Ben McCollum on PNR Pace and Angles, Player Constraints, and Stats that Matter {NW Missouri St.}

Slappin’ Glass is joined this week by the 4x DII National Champion Head Coach of NW Missouri St., Ben McCollum. The trio explore a wide array of topics including Coach McCollum’s thoughts on playing at a slower and more methodical pace, the art of changing PNR screening angles and locations, and talk stats that matter and efficienct 5 v. 5 segments during the always fun “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”

Inside the Episode

It was a fantastic start to November on the podcast as we had the opportunity to sit down with 4x DII National Champion Head Coach of NW Missouri St,. Ben McCollum! Coach McCollum and his program have enjoyed an incredible run of success and their habits and philosophy of play as a program are well worth the study. We dove into a number of topics with Coach McCollum including:

  • The Philosophy and Benefits of a Methodical Level of Pace: NW Missouri St. won last year’s National Championship and were almost dead last in “pace.” We really enjoyed diving in with Coach McCollum on why they choose to play so methodically, as well as the situations and actions when they will look to play quicker to create advantages. Great stuff from Coach McCollum throughout. 
  • The Art of PNR Screening Angles: Coach McCollum’s offense has been one of the most efficient in NCAA DII in recent years, and a big reason is his teams’ complete mastery in setting and changing screening angles to create advantages for the ballhandler. See above, as we spent this week’s Deep Dive Breakdown fully dissecting some of the interesting teaching points of the offense. 
  • “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”: We had a blast during SSS asking discussing Coach McCollum’s thoughts on defensive simplicity, stats that really matter, and much more.