After almost a year of scheduling conflicts and 25 years after I tried to recruit her to Briar Cliff, Carrie Eighmey comes on episode #285 to discuss a variety of topics. Eighmey, who is entering her second year as head coach at South Dakota, discusses her journey, what she's learned as she's climbed the ladder, both from her experiences and from a couple of key mentors, the art of recruiting, getting players to buy in, communication and working with administration, among many other things. This was a really fun conversation with one of America's up and coming female coaches!

I had a great conversation with Jared Ronai, the head men's basketball coach at Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH), for episode #284. In this episode, we talk about a variety of topics, including his basketball journey, building a program through footwork and culture, "RULE", establishing standards of behavior, motion offense, pressure defense and much more! Coach Ronai is definitely one of the up and comers in the game, so enjoy this podcast!

There's a good chance that at some point in your career you're going to take over a program that is not only struggling on the floor, but it is struggling off the floor, lacking in energy and excitement. This week, Tony and i discuss a bunch of different ways to lift up a struggling program and how to make it stronger, from establishing an identity to building your youth program to attracting support throughout the community. In addition, we've got some interesting trivia for you, along with a discussion on the NBA free agent market, WNBA updates and a shout out for Red Panda!