In partnership with
Follow the Hoop Heads Podcast on:
Turning basketball analytics into fundraising impact. Every stat tells a story — and now, every story drives sponsorship, engagement, and team growth.
This Week’s Hoop Heads Podcast Episodes
ROMMEL CORRO – HEAD COACH OF THE 2025-2026 ABA CHAMPION AUSTIN BATS – EPISODE 1291
Rommel Corro is the Head Coach and General Manager of the Austin Bats of the American Basketball Association. He led the Bats to the ABA Championship in the 2025 – 2026 season. Corro was named the 4th head coach of the Austin Bats in 2018, taking over after the team reached the 2017–2018 ABA Finals.
NBA WESTERN CONFRENCE “GRADE MY SUMMER” – EPISODE 1292
On this episode Mike & Jason grade each Western Conference team’s off-season moves and breakdown their current depth chart as the summer winds down.
“THE TRIPLE DOUBLE” #26 WITH ROB BROST, BOLINGBROOK (IL) HIGH SCHOOL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 1293
The 26th 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”.
What is a tradition in your program that has nothing to do with basketball on the court, but is still an important part of your culture?
If you could add one rule to basketball for a single season what would it be?
If someone wrote a book about your coaching career, what would the title be and why?
Speak naturally. Send without fixing.
Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text you can send the moment you stop talking. Not rough transcription you have to clean up. Actual polished text — ready for email, Slack, or any app.
Speak the way you think. Go on tangents. Change your mind mid-sentence. Flow strips the filler, fixes the grammar, and gives you text that reads like you spent five minutes writing it.
89% of messages sent with zero edits. Millions of professionals use Flow daily, including teams at OpenAI, Vercel, and Clay. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.
This Week’s Coaching Articles
The best basketball practices begin by making every player feel seen, valued, and safe through personal connections and intentional messages of belonging. Coaches should recognize improvement while normalizing mistakes as a natural part of learning, helping players build confidence without losing their growth mindset. Once that supportive environment is established, game-like basketball activities become more effective because players are prepared to compete, take risks, and respond to coaching.
A strong team culture cannot be created through slogans, posters, or preseason speeches, it begins with players trusting their coach. Coaches earn that trust by being organized, humble, authentic, and committed to teaching players how and why they can improve. When those qualities are demonstrated consistently, players become more willing to accept coaching, embrace team standards, and sacrifice for the program.
This article challenges the standard practice of waiting until the offense initiates its final action before using a foul to give, arguing that this often allows the offense to control the possession and organize an inbound play. Instead, defenses should exploit the offense’s desire to take the last shot by applying aggressive pressure, trapping, and pursuing steals earlier, knowing they can still foul if the offense creates an advantage. By proactively dictating late-quarter situations, teams may force an early shot, create an extra possession, and gain small advantages that can ultimately determine games and postseason opportunities.
You Coach. We Take Care of the Rest.
Host a Head Start Basketball Camp at your location next summer. You or a member of your staff leads the on-court instruction using our proven camp format, while Head Start Basketball handles registration, marketing, parent communication, T-shirts, trophies, and administration. Camp profits are split 50/50, giving your program all the benefits of hosting a high-quality youth camp without the usual administrative burden.
Visit headstartbasketball.com to learn more about bringing a Head Start Basketball Camp to your campus, school, or community.
This Week’s NBA Articles
The Pistons could add a new dimension to their offense by giving Cade Cunningham more opportunities away from the ball while allowing Ausar Thompson to assume greater playmaking responsibility. Cunningham was highly efficient on catch-and-shoot attempts, handoffs, and spot-ups during the playoffs, suggesting Detroit could benefit from balancing those actions with his usual pick-and-roll-heavy role. If Thompson develops as an offensive initiator and Detroit’s new shooters provide reliable spacing, that internal growth could help elevate the Pistons into championship contention.
Basketball Without Borders celebrated its 25th anniversary by introducing the Next Up format, which brings together 80 of the top international prospects for elite competition, instruction, and greater exposure to NBA scouts. The program has helped fuel basketball’s international growth, with nearly 5,000 participants from 149 countries and territories and 155 former campers reaching the NBA or WNBA. Current NBA players such as Jalen Suggs and Khris Middleton volunteer as coaches, sharing their experience while gaining a fresh perspective on the game and helping develop its next generation of global stars.
The Ringer’s staff proposes 22 changes to improve the NBA, beginning with plausible ideas such as eliminating draft-pick protections and salary-cap aprons, shortening the season, abolishing conferences, and banning certain intentional fouls. The suggestions gradually become more imaginative, including a one-on-one All-Star tournament, fan-controlled ownership limits, secret trades, three-point dunks, and customizable home-court lines. Although written humorously, the article raises genuine concerns about player health, competitive balance, the viewing experience, team identity, and the league’s increasing focus on revenue-generating gimmicks.
This Week’s College Basketball Articles
College basketball’s regular-season maximum has increased from 31 to 32 games, with several prominent programs using the additional opportunity to schedule stronger nonconference opponents. In a survey of approximately 100 coaches, 49% preferred no more than 32 games, while a slight majority supported further expansion, largely because additional games could generate more revenue and reduce the amount of time spent practicing. The author expects the schedule to reach 34 or 35 games by around 2030, likely requiring an earlier October start while raising concerns about player health, travel, and academics.
A survey of roughly 100 college basketball coaches identified SEC commissioner Greg Sankey as the sport’s most powerful individual, but agents, lawyers, and judges collectively received 40% of the vote. Those results reflect coaches’ frustration with a chaotic system in which player movement, compensation, and eligibility are increasingly shaped by people outside college basketball’s traditional leadership structure. With even powerful conference commissioners struggling to enforce rules and NCAA president Charlie Baker receiving no votes, the sport appears to lack a central authority capable of providing consistency and direction.
Dick Vitale previews a compelling 2026–27 college basketball season shaped by eligibility uncertainty, conference realignment, new rules, an expanded 76-team NCAA Tournament, and a major coaching overhaul. Florida tops his preseason rankings, while Duke, UConn, Kansas, Kentucky, and several other contenders feature talented rosters led by established veterans and NBA-caliber freshmen. Between marquee early-season matchups, potential breakout stars, emerging mid-majors, and prominent coaches in new jobs, the season promises significant intrigue from November through the national championship game.
This Week’s YouTube Coaching Videos
This video breaks down the core concepts behind running an effective pick and roll, covering ball handler and screener execution, reading defensive coverages, and the decision-making that turns a simple action into a consistent scoring option. A must-watch for coaches wanting to sharpen how their team executes and reads pick and roll in games.
Joe Stasyszyn breaks down the framework for improving player footwork and shooting so that practice reps translate to game success.
Mike Jagacki breaks down the positioning, anticipation, rotations, techniques, and decisions that helped create some of the NBA’s best defensive plays and what defenders and coaches can actually take from them.
Forwarded this email? Sign up here
