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Happy Sunday! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, we released Miami Heat Assistant Coach Eric Glass' clinic replay on the foundations of excelling as an assistant, what players often lack at higher levels, and how to hunt weak defenders. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Johnny Tauer - Intrinsic Motivation ​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Justin Bokmeyer {Brooklyn Nets}

📣 Hudl Instat & Dr. Dish

🥇 Best of the Week: Ricky Screens & Horns 4 Out​

📚 Interesting Reads: Rethinking "Potential"

Let's dive in...

Intrinsic Motivation

Over the past few months, we’ve been rolling out clinic replays from our 2025 SoCal Coaches Summit. To close out the series, we feature Johnny Tauer, head coach at the University of St. Thomas, where he also serves as a professor of psychology. Coach Tauer brings a rare dual perspective, grounded both in championship-level coaching and academic research, as he explores Intrinsic Motivation. His talk draws on lessons from leading St. Thomas’ transition from Division III to Division I and from decades studying what drives people to perform at their best.

In his session, Tauer unpacks how coaches can recruit, identify, and measure intrinsic motivation within their teams. He challenges the idea that coaches can “create” motivation, emphasizing instead that great programs select and nurture players who already love the game. By understanding the science of motivation Tauer provides practical frameworks for building teams that sustain effort and joy from within.

Core Principle: Situations And Motivation

"In social psychology, premise number one is "situations are powerful.""
​
​We are all products of our environment. Most coaches intuitively know this, but as Tauer reminds us, we can easily lose sight of just how much power we have to shape behavior. The environments we create, through our language, structures, and expectations, can either strengthen or erode intrinsic motivation.

Tauer cites the famous Milgram Experiment, which demonstrated how ordinary people could be led to act in completely uncharacteristic ways when placed in the right (or wrong) situation. While that study revealed the dark side of situational influence, Tauer’s point is the opposite: the same principle can be leveraged for good. Coaches can intentionally design environments that bring out the best in their players.

When players are consistently encouraged, empowered, and rewarded for doing the right things, the result is a compounding effect of positive behavior. Every team culture either nurtures or suppresses intrinsic motivation, and it’s rarely neutral. Talent matters, but the environment ultimately determines whether that talent flourishes or fades.

Recruiting Intrinsically Motivated Players

“If you’re trying to motivate people day after day after day, that’s going to be really hard.”

While coaches can design environments that allow intrinsic motivation to thrive, one variable remains stubbornly resistant to correction: players with little or no internal drive. As Tauer reminds us, you can’t rewire a player’s motivation, no matter how much you’d like their goals to perfectly mirror your own. True drive can’t be installed.

That’s why recruiting intrinsically motivated players is essential. Rather than trying to manufacture motivation day after day, great programs select and surround themselves with people who already love the game, those who compete, learn, and work for reasons deeper than external rewards.

So how can coaches spot players who are motivated for all the right reasons on the recruiting trail? Coach Tauer offers several strategies for identifying the “right” kind of players:

1. Watch actions, not words.​
Players reveal their motivation through habits, how they play when no one’s watching, how they respond to coaching, and how consistently they bring effort. “Actions speak louder than words” is a cliché for a reason.

2. Ask revealing questions.​
Go beyond generic statements like “I love basketball.” Ask for specific examples that reveal their true relationship with the game. A simple question such as “Did you watch March Madness?” can show whether a player genuinely engages with basketball or simply performs passion when convenient. Lack of curiosity often signals low intrinsic drive.

3. Talk to unbiased sources.​
Seek out people who don’t have a vested interest in the player’s success—teachers, classmates, or others who see them daily. Coaches and trainers may unintentionally offer biased feedback, while neutral voices often provide a clearer picture of a player’s true character, habits, and authenticity.

4. Look for coachability.​
When you offer feedback, does the player apply it the next game, or do they repeat the same mistakes? True coachability is a window into motivation. During recruiting, you can even ask their current coach a revealing question that uncovers how the player responds to correction.

5. Observe family dynamics.​
Overinvolved parents can mask a lack of autonomy. Learn whether the player works because they love it, or because someone else is driving them. Do they shoot every morning at 6 a.m. out of personal drive, or because Mom and Dad wake them up and rebound for them? Understanding this distinction helps you separate players who “love it” from those who are merely pushed into it.

Measuring Intrinsic Motivation

Once you’ve recruited players who possess a strong internal drive, the next challenge is building an environment that sustains it, and knowing how to measure it. The work isn’t over just because you’ve brought intrinsically motivated players through the door. Drawing back on the power of environments, Tauer cautions that if coaches aren’t intentional, the very structure of a program, its rewards, feedback, and tone, can slowly erode the motivation they worked so hard to recruit. Rigid control, inconsistent standards, or a lack of trust can shift players from wanting to work to having to work.

While intrinsic motivation can feel abstract, Tauer emphasizes that, like culture or leadership, it can be assessed through consistent observation and feedback. Coaches can track both behavioral and attitudinal indicators {🔒} to get a real sense of what’s happening beneath the surface of their environment.

Final Takeaways For Coaches

• You can’t “install” motivation — but you can recruit it, nurture it, and protect it.
• Watch actions more than interviews; motivation is shown, not spoken.
• Design environments that give athletes choice, connection, and competence — these consistently sustain motivation.

“You’ll get tired of teaching ballscreen defense,” Tauer concluded, “but you won’t get tired of coaching human beings.”

For much more insights and context on Intrinsic Motivation, SG+ members can watch the full replay of Coach Tauer's session now on SGTV!

Together with Dr. Dish

Imagine having your team’s entire development, training, and analytics in one place. That’s the Dr. Dish Training Management System — T-M-S — the ultimate coaching platform that transforms your shooting machine into a complete player-development engine. Track every rep, drill, and player. Assign custom workouts. View heat maps, leaderboards, and progress across your entire roster — all in one dashboard. Build accountability. Unlock smarter reps. And take full control of your team’s growth. Feed Your Fire at drdishbasketball.com.​

🎧 Justin Bokmeyer on Structures for High Performance Environments, the Value of Pre-Mortems, and Systems Thinking {Brooklyn Nets}

This week on Slappin’ Glass, we sit down with Justin Bokmeyer, Director of Basketball Operations for the Brooklyn Nets, to explore how great teams build sustainable, high-performance environments.

With a background spanning West Point, MLS Next, and the NBA Academy, Justin shares powerful lessons on leadership, systems thinking, and developing people-first organizations that thrive under pressure.

🧠 What You’ll Learn

• People Over Hardware: Why elite performance starts with hiring, aligning, and empowering the right people.
• Systems Thinking: How to connect decisions across departments to reduce silos and improve trust.
• Onboarding and Role Clarity: The overlooked key to alignment and long-term success.
• Decision-Making Frameworks: How Justin uses pre-mortems, decision journaling, and pushing decisions to the lowest level to build accountability and clarity.
• Military Leadership Lessons: Applying principles like shared mission, healthy ego, and accountability from West Point to professional sports.

🔁 Key Quote

Tune in to learn how the Brooklyn Nets’ Justin Bokmeyer blends leadership, decision science, and culture-building to create environments where teams can grow, compete, and sustain excellence.

Together with Hudl

Hudl Powers Every Possession

If you’re already using tools like FastDraw, FastScout, or FastRecruit—you know how essential they are to your workflows. And now that they’re fully part of the Hudl ecosystem, they’re more powerful than ever. From film and play diagrams to scouting reports and custom recruiting boards, everything flows together. One system. Built for high-performance programs.

​Learn more about Hudl and their variety of products or subscribers to Slappin' Glass can also directly email Winston Jones of Hudl at winston.jones@hudl.com.

Tactical

📺 Horns Entry - Flare • Ricky Screen​

"Punish the defense going under the Flare Screen with an immediate rescreen."

✚ Pair With: Ricky Screen variations out of the Iverson Entry.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our recent breakdown on attacking low tags out of the Horns Entry with a weakside Pindown Screen.

📺 4 Out - RIP • Zoom DHO • Flare 4​

"We’ve enjoyed watching Coach Igor Kokoškov back in Europe with Efes, one of the best in the game when it comes to set designs and ATOs."

✚ Pair With: A few of our favorite 4 Out sets around a RIP Screen and playing to a shooting 4-Man.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on weaponizing a shooting big man with a Flare Screen from the top in 5 Out transition spacing.

Interesting Reads

📚 In Command​

Being “in command” doesn’t mean you’re always popular. It means you’re willing to make tough decisions, even if they’re not always well-received, because they’re in the best interest of the customer, the team, and the business.

📚 Re-Thinking "Potential"​

On the other hand, when your mentality and habits are elite, your potential becomes exponential. You’re not limited by what you currently can do — you’re actively creating what’s next. You are actively growing your potential every day.

📚 What Advice Do I Give to My Students?​

Let go of the ego – it’s not about you (even when it’s apparently about you). Science is based on criticism, that’s how it goes. Everyone is fighting their own battle, and has their own stressors that affect how they respond to your material. Don’t spend any time trying to figure out who feels what way about you. It doesn’t matter and it’s not personal. Just focus on bringing the community the best product you can bring. Don’t dwell on the negative or keep grudges.- Copied from thoughtforms.life

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com