The Groups You Don't Forget

Every coach at some point in their career has had one. A group that, when you look back, made the job feel less like a job. A group that reminded you why you got into coaching and makes the long hours worth it.

I've been fortunate. The five seniors I coached in 2024 were as fun a group as I've ever been around. Truly one of the most fun seasons I’ve probably ever had coaching. I loved Monday film sessions because that group wanted to get better. I enjoyed showing up to Tuesday practices ready to compete. We had some special groups during my time at Decatur Central and as an assistant coach at Franklin Central.

You don't always see it clearly when you're in the middle of it, managing emotional teenagers and losing sleep over the next opponent. But time has a way of making it obvious. It’s really hard to appreciate in the moment as a coach.

I thought about this because a group just finished their careers at Purdue, and I'm not sure we’ve processed what we truly had for the past four years.

Fletcher Loyer. Trey Kaufman-Renn. Braden Smith.

Those three left something behind that's going to take some time to fully appreciate. Braden Smith broke the NCAA all-time assists record, a record that had stood for roughly 30 years. Fletcher Loyer rewrote the program's three-point shooting history. And when people debate the list of impactful big men in Purdue's long and storied history, Kaufman-Renn is going to be in that conversation.

But here's what makes it stick with me as a coach: they did it in an environment that was working against everything they represented.

We're living in the NIL era. The transfer portal is open for business year-round. Loyalty to a program is increasingly treated like an outdated idea. Any one of those three could have packed up last spring and cashed a bigger check somewhere else. Nobody would have blamed them. That's just the world we're operating in now.

They stayed anyway.

They stayed because they cared about each other. They cared about the program. They wanted to finish what they started, together. That's not something you can generate easily. You can't manufacture it. It must develop organically through years of ups and downs. And when it does happen, you better recognize how rare it is.

One of the hardest things in life is to recognize when you are in the “good ole’ days”. We get so caught up in the day to day issues, the frustrations, the emotions. But later, when the dust settles and you have time to truly reflect, you realize…damn, that was a hell of a ride.

If you're coaching a group right now that makes practices competitive, that holds each other accountable, that genuinely enjoys being around each other, stop and notice it. Don't get so caught up in the next game, the next practice plan, the next headache, that you miss what's right in front of you. Special groups don't announce themselves. You usually figure out you had one after they're gone.

And if you've already had yours, recognize it. Reach out to former players or teams that you enjoyed coaching. Remind them of the memories you had.

I'd love to hear about a group that has stuck with you. Whether it was recent or decades ago, reach out and tell me about them in an email.

Landing the Job: What Coach Hack and I Learned From Going Through the Process

Coach Matt Hackenberg and I sat down recently to talk about something that’s important this offseason - how to approach job interviews. Not just get in the room, but walk out knowing you gave yourself a real shot. We've both been through the process at different stages in our careers, and I think there's a lot coaches can take from what we talked about as the offseason job carousel starts to go into full swing.

The first thing we agreed on is that interviewing is a skill. That sounds obvious, but the implication is important: it can be developed. There are genuinely good coaches who keep missing opportunities because they haven't put the work into this part of their career. And there are average coaches who keep landing jobs because they have. That's a frustrating reality, but it's also an encouraging one if you're willing to invest in getting better at it.

Nerves are part of the deal - don't fight them

I can remember sitting down for my first real interview at 25 and feeling like the walls were closing in. Nine important people on the interview board staring back at me. Coach Hack's experience was similar. The nerves are going to show up. What matters is how you relate to them. If you try to pretend they don't exist, they'll catch up with you. The better approach is to just acknowledge that this is a high-stakes situation and let yourself feel it. It's like coaching a big game. If you're not a little nervous, something might actually be wrong. One thing that helped me early on was taking interviews for jobs I didn't necessarily want just to get the reps. When the stakes feel lower, your answers come easier, and you start to understand that a lot of the pressure is self-generated. Those reps are invaluable when the job you really want opens up.

The portfolio is everything

This was the centerpiece of our conversation and the thing I feel most strongly about. Most coaches prepare for interviews by trying to anticipate specific questions and rehearse specific answers. That's not wrong, but it's not the foundation I'd build on. What I'd build on is a real, comprehensive coaching portfolio - a physical document that puts your entire philosophy down on paper. Your beliefs about player development, staff building, academics, feeder programs, parent expectations, summer leagues, fundraising, all of it. When you go through the discipline of writing that out, something important happens: you actually understand yourself as a coach. You stop guessing at what you believe and start knowing it. And when you know it, you can get to it from any direction. It doesn't matter how a question is framed - you're not trying to answer a specific question, you're pulling from a clear body of thought that already exists in your head.

The physical portfolio matters too. Find out who's on the interview committee - call the school and ask directly and print a copy for every person on that panel with their name and title on the cover. Let them thumb through it while you talk. When that thing hits the table and they feel the weight of it, it says something before you open your mouth. As a young coach without a long track record, it might be the single best thing you can do to separate yourself.

Getting in the room in the first place

We talked a lot about what actually gets you an interview when your resume isn't going to float to the top of a stack on its own. The honest answer is relationships. It's not what you know, it's who you know, and that's not a cynical observation - it's just true. Coach Hack mentioned that his first head coaching job came because his mentor connected him to the right people in that district. The school already had their eyes on someone else. That guy passed. But he was in position because someone vouched for him with people who mattered.

If you don’t have a mentor like that what do you do? How can you network? Go to coaching clinics. Introduce yourself to athletic directors and principals when you visit opposing schools. Let your head coach know you want to be a head coach someday and ask them how to get there. If people don't know what your goals are, they can't help you reach them. Coach Hack made this point at the end of our conversation - people who are a stage or two ahead of you in this profession generally want to bring someone along. They want to be part of your break. But they can't do that if they don't know what you're after.

Frame everything forward

One of the clearest pieces of advice we landed on is something I'd call framing. Interview committees do not want to hear how bad things are where you currently are. They don't want to know about your AD situation, your parent drama, or why you need to get out. What they want to hear is why you want to be there and what you're going to build. Every answer, even the difficult ones about a losing record or a tough situation, needs to be pointed forward. You can acknowledge adversity. You should acknowledge it. But the story has to move toward what you learned, how you adapted, and why it made you a better coach. Complaints signal risk. Framing signals maturity. The panel is always asking some version of the question: is this person going to be a problem here? Every answer you give either eases that concern or feeds it.

Say enough, then stop

We both admitted to this one. When you're nervous, you overtalk. You feel like your answer wasn't enough, so you keep going, and you end up saying less than you did before you started rambling. Brevity is genuinely underrated in an interview setting. Answer the question, make your point, and stop. Silence feels uncomfortable when you're sitting across from a panel, but it reads as composure to the people watching you. They will ask a follow-up if they want more. Don't volunteer your weaknesses, don't pre-emptively fill gaps that haven't been opened yet, and don't confuse length with substance. A famous coach once told me “brevity is the key to life”, and I've never found a situation where that didn't apply.

Know the school, not just the job

One of the stories I shared was about a coaching friend who went into an interview at a small traditional program and couldn't name the teams in their conference when asked. That's a likely exit from contention. The people on that panel care deeply about their community. Knowing their conference, their history, their other successful sports programs, who their principal and superintendent are - none of that is going to get you the job by itself, but not knowing it can absolutely cost you the job. Do the homework. It shows you're serious about this particular place, not just any place.

Know your audience on the panel

This is something a lot of coaches miss. When you're thinking about how to answer questions, you're probably thinking about basketball. But that panel is not made up entirely of basketball people. The principal cares about discipline and culture. The counselor cares about academics. The football coach wants to know you believe in multi-sport athletes and won't create conflicts. The athletic director has operational concerns you haven't even thought about yet. A great answer about your zone defense doesn't move the needle for most of the people in that room. Think about who's sitting across from you and make sure your answers have something in them for all of them.

Have your questions ready

When they turn it over to you at the end, always have something prepared. I keep my questions in the portfolio so I'm not scrambling to remember them. I want to know about a sport-specific space for our program, control over my coaching staff, and scheduling flexibility. Those three things tell me a lot about how much autonomy I'll actually have. I always ask something like “what do you love about this place?”. It's a simple question, but the answers (or the hesitation in giving them) tell you a great deal about whether this is somewhere you actually want to be. If they struggle to tell you why the place is special, that's information you need before you accept anything.

Prepare before the opportunity opens, not after

I'll close with the thing Coach Hack and I both kept coming back to: the coaches who are ready when the moment arrives are the ones who didn't wait for the moment to start preparing. I get messages all the time from coaches saying a job they've always wanted just opened up, can I help them get ready. And the honest answer is that I can help them, but the foundation has to already exist. The portfolio, the philosophy, the network - those take time to build. If your dream job opened tomorrow, would you be ready to walk in that room next week and compete? If the answer is no, that's where your energy should be going right now.

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?

MICHIGAN - “Chicago Split”

Shared Resources: Duke’s Switching 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?”

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

That’s a wrap on Episode 37 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.