Brooks Savage has changed his offense several times since becoming a head coach. In this episode, the East Tennessee State coach explains how personnel, team strengths, and defensive identity shaped those decisions—and why he became more effective once he stopped trying to be different for its own sake.

Savage also shares how he builds a clear team identity through standards, recruiting, and consistent language; why he prefers short, repetitive practices built around a few priorities; and how his approach to offensive rebounding has shifted from tagging up to more selective crashing. He discusses the decision to play without a traditional center, how he attacks a late-game deficit, and why coaches should use timeouts when the game calls for it instead of saving them for an imagined final moment.

What You’ll Learn

• How personnel and team strengths should shape an offense
• Why a program’s identity starts with standards and informs recruiting
• How to build culture through repeated language and daily expectations
• Why Savage favors short, focused practices with consistent priorities
• What his team learned by shifting from tagging up to crashing
• Why ETSU chose to play without a traditional center
• How he approaches pressing, lineups, and timeouts when trailing late

Timestamps

• 02:42 The evolution of Savage’s offense
• 07:54 Finding an edge through fundamentals
• 09:59 Choosing sets and preparing for opponents
• 12:03 How a set-heavy offense changes practice
• 15:02 Building practice around a team’s capacity
• 20:37 Moving from tagging up to crashing
• 24:29 Start, Sub, or Sit: identity and standards
• 28:58 Making culture real through language and behavior
• 32:00 Matching team identity to the university and community
• 33:52 Coaching players who fall below the standard
• 36:31 Creating a comeback by changing the game
• 40:02 Why ETSU plays without a traditional center
• 42:49 When to use timeouts
• 44:38 The best investment of Savage’s coaching career

To join coaches and championship winning staffs from the NBA to High School from over 70 different countries taking advantage of an SG Plus membership, visit HERE!

Tennessee Women’s Basketball Head Coach Kim Caldwell joins the podcast to detail the connected system behind her high-possession style of play.

Caldwell explains how her teams pursue a 20-shot advantage through forced turnovers, offensive rebounding, limiting their own turnovers, and getting to the foul line. She breaks down the habits that must be unlearned to play fast, how shot selection connects to floor balance, and why crashing four naturally establishes matchups for the press.

She also discusses subbing for fatigue rather than mistakes, giving defenders freedom within the run-and-jump, and the danger of introducing a Plan B that contradicts the team’s identity.

In Start, Sub, or Sit, Caldwell ranks communication, decision-making, and execution when players reach their physical limit. The conversation closes with her approach to full-court practices, eight-minute drills, conditioning, and choosing coaching jobs where winning is possible.

Timestamps

2:20 – Kim Caldwell joins the show
2:34 – The goal of creating 20 more shots
4:29 – Adjusting the shot-margin target by competition level
5:13 – Unteaching habits and training with a 12-second clock
6:33 – Defining a good shot within the system
7:41 – Preferred opponent shot profile
9:12 – Using defense to regain pace and momentum
10:47 – Substitution patterns and playing in short bursts
12:55 – Attacking teams that try to slow the game
14:36 – What Caldwell tracks during timeouts
16:49 – Crashing four and “building a house”
18:37 – Matching up and flowing into the run-and-jump
19:45 – Giving defenders freedom to err toward aggression
20:26 – Conviction, adaptation, and the danger of Plan B
23:04 – Protecting leads without abandoning pace
25:14 – Late-game shot selection and pressure adjustments
26:12 – Caldwell’s philosophy on calling timeouts
28:02 – Start, Sub, or Sit: Practice tipping points
30:12 – Player-to-player communication under fatigue
31:51 – Keeping chaos within the right boundaries
33:14 – Full-court practice and conditioning
35:03 – The eight-minute drill limit
36:46 – Finishing the final conversion of a drill
38:19 – Building practice plans with the staff
40:04 – Caldwell’s best career investment
41:39 – Slappin’ Glass takeaways

To join coaches and championship winning staffs from the NBA to High School from over 70 different countries taking advantage of an SG Plus membership, visit HERE!

UC Davis Head Coach Jim Les joins the Slappin’ Glass Podcast to discuss the daily habits behind elite performance, building trust before asking for hard truth, and creating a team environment where productive conflict can be handled quickly. Coach Les explains why urgency starts with what a staff is willing to tolerate, how written player goals can sharpen accountability, and why “the game knows” has become a central teaching idea in his program.

On the tactical side, he breaks down UC Davis’s use of Princeton and chin action, the value of a dynamic catch before the pick and roll, teaching split cuts through clear order of operations, and using multiple offensive modes during a game. The conversation closes with ball-screen coverage complexity, deciding whether to fix or cover a team weakness, and the coaching investment that has kept him learning for more than two decades.

Episodes Chapters

02:51 The traits of elite players and teams

03:22 Urgency habits and editing your life

08:40 How Coach Les changed as a communicator

11:17 Protecting the head coach’s voice

13:40 The game knows

15:47 Building a pre-practice habit system

18:17 Teaching passing off the dribble

19:36 Productive conflict inside a team

22:27 Staff communication and alignment

25:06 Investing in relationships with players

28:51 "Start Sub or Sit" Princeton into pick and roll

30:15 Dynamic catches and sprinting into the screen

32:03 Why Princeton punishes good defensive principles

34:55 Teaching split cuts and the feeder is the leader

36:36 Attacking the closeout before the ball screen

38:12 Using multiple offensive modes

40:02 "Start Sub or Sit" changes in coaching philosophy

41:41 Scaling ball-screen coverage complexity

45:19 Fixing a weakness or covering it

47:05 Coach Les’s best career investment

49:07 Slappin’ Glass recap

To join coaches and championship winning staffs from the NBA to High School from over 70 different countries taking advantage of an SG Plus membership, visit HERE!