An Interview with Coach Nick Levine

Coach V interviews Coach Nick Levine from The Bishops School, and they discuss the college game, the high school game, and how to develop a strong, unselfish team culture and maintain it from year to year. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Welcome to the 32. Uh I'm your host, Coach B. Um, it's been a little while since the last time I wanted to make these more regular, but just hasn't happened that way. Life got in the way. I was uh caught up in the the youth uh sports tornado um as the the boy between his two flag football teams and his baseball team. He was uh he had some sort of athletic activity seven days a week. Um I was coaching one of those teams, and so yeah, uh a little wild. Um but uh not to make any excuses. I know that you guys all have busy labs as well. So I'm here uh providing uh some more interviews and some more content. Um they should be coming out uh a little bit more regularly now. Um I have you know a couple interviews already completed, um some edits being made, and so I should uh see some more of these conversations being brought to light, which is a lot of fun because we're getting into the off-season right now, and I think this is uh the off-season is uh like a really special time as a high school basketball coach. I think I get the opportunity to plan, uh I think I get the opportunity to unplug a little bit, but also like it's full of possibility, right? In the off-season, we're all uh potentially next year's champions. And so uh what I want to do today uh is I I had an interview with uh a good friend that I've coached against for a long time. Um coach Nick Levine from uh here in San Diego. Um we were in the same league for a year, but we we played each other uh non-league games after my last uh probably six or seven seasons. Um this interview is really awesome. Um I I really like the the X's and O's that he gets into, and I like the focus that he has on culture. I think culture is something that we don't spend enough time on um as high school basketball coaches, and I think he's really he really does a great job of that. So uh without me blabbing anymore, this intro has gone on long enough. Uh, here's my interview with Coach Nick Levine. All right, so today on uh the 32, I'm I'm very happy to be joined by a good friend, Coach Nick Levine from Bishops. How you doing, bud? I'm good. Thanks for having me on. What's up, Coach V? Uh, you know, same old, same old. Uh it's it's May, and I don't have any off-season planning to do, which is weird. Um, but I'm I'm kind of leaning into it by talking to other people about their off-season planning. So uh before we before we jump into that, um, tell me about yourself. Tell me your basketball journey, kind of where it started, you know, the the steps that you took that led you to to bishops.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yeah, so I grew up in Philadelphia, um, grew up in Philly, my dad grew up in Philly, so I grew up playing a ton of basketball. He was a kind of a basketball junkie too, and he coached us a little bit growing up. And he grew up in West Philly. I grew up in a little nicer part, Northwest Philly, and so but he took us all over the city, and so yeah, kind of fell in love with it early on, I think, and um, you know, really had some great coaches early on, and and and then also Philly is just a great basketball town, right? So it's like you got six Division I schools right there. Um, you know, it's it's a great basketball city, so yeah, I think it was a big part of my life growing up and in middle school, high school, and um you know, I had great coaches, so I think they kind of influenced me a little bit, and I always like admired coaches, and then my dad was one of them too. So I think that all kind of steered me into you know, thinking like a coach maybe earlier on than a lot of other kids. But you know, and then I went to college in Ohio, and then I came out here. I had a cousin who played at UCSD, he was a little older, so I came out here with a couple buddies, and I thought I would be back in Philly in like a year or two, but yeah, it's been over 20 now, so you know it's a it's a tough place to leave once you get here. Yeah. Um, so yeah, and as far as coaching goes, you know, I think I always thought I wanted to, I knew I wanted to stay involved in the game. I didn't know it would be a career, right? Like I never thought it would be a career for me, but it sort of turned into that. And when I first got out here, I got connected with Ryan Meyer, who was at Country Day, it was his first year. And so jumped on with him. And he, you know, is uh uh amazing first coach to work with, taught me a ton and kind of got me, you know, I caught the bug, I think, early on. And so from there I got Pacific Rage for a couple years, and then Bishops opened up, and this is my 12th year here.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

That's amazing. Um, so so you're from Philly. How many times have you been to the Palestra?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Oh, it's my favorite gym in the country. Yeah. So we would grow when I was growing up in like the 90s, there was no Ivy League tournament. So Penn, it was Penn or Princeton every year, pretty much. And so when they would play each other, that game was that was my favorite game of the year. It was kind of electric. So that game was like that would decide who would go to the tournament every year. So that one, the Palestinian, I got to play there a couple times too. Really? It's like a music.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

No, I have never been there, and I really want to go.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, it's like a different feel. It's just it feels like you're you're you're a part of history there. There's it's and the sound, it's only 8,000, holds about 8,000 or something, but it's sound travels really well. And so they still do like they do the Catholic League semis and championships there for high school, and that gets packed. And yeah, that that's a bucket list, you got to get there.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, I read um, I I like I went through a stretch where I was reading everything that Feinstein has written about basketball, and I I read um his book, The Back Roads to March, and he talks about the Palestra a lot in those in the book. Yeah, oh I love it. Oh my god. Like I always read it in the offseason to get myself fired up. Um so and then you also you're also, yeah, I know. I need to do it. And it's like add it to the list of trips that I need to take. Um so you you also work uh as uh as a journalist, am I am I correct in that assessment?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

That's a stretch. That's a big stretch. I I you know I write a couple things a year. Um certainly would never call myself that, but I got into it maybe like 10 years ago, and it's been it's just super fun. Like it's a more of a hobby than anything else. And so uh yeah, I would definitely not call myself a journalist, though.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

But I mean, you get credentials and you get to sit in there and ask questions to coaches, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, college basketball a couple times a year. It's it's really fun. You would love it too. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, I know I would for sure love it. Um so, you know, what do you see? How do you view the game differently? Like when you're when you're looking at it from that perspective, when you're going to ask coaches uh questions pregame, I know you sent me a video uh of a question that you asked Coach Hurley from UConn. Um do you do you look at the game differently when you're about to ask them questions versus how you would look at it as a coach? Or do you kind of look at it through the same lens?

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah, I think I'm always wearing a coach's hat, even like, you know, if I'm at those games and I'm and I write something or I'm gonna ask a question, I think it's again, I think of myself as a basketball coach, definitely not a writer. So, you know, I'm seeing the game as a coach. I'm trying to pick stuff up all the time. You know, so I'm my brain works in like, what can I bring back to our team? You know, what what can I steal and bring back to our team? And it's not just excess and o's from those guys, but it's it's the messaging, it's how clearly they communicate, you know, it's their terminology, it's stuff like that. So I don't think I'm you know, and if if I'm asking questions, it's definitely more like questions you would ask at a coach's clinic more probably than like you know, talk about the emotion you are feeling, not that kind of stuff. So yeah, I'm trying to pick their brains. Those guys, those college basketball coaches like your guy Hurley, they're so good, they're so impressive, you know. And like I can't imagine being being a post-game press conference after a tough game, and you just have to explain everything you decided to do that game, you know? And it makes you think these guys have such a mastery of the job, and and they're so good. And so I you know, it's inspiring too. It's motivating. I come back like recharged, like wanting to be a better coach from that stuff. And it's yeah, it's what can I bring to help our team? Maybe it's just a little uh it's always X's and O's. Like I'm always trying to find something, but the more I do it, the more I get excited about what can I add to our culture? Like what's gonna motivate kids more, what's gonna strengthen our culture a little bit more? Um, you know, and so I think you can always pick stuff up, like success leaves clues, right? So you're always trying to grasp something and something that would work for you and your team. And you can't use everything, but something that you think would apply and fit for your group.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah, uh on that, on that trend or on that uh topic, what um what trends or what things could you pick up kind of from the college game that you could bring back to your team, like specifically? And what what trends are our high school coaches better off ignoring? Because I know it can be really tempting to see stuff on TV and be like, oh, we could do that. You know, I I know uh personally there were a couple Yukon actions that I tried to install. There was one that I was able to strip down and totally simplify and actually execute, and it was pretty successful for us. But the rest of the stuff, I was like, why did I just waste time trying to figure out what the heck they were doing? Um, and and run it with my guys. Like there was no way we could do that. So, what sorts of things do you think are like realistic that you could take from from that level? I know you mentioned culture. Do you want to do you wanna speak more about that?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Or yeah, and uh, you know, I give you credit because I haven't touched any of the UConn stuff. That is so layered. I don't I have no idea how he teaches that. I would love to like explore it, but that is so in depth, and those guys just flow from one action to the next so nicely. I don't know how he teaches it. It's chaos. Um, it's crazy, but it's beautiful to watch. Yeah, I think, you know, I think when we all like we all watch that stuff and we're like, we want to we want to put it in with our team, but you really have to think about what do you have? What what could work? Like what you know. I think one of the things college duh, the ball screen stuff, and we've done a ton of ball screens ourselves, but you got to have a big guy, you gotta like we see switch so much that if if you can just switch everything, you don't have a big athletic guy, you can't punish that switch, you know, you're never getting an advantage. I don't know how much ball screens are useful for us at the high school level. Like everyone wants to run everything through through that, and I like it too, but you got to have the personnel. So what it's it always comes back to what fits for your group. And I think high school coaches have a challenge, college coaches don't. I would love to recruit, I would love to pick a style of play, recruit to it, and just get great at that. You know, we have a different team every year, we have a different strengths and weaknesses that that change every single year. So I look at our roster every year and uh and we think about you know, what do we do best? How can we put a put the kids in position to do that the most, right? And that changes a lot. So we did a lot of ball screen stuff these last couple years because we did have a big I thought was hard to switch. Um, but now we probably don't, so we got to figure it out. Um so yeah, I think like you can't just copy it, it has to make sense for your group. Now what does work? I think with the analytics and stuff, there's there's you know, you look at Connecticut, you look at Michigan, you look at Arizona, those guys got so many paint twos, like layups or dunks, right? So, how can we it as high school coaches, I love threes, I love rhythm threes, but what are we shooting, like 30%, maybe usually? So, you know, it's it's a it's a high high value shot, but there's nothing like layups. So I think about high school coaches, you know, the offense should be designed to get paint twos. How many paint twos can you get, right? Because that's I think two-point field goal percentage is so important. Um, and those guys do it in a number of different ways, like the post-seal plays, you know, maybe coming off a shuffle, you know, a flex or something. But how can your offense really get a look at like a deep paint two before you go into something else? And I think the best college teams were doing that a ton. You saw it with with the final four for sure. It does a great every year. So, you know, some of the analytic stuff that that that colleges really focus on and pay attention to, I think we should pay attention to as well. Are we teaching shot selection? We started doing shot grading, um, like A, B, or C. So an A is we broke down every shot, and A would be an on-balance paint two or rhythm three, an open rhythm three for a good shooter. A C would be like a really challenge three, a tough pull up to, or one of those paint twos where you're falling over, right? Right. We all hate those. So we start breaking that down with the kids, and I think they cannot kind of understand what we're looking for a little better with that. So, you know, I think you just again it it goes back to what do you have and what makes the most sense for what you have.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, I love that the shot grading thing. Because I I mean the really good the really good teams at high school or anywhere are just so efficient. Like there's not wasted, there's not wasted motion, there's not wasted energy and not wasted shots. I I think that's where you know the best teams that I had, I think we scored, I think like 80% of our points were either the free throw line or within five feet of the basket, you know, and and that's just and not just like you know, not just the years where we had, you know, we had Marley, who was like enormous. Um, even some of our smaller teams that were pretty successful, it was the same way. Like we were scoring everything was close to the basket. It was backdoor cuts for layups, it was that empty side pick and roll that we ran the last couple of years. Um anything that would work to get something going downhill towards the basket was was the best for us. So I like, I like that idea of grading shots. Um, would you guys, when would you guys go over that? Would that be like something that would be like kind of a homework assignment for the kids for the film, or was that like a team film, like we're all grading this together situation? Or how would you guys do that?

SPEAKER_00 15:26

We'd do it early in the year, we would do it after every game and maybe just grab a kid in the office, or maybe, you know, Huddle makes it easy, right? Because you could just go click right on their box score and right on their shot. So you could you can do it in a couple minutes. Um, but yeah, early in the year we want to go over and we talk about it all the time in in practice and stuff, and you know, pretty clear. Now, early in the year, you get the kids like, yeah, coach, I make that shot. Uh, you know, you know, you get that one. So you got to kind of that's when you have to do some coaching and some selling on, okay, maybe you made that shot before. I don't, you know, here it's probably not the best shot for our group, right? So yeah, and then the goal, the the hope is as you go towards the middle of the season, towards the end of the year, and they start picking up on it. They're like, you know, if they take a bad one, they're like yeah, that was a that was a C, my bad coach, or you know, something. So it starts being something that they can kind of coach themselves on. Um, but they understand that like a an off-the-bounce three, we can get that anytime. That's a that's a B at best, right? So that could be a late, late shot clock shot. Let's go try to get a layup, let's go try to get a paint two first, let's try to get a rhythm three, and then it all comes, you know. The other thing we did, we started charting paint touch decisions. So when each kid got in there, what did they do? And we were pretty lenient graders, like if you just kicked it out, that's a positive. Uh, if you got fouled or if you made it, that's a positive. If you turned it over or you missed the shot, that's a negative. And then they each had a percentage. That was actually pretty telling for us. So that's something we'll continue to do. And you know, it's like you're you're reinforcing paint touch decisions there. You you've got a end-of-drive decision making is so important. Don't chuck up something. Can you read where the help's coming from? Can you spray it out if there is help? Um, but yeah, I think the kids start understanding the kind of shots that we're looking for, you know, maybe a couple weeks into the season.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

No, I like that. Um yeah, that's that's one thing that I've always been really impressed with when I've when I've played against your teams, is that um you your guys are always like, and and you've spoken to to the the culture of the team a little bit, and I I kind of want to get into that a little bit more because I think that the culture that you've built there is is kind of why you guys honestly were so freaking difficult to game plan for because like I think you know, I was gonna talk about it later, but I'll bring it up now. You know, I played you guys, uh I coached against you at when you were at Bishops, not the Pacific Ridge days, but at Bishops, um we had eight regular season games, and you you beat me in seven of those eight games. And some of those years were years that you guys were just just head and shoulders talent-wise beyond where we were, and we got thumped. And honestly, I I thought those games were good for us because we were kind of we were we were growing as a program, we were starting to play better teams, and I wanted us to go and get get pummeled a little bit so we could put ourselves in our place. But there were some years that I thought talent-wise, we we could hang a little bit, and it was it was always somebody different that beat us, right? And that was what was so tough to game plan for you guys for was that I felt like your team was team focused enough that it didn't seem like most of the time, it didn't seem like it mattered to your team who it was that was doing the scoring. They just would come in as a group. And if we took one option away, they would just pivot and somebody else would beat us. And and it was really frustrating. Um, but I think that that speaks to the culture that you've built there. And so how do you go about creating that environment? Because it's not easy as a high school coach, especially not, I would I would think at a at a school that where where you guys, you know, you play in probably the toughest league in the county, traditionally. Um, and so like you got a lot of guys that when they were coming up in in club ball or coming up in middle school ball, they've sort of been, they've probably been the guy before, you know. And so how do you how do you get them to all play together?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Yeah, I appreciate those those words. And I it's something I think we're fighting for all the time, right? And and yeah, you get the kids who like I just talk about, like coach, I shoot that on my club team all the time. I make that shot all the time. It's like, well, that you know, that's a different dynamic. And so we're gonna ask you to sacrifice a little bit here. And we we will be pretty, you know, there will be role-specific stuff, and and we want our best shooters shooting the most and all of that, but we also kind of want to be like the go-to guy is the open guy, right? Let's spray that thing around. We talk a ton about you get two on the ball, you have got to move it. You cannot, we say, don't miss the moment. And I think it was Eric Spolstra who said that. But if you get two on the ball, you cannot miss that moment to move it, right? And you're so valuable if you can get two on the ball and move it. Like you've done your job. So now we're an advantage and we're playing four on three, right? So that's huge for us, and the unselfishness stuff. And so I think our culture has been good. And one thing we do is we do a standards meeting like really early in the season, maybe the first week, and the players kind of lead it, and I can steer them into it a little bit, but the players lead it, and we're usually aligned on it. And we go through everything that that they'll face throughout the season. So we'll talk, what should practice look like? And the kids will say, you know, if I'm there early, I should be doing skill work. If if it's a break, I'm grabbing a quick drink and then I'm doing shooting. Like I'm not sitting down. If it's post practice and the gym's open, what are we doing? And then we'll go through, you know, teammate stuff. Like if I ever run by a teammate, I should begin a five or fifths. We should be acknowledging the passer on everything or the screener, right? Like on the bench, what are we doing? If someone hits a shot, are we all standing up? If they're coming out. So we talk about everything that I think goes into a season, everything that we want it to look like. And we'll say, like, what's something you did on another team that you think was awesome? Well, let's bring it to our team. So it can look a little different each year, but then we go and review those standards maybe three times a week, and we're grade ourselves on them. And we're saying, like, something I can do better, something someone else is doing really well. And so I think at some point, you know, hopefully then that's Goal is like you're strengthening that culture to where the kids understand that it's hard. This thing's hard. We're going six days a week at it. There's we say there's two things you have to have to be here. You have to love basketball because you're gonna be spending a lot of time. You have to love basketball, and then you have to want to be part of a team, right? Like this isn't tennis, this isn't golf, there are gonna be sacrifices, you don't get to just do whatever you want. There are standards we all need uh to uphold and and hold each other accountable for. So, you know, and then hopefully it's fun too, right? And hopefully we're making it fun. And the fun should be the competition, the fun should be the idea of getting better, it's not just kind of messing around. But yeah, so I think the standards thing, and I think it was Coach K who where I got that from, but that's been really, really good for us, I think, and it kind of gets us to the point where um you know the kids are like, Oh, we're gonna review this. I want to be, I want to be easy for someone to shout out next time we're talking about this. Like, I want to be the first one, kids on the floor, I want to be the first one over there helping them up, um, you know, or whatever it is. So hopefully, and again, like I said, X's and O's, I love that kind of stuff is more fun now. Like the more you do it, like that's kind of thinking about that stuff, being able to strengthen your culture with that, um, tapping into the potential of each kid and our collective unit, getting them to sacrifice, but have fun doing it. I think that's that's kind of the fun part.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

That's so cool. I I like that you brought up um that you brought up the bench culture, because that's one thing that you guys have always been really, really, really good at. Like, I have to give you that credit. I have to give the credit to your team. It honestly, like when we played you guys, your bench would be so fired up the whole game that it would make my bench get fired up. And so I loved it. Like, I felt like we we would leave those games like better as a team because we saw it being modeled properly, I guess. It it was it was really cool. Um, you you they always were really good about that, like every single player on your roster. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

I think part of that's personality is like sometimes you get you just get those kids, right? Who are just super unselfish and they're enthusiastic. And then also part of it is recognizing it, talking about it all the time, making sure everyone knows like we value that a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

So, yeah, that's cool. You were talking about X's and O's. Um, if if you were if this was a college situation and you could just run whatever offense you wanted to run and recruit guys to match that offense, what would you run?

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Uh UCSD, like Hayden Gray, senior year. Did you get to watch them at all? A little bit, yeah. Yeah, that was my favorite team in a while. So, and I and I follow New Mexico now pretty closely. I think Eric Olin does a great job. Clint Alard over there, they do a great job. So yeah, we started doing some of that stuff, but like it's so fun to watch. They're they're pretty much five out with ball screens, the ball just zips around. Um, you know, there's there's automatics, like they're teaching dribble drive rules, and there's all these automatics. If I drive baseline, it's a 45 cut or middle, and I get the logo, it's a baseline cut, but um, and then you can set a ball screen anywhere on the court and you're in connected offense. Like so, all the other three guys know exactly what they're doing based on where the ball is, how many are behind the ball. And then, you know, again, you need some skill, you need a big. If you have a big who can shoot it and a big who can punish the switch, like that's what I would want. I want some guards, some point guards who could who are decision makers, problem solvers, and a big who puts you in conflict, puts a defense in conflict. Like that's tough. That's a nightmare to go against, you know. Right. So it's a it's a pick your poison type thing. Um, and the ball's moving around, there's a ton of player movement. So, yeah, we started doing that the last couple of years. It it didn't look anywhere near like UCSD, but um, you know, but at times it it's been good for us. I like we've done a ton of different stuff, like we've said, we've you know, what do we do best? And I've tried a lot. I know you guys were always Princeton. I love Princeton. We've we've done some of it as sets or you know, just the split action, or maybe just chin or chin chin screens occasionally. Um so yeah, I would recruit a dynamic big with guards that can shoot it. You know, there you're gonna have to close out to play a shot and play a drive on the guards, and then you have a dynamic big who can shoot it or roll and punish the switch. It would be it's just it's pick your poison for the defense with that.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, you know, I I love it. Um we we did, yeah, we did Princeton stuff. Um and honestly, where I had always struggled was what to do after the initial Princeton action. Like if the initial action was taken away, what do we do? And it wasn't until the last like year or two that I figured out how to make that Princeton flow into that empty side ball screen stuff. And then it was like, then the offense like totally opened up. And because then we were doing we were doing some of the stuff where we would run through four or five actions early in the in the set before we would get into what we thought was actually gonna score. And that was, I mean, you needed we needed the right guys to do that that had the patience and the the I don't know, like the lack of ego that didn't want to just try to create. But you guys would kill us, man. With with Romeo and with Nikki, you guys would kill us with these these high post catches and then the away screens in the corner, and you guys would run that zoom action, and we ugh, we knew it was coming, and it didn't matter. Like it it was so infuriating to play against. Like, I I can't watch another like another bishops player curl off of that high post screen for a layup. I I don't think I can watch it happen again um without becoming like physically nauseous. Like when I watch back on film from our games, uh, I just like I just see that layup happening over and over again, and it makes me so sad.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

You guys did it so well. Yeah, you guys got really good with the prints and stuff too, though. I remember that one year, yeah, when you beat us and you were just it was like the splits, and then right into an empty, and we were switching, then you were throwing it into that kid, and he was just bully balling us down low. He was tough.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

I mean, I have to like I have to put a giant asterisk on that game that uh Romeo did not play that game. And so that's the reason that we were able to be as effective out of the high post, and we were able to play that bully ball. Um yeah, but that was yeah, that was a that was a fun one. You guys, you scared the crap out of us that game, though, because we were up really big um for like a long time, and then in the fourth quarter, I think I think it was Owen that just got like thermonuclear hot in the fourth quarter and hit a bunch of threes and got it back to a pretty close game. I was freaking out.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

That was a tough weekend because then we put that was Friday night. We played Vista Saturday. We were down 20. We came back, we took the lead, we're up two, shooting a free throw. No, up one, shooting a free throw, make it with one second left. He makes it, they throw it into Gavin Gwynn a three-quarter court three to win it. So that was our yeah, check in on the coaches type weekend. That was a tough one. So as we talked about real quick, what you were saying is and what the UCSD stuff that that I love, and and I think every coach, we all need to figure out like what's our flow, what's our play after the play, or what's our if we're not calling on anything, what are the kids doing? And that's the stuff, you know. To me, you you teach that, like we're gonna teach those concepts all summer, and then we'll have sets and everything. But once you just get into you run your set, you didn't get it, what's the player? And now all of a sudden we get into a ball screen or a pitch and get or whatever, and we're in connected offense, so it's never just like you know, standing around and watching and and not sure what to do next, it's just go get into an action and how many actions can you stack? Because I think the second one's probably tougher to guard than the third one.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

So right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Yeah, and then you know, we'll spend most of our time just teaching uh solutions to how the other team's guarding it throughout the year, like how are they guarding ball screens or or dribble handoffs or whatever if they're switching, here's what we think would help us out and offer some solutions in practice and go over that for two or three days, and then hopefully, you know, it empowers kids to make decisions on the flag. Like, I don't I don't want to be calling something every play, you know? Right, exactly. I want them to feel comfortable. I want them to feel like they have answers for the test. Um you know, and and even if it's a curveball, they have they have some solution that they can go to.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yeah, no, especially um especially when you guys when you guys have been in the coastal for so long. I I want to talk about that because I know that like there's been there's been coastal conference league shuffling shenanigans that have happened, and I'll I'll I'll talk about that later. Um but first, um as my as my little 10-minute warning just goes off, um talk to me about what it's like because we we were in that league for one season. Um one season where we had to like routinely prepare for three three different open division teams. Um and like it you guys have been such a successful, such a talented program that has done so much, but then you get into league and like you're playing up against three potentially top 10 teams, and so you've got like six games against top 10 teams, and so your league record, I don't think, often reflects the caliber of talent that you have. Well, what's it like? Like, how do you keep the kids motivated in those seasons where you know Parker, Santa Fe, and La Jolla Country Day are all sitting there in the top five?

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah, yeah, the league's been a beast. It's since I've been here and even before, you know, like you said, I think it's one of the best in San Diego. And so, but I take pride in it. I love when our league is strong, you know, and I and I think like the kid for Parker Tave it's coming back, he he'll be a senior next year. It's gonna be really good again. Like we have high-level players, and I and I like that, and I think we we do a pretty good job of promoting that stuff, but um it it makes you better, it makes you a better coach, it makes you go at it a little harder, you know. You know what's coming, like winter's coming, January, February is coming, you know. In October, are you taking a Saturday off from open gym or whatever when you know what's coming, right? So I think being in a tough league, and and rarely have we ever done better in league than out of league. Um, and what's what's refreshing is going through the league and then going into playoffs and seeing someone out of league who who doesn't know you so much and maybe not quite as talented or whatever. So I think it really prepares you well. Um, you know, going through like a two, three-day scout for a really good team, and it's hard to beat teams that are more talented than you. You know, we know that, right? It's just it's gonna be hard. I think we've always, but we don't we never concede. Like we're we're we think we can win every game, and we're in a lot of games against those good teams, and usually the first half goes okay, then there's a run or something, you know, in the second half, maybe. But but yeah, I think it makes you better as a coach, and and I think it prepares you for playoffs, and I think it's fun. Like you want to play against good teams in the league on Friday nights when the gyms are packed, um, against good coaches. And the league has had amazing coaches. When I first got in, it was it was Jim Tomey, it was Ryan Meyer, it was Chad Bickley, uh Leaf, Brad Leaf. So the league's had great coaches, which also makes you know, you know they're gonna, you're not gonna get your slips or your backdoors or whatever. Like they're taking away your easy twos, so you know you got to have counters for that. So I think it's made me better, it's made me a little more obsessive, probably, just knowing how how hard the other coaches are going at it. Um, and then as far as like how do we you know, we we do talk a lot about process over results. We want to how many how many A-level shots can we get? How many good connected defensive possessions with multiple efforts can we get? Right, and yeah, you know, it it's we're gonna celebrate those, we're gonna celebrate those over and over again. And if we lose, we're still celebrating those possessions, and so I think you get better when you do that. And um, and then at the end of the season, or as you're going through it, I I judge it like how many games did we win that we shouldn't have? How many games did we win where the other team had the better roster? And then how many games did we lose when we had the better roster? And that's kind of how I evaluate our season or evaluate myself because we shouldn't, those are the ones that stay with you, the losses where you feel like you have the better roster, right? You know, you didn't motivate enough, you weren't you the kids weren't ready to play, you didn't scout well enough, whatever. The other games we should win, right? So those are the ones I'm critical of myself on and our staff on, and and you kind of they stick with you a lot more, so but yeah, I love the league. We have great coaches and players in it now. I was the young coach when I got in. Now I'm by far the old coach. But but it's fun, yeah. And I think you know, we probably had the number two and number three team in the county last year in the league, maybe one for most of the year was Santa Fe.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

Right. Yeah, no, you guys have done a phenomenal job in that league. It the matchups are so funny, right? Like it's that's what people on the outside, you know, parents specifically, but like just people in general, uh, that don't really understand about high school basketball, is how important the matchup matters, right? Like that year, right? The the year that we were in the Coastal League, I I remember um you guys beat Francis Parker. Um we were able to get you, and Francis Parker beat us by 400,000 points, I think, if you combine the two games. And it's just matchups are funny like that. Like there are some teams that just can't can't get over the hump, can't beat each other. Like two years ago, you know, my last season uh when I was coaching, uh you know, Del Lago had a really strong team. Del Lago was able to kind of push Tri-City around in some of the games. They took him to overtime. Uh, I think they might have beat him once. Um, and we beat Del Lago twice, uh, both times, you know, fairly handily. It's just matchups are so funny in in high school basketball.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Um it comes down to shot making a lot of times, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

That's put that thing in.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Yeah, that's what I always would, you know. I would talk to um, you know, Eric Metama Calvin.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

I would talk to him after a lot of games. We were like each other's emotional support group for years. And he would always say it afterwards, he's like, uh, it's a make-miss game, you know what I mean? Like you can game plan all day long, we can watch 50 hours of film, we can be training and practicing for you know your 4,000 minutes of practice, however many you get per season. Um, but you at the end of the day, like the team that makes more shots is gonna win. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 38:08

And so Jeff Van Gundy said in the NBA, if it's a good shot and you pause it while the ball's in the air, it goes in good coach, it doesn't bad coach, you know. Jump down to that at some point.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

I love it, man. Well, I only got uh we only got a couple minutes left. So um I wanted to I wanted to thank you for for everything. Um it's been fun, kind of the the the friendship and the the games and everything. It's it's been fun over the years. Um you know, I've I feel like I feel like my entire coaching career, um, I was able to kind of talk to you or or coach against you sometimes, you know, when you're a Pacific Ridge or then at Bishops. We were always uh we always tried to schedule you guys. You were one of my one of my uh non-conference games I tried to schedule every year. Cause like I said, I felt like we got better as a team and as a program when we played you guys. I felt like there was a lot to learn. And so uh it was a lot of fun, man. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Yeah, it's always fun playing against guys you you're friends with, you you respect, and you've always done a good job, a great job of promoting, you know, not just your teams, but kind of the game in San Diego. Now you're obviously doing it on a different level, but I don't know if we always do a great job as basketball coaches. And I I really I love the podcast, I love the content. Um, you know, I think we appreciate you doing it. And then it's authentic and you you can't fake passion and you got it. And I, you know, I I expect you're back on the sideline probably somewhat soon. What do we think in there?

SPEAKER_01 39:42

That's what everyone keeps saying. Uh, you know, eventually, I think I want to watch the boy. Uh, you know, he's in seventh grade right now, so I want to watch him play sports for a couple of years and then we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Um people keep people keep talking to me. Uh, I don't know. I really I love coaching, right? Like I I love it. I love the game of basketball. I love the like the planning part of it, like building out, you know, planning out our practices and planning out what the culture is gonna look like and doing all that stuff. Um, I obviously love the coaching aspect of it too. What I didn't realize that I was gonna love so much is um is not coaching. I I also love that. Uh it's been it's been nice uh having a little better. Yeah. Having this, just having some time to breathe. But I do miss it. I think about it 24 hours a day, obviously. So um all right, brother. Well, I will I will check in with you, I'm sure, multiple times throughout the season. And and uh it's been great having you on.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Thanks so much, appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

All right, buddy. I'll talk to you later. Yeah, all right, that will do it. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thanks for listening, thanks for sharing, thanks for your comments. Um, anytime I I hear from one of you guys that you enjoy listening to this, it it puts wind in my sails, you know. Um if there's you know one person that gets any kind of edification or any kind of um kind of temporary therapy from listening to other coaches talk about the same issues that you're dealing with, um then what I'm doing is worth it. Um it's it's a lot of fun. So um thanks for everything. Um and you know, don't forget to follow the Instagram uh at you know the 32 pod. Um subscribe to the Substack and uh you know get in touch with me. Um if you're a coach that listens to this and I haven't talked to you about being on the podcast, get a hold of me. Um I'd love to love to chat. Uh until next time.