Samford women’s basketball head coach Matt Wise joins us this week to dig into creative problem-solving in coaching, why clarity must precede accountability, and how he recruits around an “IT Factor” of Intelligence + Toughness. Wise shares the frameworks he uses to build confident decision-makers—on the court and between the ears—from ball-screen pedagogy and vocabulary design to mental-state training (green/blue/red) that helps players arrive amped but focused. The conversation hits next-play tools (external communication > self-talk > breath work), defensive non-negotiables (positioning as “science,” offense as “jazz”), and a recruiting rubric that sorts prospects into spicy / medium / mild to focus resources. He also explains how to teach reads (anchoring screens, contact over, tags and lifts), why he’ll live with aggressive fouls but not undisciplined ones, and how cultural language (Ubuntu, Mudita) and a shared glossary create stickiness across the program.
Highlights / Takeaways
- Creativity = problem-solving: Be an “idea merchant”—steal widely, connect dots, and sharpen the axe before swinging.
- Recruiting filter: “IT Factor” (Intelligence + Toughness) plus role skills, then allocate effort via spicy / medium / mild tiers.
- Ball-screen pedagogy: Teach reads in layers—angles, contact point, guard “anchoring,” and coverage counters—before adding sides and randomness.
- Vocabulary → accountability: Shared definitions for basketball and culture (e.g., Ubuntu, Mudita); “clear is kind” guides feedback.
- Mental performance zones: Train athletes to compete in the blue zone—not flat (green) or flooded (red)—using tools like journaling, music, and breath work.
- Defense as science: Hard rules on positioning (weak-side “Hulk”), embrace aggressive fouls born from sound positioning; avoid bailout and late-recovery fouls.
- Next-play stack: Start with external communication, sub self-talk, sit breath work (in-game constraints).
Creativity with guardrails—Wise shows how clear language, layered teaching, and mental-zone training turn confidence into consistent decision-making.
Transcript
Matt Wise 00:00
If we were sitting here right now and a lion walked through that door, could you make a three with confidence? No. Why? Because your anxiety is going to skyrocket, right?
Your cortisol levels are skyrocketing. It’s fight or flight. Like we got to survive this thing. The problem is since caveman times, our brains haven’t adapted to the fact that that’s not a lion. That’s just my coach might take me out, but we still have the exact same response. We still get sweaty palms, increased heart rate, brain wavelengths, shoots up and down like crazy. And so we will do work on training, getting to what is the middle zone, which is the blue, which for us is you’re amped, but you’re focused.
Dan 02:14
And now, please enjoy our conversation with coach Matt Wise. We want to start with a broad topic for you and one I think that’d be interesting to start with you. That’s creativity in coaching and just like the role that that plays and being creative on the court, off the court, with your culture, how you learn, you know, all the things that we think about and why that’s important to you and how you see that fitting into your program.
Matt Wise 02:45
It’s a fun subject to talk about. I was trying to give some thought to creativity and coaching and I don’t think of it as creative, partly because it’s quick wired for me. And part of it is because I didn’t come up with any of it. I stole it all.
So I asked the staff, I said, you know, I’m going to have this discussion about creativity and coaching, but I don’t know of anything we do that’s creative and they like flooded me with like, you don’t talk about anything. That’s not creative, but I will say this. One of my superpowers, I believe that we all as coaches, players, all of us, even in life have superpowers, one of mine is the ability to connect dots. I certainly don’t have the best memory. I don’t have a photographic memory, nothing like that, but I do listen to a podcast, read a book, watch a show, watch a game, and for whatever reason, the ability to click the dots together of how could we use that? How would that be implemented in our program? Well, what would I steal? Um, I’m always trying to steal from anybody and everybody. And so I actually was having a conversation with the commissioner of our league the other night, he was here for our football opener and he and I were talking and after about the 12th time I referenced somebody else, I said, you know, at some point I got to come up with my own ideas and he said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an idea merchant. So that was comforting to hear.
When you talk about creativity, I am drawn to the Abraham Lincoln quote, if you gave me six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spent the first four sharpening the ax almost all of our creativity happens because we’re trying to solve a problem, whatever the problem might be from what are we trying to train on the court to how are we trying to recruit? What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?
So you want a couple instances. We all are trying to figure out recruiting. And how do you be creative? So we’ll sit, we’ll talk as a staff and we identify the players that fit us that fit our culture and specifically what are my, as the head coach, non-negotiables for us, it’s it factor. And that’s an acronym for intelligence and toughness. I can’t sit here and talk about chemical releases of the brain or attacking in a ball screen and you not have a clue what I’m talking about. And then toughness. I think the game has always and will always reward the tougher team. The tougher team gets the breaks. The tougher team gets the calls. I think that tougher teams win. So intelligence and toughness.
So now we’ve got this collection of players that we think are intelligent, tough plus something. So they’re talented at shooting size, athleticism, rebound, whatever it might be. And they fit our non-negotiables. Now we take them and we put them into three pots, spicy, medium, mild, spicy is all the resources, all the staff recruiting attack in every creative way we can come up with it. Medium is we’re recruiting. We might even offer a medium kid, but we’re not going to bet the whole house on. Mild is the worst part of being an assistant coach. Mild is the coach doesn’t really love them, but we know that if we strike out on our spices and mediums, we’re going to need this player because they’re good enough. Those are the hardest to recruit.
So again, this is to me like the sharpening the ax. We had a staff meeting talking about our spicy list and I said, we’re in year one. We’re fine. But what if they came to us and they said, if you miss on all these kids on this list, your fire, what would you do? How would you react? Your backs against the wall. What idea would you come up with that you haven’t come up with already? There’s something out there you haven’t thought of. And I had this conversation. We were actually on the road at the time. We were all staying at a house in Louisville because the recruiting period was mainly based out of Louisville, Indian, Cincinnati, all about two hours apart, so we’re all staying in Louisville. And one of the assistants said it was the last day of the weekend. And she said, well, let’s drive to all three cities and go to our top kids. And so we woke up three of us. We hit the road at 5 a.m. We got up to Indy for an 8 a.m. game, watched a kid play immediately got in the car, drove two hours to Cincinnati, watched one of our other spicy kids play, drove back two hours to Louisville in our rental car, checked that and picked up our cars, drove back five hours to Birmingham. So it was, you know, 11 hour of driving day. And sure enough, the kid we went and saw in Indy, we got the kid we went and saw in Cincinnati.
We got, to me, I don’t know that I find that creative, but it’s problem solving. Okay. Here’s the problem. How do we solve it? So that’s a long-winded one about recruiting, but we do it as far as building the culture, as far as offense, defense, development, all of it is with that same mindset of who can we steal from? How can we implement this creative idea and hit the ground running?
Pat 07:56
That’s a great example, when you look at problem solving and connecting dots to let’s say if you’ve been in year one, as you think about your system, your offense defense, you know how much through this prism of creativity is looking at or like kind of weighing, should we do something different or unique versus just trying to do something better?
Matt Wise 08:13
We sat there and debated that as a staff. I think I have a unbelievable staff. If we succeed, hopefully win, but you never know how it goes. If we succeed, we’ll be in large part because of the staff that we have built here and put around us.
And we debated. Now, I say we debated. We debated for two hours about movement around a drive from the wing. So we can debate for a long time about different schemes, but we’re talking about tactically, what offense do we want to run? Do we want to take what we’ve done in the past? Do we want to go based solely off of what we’re trying to build as a system? Do we want to go solely based off the talent we have? And what we found was that the best version was going to truly authentically be me as the head coach, as opposed to trying to pigeonhole a different vision, go true to what I know and what I believe.
And so a lot of that, it stems from, I mean, everything I’ve come up through from playing for a coach that ran traditional motion and a lot of sets to I go and I’m a grad assistant for Billy Donovan. And now it’s ball screen motion and randomness and freedom to I go work for Larry Scheid at Wyoming. And it’s very structured, very slow, very meticulous to Allen Edwards at Wyoming. And we led the league in pace of play and fast and freedom and motion. And so for us, I think the best teams can play multiple different styles of play, offensively and defensively. You got your core of what you’re trying to do, but can you adapt as a team wants to play fast or adapt as a team wants to play slow? And those teams, I think, went at a high, high level. So for us, it will be a lot of the motion random ball screen stuff that we’ve run here at Samford in the past.
But it’s also not just because it’s what we’ve run in the past. It’s because I watched someone who’s about to go into the Hall of Fame this weekend, teach it and execute it and run it and learn from them. So for us, okay, that’s what we want to do. We want to run this motion ball screen stuff, which I know you guys have talked about. But okay, how do you put it in successfully? So we took it and we’re in our preseason work right now. And so we got half the team on the court and we’re working on the first ball screen on the first side. And I know this is going to sound mundane. This is going to sound simple, but literally where on the floor on the slot, where do you want to receive it? Okay, how do you set the ball screen from the big? What’s the angle of your screen? Where’s your contact point? Are you an open and roll? Are you a turn your head and sprint roll? Are you slipping? Are they hitting and going over? Are they trying to quick under you? Or is it a hard hedge? Is it an ice? Is it a switch? And so we took day one and worked the first ball screen. That’s it. We didn’t even like, okay, now let’s try it from the other side. No, this is it. How well can you execute versus how the defense is playing you on an open side or loaded side ball screen with the big coming from the bottom? That’s it. And then day two was, okay, the second side. And now we’re into a second side ball screen, whether it’s open side or loaded. And is it a ghost screen? Is it a slip screen? Is it set it? One thing I am so curious about and I’m trying to learn about and get better at and I’m married to a teacher is pedagogy, right? It’s like the way people learn and the way that you teach it. And so trying to get them to understand the why behind what we’re doing, not memorizing what we’re doing. I find this unbelievable about the game of basketball is we have to memorize sets and plays and scatter reports, but we also have to be able to deal with random and unpredictable and decision making and the game never looks the same twice. I find that duality of memorize and be able to think on your own incredibly fascinating and fun to coach and teach.
Pat 12:29
Sticking on what you just mentioned there, the pedagogy and teaching the why. If we take the example you gave us where in that day one you’re just solely working on the level of detail of just that first screen. How did you think about teaching the why? And so that it’s not memorization that they understand, but also you’re going to put a lot of detail into that first screen.
Matt Wise 12:52
I teach with a lot of Socratic method. Normally I’m met with silence and blank stares, but I’m trying to get them to respond to my questions. And so, okay, big, you’re going to set it. What’s the goal? Contact them what? Get them to understand contacting over because a quick under is harder to beat than contacting over. Contacting over the big has to play you. Well, if the big has to play you, then the roller pops can be open unless they help the helper. And now you’re reading a tag and a lift and a throwback or a pop. And so getting them to understand literally that detail, that contacting over is the goal. The guards, we talk about anchoring ball screens, weigh anchor, slow down, make the ship stay still before the screen comes to you. I think nine times out of 10 and an illegal screen is because the guard goes too fast, not because a big’s leaning or eager to get it. The guard’s coming while the big’s on the way. And so we talk about anchoring, setting it up, again, why, how. And so again, I talk about the staff that we’ve amassed, like we have Hannah Barber that was the starting point guard at Alabama when I was there who took her team to the NCAA tournament. And we have Charity Brown, who was the starting point guard for four years at Sanford and the all-time assist leader at Sanford. She got these two like brilliant ball dominant guard minds that are helping not just our point guards, but like across the board of our roster of how to set it up, how to come off, what’s the first read? What are the big’s feet look like? Is the big giving you the angle to turn the corner? Because once you do and you turn the corner versus big, you’re gonna beat them. They’re gonna flip their hips, they’re gonna be slow and you’re gonna get downhill. And so every little nuance of that, whether it be extra film sessions, extra individuals, or when we’re doing our work is kind of how we’re trying to teach it.
Dan 14:34
Coach, I’m really tempted to ask a flow ball screen question here before I do. I want to go back to teaching and all of us as coaches find this part of it really interesting as well.
What your learnings have been about vocabulary, the words you use, you’ve used some metaphors already in this conversation that kind of stick in your brain. You mentioned your wife’s a teacher and all these things. How much are you thinking about that year one, what your vocab is, how that ties into how they learn and how you do everything.
Matt Wise 15:04
A ton. So again, stealing. I learned from Larry Shyatt when we would meet at the start of practice, he had a vocab sheet of every term offensively and defensively in the definition. I don’t know if the guys ever looked at it or referenced it, but you set the standard of expectation, right?
One of my favorite lines is a Doc Riversism, clarity must proceed accountability. And then you take that with, we talk about a lot in our program, Brené sounds clear as kind, unclear as unkind. So how clear can we be on the expectation and the standard and then hold them to that? So definitions are huge in our program, whether that be basketball terms or whether that be culture terms. This morning we had a culture class and we are literally going through what is the definition of wholeheartedness? What is the definition of agape? What is the definition of a boom to? And then giving them real life examples of it and teaching it and training it and just kind of building it up from there.
Dan 16:02
Going back to the ball screen for a second, you talk about the first side and the angles and the depth. How much of the Euro ball screen just for a second, just to go tactical for a minute, do you want them to really try to attack a first side? You talked to some coaches about, hey, the first side is not that we’re not going to attack, but that we’re looking to play out of it, get to the second or third side in our motion. What’s the thoughts on, hey, we really, really want to try to attack this first side versus don’t over stick on it. Let’s move it to the second and get to maybe second or third side.
Matt Wise 16:35
Two-part answer. One is, I think if you can get to a second side in your transition offense, I think that counts as a second side. I think anytime you can early pitch ahead a cross court or you can cut the grain with your point guard, I think that’s second side offense, even if it’s the first ball screen of the offense.
The second thing is understanding the difference between coaching men and women and especially the level you’re at. So mid-major women for us at Samford, I can’t speak to everybody that’s at this level, but this for us is a huge sticking point. The difference between decent, good, and great largely lies in their level of confidence. Yes, the tactical and yes, the technical and yes, the details and we’ll harp on it. We literally had a workout earlier this week where I told them, no matter what I say to you, it cannot cause you to be nervous, scared, anxious, or worried. If you are nervous, scared, anxious, or worried, there’s a 0% chance you play well. Zero. It can’t be done. If you are confident, there’s a, I don’t know what percentage it is, 50% chance, 75%, 25% chance that you play great. There’s a chance you play great. I know it’s not zero. So for us, you’ve talked about the first side, but I’ll give this as an example of the second side. So we’re working on a coach came off the first side and she’s reversing it to the catch on the wing. Then we have live defense and everything we’re doing. Nothing is fully scripted and nothing is dummy offense because the game is played with reads. So they throw it across and it’s a short close up. I blow the whistle every time if the player doesn’t shoot it. Now, do I think there’s a value to shot selection and shot anticipation by your teammates for rebounding and floor balance? Absolutely. I heard Matt Panner the other day talk about the number one battle coaches all face is shot selection because it’s the anchor to setting up your defense. I agree. But if we’re going to go from decent to good to great, it’s going to be with confident players and rather pour into them to believe in themselves than to be hesitant about what is the coach want me to do here?
So bringing it back and tying it back to your question about the first eyeball screen and attacking eventually. Yes, we will talk about when and why and how to get to a second side offense and that help side is more hugged when you get to a second and third side. I know all that, but I would rather them attack a bad choice confidently on the first side than to passively reverse the ball with no threat against the defense.
Pat 19:34
I love your thoughts on confidence and maybe just quickly tie back to teaching shot selection. If you are successful in breeding that confidence then how do you start to scale back properly without taking away their confidence if you know what I mean when it comes to shot selection or getting them to know like hey you need to go to the second side there now.
Matt Wise 19:53
I am an analytical thinker, and so I do think that percentages are important, giving them the evidence of that’s a first-size shot. Which level shot was that? Did you get downhill and draw contact and go to the free throw line and take a 1.5 point per possession attempt going to the free throw line, or did you get downhill for a rim finish? Okay, you got downhill for a rim finish. Was there help defense there? What’s the point per possession finish rate on that? And so for us, it’ll be more about making the right read versus should you shoot or should you not.
So I don’t want to go to a second side because the numbers say go to a second side. I want to go to the second side because we didn’t have anything off the first ball screen. And we read that we didn’t have anything. If we can get them to understand, again, coming back to the Y and their basketball IQ, and I do think this is a challenge. Like I sit here and say this, I don’t think it’s going to be easy because I think this generation men, women, I don’t care who you’re talking about. This is the most gifted and talented generation period. The things they can do athletically and with the ball, men and women right now, it’s unbelievable. Probably has been for the last five to 10 years. It’s absurd how talented these kids are. And none of them have a clue how to play and how to read and what’s there and how to create advantage and all these things. Most people point to AAU, I think about lack of pickup. I think of the individual trainers. And again, it’s the most talented generation period. So I’m not knocking individual training, but I think we’ve lost the balance of play and decision making. And so a lot of this is, can we teach them the things that we all grew up knowing instinctually because we knew to attack off that first ball screen. And if you don’t have it to move it, because if we lost this pickup game, there were 30 guys waiting on the sideline and we’re going to wait two hours. Our day might be done. We might have to go home, right? So you learn good decision making real fast when your day depends on it. And so getting them to understand those things, I think is the challenge versus shot selection.
Pat 22:03
You mentioned you do everything live and I guess we stick on the offense So how much do you talk about with your staff or when you’re practice planning on? Randomizing the defense to challenge your offense to make good decisions And I guess what I mean by that is if there is one specific thing you maybe want to touch on or get through to your Players, are you gonna tell the defense to script it? So they’re gonna be put in those situation to make that decision or leave your defense completely Let’s say random that hoping that they can recognize when the situation comes up and then apply a good decision
Matt Wise 22:35
That is a great question. Do y’all remember there was a, I’m going to throw this back. There was a college game day, a basketball college game day years ago, where they had 10 guys in a practice setting and they had coach night had the offense or a late game play like sideline out of bounds, advance five seconds, whatever it is, and Digger Phelps had the defense and they came out of the timeout and Digger Phelps went two, three when Bob Knight had drawn up a man play. So as far as scripting the defense or randomizing the defense in the course of practice, there’s a balance, right?
If we’re working on man sets and whatever assistant is running the defense, they come out in a two, three. My answer would be if they did it one time, I’d love it. If they did it every time, well, we’re losing the point of what we’re working on because I would find so much value in how did our players handle it? And how did I handle it as a coach, right? If I freak out that the coverage was different than what I said, what message am I subliminally given our players that the opposing team’s going to do whatever we say, or am I comfortable and confident when it doesn’t go according to play? And so what message are you giving the players? So the way we’ve done it so far when we are working these different attacks off ball screens is I’ve given a script to the defense for us to feel the rep and we’ll do a different version of a coverage and then another one and then another one and then, okay, defense, whatever you want, offense. You’ve got to read it, make a play and play out of it. So a little bit of scripting the defense and then hopefully a whole lot of random choices by the offense.
Dan 24:17
Going back to your IT factor, intelligence and the toughness, just a great simple framework, I think, specifically the toughness side of it. You and your staff, when you’re looking at players, rather than the physical traits, but what things do you look for in recruiting, but then also like when you get a player in your program that you want to instill toughness-wise outside of a hard box out, those things that we can think of. I guess what else is important to you in that IT factor?
Matt Wise 24:43
Toughness in our program, we have defined it with an acronym that is Larry Shietz culture from Wyoming, but I think it applies specifically to toughness is ADU, aggressive discipline unselfish. So that language gives you a very clear indication of the player that is aggressive with their tenacity defensively or offensively. The discipline, are they in the right spot and unselfish. We think about toughness as like laying out for the ball, diving on the floor, taking a charge or the physical box out or whatever. We think about physical toughness. I think about the player who got picked for a pick six at the top of the key. And how does she come down the next possession? Is she trying to get the ball out of her hands as quickly as possible? Is she trying to undisciplingly force it for herself in response to it? Is she staying aggressive? Does she lose the aggressiveness? Does she put her tail between her legs and like, I want no moss, no more, please. And so we’re looking at this stuff with the way they approach visiting schools or their academics, or we’re a faith-based school. And like, how do they approach their vision of believing in something bigger than themselves? All this stuff ties to toughness.
In my opinion, it doesn’t mean that we’re saying every player we bring in has to be cookie cutter the exact same, but those are the little tiny details that we’re trying to notice to the positive or the negative. We’ve had players that I didn’t like the way that they posted online. I thought it resembled a lack of toughness, or I didn’t like the way that they responded in a phone call in recruiting. I thought it resembled a lack of toughness. I think the hardest part about it is this. If you ask the people around a kid, you’re not going to get the trick. Oh, coach, this is the toughest player we’ve ever had in our program. The highest IQ. I couldn’t imagine coaching a better kid, every single player. And that’s not true every single time. So that part is really, really hard to decipher. But I do think you can train it to be better. I don’t know that you can take it from zero to a 10. So not everybody comes in at a 10, but they just can’t be a zero. you
Dan 27:04
Coach, this has been awesome so far. Thanks for your thoughts there. We want to transition to a segment on the show we call Start, Sub, or Sit. We’re gonna give you three options around a topic, ask you to start one of them, sub one of them, and sit one of them, and then we’ll dissect and dive into your answer from there.
So, Coach, if you’re set, we’ll get into this first one. Fire away. All right, first one, we’re gonna kind of extend our conversation on decision-making. So we talked about that briefly here, but we’re gonna go back to it. And the framework for this question is aiding decision-making or aiding next-play decision-making. So, to set the scene, player makes a mistake, something bad happens. These are three things that you might teach or want your players to do that helps them, kind of like you just mentioned, a little bit with the toughness piece, get out of that and get onto the next play and make a good decision the next time down. So, Start, Sub, or Sit. Option one is teaching players how to use breath work or how to breathe. So, make a mistake, how to take a breath, whatever it is. Option two is their internal self-talk, how they talk to themselves, what they say after a mistake. Or option three is their external communication with teammates. So, you make a mistake, you don’t get in your own head and loop to yourself, but you communicate with others. So, Start, Sub, Sit, start being the one you think is most important for a player. Breath work, self-talk, external communication. So,
Matt Wise 28:30
Start external communication. Sub self-talk, sit breath work. I think breath work is hugely important, but I think it can only show itself in our sport either before the game or before you go in or at stoppages or when you get subbed out. Even stoppages is tough because you’re communicating with teammates. But the self-talk is something that we train and we work on, but we’re really big on being other oriented. Our number one thing is it’s a whole lot easier to lift up the people around you than to always lift yourself up.
That is the idea behind one of the cultural words that right now is almost as commonly used as pace and culture in this country right now in basketball. And that’s Ubuntu, right? Everybody’s stealing it and using it, but I am because we are. And the idea is if I lift up the four people around me, it will inevitably lift me up. So I could just pour into them and it will help me and my decision-making and my play because they’re all playing at a higher level.
Dan 29:33
Talking about your start and your sub, the external communication and self-talk, I’ll get to the self-talk in a second, with the external communication, how do you foresee that? Like, what does that look like on the court to you? Like, what are things that you want your players to be doing?
Matt Wise 29:48
Two things, one is another thing that’s stolen is from Alabama softball is their culture is based on Mudita, another term that means vicarious joy and another success. So can you find true love and pride in your teammate, great shot, great pass, whatever. So that’s to the positive.
But then to the possible negative, one of the words in our culture doc that we talk about is true. And the idea that clear is kind and unclear is unkind. And so often we choose to be vague or ignore the problem, because it’s going to feel uncomfortable for me to negatively address it with somebody else. They might not like me in response, but we try to get them to understand that no, no, no, y’all are going to have a better connection, human connection by being clear in a kind way, doesn’t have to be, you know, you suck. But if you can clearly talk to your teammate and address something that’s happening, think about how that impacts your human connection with them. Think about how human connection impacts your ability to read off each other. Nothing about how your ability to read off each other impacts your decision making. Like, does it really matter if you congratulate your teammate or you tell them the truth? Maybe not, but maybe. And then if you do it again, maybe again, and then you continue pouring into them and it builds and it builds and it builds. And like that’s how over the course of time, man, you see these teams that you could think about, I’m sure, you know, men’s, women’s basketball, different programs that you think of like, man, they play so smart. They play so together, whoever it might be. And when you think about those teams, I think they probably have an extreme level of external communication. They talk to each other and on that we build it. So whenever we have a team meeting, team meal, they come to the house, anything, we have one of those back of door hanging shoe racks and every player and coach has to put their cell phone in it. And so we train communication. We sit down to dinner. Nobody’s scrolling their phone. We are communicating. I think that has a lot to do with it.
Dan 31:58
Sticking on the external communication and the internal self-talk, the start and the sub, how much do you think about when you’re talking teaching and learning all that earlier too? There’s players that are naturally more reserved, quieter, introspective versus extroverts.
So on the introvert versus extrovert scale, and someone that’s an introvert might after a mistake go into themselves quickly versus an extrovert is going to be loud. And I guess thinking about when you know your players and trying to get the introverts out of their shell by being more extroverted and maybe extroverts to, hey, maybe take a beat and do some internal self-talk. I guess, does that come up at all in thinking about just, you know, who are these players and what type of thing they really need to help them overall get through difficulties?
Matt Wise 32:46
One of our assistants, Sally Higgins, she’s actually finishing her master’s degree in sports psychology. So she has weekly meetings with every player. You talk about an asset to have somebody who can help their mental training, but it’s also on the court. So we can train a lot of this stuff for different personalities, individual based, what do they need?
But regardless across the board, one of the things we try to talk about a lot, and I think this is an important skill for life, is courage and choosing courage. And when we talk about being brave and being courageous, I think a lot of us think about that as the person who goes and runs into the fire, the person who has no fear is the courageous or brave one. That’s factually not true. The person who runs into the fire with no fear is stupid. That’s fire. Courage is being scared and choosing to be brave anyways. So for our players, based on their personality, okay, you’re an introvert and it’s uncomfortable for you to speak up. What will your teammates think? What if you fall on your face? What if you don’t know what you’re talking about? Choose to be brave. Yes, it is scary. Yes, it is unknown. Yes, it gives you anxiety and choose to be brave anyways. You’re the extrovert. You’re quick to speak. You’re the leader. Yes, it’s uncomfortable for you to sit in that silence and to not say and come to your teammates aid, but choose to be brave and courageous and give them the space to speak up. It’s a huge asset in life and the best teams have it.
Pat 34:18
Right now, we’re talking about like failure recovery, being able to get to the next play. But if we zoom out of the game, but look at just decision making, and we’ve talked about it in how you train, how you think about training, randomizing, and maybe this is a follow up to breath work and breathing. Are there things that you as a staff are thinking about in these meetings to help your players become better decision makers that isn’t necessarily always getting them on the court and repping them out against live bodies.
Matt Wise 34:44
Talk about their mental capacity as they come to the floor and where are they mentally? If you ever think about a time you were in the zone as an athlete, that 30 point game that night you went off, whatever, and you think about how you were feeling emotionally and what was going on in your brain. You weren’t flatline, you weren’t not intense, but you also weren’t freaked out or emotional or over the top. You were somewhere in between.
We color coordinated with these mental zones of green, blue, red, and we can work on them purposely getting themselves to the green, which would be resting heart rate. Your brain wavelength if you were hooked up to a monitor would be very slow, long waves. You think about athletes that need to master the green are like golfers. You’ve got this four to six hour window. So you can’t get too high. You got to be able to maintain throughout.
And then you’ve got the other extreme, which is the red. And the red for us is emotionally volatile. So it could be super sad. It’s usually pretty angry, super frustrated. And we’ll talk to the players about, okay, if we were sitting here right now and a lion walked through that door, do you need to remember how to run whatever set we just put in yesterday? No. If a lion walked in there right now, could you make a three with confidence? No. Why? Because your anxiety is going to skyrocket, right? Your cortisol levels are skyrocketing. It’s fight or flight. Like we got to survive this thing. The problem is since caveman times, our brains haven’t adapted to the fact that that’s not a lion.
That’s just my coach might take me out, but we still have the exact same response. We still get sweaty palms, increased heart rate, brain wavelengths, shoots up and down like crazy. And then they don’t remember a play or bring it back to decision making. They don’t know that the two defenders just switched the ball screen and they flipped and re-screen and set it again. And we’re going, they switched the first one. What do you think they’re going to do on the same? But think about it. If they’re worried about the fact that the other team just went on an 8.0 run, they’re not thinking they’re surviving. And so we will do work on training, getting to what is the middle zone, which is the blue, which for us is you’re amped, but you’re focused.
And that might include breath work. That might include journaling and getting your thoughts out because maybe you come to practice or you show up to the gym and you’re in the red, you just had a really hard test and you’re frustrated and you don’t know what’s going on. Or I just had this fight with my significant other and I’m not focused. OK, you got to get yourself to the blue. Maybe you journal, maybe you color, maybe you listen to a certain music, whatever it might be. Or the opposite. You just won’t go from a nap. You’re tired. It’s 6 a.m. practice. You’re struggling. You’re training. You’re in the green. How do you get yourself up to the blue? The same thing we talked about with confidence earlier in the conversation, like if you’re in the green or the red, there is a zero percent chance you play well.
Matt Wise 38:00
If you’re in the blue, you give yourself a chance. And I will tell you, like, as I share this, we’ve had athletes that are like, no, no, no, I play better when I’m mad or angry. One, you don’t. And two, those zones are different from people. Draymond Green or Patrick Beverly, they’re blue or like Angel Reese, her blue might look different than an Asia Wilson’s blue. You know what I mean? They’re different personalities, what it might look like.
Pat 39:21
All right, Coach, we’re going to go back to the court looking at the defensive side of the ball for our last start subset here. And this one we’ve called defensive rule accountability. And we’re going to give you three actions that based on the players involved, which of those actions you think there’d be universal application of the standard of what you expect your players to defend it versus what maybe has more wiggle room. If we look now at the players involved in the action, the three actions are a pick and roll option to a D H O or option three and off ball screen.
Matt Wise 40:03
And we’re going in order of most rigorous with the rules versus most lacks, right? That works, let’s go that way, yeah. Okay, we’re going to start pick and roll. We’re going to sub DHO and we’re gonna sit off ball. Now, can I say that with a caveat? Of course. Okay, if we’re being fully vulnerable and transparent, which obviously I value if I’m gonna say these things, I have gone back and forth and I don’t know that I still on whatever the date is decided fully on off ball screening action, if we’re going to switch or stay. Because I think the switch puts your help defender, your bottom and we’re a force baseline, step up, seal down team. And we have a name for that person, our bottom weak side defender. I mean, everybody’s got different names, whatever, you know, NBA teams called the two nine or you got gaucho, I’ve heard all kinds of stuff. For us, the bottom weak side defender is the strongest person in our defense, the most important person in our defense and the strongest superhero is the Hulk. So that’s gonna be the Hulk for us. Talk about creative coaching. I don’t know that that’s creative or silly, but it has, you know, stickiness power. I said sit the off ball. I think I said sit it because I’m not positive, but I know that the Hulk better be there for our core defense. The start for us would be pick and roll coverage and the sub would be D H O partially because of our league and our conference. We don’t face a lot of creative D H O actions. I’ve seen y’all posts like stuff that’s really, really good. We don’t see a lot of it for us. We do see a boatload of pick and roll. Now our league is very guard dominant in pick and roll. And so for us, that coverage has to be on point. By far the most positioning. I do find the question interesting though, on even less of the start, sub sit, but more of the hardcore. This is the rule versus some leniency and freedom to be aggressive because at least the way that I’ve been brought up in basketball for us, everything starts for us with our positioning defensively and the level of discipline and accountability to be in the right position. Nine times out of 10, a mistake happens because a player was two to five steps out of position. And so for us, the rules defensively are really, really hard. I’ve used this metaphor before, but defense for us is a science. It’s biology, it’s chemistry. There are hard rules to science. If they are here, we must be there. Offense for us is jazz music. We’re gonna play the instruments the way we know how to play them, but we don’t know how the song’s gonna sound that night. We might play it totally different. So we’ll be more disciplined and accountable defensively and a little more free and flowing offensively.
Pat 43:03
You know, on the point we framed it through three different actions, but I think the conversation as a whole is really interesting. And you touched on it, like what you will hold them accountable to the position. But as like the play unfolds, what is the clarity you think about in terms of, is it basically what they should be giving up or in this action? You know, I guess the clarity in the shot spectrum you’re trying to fight for. What other ways are you thinking about that? You can hold players accountable knowing that you’re going to have different players with different capabilities, different mindsets, commitment to defense, lack of commitment, but they’re all going to be valuable to your teams. You know, we’re all facing these players of different varieties that have to be on the court and how we think about holding them accountable.
Matt Wise 43:47
It comes back to that word toughness and our definition of it right with the aggressive discipline and unselfish so a lot of this is the combination of those three based on who you are so discipline yes we have a rope between our person and the ball and our fingertips are on that rope at all times and we move as our ropes when there’s an exchange on the backside you have the discipline of when you’re the top defender coming to the bottom you’re touching the opposite block right I saw Todd Golden talk about that in a coaching clinic and touching the opposite block all the way past the midline to make sure that your Hulk is ball side ready to step up those parts are discipline right but then aggressively we want to lead our conference in deflections charges taken and fouling now I’m not talking about reckless fouling but you look across the board the best defenses all they’re like top two in their conference in fouling they’re not afraid to foul the refs can’t call them all until they start you know going through the trainings that the pro refs go through they’re going to morph to how the game flow is going we don’t want to be reckless we don’t want to be dumb but yes if we have the discipline there then we find the moments of aggressiveness and then the unselfishness to be in the right spot for your teammate put your body on the line and take charges so you think about like an opportunity to be uber aggressive you’re in a passing lane you read the pass coming across and you go to shoot the passing lane for a steal if you miss it will I be upset it’s going to come back to were you in position the discipline to be in the spot to do it were you aggressive yes of course you were aggressive but were you unselfish like did you know that we were on a 6-0 run and we were going for the kill shot and I’m good with that one that was an unselfish you were playing out of aggressiveness that’s fine or did you know that we were down 10 to 2 and you were selfishly trying to make the comeback by yourself when we still have 36 minutes of gameplay left and I think getting them to understand those different things and the opportunities I will add this point about knowing your personnel is I talked about our rope positioning like there’s a rope between the ball and your defender how far up the rope do you go towards the ball off of yours and that is a you question we tried one year at Wyoming I thought this was brilliant but the players didn’t quite grasp it is your defensive positioning really does come down to four questions who has the ball who’s guarding the ball who am I and who am I guarding if who has the ball is their eighth leading scorer I don’t need to go away over there if who has the ball is the 20 point per game scorer I need to be over there who’s guarding them is that our best defender is that our worst defender did they switch is that the matchup we want who am I am I quick and long and athletic can I get over there and still get back to mine or am I heavier footed do am I slower do I need to be smarter about my position then who am I guarding is that a shooter non shooter threat non threat hey it made a lot of sense on paper to me it didn’t quite click for them you know some creative ideas work some don’t
Dan 47:11
He talked about fouling and wonder if you could just go a little deeper on which type of fouls you’re okay with at the rim attempts versus swipes for steals versus physicality on the perimeter and if you differentiate where you want to be a top fouling team at.
Matt Wise 47:28
We want to foul out of aggressiveness while being disciplined and I do find it interesting in our game We talk about like unique things about basketball whether it’s the flow of game but another interesting aspect of our game is There are always these paradoxes coach. Do you want me to take away the three or do you want me to take away the drive? Yes, we always catch our players in these gray area definitions So do you want me to be disciplined or do you want me to be aggressive?
Yes So we want their positioning To be the way it’s supposed to be but fouling should happen out of aggressiveness So were you aggressive at the point of a screen and a confrontation great foul? Were you aggressive defeating a cut or a duck in in the post? Great foul. Were you aggressive? Going to poke for a steal or going to shoot a passing lane or shoot a DHO handoff and go beat them to the point Great foul now Were you on the perimeter and you got beat and so you put two hands out to stop them? That’s a bad foul. You know what I mean? That’s the difference or were you not on your rope? You got beat you were late on the lift now You’re flying out at them and you leave your feet and run into them. That’s a bad foul Because you weren’t discipline in your position But if they can have that spot and then they can err on the side of aggressiveness now You’re talking about elite defenses. Do we get there in your one? I don’t know, but that’s what we’re trying to create
Dan 49:00
Coach, thanks so much for your thoughts there. You’re off to start some hot seat. Love those discussions, so thank you for that. We’ve got a final question to close the show. Before we do, thank you again for your time, for your thoughts, for coming on the show today. We really enjoyed having you, so we appreciate it.
Yeah, it’s been a pleasure.
Matt Wise 49:15
Its been fun. You guys are awesome.
Dan 49:16
Thank you, coach. Final question that we ask all the guests is what’s the best investment that you’ve made in your career as a coach?
Matt Wise 49:25
Best investment. Am I allowed to give a two part answer? Sure. Part one is a really good wife or spouse. We moved five times in five years with two kids under the age of six. And so the adaptability, the understanding the hours, the understanding the highs and lows and the wins and the losses, the recruiting grind, whether that’s travel or phone calls, the missed family events. I think having a partner that understands and appreciates all that is really, really important in this profession. I’m blessed.
Katie is unbelievable as both a teacher and a mom and a wife. So give her a little shout out. I really do think that’s an important part. The other best investment career wise and coaching is trying to be a learn at all. Really, to prove yourself. And so you try to be a know it all. We talk about know it all as like, you know, the annoying kid in the front of the classroom. But we do it in our staff meetings. We do it on the court. We try to be quick to have an answer and quick to know what to do. And I think investing in becoming a learn at all and whether that’s listening to your all’s podcasts or other ones or whether that’s reading books or whether that’s attending coaching clinics. And part of it is because like I do love stealing from people. It’s just the game has been around for a long time with some unbelievably brilliant minds coaching in it. Go learn, go steal. Like I started as a grad assistant at Florida on the men’s side. And it was Billy Donovan and John Pelfrey and Norm Roberts and Matt McCall and Rashawn Bernal, these guys. And our assistant to the head coach was Mark Dagnall from Oklahoma City. So like, I sat there for two years wiping up sweat, checking classes, doing lunch runs, and staying quiet and learning. So I think that investment of just gathering knowledge, people have asked me because we’ve had a little success here early on the recruiting trail. We’ve had a little success without wins and losses, but I understand that part’s coming in terms of building our culture, our involvement on campus, all this stuff. And people say like, how were you able to hit the ground running so fast? I’ve been thinking about this for 30 years. Now every job I’ve had along the way, I’ve tried to make my head coach shine to the best of my ability and I’ve tried to help the other assistants in every way I can and try to help develop the players. All of that. You don’t lose sight of that. But when you are just gathering information and learning and you’re thinking about this stuff, that investment is what will set you up to then hopefully have success moving forward.
Dan 52:26
All right, Pat. Hey, let’s hop right in to this recap. It was awesome. Good having coach Wise on from people we’ve talked to about him and just kind of looking at his career and whatnot. Obviously someone that a younger coach set is coming up and doing great things and obviously kind of has his stuff aligned and loved hearing him talk today about a ton of stuff. So excited to dive in here.
Pat 52:50
Yeah. Young coach, seems like though he’s been a head coach for many years. I think all the stuff we talked about, the clarity, he spoke on so many different topics and kind of very comfortable in who he is and what he wants his program to be. So it was a really enjoyable conversation today. For sure. Let’s jump right into it. I’ll let you kick it off with the first takeaway.
Dan 53:11
So the first bucket had a lot in there, and I think just listening to him talk, you get a sense of just he’s got great clarity on things from vocab to who they’re recruiting to how they’re going to play offensively, defensively. I think it’s always fun to get a coach on that’s got that clear communication and has all the reasons behind it. And so I just think from a first zoomed out perspective, I enjoy just kind of hearing him talk about, honestly, anything we threw at him. And the creativity and coaching was a fun way to kind of dive into that. I think he did a really good job of blending. Here’s the fundamental principle. Here’s the principle that’s worked for years and years at many programs across many levels. And here’s things that I’m thinking about being creative or a little different or adding flavor to my program that I think is really the fun part for all of us as coaches. It’s like, you hear something on this podcast or other places that’s really cool or really interesting idea. And then I think the fun part is bringing it back to your own group, your own coaching staff, your own city organization, and making the tweaks. I think that’s the fun part. You can kind of tell, I think he enjoys that process. So I just took that overall as one thing that I just enjoyed. We talked a little bit about his IT factor, the intelligent and tough, simple, easy way to talk about the types of players that he wants to bring in to his program. And then I really also like the spicy medium mild as just a framework for thinking about what kind of players can really help their program. It reminds me of, you and I talked about this. We actually had an article in one of our newsletters that I love that talked about 10x versus 1x versus 0.1x decisions or things that you go after, and that you’re always looking for the 10x stuff 10x players, 10x coaches, 10x ideas. It’s going to really help your program. I think that I attribute that to kind of like the spicy medium and mild. So I’ll pause there to throw it back to you, but a lot of good stuff in that first bucket. I thought…
Pat 55:12
the very top when we got into the conversation about creativity, he quoted another coach about that either can do something different versus doing something better, and that it’s a lot easier to do something different. That sliding scale or paradigm of just how you approach tweaking, tinkering or tactics, what’s kind of been done versus trying to look at it a new approach, a fresh approach.
And then, like you kind of went through the conversation, took off, especially having into the recruiting stuff and just how they try to approach recruiting a little bit different or a little bit uniquely, really enjoyed that. And I think the other big theme from the whole conversation, especially this big bucket when we kind of branched out into other topics was just the value of clarity. He talked about the vocabulary, of course, applying it to recruiting, but vocabulary on the court and just vocabulary must proceed accountability, I’d written down as one of his things. And I thought that was a really good takeaway there, stressing the importance of that.
And then one other thing is we kind of got onto the court, talked about randomizing practice and stressing the why behind things and not necessarily memorization, requiring memorization within the offense. What I found interesting too, is that he’d rather attack a bad side confidently than trying to hunt or wait for the perfect moment, or maybe if players are hesitant, is it this now or should I attack this opening or this advantage or should I not, but rather just encouraging him to do it from a place of confidence and then being willing to solve problems from there, but having confident players or hesitant players. And it kind of rings true as we also had a good conversation with coach Casey Alexander, who talked about confidence that he wants to instill in his players to play with pace, to play kind of more of a motion base, read base, and as well as shot selection. So like those thoughts from Coach Wise in this first bucket on coaching creativity.
Dan 57:03
Yeah, I think two things to wrap up this first point. One, the shot selection, I think I wrote down he at some point wanted to be number one in shot selection and that so much stems from there. So if players are aggressive and it’s read-based and they’re understanding, hey, there’s a lot of different ways to get to an advantage or to get to a certain shot, but if they’re the number one shot selection, that was something he was high on. I know coach Alexander, who you just mentioned with Belmont, very high on shot selection and how you get to it, as are all these great offensive coaches. I mean, we haven’t had a great offensive coach come on and just say, hey, yeah, we’re getting to the bag and shoot those step-back threes and transition all the time.
Right, there’s a commonality there. And then this is going in the way back machine a little bit, but we had coach Edery Messina on a few years ago and we did talk to him a little bit about creativity and coaching. And over the course of his career, he’s loved to tinker and change and do little things. And so reminding me of that during this conversation, but what really reminded me of Edery Messina and coach Wise is that they love to tinker, they love to be creative, but it’s rooted in really fundamental truths about how to win and how to play. So it’s not like just being creative and crazy for the sake of it. It’s, hey, here’s the fundamental things that have to be true. And then from there, if we get those things right, then these other little things are fun and make us maybe have efficiency edges or these things that are just unique to us. And so I know coach Messina talked about that back in the day. Hey, I’m not just being creative just because I feel like it, I’m being creative because it’s rooted in something fundamentally true about how to win, not turn it over, how to play, whatever. So I got that a lot from coach Wise today too, those similarities.
Pat 58:47
Yeah Messina talked very well on the relationship between, like you mentioned, the creativity and stubbornness as a coach. The delicate dance, you know, that you could skew one way being too stubborn and being too creative, but the interplay, those two things have as we make decisions and think about our teams.
Dan 59:04
No doubt. Pat let’s keep this moving to takeaway number two and I’ll throw that to you
Pat 59:07
Yeah, for takeaway number two, my start subset when we talked about defensive aggression and kind of the different scenarios of pick and roll DHR awful screening and what can maybe have more variance in terms of application of the rules or the level of aggression more based upon the player specific strengths versus Hey, we need a blind application every time of this coverage. So interesting conversation.
I mean, when we were preparing for this, just thinking about these situations. And, you know, we’ve had conversations with many coaches, of course, normally around when you have uber talented defensive guys, and kind of giving them the freedom to, you know, an off ball top locker chase. But I think this conversation is also very interesting when you run into players that aren’t uber talented or aren’t as dedicated, you know, yeah, and, you know, I think like kind of the reason the result base versus technical base, you know, really hold them accountable to this technique or this coverage and versus Yeah, just hey, you got to get the job done, you know, he can’t whatever no catching shoots off the off screen or we need to hedge the ball. So like everything, it’s a little bit of both. But I think it’s fun to look at these three different scenarios and get coaches wise opinion on which one is more like we got to hold the standard versus like, hey, just get the job done based on whatever capabilities you have at your disposal. I think what was most notable about this start subset and what the conversation delved into was his preference to lead the league and fouling and that looking at teams that are usually the most successful within the league also are the ones that are kind of at the higher end of fouling. Of course, that was an itch we had to pick at. And there’s much more thought into it other than just fouling. But, you know, he talked about, usually it’s falling out of aggression and that aggression starts with the discipline and he really had the emphasis on the positional work that, you know, if you’re in the right position, it’s going to present moments to be aggressive. And if you’re being aggressive, those are fouls that he’ll live with, but it’s the fouls word, you put yourself in a bad position, we’re too lazy to jump to the ball, let’s say, for example, and then you’re chasing the play. Now you’re giving up a foul. Well, those are the fouls that ultimately hurt your team rather than service your team. But you know, knowing these moments that you can really be aggressive and will live with the results. And as coach wise, I think, researched at length, it seems to have more of a higher impact on winning than on its kind of face when you hear lead the league and fouls.
Dan 01:01:33
To add to that, I think there was the caveat and the nuance of not failing at the rim though. I think that was… Yeah. So on the perimeter, being aggressive, like you mentioned, in gaps, going for steals, one-on-one defense, just the more aggressive team, like I think he mentioned either he mentioned before or after about the referees adjust to those teams a little bit more. It seems like… Yeah. I thought that was interesting part as well, and then maybe not a miss by Coach Wise, but an interesting thing we probably could have kept going deeper on is that whole concept because the nuance of failing at the rim versus failing at the perimeter. I also think there’s nuance too in the men and women’s game because… So for men’s college basketball, you’re penalized for that seventh foul where they’re going to the free throw line. In women’s basketball, it resets at the quarters. And so you’re penalized on the fifth foul, but if you think about it, you’re not really penalized till really like the eighth foul of the half if you go four and four before you get to… Yeah. So you’ve got four fouls in a 10-minute period to be super aggressive on in the women’s game. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s just a nuance there that’s interesting.
Pat 01:02:37
I think that’s a really good point. I mean, if you extrapolate it out, it’s obviously then like you have eight fouls where you can be super aggressive, you know, in theory with little to no consequences as long as yeah, like we said, if you’re fouling at the right time with the right aggression and not fouling shooters or hacking at the rim, correct. But yeah, using those eight fouls wisely and just making them check it up and again, allowing you to set your defense.
Dan 01:03:00
Yeah, and maybe some analytical people out there can send us if this evens out or not. In the women’s game though, on the fifth foul of each quarter, it does go to double bonus versus the one-on-one for the men’s game.
I don’t know if that balances out, but I think it’s mindset-wise for a coach, when you’ve got 10-minute quarters and you can basically use four fouls to be aggressive on the perimeter and not allow teams to get to the paint or whatever, and then a recess. That was an interesting nuance, I thought, going deeper into that, and then I’ll just give you one more miss of mine, not by Coach Wise, of course. You talked quickly about the four questions for the on-ball defender to answer. It would have been interesting for people to hear maybe more in-depth on just that concept of the four questions are constantly answering the on-ball defender. I really like just going back to his clarity, to his creativity, these quick, nice teaching points for coaches to think about when you’re using vocab or whatnot. I thought that was a good little side tangent that I could have gone deeper on, too.
Pat 01:03:59
Yeah. And quickly, just on that note with vocab and clarity, I really liked his kind of rope analogy when looking at gap position, that there’s a rope between the ball and your man and that you should have a hand on it at all times. Again, just different ways to try to teach positioning, try to get across to our players that they need to keep getting up into the gaps rather than defending that baseline. For sure. All right, Dan, I’ll throw it to you for our last takeaway.
Dan 01:04:24
Yeah, I’ll go to the start subset about 80 next play decision-making and thought this was an interesting one. We’re all right now early season trying to get our teams to have that next play mentality and just three ways that I know he’s into on how to actually do that. So one thing to say, hey, we want our players to be next play mentality players, but what does that actually practically look like? And so the external communication with the teammate he started, set up the self-talk and set up the breathing. And of course, all these are important. It can be really good, but I just think the conversation around how a player’s emotional mental state is just as important as their decision-making capabilities that we all work on now with our player development. Remembering we’re coaching live, living, breathing humans here in this game, and they’re going to have emotions. They’re going to have an emotional response to turnovers or missed shots or bad plays. And how do you get them back in it? And I think he spoke well on the external communication about how he wants his players to communicate to each other, to get them onto the next play, to get them back on the same page was really worth listening to.
And then also I liked kind of through in there the term Mudita, I believe just another nice term that he had today about the joy and other success being a big thing and a big part of their culture.
Pat 01:05:41
This conversation was a lot of fun, as you referenced. Of course, we talk a lot about decision making on the court, practice design, designing environments and all that fun stuff that we like to tinker with and to help drive better decision makers. But I think another aspect of it is off court training and how you help your players become better decision makers in that avenue as well. And hearing him talk about the mental zones I really liked when he mentioned the green, blue and red and working with his players to try to get them in that blue zone. I wrote down here that amped but focused rather than running hot with anger. And as he alluded to, some players may say they play better when they’re angry, but it does not actually bear out. But then also, yeah, being green where you probably don’t have a healthy appreciation maybe of the moment or too kind of loose. So it goes back to kind of tying it back to his IT factor, his spicy factor, I think, his use of vocabulary imagery to kind of be clear and concise and the information he’s presenting as players, how he kind of holds them accountable to their mental state. I really enjoyed as well. It was a good learning point or another way to look at things and think about with our teams as well.
Dan 01:06:52
I’ll quickly wrap up and double down the green, blue, red zones. I thought it was another nice way to look at the type of mental states that you want your players in. And I think you mentioned too, he doesn’t want his players nervous, scared, anxious, or worried about him during the game. And they’re going to be in that red zone if those are the feelings and emotions that they’re having because of him in that red zone. He also mentioned too, like trying to shoot a free throw with like a bear coming in the gym or something. Like that’s the red zone type of teal. So I can’t remember if that was that, or I was watching semi pro and that’s where I got that. Yeah.
Pat 01:07:25
I have seen a man wrestle a bear at halftime, once. Yeah, so, remember, we’ll part.
Dan 01:07:30
Mixing up my podcast and movie watching here. Once again, this was a terrific conversation with Coach Wise, we appreciate him coming on today. Thank you everybody for listening and we will see you next time.
Pat 01:07:46
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please make sure to visit SlappinGlass.com for more information on the free newsletter, Slapping Glass Plus, and much more. Have a great week coaching, and we’ll see you next time on Slapping Glass.