A Pen And A Napkin

by Martin Plum

Season 1

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #83 Aligning Your Program

One of the most important tactical decisions that you will ever make for the good of your program is to make sure you align your various levels to the best of your ability. In today's podcast, we discuss why it's so important, areas that are easy to align and what to do if someone doesn't buy into that alignment. In addition, we've got a great quote about the importance of alignment, and we discuss one of the best coaches in the world whom most people either love or hate, the great Dan Hurley.

S1 · E565

Oct 11, 2026

33:15

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #82 Road Trip Organization

One of the best ways to bring a team together and have them gel, both on and off the floor, is by having great road trips. In today's podcast, we talk about what you can and should be doing on road trips, including job responsibilities, bus decorum and arrival times. We also talk about the importance of taking overnight trips and building out detailed itineraries. We discuss a great quote from Phil Jackson, and we learn about one of the great women's basketball program builders in the game, Gary Blair.

S1 · E564

Oct 10, 2026

24:35

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #81 Running Team Meetings

Team meetings, to some degree, are a necessity for your program and for it to function at a high level. In today's podcast, we discuss the importance of developing this skill as a coach, and we introduce six rules that should follow when conducting your team meetings. In addition, we have a great quote from Kurt Vonnegut about trying to sound too smart, and we look at the career of one of basketball's great early coaches that few people know about, Clarence "Big House" Gaines.

S1 · E563

Oct 9, 2026

23:55

A Pen And A Napkin Presented by Ruiz Auto-Episode #347 Darron Koolstra

The dean of coaches in Sioux City, Darron Koolstra has built one of the best girls basketball programs in the state of Iowa at Bishop Heelan in downtown Sioux City, and today he's our guest for episode #347! Today, Kool and I discuss his journey in the game, influential people like Kirk Walker and the help that he's had from Jeff Donaldson as an assistant coach, being at an institution that really values success, practice and how to make the daily grind fun and his 1-3-1 pressure defensive scheme. Alot of fun to catch up with an old friend on the pod!

S1 · E562

Oct 8, 2026

1:16:34

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #80 Five Weird Special Situations

Most coaches and programs work on special situations quite often, but there will come a time, if you coach long enough, where you're going to run into some situation that you weren't really ready for. In today's podcast, we talk about five special situations that are not normal, but feasible and you should plan for just in case they happen. In addition, we've got a great quote about preparation and its limits, and if you're looking to become a better offensive coach, study Bob McKillop!

S1 · E561

Oct 7, 2026

21:29

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #79 Creating a Team Covenant

Every season is a long journey, and the more you can do early in the season to make it as smooth of a trip as possible, the better chance you have to have a great season. In today's podcast, we take the system devised by Bruce Brown to build a team covenant to bind your player's together with their own words and actions. In addition, we use a popular African proverb to help emphasize our talking points, and we discuss the great career of Lon Kruger!

S1 · E560

Oct 6, 2026

22:41

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #78 Small-Sided Games

Small-Sided Games, or SSG's, is a new way of saying the old thing that the master's of the game like John Wooden and Bobby Knight have used for years, but it is really important for you to integrate this concept of teaching into your daily practice! We discuss the origins of SSG's today, along with various constraints that can help your players get better. In addition, we've got a great quote about habits from Kerry Patterson, and the coach we discuss today is one of the absolute legends of the game and one of it's greatest teachers, Rick Majerus.

S1 · E559

Oct 5, 2026

26:15

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #77 Developing An Identity

One of the most important things that you are responsible for as a coaching staff is to develop an identity for your program; when people think of your teams, what are they going to think of, both on and off the floor? Today's podcast is all about that identity and how to build it, including the concept of "being great at four things". We got numerous points about program identity, and we also discuss a coach whose teams had a strong identity, Ben Howland.

S1 · E558

Oct 4, 2026

24:20

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #76 Post Game Report Card

After each game, how are you evaluating your team and their performance? For our teams, we had a structured system to educate our players on the positives and negatives that occurred in last night's game, and what we needed to do to move forward. Today's pod will go into the steps what we took to create this system, as well as a discussion on failure and how to recover from it. We also take today to discuss the modern Grandmaster of the Hardcourt, Brad Stevens!

S1 · E557

Oct 3, 2026

22:56

Win The Season Sponsored by Fast Break Playbook-Episode #75 Looking In The Mirror

Getting your team to really know, accept, embrace and excel at their roles up and down the roster is difficult, but there are some things that you can do to help your team look in the mirror and help players understand their role in a more logical way. In today's podcast, we discuss exercises to help with roles and force your players to look in the mirror at either themselves or the team as a whole. We have a great quote from Leo Tolstoy and we discuss one of the more underrated great coaches in NBA history, Lenny Wilkens!

S1 · E556

Oct 2, 2026

21:55

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