Basketball Coach Unplugged (A Basketball Coaching Podcast)

https://teachhoops.com/
When to burn one, what to say in thirty seconds, and why most timeouts send players back out knowing less than when they sat down.
Coach Steve Collins has a confession. For his first five years as a head coach, he called timeouts mostly for himself. He was frustrated, the gym was loud, and he needed it to stop. One night, down six in the third quarter, he talked fast and loud for a full minute about everything, and his point guard walked back onto the floor and asked, "Coach, what are we running?"
That was not a timeout. That was stopping the clock. In this deep dive, Steve breaks down how to decide when a timeout is worth spending, how to use the first ten seconds with your staff, what to actually say in the thirty seconds you have, and how to practice the timeout itself so it becomes calm, routine, and useful by opening night.
Part 1: Why and Who

The minute long timeout that left the most important player on the floor knowing nothing

The four jobs of a timeout: stop a run, fix one thing, set up a play, give tired legs a breath

Why timeouts are money, and the late game possession Steve watched helplessly after spending them early

Budgeting timeouts: one or two in the first half, and always two saved for the last three minutes

Giving your team one possession to answer a run before you stop it

Using the first ten seconds for a quick staff huddle, then speaking with one voice

Part 2: What Gets Said

The thirty second script: what is happening, what we do about it, and who does it

The clipboard trap, and why a timeout is the place to call a play you own, not teach a new one

Managing emotion before information, because upset players cannot hear X's and O's

The senior who needed a hand on his shoulder before he could hear the next assignment

Practicing real timeouts in the middle of a Tuesday scrimmage until they become routine

Rehearsing the late game timeout with the clock running, so February is not the first time

Keeping a postgame timeout log to learn how you coach in the hardest moments

Chapters

00:00 Coach Unplugged intro

00:16 Opening hook: calling timeouts for the coach

01:16 Preroll: TeachHoops.com special situations and end of game plans

01:39 The point guard who did not know the play

02:31 Takeaway 1: Know why before you call it

04:35 Takeaway 2: Staff first, then one voice

06:20 Takeaway 3: The thirty second script

07:39 Midroll: TeachHoops.com after timeout plays and community

08:01 Takeaway 4: Emotion first, then information

09:08 Takeaway 5: Practice your timeouts

10:45 The challenge

10:56 Postroll: TeachHoops.com

This week's challenge: Write down your four reasons to call a timeout, and do not call one this season unless you can name the reason.
Format: Deep Dive, two parts.
Resources: After timeout plays, end of game situations, special situations playbooks, practice plans, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/
Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
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https://teachhoops.com/
The pregame routine, the warmup that actually warms them up, and the locker room words that matter in game one.
It is forty five minutes before tip. The music is too loud, two players are on their phones, and the point guard is retaping an ankle that does not need it. Coach Steve Collins spent his early years running game night on a vibe instead of a plan, then trying to fix everything with a speech four minutes before tip. His teams came out flat in the opener three straight years.
In this deep dive, Steve walks through the hour that decides more games than coaches admit. How to build a pregame plan backwards from tip, why most warmups look organized but leave players cold, and what to say, and leave out, in the locker room before game one. It is practical, minute by minute, and ready for opening night.
Part 1: The Plan and the Warmup

Why Steve's teams came out flat three openers in a row, and why he finally blamed the hour instead of the kids

Writing the pregame backwards from tip, with every player and every staff member knowing where to be at each mark

Nerves love empty time: giving players a job so worry has nowhere to go

Why eight of ten high school warmups look the same, and why that leaves you down eight

Building the warmup from the game backwards: movement, ball handling on the move, passing against a defender, shots from your offense, and something live

Rehearsing the exact warmup in practice so the first run is never in front of a crowd

Part 2: The Locker Room

Three things, under three minutes: one on offense, one on defense, one on effort

If it was not taught on Tuesday, it does not get said on Friday

Reading the temperature of the room, and why the same talk fails a wired team and a tight one

The scorer's table story that loosened up a frozen young team before an opener

Why the last words should be about belief in the players, not one more reminder to box out

Looking like a coach who expected to be here, and the five minute postgame review that builds a routine

Chapters

00:00 Coach Unplugged intro

00:16 Opening hook: the hour before tip

01:13 Preroll: TeachHoops.com pregame plans and game day checklists

01:38 Coaching on a vibe and flat openers

02:24 Takeaway 1: A plan, not a waiting room

03:49 Takeaway 2: A warmup that warms them up

06:10 Takeaway 3: Three things, under three minutes

07:13 Midroll: TeachHoops.com pregame talk frameworks and community

07:40 Takeaway 4: Match the room

09:14 Takeaway 5: The last words are about them

10:48 The challenge

11:02 Postroll: TeachHoops.com

This week's challenge: Write your pregame hour on one sheet of paper, minute by minute, and run it in practice before your first game.
Format: Deep Dive, two parts.
Resources: Pregame warmup plans, game day checklists, locker room talk frameworks, practice plans, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/
Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
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https://teachhoops.com/
Why the best game one scouting report fits on an index card, and what to do when last year's film lies to you.
The best scouting report Coach Steve Collins ever handed a team fit on an index card. The worst one was eleven pages long, stapled by hand, and built on film of three starters who were not even on the floor that night. His team spent the first quarter guarding ghosts and lost by nineteen.
That loss changed how he thought about game one. The opener is the hardest scout of the entire season. Rosters have turned over, your own rotation is still a guess, and last year's film is more rumor than report. In this three part deep dive, Steve walks through how to gather information that actually holds up in October, how to get it off the paper and into your players' bodies, and how to keep the scout from turning into a list of reasons to be nervous.
Part 1: Gathering the Scout

Why you scout yourself first, and the one hour of your own scrimmage film that is worth five hours of theirs

Scouting the coach instead of the roster, because players graduate but a coach's habits after a made basket, out of a timeout, and under two minutes almost never change

The ten minute phone call to a league coach who played them last February

Finding three things instead of thirty, and why a long scout usually protects the coach more than it prepares the team

Part 2: Getting It to Stick

Two scouting reports: the staff version with everything, and the index card version your players actually carry

The three lines that were on Steve's best card, and the fourteen point win that followed

Teaching the scout with bodies instead of a whiteboard, and why your scout team is the most important group in the gym during game week

The left handed sophomore who studied film on his own, became the opponent's best player for three days, and held the real one to seven

Preparing principles instead of predictions, so your team has an answer ready for a press, a zone, or a switch it never saw on film

How to split game week: Monday is about us, ten to fifteen minutes of them on Tuesday and Wednesday, a calm walkthrough Thursday

Why nothing new gets installed for game one: a new set on Wednesday is a turnover on Friday

Part 3: Game Night

Why the first four minutes of the game are the real scout, and the one job to give somebody on your bench

The senior manager with a spiral notebook who caught a timeout set in a sectional final and won a game without scoring a point

Halftime as your second scout: two minutes with your staff, then one or two adjustments, never five

Scouting yourself again on Saturday morning, because your next opponent is already watching that film

How an overbuilt scout sent a team out of the locker room tight, quiet, and playing scared

The ratio Steve landed on: for every thing you tell them about the opponent, tell them one thing about us

Why your last words before tip should be about who you are, not who they are

Chapters

00:00 Coach Unplugged intro

00:15 The eleven page scout and the index card

01:04 Pre-roll: TeachHoops.com scouting templates and game week plans

01:25 Guarding ghosts: why game one is the hardest scout of the year

02:20 Takeaway 1: Scout yourself first

03:09 Takeaway 2: Scout the coach, not the roster

04:22 Takeaway 3: Three things, not thirty

06:08 Takeaway 4: The staff knows everything, the players get the card

07:15 Takeaway 5: Teach it with bodies, and the left handed sophomore

09:08 Mid-roll: TeachHoops.com scout team drills and the coaching community

09:31 Takeaway 6: Principles, not predictions

11:35 Takeaway 7: The real scout starts at tip off, halftime, and Saturday film

13:41 Takeaway 8: Do not let the scout scare them

16:11 Scouting can sharpen a team. It cannot replace one.

16:17 The index card challenge and post-roll

This week's challenge: Write your game one scouting report on a single index card. Three lines. If it does not fit, it does not go. Hand the card to your players and keep the rest for yourself.
Format: Deep Dive, three parts.
Resources: Scouting templates, game week plans, scout team drills, practice plans, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/
Recorded at the Fifth Quarter Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Simplicity at Practice

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/

TITLE
What Would Happen If You Cut Your Practice Plan in Half?

SUBTITLE
Subtraction is the most underrated move in coaching, and almost nobody is willing to try it.

SHOW NOTES

Every year the plan gets longer. Another drill, another wrinkle, another coverage, and somehow the team looks less sure of itself in February than it did in December. Coach Collins argues for going the other direction: fewer drills, fewer words, one teaching point at a time, and the confidence that comes from a team that knows exactly what it is supposed to do.

What we cover:

Why practice plans grow every season and never shrink

One teaching point per drill, and what happens when you stack three

Cutting your own talking down and coaching more with a whistle

The difference between a team that knows a lot and a team that is sure

What to remove first when you finally decide to cut

This week's challenge: Take your next practice plan and delete one thing without replacing it.

Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/

https://teachhoops.com/ · https://coachingyouthhoops.com/ · https://heysammi.com/
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https://teachhoops.com/

A retired coach on the difference
between the November version of you and the February version, and how to keep
them closer together.

SHOW NOTES

After thirty seven years, Coach
Steve Collins can finally see the thing he could not see while he was inside it:
he planned five months of conditioning for his players and nothing at all for
himself. This episode is an honest look at what actually empties a coach's
tank, which is almost never the games, plus a practical energy plan for a long
season and the one signal that tells you you are running on empty.

What we cover:

•
The November coach and the February coach are different
people, and your team can feel it

•
What really drains you: the email, the scheduling, the
conflict, the paperwork on a Sunday

•
Building recovery into the week, including one day you
do not talk about basketball

•
Handing assistants real work instead of hoarding it out
of fear

•
Sleep, eating at the gym, keeping one non basketball
person, and no film at two in the morning

This week's challenge: Block one day on your calendar
where basketball is not allowed, and protect it like you protect a game night.

Resources: Practice plans, drills, courses, and on
court clinics at https://teachhoops.com/

Recorded at the Fifth Quarter
Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.

EPISODE DETAILS

Runtime: 4 minutes 45
seconds

Audio file: 10_coach_energy.mp3

LINKS

https://teachhoops.com/

https://coachingyouthhoops.com/

https://heysammi.com/

You Built a
Conditioning Plan for Them, So Where Is Yours?

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