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This Week’s Hoop Heads Podcast Episodes
“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #23 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 1208
The 23rd edition 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”.
The best lesson Rob has ever learned from a player
What’s something Rob believed in strongly as a young coach that he’s completely changed his mind on?
If Rob’s team could only be elite at just one thing to win games, what would it be?
JAMES HARDEN IS A CLEVELAND CAVALIER!*&%$! – EPISODE 1209
On this episode, Mike and Jason discuss the James Harden for Darius Garland trade between the Clippers and Cavaliers. They try to wrap their heads around why the Cavs would trade for Harden, their ceiling with Harden on the team, and if the Cavs can somehow pull off another trade for Giannis.
CHRIS HICKS – OPERATIONS MANAGER FOR MIDWEST BASKETBALL CLUB & EVENT DIRECTOR FOR BLEACHER PROSPECTS – EPISODE 1210
Chris Hicks is the operations manager for Midwest Basketball Club in the state of Ohio. He also serves as the Event Director for Bleacher Prospects, which specializes in covering all levels of High School and AAU basketball while providing exposure for young athletes across the Midwest.
This Week’s Coaching Articles
This article emphasizes that preparing your team for high-stakes games requires thorough planning, mental readiness, and strategic focus, including detailed opponent analysis and rigorous practice that simulates game conditions. It highlights the importance of mental preparation techniques like stress management, confidence building, and consistent pre-game routines to help players stay composed under pressure. Additionally, maintaining player health, fostering a supportive team environment, and regularly reviewing and adapting strategies are key to ensuring peak performance in critical games.
The author of this article, Billy Dunn, reflects on 30 years of coaching basketball and shares key life lessons learned, emphasizing that the deepest rewards come from the relationships built with players and fellow coaches rather than wins and losses. He describes how coaching allowed him to leverage his passion for the sport in meaningful ways, growing personally and investing in others’ development. Throughout his journey, he highlights that coaching reveals character, encourages savoring meaningful moments, and requires selfless sacrifice for the benefit of others.
This article explains that an effective coaching cover letter should go beyond simply restating a résumé by intentionally showing clarity, vision, and fit for the specific job. It outlines four key elements every coach should include: why you’re interested in this role at this school and why now, what your coaching journey has taught you, how your skills will help the program succeed, and a clear plan for your first 100 days. By addressing these areas thoughtfully, a cover letter can communicate leadership, alignment with the institution’s goals, and readiness to contribute meaningfully.
This Week’s NBA Articles
This article discusses the NBA’s latest blockbuster involving James Harden being traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Darius Garland and a draft pick, highlighting how it reflects broader patterns of star movement and deadline drama in the league. It positions the Harden deal as emblematic of recurring narratives around his career and the NBA’s cyclical trade environment, questioning whether this move will meaningfully change championship prospects for Cleveland alongside Donovan Mitchell. The article blends trade analysis with a critique of the NBA’s tendency toward familiar storylines, suggesting that while the transaction is headline-grabbing, it may not break the league’s pattern of repetitive, blockbuster-focused narratives.
This article presents The Ringer’s annual NBA Trade Value Rankings, a list that assesses players not by traditional performance metrics but by their value as tradable assets, factoring age, contract situations, and fit in potential deals. Instead of ranking who the best players are, the list evaluates how desirable each player would be in trades, creating a hierarchy of assets from most to least valuable. These rankings are intended to inform trade-deadline discussions and front-office thinking by highlighting which players could realistically move and which are essentially untouchable in negotiations.
This article ranks the 50 most regrettable trades in NBA history using a custom metric that weighs lost value and long-term outcomes, aiming to spotlight deals that severely backfired for teams involved. It includes both infamous historic missteps, like franchise-altering swaps that deprived teams of future stars, and more recent controversial transactions that fans and analysts view as lopsided. By chronicling these deals, the piece illustrates how poor trade decisions can drastically alter a team’s competitive trajectory and legacy.
This Week’s College Basketball Articles
NCAA president Charlie Baker says that schools backing lawsuits to challenge eligibility rules, particularly cases where former professional players seek to return to college basketball, are effectively rejecting the established regulations that most of the NCAA’s membership follows. He argues these legal actions create confusion and could set nationwide precedents that undermine the association’s rules on amateurism and eligibility. The issue has been brought into focus by cases like Alabama’s Charles Bediako, whose temporary restraining order allowed him to play despite current eligibility restrictions, highlighting the legal and competitive tensions in college sports governance.
This article ranks the top contenders for Men’s College Basketball Coach of the Year for the 2025–26 season, highlighting coaches who have led their teams to standout performances and significant progress this year, with names like Tommy Lloyd, Fred Hoiberg and other leaders near the top of the list. The list reflects a mix of coaches excelling with traditional powers and those driving impressive turnarounds or over-achieving relative to expectations. These midseason rankings aim to spotlight which coaches have most impacted their teams’ success and could be strong candidates for end-of-season recognition.
The highly anticipated matchup between Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa showcased Peterson’s elite talent early, but ongoing injury and cramping issues again limited his availability, raising fresh concerns among NBA scouts. Despite missing time and showing diminished second-half availability all season, scouts remain convinced Peterson is the top prospect for the 2026 NBA Draft, even ahead of Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer. The growing debate now centers on whether Peterson’s undeniable talent outweighs the durability questions, with his ability to stay healthy emerging as the key factor that will shape his draft outlook.
This Week’s YouTube Coaching Videos
This video breaks down why most teams still treat warm-ups as something separate from learning. A better way is to start with intentional 3-on-3 designed as a learning environment, not a scrimmage. Players perceive, decide, and act from the first minute, at a controlled pace, so you build game understanding while you warm up. Worried about skipping traditional warm-ups? That’s survivorship bias. Exercise physiology supports dynamic, context-specific prep. Low-intensity 3v3 raises tissue temperature, activates movement patterns, and primes the neuromuscular system, while adding the neural benefit of perception and decision-making. It’s not just acceptable; it’s optimal.
This video breaks down the "Rolex" action and analyzes various teams executing the play, revealing its core principles and strategic advantages. Discover how a simple ball screen, paired with a baseline exit screen, creates scoring opportunities.
This video breaks down the data behind three-point volume and the "live by the three, die by the three" narrative. There are seven high-major teams that have shot more threes than twos: Nebraska, Louisville, Alabama, Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida State, and Illinois. But on the other hand, Arizona is number one in the country with an extremely low three-point attempt rate.
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