“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #14 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 1027
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The 14th 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”.
- BLOBs and SLOBs – Philosophy and how to effectively practice them
- How to handle player and team rankings
- Game day routines for coaches
On this episode Mike and Jason welcome back Rob Brost to discuss the importance of inbounds plays, both offensively and defensively, and how to effectively practice them. The conversation shifts to the significance of player and team rankings, exploring how they impact players and coaches alike. Throughout the discussion, Rob emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to coaching, focusing on principles and strategies rather than getting caught up in external perceptions. Brost discusses the impact of team rankings on player motivation and expectations, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the work rather than the accolades. He shares insights on how to manage external pressures from rankings and community expectations while maintaining a humble approach. Additionally, he outlines his game day routine, highlighting the significance of preparation and a calm demeanor to foster a positive environment for his players.
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What We Discuss with Rob Brost
- BLOBs and SLOBs – Philosophy and how to effectively practice them
- How to handle player and team rankings
- Gameday routines for coaches
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TRANSCRIPT FOR “THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #14 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 1027
[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight and it is time for triple double number 14. Rob Brost, Bolingbrook High School in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Rob, welcome back in. J, welcome in.
[00:00:20] Rob Brost: Great to be back. I’m excited on two fronts. The main one is that your Cavs are dominating right now. And that’s the main one. Then obviously number two, we’ve started practice. And so off we go here with the season. So let’s go.
[00:00:36] Mike Klinzing: Season is here. The NBA season is here. Cavs 13 and 0 as we speak tonight, as we’re recording. Big game with the Boston Celtics next Tuesday, which probably will be right We released this episode, so who knows what’ll happen, but at this point, very excited about the Cavs season and also very excited that the basketball season is here.
You guys are going to be up and playing Jason’s teams that he’s coaching are playing.
[00:01:02] Jason Sunkle: My girls, my kids are ready to get started. I’ve played three games, I’m 2-1, Rob, 2-1. And my girls, after they won the first game, I told Mike this story off the air. The girl comes up to me and goes, we have a, and I coach seventh grade, we haven’t won a game since fifth grade.
So I was like, I could end the season now. I’ve succeeded. I’ve exceeded their expectations after losing every game last season. So we’re off to a good start.
[00:01:29] Mike Klinzing: Coach of the year, the coach of the year trophy is headed your way very soon. No, it’s not. Good work. All right. So we are going to talk three topics again tonight.
And the first topic that we’re going to throw out, Rob, is Baseline out of bounds and sideline out of bounds. Just talking about philosophy. First of all, what are you trying to accomplish with each of those special situations? And then how do you go about practicing sideline out of bounds, baseline out of bounds?
How do you incorporate them into practice? What are you looking to do when you’re practicing those to make sure that they’re crisp and you can execute them when you get to games?
[00:02:12] Rob Brost: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s really interesting just today. One of my assistants pounded up, and this was complete coincidence, counted that we had over 200 inbounds unders that we defended against last year.
So it averaged out to about six and a half times a game we were defending inbounds under. So I would say about that average would be six and a half times we had an inbounds under a as well. So we, we try to incorporate it into practice in our normal flow of practice. So, for example when we’re practicing these if we’re doing three possessions or something like that where we’re in the full court, if we have a dead ball situation and it’s inbounds under, we’ll just call one where the guys don’t even know that it’s coming, think that it’s coming, and then we’ll just do it in practice as part of our natural flow, I guess you would say.
Obviously it’s a separate point of practice when we’re first introducing inbounds hunters, both offensively and defensively. But once we get them in, we like to practice them in the normal flow of our scrimmage sets or our normal transition work, all of those things. It’s not like we set aside 20 minutes to just practice inbounds unders.
We like it to be kind of spontaneous. And so the kids really don’t know that it’s coming and we just throw it in there, so to speak during our normal practice flow, obviously there’ll be practice segments during the, especially the beginning part of the year off our master practice plan. Where we go over inbounds, under, both offensively and defensively, and I try to have very few of those in.
At our first game, it sounds weird but we only have one or two in for probably our first set of games when we go play here in two weeks. But then as the season progresses we will add inbounds, unders, probably more than sideline out of bounds. Even because on the inbounds unders, we like to try to score.
Obviously we’re sideline we’re not necessarily trying to score per se, but set up an action, I guess you would say to, to score. So it’s not like we’re not trying to score, but it’s more of a set up situation where we don’t want to turn the ball over. And so. the converse of that defensively, we’re trying to prevent scores when we’re on the defense defensive end on out of bounds unders.
And so when you have an average of six and a half inbounds under situations per game that’s, that’s an ability for about 20 points per game right there is up for grabs. And so you don’t want to be weak in those areas, but on the other hand it’s not something that overwhelms our practice or takes up a huge amount of time as well.
[00:05:24] Mike Klinzing: How do you prevent your players from playing the play defensively when your offensive team is running an out of bounds play that obviously the defensive team knows what that play is and knows what’s coming. How do you handle that situation?
[00:05:45] Rob Brost: Well, I think. We do the best we can to make it as game like as possible.
And it’s just like any situation you haven’t practiced, right? Your, your team knows really what’s coming because you’ve practiced that whether that’s offense, defense or whatever it is. So we just try to make it as game like as possible and as random as possible. And so there’s been times where we’re not even scrimmaging and I’ll say, Hey, let’s do, .
Out of bounds under three, and then we just run to the other end of the floor and then we do it. And then. how I have it set up is we have one of my assistants is kind of our offensive coordinator and one of our assistants, another assistant is the defensive coordinator. And so their jobs are to have those things prepared and ready and kind of organized, I guess you would say and, and ready to go.
And then obviously once we get into the season We like it, like I said, to be part of the flow of our, our normal practice. And so obviously we’re practicing some of it five on O and against dummy D at the beginning, just to get the pattern, routine, et cetera. And then, then obviously we’ll go live with it as we move throughout the year.
[00:07:09] Mike Klinzing: All right, let’s look at it from the defensive side of the ball. Obviously you don’t know what types of plays your opponents are necessarily going to be running. As you scout them, you get an idea of, Hey, they like to do this, or this is the actions or these may be counters that they have. So what’s the general philosophy with your team in terms of defensively, when you’re guarding a baseline out of bounds play, what are some of the principles that you teach your team to be able to prevent the other team from, from scoring out of that situation?
[00:07:41] Rob Brost: The first thing we want to do is prevent a lane touch on the first path. And make sure that the first pass is away from the basket. And then we feel like if, if we can accomplish that, then we can guard just about any action, right? And then, and so we play off of concept on out of bounds under as well, especially defensively, most out of bounds under start off a box set or a stack set or a four low set.
So we know how we’re going to defend those general sets. Before we even go into a game, and then obviously once we’re playing a team and we know what their inbounds under plays are, then it becomes a little bit easier. In general, we, our first rule is we don’t want the first pass to be in the lane of any sort.
We want the pass to be outside the lane. And then we feel like once we’ve done that, then we’re good, right? Because we can defend any action off of our principles defensively. Once the ball gets in. So we, we do a little bit, a couple of different things. Out of bounds, under, we kind of start in like a zone situation, but as soon as the ball gets in, then it’s man.
And so we’re switching everything when it first comes in. And then once it gets in, we’re straight man. So we like to give a different look than what we’re actually in, if that makes sense, and then really protect the basket and protect the lane. And then obviously get out to three point shooter.
So our philosophy inbounds under is very similar to our half court defensive philosophy that we want to protect the rim and protect the lane area number one, and then prevent catch and shoot threes, number two, and make guys put it on the floor and hopefully force them into a mid range type of shot or, or something of that nature.
So. It’s a delicate balance between using our principles and then defending the team that we’re playing off of the scout, right? So obviously everybody’s got a counter and then a counter to the counter and all that stuff. So that’s why the principles are, are so important.
[00:09:53] Mike Klinzing: You tell the defender on the ball defensively, whether you’re in a man or a zone look going back to man, how do you like defend the guy who’s actually the inbounder?
How do you defend the inbounder?
[00:10:06] Rob Brost: Yeah. Well, we usually put our biggest guy on the inbounder and then we’re switching everything once the ball gets in. So usually the best shooter or the best passer is passing it inbound. One of those two things is happening or the best big. And if it’s the best big, we already got that covered.
Cause our best big is in, so we want to make it difficult for the ball to be inbounded. Especially going towards the basket. That’s the first concept. And then we’re switching. anything because we’ll know if it’s a tutor that’s standing on a bounce or if it’s their big because we obviously can see and we’ve scouted.
So, our, our hope is that our guys will communicate and understand what they’re running and typically they’ll call out the play and we’ll know what it is just like they’ll know our plays when we call ours out because they’ve scouted us as well. So this isn’t a one way thing. It’s not like I’m outsmarting.
The other guy, he, he knows our plays just like we know theirs. And so that goes into the bigger philosophy where, and it goes even into timeouts and all that I don’t know how many times I go into a timeout and they’re like, what did you say in that time? I, I said, make a play. That’s what I said.
Just make a play because we know what they’re doing. They know what we’re doing. So we need to do what we do better than what they do. And so that’s the case. I think a lot of times with out of bounds unders as well.
[00:11:36] Mike Klinzing: More threes or more layups are you looking for offensively? Or you’re just really trying to take exactly what the defense gives you?
What do you find historically for your teams? Are you, are, do you get more threes off inbounds or do you get more layups?
[00:11:50] Rob Brost: I think we, we like to put pressure on the rim. So again, our, our general offensive philosophy is the same with out of bounds unders when we have it on offense, right? And so we have a couple of guys this year and we had a few last year that can really shoot the three.
But the other teams know that they can shoot the three as well. So, a lot of times it’s counter to what you would think when we put a shooter out of bounds and we’re running, running him off of a single double or something like that off of a out of bounds under. But then a lot of times those are counters to get our big guy a touch or like a dribble handoff situation after we get an imbalance where we’re attacking the rim.
And so what we do offensively and defensively are just opposite of one another, trying to stop the things that we like to do on offense. And then trying to do the things that we like to do on offense, if that makes sense. It sounds simplistic and it is, but it gets a lot more complicated, obviously, when you’re playing another team.
[00:12:55] Mike Klinzing: I mean, I think when you start talking about right, making counters and that goes for offensively and defensively, you’re just reading the situation. As you said, make a play, you give players a general principle of, Hey, this is what we’re trying to accomplish. We know when we’re on defense, we’re switching everything and boom.
Now we’re taking stuff away. With the scouting and what is coming. Then you’re able to be able to, to, to not allow your opponent to get easy baskets. I mean, I think it’s key to be able, if you can pick up two or three easy baskets on out of bounds plays and prevent your opponent from getting those.
I mean, that’s a crucial battle. Like you said, there’s 20 points at stake there that if you can win that battle by four, six, eight points every game, I mean, that’s a, that’s a huge advantage that, that any team could have, which is kind of why I wanted to talk about that particular topic.
[00:13:40] Rob Brost: We, we do one of my assistants is kind of a.
mastermind of watching film. So he clipped every out of bounds under that we had on defense from last season. He’s watched it, he’s analyzed it, and what we need to do. All of these things. And I’m glad he’s doing that cause that he’s a lot smarter than me and maybe he has more time than me.
He’s kind of the mastermind of how we’re going to do the out of bounds hunters and I really appreciate it like this August, I got 70 clips on huddle. Like here’s our first 70 out of bounds hunter defenses for a season. I don’t really care,
[00:14:19] Mike Klinzing: so
[00:14:20] Rob Brost: now he’s going to hear this and be like, Oh, I did all that work.
So anyways but some of that is off season work to get tendencies and to just understand if you’re doing a good job, I guess you would say on defending those things. And so again, some of that comes back to the program philosophy and all of those things as well.
[00:14:40] Jason Sunkle: I’m going to ask one question, Ron, about Baselines Out of Bounds.
Do you have a story of a great Baselines Out of Bounds play that you’ve drawn up? Because you needed something. Do you have something? I know that’s
[00:14:50] Rob Brost: Well, I can tell you where I jinxed one. I drew up Out of Bounds on there. We were in the super sectional final. So this is the go down state. And we were already in the first overtime.
And so we’re up three, or excuse me, there’s three seconds left on the clock and we had out of bounds under and I call timeout, of course. And I draw up something that we didn’t have in and I hand the clipboard to the manager after I was done. And I said, our, our manager’s name at the time was Charles.
And I said, Charles, we’re about to win the super sectional right now. And so we got it in balance and then our kid just airmailed the pass to our post right out of bounds. So we went to a second overtime and I came away as the hero. So I jinxed it. We ended up winning the game but we did not win it on the autobahn center that I called.
So the pass would have gotten there.
[00:15:43] Jason Sunkle: Would have you won the game?
[00:15:44] Rob Brost: I think we would have, we, we had a post guy that was wide open. I mean, it was open, but the kid just kind of threw it over his head, I guess you would say and I’ll be nice about it cause as soon as I saw the play develop, I, I, I liked, I literally turned around.
And I started to like, shake our guys like, here we go, and then the ball just went right out of bounds. No, no, no, no, no,
[00:16:08] Jason Sunkle: it’s not the Swaggy P when he turned around and put his arms up. There you go. That’s right. There you go. So I jinxed it
[00:16:15] Rob Brost: more than I, I mean, it was a great play call and I’m never going to throw our players under the bus cause we ended up winning the game.
But it so that was the exact opposite of what you’re asking for.
[00:16:26] Jason Sunkle: It’s a memorable one though. So that’s that.
[00:16:28] Rob Brost: Yeah. No question. No question. So, but it worked out okay. Cause then we went into another overtime we ended up winning. So. It worked out all right.
[00:16:38] Mike Klinzing: All’s well that ends well. All right. Topic number two, rankings, player rankings, team rankings.
I know that for most coaches, the standard answer is I don’t deal in player rankings, team rankings. We don’t really talk about them. But the reality is that kids, parents, communities love rankings. They love reading player rankings. They look at websites. They love reading team rankings. So it’s something that as a coach, even though you may not necessarily want to acknowledge slash deal with those things, they are things that your players, your community, your parents are seeing, are talking about, are reading.
So how do you go about having conversations with players, with your team when rankings are brought to you in whatever way, shape, or form they end up coming to you? Yeah.
[00:17:35] Rob Brost: Well, I, I think there are two, two parts to this individual rankings, right? And then team ranking. So let’s cover them kind of separately.
The, the individual rankings. This is my 17th year at Bolingbroke high school. I have never one time talked about to a kid about what he’s ranked or what he should be ranked or if he’s ranked, et cetera. Now, I will say it’s a little different now. Because one of my players lives in the same house as me.
And he’ll bring to me, like I don’t read the individual rankings, hardly ever. Sometimes I’ll read the national ones before I go to USA basketball stuff just to see who Just cause I’m curious. But now since my son is literally involved in the ranking he’ll come to me and be like, dad, did you see this?
I’m such and such a number, or I’m such and such a number, or I’m way better than such and such and such and such. And he’s two spots ahead of me. And so I can tell you just from my house, and I think my son is pretty level headed and pretty like realistic on, they look at it, right? And I, I understand that more now because I have a player living with me.
And I understand how it affects the thought process or psyche, I guess you would say. And so I, I know it matters, but individually, I haven’t looked at that in years and I still don’t look even after Trey says, well, look at this, so and so is Three, not even talking about himself.
Can you believe that? whatever. So I try not to look at the individual ones really at all. But the team ones are a whole different story. Which we can get to after, unless you have follow up, follow ups with the individual.
[00:19:28] Mike Klinzing: I think the individual thing, right? The only way that you as a coach would ever have that discussion would be if a player brought it to you and said, Hey, what about this?
And your answer, I assume would be the same for any player on your team that it is for Trey of, Hey, those rankings are whatever arbitrary and who knows who the person is that’s coming up with those rankings and who knows, who knows who has watched those rankings and whatever. So I got a funny story for you, Rob.
So. My son’s team played against The University of Akron. So division three playing against a division one team. This was last Friday. And one of the kids who plays for the University of Akron, he’s a transfer. I think he was at West Virginia before, but he came to my basketball camp when he was in second grade.
And his father at some point after the basketball camp, like one day after camp came up to me and he said, I just want you to know that my son is the number one ranked second grader in the country. And I remember looking at him and just, I was at my job,
[00:20:37] Jason Sunkle: like I was at this camp with you. I remember this.
Okay. Do you remember this
[00:20:40] Mike Klinzing: story? Oh, you remember the story? So I just remember looking at the father and saying, Oh like just like, I was so shocked and taken aback that I couldn’t, I almost couldn’t react to it. And I, I remember saying to him, well who’s, who’s doing that ranking? And then him saying giving me some answer and then me just kind of walking away and.
Shaking my head going, Oh my goodness. Like this is, this is unbelievable. Now, now this kid is, this kid’s a very good player. He actually, and I haven’t seen it. I hadn’t seen him play probably since he was in second grade. But he’s a, he’s a very, very nice player, really unselfish and very good job. I don’t think he’s still the number one ranked player in his class, but a very good player.
But just when I think of rankings and everything that’s wrong, everything that’s wrong, everything that’s wrong with rankings was summed up in that story that this father was telling me that he was the number one ranked second grader in the, in the, in the, in the country. So it’s wild. I’ve heard of.
[00:21:46] Rob Brost: Excuse me, I’ve heard of people in our area, Chicagoland area, and I’m sure it’s the same. Like they will write about slash rank kids who’s either parents or somebody pay them. Right. To write. Absolutely. So some of this is it’s so far off. You can’t even trust it. And I know there’s some really good ones, too, and that do it right.
And that are. That I trust and obviously I’m not going to name names or do anything like that. But it’s crazy how many people now are ranking kids and how many people, people, like they are professional enough or have seen enough basketball to rank kids. I don’t understand it. It seems like every year there’s more people doing it and more people think that they’re qualified to do it.
And I’ll just leave it at that, I guess.
[00:22:40] Mike Klinzing: That is so true. I mean, I can sort of see the intrigue in ranking high school players. I can, I can understand that there’s a market for that in that there are a lot of people who are interested in high school basketball players. their parents, people who are just fans of high school basketball.
I can see where there is a demand for that. What I can’t, for the life of me, see is anything below that. And again, to your point, whether people are paying for their rankings or whatever it may be, there’s no way that any rational person can look and see a 200 player list put out by writer X and think that that writer has in any way, shape or form seen all 200 of those kids play basketball.
So I guess the bottom line for anyone who’s out there listening, who’s not a coach, because I think all coaches already probably understand this, but if you’re a player or you’re a parent, please take all rankings of individuals with a grain of salt and do not let that impact you in any way, shape, or form in terms of what you are doing out of basketball court.
So, Let’s leave that there and go to the team rankings, because obviously that’s something more that a lot of people in your community may see and may find to be interesting or want to talk about it. So how do you handle team rankings and how that may affect inside your locker room, what you do, and then the people who are, again, attached to your program, but aren’t in your locker room.
[00:24:17] Rob Brost: Yep. It’s interesting. Let me, let me come at this with a two pronged approach as well. How I normally do it or talk about it and then what’s happening to my team right now as we’re recording. And it’s, it’s kind of unique that you bring this up at this time, but in general, I try not to talk about it at all.
I try not, I never talk about Hey guys, we’re going to win 25 games this year, or the goal is to win X number of games, or we have to win conference this year. And that goes along with the ranking thing, right? We don’t talk about where we’re ranked. We don’t say, Hey we’re number three, they’re number three four.
So we should be better. We don’t do any of that. Now I might say as a motivational thing when we’re playing an opponent, Hey, somebody thinks these guys are the number one team in the state. Are you serious? Like we can beat these dudes. And so I might use it every now and then in a line, like I just used.
Something like that. Like, this is, guys, really, this is a top 10 team. If this is a top 10 team, let’s show them what, what we are. something like that. And so, but I don’t harp on it. I don’t like bring it up over and over. I don’t ever say, Hey guys, we’re ranked X or we’re ranked this. We’ve had, I think it was 2017.
We had a dredge of 11 straight weeks. And I know you’re like, well, if you don’t check, how do we were ranked number one for 11 straight weeks? Somebody told me at the end of the season. And so obviously that’s, Nice for your program, especially when you’re in Illinois and in the biggest class.
I mean, it’s, it’s it’s great for your kids. It’s great for the community. It’s great for the program. It doesn’t really mean anything to really anybody at the end of the day. And so I will say now with all the scrutiny that high school basketball gets in the Chicagoland area and all the attention that it gets, people get really Juiced up about the rankings and I can’t believe these guys are this or that.
So I try to stay out of all that talk as best I can, especially with our team, because the work is the work, right? Whether you’re ranked number three or 103, the work that you have to do as a team is the same. It’s just like after a game, if we win by one or we lose by one, the things we have to work on are exactly the same, whether we won or lost.
So the work is the work. And so, that’s irregardless of ranking or anything like that. So, I say that kind of in general. Now, fast forward to where I’m sitting right now, and where my team is right now. We’re in the pre season. Obviously, we’ve started practice and, and I find out just today actually.
Or yesterday that we’re going to be the preseason number one team in the state, in the biggest class. So you’re so excited,
[00:27:27] Jason Sunkle: Rob. You’re so, yeah,
[00:27:29] Rob Brost: I, I, I don’t want to say I dislike it because I don’t want people to think that I don’t want the expectation, but again, the work is the work, right? And so I, I I’m mostly concerned about what my kids are and what my players are hearing outside of me.
Right. Like things like, Oh, this is your year or win state or bust stuff like that, which is, I think, absolutely ridiculous to say to teenage kids and really kids of any age or, or even pro players that’s not how it works, this is your year or win it or bust or anything like that is to me counterproductive.
I try to be as humble as I can, not. Worrying about all that type of thing, it comes into play, right? You have to deal with it because it’s part of the culture of basketball especially in the Chicagoland area. And I’m sure it’s the same in Cleveland or any big Metro area where back high school basketball is good.
And so we’ve been I would say, I say this in all humbleness, an elite program for the last 10 or so years. And. we’ve never been ranked number one in the preseason, but that’s going to happen. And it’s about to happen. And so we’re trying to embrace it, not put much stock in it, and really try to, our kids don’t even know about it.
So like, I practiced today, knowing it, but they, they don’t know it. But they’re going to know it on Monday when the photo shoot comes and the spread comes in the paper two days later. And like, what are these guys doing here? So. they’re going to figure it out in a pretty big hurry.
And then all of our. People, I guess you would say are going to be fired up. Like I told you, this was our, this is, everyone thinks we’re going to be this, that, or the third. So we obviously have a nice group as a talented group, but I could name, this is what I told the guys that do the ranking, I could, I could name 10 teams that could beat us today, like right now.
And I’m pretty confident that I could do that. Now, obviously I think we could beat some of them as well, but they could beat us. With without issue. And so it’s a fine line between embracing what comes with it and giving it too much of your time, if that makes sense. We wanna embrace the expectation.
The work is the work, right? Just like I said, we, we have work to do and if we don’t do the work that’s the biggest part. And the fact of the matter is nobody, and I mean, nobody remembers who’s ranked number one. At the end of the season. I mean, they don’t remember the preseason number one pick at the end of the season.
Nobody cared. And so a month from now, no one will care.
[00:30:37] Jason Sunkle: Just look at the NCAA football, right? I mean, the preseason ranks, all the preseason ranks. I mean, especially this year with the football. I mean,
[00:30:46] Rob Brost: no doubt.
[00:30:46] Jason Sunkle: I don’t remember. Wasn’t wasn’t Georgia was number one and now they’re like not even in the playoffs.
So it’s like
[00:30:52] Rob Brost: crazy. So yes, hopefully we’re not Georgia. But we’ll see, we’ll see. So I try not to feel that I was
[00:31:00] Jason Sunkle: speaking that Rob. It’s okay. It’s
[00:31:03] Rob Brost: okay. It’s, it’s, it’s quite all right. We have our expectations of ourselves remain the same, no matter what it says beside our school name in the newspaper.
And so there’s a certain level of expectation in our program. Regardless of what we’re ranked, I thought we would probably be in the top five ish or maybe four to eight. Because there’s so many good teams, just like in Cleveland. There’s so many good teams, right? And there’s, I think, eight or nine teams that could make a legit argument for being ranked number one, like right now within the preseason ranking.
So, at any rate I try not to put a lot of stock in it and try to just do the work that’s required for us to be a good team and work on the things that we need to work on. And then not get worried about all of the things that come with that.
[00:31:57] Mike Klinzing: In other words, you want to make it so it’s not a burden.
The expectation of success is already there. It’s just not something that you want to be added to the load that your individual players and team have to carry around. So it’s nice to have the recognition, the expectation of success is already there, but we don’t want it to become. Oh my God, we have to live up to the number one ranking.
Oh my God, if we don’t win state, it is a disappointing season. Those are the situations that you’re trying to avoid.
[00:32:29] Rob Brost: Exactly. And nothing could be further from the truth in statements like that, right? Having done this for a long time and having played on the final four several times and played for the state, like you have to get a little bit lucky, but you want to make a run like that.
And to do that, the, the thing I tell, especially my assistants and sometimes my closer friends, it’s great to be in the conversation, right? It’s great to be relevant in that. If that’s what you’re concerned about, then that’s got, you got it all wrong, but you put it exactly correct, Mike, when you said, I don’t want it to be a burden.
I don’t want anybody thinking about that. That’s in on our team. And certainly there’s going to be a lot of hoopla outside of our team. Amen. And all that. We’ve already got people that want to do a little documentary on our team. And then we have guys that want to just follow us. Can we, could we ride the bus?
Like just, just come on, like, no, we’re not doing any of that. Well, can I have last dance with
[00:33:37] Jason Sunkle: Rob? Yes.
[00:33:38] Rob Brost: Like, can we have a photographer right outside the bus and just take some pictures as you’re walking off? Like, really? What are we doing? Like, what? We’re a high school basketball team. We’re not gonna do all that.
Obviously, we’ll do what I think is best for our kids. And some of it does promote the program and promotes our kids, which is okay. And you have to do some of that in the age that we’re in. I get that. But we are not the Los Angeles Lakers or the Cleveland Cavaliers. we’re not going to get pictures
[00:34:12] Jason Sunkle: of the pregame fit.
So then walking into the arena.
[00:34:15] Rob Brost: Yes, that’s right. And can I interview you before and after every game? Like, really, like, come on, like, yeah, I’m a, I’m a podunk high school coach here and we’re not going to do all of that. So anyway,
[00:34:33] Mike Klinzing: it sounds like more of a burden than it sounds like fun.
So keep it, keep it on the fun side, put the burden away. Enjoy your season. That’s really what it’s all about. So ignore, ignore the rankings as much as is humanly possible. All right. The last topic tonight is game day routine for you as a coach. How much of what you do each day is for lack of a better word, scripted that you like to have things go the same way each game day, or are you more free flowing, just tell me what a game day.
Looks like for you, let’s assume it’s a day when you have school.
[00:35:14] Rob Brost: Yep. Yep. I try as best I can not to think about games during the school day. Right now, obviously that’s impossible to do, but I try as best I can to just make it like any other day during the school day, right? My routine and what I like to do happens more after school is over.
Then I start kind of doing, I try to relax. I try, I’m old now, so I try to take a nap, especially if we have a home game. So I try to come home from school right away and take a nap. But then the routine actually starts once I get back to school or once we get to the arena. Or to the school that we’re playing, right?
That’s when I really. Starts with picking out your
[00:35:59] Jason Sunkle: outfit for the day. So you get the picture for the best fit.
[00:36:02] Rob Brost: No, no. So it doesn’t. So I try to I know some coaches have this whole routine. They wake up and they do. I, I don’t, none of that. I, I, I don’t. If I can take a nap after school, that’s great. If not, but the routine starts once I get back to school, if we have a home game or we arrive at the arena or school that we’re playing then I like to have certain things, a certain way we’re going to warm up.
At a certain time, I’m going to have the board at a certain time. I always go over the same things at the end on the board. And it’s always the exact same at the end. The things we talk about before we take the floor are exactly the same. not the specifics of the game, but what we cover at the end of that talk is exactly the same every single time.
And so and then you get into the routine of. where you sit all of those things. And I don’t want to get into all of that. So I’m not a huge routine guy until we get to wherever we’re playing. And if we’re at home, I like to write the board up before the guys even go in there.
So it’s prepared. So when they get in there, it’s already up. They can kind of peruse it if they want or ignore it if they want. And then I’ll go in with Five minutes to go in the game prior to us or the sophomore game or the JV game, whatever you want to call it. We’ll go over it and the end will be exactly the same.
And then we come out the same. So the routine really doesn’t start until we get to the place that we’re playing, if that makes sense. So this is going to kind of be a boring answer. I’m not one of those guys that gets up and then reads over the scouting report and then puts it down. And then second period, I read it over again.
And then I. I, I don’t, I try not to, to worry about, I think a lot of that stuff doesn’t matter. And I know there’s coaches like, are you serious? That doesn’t matter. Well, this is just one humble opinion from a 50 year old old duffer coach that I don’t think all that stuff really matters.
[00:38:14] Mike Klinzing: You have a superstition.
[00:38:17] Rob Brost: I mean, the nap is the best thing I, the closest thing I can come with a superstition. When I first started. I was kind of like one of those guys that I just described in the morning. I would do this and then I got to have a Dr. Pepper at lunch. And then I got to have Chick fil A right after school.
Now, I don’t worry about any of that. I just try to whatever happens, happens, and then we’ll try to be as prepared as we can for the game because the outcomes are already decided. We’re just going to do the best we can to, to have a say in it. Right. And so. Once you realize that as a coach, I think it gives you better perspective.
And I get this, well, that’s easy for you to say when you’ve won as much as you’ve won, but it just, I don’t know, it makes me feel better about things. To just go about my day and try to be a good human during the day and try to be nice to people. like, people asked me on Monday two days ago, Well, how do you feel?
It’s first practice. I mean, right now, just like every other day. When, when 245 hits, then I’ll get to practice and then I’ll, then I’ll start practice. So, obviously I’m excited about the season. I’m excited about our players. I’m excited about all the things that come along with it. But the work is the work, like we talk about.
And so it always comes back to that.
[00:39:50] Mike Klinzing: Have you ever had a player that’s had a superstition that you’re aware of?
[00:39:54] Rob Brost: Well, I, I, I’ve had some bizarre requests from players. This was mostly when I first started, cause now we’re so engrenched in routine of what we do that even the players now, they don’t want to like, okay, five minutes to go with this.
And then, so now it’s kind of engrenched, but. A couple guys when I first started, one guy, one kid said to me that he does better if he’s just by himself before the games and that he doesn’t talk to anyone. So he literally asked me, could he just be by himself, not in our locker room, but in a different place?
And then just meet up with us as we took the floor and, and this was like three or four games into the season. And then he was, he said, well, I’m not playing very well. And I think it’s because of what I just told you. And I was like, that that’s ridiculous. You’re going to have to do what we do and go over the pregame and do all that stuff.
So we’ve had players that I think think that that affects how they play and maybe it does but that’s when I was a lot younger and. now we’re pretty set in how we prepare and what we do. Makes sense.
[00:41:11] Mike Klinzing: I mean, I think again, you have to ultimately in whatever you’re doing, right, whether you’re a player, whether you’re a coach, whether it’s your job, whatever you have to do, what ultimately makes you feel the most comfortable and the most prepared to do what it is that you’re about to do.
And for some people that’s very rigid and very, I have to do X, Y, and Z. And for other people that can be. a little bit more fluid. And even though yours may be a little bit more fluid, there’s still some things, right? It’s still more for you. I feel like it’s a routine. This is just what we do as a group, as a coaching staff, as opposed to, this is a superstition where if The team comes in the locker room at four minutes and 58 seconds instead of five minutes.
Rob is not over in the corner in a pool of sweat going, Oh my God, what are we going to do? It’s, it’s the whole game has been lost because we’re two seconds off of our, our superstitious things that we need to do. So again, I think it’s all, to me, it just comes down to what gets you in the right frame of mind to be able to do what it is that you’re going to do.
And I think by You, as the coach, doing that for yourself and for your team, you’ve now put everyone else at ease. As well and put them in the best frame of mind to be able to come out and be prepared. And I think that’s, that’s what it really comes down to is if you as the coach are now calm, you are collected, you are ready to go.
Just like during a game when your team looks over at you on the sideline and sees how you’re behaving. It’s the same thing I think in the pregame, right? That you, when you exude an air of calm. The same thing is going to happen for your team. And, and that to me, I think is the bottom line.
[00:43:00] Rob Brost: There’s no doubt at all.
Two years ago I got a new athletic director and I, it was like our second game and we got down like 19 to eight, I did not call a time out, I was totally calm and cool. we ended up winning the game. It was against a really good team, but we ended up winning. And after the game, he came up to me you didn’t take it.
You weren’t, you, you stayed completely calm. And, and he was like, I was a little shocked by that. Well, I mean, obviously you’d seen me coach before, so that shouldn’t be a total new thing. But anyways, to your point. we, we know and I know we’re going to play bad at, at certain stretches and especially against a good team like we were playing, I knew there was a possibility that that would happen and I knew there was a possibility that that would keep happening in that particular game.
Luckily it didn’t, but I think if you can just kind of be ready, so to speak, for anything and not get rattled by everything I think it helps. the players and I think it helped everybody because it’s okay and it all circles back to the philosophy and what is important to you as a coach and it goes back to the thing that we talk about all the time and it keeps coming up on these.
This is our 14th one, but like I tell our guys all the time, if your relationship with me is dependent on if you play, how well you play, or how much you play, Then you are in the wrong place because you’re going to get mad at me. You’re going to play bad. I’m going to get frustrated with you. When all is said and done, our relationship is our relationship.
And so it all goes back to those types of things and how you feel about your players and ultimately how they feel about you as the coach and if they can trust you. So it’s like I told our guys today, I thought we had a really good practice today. Much better than the one we had yesterday.
And I said every practice isn’t going to be great. It’s, there’s going to be ups and downs to this whole thing and we’re going to play well and we’re going to not play well. So we start that messaging right away. Like that’s, it’s happening right now during our practices. And so the messaging I think is so important, but that’s a topic for maybe number 17 or number 18, whatever show we get to I guess 15 would be next.
So maybe we’ll talk about some of those things at that time, but it’s always great to be on with you guys. You guys do a great job. And I’m, I’m so appreciative of you guys and being a part of this mix.
[00:45:39] Mike Klinzing: It’s always a blast, Rob. I mean, I think that just being able to toss around three topics and get your thoughts on it and be able to bounce ideas off of you.
And hopefully everybody who’s out there listening, whenever you get a chance to listen to Rob and the wisdom that he has and the amount of time that he spent as a very, very successful high school coach, the knowledge that he’s able to share through these triple double episodes has just been, I think, tremendous.
And again, we’re so thankful that you’ve been willing to. Be a part of this and share your knowledge with us as we go through. And again, you’ve got the perspective of coach. Now you’ve got the perspective of a parent and I don’t know, we’re going to start calling you a podcaster at some point here. We keep doing enough of these.
We’re going to add another title to your to your resume, but nonetheless, Rob can’t thank you enough for jumping on for Triple Double number 14. We will be back in December with number 15, J, thanks for being on with us as well. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.