“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #7 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 915

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The 7th 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”.

1. How do you prepare your team for a game they are expected to win vs. when they are an underdog?
2. How do you keep on top of the pulse of your team and address small issues before they grow?
3. Do you have a go to “tempo changer” when you want to change the flow of a game?

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What We Discuss with Rob Brost

• How do you prepare your team for a game they are expected to win vs. when they are an underdog?
  • “I make it a point with, with our staff not to say stuff like, hey, there is no tomorrow, or this could be your last game, or we didn’t prepare for all this to go down right now. None of that. We just play. And our play is either good enough or it’s not.
• How do you keep on top of the pulse of your team and address small issues before they grow?
  • “If your relationship with me is dependent on if you play, how much you play, or how well you play, Then you’re in the wrong place.”
  • “They need to love other members on the team, be genuinely happy for their success when their success comes.”
  • “I’ll praise the bench when the bench is in there.”
  • “Everybody talks about, you want your kids to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m almost the exact opposite. I want our kids to be comfortable almost all the time so that they can just play.”
• Do you have a go to “tempo changer” when you want to change the flow of a game?
  • “My number one thing, if things aren’t going exactly our way, is that I, myself, need to stay calm and relaxed so that my team doesn’t panic.”
  • “We don’t call a ton of set plays, but if we need a bucket, then I’ll throw one in there to make sure that we’re going to get at least a good look at the basket.”
  • “A lot of it is just by feel and don’t get me wrong, if my team needs a butt whooping, they’re going to get that. But if they need a hug, that’s what they’re going to get. And so sometimes it’s just my judgment what they need.”
  • “Whatever I say, then the players echo that so that everybody’s on the same page.”

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THANKS, ROB BROST

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TRANSCRIPT FOR “THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #7 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 915

[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 welcoming back for triple doubler, I always do this, I can’t say triple double. Triple Double.

[00:00:13] Jason Sunkle: Did you ever get a triple double, Mike? Is that why you can’t say it?

[00:00:16] Mike Klinzing: I don’t know if I, I’m guessing I never got a triple double.

I don’t think I, I don’t know. If I did, I don’t remember. Let’s put it that way. So I got a triple double here on the podcast. Triple double number seven, I think it’s seven or are we eight? I think you’re eight. After I wrote seven, I thought maybe we’re on eight. I don’t know what number we’re on. Anyway, triple double number 7 or 8 Rob Brost, Bolingbrook High School, Boys Basketball Head Coach. Rob, welcome in.

[00:00:44] Rob Brost: Man, thanks for having me back. I don’t know if it’s seven or it’s eight, but I love being on with you guys and it’s always a pleasure.

[00:00:50] Jason Sunkle: It might be triple double number seven, but like the eighth or ninth time you’ve been on the podcast.

[00:00:55] Rob Brost: I think that’s probably true that there’s no doubt about that. There was a while that Greg White was ahead of me in appearances.

[00:01:03] Jason Sunkle: It’s not anymore. I think the leader still has to be Show has to still be the leader because he gets on in every round table episode.

[00:01:09] Rob Brost: Yeah, he’s good. He’s good. And good about getting in on all of those. So that’s good. And he’s a legend. So people want to hear from him. So that that’s really good.

[00:01:20] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, Greg dropped out after the electrical storm hit him the one night and then that was it. We had him scheduled to go. He got hit by, I think his house got hit by lightning or something.

[00:01:28] Jason Sunkle: That was the greatest night ever. That was the greatest night ever. He said, Oh, I’m running late from a game. And then you know, electrical storm. And then we never heard from Greg White. He vanished off the face and I’m just kidding, but we’re just teasing Greg.

[00:01:39] Mike Klinzing: So we teed up three, I think relatively interesting questions tonight to throw at Rob.

So the first one. Is and I think this is sort of relevant here as we head towards tournament time, because a lot of times your team is kind of put in this situation, depending upon the type of season that you’ve had. But the question is, when you’re preparing your team as a heavy favorite in a game, and then you’re comparing your preparing your team when they are in an underdog, do you approach that in any different way, whether in terms of actual physical preparation during practice and sort of the way that you approach how you talk to your team?

Just lay out those two scenarios and maybe there’s no difference at all in how you prepare, but just kind of walk us through that, your ideas behind that.

[00:02:31] Rob Brost: Yeah, I can just tell you how we do it and I don’t know if it would be right for everybody because everybody’s team is a little bit different and certainly year to year.

We treat our teams a little bit differently depending on the personality of the guys, etc. But for the most part, we want to prepare for every game the same way. And so we had our first playoff game last night and we were a heavy favorite in that one. And now this one tomorrow night. You know, I would say we’re maybe the favorite, but not by much.

And so as you move through the tournament you’re going to be in different scenarios that way. But we like to prepare just like we would for any other game. And I know some coaches like to just throw it all out there, put all the cards on the table, but I just feel like we don’t really talk about wins and losses really ever during the season.

We don’t talk about conference championships. We don’t talk about state rankings. We don’t talk about how many wins we have. And this year was very similar. We never brought that up. We won the conference. We’re ranked in the top five in the state depending on what poll you look at and we don’t we just don’t talk about that stuff and so you know our game on Wednesday when I would say we were the pretty heavy favorites.

We didn’t talk about that. We were the heavy favorites. And now tomorrow you know, it’s, it’s kind of a pick em game. I would say we’re maybe a little bit of the favorite, but we didn’t talk about it either. And if we’re fortunate enough to win on Friday and we play on Tuesday. Then that will be a pick’em game, really depending on who we play.

And so it’s just how we like to do it. And certainly as a staff. I think we’re a little more thorough when it gets to the playoffs but how we present the items to our guys remains pretty constant and I make it a point with, with our staff not to say stuff like, hey, there is no tomorrow, or this could be your last game, or we didn’t prepare for all this to go down right now.

None of that. We just play. And our play is either good enough or it’s not. And so that’s just, again, how we do it. And I, it just fits my personality, I think. And it fits where we are as a program. I’m not saying that it’s right for everybody. And it might not be other coaches personality. So I don’t ever claim that what I do is right for every team or every person or every program.

[00:05:10] Jason Sunkle: Can I ask Rob, how does your state do the seeding? I don’t remember if we covered this on our previous podcast, but can you, can you just talk? Cause I know every state’s kind of wacky and Ohio just changed it. And it sounds like they’re probably going to change it again because of the re divisioning that they’re going to be.

[00:05:27] Rob Brost: Well, here’s what we do. We have eight sectionals in our state for the big class. And each sectional has, I don’t know, 20 to 22 teams in it. And then those sectionals get seated by the coaches that are in it. Okay? The downside to what happens in Illinois is, for example, this season, in our sectional, remember there’s 8 sectionals, in our sectional, we have 4 of the top 9 teams in the state in our sectional.

So three of us have made it to the state tournament in the last two or three years So obviously only one of us has a chance to do that this year and so it’s it’s rough depending on what sectional you get put in and so Sometimes they change the sectional sometimes they don’t so next year We might have the exact same or they might just decide.

Hey, let’s move some Folks around kind of like they did this year. And now you have some of the top programs all in one and every sectional is tough. Obviously we’re in Illinois, basketball is big and every sectional is tough. So I’m not trying to say that, but when you have four of the top nine teams in the state, in the same sectional, and you have seeds like our 10 seed and our sectional won 23 games this year.

And there’s some sectionals where the 5 seed in our same class has a losing record. And so some sectionals are stacked like ours is this year. And so it’s going to be really, really difficult. Like tomorrow we’re playing in the region title game and we’re playing a 22 win team for the region title. And so.

You know, we have 25 wins, but we’re playing a really, really good team is my point tomorrow night. And whereas some of the other teams that are ranked in the top 10 are playing teams with losing records in the same game. So you know, that, that’s how we do it here. I don’t know if I’m a huge fan of doing it exactly like this, but it is what it is and we got to play and we’re going to play tomorrow.

[00:07:38] Jason Sunkle: Mike might be able to shed some light, but ours used to be like that. And then two years ago, they changed it where like. If you’re the top seed, you get to like pick your bracket theoretically and like put your name on the bracket. And then, but you can also pass and let someone else pick where they’re going to go.

Mike, is that accurate?

[00:07:57] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. So nobody passed this year according to, so my son was sitting in with our coaching staff when. They went through and did it. So it used to be, Rob, where you would have a 16 team in Ohio, we would call it the district. So you’d have a 16 team district that all played at one site.

And then those coaches would go and they’d have a meeting and then they would seed out, Hey, this is the number teams of players would vote on who that number one seed was. And then everybody would get placed on the. On the bracket where the first seed get to would get to go on the bracket that they wanted to, or they could pass and so on and so forth.

And then I think it was two years ago, maybe three that they changed to where now it’s like Northeast Ohio has, it’s like a, I don’t know. So basically there’s six, six, 16 team brackets and those teams get seated. I think there was 78 teams in the, in division one, which is our highest classification here in Ohio.

78 teams that were seated across that. Whatever those, those six, 16 team whatever, mini districts, whatever you want, whatever you want to call them. And then our rankings this year were not based on coaches voting. Instead, they were based on the max preps RPI, which takes into account your record, your opponent’s record, and then the record of your Opponents, your opponents, opponents.

[00:09:19] Rob Brost: Yeah, exactly.

[00:09:22] Mike Klinzing: So it’s kind of, it didn’t turn out exactly perfectly because obviously depending upon if you play a real easy schedule, you may end up getting a higher rank than maybe you should have. So it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, but it’s just, I don’t know if there’s a great way to do it.

I don’t know what the best, I don’t know what the best way is to kind of, to settle it out, but it does feel like, again, to your point, if you have four of the top. nine teams in the state in one 22 team region. That doesn’t seem like it’s you want to be able to spread that, spread that out. But again, in Ohio, sometimes you’ll have a team that thinks, Oh, this team’s not very good.

So we’re going to jump on the board. And all of a sudden somebody that you think, Hey, we might not have to face them to three or four games in, all of a sudden they’re jumping on you because they think they can beat you.

[00:10:09] Rob Brost: They get in there early. That is a little crazy.

[00:10:12] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. So it’s interesting.  It’s really an interesting process, no matter how you do it.

[00:10:17] Rob Brost: So yeah, I mean as the further we go, then we’re less likely to be the favorites. Right. So we’re one of those teams that are ranked in the top 10, but we can get beat by anybody as well.

And our sectional is so deep. Like I said, the team we play tomorrow, they have 22 wins and they’re really, really good. Typically in a region final. If we were seeded what we are we would play somebody that was good, but we would be the clear favorites, right? And I think we’re probably the favorites tomorrow, but we’re not clear.

I mean, they could beat us with little to no issue if we don’t play well, or if we just play average, we’ll get beat.

[00:10:58] Mike Klinzing: Yeah. It’s interesting how it all plays itself out. I mean, you just never know when you get into tournament time especially when you’re talking about teams that if you’re competing against a team that plays in a completely different league than you to play, that you may not even have one common opponent.

And so now something that you’re trying to compare apples and oranges, and you’re looking at them and you’re saying, well, I think this, but man, I don’t know. And it’s really difficult to compare. Rob, would

[00:11:25] Jason Sunkle: Rob, would you rather play a team that you are familiar with that may be better than you, or a team that because at least you have seen them, or would you rather play a team that you are definitely better than, that you’ve played, but they can hang with you? Which would you rather do?

[00:11:42] Rob Brost: Yeah, I think it’s hard to play a team multiple times and beat them, especially if they’re, And that goes between school and school obviously, I think most of the teams around here that we play are very well coached, but there’s a few that I won’t name that I wouldn’t mind playing every night.

But those teams are very few. And so like the team we play on Friday in their opening round game, they, they played a team that had 20 wins as well. And they have a kid that’s going to Illinois who’s 6’10 And so that’s who they beat to get to us.

And so it’s tough anyway you slice it, obviously you’re going to have to beat some really good teams. So I don’t want to sound like we got a beat.

[00:12:33] Mike Klinzing: You gotta beat good teams to keep advancing. At some point the cupcakes go away and you gotta start beating real teams.There’s no doubt about that. It’s just a matter of how many of them.

[00:12:42] Rob Brost: Yes, our schedule has prepared us for that. But that doesn’t mean we’re gonna win. Just because we played. We beat the number one team in the state a week and a half ago. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to win tomorrow because we did that a week and a half ago.

So every game is a little different and you never know, especially in the playoffs, how 16, 17 year olds are going to react to crowds, the so called pressure of the game, all of those things. And so that’s why we try to keep it as normal as possible and just make our routine our routine.

[00:13:18] Mike Klinzing: Yep. That goes back to scheduling again, which we talked about on one of the previous episodes. Just again, what’s your, what’s your philosophy on scheduling and do you want to play really good teams? And maybe that means your regular season record is you’re not going to go, you’re not going to go 26 and oh, but you’re probably going to be more prepared when it comes time for the, for the state tournament.

And so depending on where your program is at a given moment, like we talked about back in, on that episode your, your scheduling philosophy can be can be different depending on how things go. So All right. No doubt. Topic number two, how do you keep on top of the pulse of your team and address any small issues that might come up before they grow into bigger issues?

So I just think about as you look at different teams over the course of a season and you’re spending a lot of time together, guys are playing at this point in the season there’s guys who maybe aren’t playing as much that we’ve all probably been associated with teams where Guy number 11 starts grumbling, and before you know it, guy 10 is grumbling, and then guy 9 is grumbling, and before you know it, you’ve had what, what was a team that seemed like they were together, all of a sudden starts to fracture because something small kind of got kind of got its own got its own life.

So how do you make sure you keep on top of your players? What’s going on within the dynamics of the team at this point in the season?

[00:14:39] Rob Brost: I think there’s a couple things. I think first thing, and the most important thing, is your messaging to your team. And to the individuals on your team needs to be constant and ongoing.

So for example, our guys hear a lot. If your relationship with me is dependent on if you play, how much you play, or how well you play, Then you’re in the wrong place. And so that’s a constant thing that they hear over and over. They also hear that they need to love other members on the team, be genuinely happy for their success when their success comes.

And so that messaging. At least for me and for us is constant with our guys. Now that doesn’t mean everything’s going to be perfect and that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have conflict. I think the other thing you have to. Just realize as a head coach, it’s never going to be easy and you’re never going to go through a season where you don’t have conflict of something of some sort, especially with social media and all the pressure, quote unquote, that’s on these guys and how all the outside factors kind of play into really everything now in a program.

Like ours, I mean, it’s pretty high profile. So everything we do is kind of scrutinized and people just see these. 16 and 17 year olds, the 32 minutes of the game. We are the only ones, and when I say we, I mean our whole team and our whole staff that know exactly what we need. Cause we’re the only ones that are there all the time.

Other people only see the 32 minutes of the game. And that’s not a reflection of all the things that we do and all the things that play into how we play. So I think constant messaging. It is critical. And then I think also knowing that you’re going to have some conflict and it’s going to happen regardless.

And I try to keep a pulse on each individual player and meet with guys as the season is going. And a lot of the times those conversations have nothing to do with basketball at all. And so I think they know that I care about them as a person more than I care about their play and therefore it makes them more comfortable to play right now.

That doesn’t mean they play well all the time. It certainly doesn’t. And it doesn’t mean we’re unselfish all the time or anything. And so I just think the constant messaging and the constant reinforcement of the things that you want to see in your culture, like making an extra pass or you know, a click, click, boom, that’s what we call it.

Just pass, pass, shot, where you make an extra pass. And in our last game, I made it a point at halftime, we had a hammer pass followed by an extra. And then another extra and then a kid hit a three. So I hammered that at, at halftime. Like, that was a great play. We got to continue to be unselfish, those types of things.

And then I’ll praise the bench when the bench is in there. So things like, for example, we had a game last Friday and I didn’t play our top seven guys because playoffs were coming. The game didn’t mean anything, so to speak. And so with our top seven guys, I said, now you guys need to be the bench that you want when you’re out there.

And they were tremendous. They were locked in. They were cheering. They were doing everything that a good bench does. And so, I think the messaging and how you reinforce that stuff throughout the season prevents some of the things that you’re talking about, but it doesn’t prevent all. Because we’re all human beings, right?

And so there’s a lot of factors that go into it. That’s kind of in a nutshell how I keep track of the pulse of the squad. And certainly I have really good relationships with my upper classmen and I tell them all the time, you don’t have to come to me with everything, but if there’s something that’s going to affect how we play.

It’s your responsibility to bring that to me, then I’ll decide if it needs to be addressed. And so we don’t have those things a lot to be perfectly honest with you, but we’ve had them. And usually I can put my finger on it before a player even comes to me and kind of head that off at the pass or I’ll have an assistant.

Hey, can you just check in with Jimmy or Joey? And see what’s up and you know, all that stuff. But I try to affirm our guys as much as I can away from the basketball court. So we don’t have a rule, but everybody does it now. Like if we see each other in the hall, we have to speak to each other, even if we’re like, Hey, what’s up coach.

Hey, Steve what’s up. Hey. And I kind of know where they’re going. Cause you get the flow. I don’t say good luck in biology, but like have fun in bio today or whatever, or make sure you’re paying attention in math and I, or whatever I say, just little things like that. And so those things go a long way to help the culture and help things before they get frayed.

Because I think once they get frayed, it’s hard to get them back together. And so if you can, as they start to become frayed, if you can keep it together I think that’s really, really critical.

[00:20:12] Mike Klinzing: How does having Trey in the locker room? impact what you just talked about in terms of, does it feel the same?

Does it feel different than it did when he wasn’t in the locker room? Just how have you guys walked that line, the two of you?

[00:20:28] Rob Brost: It’s definitely different, but I don’t really talk with him about specifics within the team when like, when we’re at home, unless he brings them to me. And so he hasn’t brought a lot of that to me.

This year, we’ve been really lucky that our team has been  good with that whole dynamic and it helps that he’s a good player. He’s not our best player. He’s not like a first team all state or anything like that, but he’s a really solid player on a really good team. So that’s helpful.

And he’s realistic on the expectations of himself as well. That’s helpful. And my messaging to him, the same thing I talked about with my messaging to the team is true with him as my son, you know what I mean? So when I’m with him and we’re not with the team messaging to him is critical as well, whatever that message is.

And so I just want not only Trey, but everybody to feel comfortable coming to me with anything unrelated to basketball or related to basketball. And so we had a situation earlier in the year where one of our players came to me, why are you starting him and not starting him?

That’s a very good question. It’s fair. And if you come to me appropriately and at the right time, I’ll be happy to have that discussion. And so Those things I want them to be comfortable asking me, but then they have to be ready for my response as well because I’m gonna be honest with them and Then we can move forward and take care of whatever we need to take care of So I think the messaging is critical and then I think Allowing players to have a little bit of a voice not a little bit but a lot of voice In what you do and then I’m a really big Less is more guy.

And so we probably go maybe even too far. Like my assistant. sent me about 70 clips for today’s film session. And I was like, dude, we need to get that down to like 10. And so I don’t want to be in film for more than five or 10 minutes. And so he goes, coach, I don’t know if we can do that. You know, well, that’s what we’re doing.

And so and then we practice for about 45 minutes and we were done. So I’m, I’m big on that as well. I just want our kids to be. This sounds weird, but everybody talks about, you want your kids to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m almost the exact opposite. I want our kids to be comfortable.

Almost all the time so that they can play so that they can just play. Now I get what people say about being like pushing yourself. I get that piece of it, but I don’t want our kids to have to worry about any other thing than playing. And I really don’t want them to worry about playing either. I just want them to be free to play.  And that’s hard to do in the whole time that we’re in right now.

[00:23:33] Mike Klinzing: Well, it’s relationships. It’s trust. And I’m guessing it’s routine, right? It’s routine of like, we’re not, we’re not changing from this game to that game. It’s, Hey, we’re preparing for a game. This is what we do to prepare for a game, regardless of whether we’re playing team X, who’s number one in the state or team Y who’s number 278 in the state. We’re going to prepare in the same way. And I think that’s kind of what you’re getting at is, yeah, you got to have a routine and you got to make sure that your players know what’s expected of them. And if you do that, then now you can put them in the best position to be able to maximize their ability to play the game. Well, and even then, as you’ve said, many times doesn’t guarantee you Anything when you’re talking about it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about high school players, you’re talking about pros You don’t know what you’re getting like tonight and but you want to give them the best chance to the best opportunity to succeed.

All right topic number three, do you have a go to I called it a sort of a tempo change or something that if maybe you’re off to a slow start or things are looking a little sluggish or you just don’t. It just doesn’t feel you have the right energy. Is there something, and I don’t know whether it’s X and O’s, whether it’s a guy that you turn to on the bench who gives your team energy.

In my mind, I guess when I was coming up with the question, I was thinking of, is there something that like, I know that there were times when I was coaching my kids teams that come out and you’re like, okay, we’re going to play. Good solid man to man defense. But man, we are, we are really struggling right now.

Like we’re just lethargic. We’re not ready to go. All right, let’s jump into press X so that we can kind of just, even if it doesn’t work, it at least changes our mentality and gets us playing more aggressively. So I don’t know what direction you want to take the question, but just when I think of a tempo changer, what pops into mind for you?

[00:25:22] Rob Brost:  This is going to be kind of maybe a contrarian answer to that. But my number one thing, if things aren’t going exactly our way, is that I, myself, need to stay calm and relaxed so that my team doesn’t panic. And so I don’t call a ton of timeouts. My assistants always say that I lead the country with timeouts unused.

And you know, we might be giving up a run and you know, we might be down 18 to eight and my sister’s timeout, we’re going to play through a lot of that. Now, obviously each game is different and I go a lot by feel. So like tomorrow night, if that happens, I might call a timeout right off the top, but it’s more on feel than anything.

And I think the demeanor that I have is going to be reciprocated by the players. And so I think first off, me not panicking when stuff like that is happening is really helpful. And then, they understand the players that I’ll get upset about very few things, but one of them is I’ll protect them from the officials.

If I think the officials are, I will let the officials have it if I deem that necessary, if it’s protecting them. So How many Ts do you have this year, Rob? I think I just have a couple. You know, I don’t usually take it to that level, but when I’m upset during a game, it’s usually because I feel like, not that there was just a missed foul call, but like a kid might get hurt or something like that.

And so you know, so those types of things I think are critical. And then I think just switching it up as far as like, we try to keep teams off balance, so to speak, by changing up defenses, sometimes more than we need to. But that prevents. The tempo change thing that you were mentioning, or it provides the tempo change that you were mentioning by changing defenses and those types of things.

And we don’t call very many set plays, but if we’ve gone three possessions empty, then we might call one. And it will be up to our guys to obviously use the action that we give them to. So, we don’t call a ton of set plays, but if we need a bucket, then I’ll throw one in there to make sure that we’re going to get at least a good look at the basket.

Or if our top scorers haven’t touched the ball in a couple possessions, we’ll run something to get them at least a good look at it, or at least space where they can draw defenders and then kick. And so again, a lot of it is just by feel and don’t get me wrong, if my team needs a butt whooping, they’re going to get that too.

But if they need a hug, that’s what they’re going to get. And so sometimes it’s just my judgment what they need. And most of the time they need me to be calm and just talk them through whatever’s happening. But there were a few times this year that they needed a size 12 in their rear and that’s what they got as well.

So those times are kind of fewer. But they provide some of that tempo change or things that you mentioned. And obviously, like. pressing out of a free throw or just a simple thing like another team shooting a free throw and we’ll sub two guys or sometimes three guys and then we’ll deny the other team’s best player for three possessions.

Something like that. Where we try to change it up a little bit and just give us a little bit of a spark. We don’t play a ton of zone. For that very reason, because we want to play fast and all of those types of things. But as we move forward in the playoffs here, some of these teams that we play, we’re going to have to play some zone.

And so we do some of those things to provide some of those tempo changers and to prevent. Us needing them as well. So you probably get a theme here that a lot of the stuff that I do is just on feel just from experience and knowing my team and hopefully knowing the other team. But like tomorrow night, I mean, it’s going to be sold out.  It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be crazy in there and we’re going to have to keep our composure and they’re going to make runs and they’re going to play well too. So we’re going to have to be ready for all of those things.

[00:29:52] Jason Sunkle: I love what you said about the defense change, because my favorite thing to do is if I’m in a press and a coach calls a timeout after like turning the ball over twice as I just completely changed what press I was running because, because the coach just spent the full time out telling him how to beat my press and then, or I pull the press completely off.  And then we’re back in it after two possessions guys, because they’ll forget everything. Cause it’s middle school basketball and they don’t retain things. So the press goes back and it’s my favorite thing to do. Coaches are like, ah, it’s like, well, what did you think I was going to do?  Like you just tried to counter it.

[00:30:29] Mike Klinzing: If you’re going to change defenses, Rob, how do you set that up? Do you go makes misses? Do you call it from the bench? Just how do you go about it?

[00:30:38] Rob Brost: Sometimes it’s makes, misses. It just depends on the team again. Like in 2015, when we made it to the Final Four, we would just yell out the defense we were in as we were getting back.

Like that’s how much we would change it. But we had a really great leader. Our best player was our super leader and he was really vocal. And then I would just yell it out and then he would echo it. And then we would just do it. We haven’t got to that point with some of my teams now. But you know, we’ll, we’ll have hand signals for some, we’ll just verbally say it sometimes.

But whatever it is, we want everybody on the floor to echo it. That’s one of our things that we do. Whatever I say, then they echo and so that everybody’s on the same page. And so you know, it, that just depends like tomorrow night, since it’s going to be really loud, we’ll have cards. That have defenses and sets and on the cards so that we can show the cards cause they might not be able to hear us.

So it’s dependent on the time of the season and how many people we’re going to be at, what arena we’re playing in, if we’re playing in a regular high school gym or if we’re playing in arena tomorrow is a regular high school gym, but it’s, it’s going to be packed and it’s going to be loud.

And so we have to be ready for all of those things as well.

[00:31:56] Mike Klinzing: What’s your favorite environment to play in? Would you rather play in a packed high school gym or would you rather play in a bigger arena that’s maybe whatever, a third full just because of the size of the venue?

[00:32:07] Rob Brost: I like the packed high school gyms.  I don’t think there’s much better than that. Now, some gyms are better than others, obviously. The one we’re in tomorrow is a little bit small, which is why it’s going to be loud. And I almost wish we were playing in a different facility that would allow maybe a thousand more people in there.

But it is what it is. We got to play where they tell us to play. And so you know, we’ve played in all different Where do you guys play your state championship games at? Where do you play this game? At University of Illinois in Champaign. Okay. Okay. Alright. So that’s we’ve played there as well and that’s, that’s a different thing cause the lower bowl is completely full and everyone’s going crazy and then the upper bowl is, you know.

Just depends, who you’re playing and who’s what game is after you and all that stuff. So but that’s a thrill for our guys, obviously, because it’s a whole different atmosphere there compared to a high school gym, but the court’s longer and the background is different. So there’s all kinds of things you got to get used to with that as well.

I like it either way really, but it’s really good when there’s like a really nice crowd and both teams are into it. Both teams have great student sections, all of those things, not much better than that.

[00:33:25] Mike Klinzing: Do you like playing on a regulation college court or would you rather play on a shorter high school court if you had a, with, I probably varies team to team, but with this year’s team, does it matter?

[00:33:34] Rob Brost: I mean, we’re a little bit quicker and faster than most teams now. We’re smaller. Whereas last year, we were much bigger. I had four, six, eight kids. This year, I have one guy in my starting lineup over six. Well, I have three six foot and unders, and then I have a six two, and then a six six kid. And so either way you can argue that the bigger court gives you more room to do your thing if you’re quicker, but the shorter court the high school court gives you defensively a shorter space to cover and you can really get after them on defense too.

So I don’t know. I just think that 10 feet makes a humongous difference. For stamina and just simple things like ball ahead and hitting the guy ahead of you. It’s, it’s, it’s different for the guys for sure. And so if we get lucky enough to play in a super sectional or state tournament, those are always in big arenas.

And we try to practice two or three times on a college court before we get there. Just so they have a little idea of what it’s like.

[00:34:42] Mike Klinzing: I will say there is nothing better than playing in an atmosphere where you have, as you said, big student sections where people are into the game. I mean, there’s nothing better than coaching or playing in those environments. And even though you’ve got to hold up your cards instead of using your voice to communicate to the team, you still would not trade, you still would not trade that atmosphere.

[00:35:08] Jason Sunkle: Would you say Mike, that Mentor Strongsville game was like that?

Would you say the Mentor Strongsville game was like that for you? In terms of the crowd or in terms of what? Yeah, everything, just saying the atmosphere.

[00:35:18] Mike Klinzing: Crowd wasn’t like that. The Brunswick game was like that. Our Brunswick game both games, game away and the game home, we beat our rival twice this year.

I think they’ve lost three games the whole season. Two of them were to us. So that’s kind of a good feeling, but both times, the gym was completely packed and just a really, really good atmosphere. A lot of fun to play and watch games and you’re just sitting there as a, I’m sitting there as a dad and the adrenaline is going up, man, just to be out there either way, coaching the game or being on the floor as a player, man, I’m 30, whatever years removed from being anywhere near as a player and part of me is still like, man, it’d be so much fun to be out there.

[00:36:07] Rob Brost: Yeah, there’s nothing like it, I mentioned this earlier, we went to the number one team in the state. Place was sold out. They turned away. I mean, I got done with the game and people were like, they’re not letting me in. I’m getting those messages on my phone after the game. Cause I don’t have my phone on me.

And so the atmosphere is just great. The anticipation of the game and the anticipation of the rivalry and all of the things that go with it. And we were fortunate enough to win, but they had beaten us earlier in the season on our home floor. So every game is different and you don’t know how it’s going to go.

And the two teams were really different from each other. They’re big, strong, physical, and we’re relatively small, skilled. And so we’re, we’re a little bit different. So it was, it’s fun to prepare for them. And obviously it’s fun to play them, especially when the crowd is like it always is when we play them.

And it helps that they were number one and we were number four or whatever it was. And so that always helps things.

[00:37:11] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely, man. It’s there’s nothing better than a packed high school gym for a big game. I mean, it’s just the thrill of that on all levels is just, it’s off the charts.

There’s no doubt about that. So, yeah. All right. Well, I did my crack research. So that was triple double number seven. So I was right in my initial assessment number seven. So got three good topics in and obviously you guys are right in the thick of the state tournament here in Ohio. We’ll be starting that up next week.

We got one more regular season game. We’re recording this on Thursday night and by the time people hear it, we’ll have played our last regular season game for my son’s team. And we will see where that goes, but man, tournament time is exciting.

[00:37:50] Rob Brost: Yeah. Thank you. It’ll be great.

[00:37:52] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, thank you. It’s fun. So we got to play our first one, just like you play it, play our first one, which I think will probably be a slight favorite in that one.

In the second game of the year or second game of the tournament, we will be playing the defending Division One state champions. Now they lost some guys, but yeah. That is a game that should be it should be a game that we’ll have a chance to win. We could very easily lose that game, but we could also win it.

So we’re set up where we’ve got some games that are going to be tough games, but if you play to your potential. You know, that’s all you can ask. And you give yourself a chance to win. So it should be a fun and exciting tournament time for everybody involved.

So good luck to you. Good luck to the Raiders. Good luck to Trey and the rest of your team. You know, need it. Absolutely. All right, Rob. Thank you, Jason. Always good. Triple down with number seven in the books and we will be back next month for number eight. Thanks for everyone checking out tonight’s episode and we will catch you on the next one. Thanks.