. Key Topics Discussed The Scholar-Co...

On this Episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast Coach Mike is joined once again by Manager of Officials Development David Maxin from Canada Basketball. On this episode, Mike and Dave discuss the National Points of Emphasis that the referees across the country have been focusing on this past season. This is a great one for coaches who are looking to understand more of the language and rul...

On this Episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike MacKay sits down with Carly Clarke, to talk about her coaching journey, building relationships, establishing culture, and stories from a long career. Carly also explores developing assistant coaches and navigating the highest pressure moments in the game. This is a podcast you won't want to miss!

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike and Brandon explore coaching in the storm of the game. Importantly, they explore the different practice environment coaches can design to help encourage the type of learning and transfer that can help get the concepts taught in practice to show up in the game. There are lots of visual elements in this podcast and if you're looking to...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike sits down with Ashley Hoitink, winner of the Mike MacKay Transformational Coaching award and Manitoba Provincial program coach. Ashley shares her journey in coaching, ways in which she emphasizes building relationships, and planning to compete at a summer nationals. *Note this episode was recorded in the Spring of 2025.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball coaching podcast, Mike and Brandon follow-up on the episode with Phil Jevtovic that focused on Performance Analytics to talk about Tracking and Monitoring. In the episode, the coaches explore the importance of planning and environment design as well as the surprising role that interventions play in our coaching (it's not what you think). Then they explore d...

Ever wonder what goes into the decision-making process for officials when making close calls in a split second? On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching podcast, Coach Mike is joined by Dave Maxin, the Manager of Officials Development at Canada Basketball. On this episode, Dave breaks down what criteria fouls are in FIBA and what the difference is in the game. This podcast has lots of vid...

On this Episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike sits down with Marlo Davis, the Head Coach of the U19 Women's National Team to talk about his journey from playing to coaching, coaching styles, and building relationships with the athletes he works with. Editor Notes: This was an episode recorded back in 2025 before the team competed. Tune in and enjoy! Visit gameplanbasketball...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike and Brandon sit down to reflect on the episode with Keira Dyck and explore more concepts around Performance Safety. The coaches chat through some important concepts like coaching through Clarity, Compassion, and Curiosity, as well as balancing the Challenge and Support the athletes we work with are facing.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike sits down with Phil Jevtovic, Assistant General Manager of Men's 3x3 and High Performance Analytics to talk about Phil's journey in basketball and how he ended up as an Assistant Coach with the Senior Men's National Team. This episode does a deep dive into using 3x3 to teach the game as well as using performance analytics in bas...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike sits down with Keira Dyck, a Master's student at the University of Saskatchewan and Provincial Team assistant coach to discuss her journey in basketball, along with her research surrounding coaching with compassion.

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast Mike and Brandon sit down to review some of the trends in basketball from the past year. From the resurgence of motion offenses and zone defenses, the coaches explore some of the big concepts that really took off. Happy Holidays

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Coach Mike sits down with Murriel Page, Assistant Coach for the Senior Women's National Team. The conversation explores the unexpected journey of a coach from Mississippi State to Team Canada, emphasizing the importance of building relationships with players and specializing in post play. Murriel reflects on her pride in coaching and the u...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Brandon and Mike sit down to chat about Stewardship in the Game of Basketball. Mike provides a recap of his recent clinics in Montreal, Victoria, and Toronto which all surround the idea of building Stewardship. He follows up the learnings from those clinics with some stories that help to bring home the idea along with why it's so important...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike sits down with Micaëlla Riché — former NCAA Division I athlete, coach, Executive Director of Layup Basketball, and now a doctoral researcher exploring coaching methodology and athlete psychosocial needs. Key Topics Discussed 1. Coaching as Stewardship & the Human Side of the Game Micaëlla and the hosts explore why coaches must act...

On this episode of the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast, Mike MacKay sits down with Mike Meeks, the Assistant General Manager of Men's High Performance at Canada Basketball. Coach Meeks, who shares his journey in basketball from a young athlete to a successful coach. They discuss the influence of coaches, the differences between North American and European coaching styles, and the importance of...

Welcome to the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast! Join Coach Mike MacKay and Coach Brandon Brock as they preview and setup the Canada Basketball Coaching Podcast. Look forward to weekly episodes including conversations with coaches from across the country and debrief conversations around new concepts in the game of basketball.