Sito Alonso on In-Game Play-Calling, Layering Offensive Actions, and “Goalkeeper” Defense {Murcia}

Inside the Episode

“If the player…realizes he or she has a problem, the coach immediately gives them the solution. And for me, this is the first problem we have. When you are a child, everybody thinks it’s the best moment to understand or to learn different language. And because it’s the best moment, because your mind is open and it’s the best, why, in this age, we don’t give them the opportunity to think without our help?” – Sito Alonso

Coach Sito Alonso is widely considered one of the best coaches in the International game, and it goes without saying that we were more than excited to have him join us on the podcast this week. As you’ll hear in the episode, the current Murcia Head Coach in Spain’s ACB is highly thoughtful on every aspect of the game and went into great detail this week discussing:

• In-game play calling and managing an offense
• Layering actions into offensive sets
• ​Balancing flow vs. structure​
• And we talk “sources of creativity”, “Post Offense”, and “Goalkeeper Defense” during a highly entertaining “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”

Chapters

0:00 In-Game Play and Coaching Philosophy

10:50 Strategic Playcalling and Communication Challenges

16:33 Strategies and Philosophies in Basketball Coaching

21:33 Post Players in Offense

31:50 Coaching Strategies for Offensive Roles

41:16 Defensive Strategy in Basketball

52:49 Coaching Philosophy and Play Calling

1:02:06 Exploring Defensive Strategies and Tactics

Transcript

Sito Alonso: 0:00

If the player imagine one girl, one boy, 11 years old realize he or she has a problem, the coach immediately gives them the solution. And for me, this is the first problem we have. When you are a child, everybody thinks it’s the best moment to understand or to learn different language. And because it’s the best moment, because your mind is open and it’s the best, why, in this age, we don’t give them the opportunity to think without our help?

Dan: 0:34

Hi, I’m Dan Krikorian and I’m Patrick Carney, and welcome to Slapping Glass, exploring basketball’s best ideas, strategies and coaches from around the world. Today we’re excited to welcome Murcia Head Coach in Spain’s ACB, cito Alonso. Coach Alonso is here today to discuss the subtle details of in-game play, calling the balance of freedom for structure, layering actions to sets, and we talk creative coaching and post-automatics during the always fun start, sub or sit. Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Australia, South Africa. We’re excited to announce our newest partnership with the world leader and international sport tours. Yon Sports Founder and former college and pro basketball coach, josh Erickson and his team of former athletes have built the go-to company for coaches looking to take their programs abroad. From the travel and accommodations to excursions and service learning opportunities, yon Sports does it all. For more information and to learn why more than 650 universities have trusted Yon Sports, visit beyondsportstours.com and tell them. Slappin’ Glass sent you. And now please enjoy our conversation with Coach Sito Alonso. Coach, we’re really honored. You spent some time with us. We appreciate you coming on, so thank you very much. Thank you, I am very happy to be here with you. Thank you, coach. We’d like to start on the court with you and your views on in-game play, calling or, basically from the sideline, how you view calling a game, whether it’s sets specific actions versus free play. When you do both, how you think about managing those parts of the game from the sideline.

Sito Alonso: 2:34

During my career I had been floating different options when I am coaching different teams and I have to share with you one thing I am doing the last two or three years Some of the plays we have inside of the team, they’re not my plays. The players choose the plays when we are in summer. We know the players we have. We are signing different players, my assistant coaches calling these players and ask them the favorite play they have. I understand during my career this question for them is a surprise. They say I have to choose the plays. We have a coach, but the coach is the coach and the players know better than the coach the favorite situation he wants to play. I made mistakes during my career, thinking the favorite action to different players is one and when we are showing the plays, the players is not very happy, you know, because maybe he prefers the right or he prefers pick and roll or maybe pick and pop all the time. Okay, so they have the opportunity to show me their favorite play After. I have different words to recognize different actions depending on the difference, depending on the moment inside of their plays. But the last years my name, the name of the plays is, for example, 12 is 12 because my father is the 12th. My father or seven is because Thomas Bellas is seven, but later we have seven red, seven, green seven, maybe 10, 12, 15 options. I put more level inside of these plays but the main play is their favorite play. You know, I really understand, especially when I coach saying Larkin in Baskonia. You have to give them the opportunity to be free. It’s true when you are playing Euroleague or top level domestic leagues like KGB or Turkish League or other kind of leagues, you cannot have everything under control. And if you are able to put on the core, put organization inside of these three actions, you are better team because you don’t know the things are happening, because depends on them sometimes, and if you don’t know, the opponent doesn’t know. So if you are able to become when they are playing free and they made mistakes because if they made mistakes and you are angry, they realize immediately and they don’t believe in this kind of freedom. But it’s true, during the game I want to help my players, but I prefer to be helping them in the first part of the decision and afterwards try them to be able to call the plays without my help. It’s true four or five years ago. I would like to try to organize everything, and now I prefer sometimes on the bench, to be on the bench or to be looking at them and try to realize if they are understanding the things are happening on the core or not. If they are understanding, you are better team for sure. So this is my philosophy now. Maybe next year I change something, but look at the things I am saying. In US they decide some plays. I have my place also, but I believe they are able to do it.

Patrick: 5:39

Coach, great answer. You mentioned something that you give them the power to make these decisions, that you hope they understand what the defense is doing. What ways may, in practice, are you helping your players understand and read the defense or figure out the defense in real time?

Sito Alonso: 5:54

It’s very difficult, my philosophy sometimes, but when I was in Barcelona, for me it was a bad experience because they fired me too soon and the first thing I did is try to think why sometimes the players, like you say, are not understanding the things they have to do, depending on the difference. Maybe you think after leaving Barcelona, I go to see different top level practices, you don’t leave practices, you don’t leave coaches. But no, I did a different thing. I went to go mini-basket 11, 10, 9 years old practices because I think in this moment I want to start for this situation, because for me it’s important. When you are a coach with this age, in this level, you don’t know if they are able to do different things or not, because you want to be the mean actor in the practice. I watched maybe 11 or 12 teams in this time and maybe two or three coaches are different, but the rest of the coaches organize everything that’s happening on the court in this practice. So if the player imagine one girl, one boy, 11 years old realize he or she has a problem, the coach immediately gives them the solution. And for me, this is the first problem we have. When you are a child, everybody thinks it’s the best moment to understand or to learn different language, because it’s the best moment, because your mind is open and it’s the best. Why, in this age, we don’t give them the opportunity to think without our help? Because after, when they are in different levels, they have this problem they don’t read well the difference, or they have. Some of them know because they are survivors, because they are smart, even with this problem. But I think this is the first thing we have to understand. As coach and I am talking about myself In the first part of his career, of this career, they have to look for the solution for the second. The other thing is defending ice, defense in pick and roll or double team, and they have a problem in the first part of the career, when they are younger. Okay, wait a little bit. Before you talk with them about the solution. Wait three, four, five, even six times to realize the reaction they are having with this problem and sometimes it’s a surprise how they are looking for the solution better than you. So, talking now about our level, obviously, in professional basketball defense you have too many options Double team, switch back, switch all the time, sound defense, press, mismatch all the time. Very difficult. I try to help them, but not immediately. I try to wait a little bit because they have the experience also, and I try to listen what they are talking about, because sometimes I say, okay, against switch defense is mandatory to play this option because I really like it. But they don’t believe and we are playing very badly in switch and maybe I put different players Larkin or Tomic or Navarro or I don’t know. My father told me I would like to play in switch this option because we practice one day. Or blah blah, blah, blah. Okay, maybe it’s better than my way. It’s true, I try them. I try to keep them all the information. I don’t want them to think I am not able to keep the solution, but my ego has to be a little bit lower sometimes to listen them if my things are not going well. So in all of the practice we are playing against different defense and we are trying to play. We have words to know the things we are doing against the difference, but it’s very important sometimes add one player’s decision in these practices.

Dan: 9:27

I’d love to go back to Shane Larkin for a minute. You mentioned how, when you coached him for yourself, you felt like there was a change a little bit to allow more freedom for him to play free. And I just kind of wonder about throughout your career, when your best or some of your better players like what they’ve taught you about what kind of offensive philosophy you’d like to have, or why coaching Shane led you to start to think about a little bit more freedom and asking the players what they wanted to do, for example we talk later about the local rules.

Sito Alonso: 9:58

I create this situation because the players I had in the team both centers I had they are not able to play low post one-on-one. So sometimes you change or you learn from the very good action of the players, or sometimes because the things they are not able to do and you have to invent different things because you cannot be playing all the time three-on-shots because you don’t have a player able to play low post situation. You have to do something different to look for the balance in your offense. But with Larkin Hanga, bobao, lasich, zengelia, if you want to organize all the time five-on-five, all in place and stopping, you are worst team because all of them are able to get the ribbon and go with the ball all the way. So I try to organize just what’s happened Zengelia, what’s happened Hanga, when the other team is able to stop you in the fast. What’s happened now? Because this is the problem In the first part of the decision. Maybe we turn the ball over always when they cannot score in fast break or we found a very bad option for the team. However, when Toko Zengelia pushed the ball, I remember perfectly. We have a play specific for him. He pushed the ball. He cannot find a way to score and he has to pass the ball in the handoff mandatory from the point guard, go under the ring fake is going under the ring and come back to play a pick and roll and everybody organize the spacing depending on Toko Zengelia and inside of this freedom, I try to help him. What are you doing after trying to score and you cannot, because everybody collapse the kids sometimes, and he made offensive fall of the time in the first game, but after he learned how to keep playing. For example, if you don’t want to pass the ball, the pointer, pass the ball, the first player in the win, but if you pass the ball here, you have to go to the low post. So if you pass the ball, handoff, pick and roll, fake roll and play pick and roll and if you don’t want to pass the ball, the handoff or they deny, they want to avoid it as the ball and go to the low post. And we are start to play a different situation from the low post with hanga. The same hanga try to score all the time. If not, he has to pass the ball mandatory low post and the other center the center who doesn’t receive the ball, play a flat for him to look for the alley. So with all of them different options with LARC, with Boboie, pass the ball and flare for him for shooting. If he cannot shoot we can roll situation for him. So we organize inside of the freedom action. You understand, for me this was incredible because seven years ago I remember we played excellent, very, very fun. We played excellent basketball and we arrived to the playoffs in ACB semifinal, king cup play of EuroLeague.

Patrick: 12:50

Playing this kind of basketball If we don’t call the place better for us- With those examples that you just mentioned, some of the mandatory or the levels that you added within the play calling. You’re at such a competitive level, so there is always going to be the pressure to win. So how do you think about adding the levels? As far as, like, the time frame of adding the levels to these organizations that you have?

Sito Alonso: 13:14

So I have a favorite place, my place, also not their place, my place but, believe me, sometimes you are able to forget one favorite play during three months because your favorite place is not the best for the team. So I am adding different new things all the time, depending they are adding the level for the place. You know, sometimes I coach a team in ACB, one year in San Sebastian, and I remember we have four, five plays, no more. I didn’t add more plays because we didn’t need, you know, because they were able to understand all the situations the defense are doing and, just with this place, organize the team very well. We had a Spongar, Raul Sino Neto. He’s playing in NBA, but he was 18 years old and Salgado, better than basketball, an important player in Spain. However, for example, look, I want to talk to you about the same local rules, Local rules with Barcelona. I didn’t use because I felt they didn’t want to play, because local rules, as we talked later about, it depends on a big A4. You know it’s a bit mental A4 and physical A4 sometimes, and we had Seraphine and Tomic, low post players with quality to score themselves, and I tried to do it. And remember, one Turkish coach told me one day why you don’t play the local rules with Barcelona. I say I try, but you know you have to read the players. You cannot add your favorite movement, your more plays you have in your mind if your team is not ready or they don’t want to do it because they think they don’t need to do it. You cannot fight with this situation. But, however, I really like to be in my office and say this play for this team is going to be wonderful. This detail, this you know. For example, we start with 12 or 13 words like cut clear and the different words, and we add seven or eight. You know, for example, if we want to play a screen before the screen, put the late, the defense, I put a name inside of the player and I say late and we play 21 late. You know, and they recognize they have to play a screen before the pick and roll. So we didn’t use this word before because we don’t have, but we add during the decision because I think it’s good for them. But the coaches are always thinking and sometimes overthinking is bad. If you want to put all of your ideas with the team, it’s very bad because we are all the time thinking about it, All the time.

Patrick: 15:37

On the communication aspect, if we look now back in game, I think it can always be tricky, especially when the offense is going away from your bench. How do you just think about communicating with your point guard and these actions, these plays, and setting them up?

Sito Alonso: 15:50

It’s not easy because some of my plays are always numbers when you have fees or you have hands or chairs. It’s easier to communicate when they are in the other bench. But I like to be coaching with them in the practice to know the things they have to do. When the time is stopped, when there is a free throw and when there is a, we talk about the next steps they have to do. Or I talk with the point guard not with the point guard, maybe with the smartest players in the court, because sometimes it’s not the point guard, sometimes it’s the center About the options I would like to play. If I am not able to communicate Because they are far, it’s the atmosphere. Sometimes you cannot talk with them. I realize I have these kind of problems sometimes because of the name of my plays. My plays are not easy to communicate so we try to create different signals inside of our plays. For example, we have a play slow, slow, slow, slow, no, with the hand If you want to play quick, because we have a place, quick, it’s quick If different signals. But there are a lot, no, a lot of names and it’s not easy to create one signal for all. It’s easier, I think, to call the plays in these ways, but I don’t like. I don’t know why, but I don’t like Because it’s like you are showing very easy. You know the opponent, the set you are doing. I remember 10 years ago the scout was very hard. Now it’s the same but it’s a little bit different because the coaches and the teams are trying to hide the signals and it’s not easy to have a very good scout. You are doing the scout, sometimes thinking of the actions they are doing, but not the name of the plays, because there are a lot. I remember we have a signal when we call 22, for example, and we realize the other team knows perfectly we are playing 22. And they say 22, 22. We have a signal to be at or minus 2. For example, we say we start the game with minus 2 and we call 22 and we are playing 20. So it was amazing because I remember some things. I don’t want to say the name, but they had a point guard and the point guard called 22, 22. And the 22 maybe was a pick and roll and 20 is different than pick and roll. And when we scored and when we played the play, he was talking with the coach about what’s happening 22 is not this play, what’s happening with the scout? And when they realized we are doing minus 2, we are changing and we put at 2. We call 22, play 22 and it was incredible. But I remember Kino, colón or Salgado, veteran players. They really liked that and, for example, other kind of pointers I have with very good talent. They say I don’t need that CTOF, I don’t need to be thinking of 22, 20 or 32 to create confusion because my mind is not ready to that. I have talent, I am able to play basketball without that and I understood and I say OK, don’t use it. However, other kind of players love these small tricks we use.

Dan: 18:52

Coach, my last question on this topic before we move on, if any of this changes. For you, say, late game, fourth quarter, now, when potentially the situation you might want to dictate more, or do you still stay with the same philosophy of letting this balance of freedom? I?

Sito Alonso: 19:09

think have the same philosophy in full court or half court, in everything is bad. Always the coach has a philosophy, you know, because I think Murcia in this case. Who can Murcia assign me? Because I have one philosophy. They know my philosophy in defense, in offense, in everything, but did you keep your philosophy without model this situation or without changing different things during the years? You are, in my opinion, worst coach. I analyze different coaches I have known in my life. For example, I don’t want to say names, but they change their philosophy a lot and they are incredible coaches and they were pressuring full court press ten years ago and now they are defending zone of the time. Or they are allowing the no shooters shoot all the time and they are not pressuring on the opposite. Or coaches various tricks. For example, Duskriyvanovich is a late coach. For me, he was a model. When I was younger I watched too many games and I really like, I love him, but he was doing various tricks all the time. You know, all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time. And now he has the same behavior, but he changed something. He allowed Campasso, he allowed Esped, he allowed different talent players to make mistakes. Maybe ten or twelve years ago was impossible. So change the philosophy, change the behavior, change the place. But no, change your character, your ambition. You know you have to have always the same person you cannot be a bad person or the philosophy. The basketball is growing up all the time and you have to change things every day without moving your mean philosophy.

Dan: 20:50

A quick thank you to our newest partner here at Slapping Glass, one of the best tech companies in the world of sports, huddle. As many of you know, huddle extends an array of useful products to coaches, from their auto tracking camera, huddle Focus, live streaming tool, huddle TV, wearable athlete performance tracker, wimoo and their newest offering, huddle Instat, an all-in-one data powerhouse platform that combines advanced tagging with the global film library. For more information on all that’s offered with Huddle Instat, visit Huddlecom slash Slapping Glass today. Thanks to Huddle for the support. And now back to our conversation. Coach, this has been great so far. Thanks for all your thoughts. We want to shift now to another segment on the show that we call Start, sub or Sit. So what we’ll do is we’ll give you three different options around the topic, Ask you which option you like to start, which one you would sub and which one you would sit. So one, two or three, basically ranking your favorite, and then we’ll have a little discussion after your answer. This first question has to do with sources of creativity. We’ve talked a little bit about being creative as a coach and these three different options are three different ways that maybe you would look at where you find creativity from in your coaching. So option one would be trends of the league that you’re in. Just seeing how different teams play, their styles, defenses might give you options. Option two is creativity, by learning your team, basically your players, what they do gives you that source of creativity. And option three is learning from other coaches, seeing how they play what they do, giving you inspiration. So start subversive those three different options for creativity.

Sito Alonso: 22:38

The last one. No, okay, I don’t know if you have the same problem like me, but when you are watching games, you are analyzing. Even when you are with your friends or with my family, you are analyzing and after finishing the game, you are resting and you say wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And you are not copying the things they are doing, but analyzing everything they are doing. You are able to create a different thing. I am looking for one example to be clear and remember. Manresa, pedro Martinez, head coach two years ago, played one option all the time when they play pick and roll towards one player, the player who was in the corner always go under the ring, always. And I remember the first friendly game. He know their team score against us Friendly game, maybe 10, 12 points, taking advantage of this movement because you don’t have the last one player ready in defense and you want to fake with the first defender. You don’t have rotation and they score or under the ring or with a roll or with an open shot. And after this game I say I remember I had this option, but just inside of the play. You understand if I say I remember I called before. When we called before, before the pick and roll, we cut and I think why he’s doing it every time and he’s taking advantage of knowing the friendly game, even in league. So after watching this game, I put my mind to work and I try to look for different situations inside of this play. I don’t copy the same, but my mind is working. All I realized now is everybody played Spanish pick and roll. I remember the first time I played I was in second division team and in transition. I do for this option inside pick and roll, but when everybody’s playing and you are watching the games doing the scout, and it’s Spanish pick and roll, Spanish pick and roll, spanish pick and roll when everybody’s able to be defending. Well, this situation, if you create three, four, five different options inside of the Spanish pick and roll, you are able to take advantage of because the defenders are thinking of the Spanish pick and roll. If you change something for example one example, without talking about my option choose Vidal Heta, tenerife they think the other team is thinking they are playing Spanish pick and roll, but Sasu Salim calls and they play off-screen for him. Clear out this side. He’s shooting the first GR all the time alone because we are not using it to be defending this option and he takes advantage of and I’m doing the same. But it’s true, sometimes I try to be talking about the first option I think I am in my nut here working and I say I have to try to do something different and we are not practicing. And sometimes I paint and it’s very bad, you know, and I try to, in precision, to practice with the team and say oh my god, okay, okay, okay, say I don’t put a name because it’s a test. But other times I say yes and this is great. When I’m talking about the slow play, it’s very, very time ago, but the slow, the meaning was we are going slowly in transition, very, very slow, and with one pass, depending on the pass, depending on the, if we cross under the legs, we change of pace. You know, slow to go to the quick action, and this action I thought in summer, you know, and when I play with this situation in games, I say wonderful and we take advantage. I want to explain to you one. Everybody knows this history in Spain, but I think for you is a good experience. When I was driving, sometimes in my car, 12 years ago, I recognized everything in the road, because I do always the same way and I know when I am able to drive faster or slower, depending on the police. Okay, so my mind is ready to drive slow or faster because I know they are maybe here and there. Okay, I went with my drive. I was out with my car, driving with a friend beside me very fast, but I stopped and I say there is a rudder here, police rudder, police camera, and I don’t want them find me, you know okay. And my friend say oh, you are very smart. I say very smart. So, 20 kilometers later, there, another police camera, you know 20. But what’s happened? The police is very smart and before the next one, in the middle, there was another police car with a camera. I didn’t know. And obviously they took a picture and I paid the fine, very good, fine. But after the picture I was smiling, you know, and I say yeah. And my friend say yeah, what they find you? You know they find me. But now I have a very good option to play basketball. Yes, I go, but to understand my philosophy, when you run fast break, in the past the most important thing in defense was stop the fast break. The fast break was the first police camera. You know all of the teams once could stop the fast break and when they were able to stop it there was two or three seconds waiting for the signal the other thing called. But during these three, four, two seconds they relaxed because the brain is ready to stop the fast break and to stop the scouting the play. But before starting the play there is a moment when you need organization to start the play. To call it, we invent radar. In Spain Radar is the police camera. So we had three plays and the name was Radar one, radar two, radar three. And when we finished the fast break we say before the game today, after the fast break, we play radar one. So during this time between fast break and call the play, we play radar one, without calling, without run, and we take a lot of them because the other team was not ready to do it. Now they are ready. Now we have to look for other things. But 10 years ago we scored maybe 12, 14, 16 points, sometimes in these three seconds, because the other team was not ready to defend. So I think to be a coach you have to look at your college, you know, because they know the same or more than you, and try to do your things yourself because I think it’s good for your mind. For example, this summer, I have to do something different. If I don’t find something different, I will start decision worse because my won’t be good. I need to find something different to be motivated at creating tactical things.

Patrick: 29:08

I’d like to actually take this time to talk about your post rules now. Basically, we wanted to have this question because, watching your teams, it is pretty clear you guys play creatively and you mentioned a little bit before that you had maybe a post player who wasn’t really good one-on-one, but you still want to find balance and not just shoot threes. So I would love to just get into how you think about using the post to run offense.

Sito Alonso: 29:28

The low post for me was very important in the past because, you know, like me, there are less players able to play one-on-one. I don’t know if it’s because everybody wants to shoot or I don’t know if because the space is short. You know, now the space is very difficult because everybody’s faking and it’s not easy. But, believe me, now everybody plays low post Anything. If you watch the king cut here, unicasa beat Barcelona in the last three minutes. Ibon Navarro played my low post rules six times in a row and they scored six times in a row. For me, to create from the low post is very important. Being able to create from the low post in one-on-one on through the low post is a better thing. So I try to invent these low post rules because of that, because nobody plays well in low post rules in a one-on-one. And if you play good one-on-one, the low post rules are good for you. Because if everybody is worried for the shooters, for the cats, if you find or you learn or you figure out how or when is the moment to play one-on-one, you have even more space to do it, because they are worried. If you are defending Kalinowski or you are defending the center, the Unicasa center ready for shooting. They are switching and they are worried for the perimeter players. If they are worried for the perimeter players, the one-on-one is clear for you, like with Thomas playing in Unicasa. So low post is maybe one of the most important things for me. But I understand now after the local rules, I try to create different models of the local rules depending on the players I have. When I had David DeLeo he’s a very good shooter, young player I had in Murcia three years ago he was the ability to play good shots from the handoff and I wanted to put the ball in the five inside in the five in the low post, and the five don’t wait for the local rules. He played handoff with the point guard or with the guard and after playing the handoff the five play pop and in the meantime the ball is going to the pop. The rest of the players are working for DeLeo to create good opportunities, good screens, to propagate the handoff for five and shoot. So it’s a different way to create low post depending on the players’ skills and this is the most important thing for me Low post respecting the one-on-one and respecting the other skills of the players.

Dan: 31:50

I’m going to ask you a quick follow-up, your coach, on the low post, because I love what you just talked about one-on-one players versus passing players. How do you think about the other four and how creative you want to be with a great, let’s say, a one-on-one player, someone that can really score it in the post, and what I mean is more spacing, so that way that player has space to go to work to one-on-one versus flares and cuts and slips and all kinds of actions that you would do versus someone who’s maybe more of a pass. Like how you think about whether you’re going to be simpler on the perimeter versus having more action on the perimeter when the ball is in the post.

Sito Alonso: 32:24

For me, one of the things to create the roles of the players is play local rules. I want to explain why I start always in precision playing local rules as a drill. For example, you are a shooter and Patrick is not a shooter. He is able to shoot, but he scored a few times. He’s not a special shooter like you. And the first drill you have to understand the egos of the players. I say we are playing this drill and please we pass the ball inside. The center is coming to play for the perimeter players, different screens and I want no shooters cuts. Shooters go to the city ball and shoot. You understand me? In the first four minutes everybody’s going for shooting. Everybody, even players able to shoot three, four times in a row in the practice shoot three egos, but they go. They go because they think they are shooters. You know, when we stop the drill and say maybe you don’t understand me, maybe you don’t understand me. You are the best shooter, or you are the best player cutting, or you are the best player playing one on one. If you are the best player playing one on one, the team has to know it. And when you go to receive the ball and receive the ball from the low post. Everybody cleared out you in this moment and you play one on one. Okay, but you are not shooter, or we play after receiving the ball. We play pick and roll In a green situation, we play faking the screen and you play one-on-one because you are one-on-one player. If you are a good cutter or good screener, like Sadiel Rojas, your role in the team is to play good screens. And when you realize your man is trying to help because of the shooter, it’s the moment to cut as crazy to the basket. And when everybody understands the role, we have to play the opposite. Because for me, the beautiful thing when you are playing local rules is when the shooter when my father scored with a cat under the ring, this is wonderful when everybody is waiting for the rules, waiting for the screens, and he goes directly to the basket, straight to the basket, and he shoots alone under the ring. It’s, like you know, the most important thing. But listen, I don’t know. I put different rules inside of the local rules, but the most important rules is the freedom. I don’t know when they dominate. When they play well, the passer can cut to the bottom, wait for the flare and try to make a loop, go to the corner and the screen is in this way and when he’s playing the screen the other player cut or go to the top and the top player cut and he can back. But when he cuts, the rest of the players in the opposite side has to decide. With too many drills, too many actions during the practice, if one is going, if not, if one is faking, if one this is the center. If the shooter is coming in the last moment, go and other player is coming and maybe the player who is resting in the corner the other team is thinking he’s not going. Maybe there are two cuts in a row and he’s going for shooting and you are on the bench without knowing the decision. Sometimes I paint OK, we play local rules in this way. Ok, it’s mandatory, but 90% of the times you don’t know, and if you don’t know, the defenders doesn’t know and the other coach doesn’t know. If you are able to do that, you are much better team. So because of that I told you the local rules is like maybe the best thing. I say I invent, because even in Utah, when Utah is playing Utah these rules, he says build bow rules. And he told me, hey, why, and he talked with me about it, he really liked it. Because of that I say I invent, but I am happy. But maybe other teams, other coaches are able to do it, of course. But I play, I think, too many times, always when the ball is inside, no, inside of the play, always when the ball is inside. During the last years I play local rules. Now I am changing because everybody knows and it’s more difficult.

Patrick: 36:08

With the screening actions when two guys are coming together and you know the rules, but when it’s unpredictable, I guess the timing and the tempo that you work on with those guys were, you know, too slow. Maybe the defense can handle it too quick and you’re not really reading any defense. I guess how are you working with your guys and these screening actions?

Sito Alonso: 36:26

This is the thing we had to practice too many times because it’s not easy to read the defense. For me, one of the things we have to improve always in the teams with these screens you say, is the center position, Because depending on the center is he is allowing more or less space or more decisions for the perimeter players. There are three things important. First, the center position. I try to explain Just as mandatory. After passing the ball inside, the other center goes to the ball side looking for the flare. This is mandatory. If the passer is not going to play the flare immediately, I turn my body. But sometimes they want to be on three ball line or too far or too deep, and I talk with them always. If you want to help your teammates, you cannot be always in the same position and you have to be looking for reading the defense they are doing. Sometimes, if I am a four, the other team wants to play switch. You can allow them the first time, the second time, or you screen your own player or in the meantime he is coming, you cut to the basket to create a problem in the switch action. However, if you are the five, everybody wants to deny. So I want to explain you well. The defense now is if I cut to the basket, the defender of the cut player stays. Don’t follow the cut. You know the center held and the perimeter of the defender is waiting for the next player is coming. Stay there. So if you realize that there are two important things, you have to practice a lot to try. They are able to read the game. If you are cutting and you feel you are alone, your man is there waiting for the next one. You have to cut to the same corner ball side corner and you’re going to be alone. If you think the other team is doing that, OK, you have to create another war. In this case, I am telling you everything. If you are going to play the screen this is the screener and this is the nine you can play the screen even without taking advantage and go to the corner without wanting to receive the ball. The name is double. Double is this is the first one and the center Play one step closer to the top and the second one is coming and you cannot deny. You are denying the first one and we fight against this the night and we go to the corner, but the second one you cannot deny. So you create, depending on the difference reaction in the practice, difference names, difference behaviors. You know how to attack but sometimes, Patrick, you cannot take advantage of the local rules and you have to play one on one, or you have to receive the ball without advantage and play a big and roll and after the big and roll, create different things. You practice to keep playing and I think this is the but the thing you ask me is when they are comfortable with the local rules, they are able to communicate between them to have different signals. For example, one of the signals they use more and the perimeter players. One is coming and if this guy grab my hand I know he’s cutting and I am going there he grab and take advantage of my hand to go to the basket. So they have different signals. They create their cells or not. I try to help them and this priority is the best to play the local rules.

Patrick: 39:42

Great stuff. We appreciate you sharing that. Coach, moving along, our last start subset for you has to do with watching your teams on the defensive side of the ball, and you do have a defensive coverage where you will put your five man, drop him deep into the basket and then have your four other perimeter players deny the ball, really try to force side. We call this a tough to teach. So within that defensive coverage, the toughest things to get your players to do properly, option number one is sustaining the pressure by your perimeter players, so being able to deny and really ball pressure throughout the course of this coverage. Option two is teaching the angles for your big man and just knowing his position, even if he is going to drop deep at the rim. And then option three is getting and keeping the ball on the side of the court and out of the middle.

Sito Alonso: 40:29

A lot of the options are important. I want to say how this difference starts. When I start to play this difference, I was Juventus Badalona head coach. I was 31 years old, very young, and I remember we played one game against I don’t remember it’s Besiktas, I think Besiktas or Galatasaray, I don’t remember well. And watching the scout, there was a player, lonnie Baster Even we have this American player in Badalona, but he couldn’t play, maybe two months or, and he played the pick and roll in Redmore. He rolled to the basket like I have never seen. And watching the scout, I say, oh my God, we are playing at home and maybe we are not able to be defending this pick and roll and they destroy us and maybe it’s embarrassing because they are playing incredible with this guy. And I say he needs to find the way empty to the basket. I put my center under the rim. My assistant coach told me OK, the center is under the rim, but Lonnie Baster is not a bad shooter. Four or five meters to the basket. I say, ok, I prefer to take these rigs. If he’s able to score three or four shots, it’s better than be scoring Roll. We are helping Three points shot. We are not helping All hundred go to the basket. I admit, if he scored six, eight points I don’t have a problem, incredible. He doesn’t know how to play because when he’s rolling to the basket our center was waiting for him and we beat them clearly and he played very, very bad. He’s through his score maybe one or two shots because he was shooting alone. And it’s not the same when you realize you are shooting alone because the other team is allowing you are shooting alone. The power of mental has to be well, you know. It’s not that you have a problem. So just for this game I put this difference. But later thinking at home, I say one of the centers I have, they have these problems in pick and roll defense. Or sometimes the players complain in the United States with different rules in the pick and roll defense, maybe not too many rules tactically, last one player controller, but they have problems. Maybe I have to create a difference to help them, but I don’t like to be defending. So it’s not enough to be with the center under the ring. Maybe I have to lend the center to be under the ring, but changing his position depending on the moment. You know open down, you know free throw, avoiding the snake. More activity. No, stay under the ring. It’s true, it has to be stopping the back doors, it has to be stopping the roll and he has to be a good player in the low post defense. But if I want to be aggressive and I put a goalkeeper under the ring, why I don’t pressure everything? I have to be pressure and if they want to start the play, passing the ball the forward, I don’t allow it face to face. If he wants to play backdoor my goalkeeper I say goalkeeper because some people say that my goalkeeper is there. If they want to play one on one, no, one on one, no, I push you to the sideline. If you want to play from the sideline and you go against my center, okay, go against him, at least in the first moment. Most of the teams has to change the way to play basketball, thinking of the difference we are doing In this moment. For me, I am a winner. When they change the way they have to play in offense. Thinking in my defense, the first small gain is for me. It’s true, I try to add different and important rules in this defense A lot. For example, if they play towards two players, sometimes if he’s a very good shooter or very good player. He’s able to take advantage using his back to put the defender behind and he’s able, like Moussa Theodosic, these kind of incredible players, okay, run and jump. They play towards two players, run and jump. And after the run and jump, very aggressive, they run and jump to put the player to the center, not to allow the shot. And after the run and jump, if they keep playing, again we are defending in the same way, you know. So it’s a defense with different options. We cannot talk about all of them because I am saying all of the information with you, but it’s true. This defense you need to believe, for example, this year in basketball Champions League, very well, I really like how we are defending this special defense, this situation with the center as goalkeeper, goalkeeper, but with activity. But, however, in Spain they are using it. They know more because last three, four years I used in different moments and they are waiting for it and they are finding the way to hard. But I am thinking to create different things inside of this difference. You know, like other coaches think other things, but I believe a lot when the team, patrick and Dan, believe in this difference and they want to deny very hard and make a A4 hard without thinking it’s a big A4. Yeah, it’s a big A4, but you cannot be thinking if I am the last one player, or I am helping here, or they play homes or they learn. There are six rules, seven rules, nine rules. Do it very hard and we’re going to see how they are playing. And one more thing about this difference, and I finished when you are playing against this difference, there are spaces during the game. The other thing is shooting. Sometimes they shoot from the free throw line to the basket and they put too many players in the corners corner, corner shoot and one rebounder. So if they miss, if they miss, they go to go back. It’s very, very bad. We had too many examples like they are even scoring or missing and we score immediately, alone. Alone because they don’t have the same organization than when they are playing in a usual way. So I am very proud for this difference, especially when I have different clips during the last seven or 10 years. When I watch these clips, I am proud because of the energy, because everybody thinks, no, that’s one player is resting or he’s allowing the shot. For example, we play this difference with Dulevich. Dulevich is incredible shooter, but I remember he means the first five shots, because he realized what’s happened with this coach. They are crazy and alone had to make. You had to make. Even if you make, what are you doing during the game? You want to shoot 15, three-point shots. And what’s happened with the rest of the players? They don’t play, so it’s not easy. So this is the goal of the defense, but now everybody is attacking much better every day. But because of that, I think I have to think in summer to do something different.

Patrick: 46:45

You mentioned a couple of times, it does require a tremendous amount of energy and when you watch it you see the guys are really working hard. So is it a defense that we run for three to five minutes?

Sito Alonso: 46:53

Then we got to kind of play, let’s say more traditional, or after three to five minutes I got to get subs in to keep the level up, depending on the team sometimes I say I remember last year against Obra Doiro, I talked with the team before starting and I say, hey guys, I don’t care what you’re thinking now I gonna be defending this defense 40 minutes, do whatever you want, 40 minutes. And they look at me like 40 minutes, 40 minutes, and we do it and we were winning by 30. Sometimes, I agree with you, sometimes you cannot keep depending on the level, the physical level of the players. If you have inside of your roster, in the five players are on the court two soft players no, soft physically or not, the combination between mental and physical they want to impact or they say why I have to be the nine? It’s not usual for me be the nine and allowing him go to the basket. It’s better for me being in front. If you are in front and you are doing this defense, we are done, because the screen is very easy and you cannot react. So if you have this kind of players, sometimes happens because they don’t believe or they are not able to impact with his chest, to be aggressive or to respect each rule of the defense, you are done. You have to be defending maybe three minutes and when you need saps you have to change to a not usual defense. But I agree with you with that. But I really like sometimes to say hey, 40 minutes, and because I know the other team, they don’t have centers able to shoot, they need to play pick and roll. They have shooters In shooters we are able to play good to block, and I say okay, even if they are scoring, because it’s like when you are defending some, sometimes maybe you are defending some two minutes and the other team scored three more shots, but if you keep the defense it’s not easy for them. I remember Aito Garcia-Renezes when I was his assistant coach. We played a king cap final, juventud Basconia and we were defending some the last 20 minutes, I think now, and they had Teletovic. Remember Teletovic? Yeah. NBA player, bosnian player, maybe he scored three or four. And I look at him, aito, like we are in zone and they are scoring, and he look at me like okay, I changed Another kind of zone, other zone. You know, two, three, one, three, one, and pre-joning after the game with a journalist, say, has been very difficult to play 20 minutes in a row against them. We play well, sometimes we score easily, but keep playing against them is not easy. So sometimes you have to allow they are scoring and keep the energy, and so then you are not changing the difference. It’s not easy to be attacking all the time against this kind of difference.

Dan: 49:34

Great stuff. You’re off the start, subverset Hot Sea. Thanks for playing that segment with us. We appreciate all your thoughts there, coach. We’ve got one more question before we close the show, but before we do, we really appreciate your time and all your thoughts today. This was really fun for us, so thank you very much.

Sito Alonso: 49:51

Thank you very much, Dan and Patrick, and please keep doing these things because are very interesting for the coaches, for the people. Everybody talk about your podcast. Well, thank you very much for the help that you are doing in the basketball. It’s great.

Patrick: 50:03

Thank you, coach.

Dan: 50:05

Our last question that we ask all the guests is what’s the best investment that you’ve made in your career as a coach?

Sito Alonso: 50:12

I have a lot of many, many important things in my career, I think, but in Murcia I arrived in the middle of the decision and it was the first time in my life I never arrived to the team in the middle of the decision. They were in the last position of the league and for me it was a new thing. I remember when I arrived to the court with the players and they are dead. You know, they are like we are in the last position, and was a very experienced for me to understand how to motivate each one of them to believe in their possibilities all the way. We had a player, for example I remember, askew Buker. He was scoring two, three points per game and he told me, sito, I am a good player. I say, okay, I know, I watched you in last year in Sevilla, but here you need to more level, you know, because you cannot be making three or four points. I can say believe in me, I am a good player. Maybe I have not, I have been doing bad things in the past or not, but I want to give you everything. Other kind of players the same. For example, buker scored I have 30 points or 25 points and we survived together and for me, I played. I am lucky. I have been in Euroleague in the past, I have been with very good teams in my hands, but arriving this moment, in this situation, in this club, with this player, has been the maybe the best one. I understood how to suffer with them, how to support them and how they look at me when we play well, one game and after this game we lose. We lost another game and they look at you like and now we are in a game in the last position. Wait, we don’t go to the second division. Believe me, after finishing this sentence, I say, oh my God, no. So this is my best estimate in my card.

Dan: 52:07

All right, pat, I kind of feel like, after a big Thanksgiving dinner and just stuffed, you’re just ready for a little nap. Little CS, yeah, little CS, yeah. A little basketball nap. Just so much information, so much good stuff. I know you and I were briefly just trying to figure out what to talk about here in this wrap up because of how much Coach Cito Alonso just gave, and so thanks to him for that. But that was very, very enjoyable to say the least.

Patrick: 52:31

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean always a loo to our note page. I can’t even follow it anymore.

Dan: 52:36

No, it’s just chicken scraps at this point. Yeah, so many notes here. Beautiful minding it over here? Yeah, exactly, let’s just get right into this here. I’ll kick it to you on the first bucket and I think maybe quick backstory. You and I discussed a lot and we talked with some other coaches about what we might dive into with Coach Alonso here first and we settled on in-game play calling, all that stuff, because he’s, like we’ve talked about, been known for his sets, his play calling, but we wanted to kind of pick his brain a little bit more on just his philosophy and I think what we ended up touching on was really cool, which is a little bit of a shift in his own personal philosophy over the last couple of years on this subject.

Patrick: 53:17

First thing that kind of jumped out to me or that I really enjoyed in when he was kind of shifting his philosophy, as he alluded to, he’s probably a little bit more control minded or dictating everything, is starting to ask his players in the recruitment process of what plays that they like and of course then they add, like he mentioned, the levels of wrinkles within it. But really I thought it started to get really interesting to me is when he was just with the plays, like just listening to what the players are talking about, so you put in the plays and just to hear their honest reactions. Like he said, don’t talk so much or demand or tell them to do things, put rules. It’s listen. They’ll kind of tell you what they like don’t like about it where the team’s struggling within a system or a play. That was the first kind of kickoff where I really enjoyed getting into his philosophy on play calling and how he kind of starts putting together his playbook and the role of his plays within his system.

Dan: 54:06

Yeah, I think and I talked about this right before we hopped back on to do this he mentioned about with teaching children languages or things like that is not just giving them the answer all the time, or when you’re teaching kids. This gets into some of the, I guess, the learning theory of like asking questions rather than always giving the answer. He mentioned giving them the prompt or giving them, hey, okay, ice coverage and then letting them just naturally four or five times try to figure out the solutions before you jump in as a coach. And it was just fun to hear someone at such a high level talk about teaching philosophy, how people learn and then how he’s kind of translated that into the professional level, and he shared some really interesting stories with us. We were lucky, you know, the 10, 15 minutes before we hit record kind of his path and how coaching at different levels coaching on the men’s side, the women’s side, youth pro, everything in between has given him such great insight over his years as to like what true coaching is, regardless of the score or what level you’re at, but how people actually learn and how you put teams together, and I just throughout that whole first conversation I thought that came through a lot in his philosophy in plays for sets and learning from players and things like that.

Patrick: 55:23

Well said, not too much more to add to that. But yeah, I think too, we’re looking forward to this conversation too as well. As how do you communicate these plays, or how do you get when it is on the court and we knew we were gonna have this kind of play calling discussion just also the communication and when the bench is going away or the offense is going away, and, like you said in loud arenas, how you think about play calling numbers, signals, you know hand gestures and how that can be difficult at times. So I like when he started to hit on that and his preference for the numbers and then the trickery, I wrote down that plus or minus two. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, I mean he did talk about some players, loved it and really enjoyed like the trickery of it and some players probably did drive them nuts trying to do math out there make reads. I enjoyed ending the conversation there, just the communication aspect, and I think what we all think about is what’s the best way to convey it on the court and he said maybe numbers isn’t always the best, but that’s how he, you know, I think he’s comfortable with. He doesn’t like the hand signals because he thinks then the other opponent can pick them up.

Dan: 56:24

Yeah, cause then some upstart assistant coach on the other team is gonna jump off the bench and yeah, he knows the play call Cause he’s starting shouting out what’s coming. I wrote that down too. As far as the little bit of the trickery of the numbers was obviously really fun to hear and just kind of gives insight into how high a level these coaches are thinking about things. Love the story about the police camera and how you know him. Getting a huge fine for speeding led to some insight on how to maybe find an advantage in the basketball arena and that was a unique story and a way to think about how to play with taking advantage of those few little instances offensively.

Patrick: 57:06

Now radar story I think led nicely into one we got into starts upset because washing his team play you can tell he is creative in terms of how he thinks and views the games and what he wants to run. So it was cool just what we enjoy about these conversations getting in the minds of these coaches and the story about him speeding and driving slow and then he brings it all home with that radar story. But it is just like what fuels inspiration or where it comes from can be obviously not always on the court and at random moments.

Dan: 57:32

Right. I don’t know if that would have been my moment of enlightenment getting able to speeding ticket. Yeah, per se personally. So true to those to him.

Patrick: 57:40

For he just got a six more points a game.

Dan: 57:43

Yeah, right, right. Speaking of start subset ish, it was there in theory, yeah, so much of it just depends. So yeah, nonetheless whatever they answer or don’t answer, the conversations are always incredible 100% and I think I’ll just real quick the sources of creativity and the tough to teach one us coming up with these talking about it beforehand. I mean he is known for being a creative coach so we definitely wanted to touch on that, I think. I mean obviously it’s shown throughout the whole conversation. We wanted to talk about the source of creativity. He did, I think, sit the other coaches and he gave actually really Clearest answer. Yeah, but he gave a great reason for it and that was basically you look at what they’re doing and so much of it depends on the players and style play, but understanding why they do it is more important than like what they’re doing. I think that’s something you and I love to try to break down or talk about these podcasts or video, whatever we do, because a PDF of great sets from some team is great, but, like he mentioned, with coach Pedro Martinez just trying to figure out why he was running that action over and over and over again and instead of just putting it in for his team, thinking like, okay, well, how do I take the concept and put that into something that we already do or that fits my team better? I thought was a really great teaching point, even though he sat it like that was a great teaching point in that source of creativity. Yeah.

Patrick: 59:08

I really enjoyed this question because it was kind of a two-for-one I think this question kind of came out of. We wanted to talk about his post offense yeah, well known for it but then getting kind of like the bigger philosophical, like just which this question served it. Let’s pull out, let’s just talk about creativity, where what inspires him, and then eventually we got into the post-automatics and I mean I really won’t sit here and regurgitate it. He’s so well known for it and I appreciate him going through just kind of not their rules. But they want the center coming up, the flair and how they thin like anything it starts with you have these one, three actions and as the defense starts to take things away, how they kind of add new actions. I really like the ball side corner cut if the guards are switching and they’re just sitting on top waiting for the next guard, that rim cutting guards gonna just loop back to the center side for the corner. And then another play to that I looked at when they are denying they’ll just it’s that sacrificial cut off that First screen, just run straight to the corner to make space for the second shooter Sure, can’t be denied to come off stuff We’ve actually highlighted before on the platform, so I’m sure that’ll come a little bit more handy, as it’s hard made at times to visualize for a podcast. But really appreciate just hearing all of his thoughts on the post and what he’s trying to accomplish out of it.

Dan: 1:00:20

And I think just the other thing in there was the roles, like how talked about rules versus roles and some of that stuff and how when you watch his teams play out of the post, there is so much action and it’s varied and it trying to get to what they’re doing I’m sure can be very difficult for opponents and, like he mentioned, he doesn’t always know what they’re doing because they’re just working on roles, cuts, reads. So I liked hearing that a little bit where it’s like okay, we’re not just doing the same thing every single time but having the conversations of who are you, how do we use your advantage, and things like that was another big takeaway for me with the post stuff and then I guess just keeping it moving to the tough to teach. This was another one we were excited to ask him about because we’ve done, I think, a couple videos on this defense one, teams trying to attack it, but then also just basically what this we call it the spy. He called the goalkeeper defense, but I’ll kick it back to you there on any takeaways.

Patrick: 1:01:17

I think it’s always with any coverage it’s always fun to hear about. I think coaches know, like the tax and conveying that, the tax, that this defense is gonna give up, because he said obviously, then it creates the buy-in. And he said for this defense, I think the first thing he mentioned is it’s so important that the players have to believe in it Before it to work. Any mention a little bit may have some softer players who question like why I got a deny and the ship starts taking on water. So I think it’s just going back to just the tax of like what we’re just gonna Give them mid-range, you know, or the guards gonna be coming off to shoot mid-range all the time and we’ll be fine with that. Or he mentioned with Dublovich who’s a stretch five that can shoot the three, but is he gonna take 15 a game? Probably not. Is he just gonna shoot the whole time and the other four players aren’t gonna be involved? So just the whole thought process behind it. I mean he went into great detail about denying what they’re trying to accomplish, again similar to the post offense. I really enjoyed when he started out, like where it kind of came from and why he settled on it and continues to work with it.

Dan: 1:02:12

So many of these interesting little tactical adjustments that we see. It’s fun because a lot of times they do come out of Like a specific situation that the coach went through I think he was talking about Lonnie Baxter as far as just they were gonna get killed on his role, and so they figured, okay, well, how do we mess with this a little bit? And then this is born and then all of a sudden you’re turning it into more of a Defensive covers that you can use more than just against one certain player. But you figure, okay, well, if a really good player is struggling against it, then anybody Average or below average is definitely gonna struggle to. I liked how he mentioned he didn’t want this to be a soft coverage. Okay, you have someone kind of sitting at the rim as a goalkeeper, but the other guys, if you just letting them be soft, they’re gonna be come down, pillage you all night and so Then becoming more aggressive. He mentioned like playing on top of guys, so they’re forcing them almost into that backdoor. I thought was really good and you asked the follow question was just really good about just how long you can play it and when to get out Of it, and he gave a good answer. I guess I’ll kick it back to you there because I know that was something interesting for you to ask him.

Patrick: 1:03:15

Yeah, I was just curious because, yeah, it is a demanding defense. It’s not just, yeah, they just kind of sit back and you know, just shoot mid-range or you got the bay at the rim. It’s like they are really trying to blow up handoffs, you know, making sure the ball gets to the sideline and keeping it there. So I was just curious myself, and he gave a great answer. Sometimes they were doing it 40 minutes, man, they’re gonna score, of course and he gave the zone comparison but it’s still gonna be hard for them to score. We’re not gonna hold them to zero, but, like, just be ready. I mean, I think, with everyone, and with especially the Spanish coaches, it’s all that depends and it’s knowing your team. Can they do it? Maybe not, maybe. Yeah, you have certain lineups that can really do it well and when they’re in, you roll with it, and then, once you get into softer players, you got to maybe play a little bit more traditional.

Dan: 1:03:58

Just to follow up a little bit on the zone stuff. I thought it was interesting. I think you told a story when he was with Aito and they were playing zone and, you know, scored on a couple of times but then they switched the zone coverage and Basically after the game, the other team saying it is hard to play against zone and over and over and over again To score against it, even if you do make a run where you get a couple open threes or whatnot, like to do it over and over again. It was interesting too because I know that’s conversation we have all the time. So she talked about zone is K, you give up a couple when you get out of it. But he mentioned to within all of this. He said if you make the other team Change their main form of attacking, then that’s a small victory that you take as a coach and you kind of build from there Anything we missed here. I mean I don’t know there’s so much. I’ve got one. I don’t say miss, but I got one. I wish I would have asked or went further down with them.

Patrick: 1:04:49

Yeah, we also discussed, I think you know, another kind of idea was just timeouts, when we knew we were gonna have kind of the in-game coaching conversation. Then the conversation just kind of never got to it because we had such a good conversation on his play calling. But I would have been curious just to hear how he views Using timeouts throughout the course of the game. All that goes into it trying to save to, you know, stopping runs, calling timeouts for Offensive reasons or to set your defense was something I would have enjoyed hearing his thoughts on. But yeah, just I thought the time kind of asked it out for sure would have been interesting.

Dan: 1:05:21

I’m sure he’s thought a lot about timeouts, knowing him. For me was in that first bucket as well. I think I asked him about late game and he did talk about hey, as a coach, you have to adapt, you have to have different Philosophies, can’t just do the same thing, yeah, and if we have more time, maybe just asking more, maybe a follow-up each, I guess we would have gotten into a nice conversation about some late game strategy, play, calling, all the things that would have gone into it. I’m sure it would have been a well thought out answer by him, but we didn’t want to take up three hours of his day. So kind of time. Hey, this was really really enjoyable, to say the least. So thank you to coach Alonso for coming on, and we’re always just so thankful that they share so much and go so in-depth on these things that are close to them. So we thank him and Pat. There’s nothing else. Let’s wrap this up. Let’s do it All right. Thanks everybody for listening and we’ll see you next time.