This week TJ and Sam discuss how to start the season off right by knowing what you need out of your first practices, how to evaluate your first games, and setting up your team for success not just at the start, but throughout the season.

Show Notes:
• General Thoughts on how to prepare your team for the first game of the season
• First week of practice
• Identifying the goal
• How can you stack things
• Balance Offense and Defense
• Creating standards of practice
• Attitude and effort
• Capturing the vision of who you want to be as a team
• Cover your butt coaching
• Player Development
• Handling adversity
• Leadership
• Holes in the ceiling
• Working in 3s
• Getting the foundation right
• Learning and improving season to season

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This week we discuss the offensive and defensive implications of the 3pt line, how it affects your players and it's changed all levels of the game.

Show Notes:

• How the 3 is changing the game.
• Defensive implications
• The equalizer
• The Steph Curry effect
• Where coaching matters
• The next trend
• A coaching mistake
• Guess TJ’s favorite NBA player right now
• Value of players beyond the 3
• The hardest teams to play against 
• The risk of being 3 point heavy 
• Coaching shot quality 

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This week Graham Maxwell joins the show to discuss how coaches can win in their relationships with opponents, players, and staff and why it can be the difference maker for you this season.

Show Notes:
• Opponent relationships
• Healthy competition
• Finding middle ground
• Setting the example
• Tony Bennett example
• Staff relationships
• Who over What
• Coaching hard
• Jockeying for positions
• Being a generous listener
• Acknowledging and celebrating
• Catch them doing something good
• What hurts relationships with players
• Playing time
• Sharing the burden

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In light of Coach Tony Bennett’s recent retirement announcement, we thought we’d honor his legacy and what he’s given to the game by reposting his 2021 interview with us where he laid out his foundation as a coach and how his team bounced back to win a National Championship.

Show Notes:
• 5 Pillars / Core Values
• Getting player buy-in
• How you face adversity
• Knowing your Why
• Vulnerability & Leading by example
• Developing leaders
• Style of play & paying the price
• Becoming a great teacher
• What truly matters

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In the world of coaching and leadership we often hear phrases and mantras that serve our coaching in a positive way. And there's also statements and quotes that initial appeal to us and may even carry some truth, but if we put too much stock in them, they could also steer us in the wrong direction. Before we know it, we may end up be off course. This week TJ and Sam discuss different 'coachisms' in the form of 3 truths and 3 lies and debate what's reasonable, what's practical, and what ultimately makes sense to apply to your coaching and share with your team.

Show Notes:
• Intro to Topic
• Relationships are paramount to coaching and leadership
• Competing is the ultimate equalizer
• How you do what you do is the separator
• Winning cures everything
• Leaders are born, not made
• Talent trumps team

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This week TJ and Sam discuss the importance of practice design and share common mistakes you’ll want to avoid in your practice planning this season.

Show Notes:
• 1. Lack of preparation
• Communication and delegation + more tips
• Picking the right things to practice
• Enrolling your players
• Knowing your strengths and practices
• What to pay attention to
• 2. Distributing roles in practice
• "If you try and watch everything, you'll see nothing."
• 3. Identifying influential practice factors
• Doing your best stuff most of the time
• 4. Designing more than the 'What'
• Flow of practice
• 5. Marrying the practice plan

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This week we’re joined by Micah Mills, head coach at Wilmington College and PGC Coaching mentor to discuss managing the energy, emotions, and egos of your players as well as yourself.

Show Notes:
• Bringing energy & being your authentic self as a coach
• Teach players how to bring their own energy
• Individual hype numbers
• Engaging with individual players
• Managing your own energy
• Changes with time
• Consistency with the option to change it up
• "Don't let your circumstances dictate your behavior."
• Regulating emotions
• Individual differences
• Helping your players - Walking a fine line
• Ensuring your team has an edge
• Buying into a team mentality
• Having the right conversations
• The role of social media today
• Speaking the truth to players
• Controlling the narrative
• Getting it right before its too late

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A good passing team is a well coached team. This week we discuss all things related to helping your players be better passers this season.

Show Notes:
• Why you should consider being a pressing team.
• Thinking ahead in your season
• Developing better passers and emphasis in practice
• "Passing is like leadership"
• Executing your sets
• "Make the simple play"
• Inability to pass is limiting - Minimize risky decisions
• Defining good passing
• Coaching pet peeves
• Coaching different types of passes
• What will you do the most in your offense
• Jump Passes
• Taking care of your possessions
• Team confidence
• Better Passing = More Fun

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Building a successful program is all about how you cultivate the identity of the team. This week, TJ and Sam discuss 4 principles to help shape your team culture and strengthen your team identity in something bigger than any individual.

Show Notes:
• Topic Intro
• Shared Ownership
- Getting players to lead
- Working through conflict
• Shared suffering
- giving players ownership
• Individual Responsibility
- Having it come to life in practice
• Collective pride
- Why its important
- The challenges coaches face

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This week the team discusses “Less & More” -  where as coaches we should be looking to add more to our programs both on and off the court and where can we make additions by subtraction.

Show Notes:

What should players do less and more of?

• Relationships, social media, fundamentals

What should parents do less and more of?

• Perspective, teaching, blaming, relationship building

What should coaches do less and more of?

• Preparation, mindset, drama, improvement
• Offense: Shot selection, transition, teaching
• Defense: Aggressive, switching, emphasis

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TJ and Sam discuss the Xs and Os decisions all coaches have to make going into their preseason and the implications for your team.

Show Notes:
• Topic Intro
OFFENSE
• Why + Who = What + How
• Does it matter if it's a fun offensive system to play in?
• Balancing freedom & structure
• Testing your team's IQ
• Does your team know:
- What they're hunting
- How to hunt it
- How to improve
• Does talent need structure?
• Getting player buy-in
• Ability to spread the floor
• Making up for deficits
• Questions to ask
• How many things can you be great at?
DEFENSE
• To pressure or not
• Matching your offense and defense
REBOUNDING
• Both sides of the ball
• Tagging
• Creating roles
SPECIAL TEAMS
• How committed do you want to be?
• Defense
• Low Clock / Late Game

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