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Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Basketball - What Topics Could You Own?

Medicine has a convention called "Grand Rounds." A visiting professor is conscripted with an honorarium for a 50 minute address about some exotic topic and take a handful of questions afterwards. The professor addresses the medical staff, trainees, and medical students.

Think of it as a Coaches Clinic for a bunch of stuffy nerds.

Imagine you're asked to deliver a fifteen minute session.

The Most Important Question

  • 1981. A patient had died on an Oncology ward. The Attending Physician discussed family notification, who was forwarding their data to the Clinical Trial, and other 'housekeeping issues'. A Clinical Fellow asked (facetiously), "Who gets his tray?" Gallows humor sometimes breaks the tension...but not often.
  • So, what snacks are you requesting for your clinic? 

Who Would You Want to Hear? (Living or Dead)

Having followed basketball since the 1960s, that covers a lot of territory...from legends of the past, to underrated internationals, women, and contemporary coaches. Narrow it down to Pete Newell, Dean Smith, or Dave Smart. 

What's Your Topic?

I gave a few Grand Rounds in my medical career - A Clinicopathologic Conference at Walter Reed on a patient with lung disease and a review of Sarcoidosis at Bethesda Naval. 

With physical limitations lately, I'd favor discussing one of the following:

  • Practical uses of analytics
  • Player development 
  • Leadership as a force multiplier
  • Hard to defend actions in your offense
  • The invisible elements holding our teams back

What's the Format?

There was a saying, "An expert is someone more than fifty miles away from home with a carousel of slides." 

I'd want a multimedia presentation with a mixture of humor, emotion, Google Slides, and short video clips. 

What Are Your Three Key Truths? 

  • Get our team to play "harder for longer."
  • Embrace Newell's "more and better shots than opponents"
  • We'll be best measured by the type of people who leave our program 

What Are Your Controversies? 

  • Do you coach players to a system or mold systems to players?
  • Are your team better off with Batman and Robin or Batman and Batman? 
  • Is the escalation of costs of youth sports sustainable? 
Lagniappe. Hoiberg's Way. 

Lagniappe 2. Wisdom from Majerus  



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