The Discipleship Hoops Podcast

Following a Legacy, Building Your Own: Coach Chris Goodman

• Jimmie L. Lucas • Season 2 • Episode 3

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:03:32

Season 2, Episode 3 of the Discipleship Hoops Podcast features Coach Chris Goodman, Head Varsity Boys Basketball Coach at Hartfield Academy. 

After coaching at Jackson Prep and East Rankin Academy, Coach Goodman stepped into the head coaching role at Hartfield following legendary coach Bill Ball after two years being his assistant. In this episode, he shares what it takes to lead a program with a strong tradition while building your own identity as a coach. 

We discuss: 

- Building and sustaining a winning culture 

- Developing young men on and off the court 

- Leading through pressure and expectations 

- Following a legacy while creating your own standard 

If you are a coach, parent, or athlete who cares about leadership, culture, and development, this episode is for you. 

Subscribe, share, and help us continue building leaders through the game. 

For sponsorship opportunities and partnerships, visit our website. Discipleship Hoops Podcast

Support the show

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to Discipleship Hoops Podcast, where basketball meets purpose. This isn't just about mastering skills on the court, it's about developing the complete athlete. We're here to help young players grow stronger, smarter, and more skilled while deepening their character and strengthening their faith. At Discipleship Hoops, we believe basketball is more than a game. It's a platform for transformation, teaching discipline, teamwork, and resilience. Together, let's empower the next generation of leaders to excel both on and off the court.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you all for sharing and liking and subscribing and commenting and all those things that you do out there. I truly appreciate it. It's because of you that I that I have this platform. Just to, you know, I say bring the people what they want. All right. So keeping in tradition with phenomenal guests, uh, none other than uh to my left, uh Coach Chris Goodman, Hartfield Academy. Coach Goodman, thank you for coming out today. I truly appreciate you joining me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Not sure I'd go as far as say phenomenal guests, but I'll take that, I'll take that compliment.

SPEAKER_03

All right. So, I mean, obviously, I know you, you know, we work together. Uh but for those out there in podcast land that don't introduce yourself to the to the world.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Uh my name is Chris Goodman. Uh, I'm the head boys basketball coach here at Hartfield Academy. Um, just finished my third year as the head boys coach, uh, fifth year in total. Before that, uh, I've worked at uh East Rankin Academy. I've worked at Jackson Prep uh just down the road. And then before that, I was coaching in college for for four years in uh in Arkansas.

SPEAKER_03

So Yep. All right, so let's let's let's start right there. All right, let's hop in right there. Um Jackson Prep, East Rankin, and now Hartfield. What made Hartfield the right fit for you?

SPEAKER_01

Oh man, um there's so many things about Hartfield as a school um that that just kind of made sense. So um in my in my my past experiences here with Mississippi private schools, um, you know, Jackson Prep, everybody thinks Jackson Prep, they think you know, elite academics. Um, and of course athletics as well, but elite uh academics. Um when you think East Rankin basketball-wise, East Rankin is a you know is a basketball school. Um Hartfield kind of put together uh the the three-headed monster of um up-and-coming athletics with the with the hope and the goal to be really, really good. Um up and coming academics as well. Our academics here at Hartfield has obviously grown. And then uh the the third thing, which I'm sure we'll talk about a lot today, is the faith-based. Yep. Um, making sure that we're not just doing things to win at all cost. We're doing things in a way to help kids win at life. And so for that, it was just kind of the perfect trifecta.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. And I mean that's that's what brought me here, right? Is the you know, basketball is one thing, but then having that faith element attached to it was like I was like, yeah, that's the place that I know that I want to be as a coach, um, that I want my kids to be, you know, as a parent. And it just was the right fit to your point. Yep, absolutely. Uh so you you said that this is your uh fifth year, right? Three years as head coach, two years assistant under the great Coach Bill Ball. Coach Ball, legend. So all your stops, right? Whether it's coaching girls at each ranking, you know, the time and prep, now ending your third year as the head coach. What did you learn from Coach Ball and what have you brought together from all those other stops to become who the coach you are today?

SPEAKER_01

I think I still learn from Coach Ball. He's still my next door neighbor. So I still go over there every once in a while and knock on that door. I'm like, hey, Bill, question for you. Which I'm sure he probably eye rolls a few times. But um man, Bill uh is phenomenal in so many different areas. But what I always told Bill and gave Bill the most credit for was Bill found a way to get everything possible out of every one of his teams. Um if his team was uh a 500 ball club, he would find a way to go 20 and 10 and then he'd go, hey man, I got everything possible out of that team. Yep. Uh if his team was, you know, potentially uh a third or fourth best team in the league, uh, he would find a way to plav him playing for a championship come tournament time.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Bill was phenomenal and it still is phenomenal at whatever it is within that team and within that program, he is gonna get every ounce out of them. And so from my I've coached against him for uh three years here in the state of Mississippi uh and then coached with him for two years here. Like that was my biggest thing was how do how can I figure out to get that? Right, and that's easier said than done. Yeah, yeah. But Bill is phenomenal at uh connecting with guys, but also getting, like I said, every single thing possible out of them.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you to season two sponsor, Dogwood Pediatric Dentistry. At Dogwood Pediatric Dentistry, they go far and beyond providing top-tier dental care in Fullwood. They create a warm, fun, and compassionate environment where your child feels safe and valued. Their mission is to partner with parents in nurturing healthy smile throughout your child's formative years. They are committed to offering state-of-the-art care while ensuring every visit is enjoyable and stress-free. Dogwood Pediatric Dentistry. You can reach them at 601-992-0007 or send them an email, Dogwood Pediatric Dentistry at gmail.com. Thank you. Dogwood Pediatric Dentistry. Yeah, I me watching them on the sideline and from the bench the past couple years is he has such a way of like yelling at you but also praising you at the same time. Like I was like, It's a gift. If I could figure out how to how to get right there, it's like he yells at you, but at the same time, he's pumping you up and getting you back out there ready to go. That's it's masterful how he does that.

SPEAKER_01

And I've seen him do it before where he's gonna love that I tell this story. Yeah, I've seen him do it before where he's got his arm around somebody and he's chewing them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But everybody behind him is like, man, look at him loving on that kid. And he's chewing the kid. And then at the end, he's like, hey man, you know I love you, you know, pat him on the butt, but we'll just keep moving on. Um, so yeah, I mean, that's another one. Like he's just he's got a gift. Uh he can yell at you, but he's encouraging you at the same time and he's loving you at the same time, but at the same time, he's still chewing you out.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right. So without those things, you know, said and and and following him and coming up, you know, coaching with him, what have you took and made Chris Goodman's?

SPEAKER_01

Oof. Um, well, look, so my my coaching background, um, I've been blessed enough to, by the time it's all said and done, I will have worked for three Hall of Famers. Yeah. Um, when I was coaching in college, I worked under a guy named David Farrell who has over 600 career wins, probably close to 700 career wins now in the state of Arkansas. Um, he's already inducted to one Hall of Fame. He'll be inducted into another one before it's all said and done. Uh, I've worked under Tim Wise at Jackson Prep. Everybody knows what Tim Wise did at Jackson Prep. They won back-to-back overall titles. Um, Tim is phenomenal at what he does. He is a defensive guru. Um, he is great at connecting with kids and getting kids to buy into his system. And then Bill Ball. And again, that he's already a Hall of Famer. Right. I mean, so um, what I have tried to do with those three guys in specific is uh I was just trying, and I try to tell like our younger guys, you know, our younger guys now, like, hey man, as much as you can be a sponge, you need to soak up as much as you possibly can. Um did that mean that I always had the same personality with all three of those guys? No. My personality is loud. I hold people to a high standard. I love on kids, but at the same time, you know, I do have to be authentic to me. And so um, you know, the things that I've taken from Tim is, you know, trying to get guys to buy in on the defensive end of the floor. The things that I've taken from David Farrell is you've got to run an offense that's tough enough to guard, um, to where teams can't just watch you one time and go, yep, I've got them figured out. This is how we're gonna play them, and then the game's easy. Right. And the things that I've learned from Bill is like what we just talked about, how can you squeeze every ounce out of a team and try to get the most possible out of a team? Right. You know, if it's uh if it's uh you know motivating every single day, if it's in the weight room, if it's seeing each other on the up and down these hallways here at Hartfield, um, whatever it is, um, Bill, Bill does a phenomenal job of connecting with kids so he knows what buttons to push, so he knows how to get everything out of those kids. And again, I tried to learn as much of that as I possibly could working from Bill or or under Bill. And it's still something that, like I said, I still go right next door every single day. And I'm like, hey, Bill, I got a question for you. So um, you know, by no by no means do I feel like you know, myself, Chris Gibbon, has arrived, quote unquote. Um, I still learn things all the time, but from those three guys, I mean, that's three completely different mindsets in a way.

SPEAKER_03

So that's true. So let's, you know, um, you and I just in the hodles in the locker rooms, we talk a lot about uh we preach attitude and effort, right? The the the two factors that players control 100% of, right? Their attitude and their effort. So when it comes to defining the culture, you talked about faith um being, you know, a part of it, right? The center of it. So when you talk about heartfilled basketball culture, what would you describe the culture as?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I'll I'll touch on you know attitude and effort first. So as you know, uh, but if you haven't ever seen me coach, you know, I'm I'm I'm pretty I like the word passionate. Passionate sounds better than just loud and screaming all the time. So um, but yeah, I'm big on, you know, the two things that you can control on a daily basis is your effort and attitude. That can be spiritually, that can be physically, that can be academically in the classroom, that can be with relationships, that can be with whatever. So you can't always uh control what hand you're gonna be dealt. Right. You can't control who your parents are sometimes. You can't control your friends, you can't control, like I mean, you've heard me say it, what they serve in the cafeteria every single day. Um, you know, you got a math test coming up uh and you thought you did a pretty good job on it, man, you tanked it. Well, you still got to show up to math class the same way tomorrow, and you still got to keep going and find a way to respond. So um basketball's got to be the same way. Your effort and attitude out here every single day has got to be top notch and it's gotta be here. So you get to control the fact that you have a good attitude every day. You get to control the fact that you give good effort on every single play. Um, and I think that's one of the biggest things is that when guys understand that that's the standard that I'm gonna hold them to, it's not, hey Jimmy, I need you to score 30. Right. And I need you to guard whoever's best player. Right, right. It's no, man, I need your best effort and I need your best attitude every day. Right. And if you're not gonna give that to me, then I'm gonna get on to you. Yeah. But if you can give me those two things, we can make everything else work. And that leads into guys kind of buying into that thought process.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then the team buying into like, hey man, I know you're not giving your best effort right now. Right, right. You know he's gonna be mad if you're not giving your best effort. So you have to give your best effort so that we can be successful in that sense.

SPEAKER_03

That's good. So yeah, that's good. That's I mean, that's that's a good point when you put it like that. Um you know, today's players uh they want a lot of freedom. They want a lot of freedom without any responsibility.

unknown

Yeah, yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_03

And so, you know, uh again, we've talked about you working, you know, with great coaches. Uh just your playing style though. You played high-level basketball in Texas, you know, it's um um top notch, right, when it comes to just the game itself. So your playing days have you have you, or what have you brought with you from your playing days to your coaching days? Like, what have you brought with you?

SPEAKER_01

You know, you and I always make that back in my day, Jay. Um so you know, the way that I grew up was in the what we would call old school motion. Yeah. You know, you got you know, one guy that slips to the rim, one guy that comes to the ball. Um, we would set, you know, pin downs, flare screens, back screens, ball screens, I mean, you name it. There was always, you know, uh a freedom, as you said it, right, uh, element to motion. Right. You know, you would kind of have that freedom to to make a read coming off a screen and and to do this. And then I played for a guy um in college, Thad McCracken, who uh was phenomenal at what he did. And he was a I want to give you freedom within a controlled setting. Right. And so that's probably more so where I lie is I want to give you freedom in a controlled setting. So I'm gonna let you get out and run in transition, and I'm gonna let you explore things in transition. But if you don't have it, then we're gonna pull the reins back in and we're gonna play basketball kind of in a in a controlled more setting. Um in our teams the last couple of years, you know, the uh two years ago we played uh for a you know 6A state championship here on this floor right here. Um we lost to JA in double overtime. That team didn't need rules, they needed freedom. Right, right. Okay, well, in that case, my job is to hey, look, here's a little bit of stuff, right? Y'all take it and go.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01

I'll be here to call a timeout, I'll be here to call defense, y'all take it and go on the offensive end. Right. Um, but then you know, obviously having other teams on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, like, ooh, that team can't play with freedom. Yeah, so that team may need a little bit more routine or pattern and still give them the freedom to do things within the routine and the pattern. Right, right. Um, which is easier said than done because coaches, as you well know, to my other coaching colleagues out there, sometimes we are control freaks and we don't like to give up that control.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um and to quote a really good friend of mine and and who coaches girls basketball right now in Texas uh our job security relies on 15 to 18 year olds making the right decision. Right. Well, then you go, oh gosh, this is terrible. We don't want to give 15 to 18 year olds the freedom.

SPEAKER_04

I want to script it. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, but at the same time, if they're so scripted and they're so bolted down and they're so this or whatever um within a system, then you built robots instead of basketball players. Right, right. And I know you and I, Jimmy, talk about it all the time, but you know, we don't want to build robots, we want to develop basketball players. Right. And that's the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's good. And so one reason why you and I work really well together, in my opinion, is like you are you are a watching you the past two years, you are a master when it comes to X's and O's. Thank you. Like, like it's like I don't know what goes on in the chemistry class or a calculator class, but I imagine like somebody that knows chemist chemistry but doesn't know any basketball, when they see how you script X's and O's, they'll be like, what is this Mandarin? She's doing a phenomenal job uh at X's and O's and getting getting players in the right position to be successful. And so uh with all what you just said, like would you lean more towards uh players that can execute within a system or players that know the system but can't have the freedom to kind of maneuver, you know, like for example, right? Like Wiggy Ball, right? Wiggy was a master of executing in the system. Where there's Pepper, who knew the system like better than anybody in the gym. Yep, right. Probably even cut close to what you how you know it sometimes he sees it that way, but he was a little bit more uh gunslinger or like he was a little bit more freedom to like do what he wanted to do in the system, right? So what do you lean? Is there a a better way or you know a not, you know what I'm saying? Like what do you lean more towards?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, great question. Um, let's use the two guys that you just mentioned there, for example. All right, so Wiggy was exceptional within the system. Wiggy was also phenomenal at seeing things before things happened. Right, right. And so uh Wiggy's court vision and court awareness was still is top notch. I mean, he's doing great things right now at Louisiana Monroe because it's top notch. Right. Um Wiggy's thing was is that sometimes, and you know, we'd have to go, come on, Wiggy, I need you to be a little bit more offensive minded. Don't just throw people open. I need you to go get a bucket. Right. Um and then there's Pepper. Okay. So Pepper was one that was offensive minded. He would still see things and understand things. Uh, but Pepper's one where he'd have to go, okay, Pepper, I love you, man. I don't need you to shoot it from the volleyball line three trips in a row. I understand you're three for four. Right, right. But man, like, hold on. I need you to kind of pull the reins back. So honestly, and this doesn't really do a good job of answering your question, but probably a guy somewhere in the middle. A guy that's really confident in their skills and their abilities, right, and is confident in what the system does. Okay. So, for example, we'll use a guy like Caleb Borden uh two years ago or Sam Sykes this year. Uh-huh. Both of those guys, they were shooters. Right. Coach, I know what you want me here for. Right. If you want me to run off a double stagger to the top and I'm open, I'm going to catch and shoot the three.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01

If not, I'm going to swing the ball and we're going to keep running off. Exactly. This is what I know I'm good at. This is what I know you want me on the floor for. And so, you know, having guys with, again, the confidence level in their own personal skills and abilities, the confidence level within a system, and those two kind of combining to make a perfect marriage to where it's not like a man, I need more out of you offensively when you're a really good offensive player, or hey man, I know you're a really good offensive player. I have to pull the reins back just a touch because there are certain times where you may potentially shoot us out of it. Right. Kind of a deal. So um but yeah, I mean, it's it's it and that kind of goes back to the question that you asked a second ago about kind of giving them the freedom to go play is hey man, if you can, if you can have the confidence in your skills and have the confidence in our system, you'll have the freedom to go play. Right. I'm not gonna yell at you for that type stuff. Right. However, sometimes today's player, we'll go back to the back of my day comment. Sometimes today's player is I have overconfidence in my skills and not enough confidence in the system. Right. Which means I'm gonna shoot Steph Curry three pointers when I'm not a Steph Curry shooter. Right, yeah. Okay, well, yeah, you have too much confidence in your skills, buddy. Right. I'm sorry to tell you, I have to now be a bad guy and bring you back down to earth.

SPEAKER_00

Really make it back.

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah, we got to reel it back in a little bit. Or, you know, sometimes the opposite. You got guys, like I think on our team this year, like a Dylan Harris type who has the skills. Right. Dylan doesn't have as much confidence in his skills within the system.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, well, Dylan, like, I've got to figure out a way to put you in a position where I can give you the confidence within the system for you to go make a play.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01

And so, you know, again, that's that's kind of goes back to again your previous comment or your previous question about like, hey man, the freedom. What does the freedom look like? And I think that's when there's a perfect marriage of the confidence of skills and the confidence within the system and not an overconfidence of one or the other.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's true. Um, that's good. I mean, you know, like this, uh, our program coming off the last two years, right? Two two runner-up championship games, uh, two final four appearances and overalls. Yep. So, and the MAIS, right, coming from, you know, you've been you've seen the spectrum, right? You've seen here it, you've seen the preps, you've seen each ranking, and you just like it's a community. Yeah. MAIS is a is a community, a big but small community. Yeah. And uh for the past few years, Hartfield, you know, well, football's been dominating what I think they went to what four out of five championship games or something like that. Something like that. All right, and so now basketball is is is you know, we've been there in the 20, you know, uh championships back in 2020, 21 season. And so as part of the big four, right, whereas prep, MRA, uh, who am I missing? J A, and us, right? Typically when people see the big four, they probably put us at number four. Typically. Typically that's how it goes, right? So how do you like keep players focused? How do you manage expectations of parents, you know, of the community, right, and uh of the you know, staff, administration, right? How do you balance, how have you been able to balance that? How have you been able to keep hold that all together and keep players focused on the goal?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so um a couple things. So, yes, typically, I mean, like goodness, we saw it this year. I don't keep up with polls. You're better at that than I am, Jimmy. Uh, and of course, if there's a poll out, all of your players know it, regardless of if it's you know, John Doe from wherever Mississippi. I mean, if he puts a poll out, somehow all of your team knows it. Right. Uh, I'm horrible at that stuff, so I don't ever know it. Um, but I think I think that goes a couple of ways. First of all, kind of like what we talked about earlier with the faith aspect of um you know, do I want to win games? Absolutely. I'm super competitive. I don't do well with losses, we don't sleep well after losses. You know, you go to the drawing board if you're a crazy. Crazy like I am, I go back and I watch film after losses the night that it happens. Like it is what it is because you just try to find a way to fix it. But at the end of the day, you know, again, like what we talked about earlier, the effort and attitude thing, did our guys give the best effort and did they get did they have the best attitude throughout it? Right. And sometimes they don't. And you lose a game. And that's the ones as coaches that I'm like, oh man, like gosh, we've got to be better in this aspect. That means I need to be better in this aspect to make sure that they're ready, so on and so forth. Um but also at the same time, you know, while we're all competitive, like winning a state championship is gonna last for about a week. Yeah. And then that expectation and that kind of high quote unquote that you get off winning a championship is gonna go away. Right. And then you have to figure out if you're a junior going into your senior year, you start readjusting goals. Okay, well, senior year, how do I repeat it? Right. If you're a sophomore going into your junior year and you're a sophomore that didn't play much, okay, well, how do I get playing time as a junior? Right. But if you're a senior and you're moving on now to a freshman year of college, whether you play basketball or not, right, the expectation is no longer, hey man, cool, I won a championship. The expectation is now, okay, well, that basketball team is done. Right. How am I still a good functioning member here in the society and in the community and all these kind of things? So to me, you know, with with like our school administration here at Hartfield, um, with our parents, I try to let them know, like, hey, look, yes, we're gonna coach them. We're gonna coach them hard. They're gonna get mad at me some days. They're gonna love Jimmy because Jimmy's gonna be the calm to Coach Goodman's storm. Coach Goodman's gonna yell at him. He's gonna tell them, you know, maybe on this day you weren't good enough. Hey, your attitude stinks on this day. Hey, man, you just look like you've never played basketball before, whatever it may be. Um, to try to tell them, like, hey, look, I love my guys. I love my guys. Right. And we do that through preseason type stuff, which we can talk about again in just a second. But we do that through preseason stuff. But at the end of the day, I love my guys so much that wins and losses aren't going to define their basketball careers. Right. Right. Wins and losses are a cherry on top to whatever else that we get to do with them. So, you know, they're there wins and losses of, you know, like right up right behind you, Jimmy, is banners, state championship banners. There's some more back there. Um, and yes, I would love to hold, I would love to have another one up there. But at the end of the day, like if you go ask, you know, the guys that we just mentioned, you know, the Wiggy Balls, the Pepper Wilsons, you know, the Sam Sykes, the Caleb Ordens, the Noah Sensings, whoever the Memphis Kings, they know my identity isn't in that banner right there that says boys basketball state championship. Right, right. My identity is number one, it's through Christ. Who am I with him?

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Who does he say I am? Uh, who am I through him?

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And then they know, hey man, I am a student athlete. I'm not an athlete who's a student. Right, right. So now they know, oh man, like if I don't do well in the classroom, Coach Goodman's gonna chew me out for. Right, right. Which means, right, you know, like you know me, Jimmy, if they don't, if they have below an 80, I get a grade check. Right. Like I'm gonna chew you out if you don't have an 80 in a class. Yeah, which means you may need to move away from the cute girl that's in your classroom so that you can focus on chemistry and not biology or whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and then lastly, athletically. And then if you if you can understand that I'm gonna love you spiritually, I'm gonna love you academically, athletically is just kind of another one where we're like, hey man, you know I got, you know I got you.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And you know I'll fight for you, and you know we'll take care of everything.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's very true. You know, as as coaches, it's um you I mean, you're you're an example and a leader of young men. And so sometimes um it's a it can be a thankless job. Yep. You know, because a lot of people only see when the lights and scoreboard come on. They don't see all the conversations and practice in the locker rooms and behind closed doors and all the loving that we actually have to do and butt chewing and kicking that we have to do, right?

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

So a lot of so being a leader uh in that way is often uh um it's uh it's especially when you have a family and a job, right? So that's a lot of things that we have to balance and manage. Uh so when it comes to leadership, uh we we you know talked about Wiggy and Pepper, where Weiggy was a verbal leader, right? When he talked, everyone else sat down and listen. Yep. Pepper was more of a not so much verbal, but I'll just show everybody how to do it with my place. That's right. Right, he was that type of leader. So, you know, going into uh to next year, you know, we we we have a um we're top heavy with seniors, but we're gonna have to rely on the freshman class and the sophomore class to to get us to where we need to go. Yep. Right. So how do you how have you started forming to build and to grow and to create a leader from that young group coming up?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I think that kind of goes back to what I just mentioned a second ago. Like your your preseason, which depending on the basketball coach you talk to, their preseason started two weeks ago when they got knocked out of the tournament. Exactly, right? Okay. Uh so your preseason is vital for a couple of different reasons. Number one, my thing is is that in the in the in the offseason or the preseason or whatever it is that you would like to call it, um, during this time, there are two things that as coaches we have to do. Number one, I've got to figure out from my guys what makes them tick. Okay. What is their why? Why do you play basketball? Um, what is the reasons why you do it? Uh, who do you do it for? You know, for some of them, it's like, hey, I do it because my parents wanted me to play. For some of them, it's not my parents hated basketball, but I love basketball. This is awesome. For some of them, like Wiggy and Pepper, I want to play college basketball. I just want to get there. Right. Just let me get there. Right. Um, so I think, you know, from that standpoint, like us as coaches, that is part of what our off-season or our preseason work has to be. Right. Uh, because you gotta figure out, you gotta figure out your own guys. Right. Um, which then good leads into the next point of the other thing that you have to do in the offseason is you have to develop your guys. Right. For some of that, like you just said, Jimmy, some of that may be we have to develop a leader. Right. Some of that may be developing skills, like a you know, a left-handed floater or a pull-up three-pointer or you know, whatever fits within your system. Um for some of those guys, it's like, hey man, you've got to develop a mindset for the weight room.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Like you go in the weight room and you you're lazy in there. Well, that's not gonna cost us in June. That's gonna cost us in January, though, whenever we have to play, you know, Jackson Prep in January in a meaningful game that's gonna be a huge game on the road. Right, right. Um, so I think that's the two things that us as coaches have to do. But you can't do that without knowing your guys. Right. And so that's my biggest thing is like in the offseason, what I try to do is I like I need to know my guys. Right. And, you know, some coaches do that differently than other coaches. Like the way that it's worked for well for me is of course, you know, in the last couple of years, we've had so many kids that want to come play, we've had to do tryouts, which kind of makes that a little bit more difficult to do because the best time to get to know kids is in the summer when they don't have English, math, science, and Bible going on. Um but you know, learning through uh like too many times as coaches as a whole, I feel like coaches as a whole don't know their kids outside of basketball. Right, yeah, yeah, it's true. And so because we get so focused on when, when, when, when, when, oh, practice. I gotta plan a practice, plan to practice, plan to practice, watch film. Okay, great. We got so-and-so coming up. I gotta watch that film, gotta be ready, scouting report, here we go, boom, boom, boom. Instead of going even with simple conversations of, hey Jimmy, how you doing today? Right. Oh man, coach, I'm good. Yeah, are you good? Because like I saw you in the hallway earlier, you didn't look like you were doing good. Right, right. Um, and so those types of conversations, because I think that builds into again, we've talked about team culture now a lot in this whole conversation, but that builds into that whole team culture thing of hey man, coach cares for me. Yeah, so now when he chews me out, it's gonna be bad. But now when mom sees him chew me out, I can go, no, mom, it's okay. He's got my best interest at heart. Right. Okay. Um, and not all kids do that, but certain kids do. Um, but uh, you know, getting to know your kids and developing those relationships is important. And then leading into, you know, like next year, for example, we will have graduated uh in the last two years, we will have graduated nine seniors. Yeah, this whole basketball team looks completely different. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um not just nine seniors, but probably nine seniors that have 90% of the scoring.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, at least. At least. Um, and you know, people are gonna look at guys like Wiggy, who played Division I basketball, or you know, Pepper, who's gonna have opportunities to go play in college. Uh, but then sometimes teams forget about, or people forget about like Caleb Warden graduated two years ago. Right. He shot 47% from the three-point line on 160 attempts.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

That is absurd.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

They're gonna forget about like Noah Sensing and Sam Sykes, who just shot about 40% combined, okay, as two shooters, their junior and senior year. Right, yeah. Then you don't even talk about the guys like like the Reggie Vaughn, who is probably the best teammate that we've had in this program in the last four or five years. Yes, yes, uh, who's not even a basketball player. I love Reggie, but he's playing Division I football right now at Arkansas.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, to guys like you know, Rule Ingram and Jordan Honeycutt again, ultimate teammates, guys who knew what they were supposed to do within a system. Uh, or you go to a guy like a Memphis King. Right. And Memphis was is a phenomenal human being, but Memphis would absolutely run through a brick wall through for every single one of his teammates. Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

And because of the fact that his teammates knew that, they loved him for it. Right. And so if Memphis told them to jump, they would ask him how high.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yes.

SPEAKER_01

And Memphis would go, okay, well, I need you to just out jump Caleb Gator from JA three times. Can you do that three times tonight? Which again, easier said than done.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But um, so, anyways, going back to your question, like the offseason for my for me is big on um, you know, getting to know my guys, understanding what we're good at and what we're not good at, and then figuring out how how do we get good at the things we're not good at. Right. Um, and you know me, I'm not a system guy, so they're not gonna come in and I'm gonna plug them into a system. Right. Um, so then the other thing that I'll have to do this offseason is, well, that we'll have to do this off season is like we'll go to the drawing board and we'll go, hey, look, you know, for the last two years, we've had 40% three-point shooters. We ran them off double staggers to the top all game.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we may look at it next year and go, okay, well, we got 20% three-point shooters. Right. We don't want to run 20% three-point shooters self-double staggers. Right, right. We want to attack the paint.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, well, that may look more like dribble drive or more like, you know, true, a true old school four-out one in motion or Princeton or whatever it may be. So as I get to know my guys, as I get to understand what ticks for them, you know, then sitting back and just kind of watching and observing and going, oh, okay, we got some pieces here or missing pieces here. How do we fix the missing pieces and how do we get all of that to gel together?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. That's good. We've talked a lot about just standard and culture. And um, I you know, I will say, like at the beginning of the season, we had um uh Jonathan Lucas, who was uh, I think he won a championship here. Yep. Phenomenal player at Bell Haven, now coaching uh at Jones, right? Now coaches, coaching down at Jones. You know, he he sent us a message at the beginning of the season, you know, wishing us well. All throughout the season, you know, we had the Reggie, the rule, the Memphis, you know, different players come back and sit on the bench or you know, cheer us on in the locker room. And so John Wooden, my favorite quote from John Wooden is that basketball doesn't build culture, it reveals it. I mean, not culture, character. Basketball doesn't build character, it reveals it. Yeah. And so once once kids come through this program and they leave, and you know, seeing them come back now to g to give back, right? What do you want people to when they see them and they know that they're a part of basketball, what do you want people to say about your old players?

SPEAKER_01

Man, that's a great question. Um well, first of all, I hope they see a couple things. You know, so the guys that you just mentioned, you know, Jonathan Lucas. By the way, shout out J Lu. I think Jones won the Region 23 uh championship yesterday. So shout out Jones for that. Um, but so you mentioned guys like Jonathan Lucas. Jonathan Lucas comes around, and Jonathan Lucas didn't play for you or me. Right. Like to me, that's one of the coolest things of like, hey man, we've got alum that still come back here every once in a while. And I mean, because this is this is their home.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So uh what I like for people to see is that when guys come back, so guys in recent years, guys like uh Dawson Pike, who's actually coaching at a school down the road from us right now, when Dawson Pikes comes into this, or Dawson Pike comes into this gym, okay, I hug him. Right. That's my dude.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

When guys like Melvin Collins, who is playing Division I football right now, when Melvin Collins walks in this gym, I hug him. Yeah. When Reggie Vaughn comes in this gym, I hug him. Right. Memphis, Caleb, Wiggy, uh, you know, I got three guys that are about to graduate, but those three guys, when they come back, same way. When all those guys come back in this gym, I hug them. Right. Because what I want people outside, people sitting in those chairbacks right there in front of us, people walking up and down that hallway, um, people who, like visiting people who see Reggie Vaughn sit in the 15th chair on the bench when he's playing football right now at Arkansas and he's waving a towel just like he did this time last year when he's wearing a jersey.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, is I want people to see, like, hey man, this is not, this is not a basketball team. This is a family. Right, right. That's what we are. Right. You know, so um sometimes it causes me a headache, but sometimes that means that my kids have to come up here to practice.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So my uh six-year-old and my three-year-old come up here. Well, they think it's the coolest thing because they're like, hey, look, we'll just yell at the guys with you and Coach Jimmy. Right. And I'm like, oh, can we just make it through a practice, please? Um, you know, but I want people to see and understand, like, this is not a and look, I was bad my early years in coaching. I wanted to win at all costs. I didn't care about relationships as much. Right. Um I just wanted to figure out, I was coaching in college at the time. I wanted to figure out how I could recruit the best talent into the the school that I was at. How could we win as many games as possible? And when that was done with them, I was done with them. And I kick myself now at 35 for being that coach. Right, right, yeah. Because in those times, it was not a family atmosphere. Right. It was a hey man, I'm gonna get you for two, three, four years. And when I'm done with you, I'm done with you, kick you to the curb, see you later.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I kick myself for doing that now because I'm like, man, you could have made such an impact on those kids' lives. Right. But instead, all I wanted was selfish goals of win, win, win, win, win. And so that's what I hope people see about like this basketball program and this culture and all of these things is, you know, whether we hang a banner or not, whether we play for a state championship or not, whether we go to the Final Four of the overall tournament or not, whether we beat JA Prep MRA or not, um, man, like this is still a family. We still get to do this. We still get to go side by side with one another for like this year, I think we practiced like 74 times. Um yes, coaches, by the way, I keep up with that. I know that's a little bit crazy. So I think we had like 74 practices. We played uh 34 games. So for those at least, which it's more than that, but for at least those hundred plus times that we're together, yeah, you need to understand, like, hey man, we are a family and we are in this together. Right. Yep. I you know, we are in this together. That doesn't include the morning weight room sessions that we have to go to in the preseason or you know, what all the guys always enjoy, the early morning Fridays, where we get to wake up here at six and we get to do conditioning in preseason, um, or any of that other kind of stuff, you know. But I need people or I want people to see and understand like this is this is not just what you get to see out here on Tuesdays and Fridays. Right. There's a lot more that goes into this basketball team and program and culture, and that is that we, you know, I say it all the time, we love, trust, and believe in one another because we're a family.

SPEAKER_03

Yep, yep. That's good. Amen. Um, so let's move off the court a little bit and just talk about like um so we finished uh two weeks ago, right? Two weeks ago we got done. Right. Just coming off a mission trip uh to Belize. Yeah. And it's like I remember basketball used to be a season, now it's yearly. Yeah. Yep. Right. It's like, you know, we we we try, we call ourselves trying not to talk basketball, not to look ahead. But you know, middle of the season last year, we were talking about, man, when we get that ninth grader next year, we'll be, I mean, like, it's it's a it's a forever ongoing thing, right? And we always getting ready for the next, planning for the next, right? Um, and that coaches uh group me were in. Yeah, it's like already people trying to fill schedules. Oh yeah. Already. Right. While teams are still playing at the Coliseum, coaches are filling schedules for next year. So how do you what's your method to balance basketball, family, faith, fitness, like all those things that are important off the court. How do you manage to balance all that and and what what does self-care look like for you?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'm still not sure I'm pretty very good at it. Let's put it that way. Um let's start with faith.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for this season's sponsor, Power Financial Group. The mission of Power Financial Group is to glorify God by helping their clients be good managers of the resources entrusted to them. Whether it is investing for the future, planning for retirement, getting out of debt, or becoming a generous giver, their desire is to be your trusted partner on your financial journey. The team at Power Financial Group strives to serve their clients with integrity and excellence. Getting to know them, building a strong relationship with them, and helping them pursue their goals is the top priority. They take seriously their God-given responsibility to faithfully serve those families God entrusted to their care. As Power Financial Group, they can be reached at 601-790-1180 or send them an email at infopowerfinancialclaims.com. Thank you again, Power Financial Group.

SPEAKER_01

Because I think that's the most important thing that we have. So faith wise, um I was I was blessed enough to have a conversation um with Benton Ingram about this before. And Benton phrased it as whatever you do in your time with the Lord, it needs to be intentional. And I loved that. And I know it's not a not like he reinvented the wheel. It's not like he made up this new really huge, big, profound thought or statement, uh, which Benton does all the time, by the way, Benton, if you're watching. Um, but it was just still in that moment in my time in my life, it was so profound. Yeah. Like, hey man, whatever you do, you have to be intentional with your time with the Lord. So what that looks like for like for us right now in the Goodman household is as we're trying to get kids' shoes on on the way out the door to East Campus every day, right? Like, hey boys, we're gonna listen to a devotional today on the way to car and or in the car. And so for those 10 to 15 minutes where I take my kids to school, right, they get to hear it and they get to see it too. Right, right. So we listen to a devotional. We get to listen to scripture, somebody breaking down scripture. Um, maybe we'll get to listen to a worship song. And at that point, like I am at peace about the start of my day, even if the morning was crazy hectic. And for those of y'all that have kids, y'all know it. Like sometimes getting two kids ready to go to school and making sure everybody makes it out of the house alive in the mornings is a success. Yes, yes. Um, but you know, for that 10 to 15 minutes in the car where we're listening to a devotional, it's kind of like a it's it's God's way of saying, like, hey man, I got you today. Right, right. We're gonna be okay. Yeah, I know you're stressed. Right. I know you're tired. Right. I know it's the middle of basketball season. And I know you got back at 12 o'clock last night, and I know you play again tomorrow night at seven. Right. So which means you got one day of practice to get ready for everything. You're gonna be okay. I got you. So faith-wise, that's one of the most important things that I do is I try to be intentional about my time. Listening to a devotional, closing my door for five minutes and just praying, closing my door um right when we get done with lunchtime, uh, and right before you and I sit down and start planning a practice or planning a workout time of, you know, hey man, I may grab my Bible out. Like I I don't know. I don't really know what I'm looking for even at this point. I just need to, I just need to have it open.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and being intentional in that. And then, of course, you know, you you you gotta be active on on Wednesdays and Sundays. So we're blessed enough to host a home group on Sunday evenings, um, which is awesome because they're so they're not basketball people. So on a Sunday night, if we're playing on a Tuesday night in a state championship, you know, a month ago, right? I'm going, all right, y'all, I'm so glad y'all came. I'm so sorry. I've got to go in my room and watch film. And they're like, what are you watching film for? I didn't even realize basketball coaches watched film. And I'm like, you know what? That is humbling for me. And that's exactly what I needed. Because you know what? In these times, yes, we think that basketball runs the world. And basketball doesn't run the world.

SPEAKER_04

Right, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, from a family standpoint, what I try to do is, man, I try to I try. To absolutely disconnect from basketball when my kids are awake. Um, and so my kids go to bed about 7:30 or 8 o'clock, and so when my kids go to bed, I will lift open my laptop and I will get to work on basketball. When my kids are awake, I try to be a dad. That's good. Yeah, um, I try not to be Coach Goodman at that point. I try to be dad. Um, and listen, it's hard because there are certain days where, man, we stunk in practice. Yeah. And I got to go home and I'll sit in my truck for about 30 seconds. And I'm like, man, I got to go inside and I got to be a dad. I got to go help Amber get dinner ready. Or Amber's already cooking dinner, which means I've got to, I gotta entertain the kids for a little while until dinner's finished getting ready. Uh and all I can think about right now is the fact that we can't complete three passes in three man week. Like I can't figure out why we can't do that.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, but in the time when my kids are awake, yeah, I try to even put my phone in a different room because I know that if I have my phone, I'm gonna text you thoughts, I'm gonna text you questions, I'm gonna go, golly Jimmy, why were we so bad today? Right. Um, so trying to even put my phone somewhere else to just go, okay, look, I'm gonna be intentional. Again, Benton's point, be intentional with your time. Okay, for these next two hours, I'm a dad. Right. Yep. I'm not a basketball coach, I'm a dad. Right. Um fitness-wise, it's a lot easier out of season than in season. Uh something about having an extra two and a half hours in the middle of your day where you can find time. In season, honestly, uh kind of the whole get in when you can when you can get in kind of a deal. Um, you know, even if that's putting your AirPods in and just walking. Right. Um if that's, you know, like certain times during season, uh, that is like, hey man, I can't sleep and it's five o'clock in the morning. I'm just gonna go left. Um, you know, or I'm gonna go walk around my neighborhood or go for a short run or whatever it may be. Um, and just try to try to stay at it like that. Um and then I should have mentioned her before, but relationship-wise, of course, my wife. That's that's the one who coaches, by the way. If y'all are married, y'all know this. Um, like she's a single mom most nights of the week during basketball season. Yeah. So what I try to do is again, you know, like on Saturdays and Sundays, if we don't have anything going on or we're not practicing or open gym or or playing a Saturday game or whatever, on Saturday and Sunday, I just try to be present.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, which again, easier said than done, because I want to get on this phone so bad and I want to pull up huddle and I want to watch, you know, whoever we're playing on Tuesday. Um, or, you know, I've got I've got a reporter calling me about, hey man, you know, you either won or you lost a tough game on Friday, you know, to give me some quotes about it. Right. And I want to text back right then and I'm like, hadn't seen my wife in two days. Right. I probably need to spend some time with my wife, and then I can answer, I can answer them if my wife wants to go lay down, take a nap, or you know, she's gonna go take the boys to a birthday party or whatever, and I got time. Um, but listen, I really try to be, you know, especially in regards to to my wife, to try to be as supportive as I can be when I'm home.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so sometimes that just means, hey, can you go do the dishes? I got them. Yep, I got them. I'll wash all the dishes. You got the kids for the last two days. I got the dishes. Yeah. Sometimes that is, you know, her telling me on a Saturday afternoon, like, listen, I have cooked for three nights this week. I just need you to cook. Right. I got it. Cool. I'll do the dishes whenever we get done. I'll cook, we'll handle this, we'll do whatever. And sometimes it is, I've had the kids for three nights this week. I got to have some silence. They are yours for the next two hours. And I go, okay, cool. Me and the boys are gonna act a fool for the next two hours. We're gonna shoot nerf guns at each other, we're gonna play basketball, we're gonna go hang out outside, whatever it is. Um, so in those moments with Amber specifically, it is to be as supportive as I possibly can so that uh so that she doesn't feel like she's all alone in this darn basketball season, which is hard to do because again, coaches' wives, right? Not only do they have to do that on a daily basis, then they get to sit in the stands and hear all the terrible things that they think about coaches and have to most of the time keep their mouth shut about it.

SPEAKER_03

So, you know, yes. Yep. Um so as we get ready to wrap this up, I I have a uh three-part question for you. Okay. So advice, right? So what advice would you give to young coaches? And advice can't be don't do it. To young coaches, that's you know, year one of you know their coaching career, right? Year two, right? And just how to balance all the things come that comes with coaching, uh faith, family, and all those things. And then to parents, right? To parents that sit up there and they see, you know, little Johnny, you know, not getting the playing time that they think they should have, right? And then also to players like little Johnny who's not getting the playing time, right? You know, one thing though, I'm always saying like, you know, Fon and I always talk about this, and I say, like, we don't know, parents don't know what's going on in practice in the locker rooms.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

They they just see when the lights cut on and they want to know, man, why why is he not playing? Why is he only playing two minutes, right? And I and I mean then players, right? Players like they have their own misconception of themselves sometimes.

unknown

Yep. Right.

SPEAKER_03

And and how many I should be, you know, playing before them or why I don't get to play. And one thing I challenge parents and players with is go look anywhere in the world, at any basketball program, and show me where all 20 players play the same amount of time. Yep. Right. Like it just doesn't happen at this level. That's right. Maybe an upward, maybe fifth and six, you know, year old they have to play the same amount of time. But it that's not how it works on the varsity basketball level. That's right. Right? Like it's hard to play, it's hard to get eight players in a game, you know, doing a regular game. Um, and then, you know, other thing is that I, you know, try to tell parents is like when players come to us in season, it's not our job to make them a better player. Correct. Right. It's it's our job to take what they come to us with and plug them into whatever plays we run in and try to make them successful. That's right. Right? We don't have time to individually help players work on their left-hand layouts. Yeah. Right. We just we just that's not our job, number one, and we just don't have time to do it. Yes. Right during the course of a season. It's hard to do. Yeah, when we're in the season. Right. So that that's when, you know, like, you know, and I bring, you know, Pepper and Noah up again. It's like, that's why they get those minutes because we see them putting in extra work after practice. All the time. We see them on the weekends shooting on the guns up here by themselves, right? And you and I, we always say, like, it's a phone call. Coach, can I use the gym? Absolutely, you can. Right? Yep. So I'll meet you up here. Right, I'll come unlock the gym and give you a ball to play, right? And so those three new coaches, parents, and players, like what advice would you give them in those three areas?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, let's start with players first. Because I think that's kind of a twofold question in itself. Uh, so number one, players. In the offseason, the best thing that you can do is go straight to your coach right now and be like, hey coach, I want meaningful minutes next year. What does that need to look like? What do I need to do? How do I, how do I achieve that? And look, eight out of ten coaches are gonna go, cool, man, here's what you got to do. You gotta get better at A, B, C, and D. Right. And they're gonna go. Uh, I'm not saying every coach will do that. Certain coaches are gonna get mad because they're gonna think you're asking about playing time in the offseason. It is what it is. Okay. But that is that is the that is the first thing. And then going along with that, which you and I joke about sometimes too, is once you ask the question, you have to go do the thing. Right, right. You can't go, okay, cool. Well, I asked coach and he told me I'm not a good shooter, so I got to be a better shooter. But I'm not gonna go shoot. Once you, once you find the answers and once you get the answers that you the questions that you sought out, right? You have to go do the things then that your coach tells you.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, it would be like if I told my child right now, hey man, your bedroom is a mess, go clean up your room, and him go, okay, cool, thanks. Well, if you're not clean up his room, his room is still a mess. Exactly, right. So uh, I mean, like that would be my thing. In season, and I know I'm going back to our culture kind of a thing now, but man, you've got to absolutely work your tail off in season because uh my college coach, Thad McCracken, who I mentioned earlier, Thad was big on you have gotta make it to where I can't afford to not play you. Exactly. Right, right. So what does that look like? Right. That means that you go all out every single trip. Again, we're back to the attitude and effort thing. That means that you have a good attitude every day. That means that you're staying after and you're getting shots up, or you're coming up here on your own time, like we just talked about with Pepper and Noah. Um, or even BJ, BJ Jones comes up here, he does that all the time. Um, that means that you know, you know your stuff. Yep as you know, it is a pet peeve of mine. If the kid's like, hey, coach, what do I got to do to get on the floor? And then, you know, maybe we won't give them an opportunity in practice to go try to do something, and they don't know what play we're running. Right. And I'm like, buddy, there's no chance. I can't put you in a game because you don't even know what we're doing in practice. Um, so you know, during season, I mean, you have got to get to where, hey man, I'm doing everything possible. There's no way my coach can afford to not play me in that moment. Um parents, I know everybody wants babies to play. I want my babies to play. And right now I have a baseball player in our household, so I have not done a very good job. But everybody wants their babies to play. What I would encourage you to do is have your child have the conversations with their coach. Because if you have the conversation with their coach, you and I both know it, Jimmy. Yep, the coach's immediate response, and I'm guilty of it too sometimes. I try not to be. The immediate response of the coach is they're gonna get defensive. Yeah. That's the first thing they're gonna do. And so then a parent is gonna go, that guy wouldn't even talk to me. Like, can you believe that? Coach Goodman is this and this and that and that right. We don't do it on purpose. It's just kind of like a defense mechanism. Like we feel like we're about to get bombarded with questions, or even if you don't mean for it to be, we think you're we're about to get attacked, we just immediately go into defense mode. No, I'm not having that conversation. Hey, your son's not good enough right now, da da da da da da da, whatever it may be, we just immediately go into defense mode.

SPEAKER_03

Especially because it always, and not to interrupt you, it always seems to happen after a loss. Always, yes, always after a loss.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, never after a win. Never after a win. By the way, speaking of, I think uh we and I, you and I talked about this, I think, off camera. Tony Tadlock, friend of mine, ton of respect for him and his program at Raymond. But I think Tony posted something on on Facebook the other day about that. Like, man, he was talking about how blessed he was to be at Raymond because he's got you know really good support. And Raymond, I mean, golly, Tony's got a powerhouse going right now at Raymond. Uh but he was talking about like, man, he's seeing parents right now like bash coaches for losing in the final four. Right. If you make it to the Coliseum, y'all, could you imagine being disappointed and making it to the final four? Yeah. I mean, goodness gracious. Um, but, anyways, that's a completely different one. So, um, parents, I would try to just encourage you, like, let your kids have those conversations. Basketball, especially high school athletics, is meant to be a grown growing moment, anyways. Let your kids start having difficult conversations. Right. Um it is not easy for your son, but your son or your daughter need to hear it straight from their coach's mouth, and they don't need to go, okay, mom and dad went and talked to coach, and coach told mom and dad this and this and this. Right. When in reality, I know of some coaches that will tell parents whatever they want to hear to get the parents out the door. They're not gonna do that to the kid because they too they love the kid enough. Right. Um, and the other thing parents that I'll try to advise you to is please be careful with dinning room dinning uh dining room conversations. Um, you know, Jimmy, I preach to all parents all the time. Like we try to have this mindset of, you know, we're a family, which we've already talked about. We have this really good, strong team culture. You know, we do these things every day in practice, we do team building uh uh opportunities, we go on mission trips to Guatemala so that we can try to build a really deep uh bond with one another. Yep. Man, that could be ruined over one dinner conversation. Yep. You know, if if mom and dad come home and they're like, golly, Coach Gumman doesn't know what he's talking about, you should be playing more. He's stupid or he's this or he's this and da-da-da-da. And all of a sudden, little Johnny starts going, ooh, maybe mom and dad's right. Right, right. Maybe it is his fault. Right. Maybe it's this, maybe it's this. Well, then, whether Johnny means to be or not, little Johnny is not the same player. And then, you know, we use the phrase all the time here at Hartfield, like you can't be fragmented. Right. Meaning when all five guys play, we have to be a one unit. Five guys is one unit. You know, like that the guys laughed at me last year, but like that's why we call our defense fist.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Because we're not five guys, we are one fist playing together.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Um, and so you know, one dinner conversation can change or ruin whatever it may be. Uh, and so I would just encourage that one. Um for young coaches, man. I would try to go and coaching is such a networking thing nowadays, um, which listen, I'm not good at, but I would try to go network as much as you possibly can. Yeah, go meet people, um, go ask to watch other people's practices. Uh when I was coaching in college, we were blessed enough to do that. Um, Chris Beard, who's now at Ole Miss, was at Arkansas Little Rock at the time. Um, we were able to go watch them practice. Little did we know at that time that Chris Beard had just taken the job at Texas Tech, and so we went to go watch not Chris Beard practice. But, anyways, you know, like go go watch people practice. Yeah, go go study film. Um, I had a uh a really good friend of mine who uh gave me coaching advice probably about 10 years ago of, you know, like we tell our guys all the time, like you have to go get better in the offseason, but as coaches, we have to go get better in the offseason too. Right. So go study film, even if it's an offense that you will never run or a defense that you will never run, just go learn something else. Um go learn a new leadership technique. Go again, go sit and watch somebody else practice, go ask questions to a Bill Ball type. And if you don't have one next door, send an email, call somebody, ask questions. Um because in all reality, basketball is one of my favorite or coaching is one of my favorite sports because everybody uh hates on you for not having experience, but you can't have experience until you get experience.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And so, you know, the more the more uh the more day-to-day planning or the more leadership or the more X's and O's that you can have helps your experience the first time that you get experience. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's true. I mean, even with us, like we went to watch ULM after practice, and we brought that what we saw them do in practice and brought it back to our practice.

SPEAKER_01

We brought it back. We brought it back because different coaches do things different ways. And they did uh they did what you and I would consider an hour and a half to two hour practice, and they did it in 45 minutes, and we're like, holy smokes, man, that's awesome. How do we get our two-hour practice to look like that? And then we realized we can't do that, but it's okay. You just got to go learn from different people and learn different things. And um look, man, the the worst thing that people can tell you is no. My wife tells me that all the time. So, you know, ask coaches. Um, ask, ask Chris Jans at Mississippi State if you can go watch practice. Ask Chris Beard at Old Miss, ask Jay Ladner down at Southern Miss, go ask, go ask Newton Mueller at Jones, uh go ask you know Owen Miller at Mississippi Gulf Coach. You can name it. Like coaches for the most part are open books. Yeah, especially if you're a high school coach that's just getting into it. You gotta go learn and you gotta be willing to go learn from uh from different people on different things. Again, even if you never use it, it's still a great resource to use and have. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

All right, Coach Goodman, it's been great. Uh, as we get ready to close out, I always like to close out with one final fun question.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_03

All right, and I give everyone the opportunity to answer. And I still love them regardless that they when they answer wrong. Okay, all right. So, final question for the for the the podcast world out there Jordan or LeBron.

SPEAKER_01

Oh man, I grew up with Jordan. So Jordan, Jordan is the GOAT. Um I grew up with Jordan. I watched how Jordan used to dominate basketball games back in the day. It's not meant to be a slight towards LeBron. Man, there was just something about Jordan, and the smallest little thing could tick him off. And when he got ticked off, that switch was a switch nobody else could get him close to. Um I mean, golly, if you watch the last dance documentary. Yeah. Now again, I'm biased because he's my goat, but if you watch the last dance documentary, you heard 15 times where he would go, oh, all that dude told me was better luck next time. Right. Or, you know, the Orlando Magic story. Like, well, 45's not 23. Right. Or, you know, oh well, my boss liked the guy for the Phoenix Suns. So I had to go score 40. Right. Like, Jordan just had a switch that nobody else could get to. Yeah, yeah. And the way that he dominated the game was just in a in a completely different way than LeBron. But LeBron dominates games in ways that Jordan never could either. So, but yeah, I grew up with Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan's my goat. Yep. Yeah. It didn't work out with the Charlotte Hornets, but he was phenomenal with the Bulls and the Wizards.

SPEAKER_03

Charlotte Hornet years, I mean Wizards Years has been zapped from everybody's mind. Yeah, nobody nobody wants to talk about him as an owner.

SPEAKER_01

We're just gonna talk about him as the basketball player.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right, right. Not even the when he played for the Wizards, nobody remembers those that's been zapped from memories. Oh yeah. Yep. All right. Well, I appreciate you. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me and taking your time. All right, thanks. Thank you. And that wraps up another episode of the Discipleship Hoops podcast. If today's conversation added value to you, do me a favor: like it, subscribe to the channel, and share this episode with a coach, or parent, or athlete who needs to hear it. We're building something bigger than basketball here. We're building leaders. If you or your business would like to sponsor an upcoming episode and partner with us in impacting the next generation, visit our website at www.gennyllucas.com or send us a direct message. We'd love to promote. Until next time, keep raising the stone, keep leading with purpose, and remember the game is the platform for which the focus to make us. Believe, fulfill, fall.