MALIN & LUCAS MORRISON – OWNERS OF THE RED ROSE THUNDER PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM – EPISODE 1277

Website – https://tbthoops.com/about-the-tournament/

Email – redrosethunder2020@gmail.com

Twitter/X – @WarReadyhoops

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Malin and Lucas Morrison are the mother-and-son ownership team behind Red Rose Thunder, a professional basketball organization based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They purchased the franchise in 2020 and have built it into a respected program that has competed in professional and pro-am leagues while helping players pursue opportunities around the world. Malin, who grew up playing basketball in Sweden, serves as the team’s head coach and became one of the first women to lead a team in The Basketball Tournament. Lucas became the youngest general manager in TBT history at age 20, overcoming the challenges of autism and Crohn’s disease to build a career in the sport he loves. In 2026, the Morrisons will help lead Red Rose War Ready, a partnership between Red Rose Thunder and Auburn alumni team War Ready, as it competes for TBT’s $2 million winner-take-all championship.

On this episode Mike talks with Malin & Lucas about the details of owning the Red Rose Thunder, a professional basketball team. They delve into their remarkable journey, from acquiring the team in 2020 to navigating the challenges of the TBT (The Basketball Tournament). Malin, as a pioneering female head coach, and Lucas, the youngest general manager in TBT history, share insights on overcoming personal adversities and achieving success in a male-dominated arena. The episode underscores the significance of teamwork, resilience, and the pivotal role of analytics in shaping their strategic approach to roster building and game preparation as they join forces with the Auburn alumni of War Ready for TBT 2026.

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Take a few notes as you listen to this episode with Malin and Lucas Morrison from the Red Rose Thunder.

What We Discuss with Malin & Lucas Morrison

• The unique ownership structure of Red Rose Thunder and their mother-son dynamic
• Breaking barriers by being one of the first women to lead a team in the TBT
• Lucas’ journey from being a young general manager to overcoming personal challenges
• The partnership between Red Rose Thunder and Auburn alumni Team War Ready aims for the TBT championship
• The team’s commitment to fostering a family-like atmosphere among players is crucial for developing camaraderie and trust on the court
• The financial realities of owning a minor league professional basketball team
• Putting together a roster for TBT and the scouting that goes into it

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THANKS, MALIN & LUCAS MORRISON

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TRANSCRIPT FOR MALIN & LUCAS MORRISON – OWNERS OF THE RED ROSE THUNDER PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM – EPISODE 1277

[00:00:00] Narrator: The Hoop Heads Podcast is brought to you by Head Start Basketball

[00:00:20] Lucas Morrison: And I’ll never forget, after all the hard work of getting into TBT and everything it does, I’ll never forget looking at the scoreboard and seeing our logo on the scoreboard and the video on the thing, and I just start getting a little emotional. I had to log back in because we got a game to win. But that moment is one of those moments you’ll never forget.

I’ll be, like, 80 telling my great-grandchildren or grandchildren about seeing the logo on the TBT scoreboard

[00:00:43] Mike Klinzing: Malin and Lucas Morrison are the mother and son ownership team behind Red Rose Thunder, a professional basketball organization based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They purchased the franchise in 2020 and have built it into a respected program that has competed in professional and pro-am leagues while helping players pursue opportunities around the world.

Malin, who grew up playing basketball in Sweden, serves as the team’s head coach and became one of the first women to lead a team in the basketball tournament. Lucas became the youngest general manager in TBT history at the age of 20, overcoming the challenges of autism and Crohn’s disease to build a career in the sport he loves.

In 2026, the Morrisons will help lead Red Rose War Ready, a partnership between Red Rose Thunder and Auburn alumni team War Ready as it competes for the TBT’s $2 million winner-take-all championship.

GiveWithHoops is the first platform turning basketball analytics into fundraising impact. Every stat tells a story, and now every story drives sponsorship, engagement, and team growth. Programs nationwide are transforming basketball stats into funding power. Learn to use performance data to attract sponsors, engage fans, and raise more with every play.

GiveWithHoops will help you raise three times more money for your program as their stat-based pledges consistently outperform traditional fundraisers. Visit givewithhoops.com/hoop-heads-podcast to learn more and take your fundraising to the next level. GiveWithHoops.

[00:02:16] Joel Wallace: Hi, this is Joel Wallace, men’s basketball associate head coach at LeTourneau University, and you’re listening to the Hoop Heads podcast.

[00:02:25] Mike Klinzing: Are you or an athlete you know planning to go D3? Check out the D3 Recruiting Playbook from D3 Direct. Their playbook gives you a clear step-by-step roadmap to the recruiting process, what coaches value, key milestones from early high school through application season, and how to build a targeted list of schools that fit your needs.

The playbook demystifies researching D3 programs and how to stand out without chasing every camp or showcase. The modules cover things like writing emails to coaches, building an effective highlight tape, using social media well, planning camps and visits, and navigating application strategy. You’ll get templates, checklists, and an outreach plan to communicate confidently, learn how to compare financial packages, and avoid common missteps.

By the end, you’ll have a prioritized school list and a decision framework you can use to land your best fit opportunity. Click on the link in the show notes to get your D3 Recruiting Playbook from D3 Direct.

Take a few notes as you listen to this episode with Malin and Lucas Morrison from the Red Rose Thunder.

Hello, and welcome to the Hoop heads podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without my co-host Jason Sunkel tonight, but I am pleased to welcome from the Red Rose Thunder, Malin and Lucas Morrison. Malin and Lucas, welcome to the Hoop Heads pod, guys.

[00:03:48] Lucas Morrison: Thank you for having us. Thank you for having

[00:03:50] Malin Morrison: us. We are ex- We’re

[00:03:51] Lucas Morrison: excited to be here. Yes.

[00:03:53] Mike Klinzing: We are excited to have you guys on. I’m just really interested to learn more about what you guys do, how you do it, and the genesis of how you guys got started in this this world of the TBT and professional basketball.

And then obviously it’s a unique duo with a mother and son working together-

[00:04:11] Lucas Morrison: Yes …

[00:04:11] Mike Klinzing: in professional basketball. It’s not something that you see or hear about every day. So I’m curious to, to get the full story. Malin, let’s start with you. Just gimme your background on how you got into basketball as a kid.

What sort of led you down the road of becoming a basketball coach?

[00:04:30] Malin Morrison: Okay. As a kid, I grew up in Sweden. I played… In Sweden it’s different. We don’t have school teams as much as you do here. I played for a club team. Was one of the youngest players on our club team. We found out there is such a thing as a basketball high school in the south of Sweden.

My coach from my younger team, I still played with my own age and then with the women’s team she went with me to the tryouts. I got selected to one of eight players to get selected that year to attend basketball high school. So I left home at 15, and from there, basketball has been the center of my life.

Until Lucas.

I think she threw that in there for you, Lucas. I would’ve felt, I would’ve felt bad for you if she didn’t throw your name in there, oh, thank you. Yeah. So Malin, when you… When I think about basketball in Sweden for young women during the time when you were growing up, were there a lot of other girls playing basketball at the time, or were you unique in your era of playing of playing as much basketball as you did?

[00:05:42]Malin Morrison: I think from where I was from, it was more unique. Basketball is not a big sport in Sweden, but I was also from a small town up north in Sweden. It was more hockey and soccer and, curling even, to be honest. But it was what I fell in love with and it’s what I wanted to do.  So I get a lot of support, from the town and from my coaches

[00:06:07] Mike Klinzing: When you left home, what was that like as a 15-year-old girl to leave home and go and live somewhere else and just focus on basketball? Was it something that you had always dreamed about and thought about? Was there any homesickness involved?

Just what was your mindset? You were just excited to be there and be able to do basketball all the time. I was

[00:06:26] Malin Morrison: excited to leave home. No, I was very independent at a young age, so for me to be alone and live alone was not a new concept. So I had my own apartment when I went to this high school and took care of everything, but it was just every day for me

[00:06:47] Mike Klinzing: What was the highlight of your playing career when you think about, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be something on the court, but when you think about yourself as a player, what’s one of your favorite memories from your time as a basketball player?

[00:07:02] Malin Morrison: To get to represent Sweden in the World Championships in Turkey. We played in Izmir, Turkey, in ’91. So to wear, your country’s colors and to walk out and, to be representing the country, that was probably the biggest moment.

[00:07:21] Mike Klinzing: While you were still playing, were you thinking at all about coaching?  because I always say there’s two different routes to the coaching profession that I hear most coaches usually fit into one or the other. There’s the person who was playing, and the whole time while they’re playing, they thought about being a coach. They were the one that was always drawing up plays on a napkin.

They were always trying to coach their teammates. They kinda always knew in the back of their mind that they wanted to coach. And then there’s the other person who was just focused on being the best player that they could possibly be, never really thinking about the coaching side of it, and then suddenly their playing career is over, and they look around and they’re like I still want to be involved in basketball.

How can I do that? Let me get into coaching.” So I don’t know if either one of those roads to coaching better describes you.

[00:08:13] Malin Morrison: I think for me it went more hand in hand. I think because of the big role my coaches played in my life, it was always something I wanted to do as well. because they helped me so much in so many important, crossroads in my life, that I wanted to pay that forward, and I knew that even when I played,after school when I played in the women’s series and stuff, I still coached the younger teams

[00:08:42] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, to be able to get into coaching a- and always feeling like that it was something that was important to you, I can see where that transition was a natural one for you. What did you take to coaching right away? What part of it did you most enjoy when you first got the opportunity to coach those younger teams?

Was there one part of it that really stood out to you that you’re like, “Oh, yeah I love this part of coaching”?

[00:09:04] Malin Morrison: I love the part when you are able to show a player who don’t really believe in themselves, to really show them what they truly can do, and then when they see it, when that switch goes on, I think that’s more rewarding than anything

[00:09:20] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely.  I think that’s something that when I think about the ability to teach, right? because coaching is teaching, and when you see a player that is trying to get it, is trying to get it, is trying to get it, and you’re demonstrating something or you’re showing a particular move, or you’re working with your team on a particular set or whatever it is, and then finally it clicks for them, I think that’s one of those moments as a coach where you kinda, you take that step back and you take that deep breath and you’re like, “All right, it feels good that they got it.”

And you know that the player or the players or your team appreciates those things, and those are the moments I think that we live for as coaches, is the ability to be able to have our players learn from what it is that we’re teaching them, and right, it’s that old John Wooden saying of, “You haven’t taught unless they’ve learned.”

And so I think as coaches, that’s where we really see that gratification, is getting the opportunity to be able to to be able to teach our players and to have them learn something from what it is that, that we’ve experienced both as players and coaches. Tell me a little bit about coming to the United States and when that happened for you, why it happened for you, and then Lucas will bring you into the conversation here momentarily.

[00:10:31] Malin Morrison: So nothing about our lives are normal. I was the trainer for an American football team in Sweden, like the physical trainer, and they had two Americans on the team and, for fun, we would play pickup basketball together. “Malin, you can really play. Have you ever thought about going here?” I’m like, “Yeah, but I’m older now, I know somebody.” And we send film and, a couple months later, I was here playing at Wilmington College in Delaware

[00:11:00] Mike Klinzing: It’s funny how that stuff works. Yeah. What was the experience like coming and living in the United States, just culturally, athletically, socially? It was- How did you adapt and adjust?

[00:11:11] Malin Morrison: Yeah, it took me a while. There’s a lot of changes. In Sweden, I’m so used to walking to everything, so I still walked to school because I didn’t live far from the college.  I lived off campus, but not far away, and people would look at me like, “Why is she walking?” But to me, that’s what you did. Certain food things were different. It was hard. You’re coming in as a new and players are defending their position but that’s everywhere

[00:11:37] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s always an adjustment for anybody who goes to college basketball, right? Is the idea of competing with your teammates. I think that’s one of the challenges as coaches, and I’m sure that both of you can attest to this, that you want to have that internal competition within your team, right?

You want your practices to be super competitive, and yet at the same time, when the practice is over and it’s time for the game, you want that group of players who have been competing with one another as hard as possible, you now want them to come back and fight together as one and not be fighting with each other.

And sometimes that’s a fine line to walk as coaches. So how do you guys handle that situation? How do you try to make your practices with your teams as competitive as possible, and yet still have them come together as a group? And Malin, you can take that, or Lucas, you can jump in. Obviously, you’re helping to put together the players, and we’ll talk more about the Red Rose Thunder here as we go along, which is how do you build that competitiveness and yet still keep the team together as one trying to meet that greater goal?

[00:12:43] Lucas Morrison: Lucas? It’s difficult, especially as, like you said, we’ll go into it more, especially as we’ve, progressed and you got in these guys who, majority of our team are 10 years overseas pros that are making a lot of money that, they come in with an ego, and they come in with, “Hey, I’m here, to do this.

I deserve this,” and, when someone is in their position ahead of them. At this rate, you have 12 guys that all think they should be the star. That does not work. So you have to make sure those players that you bring are players that, like you said, will fight in practice, but as soon as practice is over, they’re family.

It’s players who will respect players that do that. For example, one of our players from last year that we played against that we hated playing against because of how he was, he joined us, and he’s perfect. Tavares Sledge, we’ll make sure we bring him up later. He’ll be back with us again this year.

But, just somebody who will get in everybody’s head will, sell a little contact, will, just disturb you as a coach and as a player, but having him on your team is different, when everybody buys into a goal. So having the right people behind the players is very key to that.

Because at the end of the day, when the moments get close, the people shine through, not always the talent

[00:14:01] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. I think that is something that is criminally underrated when it comes to putting together a team, is putting together not just the right players on the floor and the right skill sets, but you also have to have the right people that have the right mindset to a- accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish as a team.

So Lucas, we got a little bit of your mom’s background in terms of how she progressed from being a player to getting into the coaching profession. So just kinda walk us through your background with your mom and how you w- went through the game of basketball to get to the position where you are today.

[00:14:36] Lucas Morrison: Yeah starting off having a mother who played basketball her whole life, I was… there’s pictures of me eight months holding a little stuffed basketball. I didn’t really have a choice. Growing up, whenever they started doing basketball camps, I was there. I always enjoyed basketball, but it was never like I looked forward to playing every day, playing outside, played basketball.

And I played up until, I want to say, till right at till eighth grade. And a lot of, my favorite things, like I’ll never forget in eighth grade, we went and scouted a team that we played. We’re playing just my mom and I, and mom wasn’t the coach at the time. We just went and scouted one of the teams we played, and that was like my favorite memory of playing that I have ever.

And I wasn’t even playing. Take, kinda taking that away and I’m like, “Huh.” Then seventh grade year actually got started because coach was helping with a, with coaching at a Christian school here in Lititz, Pennsylvania the varsity team, and I was doing the stats for the varsity team and, always looked at the game differently than I, a lot of people, I noticed, and I enjoyed that.

Then I played eighth grade year and then in the off season between my eighth and ninth grade year, the summer someone asked us, “Hey, do you want to coach an Ephrata Thunder? It’s a semi-pro team in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.” I I looked it up. It’s like ABA coaches make $40,000 a year. I’m like, “Oh, we’re set.”

They do not make $40,000 a year. That article, whatever I read lied. So then y- I got started and I was just supposed to be stat guy, then the owner there loved me and, wanted me to be involved with everything. And then unfortunately, he stepped away and we ended up buying the team December of that year.

And since then it’s kinda just been us running it for six years, taking it from the ABA then to the ECBL the next year, and then Broad Street Love Pro-Am in Philadelphia. Then after in 2023 ECBL, we kinda were like, “Hey, we’re done with semi-pro. We’re going to har- put all of our focus into TBT.” And in 2024 we were able to make that happen for the first time

[00:16:44] Mike Klinzing: It’s very cool, and we’re going to dive into all the machinations that made that happen, and again, just how unique the two of your situation is.

I want to just circle back, Lucas, to something that you said, because it’s something that I didn’t really know, in all honesty, before I started the podcast. I guess maybe in some small recess of my mind I understood it to some degree, but it certainly crystallized for me over the last eight years of doing the podcast with the number of coaches that I’ve talked to.

But growing up as a kid, and Malin, I was somewhat like you in that, again, from the time I was very young, I was always a basketball player, right? And I went and I played in high school, and I was fortunate enough to play in college, and basketball was always a big part of my identity. And I always thought that the people who coached the game were more often than not players, and I really didn’t think about it in any other way.

I always thought that the background of coaches was they– you went from playing to coaching. And then as I got into the podcast and I got a little bit older, I came to realize the number of people who got into the game who maybe they stopped playing in high school, and then they became a team manager, or they were a manager at the college level, or they were somebody that was interested in statistics and they started doing studies of this, or they were watching film.

And they loved basketball, but they just loved it in a different way than I did as a player. And so I always find it fascinating, Lucas, like someone like yourself, who, again, when you think about a traditional basketball playing career that wasn’t your path to getting into a life of basketball. And for me, again, as someone who played back in the day, it was always a foreign concept to me of how someone who didn’t play could get into coaching or get into being a general manager or get into whatever it is in the basketball space.

And yet I’ve come to realize and understand how much love there is for the game. You don’t just have to play the game in order to be able to have a tremendous amount of success in your career in the game, because there’s lots of different ways that the game can be loved. And I think your story, as we get into it, is going to tell that, that you don’t have to have played the game at a high level in order to be able to have a very successful career in the game of basketball.

So let’s circle back to the genesis of, again, Lucas, maybe dive in a little bit more to the story of how you first get involved with the semi-pro team. Tell us that, and then again, how you two combine forces to eventually buy this team and what that looked like.

[00:19:26] Lucas Morrison: Yeah really, like I said, it was… season started in September.

We got asked to do this in May, I believe. The first tryout was June 6th of twenty nineteen. So at that point, I’m fifteen years old st- about to start ninth grade. And, here we are hosting semi-pro tryouts on a random Saturday so it was definitely an interesting experience. And then going from tryouts to eventually training camp and getting to know players first year was definitely interesting.

We didn’t really know what to expect at all. But the more we learned, the more– the more we learned, the more we… I don’t know how to really put it, but the more it went on, the more we learned. We’ll put it that way. And just at different stages, and I’m not going to sit here and be like, “We did terrible.”

We were fourteen and six our first year not knowing anything what to expect. We were top twenty-five out of like a hundred and sixty some teams. We were supposed to host the first round of the playoffs in March of 2020, and we all know what happened in March of 2020. But, the first year really started with Lucas stat manager, and I had stat program up, same one that I used in high school.

Then it turned into more of me coaching and running things behind the scenes as well with players and different things like that. And, I’m 15 talking to players who are 35, and yet they’re respecting what I’m saying and, “Hey, this kid actually knows what he’s talking about.” Which has, really meant a lot.

The players that have trusted us over the last six years especially in the beginning has really meant a lot because, we’re definitely an unusual combination. And, now the experience speaks for itself and what we do and, what we know. But in the beginning, really starting out and getting the feet off the ground and doing what we did in the ABA, and there are so many great memories from that year.

We had a– there was a game winner, buzzer beater down by two in the corner in Maryland. I’ll never forget our first win, the first game at home. There’s so many core memories that I’ll remember for the rest of my life just being with a group of guys who just wanted to play basketball that weren’t very talented but, fought hard and they were coachable.

I don’t want to say they’re not very talented. They all played at high-level D3, D2 college, but it’s a little different between the players then and the players that we have now. But it’s y- really looking back at how quick everything has progressed, it’s astonishing. We, it was a situation where the owner basically texted us, “Hey, the s- the season’s going to be canceled.” And we’re like, “How much to buy the team?” And we got the legal things from the league, and we bought the team. Our first game as owners was a week before Christmas, so it was our Christmas present. And we played a team from West Virginia and beat them by 50.

So it was a good first game as owners. And then, from there we were hoping to continue into playoffs, and then COVID ruined everybody. Yeah,

[00:22:19] Mike Klinzing: of course. It was a, it was not a, it was not a pretty time, No … without question. So Malin, walk me through the story from your perspective of how Lucas gets involved in it, what your role is or what your role was in that moment of making the decision to get involved there.

Just kinda take us through the steps from your perspective.

[00:22:40] Malin Morrison: Like Lucas mentioned, I was a coach at Lititz Christian High School. I worked with both the girls and the boys teams. And one of the trainers we had come in who helped out, he was like a specialty trainer, he had the connection. And after watching me coach, he’s “Malin, you would be perfect for this.

We have to get you to coach this team.” So it was really Tony that made that connection. And for me, it was very… people was like, “How do you feel, coaching not women? You’re coaching men.” But even in college or after college, I always played in the men’s leagues. I was one of very few women, often the only one in every league.

So for me, it was like, that’s what I was used to. I was used to that physicality, that mentality, the speed of the game. So it was an easy transition to go back to, in a way

[00:23:42] Mike Klinzing: So this is a question that I think men always get asked when they coach on the women’s side is, what’s different about coaching on the women’s side than coaching on the men’s side?

So I’m going to flip that question around on you. When you start coaching, and obviously as you said, you had experience coaching at the high school level, coaching on the boys side, what’s different about coaching men versus coaching women in your mind? Or is there no difference? Some- sometimes people say it’s the, it’s basically the same.

[00:24:15] Malin Morrison: I think there’s a difference. I started coaching the girls at the high school. The boys coach walked by the locker room when I had a stern talk with the girls. He’s “We need you with the boys.” And I think that’s the difference. De- depending on level I’m very to the point. There’s no fluff.

This is the way it is. And to me, it’s easier not having to worry about, being nice about how I say things

[00:24:46] Mike Klinzing: What made the opportunity to get involved in, at the time semi-pro, but now pro basketball, what made this particular opportunity attractive to you, Malin, that… And what did the conversation look like between you and Lucas when you guys were trying to decide whether or not this was something that you wanted to take on?

[00:25:11] Malin Morrison: So I think the way Lucas and I do things, we just go with the flow. There’s so many things that happen to us so quickly, and we just go with it. Obviously we wanted to be part of basketball. To me, it felt like a step up. And since then, everything we’re doing is the next step up. We don’t go backwards in anything we do.

And it’s just, yeah, we talk about it, but it’s never “Ah, maybe we shouldn’t.” It’s more like, “Let’s do it,” and we do

[00:25:47] Mike Klinzing: Lucas, what was the vision when you guys first bought the team? W- If you were looking out at that time, if you were to look out five years from now when you were thinking about, hey, where do you see this or where did you see this going at the time?

Did you see it going the direction that it did, or at the time was there a different idea of where this might end up?

[00:26:10] Lucas Morrison: I think it was… and I always say this, and it’s it’s kinda funny. There was an exact moment where it shifted, and it became five-year plan, this is what needs to happen, 10-year plan, this is what needs to happen.

And but, really year one and, majority of year two was just like, “Hey, this is a great opportunity. Let’s enjoy this.” Like a lot of owners in these semi-pro and minor l- leagues, you think you’re going to get money, you think you’re going to break even, you think you’re going to get people.

To all people looking to own a team in these leagues, I promise you, you are not. Unless you’re one of the two that can do it right with youth clinics and your own venue. There, there’s very rare examples, but, it’s very difficult. We were in the beginning of thinking we’re going to get hundreds of people each game and, that was just not the case.

But then it became something that I could enjoy with my mother and, truly enjoy being around the game of basketball and feel like home. Like that– I keep saying over and over, that first year yeah, there were a lot of ups and downs. Learning and navigating and players leave and, looking back on it, the different decisions you could have made.

But, that phone call, random phone call in May when we found out about the opportunity has changed both of our lives forever. And we had no idea where it would go or how it would go. Back then, I wanted to be a a medical scientist. That was my goal. I was going to go to school to be a doctor and try and get a medical science degree.

That was my long-term goal, and then I got involved in basketball. I’m like, “Yeah, I’m not leaving.” And it’s just kinda been our lives ever since.

[00:27:44] Mike Klinzing: Very cool that you took an opportunity that maybe a lot of people wouldn’t have seen the the opportunity in front of them, right? In terms of what this could be, and obviously you two are a very unique duo, a unique tandem.

Malin, I’ll pose the same question to you that I just posed to Lucas. When you first did it, was the vision of where you thought it would be and then where you guys are today, were those visions close to being aligned in your mind, or were you originally thinking you’re going to take it one direction and it shifted to another way?

What was your perspective during that time that Lucas just described?

[00:28:21] Malin Morrison: I think when we started, to me, it was just smaller steps. The first goal was obviously to make it to the playoffs, and we wanted to, try to win everything that year. Then COVID, changed the direction of some things.

Then we started trying different venues. We had a pro combine and made connection and ended up going to Vegas for an event and learned a lot from that event, what not to do and, what kind of people you can run into in these kind of situations. So there’s been bad experiences that, that I’m so glad we went through because we learned so much.

You learn what to look for that you don’t want to do again. And I think that made us better as people and as coaches

[00:29:12] Mike Klinzing: What’s a tough situation that you guys went through that you can describe on the podcast that you feel like you learned a good lesson from that you’ve taken moving forward in, in some of your decisions?

[00:29:27] Lucas Morrison: Yeah, no, I would all right, go with this one. There’s a lot, but- … I would say the main thing that, has been the turning point– Ah, shoot, this is going to be rough. The turning point for me was there was a game in 2023. No, 2022, my apologies. So this was after our third year in Semi-Pro Basketball, second year in ECBL, and we are in the summer in the Brody Love Pro-Am, which is a pro-am in the city.

And, that year after that year, my main goal was let’s do TBT. We felt hey, it wasn’t the year, let’s, go around, travel, prepare. Pro-Am ended up being a great opportunity to, play against some higher level pros and really see what we can do.

And there was a situation in a quarterfinal game where, we were really counting on a player and, he was going to be a part of the team. Unfortunately, he was unable to make it to the game, and we’re like, we’ll be– he’ll be at the next game.” And unfortunately, we ended up losing that game.

So he wasn’t at the next game, and I felt like there were a couple things I could have done differently from a standpoint of scouting, from a standpoint of d-different little decisions we made throughout the game. And I really held that for, the next two, three months. That loss bothered me like barely sleeping.

Like it really bothered me. Then unfortunately, September that same year, that player who missed that game unfortunately passed away in a motorcycle accident. You can see him in the flyers behind coach there. So he never got another opportunity in a Red Rose jer-jersey. It’s always about, no matter what happens, you never know when it’s going to be your last opportunity to do something or to do it with somebody.

Always give everything you, you have 100% and never say, “I wish I could’ve done this. I wish I would’ve done that,” because those are the worst situations.

[00:31:27] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, that’s a really good lesson to learn. And obviously, again, my condolences to you guys for that loss and clearly that when you take something like that and have something like that happen, if you can take some and find some solace in something that you can learn from that and hopefully move forward to be able to, as you said, understand that opportunity can be fleeting and just put your best foot forward no matter what the situation is that you may be put in.

Tell me about putting together a roster for a minor league professional basketball team, what that looks like. I can only imagine what the challenges are to try to get guys to sign on for what you’re trying to accomplish. Obviously, guys are playing all over the world at different places, and then you’re trying to bring them together for a group with a goal, in this case right now with the TBT.

But just one or both of you take turns telling me about the challenges of putting together, first of all, just scouting and putting together the roster, and then we can follow and dive more into you with the coaching piece of once the roster’s put together.

[00:32:39] Malin Morrison: I’ll start and Lucas can finish.  People– I think a lot of people think that, a couple weeks before the tournament you have a tryout and then you pick players and then go and play in these games. We don’t stop scouting, like ever. We spend like from last year’s TBT until now, we go to every event, every game, everything we can, and we try to see as many players as we can in person.

So we spend, our Decembers the last two Decembers we’ve been in, in Orlando for the Winter Showcase for the G League. We go to tournaments, we go anywhere we can. There’s, there are really no limits. Just to get to know the players, because like Lucas mentioned before, it’s so important that we put together the right group of people So Lucas, you want to finish that?

[00:33:36] Lucas Morrison: I think even going back years before before TBT and, the minor league, it’s so different getting players to play for a three-month season compared to playing for TBT. Obviously pitching players to play for TBT for a million dollars, now this year 2 million, is a little bit easier than getting players to pitch for a three-month season for limited amount of money.

But, this year, and we’ll get farther into that, TBT looked like it was a very low possibility of happening for us. And like I said, we’ll get more into it, but, last year’s TBT was $15,000 to enter. We got the phone call in October that it’s going to be 150,000, ended up going down to 125.

But, I’m not sitting around here with an extra $125,000 just sitting around. Kinda heard a quote a couple months ago, it was, “You can either have a TBT team or you can buy a 42-foot boat.” It was something that wasn’t really in the cards, and it was something I would say 1 to 5% chance, but I’m like, “Just in case this happens, we need to prepare.”

So we’re at, Winter Showcase in Orlando, like coach mentioned, December. Great event. Favorite week of the year, by the way. Outside of TBT, favorite week of the year is going to those games from nine, 10 AM to 10 PM at, every day in Orlando. Still scouting, still talking to people, if this happens, working 110, 120 hours a week myself to make sure, hey, if this happens, if there’s a situation where it comes close financially, making sure this is a possibility.

It goes back to what I was just saying about, really doing whatever it takes to make sure you have the right players and you have the right people no matter what the situation is. Because, there might be a situation, for example, there’s a player, I’m not going to reveal anything, but there’s a player we’ve been talking to for three years about playing and it finally ended up hopefully working out.

It’s still like 95%, haven’t been official yet. Hopefully this is the year where it ends up working out. There’s a player last year that we were trying to get that was literally we’re texting him at 11 PM and the deadline for a roster is midnight, and we’re trying to get him signed while he’s in Summer League and, hopefully this year that will work out as well.

So it’s always those little connections from, years ago, this person knows this person that you really never know when it’s going to come back and, result in good things. So the more you can be a good person to other people and make connections will also increase the player pool and the opportunities you’ll get just, in anything, not just basketball.

[00:36:00] Mike Klinzing: What’s the sweet spot for the type of player that you’re looking for that you need in order to be able to compete at a high level and have an opportunity to win at the TBT? In other words if I’m thinking about the level of player that you’re trying to put on your roster, are you looking at players who have had long successful careers in Europe?

Are you looking for the young guys who are in the G League who maybe are trying to break through to the NBA? Are you looking for any and all? Is it– what’s the specific, again, as specific as you can be with the level- Yes … obviously you’d like to get the highest level player that you can, but where’s the, where does the sweet spot lie for who’s actually gettable for your roster?

[00:36:43] Lucas Morrison: The– So the only legal restrictions, they can’t be currently on an NBA contract. That’s the only thing is two-ways do count, so if they’re on a long-term two-way, unfortunately aren’t eligible. But it’s really a combination of both, because I’m just going to give an example. Last year, for example, we played a team, Magic Show.

They spent $125,000 up front on players with names just to try and beat us. Didn’t work because they just got names that don’t fit. So you want to get, two to three Europe guys. You want to get two to three young guys that are athletic and will, space the floor well. You want to get two to three guys that will just fight and dive for every loose ball and will rebound.

I know we got two or two to three of those already, so I know, our dogs are good. But the biggest thing are you want to have point guards, and we got point guards. And, you want to have bigs, and we got bigs. You want to have athletic wings, we have athletic wings. In terms of the positions that we look for and the positions that are very important in TBT, I’m very comfortable w-with who we have.

Would like to have somebody who’s a, you give the ball to and the, someone you know, hey, when it came down to the fourth quarter in the Knicks-Spurs series and the Knicks had the ball, we all knew who the ball was going to. At the end of the day, you want a guy who, you know, especially with the way TBT is formulated at the end of the games, you want somebody who you can get the ball to and say, “Hey, we’re running an action for him to get a shot, and we’re living what shot he takes.”

And this year we got five of those. So we’re ready

[00:38:13] Mike Klinzing: Mal, and once you guys have put together a roster, talk to me about how you as a coach try to take that group of individuals that you guys have put together, and now you see all the names on paper. You now have a roster, but you don’t yet have a team.

So how do you turn that roster into a team? And not necessarily from an X’s and O’s standpoint, but just from a culture, personality, camaraderie, putting it all together so that those guys are all playing together for the same purpose of winning as a team. And yeah, they want to excel and do well individually, but ultimately you have to get them to buy into the team concept.

What does that look like in the time period that you have to prepare a team for the TBT?

[00:39:05] Malin Morrison: I would say that’s the hardest part. That is why it’s so important that I feel like we know them as people, even if it’s just a little bit before we put them all together. So I know how we’re sh- talking to one player versus another player.

I know what they might need more of, what they might need less of, or how they react to certain things. After that, we get them all together and we often share, we share our story, we share what we give. We focus on the family concept because from the time we first step on that court together all as one, those guys right there, that’s our family, and that is 100%.

And we will give everything to them, but we also expect them to give everything to us. Does that always work? No. We’ve had many games when we come out and we feel like we’re prepared. Lucas has a scouting report that’s phenomenal but we’re all not still on the same page, and that shows during the game.

So that is, it’s a learning curve and I think we always strive to get better and do better, and I think each year we’re putting a better and better team together from that aspect. Not just the talent of the players. We’re putting together a better team every year. Last year, if we wouldn’t have lost that game that we lost against Maryland, we have the team, we have all the pieces

[00:40:41] Lucas Morrison: to win every game. Yeah. Without a doubt.

[00:40:44] Mike Klinzing: Has it gotten e- has it gotten easier to identify the type of player that can excel- Underneath what you guys have, which is obviously, again, unique. There are very few women coaching men’s professional basketball. There are very few general managers at the age that you are, Lucas, and especially someone who’s a general manager and coach with their mom as the coach.

It’s clearly a unique situation that I’m guessing that not every men’s professional basketball player would necessarily be open to the kind of opportunity that you guys have. So have you guys gotten better at being able to identify the personality types, the individuals that you feel like can thrive in your environment?

And obviously over the course of time, as you said, scouting, as we all know, is a very inexact science. No matter how much you think you have understood who that player is and what they’re about, until you get them on your team and in your gym, you never know for sure. But has it gotten easier to figure out who are the people that can thrive in your environment?

[00:42:02] Malin Morrison: Yes I think we, like I said, I think we learned. I think we are growing as coaches, and I think we’re getting really good at spotting it quickly. Yeah, no, that’s going to be a problem. That’s not going to work. Lucas?

[00:42:20] Lucas Morrison: No, I think obviously we’ve gotten better, but also I think, even going back to 2024 we’d spent a lot of time, two years preparing for this and be- making sure we had the right pieces together, in pro-ams and s- in minor leagues.

Making sure we had the right pieces that all bought in together. And, first game, a lot of teams struggle, especially a lot of first year teams struggle because they don’t understand what it takes for TBT. They don’t understand the type of players you need. We were underdogs in our first game, and at halftime we were up 30.

So it’s not like we really came in and adjusted, period. Everything didn’t go well the first year. Year one we’re up 30 at halftime, we end up winning that game by 30. We should’ve won by like a lot more, but that’s, a whole nother thing. Then second game we win by 25. It wasn’t like a really…

we had this here and it went up. It was like vroom, and then we just kept going. From the beginning it was always about making sure we had the right pieces. I would say year one when we started, the third game didn’t go that well, and then the personalities that didn’t fit revealed themselves.

But truly when we were playing the first two games all together and everything, that team would’ve been dangerous against anybody just from the fact that we were all bought in together. I think from the beginning, because of how much effort we put into this and because of how much experience we had, even though it wasn’t TBT, but on a similar level in a similar environment, we understood what it needed to be done and what it took from everybody involved

[00:43:53] Mike Klinzing: Tell a little bit, Malin, about the working relationship between you and Lucas in terms of what are the conversations like, how often are you sitting down and talking? What are the things that you guys talk through? Just give me an idea of the behind-the-scenes conversations between the two of you when it comes to philosophy, when it comes to player scouting, when it comes to finances, when it comes to everything.

What does the working relationship look like?

[00:44:27] Lucas Morrison: I’m laughing because finances finances- Yeah, we’ll get to that … are pretty weird out this year. We’ll get we’ll get to that. I want to ask you a little bit about that, but we’ll get there. No, the working relationship that, people think we have a life, we really don’t.

[00:44:40] Malin Morrison: Most of our conversations on a day-to-day basis are about players, about what we’re going to do, how we’re going to find the money to do it, where we’re going to go next, and what we’re going to do next. I would say 90% of our conversation on a day-to-day basis is about basketball.

[00:45:00] Lucas Morrison: Yeah …

We work a lot, Yeah. Save up money for this. And, we see family every once in a while, but other than that, it’s all basketball. Our life is very streamlined. And as Lucas is getting older, obviously when he was younger, he didn’t have as many responsibilities, but I’ve always pushed Lucas to be independent, to take on more responsibility, and to be in charge of different things.

That’s always been my goal for him to do that, and I- honestly, he’s, has surpassed me in his knowledge of the game, especially of his statistical side of things with the numbers and the scouting and the players. Where I’m getting older and I’m starting to forget a lot of names. I’ve learned now I don’t need to remember any names because I have a walking computer right next to me.

And I rely on him a lot. I think very few… Oh, players see it. The players who are with us, they see it, and they trust him 100%. It’s often even during a timeout, there’s often I’m like, “Lucas, here, you take the board. This is your time to draw the play we need.” And I know he’s going to do the right thing.

The players know he’s going to do the right thing. He has a mind for this that is just beyond most

[00:46:32] Mike Klinzing: Lucas, how do you feel about, again, the relationship with your mom in terms of what you guys are talking about day-to-day? Obviously, she described all the conversations that you guys are having are mostly around- Yeah … around basketball, but how does the working relationship go from your end of it?

[00:46:47] Lucas Morrison: It’s definitely different.

And, this year has also been a different experience in the fact I’m working a full-time job in Delaware. Last year– Now, last year I decided I’m going to graduate a four-year degree in two years, so I was at home doing college all the time. This year I’m working a full-time job in Delaware, which is about two hours away from me.

So I get up at five o’clock in the morning, drive two hours to Delaware, get in, work eight to 10 hours, drive two hours home, and then I’m normally working another five to six when I get home. Being away for so long as well is, it’s a little difficult. But I’m at work, especially now that I have my MacBook, I can get my little texts on the screen.

And we’re texting about different players in TBT and what we’re going to do and how, financially and figuring out hotels and figuring out travel situations. The last couple days have been about hotels a lot and travel and figuring that out the last couple days. So I’m at work and working at landscaping and a site management job, and meanwhile, I’m looking at flights from…

to Vegas. Just can’t let anybody know it’s on my computer. But no it’s a great opportunity, like I said, from the beginning, to be able to do this with my mom, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else. So i- it’s different in that aspect but, at the end of the day, once that, once the game starts, once we’re in the practice environment, it’s no longer Mom, it’s Coach.

And it’s treating– not going to treat her any w- differently than I would anybody else in the sense of, “Hey, if I have an opinion, I’m going to share it. I’m going to be very vocal.” We know that. But it’s also a situation where we’ve had people who are like, “I don’t like her. She lean on Lucas too much.”

We were in China, that’s why you- … th- that was a little broken English. I’m like, like– they’re like, that’s how we do it. That’s the way we are.” It’s not just a one and a two. It’s not one plus two, it’s one and two, if that makes sense. We do everything together.

We make all the decisions together. She has the say when it comes to coaching. I have the say when it comes to player mana- like, player scouting and different things like that. But focusing on the budget aspect, it’s not like we’ve ever, came from… There was a y- a quote two years ago by somebody at TBT that said, a lot of our TBT teams, the target demographic is people who can either buy a second vacation home or a TBT team.”

And this was back when it was eight times cheaper. That’s never been us. We’ve been the people who have been fighting for every dollar to make, to get through. Now we’re getting, fighting for every dollar to get through, plus pay for a TBT team. If you looked at the finances, anyb- everybody who knows us is “Are you insane?”

I’m like, “Yes.” There’s nothing I’d rather do right now and, TBT is a unique opportunity, so

[00:49:31] Mike Klinzing: So what’s the plan for funding that entry fee for TBT? How do you strategize around making the finances work so you can make it worthwhile a- and feasible for yourselves to do that, and also for your players and to provide that opportunity?

Are you going out, and I know you have some sponsors that you have that you work with, but just what’s the strategy financially, both around the TBT and again, before you got into that how does it work? How do you guys manage that?

[00:50:04] Lucas Morrison: Yeah, no, I would say now this year is a little different because we are partnering with another team.

And I want to make sure I mention them because they’ve been great partners. We’re partnering with War Ready, which is Auburn alumni and their general manager named Matt. This is another situation. We get the call from TBT that it’s a possibility to do this partnership, and we figure out all the financial situations Wednesday.

Friday, they’re playing in a tournament in Tampa Bay with three to four of their players. So we’re like, “Okay, so we book flights to Tampa Bay Friday night, we’re out of there, and, we’re there Friday night to, watch and get to meet everybody, get to meet him, get to meet the three players, especially before we spend $125,000 as a group.

And then another person we got to meet that weekend is also Dominique Rodgers Cromartie who’s had a team in this event since 2018, and he is somebody who will be playing as well with the team. So he will be on the roster and, he’s never missed a basket in TBT history. I think… I don’t know, I think he’s three of three. But, just a great guy a great supporter of what we’re doing and what we’re trying to build. And, but from our side of the money, because it’s still a lot of money, no matter how much, how way you split it, because it’s not just the 125, it’s another 30 to 40,000 expenses as well.

It’s a lot of the money that I saved up just in case this happened. I said, “Hey, I want to get to this number in case this happens.” For whatever reason it is, whether it’s, I need something for a future job, whatever, I’m like, “Let’s get to this number just in case a scenario happens.”

I got to about 8,000 higher than I wanted to, which was great which is why, more why I felt comfortable, and then we took a loan for the le- rest, to be honest. If we are not, if we don’t win TBT, and this is my motto, and I’ll put this out publicly, if we don’t win TBT, we’ll be 45 grand in debt in total.

And second place gets zero, first place gets two million. So it’s not if you get top five, you get some of the money back. Nope. And it’s just more expenses the longer you make it. It comes to a situation where it’s insane. But it’s also a situation where I know, hey, no matter what happens, I’m going to work to make sure this is a possible situ- a, a possible scenario, and it’s an opportunity that doesn’t come around to be able to do it with family, to be able p- to partner with a alumni that’s as rich as Auburn.

Not in terms of money, but in terms of the history of the school and the history of the program. So it just it doesn’t happen. So it was an opportunity that I felt we had to do, and yeah

[00:52:33] Mike Klinzing: And here you are.

[00:52:34] Lucas Morrison: Yeah. Here we are.

[00:52:38] Mike Klinzing: All right. Where does the name come from, Red Rose Thunder? Who came up with the name?

Where– what’s the hi- history of the name?

[00:52:44] Malin Morrison: Okay. So we live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It’s the city of the Red Rose.  So when we bought the team, it was called Ephrata Thunder, so we kept the Thunder part, moved it to Lancaster. Actually played a game when we officially announced the name. We played a team from York, who is called the City of the White Rose, so we had to wear the roses and handed out roses and did a big deal that way.

So thereby the Red Rose. So we’re representing our little part of the world.

[00:53:21] Lucas Morrison: Yes.

[00:53:22] Mike Klinzing: And it’s also my favorite color- How cool … so- Nice … it’s sticking to it Nice. Very cool. All right. Walk us through what it’s like to bring a team into the TBT. Obviously, the pressure of any one particular game, right?

And it can all be over very quickly. All the prep work that you guys do, all the effort that you’re talking about, all the blood, sweat, tears, money that go into it. A- and then you get to the tournament, and it can all be over in the blink of an eye. What does that look and feel like as coaches, as people who are as invested literally and figuratively in your team and in the result as much as you guys are?

Malin what does that feel like to coach in that environment?

[00:54:15] Malin Morrison: As soon as I’m on the court and I’m in my environment, I’m good. The none of that matters at that point. The money doesn’t matter, the time doesn’t matter, how much we put into it doesn’t matter. We’re playing basketball, and we’re representing what we stand for.

And we’re there with family. So to me, it doesn’t get better than that. Luckily, not luckily, thanks to all the hard work we have put in, as a first-year team, we made it to the Sweet 16 the first round. Nobody expected that. But we did. Our second year, we expected to go a lot further, but there wasn’t a question that we were going to win that first game.

We believe in every player and every person we have with us, and that goes… that’s just not the players. We believe in everybody. We select, trainers, photographers, videographers, and we have family with us. Our biggest sponsors are family, like literally. Yeah So it’s home.  Basketball has always been my safe place, so I get to be where I feel at home

[00:55:29] Mike Klinzing: Just as you put together the roster, right? And then you’re on the bench and you’re helping to coach the team, what does that feel like for you in that moment

[00:55:39] Lucas Morrison: Yeah. It’s a surreal experience. I’ll go back to year one in TBT, and we’re playing the Brown Ballers, as they were called. They were India Rising, and they pulled off a lar- a big upset against Dayton the year before it, at Dayton University.

And, everyone kinda expected them to win that game. And we come in, and it’s 15 to four. And I’ll never forget, after all the hard work of getting into TBT and everything it does, I’ll never forget looking at the scoreboard and seeing our logo on the scoreboard and the video on the thing, and I just start getting a little emotional.

I had to lock back in because, we got a game to win. But, that moment is one of those moments you’ll never forget. I could be– I’ll be, like, 80 telling my great-grandchildren or grandchildren about, seeing the logo on the TBT scoreboard. But on the preparation side, once the money is figured out and where we’re going to be, once I get to a number we’re, kinda comfortable with it’s, “Hey, we’re locked in from there.

We’re ready to go.” At the end of the day, TBT is a unique opportunity in terms of, especially for me being so young, I think I deserve an opportunity outside of TBT. But it’s so much about who you know, your resume, what you’ve done in the past, and things like that. TBT is not about that at all.

It’s about, “Hey, do you have the money?” And then after that, it’s about, “Hey, what can you do to help your team win, and how good are you at putting together a roster? How good are you at coaching?” And when you do– When it’s, comes down to that, there’s no two people in the same conversation as us that’s ever been in TBT in terms of just talent and being able to help teams win.

So when it comes to that, it’s, I’m not worried. So now there was a situation happened last year, should we beat everybody by 20? Yeah. I said last year, there’s no reason we shouldn’t win three out of five, three championships the next five years. We lost, did not expect TBT to go from 64 to 14 teams.

It’s fine. That just means we have to win three out of the next four. But it’s a situation where there’s a certain level of confidence that has to be had, especially when you’re ex- spending this amount of money. But it’s also a belief in my mom’s abilities and also my abilities that, hey, we deserve to be here because of who we are and what we’ve done.

And no matter what happens, they can’t take that away. No matter what happens. So the last game, even Coach said, we believed that was also a very stacked team. Talked about how much money they had and how much talent they had. And I told Coach before the game, I’m like, “If things go really bad, no matter what happens, I’m really glad to be doing this with you,” as we were leaving our Airbnb in beautiful Virginia.

It’s, there’s a certain level of confidence, but there’s also a certain level of gratefulness for the opportunity that TVT provides us that is not provided elsewhere right now in basketball.

[00:58:21] Malin Morrison: I think that’s a hard- Yeah, it’s really … thing to explain. People are like, “Why TBT?” I’m like, “Because there’s nothing like it.” And if you don’t know about it and you’re here, yeah, it’s another tournament, but it’s not. It is so much more. So that’s hard to explain for somebody who’s on the outside really why we pretty much sacrifice everything to do this

[00:58:47] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I do think that the format obviously is unique. When it came on the scene, I don’t think people really knew what to make of it or what it was going to actually kinda morph itself into, and it’s become something that Has become a lot more mainstream and a lot more people are aware of it, I think today than if you go back five, six years ago when it first started.

People really had no idea exactly what the thing was and they’re playing for this big prize money and how does that work and whatever. And now I think there’s a lot more people in the basketball world that have an understanding of it. And I want to talk to you a little bit about the preparation once you have the roster in place and you’re actually practicing and preparing for the TBT.

How do you put together an offensive and defensive philosophy for your team? What does that look like? Is that something that you’re basing it off the talent that you have on the roster? Are you trying to find players that fit the style of play that you want to play? Just what’s the process for figuring out what your team is going to look like offensively and defensively?

I don’t know if Malin, if you want to take that first and then Justin or Lucas, you

[01:00:01] Malin Morrison: can jump in. I think it’s a combination of both of what you just said. Obviously first we’re selecting players who we know will fit in with what we want to do our style of basketball. Then once we have all those pieces, now we’re putting together the right plays, the right defenses, that we know will make them be able to play at their best.

So they get the opportunity to play so they can be successful and we can win games. And then we add the scouting report from the other team into it, and we base it on, that’s where Lucas comes in.  I don’t know if I have one. His scouting report from the first game last year,

[01:00:45] Lucas Morrison: Oh, you do? Nice.

[01:00:46] Malin Morrison: I do. Oh, very

[01:00:46] Lucas Morrison: nice.

[01:00:46] Malin Morrison: I do. It is-

[01:00:47] Lucas Morrison: Don’t show how don’t give anybody some secrets, but it’s 48 pages long. Look at that thing. Holy cow. Yeah. 48 pages long. That’s like a, that’s

[01:00:52] Malin Morrison: like a, that’s like a novel … and this is one team. So I have all the information I need. That’s a novel, Lucas and then from there, now we’re starting to see what we should do to make sure we can find and show their weaknesses and just, yeah.

It all comes together and then most of it comes together thanks to what I just showed you like right there. But we build it from the team. I don’t say, “I’m going to do this because this is how I want us to play.” I put together the plays and the actions and everything based on what we have on the court.

And it also depends on the lineups. Different lineups- Yeah … will do, different offenses, different sets and defense, different

[01:01:37] Lucas Morrison: plays. It all depends on, who we have out there.

[01:01:43] Mike Klinzing: In a limited amount of time you have to prepare, how do you prioritize what’s the most important things that you have to have in order to be prepared to play the games?

because obviously you don’t have unlimited practice time. So how do you prioritize what are the most important things that you need to get in to be able to play at your best with your roster?

[01:02:03] Malin Morrison: We all need to be on the same page, especially rotations. because we watch so many games when there’s so many players that get lost in the rotations defensively, and the other team gets too many easy points just because of it.

So we try to make sure we all know how we expect everybody to move. So try… There’s still going to be moments, but you try to eliminate that, and we’re all on the same page, and we all work together, and we all communicate. You, we’ll go through plays and we’ll draw up plays, but that’s just a baseline. They have to know each other.

They have to, know l- they’re not going to get to know each other, 100%, but they get to know strengths and, what they like to do and where they like to get the ball It’s the little things. Lucas?

[01:02:52] Mike Klinzing: Lucas, how much of that scouting report that you put together, obviously you and Marlon are looking at that a- and utilizing it to be able to formulate your strategy for what to do with your team.

How much of that scouting report gets shared with the players on the roster in terms of what’s important for them to know versus what’s important for the two of you to know as the coaching staff?

[01:03:16] Lucas Morrison: All of it does get shared. I print out a copy for a team, and it is worded in a way that is formulated for players, if that makes sense.

So it’s very, “Hey, this guy doesn’t like this. He gets uncomfortable when you do this. He’s best defended by someone who does this, and this. On o- on defense, he might be 7’260, but he’s going to flop, and, he doesn’t like a lot of contact.” One of my assis- our assistant coaches looked at it, so he was like, “Him?

He doesn’t like contact?” I’m like, “Just trust me.” And then he flopped on our 5’10” point guard when he was setting a screen. I’m like, “Really?” I looked at him, he’s “Yeah, you’re right.” I’m like … a lot of this, even before this call, I just spent three and a half hours getting our scouting reports ready because I’m going to have all five teams’ scouting reports ready before we fir- play our first game.

So they will be locked and loaded, ready to go. So it’s not a situation where I have to prepare 30 hours of scouting into one project in between a day, an off day for a game. It’s a situation where, hey, I’ll take a couple hour refresher, see how teams are playing, what lineup strategies they’ll do but then have it ready to go.

So off day, we can review it as a team, we can talk about it as a team, and, the players that have been with us for a year, a couple years now, last year I would go up, and it was a couple weeks before I handed it, one of our players a packet with a smiley. He’s “Lucas, really? Already?”

I’m like, “Yes, come on.” It’s, scouting is an art in the way of You never know how players are going to play. You never know what teams, how teams are going to rotate. You never know how teams are going to play together. Expect in especially in TBT when you’re bringing in 15 guys who’ve, never met, you don’t really know.

But I always like to say, if a guy randomly developed a jump shot three weeks before before TBT in a random island on Hawaii training with a private trainer, somehow I will find out, and I will be ready for him to take threes from the right wing. If there’s a player who posts on Instagram, he’s only looking to pick and pop because he doesn’t want to get his body hurt, I will know.

Shout out to that player. We all know, we both know who that is. We were just talking about that yesterday. But, those little things, that’s, part of scouting that people don’t understand. It’s the things that you don’t see on film. It’s the things you don’t see in the numbers. It’s getting to know them as people to prepare for what they’re going to do during the game that, is something I look at differently than a lot of people.

A lot of people nowadays, especially in the NBA it’s very analytical based and it’s very numbers based, and I love analytics. I love numbers. But at the end of the day, when it’s crunch time and someone needs to score, your human emotions, your tendencies are going to take over whatever the numbers say.

And at the end of the day, like the Cavs coach said, they were up analytically up 2-1. It doesn’t matter what analytics say. The only thing that matters is who wins at the end of the game. I’m not going to want to say analytically we won $2 million. No, we lost. So you know, we’re here to want to make sure the players are the best prepared in whatever that looks like.

A lot of players don’t want to be overwhelmed with information. They don’t want to know. They just want to see stats, where they played. So front page is just a picture of them, little quick information, and then stats from the last three teams they played with, and then it goes into strengths and weaknesses overall and then little blurbs.

So you know, it is very varied for different players. But in the terms of both of us, we want to know everything we possibly can, so if a situation comes up, “Hey, who do we feel is the best defended by this person?” And we might know from five years ago, one of our players played against him in a game in Bosnia and he did really well against him playing this way.

So it’s little things like that no other TBT team is thinking about right now that will hopefully be the difference is winning $2 million this year, please. For the financial health of our bank accounts, please. But no, it’s definitely… I, and I love it. Scouting is part of my favorite thing to do.

I could do You know, for me, I’m not going to say it’s worth 125K, the last couple days I’ve been able just to scout a lot of the day, and I spent Sunday scouting for 14 hours. I love it. It’s just a pl- it’s just a great opportunity to be able to what I, to do what I love.

[01:07:11] Mike Klinzing: So at this stage in the preparation, are you mostly scouting individual players so that you have an understanding of, hey, this guy’s going to be on this roster, so we’re looking at what his tendencies are?

Because obviously the rosters change year to year. So until you actually see the team on the floor, then you can start to scout the team once you get into the second round and third round and they’ve played a game or two or, again, teams are doing exhibitions and whatever. But-

[01:07:37] Lucas Morrison: Yes …

[01:07:37] Mike Klinzing: are you mostly scouting individual players at this point?

[01:07:41] Lucas Morrison: Exactly. And my always thing is everybody– I would say not everybody, but if you played 10 years overseas, if you coached 10 years anywhere, you can diagnose a team game plan and say, “Hey, this is what they do. This is who they like to go to.” But I’m not w- as worried about them. I’m worried, hey, if the 12th man off the bench comes in and they give him five minutes because they need to, what is he going to look to do?

We had a situation year one, and this was something that I really took personally, where there was a situation where their 11th man off the bench, Eric Williams, went to Oregon, played in the G League the year before. None of our players knew what we wa- w- who he was or what he did or what he did well, so we weren’t guarding him right.

I’m like, “Guys, this is this and…” So I made it a point of, hey, these teams are so deep and so talented, two games doesn’t tell a story. An NBA team, you can tell who an NBA team’s identity is after 82 games. Watching a TBT team for one, two games, you never know. You might have a guy that was recovering from an ankle injury that you didn’t really know about, that all of a sudden he’s a starter and he scores 30, and you had no idea what to do because you didn’t see him on the first two games.

So TBT, as we get deeper now, if we’re in the championship, we’re five, six games in, it will be more team stuff. Hey, this team likes to do a lot of high pick and rolls. This is their main options. These are their stats. Leading scorers, rebounders, all that. But especially for game one, and that’s why I feel like we’ve had so much success in game one, is because I’ve been able to predict, hey, these are who they’re going to go to.

These are their main options. These are– these should be their main playmakers. So I can almost– I almost know the other team better than they know themselves from a standpoint of knowing what to expect from them. So It’s definitely different because you don’t have game film from a preseason, from scrimmages.

A lot of these teams get two to three practices before TBT, and that’s it. So it’s a lot about personalities and, how they’ve played the last 50 games of their season in Europe, G League, Japan, wherever they were

[01:09:52] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, to be able to understand personnel, I think especially like you said, going into the first game blind from a team standpoint, right?

Of understanding what team tendencies are going to be. And there are sure, there are some rosters that are similar from year to year and have the same coach, so maybe you can glean something from that. But I can totally see the value in having a great understanding of the personnel on a roster.

And if you’re putting in the kind of time, like what you’re describing, to be able to understand what each individual player’s tendencies are now you can start to see how that might fit together into a team, and then that can give your players the advantage of being able to have an understanding of what their opponents are going to do.

So I, I can clearly see where the amount of time that you’re putting in preparation, as you said, leads to success in that first game where everybody’s kinda looking around going, “We don’t know what to expect from our opponent,” because again, we haven’t seen them play together as a group. And so to be able to have that as an advantage, I’m sure is a huge piece of it.

As you guys are kinda heading towards heading towards TBT 2026, what beyond just putting together the roster what’s the next most important thing that you have to do in preparation to have your team ready to compete at the highest level? Once you have the roster in place, what’s the next, what’s the next biggest priority, Milan, that you see for your team and your organization?

[01:11:20] Malin Morrison: The next biggest thing is getting them all out there a couple days before and we can start bonding. We need to spend as much quality time together as possible. Obviously, we’re going to have training camp, we’re going to have practices, but outside of that, we need to spend time together. We need to get to know each other on and off the court because that camaraderie is going to help them play better together.

So we make sure they’re comfortable, that, they have good places to stay, sleep, eat, and we take care of them getting there and just make sure they spend time and have some fun too. Controlled fun, but fun.

[01:12:03] Lucas Morrison: Not too much fun. It is Vegas, but

[01:12:08] Mike Klinzing: So you’re talking about getting guys together for meals-

[01:12:11] Lucas Morrison: Yeah …

[01:12:11] Mike Klinzing: hanging out off the floor is what you’re talking about to be able to get them to know one another, and for you guys to get to know them or for them to get to know you.

[01:12:18] Lucas Morrison: Exactly. Yes. That’s a big part of it.

[01:12:22] Mike Klinzing: Perfect. All right. I want to ask you collectively one final two-part question, and I think it’ll wrap up kind of everything that we’ve talked about into a neat little package.

So the first part of the question is, when you look ahead to this year’s TBT, what do you see as being the biggest challenge? So that’s the first part. I’ll have you answer that, and then I’ll come back with the second part. So you can each take that. Maybe you have the same answer, maybe you have a different answer, but Malin, why don’t you take it first, and then Lucas, you can take it second.

What do you see as being the biggest challenge heading into this year’s TBT?

[01:13:02] Malin Morrison: The biggest challenge, I think, I feel, is that it’s so hard to plan this year because nothing is set yet. For our side of the bracket, we don’t know the format. We don’t know what day we play. We don’t know how many games we’re going to have or…

So- Yeah … I like to plan. I like to know everything, and I don’t. And at this point, it’s out of my control. I have to wait until they decide to give that information because they are trying to do something completely new and completely different and, it takes a lot of preparation. And I’m guessing it’s taking a lot more preparation than expected.

That’s why everything is- … being put together very late in the game, and that is affecting my preparation, so that’s stressing me out a little. Spoken like a true coach. All right, Lucas, what do you see as the biggest challenge?

[01:14:05] Lucas Morrison: I would like to s– I, I would say the biggest challenge this year is going to be… right now I’m confident in our abilities, I’m confident we’re going to put the right team together. But the biggest challenge is we have so many options of great players. You have two programs that come together that have had success.

And also, the money has doubled, so there’s outside players as well that are looking to get opportunities. And there’s so many players, it’s making the right decision and bringing in the right, as we’ve talked about the whole time, the right people, not just the right players. Finalizing those last couple spots and making sure those last two to three guys are going to be people who you can trust if they’re on the court, but if they’re not on the court, are going to be 100% with the family.

And last year we had that and, we want to make sure we have the same thing again, where everybody one through 12, one through 13, whoever we end up bringing however many we br- end up bringing, are all bought into the same goal. And talking to a lot of the players that Auburn already has, I’m not worried about that for many of them.

There’s a- also probably a list of 35 players who I could get that could probab- are all talented enough to start on many TBT teams that, are options right now, and it’s about making sure we pick the right ones and we have, two and a half weeks. And that’s where our jobs get to be fun, so

[01:15:28] Mike Klinzing: That is definitely not easy to get the right guys for the back end of your roster, right?

You want guys that you feel can contribute on the court, but you also want guys who, if they don’t get as many minutes as maybe they hoped for, that they still are team first guys who are going to pull for their teammates and- Exactly … and keep rowing the boat in the same direction. And that, again, is key, but it’s hard to sometimes figure out who those guys can be until you get them in your gym.

I have a lot of confidence with the prep work that you’re putting in that you’re going to make you’re going to make the right decision. So the second part of the question, we’ll flip it around. Lucas, we’ll let you go first with this part. When you guys think about what you get to do every day with the Red Rose Thunder, just working together with with each other, what brings you the most joy?

So Lucas, you go first. What brings you the most joy about what you get to do every single day?

[01:16:17] Lucas Morrison: At the end of the day, it’s being able to do it with family. I love basketball. I love I love waking up and having a purpose. At the end of the day I always say, like I said in the beginning, my goal when I was younger to be a medical scientist I feel like I have– the way my brain works is very unique and it just, something just clicked as soon as I was around basketball and the coaching aspect that we look at it differently.

But even if I wasn’t talented, I would still love to do this. I get to do it with my family. There’s, a third person that, has been remained anonymous throughout this. But they’re just as important as, anybody else within the organization. I didn’t, wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to be a part of it but they were.

Those, like the three people in my life that are like truly family, I couldn’t do this without. And being able to do this one more time with everybody involved, it’s it’s all I could ask for. If three months ago you would’ve told me this was an opportunity, I would’ve said I would’ve gone in a debt a million dollars.

Wouldn’t cared. Whatever money was, I’ll throw it out the door. We’ll figure it out later. So whatever it is, I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be doing with the people that are truly family

[01:17:29] Malin Morrison: Said. Malin, your turn I don’t know how I’d say anything different. To me, it’s just I get to do what I love with, mainly Lucas.

Obviously, as a mom, I’m going to be beyond proud of, how far he’s come. He has so many obstacles that, some people know, some people don’t. He has, two major medical things that he battles every day and, it- there’s so many things, but he literally does whatever it takes to make sure that we are going to be successful, and I couldn’t be happier to do it with him.

And to have… I think one of the biggest things for me is the last couple years I’ve connected with the bigger part of my family in Sweden, and now we have their support. So now my, even my Swedish family has extended, and they are 100% supportive. They are one of our main supporters.

Human8 is a company-

[01:18:32] Lucas Morrison: Yes, Human8 Foundation, Human8 clothing as well. Yes …

[01:18:36] Malin Morrison: for neurodivergent people in the world, just like Lucas, and I

[01:18:41] Lucas Morrison: couldn’t be more proud

[01:18:45] Mike Klinzing: Again, said, and it goes along with the entire conversation that we’ve been able to have tonight. It’s clear how much the two of you appreciate the opportunity to work with one another.

And again, it’s such a unique situation and I’m very thankful that I got the opportunity to have a conversation with the two of you and learn more about it. Before we wrap up, I want to give you guys a chance to share how can people find out more about what you guys are doing with the Red Rose Thunder?

Whichever one of you wants to jump in and share social media, website. Lucas- Yes … it look like it’s you. So- give us the social media,

[01:19:20] Malin Morrison: give us the email- All social media is Red Rose- … website. Give it all. Give it all to us …

[01:19:22] Lucas Morrison: yes, is Red Rose Thunder on Instagram, Facebook. Main thing is always is Instagram these days.

Also official team name this year, I should say, is Red Rose War Ready with the combination. If anybody wants Red Rose War Ready merchandise, it’s going to be redrosewarready, all one word, .myshopify.com for some beautiful merch created by me. Might be a little biased, but I think the merch is beautiful.

Help us not be in so much debt, everybody. Pick up some merch. But no Red Rose Thunder on all platforms. We’ll be announcing players and announcing filling out, announcing coach as official head coach even though, everyone assumes. But, And follow along to this journey to $2 million hopefully.

[01:20:05] Mike Klinzing: Lucas and Malin, I cannot thank you enough for coming together and joining us tonight and giving of your time. Really appreciate it. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening, and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.

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[01:21:12] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads podcast presented by Head Start Basketball