Last week, I had the opportunity to go on Talkin’ Hoops with IndyStar sports reporter Kyle Neddenriep. We discussed the AI seeded tournament bracket, my coaching journey, and the Game Shots newsletter you’re reading here. It’s always a pleasure to talk to Kyle - he does a great job of covering Indiana high school sports.

Transferring: Opportunity or Instability?

We've watched it happen at every level of the game, and if you've been coaching long enough, you saw it coming. The NBA gave us the blueprint. Players deciding that loyalty to a franchise mattered less than stacking the deck in their favor, teaming up with other stars, chasing rings. Hard to blame them, honestly. These are professionals with short windows to earn life-changing money and compete for championships. At the end of the day, players’ legacies are measured by rings. The logic makes sense.

Then college caught the fever. The transfer portal opened the floodgates, and NIL poured gasoline on it. A 21-year-old with two years of eligibility left and a $500,000 offer on the table somewhere else? We’d all probably take the money. Seriously. That kind of financial opportunity doesn't come around twice for most people, and it would be foolish to pretend otherwise just to honor some tradition of staying put.

But here's where it starts to get uncomfortable. Because now we're watching that same mindset filter down to parents of fifteen and sixteen-year-olds, and I'm not sure we're asking the right questions about what that actually does to a kid.

I've seen players attend four different high schools in four years. Four sets of teammates. Four coaching staffs. Four different locker rooms to navigate, social circles to break into. And in almost every one of those situations, the move was framed as an opportunity. A better program. A coach who would develop them more. A school with better exposure. The reasoning always sounds reasonable from the outside. But when you look at the kid in year four, you have to wonder what it all added up to.

Development is real. Coaching quality matters. Some programs genuinely are better fits than others, and I want to be clear that I'm not here to tell parents that transferring is always wrong or that every kid who changes schools is being done a disservice. That's not what I believe. There are kids who transfer and flourish, who needed a different environment or a coach who saw them differently, and the move turned out to be exactly right.

What I am asking is whether we are honest with ourselves about the reason for the move. Because there's a difference between a kid who genuinely isn't safe, isn't being coached well, or is in a situation that's actively damaging to them, and a kid whose parent has decided that the grass looks greener at the next school. Those are not the same thing, and we don't always treat them that way.

Are we teaching the right things? Things like learning to deal with a coach who doesn't always see things your way. Working through a rough stretch with teammates who count on you. Figuring out how to compete and contribute even when the situation isn't tailored perfectly to you. Those are not small things. Those are the things that show up years later when life puts a kid in a difficult spot and they have to decide whether to gut it out or find the nearest exit.

I worry that every time we pull a kid from a program the moment friction appears, we may be solving a short-term problem by creating a longer one. The message, intended or not, is that when something gets hard or stops feeling right, you move on. I'm not convinced that's the lesson we want basketball to be teaching.

Again, I want to be fair. Sometimes moving is the right call. Sometimes a family has done the hard work of evaluating a situation honestly and concluded that a change truly serves the kid. I respect that process when it's genuine.

But I'd ask every parent considering a transfer to sit with one question before making the move: are we leaving because this situation is genuinely bad for our child, or are we leaving because it isn't perfect? Because imperfect is where most of life happens. And learning to compete within it might be the most valuable thing the game has left to teach.

My last thought: With all this going on, it’s a difficult environment to coach in. I know a lot of coaches that are walking on egg shells. They don’t want to be “too hard” or risk a parent or player getting upset and darting out the door. Have a talented freshman? You better bet there are five other schools in the background talking to the parents and critiquing why their kid isn’t starting or playing more minutes. It can be a challenge to navigate as a coach. What’s best for the team vs. what’s best for each individual kid?

I'm curious where other coaches stand on this. Are you seeing transfers increase at the high school level in your area? And when you look at the kids who've transferred into or out of your program, what patterns have you noticed? I'd genuinely like to hear your perspective.

When the Season Ends, the Work Begins

Everywhere this week, a buzzer is going off and a season is ending. Maybe it already happened to you. Maybe it's coming in the next few days. Either way, there's a moment every coach knows well, that quiet bus ride home or the drive back alone after everyone has cleared out of the gym, where the season just stops and you're left sitting with all of it.

Most coaches let that feeling slowly fade over the next few weeks. They decompress, they take a break, they tell themselves they'll get to the offseason work when things settle down. And by the time they do, half of what was so clear and urgent in that moment is gone. The details get fuzzy. The memory of what actually happened starts to soften and rearrange itself in ways that are a little more comfortable than the truth.

Don't let that happen.

The best thing you can do for next season is start right now, while the season is still sitting in your chest. That feeling you have, whether it's frustration, disappointment, or just a hunger to do something better, is information. And it's most useful while it's fresh.

Grab a notebook and start writing before you've had time to rationalize anything. What did your team actually struggle with in the moments that mattered most? Not what you wish had happened, but what you watched happen over and over again that you never quite fixed. What did you keep telling yourself you'd address and never did? Write it down while you still remember the specifics, the games, the situations.

Then turn that same honesty on yourself. This is the part most coaches skip or rush past, and it's the part that matters most. How were you to coach for? Were you clear with your players about expectations, or did you expect them to read your mind and then hold them accountable for not doing it? Did you put your assistants in positions to contribute, or did you run everything through yourself because it was easier? Were you the same person in February that you were in November, or did the pressure of the season slowly turn you into someone different?

That audit is uncomfortable. Do it anyway.

Once you've been honest about what the season actually was, set up your meetings before the window closes. Sit down with your staff while everything is still vivid. Have a real conversation, not a blame session and not a feel-good recap, but an honest evaluation of how you all worked together and what each person needs to do better. Then meet with your players, especially the ones who are coming back. Every kid who is going to be in your program next year deserves a conversation where you tell them what you saw, what you believe they're capable of, and what the expectations are going forward.

Those conversations do something important. They build the foundation for next season before next season ever starts.

From there, build your offseason calendar now while you're motivated enough to be detailed about it. What are your priorities for skill development? What does your returning group need most? What did you lose from this year's team that has to be replaced, not just in talent but in leadership and habits? What does your schedule look like, and how does it match up against what you actually want to accomplish before the first day of practice next year?

The coaches who show up in November wishing they had done more in the offseason are almost always the coaches who waited until May to start thinking about it. By then, the urgency is gone. The specifics of what went wrong are hazy. The motivation that was sitting right there, raw and available in March, got set aside until it quietly disappeared.

You won't always feel this ready to be honest with yourself. Use it while you have it.

The offseason starts now. Make it count.

The Scouting Report is your weekly dose of resources that can help your coaching. Plays of the Week, videos, drills, etc. What’s the old joke? The best coaches are just the best thieves?

Zone Set vs. 1-3-1

Zone Set vs. 1-2-2 “DOUBLE STACK”

Shared Resources: Michigan’s Rim Defense

We’ve all gotten that one message from a parent that makes you pause, blink twice, and say… “Did they really just send that?”

If you’ve got a funny, confusing, or just plain wild message sitting in your inbox, send it in to [email protected]. We’ll feature the best ones anonymously - names and personal info will be removed.

Let’s remind each other we’re not alone in this coaching journey.

That’s a wrap on Episode 33 of Game Shots. Thank you for subscribing.

My mission has always been, and will always be, to support coaches around the world who love the game and want to keep getting better.