“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #9 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 934
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The 9th 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”.
- Rob’s experience coaching at the USA Basketball Junior National Team Minicamp in Phoenix during the Final Four
- The “Get in the Gym” culture at Bolingbrook that connects current players and alumni
- AAU likes and dislikes from the perspective of a coach and a parent
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What We Discuss with Rob Brost
- Rob’s experience coaching at the USA Basketball Junior National Team Minicamp in Phoenix during the Final Four
- The “Get in the Gym” culture at Bolingbrook that connects current players and alumni
- AAU likes and dislikes from the perspective of a coach and a parent
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THANKS, ROB BROST
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TRANSCRIPT FOR “THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #9 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 934
[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here without Rob, my co-host Jason Sunkle, who decided he was on vacation last week. Now he’s at the Cavs game tonight to watch the Cavaliers spank the G League Grizzlies. Not a very hard spanking, but anyway, it’s just us tonight. So it’s a double double tonight.
[00:00:21] Rob Brost: Well, I know this is now the second time in a row we’ve recorded without him. So now I’m going to, I don’t know if he’s going to hold it against us or something like that. Maybe he’s starting his own pod or something like that off to the side.
[00:00:36] Mike Klinzing: He could have a side project going that we don’t even know about.
So, but anyway, for you and I, it’s number nine. Jason, when he comes back, we’re going to have to do a count and figure out exactly where he’s at. But nonetheless, we are going to talk three topics tonight. And we’re going to start Rob with your experience this past weekend in Phoenix with the USA basketball men’s junior national team minicamp.
I know you and I have talked about before the opportunity that you’ve had to work with USA basketball. But I think in this case, we just want to give you an opportunity to share what it was like in Phoenix at the minicamp. Just give us an idea of what went on, what your role was, and then we’ll kind of dive into it.
[00:01:21] Rob Brost: Yeah, I think it’s great all the way around. People talk all the time about the world is catching up with us and the world is catching up with us. And we’re still the standard for basketball. We are still the standard. And we’re particularly the standard as it relates to youth basketball whether that be 16 or 17 U, the FIBA championships or the world championships.
And as we’ve won the last 10 or so of those titles and that’s in large part because of what USA basketball is doing as far as the organizational part with these junior national team training camps. And so those really prepare our kids. And when I say our kids, the kids that get chosen for the teams, ultimately in June or July, whenever those games are it gives us a chance to work with them.
And teach them terminology, teach them things that we’re going to do across the board. And a lot of these things are all the way up to the senior national team, all the way up to the Olympic squad. And so, it gives the kids a chance to be exposed to that. And then ultimately FIBA rules, the international rules, when we scrimmage and do all those types of things.
There’s referees there, obviously, and we’re playing FIBA rules. And so there’s a few nuances, more than a few actually, nuances to the FIBA system compared to ours. So our kids get acclimated to that. But moreover, they are against light competition. It’s not an AAU setting, and I’m not dissing AAU.
It’s not a high school setting, and I’m not dissing high school either, but it’s just a different culture. In a good way and it really prepares our guys for what they’re going to see, or at least gives them a taste of what they’re going to see when they try out for those teams. And then ultimately some of them make some of those 16U FIBA teams or 16U World Championship teams that play all around the world.
[00:03:39] Mike Klinzing: How many kids come into this minicamp in Phoenix and what grade level are those kids currently?
[00:03:48] Rob Brost: So, we had juniors, seniors, and several freshmen. Not as many freshmen. So the way it works with FIBA and international competition is that the age level cycles. So, for example, last year was 16U.
This year is 17U. So it kind of cycles up, there’s not a team, so to speak, for every age group, if that makes sense. And so this year we had a few freshmen. I think there was 10 or so. I may be off a little bit, but 10 or so freshmen. And then we had 30 or so sophomores and 30 or so juniors.
And so this year I believe it’s a 17U squad. So ultimately all of those kids that were there are eligible to make the team this year. But when you’re at that level of competition playing up, even one year is, is very, very difficult. And very few kids can do that, especially at this age, because a year makes such a big difference.
So that’s kind of just a generality of the numbers that we had about 70 kids total.
[00:05:00] Mike Klinzing: Tell me a little bit about the makeup of the coaching staff and then how you specifically get the opportunity, but how guys that are on that coaching staff, how do they get that opportunity?
[00:05:12] Rob Brost: Yeah, it’s very similar to the kind of how the players get an opportunity.
We’re observed, we’re watched, we’re evaluated, I guess, as coaches before we get invitations to go to these events. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be working with USA Basketball for almost 10 years now. And it’s just been one of the greatest things that I’ve been a part of, to be honest with you.
And so you have top coaches from all over the country. Charmin White led the practices for us this year. And has done so for the last couple of years and he’s won several gold medals. He’s won eight state titles or nine. I can’t even remember. I’m losing track. And he’s got several gold medals.
And of course, Don Showalter is there kind of overseeing all of it. And he’s, I think it’s 73 and 0 or something like that in international competition and has won I think it’s 10 gold medals in international competition. So the coaching staff is top notch, just like the players are top notch.
And the thing you notice the most is the culture really sets the tone for everything that we do. And the coaches do a really good job of. Maintaining that culture and then ultimately the kids do all the work to Keep the culture where it is and keep it to a standard that everybody is proud of so I’m one of the court coaches There they flew in I don’t know eight or ten coaches high school coaches from Throughout the country and then there were some local guys from Phoenix there as well that serve as court coaches so I like to think it’s the best of the best as far as coaches, but you gotta get an opportunity, you have to do a good job, all of those things.
So people ask me all the time, well how did you even get into that? I’m not sure even exactly how it started, to be honest. I don’t even know, but I remember thinking like, Man, I got this invite and I’m going to do a bang up job for sure. To hopefully get another invite in. So subsequently I’ve been with USA basketball for eight or nine years now in this role as court coach.
And so it’s been one of the highlights of my professional career for sure.
[00:07:36] Mike Klinzing: So how do they divide up what your responsibilities are as a court coach? Are you, is it sort of like a camp setting in that you have a station and you’re teaching a particular skill or are you working with a particular group of kids?
[00:07:51] Rob Brost: Yeah, we’re more assigned to teams of kids. So there was eight teams total there by the time they divvied up all the kids. And so you were working primarily with your team, but working with skill sets depending on what we’re working on, right? So defensively, we worked a little bit on drop coverage for an example.
So, when you’re working on the drop coverage, you’re with your team, and then maybe paired with another team so that you work on it together. And so then, drills are explained and demonstrated, and then we break out to our teams and then do. And then some very, Brief actions and some sets that we like to run in the international level when we get playing games and just so they get introduced to how we want to play. And what is important to us and what USA basketball values.
[00:08:49] Mike Klinzing: How many hours in each one of the days are you and the players on the court doing things? And then while you’re on the court, what are some of the things that you’re doing?
[00:09:00] Rob Brost: Yeah, so it just depends on the day. So Friday we had two practices. That were each two hours in length, but the kids have sessions with the NBA players association sessions with the NCAA sometimes in Colorado and we’re in Colorado Springs, they have sessions for the parents as well.
So it’s a really holistic approach to getting our kids prepared for what they’re going to see in the next potentially five to hopefully 10 years of their playing career, whatever that may be, obviously. Everybody’s not going to take the same path, but the point is to prepare them as much as possible for what they’re about to see.
And with the landscape, like it is, particularly in college basketball, with name, image, and likeness, and those things, the whole landscape is changing. They have sessions where they’re working on those things as well on top of the basketball piece, right? And so like I said, it’s a very holistic approach and I give USA Basketball a ton of credit for the organization, for all that they’re doing to promote and help our young people.
That are in this wave, the new wave of basketball and the changing landscape. So in particular on the court it just, it just depends on what we’re working on. Obviously we have a practice plan that we like to follow, but sometimes we, it’s just like when you’re running your own practice, sometimes you follow it to the minute.
Other times you make adjustments depending on what the strengths and weaknesses of the group are, but it’s just a little different atmosphere, for example, Saturday morning. Well, there’s reps from almost every NBA team watching practice. So the gym is pretty filled with eyes that are really important, really kind of breaking down every minute detail.
So that’s a unique thing for kids that are 16 and 17 as well, playing in front of NBA GMs or NBA representatives, et cetera. So with the social media, like it is, there’s all kinds of outlets that are covering the junior national training camp and who’s playing well and who’s not and those types of things.
So it’s just a really unique experience.
[00:11:26] Mike Klinzing: Much of the time do they spend scrimmaging? So you have a team that you’re responsible for. Are you then scrimmaging against other teams in a, in a more game like setting, as opposed to what you described before, where maybe you’re sharing a court with another team and then you’re working on a specific skill. So you’re going against them. How much do they scrimmage and get up and down?
[00:11:45] Rob Brost: Yeah. So we get up and down quite a little bit because that’s what everybody wants to see, right? And so obviously they see a little drill work at the beginning of sessions. And then they see some team concepts that we work on during that portion.
But the games typically aren’t very long. it’s a 10 minute game or a 12 minute game with referees, of course. And so we’ll play multiple games of those 10 or 12 minute games, depending on the length of the practice and such. And so it’s really good because then you can break down what happened in the first game with your team before you play the second.
And so they do a really good job. And when I say they, I mean, USA basketball of giving you time for teaching, giving the kids time for learning, and then ultimately giving the players time to showcase. What they can do within the team concept. And so it’s much different than an AAU setting. Like I said before, it’s much different than a school setting.
Because all of the players are elite. And I get that all of the players might be elite at an EYBL tournament or something like that, but this is just a whole different scenario from that because you want to find and ultimately find a group that’s going to play together and fit all the parts to win a gold medal in international competition.
So that’s the ultimate goal. of what we’re trying to accomplish is finding the right fit for when the tryouts happen for the teams in June or July, whenever that may count.
[00:13:26] Mike Klinzing: When you think about the experience that those kids have there. And obviously I’m assuming that the team that you have, you’re getting to know those kids the best because you’re spending the most amount of time with them.
When you talk to them, is there some aspect of it that to a man, the kids are like, man, I love this part of it. Obviously, I’m sure the playing and getting up and down and scrimmaging is something that they like, but even like the, External sessions like you talked about, whether it’s just learning some of those other things off the floor.
What are the kids saying to you about what they like about it?
[00:14:03] Rob Brost: I think overall they really enjoy it because it’s really how basketball is supposed to be because you have All the kids there, 99. 9 percent of them have great attitudes. They play really hard. They try to play right. That doesn’t mean they play right all the time.
Of course, you’re going to get some, sometimes where they’re taking bad shots or rushing shots or things of that nature. But a lot of them, this is their first experience in this type of setting. They don’t really know what to expect, which is why we’re having the camp in the first place so that they’re better familiarizing themselves with the international game, what our expectations are as a coaching staff, what the expectations are in FIBA play.
And just little things like you can’t go into the backcourt when you pass the ball inbounds, you just can’t do that. It’s a, it’s a turnover. Well, if you forget, and usually every camp we have somebody, a team that forgets, including the coach and so, and that’ll be a turnover and then we just go the other way with it.
You can’t call a timeout. The coach can’t call a timeout in a live ball situation. So just little things like that, that helped them acclimate themselves with the international game. So like I said, it’s been one of the highlights of my professional career for sure.
[00:15:28] Mike Klinzing: All right, last question related to this. When you think of this particular experience, what’s a little moment that you had during this particular minicamp? Just something small. Maybe it’s a conversation with another coach. Maybe it was just something that you noticed or you saw. Maybe it was something that a kid said to you. What’s just a small moment when you think about this particular experience that you’re going to take with you that you’re going to remember for the rest of your life?
[00:15:53] Rob Brost: that’s a really good question. There’s usually something like that that happens at every training camp or tryouts or what have you and I think it, for me, it might not be what happens at the camp itself, although that’s a part of it, but it’s building the relationships with players that are moving on to things that are important.
Only for the top 0. 5 percent of the human beings on the planet. And so when I did my first USA basketball training camp, I think Scottie Barnes and Evan Mobley and those guys, Jalen Green, those guys were all sophomores. I think that was my first experience. Well, those guys, when they got drafted, like I had worked with five of the top six picks in the NBA and not like they were on a court, like they were on my team at some point.
Right. And so you know them, like you actually know them. It’s not like you just shared the court for a second, like they were in the huddle with you and you were doing communication circles with them and talking directly to them and them to you. So that’s the part that is really, really fun to see these guys grow and see where they’re going to go to school and see how they’re going to progress as humans as well as basketball players, for sure.
[00:17:21] Mike Klinzing: Awesome. I mean, I think that’s the kind of thing, right, that you take away. It’s the human aspect of what basketball can do. And to be able to, as you said, then follow the journey of guys that, there are very few people in the world that have the opportunity to go on that journey.
And to be able to have a small part in that and have a stake in it, right? Have an interest in it. I think that’s one of the most interesting things. And you could probably vouch for this too, as a parent, not only as a coach, but one of the things that’s been most interesting to me as a parent of a high school basketball player, it was just, my son’s been playing against guys for nine years.
And now we know all those kids. So now you’re watching their careers develop as high school players. You’re watching to see where they’re going to go to college. And I’m going to keep following those kids for the next four years. And it’s just because I have a personal connection to those kids. So I’m invested.
I want to know what they’re doing. I want to know how they’re doing. And so now you’re taking it and you’re blowing that up to a whole nother level. When you start talking about guys who are top five NBA draft.
[00:18:24] Rob Brost: There’s no question. And our high school team played against Jalen Brunson, and then we got to know him because they were really good.
We were really good, so we played them multiple times, and then they beat us in the state semifinals, and then you see Jalen doing what he’s doing now. I didn’t know him personally, obviously, I knew him and talked to him, but I didn’t know him closely, but to see what he’s been able to do is just another example of the people aspect of that and the friendships that I’ve been able to develop with the coaches at USA basketball, just like the friendships I’ve been able to develop with the coaches that I coach against in Illinois is just a special part of the whole thing.
[00:19:04] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. All right. So let’s bring it back from Phoenix. Let’s bring it back to Bolingbrook. And one of the topics that I threw at you, and it’s something that just from my conversations with you over the years, from observing what your program is all about, I called it the Get in the Gym Culture that you guys have that connects guys who have come through your program that are still playing at various levels throughout college basketball in the pros and the connection that those guys have to your current players. And the fact that those alums come back and work out with your current guys and they’re in the gym.
And like I said, I called it the get in the gym culture. So I don’t know how you describe it or how you think about it, but just tell me a little bit. I know that at one point, I think you told the story of how that kind of got started on maybe the very first pod that we did back together, man, that’s probably five years ago now, but anyway, it’s crazy, but Anyway, just kind of give us the genesis of where that came from and kind of how you look at it, the connection that the people who have been through your program, again, it goes back to people, the people that have been through your program, how they stay connected to your current team and to you.
[00:20:20] Rob Brost: I think it’s huge for us as a program that our guys that have been successful, whether it’s in basketball or in business or life, come back and talk and spend some time with our current guys. Because anytime that you can see somebody who was sitting exactly where you’re sitting, go somewhere where very few people go and do things that very few people do.
It gives the thought that, hey, I can do that too, but I see also the work that goes into it. So the thing all started I don’t think it all started, but I’ll try to be brief in this story. We had a player who was a first team All State by the name of Prentiss Nixon on that 2015 team that lost to Jalen Brunson in the state semifinals.
And Prentiss was a really, really good player, obviously. But when we played in the sectional semifinals on a Tuesday, I came into the gym, to get to my office, I have to walk through the gym. That’s just how it works at our school. I just walked through the gym and then to get to my office and I usually walk through there about 6 15.
And this was a Tuesday morning. We were playing in the sectional semifinal and we hadn’t done that. in school history before this time. Now, since then, we’ve done it almost on a regular basis, but we hadn’t made it that far. So anyways, we’re playing in the sectional semifinal that night, and I walked through the gym and Prentice is in there, and I mean, he’s just working, like dripping sweat.
This is 6:15. We play at seven o’clock that night, and I mean, he’s got a rebounder there, everything, and I mean, he’s running from end line to come back and shoot shots. And I went up to him, I remember this, and I said, P, we have a game tonight, you might want to tone it down just a hair. And then he said, Coach, I’ll be ready for tonight, don’t worry about it.
Well, tonight came later on that day. And he had 35 points career high and just dominated the game. And then fast forward to three days later, we’re playing in the sectional final. First time in school history against a team that had beaten us previously. And I walked my same path to get to my office on Friday morning about 6:15.
And here’s Prentiss in there again, game day, wringing sweat. And I didn’t say the same thing to him. I just said, P again, we got a game tonight. And he was like, coach, come on, man, I got this. And then he had 32 that night and we beat the team that had beaten us previously. And now we’re onto the super sectional.
And so that kind of was the, I don’t know if the jumping off points, but that kind of started the, Hey, let’s get in the gym as much as possible culture that we have, and we had a couple of really good players a year or two before Prentice, but Prentice was the first one to really just decide, hey, this is what we’re doing, period.
And had we not run into Jalen Brunson, I think we had a good chance of winning the state title, but we did run into Jalen Brunson, so it was fine. not only Prentiss, but now every really good player after him has done similar things as far as their work ethic and what it takes to be really good.
And that has translated all the way down to our youngest players that we have right now on the varsity that work really, really hard and get into the gym every single day. and do what they’re supposed to do. And so and all the players in between those two groups have had three or four really, really good players because they work at it and they understand what it takes.
And then when you see Prentice go to Iowa State, when you see Prentiss play on a G League team, when you see him play overseas for eight or nine years now, when you see all of those things happen to him and then Broderick has an NBA career. of two or three seasons and then plays overseas and then he’s coming back and then Gage is coming back and so it just kind of cycles through and it’s been really heartwarming for me as a coach that these guys give back and give their time when we have camp and things in the summer and all of those guys come back to work out with our current guys and it’s really refreshing from my standpoint.
[00:25:06] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I think when you start talking about rewarding experiences as a coach, right, there’s things that happen in the moment with your current team and connections you make with those players and victories that you get. But when you start talking about guys who are coming back eight, nine, ten years after they’re gone, And they still want to be a part of what they helped to build and what you’ve kind of overseen.
There’s really, it goes back to what we just talked about 10 minutes ago, from a people standpoint, like that’s really honestly what it’s all about. And clearly the basketball part of it is sort of the, it’s the orbit of where all these things happen and where they take place. But ultimately like the satisfaction of having those guys come back and not only to just share with.
you and share with your current players what they’ve accomplished, but then to be able to pass along those lessons and that work ethic and that example for the guys who are coming up. I mean, I can only imagine the impact that that has on a young kid who’s coming up in your program and they’re a freshman and all of a sudden, dude, there’s like a, there’s a pro in here and this guy’s working out with me and I’m A 14 year old kid, like the impact that has to have.
And again, a kid who wore the same uniform, sat in the same chair, played in the same gym. Like, it’s just the power of that is, I mean, it’s gotta be palpable when you’re in the gym when you have that range of guys in there working out.
[00:26:36] Rob Brost: Our guys know when those guys are coming, so they try to be in the gym when they’re there.
And when Prentiss says to all of our guys, Hey, no coach that you play for from here on out is going to care for you and really care about you like Coach Brost. I’ve done it. I’ve played for an NBA team. I’ve played for two college teams that are at the highest level. One in the Big 12 and one in the Mountain West.
And everything is transactional. Once you leave here, everything is transactional. Somebody wants something from you or you want something from them. That doesn’t happen here. And so when he says that, then it carries a lot more water than when I just say that, because I say stuff like that a lot. But when he says that, it really holds a lot of credence because he’s been through it all.
And he comes back to tell them because he wants to help them. And when he says stuff like. Hey, you’re probably never going to be a hundred percent ever again. The last time I was a hundred percent, I was a freshman in high school. Like you’re going to hurt, you’re going to be sore. You’re going to not want to do it, but you got to do it.
Just things like that, the wisdom that he can give our guys from experience and from what he has gone through. It’s not just him, it’s a bunch of our guys I use as the example, but there’s several of our guys that are doing very similar things that he’s doing and then coming back and helping.
And it’s just refreshing from my standpoint to see stuff like that happen. And it goes through the whole cycle. Right. And so that’s the best part of coaching. If you ask me.
[00:28:24] Mike Klinzing: Messaging coming from someone else that it’s your message that at some point you probably poured into him.
And obviously he’s gained some experience beyond that you’re not pouring into him what it’s like to play for Iowa state or whatever. So he’s gaining that experience and bringing that back with him. But in so many ways, he’s echoing things that he learned back in the day from you and then he knows they’re going to be beneficial to those young guys who are a part of the program.
And so when you start talking about what has an impact, right, it’s kind of like with your own kids and you could tell your own kid something a million times and then somebody else on the outside says it and you’re like, Hey man, look, Dad’s not so dumb or mom’s not so dumb. There are other people who actually think this same thing and they’re giving you the same advice.
[00:29:16] Rob Brost: It happens with Trey because it’s a double with my Trey, right? Because he’s playing for me and he’s my kid and he’ll say stuff like, Dad, I can’t believe Prentiss said this. That is so smart. And I wanted to just be like, right, dude, I’ve been saying that exact same thing to you since you’ve been about five, but he, he hears it different when Prentiss says it, or when Ben says it, or when Broderick says it, or when Gage says it.
So it’s so good for our guys to be around those guys from a maturity standpoint, from a basketball standpoint, obviously. But also just from a people standpoint and to our guys, to our older guys credit, our alum, they’re all really, really nice people. And so it’s easy to root for them.
It’s easy to have them come back. I want them to come back. They want to come back. So it’s fun to see the progression of really the whole program, right? And so it takes a long time to get to that and it takes years of development and then you gotta have good people, right? And so, I’ve been fortunate to have some really, really good players that have really, really good parents and they produce really, really good kids.
Not just basketball wise, but as people too. So that’s an enjoyable part of it for me, for sure.
[00:30:40] Mike Klinzing: A lot of pieces to that puzzle you’re talking about.
[00:30:43] Rob Brost: No question.
[00:30:43] Mike Klinzing: You setting that environment first, then you’re talking about the quality of the parent, and then you’re talking about the quality of the kid, and then you’re talking about all those things have to be interconnected through whatever communication, dedication, truth, honesty, relationships.
[00:31:02] Rob Brost: Little stuff, like I think about Prentiss, we pulled him up to the varsity his freshman season because he was a ballyhooed eighth grader and the best freshman we’ve ever had, quote unquote, at that time. And then, so he played about through Christmas up at the varsity, then we sent him down to the sophomore team.
So here’s one of the best players ever to play and he got sent back down to the sophomore team and he’ll tell you to this day it was the best thing that ever happened to him because then he could just be more relaxed, there was no pressure, all of those things. And so today, if somebody had to go through that social media would just be crushing them.
And then there would be questions about was he ready? all of those things. So, but when Prentiss gets up there and says, Hey, coach did the exact right thing. I’m so glad he did it. It was awesome. I got to play with no pressure. I was so much more comfortable and then I was ready my sophomore year.
Then it obviously starts on the varsity as a sophomore and then the rest is history, right? And so it’s just good for our kids to hear things like that. Like this, have a Prentiss, like he can go through it. Then obviously you can go through it.
[00:32:14] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, absolutely. Adversity. Right. The path is not all easy.
And I mean, you can talk to anybody. I don’t care anybody who had, no matter what level of success you’ve gotten to coaching, playing, business life, nobody gets there. On a completely smooth guide path, there’s always things that are going on that you have to fight through. And so for them to be able to share, not only like, look, here’s my success, but also here’s the things that I had to go through in the process and how I grew from them and why I grew from them.
I mean, it’s just, to have those guys as advocates for your program, there’s, there’s nothing, there’s nothing better. So. Yeah, the get in the gym culture, as I called it. So topic number three, this is a fun one. As we said, before we jumped on, we probably could do hours and hours on this particular one. So we’ll, we’ll try to, we’ll try to limit ourselves to some degree.
So the topic that I threw at Rob was, your favorite and least favorite parts of AAU. And I told him he could approach it from coaching standpoint and also from a parent standpoint. So I’ll let you go and start and then I’ll kind of jump in and share some of my thoughts as I bounce off of what you, what you say.
So you want to start as a coach or as a parent?
[00:33:30] Rob Brost: I think I’ll probably start as a coach. I think what I really like about it is that I try to work with the coaches that work with our players, right? And I tried to have a good relationship with them rather than an adversarial one.
Because I think the better our kids get and the more coaching they get, even if it’s different than mine, completely different, that it’s good, right? Because different experiences are good for everybody. And so I try to come at it with that approach. And so our kids play for different teams with different philosophies and then some of the coaches are really good about keeping me up to date. I like to go watch our guys when they’re playing for different programs and, and so that’s the thing I like about it the best and I think you need all of it in this culture that we have and by culture, I mean the basketball makeup.
You need all of it. You need to be at a good high school program. You need to be on a good AU team or travel team. You need all of it. And so it’s all a part of it. So that’s the part that I like about it the most. The part that I probably dislike the most as a coach is that there’s so many teams and there’s so many tournaments and those things.
And I think that can be a good thing, but it, it also is a situation where if you play a basketball game, somebody’s going to score 15, no matter what. And if you have 900 teams, There’s going to be 900 leading scores on those teams. And then when they go to their high school team, it really gives some people a false sense of the ability level that they have for lack of a better term.
And I’m just being completely honest with that. And so there’s not 900 high schools. And if you run out of high schools, you can’t just make your own high school. Now some of the top kids can, some people can, and I get those outliers. But so the very thing that I like about it, that it’s given our guys opportunity is kind of the thing I like least about it as well.
And I certainly, I’m not a fan of the, it costs $50 a day to get in and then you gotta have a pass that costs $100 for a weekend. That type of thing I think is outrageous. And now I’m getting into a little of the parent piece of it as well. Because my son’s a sophomore in high school right now.
So obviously he’s playing this weekend. We’re going up to Madison, Wisconsin, and next weekend we’re going to Bettendorf, Iowa, and I think we’re coming close to you. We’re coming to Columbus sometime this summer. So it’s just a lot and I get it and you just have to be careful who you allow your kids to play with.
And who you allow them to play for. And certainly some of the conduct of the parents I’m not really a big fans of that either. But I’ll kind of just leave it at that. I could, like you said, I think we could go on and on about this on this question for really episode after episode, if we wanted to really get down into the nuts and bolts of it.
So I think the AAU thing is necessary for sure. And it gives opportunities to kids. And I think that’s great. But it also gives some false sense of ability level to some kids as well. And you just have to take the good with the bad, I guess as much as possible. And so like we saw each other in Louisville last year, I think it was about April, about this time where we ran into each other and both our sons are playing in the same event where what there was 80 courts, there’s 60, 70 courts or something like that at, at that one event. So I like it for a lot that it provides, but some of it has just gone too far to the other side, in my opinion.
[00:37:54] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, I think from my perspective, and I think this applies both as a high school coach. And I think it also applies as a parent, when you think about the experience that you want for your kid. And for me as a high school coach, or for me as a parent, what I would want for my player or my own kid is to be in the right environment. Which means you have somebody who’s coaching the team in a real way.
They’re actually coaching it the way that somebody would coach a high school season or a college season. You’re looking for that. So that’s the first thing that I think is important from a coaching perspective. I’m a high school coach. I want my players playing for somebody who I don’t care if they run a completely different system from what I do.
I don’t care if their coaching style is diametrically opposite of mine. None of that stuff matters. But what does matter to me is that. They’re being coached like it’s a real, actual team.
[00:38:53] Rob Brost: And in some cases, that’s good. For example, the group that Trey has played with this year is a group that he hasn’t played with before.
I don’t want to say they play the opposite of what we do at Bolingbrook High School, but it’s definitely different than what he’s used to. And I think that’s good for him.
[00:39:08] Mike Klinzing: Correct. I couldn’t agree more. I think the system that you’re running is far less important than are you doing something that resembles real in season basketball.
And so to me, that’s really important. And that comes down to, in so many cases, it comes down to the coach. And I know that this is a conversation I don’t have as much anymore because as my kids have gotten older, You don’t field as many questions about people trying to decipher AAU as when I was the father of a third or fourth or fifth grader when everybody’s trying to figure out, well, what do I do?
And my advice to people always was what you have to do is you have to vet the coach because a lot of times people get caught up in, I want to play for this organization and that’s fine, but sometimes you can be in a really good organization and have the worst coach in that organization. And then you’re going to have a bad experience.
And conversely, you can be in an organization that is really small or maybe doesn’t have a huge winning tradition. But if you have a good coach, guess what? You have a good experience. So I think the coach is the first part of it to me that whether I’m a parent or I’m a high school coach, I would want my players with somebody who’s actually coaching the team like a real team.
And then I think the second thing that you touched on is When you have 900 teams, there’s such a variety of level of play. And so if I have, whatever my level is, I want to be able to play games that are competitive. I don’t want to win games in a tournament by 50, and I don’t want to go and lose games by 50 because I’m really not getting anything out of that.
And I think that the AAU world struggles to figure out what those levels are. Now, I think sometimes some tournament organizers try to match up and get things in such a way that you have teams that are fairly evenly matched, but there’s way too often where you’ll go and you’ll see, and okay, this score is team plays in pool play and every one of their scores is 89 to 42 and nobody’s getting anything out of that. The team that’s winning is getting nothing out of that. The team that’s losing is getting nothing out of that. And I don’t know how you, that’s not a problem that you and I are going to solve here on a podcast, but no question, but it’s definitely something that if we could figure out a way to level it out better, that would be a better experience for every kid at every level of the game. You’re talking about the best players who are serious college bound division one players that they can be in a situation where that’s primarily who they’re playing against. That’s ideal. If you have kids who are more their 10th, 11th, 12th man on their high school team, and they can match up against each other and play, at least they’re going to get something out of it.
But then that leads to your point of now, if you’re on the 10th, 11th, 12th man team, and you’re the 20 point a game scorer on that team. Suddenly, if you don’t have a realistic picture of who you are, then that gets to be a problem when you come back to your high school team. Like, man, I was killing it on the AAU circuit and putting up 20 a game. Yeah. And Well, it’s a little bit different environment there.
[00:42:26] Rob Brost: So yeah, I got to bring up one other thing too, with the AAU thing, I just saw somebody posted on Twitter. It was one of these recruiting services or that writes about what they see. And literally, I knew this was happening, but I didn’t know it was this overt.
He put on Twitter or she, I don’t know if it’s the person that runs the services of male or female, but put on there something like I’m getting right to the bones of it, but it was a little better word than this. I’ll write about you for pay. Like if you pay me, I’ll write about you on the thing and then I’ll put it on social media.
So, I mean, it was overt like on Twitter or X or whatever it’s called now. Like, Hey, just DM me if you want me to write about you and I’ll write about you for money. And so now you’re getting into a whole nother thing. And then you have these kids it’s just, I was so almost enraged when I saw that.
Again, not much I can do about it from the seat that I sit in and I didn’t even, I saw it on random Twitter feed and I didn’t respond to it or didn’t anything to it, but it just really hit me the wrong way. And I know that that was going on. I didn’t think it was that overt .
[00:43:54] Mike Klinzing: You thought it was a hushed conversation in the hallway? Yes, I thought not. Not put out there for public consumption.
[00:44:00] Rob Brost: Yeah. Just DM me and I’ll write about you, your kid, and then for money. And so it just. That type of stuff kind of disappoints me and the people that do it the right way. I’m so all for them and so all for the really the system that’s set up because I think it does benefit a lot of kids if you’re with the right coach at the right level and getting a good experience.
But the transactional nature of it all and that funnels into high school as well. That’s the part that I don’t like about it and I don’t like that about high school basketball either. Everybody just wants to know how many likes I got and how many Snapchats or whatever it is, Instagram followers and all of that stuff.
So, and I know that’s part of it and I know it’s good a lot of the times as well. But when it hits the other side of it, that’s when it’s a little disheartening.
[00:44:56] Mike Klinzing: I think the part of it is helping kids, parents, families, coaches, everybody to be able to navigate what’s real and what’s important and what’s not real and what’s not important.
And that’s really hard to discern. It’s hard to discern for you and me. at times to figure out what’s real. And you and I probably have a better handle on what’s happening than 99.9 percent of the people out there. And yet there’s many, many times where I’m at a tournament or I’m reading something, or I’m looking at a website or I’m seeing this or that.
And I don’t know if it’s real or it’s not real. Or you can even go as far as I mean, forget about just the writers or AAU coaches or directors or those things, but just the number of kids who post, Hey, I got this offer from this school. And you’re like, look, I’ve seen that kid play. If that kid really has an offer from that school, then I’m not sure what that coaching staff is seeing. But you don’t, right? To your point, you don’t really know what it is that you can believe and what you can’t believe. And there are so many people doing it right, that when you have people out there doing it wrong, it just clouds the whole thing and throws this level of skepticism that you kind of have to have with everything when it comes to AAU basketball.
And just my own personal experience, both coaching and as a parent and kind of seeing what it’s all about, so much of it comes down to what I said earlier is, does the coach of your team run it like it’s a real actual basketball team where you don’t have seven different dudes on the team every weekend, where you have a core of like, Hey, these three guys are the team.
And then every weekend we’ve got seven new guys that are like, that’s not a basketball team. And you see so much of that. I just know that last spring with my son, you’d be like that we saw this one kid, he probably played on six different teams. Like every weekend we’re playing, we’re like, that’s that kid again.
Like, what’s he doing? He’s on this team. Then the next week, I just don’t understand how that works.
[00:47:12] Rob Brost: Or if you happen to run into a team that you played like three weeks earlier and you’re like, Oh yeah, we know them. No, you don’t know them. They redid their entire roster between the last time and this time.
And so those are the types of things that I don’t want our guys in general to be a part of, but in particular what I have control over my son being a part of that, and we’re not going to do that. So It’s just some of it is just disheartening, but I don’t know what you do about it.
And people are trying to always leverage something or leverage a player or leverage something for their good. And so I think it can be a super positive experience if it’s done right. And it can also be a really negative experience if not done correctly.
[00:48:04] Mike Klinzing: Correct. And just piggyback off one last point, the $25 a day or $50 a day or $100 a weekend, those price points, I continuously am amazed that I say we all, cause all of us are kind of part of the system that collectively as parents.
And I know that you’re kind of, there’s no real way around the system, but the fact that people haven’t, I’m always amazed when you look at the line of people lining up to pay their fee to get into an AAU tournament that most people are seemingly happy and even if they have grandma and two siblings along and all of a sudden they’re dropping a hundred dollars to go to these games? Like Yeah. If that’s me, I have disgruntled dad face as I’m standing in that line.
[00:48:59] Rob Brost: Yes. No question on that.
[00:49:00] Mike Klinzing: And I’m probably going to make at least one sarcastic comment on my way in if I’m paying that.
[00:49:06] Rob Brost: Yeah. That’s exactly right. But there’s
[00:49:07] Mike Klinzing: But there’s so many people that just don’t think twice about it.
[00:49:09] Rob Brost: Tre’s playing in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend, and Susie, our daughter, who’s in college up in Wisconsin, was like, I wanna go to the games too.
And the first thing I thought, not out loud, not to her was. Oh, great. She wants to come. So that’s another 50 bucks. I didn’t think about like the food and all that stuff that we’re going to have to feed her, but I immediately thought Mm-Hmm, . Oh, great. That’s going to be another $50 for her to get in
But it’s fine and I’m going to do it just like everybody else does it.
[00:49:42] Mike Klinzing: True. I think there’s good with the bad for sure. There is no doubt about that. All right. Well, I don’t know if we solved anything on the AAU front, but we at least had some fun having the conversation.
So that’s right. That’s right. Well, let’s leave it there Rob, triple double number nine in the books. Appreciate you jumping on tonight and hopefully next month we’ll get Jason hopefully back in line and back on back on top and he’ll be here for triple double number 10.
Otherwise we’re going to have to rename this thing. The double double. I don’t know.
[00:50:12] Rob Brost: That’s right. So we’ll see if we can do it. Always great to be on with you guys. Thank you.
[00:50:16] Mike Klinzing: Appreciate it, Rob. Thanks. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.