28 Years, 14 Championships, and Building Culture With Integrity | Ep. 36 Preston Igram

Championship Culture From Both Sides: Preston Ingram on 14 Championships and Developing All-Americans

What does it take to be part of 14 championships as a coach? Preston Ingram knows because he's lived it. With over 28 years of coaching experience — 22 at the collegiate level — Preston has built a career on developing championship programs and players through integrity, relationships, and performance-driven excellence.

Preston's resume speaks for itself: over 100 career wins, back-to-back AMC Championships, AMC Coach of the Year, two-time HoopDirt Coach of the Week, and NABC Team of the Week. His teams achieve national tournament appearances, record-setting conference play, and consistent academic and athletic excellence.

But what makes Preston unique is his perspective from both sides of championship culture. Before coaching 14 championships, he won a National Championship as a player, giving him an understanding of what excellence looks like from every angle.

As a master recruiter, Preston has developed several Players of the Year, multiple all-conference players, and All-Americans. His approach combines championship-level expectations with genuine care for player development, both on and off the court.

In this episode of The Standard Podcast™, Preston shares:

• What separates championship culture from good programs
• How to develop All-Americans and Players of the Year through character and discipline
• Building academic and athletic excellence simultaneously
• Modern recruiting with integrity in the NIL era
• The relationship-focused approach to performance-driven results
• What parents need to know about choosing the right program and coach

Whether you're a young coach building a program, a player who wants to reach All-American level, or a parent choosing the right environment, Preston's 28 years of experience and championship perspective provide a roadmap for excellence built on integrity.

This isn't just about basketball — it's about developing people and programs that create lasting impact beyond wins and losses.

This isn't motivation. This is a movement.

Connect with Preston:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/preston-ingram-061a4395/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Alrighty. Excellent. Welcome to the Standard Podcast team, where we raise the bar, rebuild the culture, and call out the lies or misconceptions that nobody else will. This isn't motivation. This is a movement. I'm Thomas Rowe, joined by my co-host, Aaron Charles, and today we're sitting down with Preston Ingram, a proven college basketball leader with over 28 years of coaching experience, 22 of those at the collegiate level as a head coach, program executive, and assistant. Preston owns over 100 career wins, back-to-back AMC championships and honors, including AMC Coach of the Year, two-time Hoop Dirk Coach of the Week, and NABC Team of the Week. His teams have achieved historic milestones, national tournament appearances, record-setting conference play, and consistent academic and athletic excellence. But here's what makes Preston different. In 22 years of college coaching, he's been part of 14 championships, conference championships, conference tournament championships, and final four appearances. And before we have, and before he ever coached a championship, he won as a player, a national championship. Beyond the core, Preston is an amateur recruiter with who has developed several players of the year, multiple all-conference players and all-Americans. With a master's degree in human performance and a business background in marketing and management, Preston is a performance-driven, relationship-focused leader committed to developing people and programs with integrity. This isn't just about basketball. This is about what it takes to build championship cultures, develop young people, and create legacy that goes well beyond the court and not just wins and losses. We're going to dive into the truth behind what it really takes to build identity, discipline, and legacy in sports and in life. Let's get into it. Coach, thank you so much for joining us. We're super excited to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate the introduction. I think that might have been way overbound of everything, but I appreciate you having me on. Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Let's start here with 28 years of coaching experience, 22 at the college level, over 100 wins, back-to-back AMC championships, and you've been a part of 14 championships as a coach. You also want a national championship as a player. What does raising the standard mean to you and with the work that you're doing right now?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yeah, you know, raising the standard really just means that when you create an environment where there's no, where average is no longer acceptable, you know, where excellence only becomes the expectation of every single day that you're doing uh for your program. Those are that you're surrounding with, from staff to administrations to players, it's not about just winning games. Uh, I think that's probably a big, huge misconception about it. It's about elevating the accountability, the accountability of the discipline, your preparation, you know, your character on a daily basis, right? One thing for me is a quote that I live by is doing something today that you didn't do yesterday that'll improve you for tomorrow. And I think the only way that you're able to really elevate the standard is by making the standard the standard every single time that you go about doing it. Over the course of my career, uh, you know, it's it's about, you know, it's more important to say that, hey, I've got a player coming in and he wants to be able to achieve what it is, wants to be able to achieve, and he tells me that he needs to make sure that, hey, coach, I want to be a player of the year, I want to be an all-conference player, I want to be an all-American, whatever it's gonna be. A lot of them talk about wanting to be a pro. And if you want to be a pro, then it's about you modeling your professionalism of being a professional every day, right? Right. Um, and if you're gonna be a professional every day, then it's about being a standard of a standard every single time you step on the floor, that you're acting, you're articulating, you're preparing yourself to be an all-American, uh, you're preparing yourself to be an all-cowers player, a person of that. And so it becomes a an everyday habit. And right the course of my 22 years, it's been just that. It's been about creating these habits every single time that we're putting together our performance of the court of how we're gonna be able to do our due diligence every day. And the other part is the thing, also, too. I think that for me has also been big for me is everywhere I've been but one place, we've been able to achieve something that's never been achieved before in the school's history. And I think that's also been a big, huge testament to the coaches I work for, uh, to the players I've coached, to the administrations that I've been working for, all but one institution, we've been able to accomplish something that's never been done before, or it hadn't been done in a magnitude of years. And so I think that's part of the about the deal of it, also, too, is about leaving the standard, is when you leave, did you leave that program in a better place that you found it? Sure. You know, competitively, culturally, structurally, did you build the foundation for the program to continue to build? And I think that's a big, huge component to anything that you want to be to do, that you want to touch it. You want to rise the standard and make the standard the standard that was all time you step on the floor.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

No doubt. And what would you say is the biggest lie you feel, or biggest lie of misconception you feel about the culture of basketball industry is telling coaches, players, and programs about what it takes to build a championship culture?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, really. You know, I think culture tells us that if you win enough, you earn enough, you achieve enough, you get recognized enough that you finally feel secure. And that's not necessarily. You know, that you know, the that you know, you do all these things that you know you'll get this respect and satisfaction of what it needs to be. I think, you know, what the co like what it really comes down to as coaches, a lot of times there's stress when you're winning of being at the top, and that's hard to do, is to make the maintain the stay of the top. And then I think there's stress when you're at the bottom and you're not winning, right? And and so I think a lot of it is what if it doesn't align with the purpose or integrity in relationships, then you have an emptiness to you. You know, it really just winning doesn't fix everything, status doesn't divine value every single time. And if you grind now, you're gonna live better or live later. This is not be what it's gonna be. The championships don't build culture, people do, right? The people that you surround yourself with, your administration's you know, coaches can only do so much, but if your administration doesn't align to the exact same thing, the being the exact same page, or we're working what I talk about in I's and T's, that we're gonna work in alignments and we understand where our cap is going to be at if it's a T. But if we're working in S's and C's, that means that we're not building a culture brand. And what we want to be able to make sure that we do is that we don't find our fulfillment by just a scoreboard, but just the impact that we're doing every single day, and that our wins are not a just a direct correlation to our identity. Uh, I think a lot of times in athletes, you know, what we do is that we find as coaches and as athletes, we don't know what our self-value is going to be outside of basketball or outside of sport. Well, we want to make sure that we align ourselves to find the real success is that between who we really are and what do we want to value. Um, how do you lead? How do you develop people? I think the biggest relationship for me is building something that's on the last where I'd be having these former players now call me back and wanting to make sure that we're still having straight, you know, good good conversation. I just had three former players come call me last night and literally come back and say, Coach, hey, we're moving back to St. Louis. Hey, I want to be able to catch back up. Hey, I want to connect. Hey, I remember this, we're having these conversations about that. I think that's where the alignment is going to be at, and that's where where the true culture of value really comes into place. Like, I don't really use the word culture too much. I use the word value, and if you have good value, then you create the word culture. I don't think you can recreate the word culture unless you have great value.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

No question.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

And so those things I think have to align back to the exact same thing, and that it's not a you know, that you're not selling a external validation that I'm actually the truth is the internal standards that you're sustained is only the greatness of what you actually get. And that are you creating these young guys or young women to be better future husbands and mothers and people of society and having these actual true value pieces to create better cultures and what they're going to be.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

No doubt. You know, we had a coach on here, a bunch like yourself, that uh he said, I just I define my wins by what happens with my players after the game. Basketball's a game, life is a different game. So yeah, that's that I think that's powerful. You've been the AMC coach of the year, two-time hoop dirt coach of the week, and your teams have achieved national tournament appearances and record setting conference play. What separates programs that achieve consistent excellence from those that don't?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Really, you know, I think it's the people that you surround yourself with, the players you try to recruit, you know, and you know, your staff and and and and the players you're bringing in, is your character and your values and disciplines and how you treat people when no one is watching, are are they immeasurable to the exact same thing? You know, I think outside of you know of what your daily day is going to end up being is are you competing with excellence? Are you competing with that you're you know you're holding your standards of what you're talking about every day? And is it the exact same beat to the exact same tone? Meaning the fact that like me and my staff are we beating the exact same drum, or are we beating three different drums? You know, I think that kind of plays into place with that, also too. You know, I think the strongest programs that I've led wasn't just based on talent, it was based on the identity and the accountability, the toughness, the unselfishness, or academics, or disciplines, or daily habits. Like that's the performance of the byproduct of who we're going to end up being. And that kind of how we go. I I talk to our teams all the time. Like, we never really talked about winning the championship. We want to talk about winning today. You know, people ask me a lot of times about like, coach, what's your five-year plan? And it's to be a better husband, better father, a better man than I was five years from now. Like, you know, from that's who I that's who I strive to be, right? Um what what what I don't know though is that if I have a goal that I want to be able to attain, then I have to be able to do something today to be able to obtain that goal. So if I'm not like working right now to be able to make this daily habit, then I'm never going to be able to get there. And so, you know, we're you know, we're in the business to make sure that we're building the strongest programs is gonna be based off the people that you build, but making sure those people that you're that you're trying to build align with what it is that you're trying to do. And and like one of the great examples I think right now in the coaches world, and I give flowers to all the time, is Ben McCollum at Iowa. Like the one thing I love about Ben is he he's not gonna recruit anything outside of what he believes in, he's really big about developing from ground and make sure that you're doing it, especially in the world of transport portal. He's done a phenomenal job of maintaining his his actually in excellence of what he does, and he's very, very diligent about how he's gonna go about his recruitment. And those are some of the things we try to model. Like I said, the one thing that I have to go back and say is that you know, our last my last stop, you know, we kind of felled in that aspect, and it was something I kind of got outside the character of really who our identity is. And so I think sometimes as coaches, sometimes you got to go back and re-reformat that also, too. If you're gonna be actually be truthful about everything of that deal, right? Right. Because your identity has to make sure that it goes beyond the performance which you're on the floor, and making sure that everything aligns the exact same thing. Because at the end of the day, you want your performance to change, then their identity has to make sure that your identity has to sustain the exact same excellence. Right. Um, every single thing that you do.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

No doubt. That's awesome. We're gonna turn it over to Aaron for segment two, which is identity and legacy. Aaron, take it away.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Okay, here I am. So, Preston, I would love for you to tell me who are you beyond all the accolades, about beyond all the things that Thomas shared at the top of the show. Just who are you and what's in most important to you?

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Yeah, I'm a man of faith. I'm a husband, I'm a father. Those things mean more to me than any title championship, anything I've ever been accomplished on that part, right? From a from a personal standpoint. And I've been blessed to be able to win a lot of different things. And a lot of times I think you get caught up about uh your titles. And when you're living every day about a title, those things have a tendency to go away. You, you know, what what really your legacy is you're you know, your reflex of your impacts. You know, you're taking a group of young men, you're really you're an extended parent. And you know, there's times that these young guys either, you know, they're growing up, and your job is to make sure that you enhance them and that you're making sure that they're becoming stronger, stronger husbands, better fathers, better professionals, that they continue to understand what's going to be. And are you operating at a high standard? You know, are you growing your assistance and making sure that you're putting them in positions to be able to make sure that they have obtained, you know, what it is that they want to achieve in life? Are you are you making sure that you are taking care of these things that every day that you are you're you're growing the expectations of the people that you're around? So I think the legacy for me is long far in my identity of who I am is far more than any of the the things I've accomplished. It's because it's never been about me. I say this all the time. Like I don't really care about myself. What I care about is how are we going to impact everybody around? And are we doing this where if it reflects exactly who I really want to be? And I think that's that's a bigger thing. Is it is it healthy for me and for them? And are we providing actual impacts? Because at the end of the day, the titles they those things fade away. I mean, you can be the best of the best. You hear anything about these top-tier coaches, what they really hear about like back reflection from the players is that they talk to them, you know, they talk about them like they're a father and they they were a father figure, and that they were, you know, a guy that really helped kind of change and adapt their lives, right? And I think for me, like I have a couple players now that call me dad, you know, and at first I didn't know if that really kind of hurt my soul, or if that was a deal that I go back to.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Isn't my dad old? What do you say?

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, like like I didn't I didn't know, you know. I was like, man, like okay, wait a minute now. Call me Pops, you know, and I go, Oh, wait, you know, I'm getting called Pops, and I was in my 30s at the time. I was like, man, I I feel old. But you know, it was one of my greatest achievements, you know. You know, I talk about this all the time when I was 23, I became guardian of a fifth grader. And, you know, I had a lot of young guys that come from single parent homes, and you know, they they to this day, that was you know, 26 years ago, they call me up and they they either call me unk or they call me pops or they or they still call me coach. And they, you know, they they lean on me for you know guidance and advice. And you know, I mean, like that means the world to me, probably more than anything I've ever accomplished individually. Because at the end of the day, I'm not gonna be able to accomplish anything individually if it wasn't for them.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

You know what I mean? And and so, like a lot of times, like, yeah, you know, you win coach of the year, but you're not winning coach of the year if it wasn't for your assistants. You're not winning coach of the year if it wasn't for your players, you're not winning coach of the year if it wasn't for your administration, you're not winning championships if it wasn't for the exact same alliance, right? You know, and and and and it it's gotta be reflect all together as one. And so I to me, I think that's bigger. Are you leaving it, are you making a strong impact that's gonna last forever because it's gotta last a long, a lot longer. If my coaching days are done, I want to make sure that I made an impact correctly. And I always said that if I've overstepped that boundary, that it doesn't happen, then that's the day that I've it's time for me to walk away because I want to make sure that I don't ever cross that or just respect that in any kind of way.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

I love that. I think you know you hit on so many key points there. And one I'd like for you to maybe expand upon is what separates championship cultures. You talked really about everybody that goes in that it takes in order to build that, but how do you really create that separation from just being a good program?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, you know, well, I think a lot of that is, you know, is what you try to drive in every day and having a game plan and strategically your placing, right? In this transfer portal area, you know, man, there's a lot in that that kind of goes into it, right? Like, you know, a lot of times when you're building the program up, right now you have some coaches that just take the top talent and it's okay, hey, I'm gonna take this top talent, I'm gonna throw it in a smoke's board, and we're going to try to make something out of it. And then you have others, you know, that gets really strategic. When I was at Missouri Baptist, we got very strategic. You know, we didn't want a team full of just scores and team just full of this or that. You know, we wanted, you know, we want to have a smosh pock of a little bit of everything. We want to put all the seasoning into a pot. And then, and then as a staff, what we wanted to be able to do is that I wanted to I wanted to be able to self-identify my staff of who what their biggest strengths were. And my strength was in one of my assistants to Taylor Jarvis, that he was very good about offensive identity, player, player assessments, you know, having a great standard of knowing kind of how to connect and how to kind of work on different things in that part, then I wanted to be able to push them on that part. And then, like my other guys, Chris Force, is really good about player development and and breaking down the player and having the kind of a model of kind of how we want to be able to do that, and then throwing it into the kind of identity we would do. It's one of the reasons why those two guys, particularly, like now as leading the program at Missouri Baptist and doing so well, is because of the fact that they kind of have an alignment of kind of what their identities were. And my job was to make sure that we manage that privately so that it would affect our players better and and make sure that we're doing those things that align the exact same way. And so, what I what what we want to do is that we wanted to make sure that okay, hey, this is the idea that we wanted to be able to get to. And then what we want to do is that we want to pump to our players every day that you are the standard. The one thing that I never that and that you would never hear me say is that we need to go into a game and we need to match another team's intensity. I think that's that means that you're not the standard, that you're still chasing the standard, right? What we wanted to do is that teams had to adjust to us. That when we came in, we was gonna be the toughest team, we was gonna be the most physical team, we wanted to be the hardest team that you had to prepare for, both offensively and defensively, that you had to adjust to us. We wanted to be different than anybody else that you played, and then whenever our players step on the floor, they understood that they had a certain probability that they had to expect, or excuse me, a certain expectation that you had to stay with at this every single time, no matter what, no matter if you were a star player or you're not a star player, that if you wasn't meaning that full, then you may you had to get subbed out. That every single time you step on the floor, we had certain goals that we had to achieve. And every single time we stepped on the stepped on the floor that we need to do that, whether that was in film, whether that was on the track, whether that was in the weight room, whether that was in the classroom, whether that was in our daily conversations, our daily meetings, one-on-one meetings, team meetings, whatever that was, we need to make sure that we had those certain expectations every single time that we did it. And it that then turns into success. That then turns into championship standards, that then turns into uh the people that you want to associate yourself with. And then you're also in the recruiting process, you're meeting really good pla people that you're not dealing with off-the-court issues and headaches and everything else in that part that every day you have to be to go back and fix. That's never going to create championship cultures on that.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

No, you're spot on. It's that consistency day in and day out in everything that you do that creates that. So I love that. My final question before I turn it back over to Thomas is what's one truth you wish every coach, player, or program understood about building something that lasts well beyond one season so that you can build a championship culture?

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Honesty. Right? I think honesty is it's it's a forbidden word in today's world. We want honesty. Like I would prefer the way to work honesty rather than provocations. You know, I think a lot of times what people don't like to be done is that they don't want to be get called out today's game. And the reason why the portal is so high, that the administrators are so sensitive about everything right now, and and the kind of the way that the world is, we don't necessarily respect honesty, although that we say that we want honesty, right? And what I look at is that back and say, I at the end of the day, honesty has to be the forefront of everything. You gotta be told, hey, you're not doing something right, and that it has to change. Uh, if you're taking over a program that's never won before, a program that doesn't understand what success looks like, understands what it looks like, tastes like, feels like uh there has to be like an honesty question that has to happen on that part, right? Like you have to have an honest conversation at that deal. Instead of saying, hey, okay, well now this, this, this, and this, this has to change for us to be take the first step. You know, we've got to make sure that we're aligned and put our players in the best situation they need to be. But you got to get everybody on the exact same page. And sometimes right now, I think that's the hardest thing to be able to do is get everybody on the exact same page where there's trust value that that go together. Because then what happens is if you don't have it and everything is separated, then when you have this honest conversation, you know, people's feelings get put in them put in the uh, you know, they're in a court. And That's when the program goes down. And then what happens is that even right now you're seeing the college athletics, is that yeah, you made a cultural change, but that doesn't mean that it necessarily is a fix, right? Like there's a reason why the program hasn't been successful. And what we want to be able to do is that how you be able to create the long-lasting professionalism part of that deal is that you look at what happened prior to, what worked, what didn't work, and then where is it the place that we need to make sure that we're really put or focused in on so that we can step back and say, okay, hey, this this database here tells us that this didn't work or this did work. So let's build off of it or let's change it. And and and I think that's where a lot of times working these I's and t's, they if they really have a correspondence together, is that when you're working together in a exact same alliance, that you're gonna have some tough times and you're gonna have some some good times, but understanding that you're trying to take the standard up, and that comes with tough conversations and tough disciplines, tough remands, you want to make sure that everybody's in the exact same alliance and everybody works together in the exact same alliance, and that we're not working all over this left side, right side, and we're only crossing the paths a couple times. We want to make sure that we're working together on the exact same page every single time, that we have a have a tough conversation that is understood. And from players to to staff to to to to whoever else is gonna be involved in that part, we need to have everybody on the exact same page. I think that's the only way that it's really kind of get created on that part.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

I think that's so valuable. I think you hit on something that I think is so important is how do you establish that culture where you can have truth and honest conversations because you're absolutely right, that is what is missing. So, Thomas, take it away.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Right on, coach. We're gonna get into segment three advice across stages. If you could sit down with a young coach that's just starting out, someone who wants to build what you've built, what do they need to understand about developing programs, people, and players?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah, you know, you know, I think that's uh that's a that's a that's a big question, right? Because I think, you know, if you'd asked me this five years ago, I think that uh probably my answer would have been totally different. In today's society, I think there's a lot of different things. One, I think you had to be quick to adapt. You know, the one thing that for me when I first got got got into coaching, it was in grassroots. And I got kind of ridiculed for coaching grassroots for so long because it was like, well, you're just coaching grassroots basketball. Like, what do you know about you know how to be able to handle all this other different stuff? And and I'd say the one thing about grassroots was it taught me how to adapt really quick. Uh huh. You gotta be you better be able to think on your feet really fast, especially you're playing like Nike UIBL and you're playing with some top-tier athletes, but you're playing five games in the weekend that's gonna be five different occasions and five different outlooks, you better learn how to adapt fast and be able to know how to think quick on your feet and and and and not have to be to sit back and really kind of overanalyze it, but know how to adjust and make sure that you're you know you're learning how to in-game manage. I think that's that's that's big for especially young coaches, and then also understand your temperaments. You know, I had a I had a really good friend of mine, he's head of officials now, big time official. They called me one time and said, Preston, hey, you've got to, you know, I was young and dumb and just full of energy, and I was popping all over the place. It's like, hey man, sometimes how you handle certain situations, you've got to make sure that you handle it properly, that you just can't come in hot on everything. Not everything's important, you know. Listen and with one ear and and watch with one eye. Uh so therefore, then you're not just always taking everything to heart, you know. Not everything's that you know that that serious. Really, really key in, focus on the parts that you really, really are true to you, that you really want your program to look like, and make sure that you, you know, you can take a little bit of this program, that program, this program, and try to mod it, model that, but model that to your own self-identity, to who you really are. You're not going to be Bill Self, Tomizo, you know, Chris Calipiri. You know, what the one thing I say about all three of those guys, do they do it right? Absolutely. But are they right? Absolutely not. Uh no coach is right and no coach is wrong. It's what they believe in, it's what they see. You know, all three of those guys have been very successful and they've all won championships. But at the exact same time, though, they're all do it different ways, right? Caliper's way of doing it is completely different than Enzo's, completely different than Bill Sells. But they all three have great success. And so, what I think for a young guy is coming into the program is find out who you are, what you're want to be, and how you want to make sure that you mold that. But then also two, surround yourself with people that are completely different than you that provide the strength of a weakness area that you are weak in. Right. If you're not a if you're not a strong recruiter, find you a go-getter. But find you a guy that's on align to find the recruits to the people that you really want to be around and that you want to be to coach. You know, don't don't recruit outside who you are, recruit inside of who you are, right? I think a lot of times coaches, youth-wise, they want to get all this talent, but they don't know how to manage the people. They don't know how to manage those people, and they don't know how to manage whenever they have conflicts in that part. And so therefore, then your you know, your you know, your smudge is always turning all the time. You know, what I found out over 22 years of coaching basketball is you know, you, you know, you graduate, you know, you you graduate towards the people that you really want to self-identify with. And the that type of player is who you want to make sure that your model self after every single time you have a new parcouring class. So therefore, then your retentions are high. You know, and then and and and then also too that you're honest with them again, so that when you have these tough conversations, that the retentions are not going to just go out the door and say, okay, I don't want to do that. Um, that you have to have a tough conversation that, okay, hey, I got you. And then also, too, are you humble enough to be able to identify yourself with, hey, I made a mistake, also too. I'm okay with that. I can do my push-ups in practice. You know, I if I'm gonna hold a player to a standard to that, that you're not past that standard yourself, that you can self-identify with that. But making sure that you're you know you know, you're gonna teach what you know and understand, and that you're humble enough to be able to go back and reformat what it is you need to be able to learn more of. And then when you walk in there that you're confident, you're walking in that you understand what it's going to be, and that you're humble enough to be able to reach reach outside resources when you're not for sure exactly what that's going to look like on that part. I mean, you see some of these top-tier coaches, sometimes they reach out to other coaches to try to identify something or learn something more, never get bigger than that. The one thing I think for me as a head coach that I like to think that I've never lost passion of is how to be an assistant still. So the floors need to be clean. I'm the one cleaning the floors. If the locker room needs to get picked up, I need to pick the locker room up. But I'm gonna hold my staff and my players to the exact same accountability on that.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Right on. You're a master recruiter coach. They mentioned that previously about if you're not a if you're not a good recruiter, find somebody. In today's environment with transfers, the transfer portal and NIL, what should coaches and programs know about building relationships and recruiting with integrity?

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Man, oh boy, that's a big question. Honestly, man, I think there's a lot of it right now that you can, I mean, that's probably a whole other hour conversation with that right now, right? Like, you know, of what your identity is, right? I think what it comes down to is when you're looking into the portal and through the high school and the transfers and you know, the prep schools, and everything else that goes along with this thing. And, you know, now you got you know conversations with not just AU coaches and high school coaches, but now with agents and everything else that goes along with that too, and players and persons and family members and everything else that goes along with it. I at the end of the day, I think what it really comes down to is that you still gotta be to still recruit what you're comfortable with. You know, like again, I use Ben McComba as his perfect example, man. He goes through a strategic listen of how he wants to personally identify that player and how it's gonna fit his program. You know, Matt Painter at Purdue, the exact same way. Mark Fhew at Gonzaga, it's the exact same way. Sam, you know, uh Kelvin Sampson at at Houston, the exact same way. I those four guys, in my mind, probably have done it the best in this model because they've always maintained constant, constant success because they they still stay true to who they are, what they are, and how they are. Meaning the fact that it's not just the what, it's not just because you're a big-time name, big time player. Do you model the things they identify as their value that identify that's only create their value to the culture? And so, like looking at these players, you know, the players right now, how much baggage is it coming with the player? Right. Some coaches who are okay with that, some coaches are not okay with that. You know, the player right now, you really want to get recruited, lower your baggage, you know, increase your value to you, increase your your marketability to you. Are you gonna be a guy that's gonna be consistent? Are you a guy that's gonna be every single day that you know that you're gonna bring to your lunch pill? Can you take tough coaching? Are you willing to get coached? On bad days, it's not always gonna be pieces of cream, like on your recruiting visits, you're gonna see the the glimpse and glamour of everything. But then the the reality of the fact of it is you want to be able to pull back the curtain and see who the wizard is, you know, and you know, pull back and see what the true identity is gonna be. And I think a lot of your good coaches are gonna showcase that first, right? So before you actually get there, that hey, yeah, this is gonna be great, but I'm also gonna coach you hard. And can you handle this? And are you gonna be all right with that? I think that comes up with his upbreaking and who he's been around and how he's been coached prior to. And so I think that's a that's a big thing in this, especially in this market now, because it's kind of hard because you're speed dating, you know, you're speed dating these kids anymore. Um, you know, you're not really getting to know them anymore, you're speed dating. You're you're getting in there quick and you're trying to find out. And then if you're assistant, hey, hey coach, I got one. Uh, but do you really know the kid? Right. You got a 30-second window with them. And some of these power fours are now, you know, they're speed dating their agents, they're not even really speed dating the kid, right? You know, you know, I mean, like if I'm power four, this kid's asking for this amount of money. Do well, am I in that market with that kid or not? Yeah, do I have that amount of money to be able to spend or not spend? And you know, you're a lower level, then you're really kind of fishing for needles in a haystack. And so I think you really got to be able to find the climate of where you're gonna end up being. I think there's some programs that can still maintain their climate and maintain their success and maintain exactly who their identity is going to be. And I think those are the ones that right now that are being more competitively competitive every single year because they stay true to the alliance, you know, and it falls aligned with what has worked. I think it still goes back to the exact thing we talked about. Is administrators, administrations, they are important in the entire process. If the administration's on board with what the coach's values and the vision is going to be, and the coach is on board with the with the administration values, and everybody's identifying together as whole, then yes, you can have success, especially when you're building a bad program up or you're maintaining a great program to maintain, and and to take that great program and then elevate it up to another level, right? That still has to go exact same identified. If it's not, then it's it becomes too hard of a battle uh every day. Then you become a deal where you're up and down, you know, you're basically working as a heartbeat, you're not working as a status maintaining the same going up, you're just going up and down, up and down, up and down.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

No doubt, no doubt. Coach, I mean that you're just giving us a clinic. There's so much great information. We're gonna turn it over to Aaron for segment four, which is the rapid fire round. Aaron, take it away.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Okay, so I'm gonna start a sentence and you're gonna finish it for me.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

So okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

This is fun. Okay, discipline equals. Discipline equals.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Discipline equals standard. Faith equals. Excellence. Uh your identity. Leadership equals everydayness, being consistent and being the one that uh is willing to get down the grunts with those individuals, that you're not above everybody else, that you're going to be in the mud with them.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Legacy equals your impact of did you create players' identity to be better men every day?

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Awesome. And what is one thing you would never compromise on?

SPEAKER_00 35:08

My identity of who I am as a faith and as a man. My standard is a standard of who I want to be every day. I want to make sure that my my daughter and my son have somebody that they can model after, and my wife has somebody that she can be proud of.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

I love that. And if you could put a billboard up for all the young coaches and players today, what would your billboard message be?

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Do something today. You didn't do yesterday's on preview for tomorrow. And what you're not changing, you're choosing.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Yeah, that is powerful. That is so powerful. Okay, Thomas, you're back.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Awesome coach. Before we wrap up, we always like to give our guests an opportunity to kind of open the floor. Is there something we didn't touch on today that you feel coaches, players, families, or programs need to hear about building a championship culture with integrity?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah, stay true to who you are. Stay true to your identity. You know, stay true to what your core values are going to be. If you're not for sure about what those are, really spend time on that. Spend time on who you really want to be around. Make sure that you hire correct. Make sure that you, you know, that you when you're taking a job, that you understand the the ins and outs of that. But really stay true to who you really are, no matter what. In the face of a giant, make sure that you stand true to be. Understand that you belong in that room, and that no matter what that it is, that you you belong and that and that you're good about what it's going to end up being. Never have self-doubt as a player, as a coach, of any of that part of that deal. You know, understand that you what you're doing it, as long as you know that you're doing it right and that you can sleep well at night, that you did it right, and that you can live with whatever the results are going to be from that.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Got it. You went from the rapid fire to the hot seat now. Top three sports movies of all time to coach.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Oh man. Uh man, somebody asked me this question. Remember the Titans is up there. Okay. Remember the Titans is up there for me. Blue chips is another one. I think blue chips frightened, especially in today's world. Yeah. Blue chips fits today's world. Like, no doubt. Because of the fact that kind of going back to that exact same thing, Coach sold a soul. And he went against the grain.

unknown 37:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

And he said he'll never do that. And with his integrity, he walked away from it. That's it. Um, and and that, and that really, I just watched it the other day, and and I think that's big. And then Coach Carter. Because in the day, Coach Carter created the standard. He didn't care about what it's going to be. He stayed 10 to it, and he was building those men to be better, better men, better, better people, and not to be satisfied with the surroundings where you're at. And so remember the Titans. That is an all-time great, you know, blue chips and Coach Carter, I think, would be my part of my three.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

I love it. Yeah, blue chips was way ahead of its time, right? With Nick Noble T. That was amazing. And Coach Carter was just it was it was right on point. And I'm glad that you didn't do all basketball. You know, we get like we get basketball coaches, we get former NBA and NFL guys, and they always kind of stick to their sport. But you got to have an honorable mention of Hoosers in there, too. That was always uh a feel good movie. Yeah. No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. There in one other movie, too, was Glory Road. I think that's another one, also, too. Which is. Hoozers and Glory Road. Glory Road? Yes, yes, yes. That was a great one. You got to throw Hoozers and Glory Road in there, man. That's those are those are two big ones.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

No doubt. No doubt. Coach, where can people connect with you and learn more about your approach of coaching and leadership? Whether it's a website, an email, or anything that you want to share.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Yeah, social media. You know, I'm on I'm on Instagram and Twitter at Coach P. Ingram. You know, follow me there. Facebook is just my regular name. You know, those are probably my hot spots right now that I have. Follow me up, send me a message, send me a DM. I'm always open. I'm always big about helping young guys get into the business and teaching them the goods and bads about college basketball and comparison to high school to college. You know, I think those are big parts of that deal. But also, too, just impacts of have a way that I can help. At the end of the day, I think as coaches, if we're doing things right, you're in the business to be a servant and to be a servant. And I want to be to serve, and I want to be to help and provide a pathway. If I feel like I can't make that accomplishment, that's going to be a that's detrimental to me. But I want to make sure that I'm a servant on that part. So I'm always available to anybody out there, but definitely send me a message and let me know.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Awesome. Appreciate that. I mean, that is incredible, coach. Right now, you know, we talk about how social media could be a blessing and a curse. But when we meet coaches like yourself and other people in our network, they just want to be be that, give back, be of service, because we don't want to see these athletes make the same mistakes that we made or the same mistakes that we've seen around us, because you know, an involved an impulsive decision or a careless decision now could cost a young man or woman a lot. Yeah. Team, if this conversation challenged you, inspired you, or made you think differently, share it. Send it to a young coach trying to build something, a player who wants to understand what championship culture looks like, or a parent choosing the right program. Also, coach connect with Coach Preston and learn more about his approach. 28 years of experience, 14 championships as a coach, a national championship as a player. This is what developing people and programs with integrity looks like. This is the standard podcast, and this movement only grows when we raise the standard together. Talent fades, truth endures. Truth endures. Let's raise the bar, let's rebuild the culture, and let's become the standard. We'll see you next time. Aaron Coach, thank you so much for your time. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate having me on.