“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #5 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 869
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The 5th episode of “The Triple Double” with Rob Brost, Bolingbrook (IL) High School Boys’ Basketball Head Coach. Rob, Mike, & Jason hit on three basketball topics in each episode of “The Triple Double”.
- What do you emphasize the first week of practice?
- How do you handle cuts?
- What is your philosophy on scheduling?
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What We Discuss with Rob Brost
- Playing hard and making good decisions on and off the floor are two important things to emphasize during the first week of practice.
- The best way to communicate cuts to players after tryouts.
- How a coach should handle scheduling depending on where they are with their program and their career.
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THANKS, ROB BROST
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TRANSCRIPT FOR “THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #5 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 869
Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight. And we are joined by Rob Brost, head boys basketball coach at Bolingbrook High School for Triple Double #5. Rob, welcome in.
[00:03:08] Rob Brost: Great to be back on number five. This is kind of like rounding out our starting lineup with the fifth episode here.
So, I’m looking forward to this one as well.
[00:03:20] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, some good stuff. We are recording this on the evening of November 2nd, about to here in Cleveland, Ohio, about to turn into November 3rd, but the season is almost upon us. So we thought we would pick out some topics that are relevant for coaches here as we are starting our seasons, depending on where you are in the country and what level you coach, especially at the high school level, you’re probably just starting or just about to start.
And so we wanted to hit on some topics that we thought would be relevant for this time of year. So let’s start out with topic number one, Rob, the emphasis for the first week of practice. I know this is something that when you talk to coaches, or I think back to my experience as a high school coach, There’s always a million things that you feel like you want to get in, you want to get done, you have to get done before the next game.
And so trying to narrow that down and figure it all out is always a challenge. So how do you approach that?
[00:04:19] Rob Brost: Well, I think every coach is different and I’ll just kind of explain how we do it. I don’t know if it’s the right way or the good way or it’s the appropriate way, but it’s just the way we do it.
Obviously we have a checklist of things that we want to get done before the first contest. But my main two things that I emphasize as the head coach is going hard all of the time. And so we talk about if we’re not going hard, then we’re going to practice going hard and nobody wants that.
Nobody wants me to be involved in that decision making process of them not going hard. And so one of the things we do to make sure that happens is we give our team, the entire team one time out per. Practice. So if they call the time out before I notice that that stuff is going on, in other words, not going hard, then they can kind of correct that on their own and meet as a group or whatever they need to do.
And so the first. Major emphasis is going hard. And then the second one and neither one of these really have to do with X’s and O’s necessarily the, the second one is decision making and decision making runs the gamut for us. That’s obviously decision making on the floor, but. Decision making relative to being a good teammate and decision making on how you’re going to interact with the coaching staff and decision making on how you’re going to interact with the lower level student athletes as well.
So, you know we, we really want to emphasize, or I really want to emphasize those two things. Obviously, there’s a lot of X’s and O’s things that we want to get accomplished, especially in the first week. However, those pale in comparison to the two things that I mentioned, going hard all the time. And then number two, decision making obviously on the court and decision making relative to being a good teammate and, and, and doing the right things for our entire program.
[00:06:38] Mike Klinzing: All right, so let’s dive deeper into the decision making part of it. When you talk about decision making in terms of being a great teammate, what does that look like? How do you get that message across to players that that’s something that you are emphasizing, that you are watching? Is that a matter of picking out?
The things that you’re looking for. Is that a matter of talking about formally? Hey, here’s what we think a great teammate is. Here’s what we want to see you doing. How do you approach that?
[00:07:05] Rob Brost: One of the things we do and this will usually be the second or third practice when kind of when we’ve had the first round of cuts already made.
We will go in the classroom before we start practice, and then I’ll simply ask this question. What does a good teammate do? Like, what, what’s, what do they do? What do good teammates do? And I will just write up on the board everything that the, the guys say, and you will be shocked. No one ever says, oh, he’s a great shooter, or he handles the ball well, or he’s very quick, or he’s very fast, anything to do with basketball.
They all say, is positive, goes hard all the time, encourages teammates, picks others up, is coachable, there’s eye contact, all of those things. The kids bring those things up. And then we talk about is there anybody in this room that can’t do all of those things? And to a man, they all agree that all of them can do all of those things.
And so that’s the first You know, expectation of our team is that you’re a good teammate. Number one. And, and I tell our guys it’s not going to go how you want it, no one here, including our best player is going to play as much as they want or as well as they want all the time.
And so it’s just not going to go exactly how you want it. So can you continue to be a good teammate? When you personally aren’t playing well or you’re having a bad day or you got a bad score in your biology class and then you have practice right after that or whatever the case may be. So I think being a good teammate is really critical for us, not only the first week, but all the time.
Cause if you’re not doing that, there’s no way you can be a part of, of what we’re doing. And not to say that it’s perfect cause it’s certainly not. But I think we’ve done a really good job the past 10, 12 years in particular of you know, setting the expectation of being a good teammate.
[00:09:16] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, so clearly… with the way that your program is and the culture that you built, those expectations are in place. Kids know that coming into the first practice. How much of that are you talking about in your off season as well? Because clearly, again, especially at the varsity level, right, you know the guys that, You’re going to be working with.
They’ve been around you. They know what to expect. You have some younger guys that are part of the program that are maybe coming up to the varsity for the first time, but it’s not the first time that they’re hearing it. Is it on day one of practice on Monday? That’s not going to be the first time they hear about finding out that, Hey, I got to be a good teammate. What’s this all about? Never heard this before.
[00:09:56] Rob Brost: I think we’re at a really huge advantage in that our program is. And I’m not talking from a wins and losses standpoint. You know, I’m talking about players that come back. We have seven guys that are playing Division I basketball right now. They all come back in the summer, talk to our kids, work out with our kids.
So, the expectations and what we have come to. You know, deem as appropriate behavior as far as being a good teammate is really exemplified by the older kids. And when I mean older kids, some of the kids that have already been all the way through the program and are out of it. And you know, some of our guys will come back from college, for example, and say, Hey, This is the best atmosphere.
This is the best culture that you’re ever going to play for because when you, when you get to college, everybody’s in it for themselves, including the coaches, the players, et cetera, et cetera. So you know, I think we’re lucky that we’ve been able to establish this and that our former players do a really good job of coming back and teaching, I guess, by example, more than verbally what the expectations are.
And so I tell our guys all the time, this, this phrase, if your relationship with me. Is dependent on if you play, how much you play or how well you play, then you’re in the wrong place. We’re going to have to do what’s best for each other and trust each other, regardless of those three items. And so that’s sometimes difficult for 15, 16, 17 year old kids.
But on the other hand, it’s very refreshing when they have adults that. Understand that they don’t need anything from them. Like for example, if my starting to guard, whoever that is, if he goes one for seven one night, I’m not going to bad mouth him everywhere I go and wish we had another two guard, that’s, that’s my two guard.
So I think they know and understand that. And so it’s refreshing from their point of view that, that an adult is like that with them. And then. It’s rather refreshing for us that they’re like that with us. And again, it’s not perfect and it doesn’t go exactly how you want it ever. But I think we’ve been fortunate enough to, to really cultivate a culture where, where that’s the case.
[00:12:33] Mike Klinzing: What about the decision making on the floor?
[00:12:34] Rob Brost: Yeah, the decision making on the floor is a very important piece of it because it really reflects your attitude and whether you’re being a good teammate. So whether you’re playing unselfish basketball, if you’re not going hard, that’s selfish because You’re not pushing your teammates to the level that they need to be pushed.
And you’re not pushing yourself to the level that you need to be pushed. So that’s a selfish thing to do. And so the decision making on the court is very critical as well. And so those things go hand in hand. The going hard and the decision making go hand in hand. So if you’re going hard all the time, you’re a lot less likely to be selfish because Going hard in and of itself is an unselfish act and not going hard is selfish.
So we talk about all those things, but then we… Emphasize and positively influence when we see those things happening on a daily basis. And are you the teammate that’s helping other people? Are you the teammate that’s only worried about yourself? And then obviously there’s a decision making piece of it on, like literally on the floor when you’re playing.
You know, are you turning it over? Are you making the extra pass? Are you taking really difficult shots? Are you taking shots that aren’t within our system? And, and all of those things are… Coached to our guys, what those things look like and what those things are. And they’re different for each player, obviously, because each player has a different skill set but our guys understand what we’re trying to do as far as how we play and we play, as you know, really, really fast and really, really unselfishly.
And we try to put a lot of pressure on the rim as far as that goes. And so those are the shots that we try to get. And when we’re not getting those shots, that’s selfish. So it, it goes with being a good teammate and then it obviously goes on the floor as well.
[00:14:40] Mike Klinzing: What I love about what you said, Rob, in all honesty, is the fact that those three components, so decision making on the floor, decision making, I guess, off the court, but as a teammate that’s not a direct basketball skill, and then playing hard.
Like, to me, those are things that permeate everything that you want to have happen in your program, regardless of whether it’s the first day of practice, the first week of practice, your last practice before the state championship game, your summer league game, your workouts in the summer, right? Those are all things, those three things If you could get those to permeate throughout everything that you do, you’re solving a lot of problems before you even figure out like, okay, how are we going to play and how are we meshing together as a team and what kind of defense are we going to be running?
And hey, have we prepared adequately for this game? If you could take care of those three things that you talked about that you’re emphasizing in week one, Those have nothing to do with how much strategic planning you did in the offseason of how are we going to X’s and O’s and scheme against this team or what are we going to do to stop this team’s fast break or how are we going to play against their pressure defense or whatever.
Those are things that no matter what you do, As a coach, if you get those three things out of your team, you’re so far ahead of where most teams are that if you can cement that, and like I said, you’ve obviously put your program in a position where you’re not teaching all those things on the fly during the first week of practice, the way somebody who’s maybe a brand new coach might have to do a little bit more of that.
So you kind of have the ball rolling downhill, so to speak. But for sure, if you get those things going, it makes everything so much easier.
[00:16:31] Rob Brost: No doubt. And it’s, it’s just refreshing to sit where I sit when some of those things, I don’t want to say take care of themselves, but now the upperclassmen kind of take that being a good teammate and they run with it and they take responsibility for it.
And so that’s really, really good. One, I just spoke at the. Iowa Basketball Coaches Association Clinic. And one of the things I talked about was everybody wants extraordinary effort out of their players. Everybody wants that. But until you make your players feel extraordinarily valued. They’re not going to give you that type of effort.
So I think it’s important that your players understand that they’re valued and then that they also understand that in my case, I’m not doing a good job as a coach if I’m allowing some of those things to just slide by. And so. We’re not going to do that. As far as being a good teammate, obviously we’ll work with every individual and every individual is different as far as their needs, both on and off the floor, but we’re not going to allow somebody or something to infiltrate the team on a long term basis.
So those are things that we emphasize, like you mentioned, all throughout the year. All the time. And so we don’t have to start from scratch on Monday when we have our first practice.
[00:18:04] Mike Klinzing: At the same time, you’re in a situation there where players are held accountable and you’re in a more formal practice setting than you’ve been since last season ended.
So even though you do have it established, you still are making it clear and emphasizing those three things, which. Permeate the entire program are going to carry with you throughout the entire season, regardless of what kind of things you’re doing in practice on a daily basis, playing hard, making good decisions.
Those are, those are universal skills that apply throughout the year. So I think those are, that’s a really good way to look at that. All right. Topic number two, handling cuts, something that no coaches enjoy the process of cutting a player and taking that basketball dream out of their hands. It’s obviously something, especially if you’re at a big school and you have a successful program where you’re going to have a large number of kids.
Coming out for your teams, especially at lower levels, where you have to be able to figure out what is the best way to handle those cuts. And we’ve all seen the different ways, right? We’ve heard the individual meeting with every player. We’ve heard the. I post the team on the door and I’ll meet with you if you want.
We’ve heard, I’ll post the names on the door and I’m closing that door and I’m not talking to anybody as a result of that. So how do you approach it? What do you think is the right way to do it? What do you think is, is the way that is going to be most beneficial for both your program and for the, for the kids that make the team and the kids who get cut?
[00:19:50] Rob Brost: Well, I think, again, I have no delusions of grandeur. All I can speak to is how we do it. I don’t know if it’s the right way, but we’ve found it to be at least effective for us, so to speak, but it’s the worst part, and there’s not even a close second, it’s the worst part of being a head coach is the cut piece.
And when I first started at Bolingbroke, whatever it was, 16 years ago, it was not… That difficult to cut kids. Cause I was cutting kids that either had bad grades or bad attitudes, or I don’t want to say weren’t good kids, but you understand what I’m trying to say. Now, the kids that I’m cutting are all really good kids that have worked tremendously hard, a lot of them, that have good grades, that have good attitudes, that show up all summer, all of those things.
And so, it’s much more difficult, to do that now, because I’m not cleaning up a lot of stuff. I’m just trying to make the decisions that are best for the team. And so the, the first thing is that we do is we are completely honest with the players. and completely honest with the parents and you know, when we cut, we, for the varsity level, we put everybody in one room and we call kids one by one, every single kid, whether they made it or they didn’t make it, and it’s in complete random order.
And… we Meet my assistant and I, two of my assistants are in the big room. And then two of my assistants are sitting with me. We meet with every single player. So it does take a fair amount of time to, to get that done. But I feel like we owe it to every single player. And so that’s how we do it on the varsity levels.
We meet with every single kid, make or cut and have a discussion with each one of them, because Some of the discussions, like with the 10th through 15th guy, I tell them, like, hey, if we had a game right now, you wouldn’t get in. Now, I’m not dumb. If you beat out players ahead of you, then there’s a chance for you to play, obviously.
But are you okay with where you’re at right now? And some of them are, and some of them aren’t. And so you know, that plays a part into the decision making as well. And so it’s a little bit easier for me cause we don’t have the huge numbers that say our lower levels do. anD so um, with our lower levels for our freshmen, we’ll keep 25 cause we have a freshman A and a freshman B, but we’ll get.
80 kids trying out for those 25 spots. And now that’s difficult because the, the gap isn’t as I agree, Rob, that’s a lot of meetings. Yes, that’s a lot of middle school boys. It’s the same way. Rob, I’m in a smaller school than you are. We had 45 kids trying out for 20 spots. Cause we have two teams and it’s like, yes.
And the difference between those kids, even, even with me at the varsity level, the difference between kid number 11, if I was going to rank them 1 through 15, kid number 11 and a kid that I cut that’s number 18 is very minimal. Completely agree. A lot of the time. Completely agree. You’re splitting hairs at that point.
Yes, it’s very, very difficult. So then you rely back on some of the other things. Are you going to be a good teammate? What do I know about you from seeing you in the hallway? Have you been at work? All of those things play a part into it. You know, I think it’s much more difficult for my lower level coaches to get all that done just because of the sheer numbers of kids.
Obviously, the top five to ten is relatively easy, but then after that, it gets very, very difficult. So, I have a special spot in my heart for those lower level coaches. And one of the things we do is we guarantee the kids two days And this is especially at the lower levels, but we might not have the final decisions done until the end of the week.
So some kids might have five days of practice because they feel like they need to see more or they’re not comfortable yet making the cuts and they’ll just tell the kids, Hey. If you don’t want to chance it, if you don’t want to keep coming, you don’t have to keep coming, but if you want to keep coming, you can.
And so they’ll kind of cut a few after the first two days and then cut a few more after the third day. And then normally by Thursday or Friday they’re down to their 25 kids because we have an A and B squad, like I said. So You know, that’s just how we do it. Again, I’m not trying to say that it will work for every program and smaller schools, bigger schools, private schools, public schools.
I know everybody’s situation is a little bit different. So that’s just how we do it. But I am always 100 percent honest with the kids and I invite them to be honest back with me. Like a kid last year, I’m not going to lie. He said, Coach, I don’t think I got a fair shot. I think you didn’t really watch me et cetera, et cetera, during these two days.
And that was fair because that’s his opinion. And so I we talked about that piece. And obviously at the varsity level, we only have 22 or 23 kids usually that, that try out. And I’m going to get down to 15. So I can get a pretty good idea of, of who’s what in the two days. And, and it’s not just the two days, obviously we have all summer we have June with our contact days and all those things that play a part into it as well.
So I think being honest with the kids is really important and then really listening to them and allowing them to be honest with you in return. You always keep 15. Last year I kept 16 and I’ve had years in the past where I’ve kept as few as 13. But I try to not say, hey, we’re going to do this exact number.
But for practice purposes, I’d like to have a third group of five if we can, and then obviously I could go down and get some sophomores or some freshmen if I wanted to. But I don’t want kids half the time with me, half the time with their level, half the time with me. I would rather have everybody practice relatively consistently with their group.
So I like to have that third group for scouting purposes a lot because we use the third group to kind of run the opponent’s stuff and that type of thing. So I don’t say we’re going to have this many for sure, but then when it gets to the playoffs in Illinois you can only dress 15. So come playoff time you’re going to have to cut it down to 15 regardless.
[00:26:57] Mike Klinzing: Okay, so players 11 through 15, clearly those guys are not going to see much actual playing time in games. And as part of this process of cutting the other players, you’re having this conversation with kids of, Hey, you’re player number 13. If we had a game today, you probably wouldn’t get in the game. And it’s great that.
There’s that honest dialogue and yet we all know that those kids in their heart of hearts, right? They’re dying to play just as much as player one, two or three. And so sometimes that’s a case where you have to figure out as a coach, how do I let those kids know that they’re valued, even though I can’t demonstrate their value by putting them.
Into a game as much as they would like to get in. So how do you make sure that those kids are valued so that they don’t become malcontents on the end of your bench, which we’ve all been in situations where you’ve had a kid that you may have even had an honest conversation with the kids that, Hey, you’re not going to play.
And then all of a sudden, boom, this kid is said he was going to be okay with it, but come game three, him and his mom and dad are totally disgruntled and they become a big issue. So just how do you keep those kids engaged?
[00:28:20] Rob Brost: We’ve definitely had that before. So again, it’s not perfect at Bolingbrook High School.
I don’t want to give the perception that it always goes exactly how it should, but to get to your question we do several little things that I think help those kids that don’t get in the games as much as they want. You know, we, we, we help it along. I think it’s never going to be as much as, as they want, obviously.
One of the, one of the things is we allow them at practice to a moniker of freedom relative to who we’re playing. So for example, our number, whoever our third two guard is on in the third group, if the other team’s best two guard. Our third team two guard gets to shoot all of those balls in practice and then one of my assistants will say something like, Hey, this is your chance to show coach that he he needs to get you in there.
Something like that. And so those things happen. Then we recognize after almost all of our games, the groups that help us prepare for the team that we were playing. And my assistant coaches do a really, really good job of this. You know, after I do my little spiel in the postgame, one of my assistants will inevitably say, Hey, let’s give it up for Jimmy Joe, who all week on the scout team was destroying you guys playing like whoever’s to guard we were playing.
And so we, we try to reward them that way. And then obviously you know, we treat all our players the same relative to everything else other than playing time, if that makes sense. So there’s, we go on a lot of trips, we get a lot of gear, all of those things, I think, help our guys become better teammates.
And I know that that doesn’t you know, help them get over the playing time thing, but we, we try to value them as much as possible, just like we try to value the kids that are on the floor as much as possible. And the other thing that I do is try to talk to all of those kids as much, if not more than I talked to the first group or the second group, the guys that are in the regular rotation.
Meaning that I’ll ask number 12 on the team, just like I would ask number four or five on the team. You know, how’s biology class going? All of those things. So that I have relationships with them other than just what we have on the floor. And again, that goes back to what I, the phrase I used earlier in the pod, that if your relationship with me depends on how much you play, if you play, or how well you play, then you’re in the wrong place.
We’re going to care about each other regardless of those three items. And that goes both ways. So I think everybody knows that and everybody feels that more importantly as the year goes on.
[00:31:39] Mike Klinzing: It’s well said. And I think it’s a lot harder to do than it is to say.
[00:31:41] Rob Brost: No question. Yes.
[00:31:44] Mike Klinzing: And it’s always a challenge, right? I mean, I think for any, for any coach. And for any player, ultimately, a lot of times their happiness comes down to how much do I play? And to overcome that lack of playing time, you have to be very, very intentional about all the things that you just described. of pouring into those kids and valuing them and letting them know that they’re valued.
Not just letting them know they’re valued directly to them, but also in the eyes of their teammates.
[00:32:17] Rob Brost: No question.
[00:32:18] Mike Klinzing: Because when we’re talking about kids, right, it’s easy for if I’m a starter and I’m a 16 year old junior on the team and here’s this kid who’s a senior who’s player 15 and he doesn’t play very much.
It’s kind of easy for me to discount the value that that kid brings to the team because I’m Yeah, 16 year old. I’m kind of inherently self focused and worried about me. And Hey, who’s this guy over here that doesn’t play anymore? Yeah. So I think you just, as a coach, you got to really make sure that that is something that gets emphasized.
It’s critical to be able to keep those guys who don’t play as much engaged and, and let them know that you care about them and that you have a relationship with them beyond just, as you said, beyond the minutes that they play on the floor.
[00:33:02] Rob Brost: And we’re going to, we’re going to have some interesting dynamics this year because arguably are one of our best players, if not our best player, quote unquote, is a freshman, an incoming freshman.
My son is a sophomore. And so that brings a whole new dynamic into the whole thing. When the coach has a kid on the team, number one, and then number two, when one of the best players on the team is a freshman. And so we’re going to have some of those things crop up during the season because we’re human, you know?
And so you know, we’re going to, we’re going to have to be on our toes with, with all of those. And then of course, when you’re, when you play some young kids, sometimes, sometimes they don’t play great all the time. And so I tell our team all the time. The good news is you go to Bolingbrook High School.
The bad news is you go to Bolingbrook High School because it’s very competitive and some guys that might play at some other schools may not see the floor as much at our place.
[00:34:06] Mike Klinzing: And I would say the last point to make here, I think is, as a coach, It’s super important to have a pulse of your team and be aware of those undercurrents and what’s happening.
And part of that goes back to what you talked about, right? It’s just talking to kids about, Hey, how’s your biology class and this and that. And sometimes those conversations just kind of naturally wind their way back to. Things that are going on within the team. And I think if you keep your eyes and ears open as a coach, that you’re going to see and hear things that can help you to head off problems before they happen.
And that’s not to say that, again, you can’t solve every problem. You can’t make every problem go away or not happen, but the more you’re keyed into what’s going on. In your locker room with your players and sort of, I always think of it as kind of this undercurrent or this buzz that’s going to your team that you as a coach, if you’re paying attention, you can find that stuff early and get to it before it becomes a major problem and put out small fires before they come big ones.
[00:35:20] Rob Brost: There’s no doubt. And there’s no doubt about dealing with those things when they’re small fires, as you just put it, instead of letting them get to infernos and then trying to put them out is, is, is much more difficult. And you know, I think I have a much better feel. For our guys, not only how they’re playing, but how they’re feeling now than I did 15 years ago.
And so you know, it’s not always going to be great, but we always do the best we can to keep a, keep a close tab on that for sure.
[00:35:53] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it’s probably easier to read the room today as a more experienced head coach than it was when you first started. I’m sure that’s no question. That’s an acquired skill.
Just like a teacher in a classroom, right? It’s an acquired skill.
[00:36:03] Rob Brost: Like I said, at the clinic I did last week in Iowa, I had my priorities really mixed up when I first started coaching. I just thought it was about plays. Gathering the right plays and doing this set and, Hey, what is this coach doing? Okay, I’ll do this.
And when Syracuse won the national title, then I was like, well, we better play two, three zone. And then when somebody won national title with man, I wanted to do, and that’s not, now my philosophy has completely changed from that. You know, knowing that if our kids don’t feel valued, they’re not going to play hard and we’re not going to, we’re not going to play well, for sure.
So it’s, it’s easier said than done for sure. But I, I think as you get more experience coaching and as you deal with more situations on a day to day basis as a head coach you’re, you’re better prepared for those things that come up.
All right, topic number three. Putting together a schedule, which depending upon who does that scheduling and philosophy of scheduling. So let’s just kind of dive into that. How do you guys do it at Bolingbrook? How’s it handled? I’ll give you my thoughts and opinions kind of where I’ve always stood on it.
And then we can kind of go back and forth.
[00:38:11] Rob Brost: This has been a much bigger challenge for me now. At first, I didn’t worry about the schedule at all because I was so worried about all the other stuff that we had going. Now the schedule kind of rears its ugly head sometimes because Of a couple of factors.
And I’ll just kind of go through a couple of things, but I, I’ve always been of the philosophy, you want to kind of have a third, a third, a third as far as games, a third that you think you’re going to win pretty much a third that you think you have a decent shot at losing, or it’s going to be super, super competitive, and then a third that could go either way.
And so that’s. My mentality when the schedule comes, well we’ve moved to a part in our to a place in our program now where a lot of teams do not want to play us. And you know, it’s difficult to get teams to agree to a home and home. Like some teams will agree to play us at their place, but then they won’t come back and, and give us a home game.
So you know, obviously the conference schedule is set. So that kind of takes care of itself. And then. The other thing that we have to be cognizant of is we get invited to play in a lot of events that maybe some other teams don’t get to, and so we have to save three or four dates for those types of things because everyone wants to make sure that they’re getting the best teams at those events, so sometimes they’re not finalized on the schedule until six months before or even two or three months before a couple of our games.
Big games that we’re playing in this year didn’t get finalized until like a month ago. So the scheduling is always difficult. And then you know, I always work hand in hand with my athletic director as well, who’s, who’s really good with all of this as well. So it’s, it’s not just my decision.
It’s not just his decision. We kind of And bounce ideas off each other. So that’s how we do it. Next year we’re moving into a different conference, so we’re actually going to have more conference games. So it’s going to take away some of our scheduling flexibility because we have more teams in the new conference that we’re going into, so, you know.
Scheduling is, is something that I think a lot of people don’t really realize how critical it is. And then number two, how difficult it is because every program’s at a different spot. And I think it’s difficult for every program because everybody’s in a different place.
[00:40:40] Mike Klinzing: What percentage of your games, like how many non conference games do you have to schedule this year?
And then How many will you have to schedule next year as you get more conference games?
[00:40:48] Rob Brost: Yeah. So we’re, we’re going to lose four of those non conference games that we currently have this year. So that, that takes away a lot of our flexibility as far as these shootouts and the other events that we play in.
And so. You know, because we’re going into a conference and right now our conference has four teams on each side. So actually there’s five teams on each side. So there’s four teams on our side besides us that we play twice. The new conference has I believe six teams on each side. So that’s You know, two more games and then four more games that we won’t get have flexibility with.
So all of that has to be taken into account when we’re scheduling. And so we’re going to lose four of those non conference games. For next year that, that we have some flexibility this year and next year, we’re not going to have that.
[00:41:45] Mike Klinzing: Has your philosophy on scheduling changed since you first started to where you are now when you are a coach that’s just taking over a program?
Yeah. Clearly, you probably want to schedule. More wins. So you can thank those. And then I would guess that as your program develops, it becomes more a case of giving your guys an opportunity to challenge themselves against better opponents. And also my philosophy has always been that I feel like, and this is me not speaking as a head coach, so I can understand where a head coach could.
Think differently in certain situations, but I always feel like what I would want to do is to try to get my team and my players prepared for the state tournament. So I’d want to play teams that are quality opponents that could allow me to be prepared for the state tournament. Now, That requires me to do a couple things or it requires a couple things sort of surrounding that one.
It requires me to educate my players and their families about what the schedule actually means, right? Yes. We could have a record that maybe is not reflective of how good a team we are because we’re playing such a good schedule. And then the second part of that is you need to have an administration that is on board with that as a philosophy, if that’s what you’re going to do.
If you’re going to say, okay, here in Ohio, we played 22 games. So if I say I’m going to go 12 and 10, but I’m going to be prepared to play deep into the state tournament because of the level of schedule I play. That’s great, but maybe 12 and 10 doesn’t look all that sparkling when you publish it in the newspaper.
So talk a little bit about just how, depending on what stage your program is in or just for you personally, how it’s kind of your thought process has changed from when you first started to where you are now.
[00:43:48] Rob Brost: When I first started, I wanted our players to get used to winning. So they understood what winning was and understood the habits that it takes to win.
And so I worried about wins and losses way, way more than when I first started. Now, I hardly worry about that at all. And I know some people are like, well, that’s easy for you to say you’ve won almost 400 games, blah, blah, blah. And, but it’s, it’s very true. Now I’ll play pretty much anybody. And I don’t care if we get drubbed by 30 you know, like if we’re playing the Lakers or something like that, we’re going to get thumped.
So, we’re kind of unique that we’re a very good high school team. And a very good high school team and program in Illinois, but we’re not a prep school and we’re not as good as some of the national prep school teams. And so we’re kind of floating in that area, if that makes sense.
And so you know, we’re a public high school is what we are. And so I think a lot of these teams that say they’re high school teams, they have high school aged players, but they’re not high school teams, right? Exactly. And so we’re, we’re kind of floating in that. And so you know, I, I don’t worry about the wins and losses as much now as I did when I first started to, to be perfectly honest.
And I’ll give you a perfect example. We got invited to playing a big shootout here in our area. And I told them I would play one certain team only because they’re supposedly the best team in the state. That’s who I wanted to play. They didn’t want to play us. So we’re not going to play in that event.
And so they didn’t want to play us. So we’re, we’re not going to play in that event. So that’s just one example of, of what it was. I’m not going to mention the team or anything like that because it doesn’t make any difference right now. But um if people knew that that team didn’t want to play us, they would be like, what?
They have the most talent in the state. So You know, I think you have to pick and choose your battles and you got to pick and choose what’s good for your team. If we have to drive three hours or four hours, or if we have to spend the night all of those things factor into my decision making process.
And then are we getting guarantee money? Are we getting meal money? Are we, are they paying for our bus? You know, all of those things play into you know, whether we’re going to play. In certain events or certain teams. So The scheduling is, is a large piece of it, especially now since we’ve kind of established ourselves as whatever we are, I’ll let somebody else judge what we are, but it’s, it’s a little bit more difficult now to navigate that whole thing and then move into the new conference next year.
It’s going to be a whole nother thing because we won’t have as much flexibility with it.
[00:47:03] Mike Klinzing: Will you come back and play some of the teams that are in your current conference?
[00:47:05] Rob Brost: I hope so. I hope so. We’ve this is probably not going to be a good omen for me to say this now, but we’ve gone through the last two seasons undefeated in our conference and that, that’s rarely happens and we’ve done it two years in a row now.
So you know, We have not dominated the conference, but we’ve been first or second in this conference for quite some time. And so there’s really, really good basketball in our conference. So for us to go undefeated in this conference again, I think that would be really, really difficult.
And I think it would be… You know, I’m not saying it’s impossible for us to do, but it would be if you would have told me we would have done it the last two years, I would have said you’re crazy. And so it’s just really, really tough conference.
[00:47:58] Mike Klinzing: I think scheduling is something that not a lot of people beyond the high school coach themselves really.
Thinks a whole lot about, I mean, I don’t think, I mean, I don’t think players necessarily like write the schedule, the schedule just comes out and you’re like, all right, that’s who we’re playing. And then parents and fans and stuff, I don’t think they realize kind of the behind the scenes workings of trying to figure out open dates.
And as you said, the different spots where, where teams are, and once you get to a certain level and you’re this guy, I always think about it in terms of. You know, comparing like high school to, to college scheduling if you’re a good mid major on the college, in college basketball, I mean, nobody wants to come to your place and play.
You’re not, you’re not getting a power five school to come and play at your mid major school, even though you might be on that same level with them. They’re just not coming to your place to play. And so then you got to go on the road, which obviously makes it a much tougher game. And so trying to find those games that are again, going to challenge.
Your team and hopefully help them to prepare for conference play and whether it’s NCAA tournament in college or whether it’s for the state tournament in the high school, there’s always what seems straightforward. Oftentimes, as we know, in coaching, things that seem straightforward from the outside are never as straightforward as we think.
So I think we did a, we did a pretty good job of kind of laying out the laying out the scheduling idea and just. Talking about how and where and who kind of gets involved in it. So those are our three topics for tonight. I think we did a pretty good job of covering those. We’re right about in our, in our time range here at a little over 45 minutes.
So I think we did pretty well. Again, Rob, cannot thank you enough for being a part of this. These episodes are always a blast. I feel like I learn a ton from hearing you talk and bouncing ideas off of you and hopefully the audience out there that’s listening, hopefully you take a couple things away from what we talked about tonight to make your program better for yourself and for your players, your school, your community.
And Rob, again, thanks for being a part of it.
[00:50:11] Rob Brost: It’s always an honor to be on with you guys. And I’ve done a fair amount of these podcasts not Hoop Heads Podcasts and you guys are top notch in every respect that there is. And so I’m just honored to be on with you guys. I’m honored to have a regular segment with you guys.
And it’s always a pleasure.
[00:50:34] Mike Klinzing: Well, thanks. We appreciate those kind words and it’s always a lot of fun. And like I’ve said to, it’s kind of become a traditional statement that I make at the end of every episode that I never would have guessed that you develop an honest to goodness friendship from a silly podcast like this.
And, and the fact that we’ve been able to do that You know, means everything to me. I mean, it’s really what it’s all about is being able to, being able to use the game of basketball to, to connect with people and share a common passion. That’s really what it’s all about. So again, Rob, can’t thank you enough for taking the time out tonight to join us for Triple Double Number Five.
[00:51:12] Rob Brost: Appreciate you guys. Thank you.
[00:51:14] Mike Klinzing: We made it through a triple header tonight. So we did a triple double triple tonight because we did we did our third pod of the night. We’re wrapping up at about 12:30 AM here in Cleveland, Ohio. But Hey, that’s what it’s all about. We love what we’re doing.
And again, thanks to everyone out there for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.