Jake McDonald

[Coach Mac 🏀 @BballCoachMac]

Why talented players fail:

1. Get complacent

2. Wrong people around them

3. Uncoachable

4. ‘Too cool'

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@TheHoopHerald @CoachHackGO This is a Buzz Williams team

[Chris Steed @csteed]

Ball Reversals 🤝 Paint Touches

Arizona and Michigan EPITOMIZE this in their tourney runs this season. Both teams are putting so much pressure on the rim - Michigan with ball movement and Arizona with rebounding dominance.

Schematically, very different, but the shot quality from both is ELITE. This can equate to every competitive level 👇🏼.

Data like this is extremely powerful. This is a study of 12 'high level D1 schools'.

Regardless of level, the goal is to get to 1.00 PPP. Out of any system/style, this data shows us the key to having an efficient offense is having an element of penetration and kick.

Paint touches, and paint touches + ball reversal limit the amount of straight line close outs. They also slow down defensive decision making, which keeps the offense in a big advantage situation.

PAINT TOUCH + BALL REVERSAL is a MUST in half court and secondary transition. Think DOMINOES.

An easy way to teach this is to constrain the score differently:

- no paint or ball reversal is +0

- paint touch is + 1

- paint touch + ball reversal is +2

- explain/emphasize hockey assists and TRACK THEM

@ShotTracker

[Coach Bray @coachajbray]

A poorly coached team with lots of talent will beat a greatly coached team with no talent

At the end of the day you got to have players that are high level

[Matt Rodewald @Matt_Rodewald]

THREAD:

When I coached football at DeKalb, my stipend check arrived every two weeks.

For $99.

Not per day.
Not per practice.
Per pay period.

One season as a freshman basketball coach brought a grand total of $1,000.

For an entire season.

Today, as a varsity basketball official, I’ll typically earn $83 for a contest — before taxes, before travel, before the quiet math that reminds you this was never designed to be lucrative.

Those numbers aren’t shared as complaints.

They’re shared because context matters.

Because perspective matters.

And because conversations about high school athletics have developed a curious tendency to drift far from the lived realities inside schools.

Especially the loud conversations.
Especially the viral ones.
Especially the ones built for engagement rather than understanding.

Because perspective, inconveniently, tends to belong to those who have actually lived inside this world.

Because if you’ve never lived inside this space — not observed it, not commented from afar, not tweeted about it — but truly lived it — the conclusions can come easily.

If you’ve never been evaluated as a coach by an administrator. Never navigated roster decisions that directly affect teenagers and families. Never balanced classroom responsibilities with practices, film sessions, eligibility compliance, offseason regulations, and the quiet emotional labor coaching demands. Never sacrificed evenings, weekends, holidays, and family time for compensation that looks dramatically different when divided by hours invested.

Then yes…

The realities are easy to misread.

And the narrative circulating online can sound persuasive.

“More lazy high school coaches than ever.”

It’s a striking claim.

It’s also the kind of simplicity that travels exceptionally well online — clean, confident, and ultimately very… dare I say… lazy. 🤨

Because real life inside schools is rarely that tidy.

Most high school coaches are teachers or school staff working full days before stepping into a gym or onto a field. They manage lesson plans, grading, meetings, interventions, and student needs long before practice begins. Then comes preparation, planning, communication, compliance, logistics, mentorship, hours of film session on a Sunday morning and countless unseen moments that never make it into social media commentary.

All for stipends that, when measured honestly against hours invested, would surprise many of the loudest critics.

Most coaches are not getting rich.

They’re getting tired.

1/

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@michaelschwab13 Biggio to catcher
Altuve to 2B
Yordan DH
Tucker RF

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@365Aggie Was it the 1-9 start or the Mizzou series loss that showed all that potential?

[NCAA March Madness @MarchMadnessMBB]

PHARREL PAYNE MY GOODNESS 😳 @aggiembk

(via @espn)

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@HtxAg19_ Josh Reynolds

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@NickScurfield Would be great to get out of the house.

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@FanDuel myles garrett is pretty good 👍🏻 think.

[Jake Hutchinson @jakehutch26]

Round 3! Let’s get it bear nation! @hoops_mhs

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@BarstoolTexasAM Durkin least of our problems, the crook jimbo not giving up play calling duties is the problem.

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@ChronBrianSmith Will he come to aggieland to be the OC?

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@kyleumlang Y’all going to get Kansas this week or no?

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@papa_horn @chrisfallica @JasonKingBR 2020 = 9-1

[Jake McDonald @jmac1305]

@chrisfallica @kyleumlang lol texas has been real sweet the last decade plus 😂😂

[Climbing Tal's Hill @astrosCTH]

The 2017 White Sox (67-95) didn’t win the World Series because of the Astros, right?

[FOX College Football @CFBONFOX]

Here's a look at every FBS team with the most wins from each state in the last ten years 💪👀

Which team is the most surprising?

[Kayce Smith @KayceSmith]

I love A&M. I grew up at Kyle Field.

but paying Jimbo $75 million + a fake national title trophy (as a bit) means Aggies shouldn't be content until this team is in contention for AT LEAST a conference championship.

ps- that doesn't make you a bad fan, it makes you self aware.