ROUND TABLE 90 – WHAT’S THE MOST VALUABLE COACHING LESSON YOU’VE LEARNED FROM SOMEONE WHO WASN’T A BASKETBALL COACH? – EPISODE 1267

Welcome to the 90th edition of the Coach’s Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. Each episode of the Coach’s Corner Round Table will feature our All-Star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coach’s Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
June’s Round Table question is: What’s the most valuable coaching lesson you’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach?
Our Coaching Lineup this month:
- Jerry Buckley – Bishop Kenny (FL) High School
- Dave Hixon – Amherst College
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High
- Tom McKeown – Author of “This is Panther Country”
- Don Showalter – USA Basketball
- John Shulman – University of Central Arkansas
Please enjoy this Round Table episode of the Hoop Heads Podcast and once you’re finished listening please give the show a five star rating and review after you subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
Be sure to follow us on twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
Let’s hear from our panel about the most valuable coaching lesson they’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach?

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THANKS COACHES!
If you enjoyed this episode let our coaches know by clicking on the links below and sending them a quick shout out on Twitter:
Click here to thank Jerry Buckley on Twitter!
Click here to thank Dave Hixon on Twitter!
Click here to thank Bob Krizancic on Twitter!
Click here to thank Tom McKeown on Twitter!
Click here to thank Don Showalter on Twitter!
Click here to thank John Shulman on Twitter!

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TRANSCRIPT FOR ROUND TABLE 90 – WHAT’S THE MOST VALUABLE COACHING LESSON YOU’VE LEARNED FROM SOMEONE WHO WASN’T A BASKETBALL COACH? – EPISODE 1267
[00:00:00] Narrator: The Hoop Heads Podcast is brought to you by Head Start Basketball
[00:00:21] Mike Klinzing: Hello, and welcome to the 90th edition of the Coaches Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. Each episode of the Coaches Corner Round Table will feature our all-star lineup of guests answering a single basketball question. A new Coaches Corner Round Table will drop around the 15th of each month.
June’s Round Table question is: What’s the most valuable coaching lesson you’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach?
Our Coaching Lineup this month:
- Jerry Buckley – Bishop Kenny (FL) High School
- Dave Hixon – Amherst College
- Bob Krizancic – Mentor (OH) High
- Tom McKeown – Author of “This is Panther Country”
- Don Showalter – USA Basketball
- John Shulman – University of Central Arkansas
Please enjoy this Round Table episode of the Hoop Heads Podcast and once you’re finished listening please give the show a five star rating and review after you subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
Be sure to follow us on twitter and Instagram @hoopheadspod for the latest updates on episodes, guests, and events from the Hoop Heads Pod.
Let’s hear from our panel about If one of their former players became a coach, what’s something they hope the player would steal from them…and something they hope the player wouldn’t?
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[00:02:24] Jack Leasure: Hi, this is Jack Leasure, director of Jack Leasure Shooting and Skills Camp, and you’re listening to the Hoop Heads podcast
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Let’s hear from our panel about the most valuable coaching lesson they’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach. Jerry Buckley, Bishop Kenny High School, Jacksonville, Florida
[00:03:33] Jerry Buckley: This is Jerry Buckley answering this month’s question. I would say the most valuable coaching lesson I’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach is probably from my wife.
And she always– she’s always good at reminding me that if I’m frustrated with a particular player or a team, typically that they’re not messing up on purpose. They’re not missing a shot on purpose or whatever the case is. And she’s always good at reminding me, we have great kids on our team and our program, and they’re giving great effort, and sometimes they are going to make mistakes.
So I think that’s always a good perspective from somebody who’s not deeply involved in it every day that, the shots are going to be missed things are going to be done wrong, and the kids are giving great effort, and that’s going to be the most important thing, and there are going to be mistakes in it.
So it’s always a good reminder from somebody at home
[00:04:20] Mike Klinzing: Dave Hixon, Basketball Hall of Famer from Amherst College
[00:04:27] Dave Hixon: Hi, Hoop Heads. Dave Hixon here. I’ve taken a little bit of a break, but I’m back and I found a piece of information advice that I think is a little different than what most people would take, but I found it to be very valuable and enjoyed it very much. And when my kids were younger they were like right in the middle of The Lion King, and I love watching The Lion King and just happened to steal from it Rafiki, one of my favorite people.
And Rafiki, if you remember, Rafiki is speaking to Simba, and he… They’re having a discussion about going back, and Rafiki whacks him over the head with a stick, and he goes, “Oh, yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” And I actually played that to my team when we were struggling a bit.
I’ve passed it on, and I know that at least three of my assistants have taken it with them. It’s a great little message about things that we need to learn from in the past as opposed to avoiding or running from it. And so it’s a great little quote if you play it. Does a much better job than I do, but it’s really cool.
The Lion King, Rafiki, reflecting on the past, moving on from it, changing in it. Okay, great to talk to y’all.
[00:05:49] Mike Klinzing: Bob Krizancic, Mentor High School, Mentor, Ohio
[00:05:55] Bob Krizancic: It’s Coach K, Mentor High School. Best advice I ever got was probably two weeks before the first game I ever coached. And a really smart person told me to eliminate, cut any person, any player that did not have the work ethic needed to succeed or had the mentality to, and the vision that our program was going into.
Very first year, I cut 10 out of 12 seniors because their work ethic wasn’t there. And after game two, I booted my best player who came back and had a phenomenal senior year. That was the best thing because it set the mentality and the vision for my years at Girard and in my career. So great advice.
I would give that to anybody. It was in my book, but I would advise you to just keep the people on board that are all in, in your philosophy.
[00:06:59] Mike Klinzing: Tom McKeown, the author of This is Panther Country.
[00:07:05] Tom McKeown: Hello, this is Tom McKeown, author of This is Panther Country, about the first-ever Long Island basketball championship, and I’m answering the Hoops Head Pod Round Table 90 monthly question: What’s the most valuable coaching lesson you’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach? Actually, the most applicable lesson came after I left school and sports.
It was in my first sales training out of college, and it basically talked about what are the three keys to success. And they are, number one, to show up; number two, to show up on time; and number three, to show up ready to play. The first one, just to show up, is a classic example. You can’t do things when you’re not there.
Always take advantage of being in person if you can, if it’s business, and don’t use flimsy excuses to not go to practice or go to class. Number two, show up on time. This is another one where you don’t want to become one of those people who just can’t get their act together and are always showing up 10 to 15 minutes late.
It ruins your credibility you miss valuable information, and it never sits in well with a teacher, a coach, or a prospect. And then number three, probably the most important, is show up ready to play. When you’ve done the first two and you’re there at practice or you’re in class or you’re with a client the important thing is to have your information ready, have practiced in the off-season, be in condition, be ready to if you’re sitting on the bench and you’ve been on the bench for three quarters, doesn’t matter.
When the coach needs you to play, both mentally and physically, be ready to get in that game and contribute. So that is my answer to this month’s question. Once again, this is Tom McKeown author of This is Panther Country. Thank you.
[00:08:54] Mike Klinzing: Don Showalter, USA Basketball
[00:08:59] Don Showalter: Don Showalter here from USA Basketball. This month’s topic is what are some things that you remember or that have influenced your s- life from someone who’s not a basketball coach? I go back to a high school science teacher who I got along with really well and was probably an influence for me going a- and pursuing biology and teaching biology for many years.
But he always said, “There are three words that will determine your fate in life.” And the first one was choices, the second one was decisions, and the third one was consequences. And so I re- remember that obviously for many years, and it comes back every time I think about that. There are certain choices and decisions that I made that have some good consequences and some I’ve had the bad consequences.
But those three words have stuck with me throughout my career. Thank you.
[00:10:05] Mike Klinzing: John Shulman from the University of Central Arkansas
[00:10:12] John Shulman: This is John Shulman, head coach at the University of Central Arkansas, and this month’s question is a good one. What is the most valuable coaching lesson you’ve learned from someone who wasn’t a basketball coach? It’s pretty easy. It’s a little bit of a story, so I’ll start quick. I was out of coaching. I just finished a nine-year stretch at Chattanooga where I thought life revolved around me and life revolved around our program and life revolved around if we won or lost a game.
Started working with some business guys, and I was still in bitter mode, not better mode, but bitter mode. And we were hanging out with a bunch of high-level business guys in Chattanooga, and Chattanooga had just… UTC had just gotten beat the night before. And like I said, I was in bitter mode, and I was happy about it.
And I asked all these high-level business guys, very important guys in Chattanooga, and I said how about that Chattanooga game? Can you believe Chattanooga last night?” And to the last one of them they looked at me puzzled and went, “What about them?” I said they got beat last night at home.”
They turned around and went, “Oh, okay,” and moved on with their day. Very valuable coaching lesson there. The world does not revolve around you and if you win or lose a game And that has helped me tremendously since the year 2013. It ain’t about us. It’s about helping the kids. It’s about they, you think everybody cares that you lost on a Tuesday night or a Thurs- everybody’s got their own issues.
So if everyone has their own issues and doesn’t really care about what you’re doing, why don’t you just focus on your kids and trying to help them achieve their dreams? So you have to figure out, is this about your goals, my goals, or my purpose? And so I figured out in 2013 that I’d already reached my goals.
Trying to find your purpose is way more important than your goals. And so those guys taught me at that moment that this was not about my goals. It needs to be about my purpose. And from that moment on, we’ve won a lot of games and accidentally, and hopefully changed a lot of lives on purpose, and life’s been a lot better.
So I would think about this lesson in that the world don’t revolve around me and our basketball program at the University of Central Arkansas. It, there’s way more important things in the world going on than that. But it is important what we do, not the, just the winning. It’s important that we’re hopefully helping i- impact kids’ lives.
That should be our purpose. Hope this helps. Thanks.
[00:13:17] Mike Klinzing: Thanks for checking out this month’s Coaches Corner Round Table on the Hoop Heads Podcast. We’ll be back next month with another question for our all-star lineup of guests.
Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job. A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies, and most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants. The Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional membership-based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio.
Each section of the portfolio guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner. The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify, and add to your personal portfolio. As a Hoop Heads Pod listener, you can get your coaching portfolio guide for just $25.
Visit coachingportfolioguide.com/hoopheads to learn more
[00:14:17] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads podcast presented by Head Start Basketball.


