“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #2 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 823
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The 2nd 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”.
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What We Discuss with Rob Brost
- Rob’ s trip to Italy with his son Trey to coach at a youth camp
- Do’s and Don’ts of AAU Basketball from a parent’s perspective
- Coaching Pet Peeves
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TRANSCRIPT FOR “THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #2 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 823
[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 we are pleased to welcome back for the second edition of the Triple Double, Rob Brost from Bolingbrook High School. Rob, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.
[00:00:15] Rob Brost: Man, it’s great to be back on. I love the segment.
Love what you guys do. I’m glad Jason made it to this one because yes, he, he missed the first one. We’ll give him a pass.
[00:00:29] Jason Sunkle: I just had a kid.
[00:00:30] Mike Klinzing: No, no, no. We just did this, man. Where have you been? We just did this a month ago, man. Come on. You were on vacation or something.
Who knows what you were doing. I was in Tennessee. Yeah, you might’ve been, I don’t know. You were somewhere.
[00:00:43] Rob Brost: How old’s, how old’s your baby, Jason? I didn’t even get that.
[00:00:48] Jason Sunkle: Well, I’ve got four kids, Rob. Oh. I’ve got a nine, I’ve got a nine year old, a six year old, a three and a half year old.
Today’s her three and a half year old birth, three and a half birthday, and then I have a fifteen month old. So I got the gamut.
[00:01:04] Rob Brost: Okay. Okay. Well, that, that’ll keep you busy for sure. =
[00:01:07] Jason Sunkle: Do I get a pass, Rob?
[00:01:09] Rob Brost: Yes. You know, I was just giving you a pass. Mike’s not going to give you a pass.
[00:01:13] Mike Klinzing: So no, man, I’m not going to give you a pass. You don’t even know what episodes you’re putting out, man. I’m going to get on you about that. All right. That’s right. Topic. Number one, Rob, you just got back recently. Yeah. From Italy, despite the fact that you’re now in Florida, but you did just get back.
[00:01:29] Rob Brost: Rob, well, I did a quick clinic for the Arkansas coaches association.
Okay. Flew right back. And then I went to Italy and now I’m in Florida. So you know, always, always on the move but always happy to take time out for the Hoop Heads podcast. That’s for sure.
[00:01:49] Mike Klinzing: So tell us about the Italy trip. Tell us first of all, how You get the opportunity and then tell us a little bit about what you were able to do over there.
[00:01:55] Rob Brost: Yeah, this is the second year that I’ve been able to do the Airness Academy camp. It’s called, it’s the biggest camp in Italy. We’ve, my son and I, my son has gone with me both times. He’s going to be a sophomore in high school. So Trey and I flew directly from Chicago to Milan, about a 10 hour flight.
And then we. up into the Alps almost into Switzerland. So actually to a little town called Borneo, actually some of the downhill skiing and the 2026 Olympics is going to be held right in Borneo where we were. So it’s a great camp. We had about 160 kids the week that I was there. And they have it for multiple weeks.
I think it’s four or six weeks that they have a camp and they’ll have anywhere between 125 and 200 kids, depending on which week it is. And so I’ve been fortunate enough to go last year and this year to return again, and it’s a great opportunity, not only for me, but. For my son. And then I think it’s a great opportunity for those kids in Italy to get exposed to some of the way we do things here in America.
And it’s a, it’s a great experience. They have an interpreter there for me, a driver and they really treat me, treat me very, very well. So it’s been a really, really great experience. Not only for me, but my son as well. And then, then obviously for the kids that are there because they asked me back and they’ve already asked me back for next year, so we’re looking forward to doing it a third time.
[00:03:28] Mike Klinzing: How did the opportunity get to you in the first place? So how do you get the chance to go over there and be a part of
[00:03:33] Rob Brost: that? Yeah, I think how it actually occurred was you know, they contacted some of the guys, some of the folks at USA basketball and said they had to camp, what coaches do you recommend?
And for whatever reason coach Showalter and some of the guys at USA basketball recommended that they call me, of course. You know, when an opportunity like that comes up, you, you jump at it. And it’s I thought it was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and getting to do it year, year two.
And now hopefully year three next year is, has been a blessing and I’ve developed some really lifelong friendships already from just the short time that I’ve been over there. And they do a really good job with the camp and they also. You know, do a good job of bringing in coaches from all across the world.
Actually some us coaches, some coaches from Spain came the week before. And some top Italian coaches were there the week that I was going to leave as well. So they, they do a really good job overall with the camp.
[00:04:38] Mike Klinzing: Where do the kids. Come from are those local kids or those kids that are coming in from all over the country? How do they get the campers?
[00:04:46] Rob Brost: They come from all over italy So some of the kids fly in to Milan and then get bussed To bormeo some of the kids are local Obviously, but they come from all over and so the camp actually runs a sunday to a saturday And then they use saturday night kind of to regroup and kind of get ready for the next week of campers so both You know, they’re from all over Italy.
I was fortunate enough to work with some of the same kids that were there year one. So we actually got to build on some of the things that, that we did on year one with some of the kids. And so it’s, it’s really a unique experience. Some of the courts are outside because it’s up in the Alps.
So it doesn’t get very warm up there. And then by very warm, I’m, I’m talking like. During the day, it’s 70, 75 degrees, and at night it’s down to 50 or so degrees. And then they have several indoor courts as well. So the camp is all over the town of Borneo, but it’s, it’s a fairly tight town, so you can get everywhere you need to get to within walking distance.
[00:05:52] Mike Klinzing: Is there a coach or multiple coaches that you have? Maybe felt connected to in the last year or two that when you’ve been over there, you’ve really gotten a chance to, to get to know and pick their brain and learn from.
[00:06:04] Rob Brost: Yeah, I think that goes both ways. They, you know Italian coach named Marcello really connected with him this past year.
And then another, another coach who was one of the heads of the camp Guido you know, I’ve been really fortunate to develop some friendships with them. And we stay in touch probably every other week or so we, we stay in touch with each other. And so I did a mini clinic for all their coaches as well.
On Wednesday night and that we were planning for about an hour and that ended up being about a three hour you know, event which, which is great because they’re so hungry for knowledge and they’re, they’re thirst for knowledge, not only the coaches, but the kids as well. I did 2 question and answers with, with the kids and the 1 with the older kids went almost 2 hours and some just great questions, great follow ups you know, all of those things.
So. It’s been a really, really unique experience, but invaluable for my development as a coach. And then also for my son to, to be a part of it too. It’s, it’s a lot better when I describe drills and then I can have Trey do that rather than the, the fat, bald 50 year old washed up coach from the USA.
So Trey has developed a bunch of friends from there as well. And they think he’s When it’s one of the questions I got in the younger kids Q and a, how long before Trey’s in the NBA or so? So yeah, it tells you a little bit about what they think about Trey over there. So and when I said, I think it will be very difficult for him to make it to the NBA.
They, some of them were shocked that I would answer like that. So You know, it’s a great experience for sure. And I’m just grateful for the opportunity and grateful for the friendships that I’ve been able to develop. What’s Trey’s favorite part? I think he is, he likes the relationships as well. But I mean, it’s crazy when he walks into the room, like everyone claps, it’s, it’s unbelievable.
The following he has you know, on Instagram I think the majority of his people that are that react to what he posts are all Italian kids. So, I mean, by the end of the camp, he’s taking pictures, signing autographs. I mean, it’s crazy how they have really took to him. As well. So you know, it’s, like I said, I’ve used the word invaluable several times, but that’s truly what it’s,
[00:08:29] Mike Klinzing: All right. Last question on this. Yep. Is basketball. Basketball, in other words, when you’re over there and you’re working with those Italian kids, and obviously you’re doing it through a translator and there’s the language barrier, but are you finding that those kids, other than the language barrier, if you were in front of a group of kids from the US.
Does it work pretty much the same way or are they processing things or looking at things or approaching things slightly different? Do you notice any difference?
[00:08:57] Rob Brost: Yeah, I notice a difference to be honest. They take what you say, and this might be in part because of the language barrier and how the translator is translating what I’m saying, but they take literally what I say.
literal. You know, if I say, Hey, we’re working on a click, click, boom, we call it, or an extra pass, they will make the extra pass, even if they have a layup. And so the decision making piece. You know, and this is just the kids I saw in Italy. Obviously I’m not making a general statement about all of European basketball or anything like that.
I’m just talking about the kids that I’ve seen for two years over in Italy. They’re very well drilled and skilled, but the decision making piece of it and. Improvising and making the correct play when it’s there, even though that’s not what is maybe called for that part, they’re a little bit behind, I would say if that makes sense.
And so super well drilled, super coachable, super thirsty for knowledge. I mean, the first thing I always say is if you want to work with me at any time, just let me know. Next thing I know I have, like I’m waking up as. 7, 7, 15 to do lessons with kids and kids are wanting to come to me over lunch, which is great because that’s what I’m there for.
But they are just thirsty for knowledge and they’re thirsty for the nuances. I think that You know, the American coaches bring because they don’t get a lot of that. And it’s shocking. You go to camp over there and you’ll see every jersey. I mean, there’s a Giannis. There’s a Giannis jersey. There’s a Luca jersey.
There’s a Kevin Durant jersey. There’s several LeBron jerseys. I mean, it’s all. What’s the most obscure NBA jersey you’ve seen? Man. I, I asked the kids in one of my sessions, Hey, can you name anyone from the NBA? That’s not playing right now. And I mean, the names, Dennis Rodman, Larry Byrd, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell.
They know who all these, these guys are. So as far as obscure names, man, there was of course, some Sabonis. Some, some bonus guys, of course they know you know, the, the lefty from the Spurs whose name Mano Ginobili even though he’s from Argentina, he’s got some ties to Italy. So they all obviously know him as well.
So that, that’s probably the most popular. And of course they love Luca and they love Jokic as well, just because they’re not American born players.
[00:11:36] Mike Klinzing: All right. Topic number two. Yep. Both of us are going to take off our coaching hats for this topic. And I’m going to my kids, nine and under. So Jason’s may not be able to participate.
He may be able, maybe he’ll be able to ask us something, but he’s not going to be able to participate quite as fully in this question. So topic two is AAU basketball from a parent’s perspective. And I guess when I. Thought about this topic. I’m thinking about what advice would I give to another parent about how to approach AAU basketball?
So I’m going to let you go first and then I’m going to, I’ll chime in after you give your two cents here.
[00:12:15] Rob Brost: It’s interesting. We got back from Italy. On a Sunday night slash Monday morning America time. And then on Wednesday, we drove up to Milwaukee, Trey played in a tournament in Milwaukee, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then we came to Florida.
So we’re just coming off of the whole. AAU parent thing with, with my own son. So obviously I have a little bit unique perspective because I’m a high school coach as well. But advice to parents would be a, let your kids be coached is, is my first bit of advice. And I think that is very difficult on the AAU set for a couple of reasons.
One is. Because it’s so easy to switch teams, if you’re not happy or satisfied with the way things are going or even the next day you can, you can switch to a different team and be, everybody wants instant gratification. And if your son or daughter, whatever the case may be, isn’t playing particularly well, it’s okay.
Especially in AAU because there’s another game either later that day or the next day for sure. And so I would say allow your kids to be coached number one, and then number two be patient with that whole process. And, and then that leads to number three find a program where your players will actually be coached.
I see a lot of teams and even some in our area where they just throw together teams, throw them out there and they think they’re going to get exposure and all they get is exposed instead of getting exposure. So there’s a lot that plays into it, but those are the things that immediately come to mind.
[00:14:08] Mike Klinzing: Those are all well said, and I’m going to piggyback on a couple of things that. You said, and I’m going to start out for young kids, and I think that when you’re talking about kids that are younger than high school, especially to me, I think the most important thing is that wherever you end up, whatever team you end up playing on, that the focus is on the development of the players and not just trying to win games and to go along with that, I think ultimately, and I have a lot of people that will come and ask me about, Hey, what?
Hey, you group, should I play with, or should I do this or that? And, and ultimately, I mean, the organization is important because the organization controls a lot of the things. But what I always say is you can have a great organization and get a bad coach, or you can have an organization that’s maybe not quite as good, but have a great coach and have a really good experience.
I think the younger you are, the more important that coach. Really is in terms of their, in terms of their development. I mean, I think if you’re, if the coach that you have is focused on developing the players at a young age, then you’re in the right spot. You may not be with the it club, but if the coach that you have is doing a good job to me, that is hugely, hugely important at a younger age.
So that’s one thing. And then. So I think for me, the next thing, so my son’s going to be a senior this year and we’ve played, I would say two years now. So this year and last year of pretty high level AU. I mean, we’re not on the Adidas circuit, we’re not in the EYBL, but we’re playing at a pretty high level where everybody on our team, whether or not they end up playing college basketball or not, probably has the ability to, and I would say most of the teams that we’re playing against are in that same.
Type of team where you’re talking about division, two division, three players that you’re competing against all the time. And what I learned in the last two years is if you are one of those types of players, so you’re not a high level division, one player that people have identified since the time you were in seventh, eighth grade, and people know who you are and you’re going to be playing in the EYBL when you’re in 10th grade.
If you’re. A player who has aspirations of playing. You’re a good high school player. You have aspirations of playing college basketball at the division two or the division three level. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to be here or there or anywhere in order to get exposure prior to the spring of your junior year.
So heading into the AAU season, heading into your senior year, because I can tell you that our team. It was a pretty good team and we went 37 and three in our schedule last year and nobody was watching us. I mean, there were coaches and we were at lots of places where. There were lots of coaches. They just were focused on the year ahead of us and they were focused on the year ahead of us.
They were focused on kids who were going to be seniors the following season, which is where we are now going to be seniors next season. We have had way, way more coaches sitting and watching our games and talking to our kids and being around it. And so what I would say, what I would warn people of is if someone is trying to tell you, Hey, you need to go and you need to spend a bunch of money and you need to travel all over the place because you’re going to get exposure, I found that not to be true.
Now, again, it’s different if you’re a high level division one player, then there are people watching you. But if you are a division two or division three player. If you, I mean, again, this requires people to evaluate themselves, honestly, which is no question, which I’m not sure a lot of people do. But that being said, I just find the value in I see these teams that are in like seventh or eighth grade and look, you want to go on, you want to travel one time with your team to have that experience and go somewhere out of town.
Great. Have at it. It’s a great experience. I did that with my daughter this year. It was going to be an eighth grade. We did one. Tournament where we went out of town to Cincinnati. So we traveled four hours and played in the tournament and the girls had fun and it was, it was great if we had played six tournaments out of town and I had spent hotel money every week going out to eat and all the stuff that goes along with it.
I just don’t, I don’t think that’s worth it. For my money, I feel like you end up doing things that you’re chasing. You’re chasing something that you’re never going to catch. And so I guess my, my advice would be don’t chase around the country when your kids are in middle school trying to find exposure because eventually by the time they finished their junior year and it’s that spring of their junior year and they’re going to be seniors.
That’s when if they’re legitimately a college basketball player, potentially a college basketball player, they’re going to get an opportunity to play in front of coaches. But anything before that, the coaches might stroll by your court. You got you for 30 seconds, but they’re focused on the year ahead of you.
And they just, because that’s the way the recruiting goes for division two and three. They don’t, they’re not, they’re focused on right now they’re focused on 2024. So if you’re a 2025, they’re just, they’re just not watching it. And that’s, that’s the reality. And I think that so many people have this.
Misconception that if I’m on the road and I’m, if I’m in a place where there’s coaches and I’m in ninth grade or I’m in eighth grade, man, these coaches are going to be, they’re going to be spotting me in eighth grade. No, they’re not because they’re not looking at you. They might walk by your court and make eye contact with you, but it’s not because they’re interested you as a prospect and just because they happen to be walking by.
[00:19:50] Rob Brost: That’s exactly right. Let me just Piggyback on that just for a second.
[00:19:54] Jason Sunkle: Rob, I got a question after that.
[00:19:57] Rob Brost:, yep, no, no problem. So Trey and I’s Italy trip Trey’s going to be a sophomore. So our Italy trip overlap with the first live period.
I think it was the sixth through the eighth or whatever it was of July. We were in Italy and two or three, pretty prominent AAU coaches in the area were like, are you serious? Trey’s going to be in Italy. I was like, listen, man, no one is watching Trey Brost right now. Nobody, no person. And if they are, they’re just there because I’m his dad.
Like, let’s be honest. Okay. And I wouldn’t even get them there. Because I’m his dad, he’s no one Trey missed out on nothing by missing that period. And he gained so much more in experience and friendship and relationships and culture and all those other things from Italy than he ever would have having played five games during a two day period where no one was at his games anyway.
So I completely agree with that. And I agree with it too. To the point where my son missed the live period this year. So at least one of them.
[00:21:12] Jason Sunkle: All right. So here’s my question, Mike and Rob. So we, Mike and I have long talked about AAU bingo and how it’s the greatest, one of the greatest Twitter accounts ever made.
And it’s kind of, it’s in hiatus. It’s, it’s gone. It’s right. It’s on, they don’t really post anymore. Is that accurate?
[00:21:26] Mike Klinzing: No, they don’t post anymore.
[00:21:27] Jason Sunkle: Okay. What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at AAU? That you want to talk about on the podcast.
[00:21:36] Rob Brost: I saw this was two or three years ago. I was up in Wisconsin, just watching some of my varsity guys.
Cause I like to go at least to see them once if I can, if they’re around the area, so a coach had. Literally a dog on the bench with him, like, and like, not like one of these holding, and it wasn’t like a service dog of any kind, not like, but I mean, the dog was with him and went with him and was sitting on the bench.
With him and so it’s your players coach or was it no, no, no, no, this was a, this was a totally different team and I was like I, before I even like not made fun of it, I wanted to make sure like this is not some sort of service dog or or something. And sure enough, it was not with a mascot , I don’t know.
But it was a live dog. Like, it wasn’t like the, the dog was on a leash, the whole thing. And like, he would like, I, I gave him credit. The dog was trained pretty well. I mean, it was like laying down, kind, not under the bench, but kind of right beside the bench. But then there would be some, like some sort of scuffle or whatever.
And then the dog. Get up just stuff like that. So that’s the craziest thing. And obviously I’ve seen the ones where guys on cell phones during the games, I mean, just all kinds of stuff.
[00:23:03] Jason Sunkle: That is crazy.
[00:23:09] Mike Klinzing: That’s pretty good.
[00:23:13] Jason Sunkle: Mike, anything close to that that you want to share.
[00:23:15] Mike Klinzing: I don’t think I can top the dog. I mean, I’m sure Rob’s seen the. The coach in the full uniform. So I’ve seen the coach. So the best, best one I’ve ever seen is coach in the full uniform. And it was one of those like. You know, neon pink, yellow just crazy, crazy color scheme.
So in the full uniform with the, with the backpack, with the jewelry. So the bracelet on the other hand, you may have sent me a picture of this. The bracelet on one hand. The gold watch on the other, the Mr. Steet, the Mr. T starter kit around the neck. And then, and then their team also had a, one of the Bluetooth speakers, which in and of itself is, I guess, enough for three minutes of warmup that you can’t warm up without your tunes.
But it also was one of the ones that like lit up with the neon to match the. To match the beat of the song. So the combination of all those things, that’s probably the funniest one that I’ve seen, but there, yeah, it, it gets, it gets crazy.
[00:24:18] Rob Brost: It gets crazy. I also, and this is not quite an AAU bingo, but I also enjoy the one, like it’s a sixth, seventh grade coach, whatever.
And for whatever reason, they have 10 or 15 minutes to warm up. Cause the game got over earlier, whatever. And I mean, they are so organized. It is, you can tell they practice this and then the game, then the game starts and they get there, you just get blown out like by 40, but their warmups are so nice.
[00:24:47] Jason Sunkle: That’s not only AAU that happens.
[00:24:54] Rob Brost: That’s going to lead into one of my pet peeves for this third question too.
[00:24:58] Jason Sunkle: I coach middle school basketball and I’m going to keep the teams nameless because I coach middle school basketball in case someone listens to the podcast. But I’ve seen teams come out and their warmups are the most ridiculous things that I’ve ever seen in my life. And it has no bearing on the basketball game. And I’m like, you spent time in practice doing this as a clear one. Either. I don’t know if it’s a warmup for practice or a warmup. I was like, you don’t do this in a game. You don’t do this in, in any stretch of the imagination.What are you doing this as far like, and the parents are sitting in the stands watching this. And I’m like If that was my kid out there, I would like, I wouldn’t scream or I wouldn’t do anything because I would be sitting there, but I’d be like, what in the hell are they doing?
[00:25:41] Rob Brost: I love it.
[00:25:44] Mike Klinzing: All right. So bottom line, don’t buy into the exposure and find a coach that is going to coach your Kids and then allow all those coaches to coach your kids. And if you do that, if your coach has a dog
on the bench, you should be, yeah, if your coach has a dog, you may look, you may be a dog lover, but I still think I’d probably go the other direction if I saw a dog.
[00:26:07] Rob Brost: I wanted to ask the coach, like, did he have one of those bags in case the dog went to the bathroom like the cleanup bag, like, is that in his backpack? I didn’t know.
[00:26:16] Mike Klinzing: The dog, probably could hold it for an hour. Then you have to get out during your break, and that’s right. Yes. Get out, get out on the lawn and just do your business from there.
[00:26:23] Rob Brost: That’s right, that’s right.
[00:26:26] Mike Klinzing: That’s funny. Topic number three, coaching pet peeves. Go, go.
[00:26:31] Rob Brost: Well, I think this is going to ruffle some feathers. I’m sure it does. Even of my coaching staff, I think the most. The most over practiced thing and the most over done thing in practice is half court offense. I think half court offense, you rarely do it.
You rarely run it. And if you do, you run some sort of set to get yourself a quick hit or something like that. So I think half court offense is the most over practiced and overdone thing that there is in basketball. And I know some people might disagree with that, but if you come to a Bolingbrook practice, half court offense gets little to no time.
Now transition offense, we get a lot of, we got a lot of time with that, but half court offense where we just say, Hey, you gotta run the offense and keep running it. No, I think it’s the most over rated, maybe aspect of the game for sure.
[00:27:33] Mike Klinzing: So you’re going into actions out of your transition game when you want to work on quote unquote half court offense.
[00:27:38] Rob Brost: Yes. And we’re attacking space and we’re attacking advantage, that type of thing. So I just think a half court offense and running half court offense, most over done thing because it rarely happens. In games, and that’s really any level, I mean, you can go with the NBA to the college game, to the high school game, half court offense, where you just run offense rarely happens.
Now, obviously there’s some teams, particularly at the high school level that might run some offense and might, especially if they don’t have a shot clock might run offense and offense and offense. And we, we have some trouble against some of those teams sometimes at Bolingbrook. But I just think it’s the most overdone thing.
Like, let’s see if we can run offense for a minute. Like, what are you doing? So that’s, that’s just me. And so that’s probably my number one, not my number one pet peeve, but my number one lie, I think coaches just waste time on half court offense.
[00:28:40] Mike Klinzing: It reminds me of, we had a conversation back. I don’t know.
It’s been a while now, since we talked to Butch Carter, but I remember Butch talking about. Just trying to make the practice again, just like everybody trying to make your practices game, like as possible. And he talked, he even went so far as like, okay, if you’re running offense on this end, that sometimes you got to run it on the other end.
And sometimes you got to go and run your offense and have things happen. And then the ball goes out of bounds and boom, that’s how you got to practice your out of bounds plays. And you got to practice the first four minutes after you come out from halftime and. And have the kids sit for 10 minutes and then get up and practice.
Cause we never practiced stuff like that. And just, he had a lot of things that kind of go along, not obviously exactly the same as what you were just saying, but similar idea in that you don’t want to spend a lot of your practice time doing things and being in situations that you’re not going to be in.
And then conversely, you want to try to evaluate and look at the game and say, okay, what are situations that we actually. Are going to face, what are things that we’re actually going to see in games? And what are situations where a kid’s going to have to be sitting on the bench and then boom, jump in. And we want them to come in and this kid, the shooter, we want them to knock in a shot and things like that.
Like it was interesting to hear him talk about that. And just how important it is to try to make, again, we all talk about, we want the game or want practice to be like a game because that’s how the learning best translates, but it even goes further than like, not just doing a drill one on Oh, but, but it’s also situational, which I don’t think before I had that conversation, I don’t think I thought about that very much.
[00:30:18] Rob Brost: Yeah, I think that is definitely true. There’s so much that we do as basketball coaches just because either we’ve done it that way, or we think it gets the kids to go hard, or we think that it’s helpful, that actually doesn’t help them in game situations and a lot of the game situations, you don’t know what’s going to happen, so that’s what your practice should be like.
So, like, Mike, if you have a team and I have a team, we play one time, make Then we play a second time. The game’s completely different. So you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. So in practice, you should sometimes be putting your kids in situations where you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.
It’s crazy how many times in a timeout I’ll, I’ll say what I think is going to happen. And then I’ll say, bottom line is players make plays. You’re going to have to make a play here. So if they take this away, make a play. You have got to make a play. And so it’s crazy how many times I say that in a timeout because obviously the other coach, he knows our tendencies and knows what we’re going to do.
We know their tendencies and we think we know what they’re going to do. So the players that are able to make plays, that’s the team that’s going to have an advantage. Yep.
[00:31:28] Mike Klinzing: And you have to have opportunities to do that in practice and put them no questions, put them in spots where they can react, and you can’t dictate everything from.
The sideline, because it just, that does not, does not work. All right. You got one more pet peeve before we wrap up.
[00:31:43] Rob Brost: Yep. And this one might really, really rub some people the wrong way. I do not care about our warmups, our pregame warmups, the 15 minutes. I don’t, I, as long as when the ball tips off, you’re ready to play.
It’s fine. Whatever you need to do to get ready. Now, obviously we go through the whole song and dance with two line layups, and then we do a shooting thing. Then we do a little shell, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s important that kids get a sweat going, that kids just focus in all of that stuff.
I think matured in my coaching that. It’s the individual player’s responsibility to be ready wherever, whatever his, his role is when the ball tips. And if it helps them to get a sweat going and get, getting all that, then that’s fine. If he’s coming off the bench and it’s better for him to just kind of jog through stuff and kind of get acclimated to the gym and get some shots up, then, then that’s him.
And so my. My thought process on warmups has completely changed. And I don’t want to say I don’t care about it, but it’s more of an individual thing, even though we’re all doing the same things, it’s a more of an individual thing that it is you have to do this or you have to do that to be ready.
[00:33:03] Mike Klinzing: What were you like as a player? Do you remember how you like to warm up?
[00:33:08] Rob Brost: Yeah. I mean, we did always the same exact warmups all the time in my high school coach, one of the best coaches that I’ve ever played for. He was a get a sweat going, get a sweat going guy. But I was more like, Hey, let me just kind of just get a feel for the gym, get a feel for the what’s going on and, and all of those things.
So I was more. Like that, I guess you would say. And I’m not saying getting a sweat going as bad. If that, if that gets you ready, then I’m all for it. You know, so my, my opinion on warmups has really, really changed to more an individual. Thing, even though we’re warming up and if you come and see our warmups, I mean, we look like most other teams, but I don’t really react to at halftime, one of my assistants might say, well, we, we’re not playing well because we didn’t warm up right.
No, no, we’re not playing well because we’re not playing well. It’s not because of how we warmed up that. That’s just my opinion. So you know, I get all the guys that say. How you do anything is how you do everything. I don’t necessarily agree with that. So that’s just my perspective from a, from a coach.
That’s won almost 400 games. My whole perspective has changed on that.
[00:34:23] Mike Klinzing: Here’s what I would say from an individual perspective. When I think about myself as a player, like in all honesty. The only thing I wanted to warm up was my shot. I mean, like I wanted to make sure my shot felt good and that I was ready to shoot the ball when the game started and everything else.
I didn’t have to warm up my defensive stance. I didn’t have to warm up my passing. I didn’t have to warm up my back pedals. I didn’t have to warm up my, my passing. None of that stuff really mattered to me except for. Can I get shots up? And the honest truth is I would have been happiest not going through all the drills and whatever else.
If I could have just had somebody rebounding for me and me taking as many shots as possible in that 15 or 20. I remember there. Now everything’s 15 minutes in a warm up in high school, at least in Ohio. But when I played, it was 20. And I remember there was a couple of games where whatever teams were late or we we were late getting there.
The other team was late and we only had 15 minutes. I remember being so mad. Like I have to I need my extra five minutes to be able to get those get those shots up. And then I remember when I was playing at Kent and we’d have assistant coaches standing on the basket yelling, Hey, you got to go a little faster.
And you’re just like, I’m like, I’m just like, Can you just let me get ready for the game and not like, can I have five minutes where someone’s not yelling at me and just, just like, yes, I can get prepared. And it’s interesting though. I mean, I think there’s obviously the opposite school of thought from what you just presented is, Hey, if we’re super crisp and warmups, that’s going to translate to we’re super crisp in the game.
[00:36:00] Rob Brost: To me, if you’re super crisp and warmups, you just got better at warmup. Exactly. I would agree. You did a great job on warmups. Good job. Right.
[00:36:09] Mike Klinzing: I think that’s, that goes back to two. When you think about practice philosophy, like I’m going to come in and watch somebody’s practice, if they’re just doing repeatable drills with.
No defense and they’re showing, wow, look at this guy’s footwork because he can make this move on a cone or he can beat the coach. Who’s just standing there. Okay. That looks great. Like, if I’m sitting up in the stands, that looks really impressive versus I go to Rob’s practice and he’s got guys playing 2 on 2, but you’re only allowed 1 dribble or this.
It’s got to be a certain entry. Like it’s not going to look as pretty. And I look at warmups sort of in the same way. And I guess I would lean towards your philosophy of, Hey, what do you need to do to get right now? If you tell me, Hey, I don’t need to take warmup seriously. In the first 10 games, you’re God awful for the first four minutes.
Well, then you and I might have to have a talk about self awareness of what goes on with what you’re doing in warmups. But I think for the most part, players have a pretty good understanding, at least the ones who are sitting, they have a pretty good understanding of what they need to do to be, to be ready to play.
[00:37:12] Rob Brost: No doubt. I completely agree. And I totally echo what you said. Like what I’m concerned with is when the ball tips, are we ready to go? And people get there in different ways and you’re exactly right. If we have 10 straight games where we come out and we’re down 10 to two, then we might have a pattern we might need to adjust some things but.
Typically, that’s not the case. And people ask me all the time. Well, it seems like in the fourth, in the first quarter, your games are always close. Well, yeah, because it starts tied. Of course, it’s close in the first quarter. Well, why can’t you guys get out to do like, that is another argument that 16, 14 at the end of the first quarter.
Okay. Well, the other team’s fresh too. And look, we won by 15. Like let’s, I just think I’ve done a better job as I matured a little bit as a coach to the important things are important and all the other is just all the other. And I’ve been cognizant of making all the other, just that, just all the other.
[00:38:20] Mike Klinzing: And hey, the games 32 minutes because you’re going to wear the other team out with your style of play, right? That’s it.
[00:38:25] Rob Brost: That’s, well, you know how we do it, if the score is 26, 24 at the end of the first quarter and we’re down, we’ll take that as opposed to being up to, and the score is 12 to 10.
So You know, it’s just how we do things. And it’s not right for everybody. And I always say, even at the Arkansas clinic I did two weeks ago, Hey, my way is not necessarily the right way, the only way, or the way that you should do it. You should just take bits and pieces of what I’m doing, if it suits you.
And if it doesn’t throw it out the window. So I’m not, I’m not here trying to tell anybody that should do it, how I do it.
[00:39:04] Mike Klinzing: Rob, well said. Jay, welcome back to the triple double or welcome to the triple double.
[00:39:10] Rob Brost: Yes, I mean, we are the triple. We need all three of us.
[00:39:15] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, we got it. Otherwise, like what Rob and I talked about last time, we were only the double double last week or last month.
[00:39:21] Jason Sunkle: I’m sorry. Next time I’ll hopefully be here and I won’t let you.
[00:39:25] Mike Klinzing: Hey, you’re here, man. You’re back.
[00:39:25] Rob Brost: That’s all. Great. I can’t. I’m already looking forward to next month. Next month’s triple double.
[00:39:32] Mike Klinzing: Yep. We’re going to get it going. So Rob, thanks so much for joining us again tonight.
Really appreciate it. To everyone out there. Thanks for listening. J, welcome back and we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.