Grow The Game

We are blessed to be joined by Brad Underwood, the head coach the University of Illinois. Coach Underwood is entering his sixth season at the Illini Head Coach and coming off a Big Ten Championship. Coach talks about his journey, his coaching styles, and what being at the University of Illinois means to him!

This week we were joined by Coach Pat Skerry, the current head coach at Towson University. Coach Skerry is looking to build off a historic season for the program. Last year, he led Towson to their first ever CAA Championship and bid to the NIT. Coach brings many years of experience at many different levels, including a time where he was the second youngest head coach in the country at Curry. Since then Coach has been on staff at Charleston, Providence, Pitt, and many others. Coach Skerry describes his journey and his philosophy in coaching!

This week we are joined by Coach Kyle Getter, an Assistant Coach at the University of Virginia. Coach Getter has been around successful programs everywhere he has went which includes a final four run with VCU and a National Championship run with Virginia. Coach Getter talks about his journey as a coach and how has thrived at each program he has been at. Coach Getter played basketball for two years and served as a student assistant for two years at Hanover College.

This week we are super excited to be joined by one of the best coaches in all of college basketball, Bruce Pearl. Coach Pearl started his career as a student assistant at Boston College and then immediately became an Assistant Coach at Stanford. At age 32, he took over as the head coach of Southern Indiana. Coach Pearl coached at the University of Tennessee and is now the Head Coach at Auburn University. Coach talks about his career, his coaching philosophies, his relationship with Jesus, and his advice and guidance for young coaches!

This week we are thrilled to be joined by Dustin Kerns. Coach Kerns has been in the game for a long time and is now the Head Coach at Appalachian State University. Coach Kerns lead the mountaineers to the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and has had success everywhere he has gone. Listen as he talks about his coaching career, how he has made himself valuable, building culture, and continuing to be the best coach and person he can be!

This week we were lucky to be joined the new head coach at Davidson University, Matt McKillop. Coach McKillop is entering his first year as a head coach as he takes over for his father, Bob McKillop. Coach talks about getting the new job, working under his father and now following his father, coaching Steph Curry, and his journey into coaching basketball!

This week we are joined by the head coach at North Dakota, Paul Sather. Coach Sather brings amazing insight from all levels of coaching. He has coaches high school, NAIA, Division II, and now he is in Division I with North Dakota. Coach talks about his experiences at each level and how he approaches a new job, as well as everything he learned from legendary Coach Don Meyer. Listen as Coach talks about his days as a student assistant, running a program, and establishing a culture through his staff and players.

This week we were joined by Wichita State Assistant Coach Billy Kennedy. Coach Kennedy started his coaching career as a student assistant at SE Louisiana where he would later return as a head coach years later. Coach has been in the college coaching world for 35 years, and he was a head coach at Centenary, Murray State, and Texas A&M. Listen as he talks about his coaching path, how he has built a consistent culture everywhere he has been, his time at Texas A&M, and how his faith has impacted him personally.

This week we are joined by Coach David Niven. Coach Niven is the head basketball coach at Union University, where he has been for a majority of his career. Prior to Union, he served as a GA for Oklahoma Baptist, where he played for four years. Listen as Coach talks about his journey moving up in the coaching ranks at Union, culture, and how he maintains and builds his coaching philosophy year in and year out.

This week we are joined by UNCG Assistant Donny Lind. Coach Lind has had a stellar coaching career at a few different places and has had a lot of success in his programs, which includes a historic final four run in 2011 with VCU. Coach talks about standing out amongst others, networking, and bringing value to a program and to other people! Coach rehashes his manager days and how those time shaped the man and coach he is today!

We are joined by Coach Steve Roccaforte, assistant basketball coach at Texas A&M University! Listen as he talks about his journey starting as a manager and quickly being hired on staff. Coach talks a lot about recruiting and how he has brought value to every program he has been at.

This week we are joined by Oral Roberts Head Coach, Paul Mills. Coach Mills talks about his journey from a high school coach in Texas to a Division I head coach. He gives his perspective on what coaching means to him and how he had built his culture at ORU. Coach Mills also goes into details about the cinderella sweet sixteen run in 2020!

This week we were blessed to be joined by Ben Wilkins, the head coach at Seton Hill University. Listen as he talks about his journey from his early days as a manager at N.C. State and how we built his way up through the coaching world. Coach Wilkins talks about his time at Army before becoming a Division II head coach! Coach Wilkins gives great advice on building a program, networking for yourself, and how to prepare yourself for the next level.

This week we were joined by Coach Kyle Keller who has been the head coach at Stephen F. Austin for five years. Coach Keller talks about his coaching journey dating back to his early days as a student manager at Oklahoma State. Listen as he talks about the hall of fame coaches he has worked under, how he prepared himself to be a head coach, the experience of battling through COVID as a coach, and everything he has learned along the way.

This week we are honored to be joined by Coach Jay McAuley, the head men's basketball coach at Wofford College. Listen as he talks about his coaching journey starting from his early days as a graduate manager at Georgia to the head coach at Wofford. Coach also talks about how he has sustained success at Wofford and he gives great advice to young coaches who have a desire to continue to move up.

In the first episode of the new Grow the Game podcast we are joined by Megan Black, a current graduate assistant at the University of Washington. Listen as she talks about her journey as a manager, her new role as a GA, and her role in GrowtheGame.

Daniel Marks shares his journey from being a Vanderbilt manager to working in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks. We also talk about his latest venture, Scouting and Scavenging, a non-profit that encourages people to collect unused toiletries to give to those in need. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Coach Jimmie Oakman takes us through his journey from being a manager to being an assistant coach in the NBA G-League. We discuss X's and O's, trends, and advice for managers trying to succeed in their coaching journey. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode, Matt Cline Eastern Michigan MBB Assistant Coach shares his journey from being a manager to becoming a coach, the lessons he learned along the way, and advice he has for up & coming coaches. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Jake Cerota and Ashton Pilz talk about how they built and led a nation-wide online learning community for College Basketball Student Managers the past 7 months. Both held weekly virtual learning sessions through Zoom to help Student Managers from across the country build genuine relationships and help them advance in their respective career paths. Each week, a different speaker from within the basketball industry, most notably Jay Bilas from ESPN, joined the call to share their knowledge, wisdom and advice. Through the success of this program, they recognized how great the need is for Student Managers to have a one-on-one mentor to help them learn and grow. To fill that need, they created The Manager Connection. As an outgrowth of Grow the Game, The Manager Connection was created and launched as a free one-on-one mentoring program connecting Student Managers from across the country with a former manager who have established themselves in the basketball industry. Currently have over 300 participants and growing. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app