excited to welcome Los Angeles Sparks head coach Kirk Miller to the basketball podcast coach Miller made history on August 6th against the Washington Mystics winning his 150th WNBA game as a head coach his latest career Milestone places him in Elite company Miller ly Dunn and Van Chancellor now stand alone as the only head coaches to have won at least 275 Collegiate games and 150 WNBA games Miller is the fifth fastest 2 150 WNBA wins before coaching the LA Sparks Miller served as the head coach of the Connecticut Sun where he was named the WNBA coach of the year in 2017 and 2021 Miller led the son to two WNBA finals appearances in 2019 and 2022 and six playoff appearances in Seven Seasons Miller also coached at Bowling Green State University and Indiana University in his tenure as a college coach he won over 290 Collegiate games coach Miller welcome to the basketball podcast great to be here coach you've been busy just back from an extensive involvement with USA basketball and maybe for all the coaches listening can you talk to us about maybe some of the new learnings that may have been stimulated while being part of this process yeah it's been an unbelievable run with USA Basketball humbling 2017 I joined USA Basketball on the national team selection committee a very exclusive five member team that selects the national team for not only the World Cup but for the Olympics after on that stint through the 21 Olympics then join more of the coaching staff and I've been very blessed to be a part with USA Basketball since 21 more on the coaching side rules around the USA Basketball for the national team is there's always going to be two WNBA coaches and then two collegiate coaches so at times with Cheryl reev as the head coach and she picks Mike TBO as her assistant out of the WNBA you're going to have two Collegiate coaches join them so I take on a role of a lead Scout but when the Collegiate season is in session and we have stint with USA basketball then I'm back on the bench and and get to join them so very blessed to be a part of USA Basketball on the bench during the Collegiate tour this year with some exhibition games against Tennessee and Duke and then most recently the Olympic qualifying tournament in Belgium there was four separate quads around the world and 12 teams out of the 16 ultimately qualified for the Paris Olympics fortunately we were already automatically qualified because of the world championship but just got back from Belgium went three and 0 over there with Team USA a nailbiter with a tipin win versus Belgium but then a big win against Nigeria and senagal just an amazing experience to coach the best of the best on that world stage with the national team and what I learn is you pick up something every time being around a collaborative leader like Cheryl reev and be around Mike TBO who's been great to me since I entered the WNBA now starting my 10th year has been remarkable and then Tanisha Wright joined us on on this tour as our lead Scout being around WNBA head coaches being around others and being in a collaborative environment that Cheryl creates is just is fantastic it's like leaving summer camp back in the day when we all started this and when talking all night with coaches that's what USA Basketball tends to be like we do miss that part of it that sitting around the table and talking with coaches and and it's really hard to do in season for you so that's a pretty cool experience no doubt and I'm curious particularly from watching the International Teams and that perspective what stands out from that from watching and observing those teams that kind of stimulated you yeah with the USA team it's amazing how unselfish our Superstars are we know what is asked of them on their own individual wnb teams but watching them come together and playing for USA on their chest how un how selfless they all are and it's about team and it's about continuing the Legacy the long Legacy of success with USA Women's Basketball so it's really fun but we're seeing the game globally really improve we Belgium's crowds were amazing over 14,000 and just tremendous I think the largest women's attended sporting event in the history of their country came out and was there that night it was so loud so you just watched the game continue just to get better and better globally and we know all the great International Talent that's already in the USA and in the WNBA so it's fun to watch a little scary being a part of this team going to Paris that it's getting better and better but it's fun to watch globally women's basketball right now I mentioned your unique place in history 150 plus WNBA wins and then 200 75 plus Collegiate wins puts you with three other coaches incredible achievement and I'm curious from that perspective you've coached at both the Collegiate and professional level so how has your philosophy adapted across different contexts and talent pools over those years yeah I've been very fortunate to make that transition where very few have I spent 24 years at the division one level the last 13 as a head coach then transitioned one quick year as an assistant coach in the WNBA before the last eight years as a head coach and and beginning my ninth year here as a head coach at the WNBA level it's I I made my name at the mid- major level so my heart still back in division one mid- major basketball have a great appreciation for my players and coaching staff that made B and green such a special place the the differences going from the Collegiate level to the pro level is our Cadence of games is really difficult in our league at the pro level I love coaching I love teaching so I'm one of those guys that loves to be on the practice floor it's hard the practice in the WNBA level we have a Cadence of games this year that's unprecedented coming up in the 24th season for example we'll play nine games in 18 days in seven different cities flying commercial remind you it it's difficult to practice and you have to manage rest and Recovery you have to re manage truly load management at the pro level I you manage players differently it's a little bit more transactional at the pro level obviously I was wired weirdly I love to recruit back in the day at the division one level and it was years invested I did not get to experience the transfer portal some would probably tell me I'm lucky but I I missed the speed dating recruitment it was truly years of establishing relationships so when you got players at the Collegiate level you had years invested into relationship building and there was a trust Factor you could coach them hard I am a coach that coaches hard and those relationships were grounded in years of work behind the scenes with each other Pro level you know that you're not on the practice floor as much you don't have that built-in recruitment it's a little bit more transactional it's their job they come and do their jobs they're tremendous people they're tremendous players they're the best at their craft uh but they go home and they have their own lives and they outside of it and you support that that way and so you build this culture the same way you build families the same way in the locker room but it's more transactional at the pro level and especially when I was in Connecticut and wore the Dual hat as both the head coach and the GM makes it interesting you get that complaint by the agent to the GM that coach doesn't know what they're doing and I would have to tell that agent I will make sure that coach knows that he doesn't know what he's talking about obviously wearing the Dual hat but it's been a great experience for me and I'm very honored to be a part of the WNBA thanks for sharing that that's great Insight in terms of those two different places that you've coached and you mentioned a love of teaching and I'm curious you mentioned the Cadence of games and how quickly they come at you so at the WNBA level how are you fitting in the teaching is it film is it on court in terms of walkthroughs or is it extra sessions what are you doing in terms of getting that teaching across yeah I appreciate the question there certainly I'm a film heavy guy and my players in the WNBA would roll their eyes right now because we talk talk a lot about M mastering the monotony and I'm a film Watcher every day with these guys sometimes it could be five minutes they would laugh at that sometimes it's a half an hour but we watch film every day and and it's part of a a specific plan because we know we can't always have the duration or intensity of practices to learn that way so I'm always challenging them there's other ways to learn and for us that's a lot through film and I take a lot of Pride that way I believe you have to be creative at the WNBA in how you teach because of that duration and intensity that can't happen every day so film work is important to us I believe I I truly believe I'm the most Scout heavy coach in the league and uh we take pride in that it's something that I'm uh Unapologetic to our franchise to our players to my staff that we are going to do a bunch of film work love film work a lot of coaches love film work I'm curious then within say that let's say you're doing a 30-minute session what are you doing to Foster deeper learning within that film session yeah I'm probably guilty of being a little bit too Scout heavy driven on our opponents I'm really Scout heavy it's looking at player Tendencies but even more importantly what are their Tendencies and we watch so much film that at times their Tendencies maybe even that they subconsciously don't even know what do they like to run are they going to run a hammer and a crack bath in in late game situations are they are they tend to run a flare screen in late game situations what what are their actions and we want our players to be as comfortable as possible on the court and and not be surprised but at the same time have the ability to be nimble and adaptive but we try to make them as comfortable as possible so percentage wise we probably are more Scout heavy on our opponent than self Scout it's an area where we've really tried to invest more in self- scouting than I did at the Collegiate level or even early in my Pro level that's my maturation that's my growth that okay it can't always be on our opponents let's you know it's got to be more on ourselves at times fast standing and I know this connects you were described as having the messy philosophy in terms of trying to take teams and disrupt them so I'm imagining that is part that connects with your scout heavy philosophy you're trying to take people away from their best stuff and take the team away from their best stuff is that the gist of it yeah especially down the stretch of my Connecticut career we had outstanding Defenders we were in Elite defensive team and Alyssa Thomas LED that that group as one of the best defenders the league seen but we also had Jasmine Thomas who is a good guard Defender we had Rim protection and JN quell Jones we had we we are drawn to really smart players because I do like to watch film so much I'm drawn to Smart x's and those players and our Connecticut teams were very elite when it came to X's and O's IQ and so we weren't the most talented offensive team we didn't have some of the Firepower that a Vegas had down the stretch some of the teams we played so we talked about making it messy we tried to talk about how physical we could be how much we could disrupt and dictate with our defense which would create some easier offense we didn't want to get into a shootout at times with some of those Connecticut teams so in some some of those playoffs and the 21s and the 22 championship series we wanted to make the game a little messy and disruptive and try to dictate with our physicality dictate with our disruption was a really important philosophy brought it with LA again thought we overachieved with a crazy year that we had injury-wise and again walked into a situation where we had Jordan Canada and NECA gum and two outstanding Defenders and once again post Allstar break we had the number one defensive team analytically in the second half of the year last year and that just a credit to those guys of mastering the monotony of all that film work all that work in year one to really believe in what we are trying to do defensively you mentioned the monotony and I'm sure there's like every player in the world would say that about film sessions to a certain extent but also they understand the value of it so I'm curious if you've ever done any type of player feedback sessions about what they found the most value from the film sessions that have helped them play better yeah I think that the pro level and one of the things that you have to guard against and I could still to this day be better and is allowing their voice having it peer-led the WNBA best teams are peer-led there's outstanding coaches in this league but when you have a peer-led locker room and peer-led decisions I micromanaged it's funny how it's come full circle I was known as an offensive coach at the Collegiate level and everyone wondered can he coach defense and I used to get defensive going I think I'm a pretty good defensive coach we're winning all these conference championships and so I would get defensive and now it's flipped and everybody talks about what a great defensive coach or defensive teams we have and everyone questions if I can modernize the offense and I still think I'm a pretty talented offensive coach so get the defensive but one of the things at the collegia level is I called a lot of plays tons and tons of plays we had a huge Playbook we had buckets where we like counters so if they're going to do this we're going to do these two or three things if they're going to do this we have a bucket for that and you know really teaching it but if the players at that age feel it or didn't feel what we should be doing you micromanage the game you called a lot of plays at the pro level I call way less plays and I call way less plays now than when I did when I first got in the league it goes back full circle that peer Le and peer decisions you got to trust your point guards you got to trust these players are going to make good calls out there and so at times the game flows up and down and you don't even call play you've prepared the team you've prepared these incredible players to peer Le and lead out there and allow themselves to dig out of some rough stretches and trust them that it's not always going to be managed with with a timeout you got to trust them it goes back to film session some of the best film sessions are when they speak when they stop you in film and talk about that or a coach could be in the midst of we believe we've spent hours and hours behind the scenes preparing for this team and we believe we should do this and you have one of your leaders step up going coach what about if we don't do that and we do this and you realize what they're probably right because that's more comfortable to them no matter what I would say or my assistant coaches would say if they're more comfortable guarding an action differently than maybe what we spent hours discussing in the coach's offices you go with that because they're the ones that are adapting they're the ones that got to feel comfortable on the port so I would say that is hugely important that you in you have an environment where the PE the players feel empowered to speak and not be afraid to give counter suggestions and it can lead to some uncomfortable conversations it can lead to some uncomfortable conversations and we have to agree to disagree no this is the way do we we're going to do it or there's at times where the players are absolutely right and we're going to go with what they feel connects back to what you said about a collaborative process that you valued about being part of USA Basketball so such a great point there about peer-led team and you said something else that I want to build on a little little bit and you said you're a coach that coaches hard and of course in these modern times we wonder what that actually looks like so can you share a little bit about what that means to you now yeah like I'm guilty at times of being a little bit of a perfectionist it is my life I don't do much else everyone ask me what my hobbies are and my hobbies are watching more basketball and I'm guilty of that and so I have a little bit of the perfectionist ISM in me and because of that I can be demanding I can strive for Perfection but I think at at any point at any level that I've been if the players know that you care if the players know that you care they'll run run through the wall for you and they'll be in the trenches with you when it becomes a little bit transactional and you try to coach hard is where you know the the the difficulty at times lies because they wonder do you really do care for them as people and you've got to make sure that they they understand how much you're going to support them and care for them and they're not just a basketball player they're so much more perfect example in year one was we traded for dear Hami who was going through a tough situation and a tough exit from Vegas and the one thing I wanted her to know is how truly how much I cared for her as a person was remarkable that she was back immediately after having a baby and then played in all 40 of our games after just giving birth to her second child I think she really appreciated going through a tough situation and felt like that I truly had her back and that I really cared for her and then when she got off to a tough start despite all those I could challenge her going you have to be better around the rim and she knew how much I was caring for her and wasn't speaking anything that was out of line is that and she could look at me and say you're right coach I'm going to be better around the rim for you and again what you're saying is obviously it goes beyond just this hollywoodized to the things that you want that will help them succeed and you already mentioned the transactional nature of your level so in practice then is that manipulating playing time is that again holding them for extra film sessions what is it actually look like to be able to hold an elite player accountable yeah I think everybody's a little bit different at times you you don't have the opportunity for a long drawn out one-on-one so it could be a one-on-one on the sideline in a practice situation it could be more stop and talk in generalities to everyone like hey she just did this and we can't have that type of turnover but we're all guilty of that turnover we've got to get rid of that turnover or we can't give up this second opportunity here do we understand that if New York gets this this offensive rebound here that Sabrina and escu is going to get the outlet pass she's going to make a three on us and so you know like sometimes it's a group you're talking to as a group even though maybe someone just missed the box out and then in in the game situation again it's you know pling times always something that they desire and want and that's always an added incentive at the same time you're going to allow these Pros who are great players to play through some mistakes and as we always talk with the players that there's equity in the bank the play that have played longer for me and have played more years for me have equity in the bank and those players naturally have a little bit longer rope to play through mistakes rookies don't have that as long of rope and they learn that and it at times it's frustrating because they see some of the veterans get a longer leash but the rookies will earn that Equity put trust in that bank and will eventually earn some of those opportunities to play through more mistakes I really appreciate you sharing some of these deeper kind of understanding moments for us as coaches and a lot of coaches by the time this podcast releases a lot of coaches will be through some transitions whether it's like moving on to another job by choice or not by choice and you recently went through an organization change after a lot of success in another organization so I'm just curious from that perspective maybe what are some significant developments that you've made in your coaching over the last couple of Seasons as you've gone through these transitions yeah I had reached the point where I had an unbelievable run in Connecticut unbelievable support from management I was working for a great boss at the time at Jen rosadi but I knew in my heart I looked around that locker room I affectionately called ourselves the Buffalo Bills of the WNBA because we were so close four years in a row but just couldn't hoist that final Trophy and I knew that they probably at that point needed a new voice we were going to continue to win a ton of games but we all wanted it coaching staff the the players the management everyone wanted that title so badly for Connecticut for the first time such an unbelievable State and fan base for women's basketball we all wanted it so badly that I knew that it was probably time for a new challenge for myself but also a new voice for Connecticut and Jen maati was great she didn't want me to leave but she understood and gave me permission to talk opportunity to speak with all three walked away from some an incredible offer because I just really believed in what La could be I started my pro career the one year as an assistant in La uh I I looked at it as a new challenge I've had some great experiences building teams and La was certainly in a build mode and so I took the leap of faith there's not great security at the pro level compared to the college level so I knew uh I knew the risk that I was taking leaving such a stable environment and what we could be in Connecticut but I really looked at it as a fun new challenge and excited so I know Collegiate coaches are going to be entering That season do you stay do you go of your own choice or not and what that next step looks like and while a little bit scary I looked at it as an unbelievable opportunity to build build a franchise that gave me an opportunity to transition into the pro game in such a amazing City and a place where I think free agents in the long run are really going to want to be and so I'm I'm really excited about being with the Sparks and trying to build them back into a championship team that they've been before and one of the best franchises in the history of our league I love it and one of the things that we talk about sometimes is that when we do change like this that it gives us a chance to a little bit Freer in terms of doing things differently whereas we've gotten those routines or these different ways that we've done it at a different place that this new place maybe we have more freedom so I'm curious is that something that you've experienced a little bit in terms of being able to do some things maybe differently that you wanted to for sure and then you're a creature habit you especially when you've had success as a coach you you still have your non-negotiables and you have your creatures a habit I believe in our defensive philosophy it's worked at the pro level it continued to work at the pro level Even in our first year despite all those injuries in LA but what's fun for me is to truly continue to modernize basketball and how we become more five out how we everything trickles down a little bit from the NBA and a lot of the the same spacing and philosophical approaches to a five out position L basketball so starting that Trend I'm a ball screen coach was a ball screen coach long before it became popular fortunately got the coach Becky Hammond in in college back in the day and we just wanted the ball in her hands and we were going to ball screen her everywhere when I took over as a head coach in 2001 before people talked about ball screens as much as we do now I was a ball screen coach always have been and it's translated to the pro level so why I'm still never going to go away from being a big-time ball screen coach it's fun to modernize it's fun to have open post it's fun to have five out offenses and the freedom for me is looking at it more and trying to draft towards it trying toward to bring free agents that play in this more modernized basketball style so it's been fun and it's been a good growth area for me later in my career you mentioned the injuries I followed your season a little bit and definitely was aware of that I'm curious though beyond that when evaluating your approach after a season which you're in this in between season phases Are there specific metrics or qualitative elements that you look to to measure the growth of what you did this past year and what you can do next year for sure and analytics play a big part in that but you can get lost down the rabbit hole of analytics too much and like someone tell me what the hell this means when you go down too far down the rabbit hole but analytics play a part of that and then just re-evaluating what you did well where were your growth areas and simple areas for us was we knew we weren't a very great you know we weren't a talented offense of rebounding team and also while we had the number one analytic defensive team after the All-Star break we dictated and disrupted and created a bunch of turnovers and had players in the top of the league in steals we weren't a very good Rim Protection Team so we really had to get back to work on were we in rotation too much trying to play this aggressive gambling style of disruption and dict and because of that we got caught in rotations and we weren't a very good Rim Protection Team or was it do we just need more Rim protection and our rotations were fine and our schemes were fine you have to analyze all that because sometimes analytics can you can make numbers say whatever you want to say so excited to dive into that and try to get better and it's hard because I didn't get to coach the team we had Envision coaching we missed over 200 100 games with players injuries we had 18 different starting lineups in 40 games the most in league history and so I'm really proud of what we did and and even though it didn't lead to a playoff opportunity or a playoff run we really established some great things in year one in LA and look forward to our future you mentioned being a ball screen coach so I'm curious who and how do you decide gets to run the ball screens cuz we know that ball screens are not an equal opportunity thing but you have an incredible amount of talented players that potentially could be effective in ball screen so what helps you decide who's most effective yeah I think it's matchups I think it's who gets hot I think it's where our teams better defensively there's some teams that are really talented in our our league at icing and when you get on the sideline it's hard to get the ball swung from side to side I'm a big believer you got to move the defense in order to have good offense and and teams there's some teams that really ice you well and it's hard to get off the sideline once you get the ball there so our continuity side ball screen might not work against some teams and then other teams it's really you want the ball ins side pick and roll and continuity pick and rolls that is equal opportunity and everyone's trying to attack and then sometimes it's what we call the tunnel and it's down the lane lines and it's more middle ball screen and high ball screen sets and you're getting your wings in in the corners and you're really trying to create spacing and you're now you're in the middle third of the Court where you're working ball strings so it's matchups it's schemes by opponents and you get a feel for maybe where on the court you can have more success and what can hurt certain defenses that's always the fun part it's what I love the most about coaching is the chess match and the adjustments in the game and what does that look like we have what we do that we like we're not going to stray from it too far but in the game the subtle things of what they're doing how can we do it how can we create matchups how can we get the Defenders we want defending us and that's just strictly speaking at the offensive end is part of our ball screen schemes I love ball screen too and I know one of the debates that sometimes they get into with coaches is do you get direct to the ball screen or you do movement prior to the ball screen because both have advantages and disadvantages yeah for sure and there's the debate last year with all our injuries on paper were we a little bit less talented did you want more action before you got on the ball screens cuz you shorten the game you shorten possessions a little bit do you want to raise possessions when you have more Talent than people I've been on that end too where we just thought in Connecticut we had more Talent than people so let's raise the level of possession so let's get into this let's not mess around with a lot of false action we call it point of attacks in a 24 second shot clock there's only only so many point of attacks that lead to scores and that can be ball screens that can be pin Downs flares it can be different type of screening action but we call those points of attack and there's only so many in a 24 second shot clock so both at the offensive end can you be productive in your point of attack if you start later with false action to a scoring point of attack if it doesn't work can you get to an effective next action where maybe you're into a point of attack early coming out of transition into secondary offenses or or you're moving quickly into your first point of attack maybe now if you don't get a scoring opportunity out of that point of attack you still may have another one maybe two more points of attack that because you started sooner in your offense and not maybe had some of that false movement so it's always a great discussion you always beat yourself up when you have a stagnant game and you don't have a lot of good movement and you're wondering man I should have had a bunch of more false actions before our scoring action but you know that's the battle internally that why coaches don't sleep absolutely and you mentioned the ice ball screen what is one of your favorite coverage Solutions versus an ice ball screen yeah certainly we see the most ice in our league more more on the sides of the court and on the outer thirds we get more ice that way certainly can we engage the big is there pocket passes can we get the ball out of the ice when Connecticut with Alysa Thomas getting the ball out of the ice with a facilitating post player we just thought good things were going to happen do empty Corners out and play with an empty corner now how good is the big that you're trying to maybe engage by going and allowing yourself to get iced pitch and plays coach post players got to change angles there's a variety of bucket it's one of our buckets right so we're getting iced our team knows here's our bucket here are the three or four things that we like to get do against icing this one may work one night but not it might be a different one another night so our team really understands here's the ice here's what we like to do here's our three or four things coach comes there to the timeout I walk in going we're being iced we knew we were going to be iced they're having some effect effess we started with plan a against ice it's not really working tonight we still have BC and D let's look at some of these things against the ice tonight against their heavy rotation to the nail out of the ice let's see how good their nail coverage is and those are the kind of conversations high level ex's and O's conversations that you can have with the women in in this league we love those conversations coach that's when the fun starts when we start getting into your bucket and talk about those things and in terms of switching obviously cover Solutions versus switching in the women's game it appears that still the interior matchup is a really effective way to be able to attack switches is that a preference for you or is it to be able to isolate the matchup on the perimeter yeah I think both you know I I haven't I've had been blessed with amazing post players so if we got switched in Connecticut you had JN quell Jones Brian Jones Alissa Thomas just the name the post group and we were Cheryl reev calls it a U-turn pass it's the Snapback pass and maybe inside before they bring size to the rim or maybe before they're able to bounce the guard out of guarding the post player we love to play behind some teams play ahead quickly we play behind and maybe try to get in love that what I think is underutilized in our league some teams are better than others at it you see it all the time in the NBA is boomeranging it maybe a guard is quick to give it up against the post player that switched on to them and you're like oh damn they had a really good Advantage AR Ley could do a better job but boomeranging it right back to the guard who has the advantage against the post player and now do you have a post player that can go get a piece of the paint can they go create their own shot can they create shots for other people I think our league can get better at that like again it's player Personnel driven I've been fortunate through the years to have amazing post players just really best with some of the best post players JJ's been an MVP Brian Jones is arguably one of the top centers in the league Alysa Thomas is the best facilitating post player in the league barnun that way NECA gum last year I have dear Hami and azer Stevens coming into this year hopefully a couple good draft picks it's team based as you can tell I get excited about talking basketball oh man I'm with you coach I love hearing you talk about it and you're getting into terms and stuff that are helping us understand which is amazing and another one I want to ask you just CU you're going down this rabbit hole with me is the ghost slip set decision and how you communicate that as a teammate or is there no communication just a decision and a read by everyone um that seems to be again a constant debate amongst coaches to figure out how to be able to communicate that best yeah I'm not sure we have any triggers that are Earth shattering or anything that we could share that way it's getting used to playing each other it's getting used to understanding our philosophy on why you would ghost and when you would slip and what kind of coverages we like to slip at times more than finish the screen I'm a huge advocate of screen angles I think it's the most under coach thing with ball screen coaches that are out there they just go set ball screens like all right we've got this is our Target place with this guard because we want this guard to be chased over the top we call it hostage dribblers we have a couple really good hostage dribblers keeping people on their back so we want people to go over top with them them we have some players that don't shoot the three very well like we got to get intentionally low so they have to go way under to get under so in screening angles are big conversation for us and then the ghosting and slipping there's philosophical reasons why we use them and against what defenses but I love the fact that ghosting has become such a big part of our game and spreading it out and I was very fortunate with the Bowling Green success to where I'm at today because of the Bowling Green success we had post players who could pick and pop and we weren't ghosting back in the early 2000s we were picking and popping all the time it gets to the same philosophical really spreading it's really hard to guard ghosting to the three-point line or picking and popping post players really hard to guard so I love that I love that philosophy but what you're seeing more and more coach is the guard to guard ghost the guard to guard ghost is a very difficult action to guard do you catch people making a mistake on a switch do you catch people thinking they're going to switch and you get the guard going downhill off the ghost we've seen for years like late and shot clock post players always run up to be the ball screener laid in clocks it's just what it is run up that damn post player I challenge everyone think about late in clocks running up a guard into a ghost or maybe a guard to guard ball screen that interaction that decision making on two guards in that action is very difficult to execute uh consistently well I love that and definitely I think some coaches need some more creativity in those end of clock situations and you mentioned the point of attack and that guard to guard creating that great point of attack situation and you also mentioned boomerangs as being an underutilized thing I'm curious from now your International experience obviously your extensive coaching experience are there some other things that you find are a little bit under utilized maybe that you're going to see over the next little while as a trend do you think yeah I think there's always trends like the Spain screen the Spain action has really come into our league you see it in the in the NBA but internationally you see it all the time and so it really trended I thought it was down lots of hammer screens and Baseline penetration with some flare screens on the backside we call it hammers Hammer screens and crackback action along with that same action at the same time there's lots of actions that trickle from different areas and sometimes it's the NBA sometimes it's the international game I think the interesting thing that I think you're going to see evolve in our league is we're really heavy nail League at times and because we have defense of 3 seconds we Lo overload almost to an extreme towards the basketball and want people to play to a second side I'm a heavy nail coach everyone in the league has to prepare for our heavy nail and so one of the things that you're starting to see more instead of always cutting the 45 diagonal against the heavy nail which is effective cut I think you're going to start to see when you have two on the weak side and you're running a side ball screen or a ball screen coming towards the middle of the floor and coming towards that heavy nail I think you're going to see more Baseline cuts and now the slot person or the 45 person is going to drift to the corner that has been vacated by a baseline cut for for years now it's always been the 45 slot cut I think you're going to see some baseline Cutters and let that slot person flare towards the just fan down towards the corner now the person in the nail has a really difficult decision if they stay heavy nail their player is no longer in the 45 slot their person's now in the corner and can you get back to it so just some cutting off the ball I think you're going to see different Trends I don't think Spain action the is going to go away I think the zoom action in pro basketball is great the dho a good shooter coming off a pin down into a dho is only going to get more creative how you get into your zooms do you have some false action into your zooms I think the zoom action is just going to continue to be a big part of our game yeah it's a great point about that Baseline cut and the 45 fill the corner it just creates h a huge gap potentially for the driver as well uh versus the nail help are you seeing a lot of stampede type action as well where they're getting that player a little bit more off the lane line and being able to kick it and drive that kind of 45 Gap yes and that Stampede action is really difficult if that person up there was a straight line aggressive attacker at times we all could do a better job of putting a good Stampede person up there it's a really tough action to guard and frankly in our league there's teams that do that better than others but it's a really tough action coach one thing that stood out and I've never I've listened to you on interviews and stuff but from this interview just your humility and it shows a lifetime in coaching that you've been there you've talked about so many times that I could do a better job and just that process that you're a lifelong learner you want to get better and I just want to note that because that's just a remarkable part to be able to share yourself authentically with us so I really do appreciate that there's thousands of coaches that tactician wise and experience could be in my shoes I've had very fortunate career of being at the right place at the right time I had an athletic department that gave me a chance to become a division one head coach at 32 I just was at the right place at the right time in a rich history of a Bowling Green program that just needed revitalized and re-energized what a special place to Coach women's basketball in that Northwest tip of Ohio and then I got to live my dream for a few years in my dream job at IU and help create the the base that you see now of a top 15 team in the country and I was just there the other night in front of 177,000 plus people I just what a great state to coach in Indiana then there's Connecticut arguably the capital of women's basketball and such an educated fan base and so I've just been very fortunate at the right place at the right time I'm humbled because I know there's thousands and thousands of coaches who could be doing what I'm doing I've just I've been very fortunate in my career and before I became a head coach had some great mentors and and people that gave me a chance when I got in I I literally started when I was just turning 22 and I was the youngest division one assistant in the country and I was given that chance and as I tell young coaches all the time the hardest thing is getting your foot in the door and once you get that opportunity grind like crazy and you will take care of your advancement and opportunities if you just grind and you're humble and you're a servant person to your your players and to your coaches but it's that first opportunity and I'm very fortunate had a very early opportunity as an assistant and again always indebted to the athletic department at Bowling Green that took a chance on a young no-name assistant coach and gave me that chance early in my career coach Miler man this has been awesome and you're a coach's coach I can tell and I live in LA now I'm going to reach out I'm going to come to practice talk to a little bit about that process that you're open to people come and watch practice yeah all our practices are always open we ask for a little bit of heads up and prior connection with us to make sure we're all set but all our practices are open late training camp and April starts shortest training camp in the history of the WNBA this year we got to get going and it's an Olympic year but even in season while sometimes our duration and intensity is short all our practices are always open and anyone's welcome and please feel free to reach out and uh make the request to join us well we appreciate that and we appreciate you sharing with us incredible career and we look forward to watching you and the LA Sparks this year thank you