#166 - JOE WOOTTEN

Joe is the Head Coach of the Basketball Team at Bishop O’Connell High School, one of the best high school basketball programs in the country. Joe has won more than 500 games in 24 seasons and has also served as the school’s Athletic Director since 2010. He is also Chairman of the McDonald’s All-American Basketball Game Selection Committee & Games and runs one of the largest summer basketball camps in the country which has hosted more than 200,000 campers since his father, Morgan Wootten, started the program more than 50 years ago. Alongside his father, Joe also co-authored the third edition of arguably the best book on coaching high school basketball, Coaching Basketball Successfully. [0:16] - Joe's origin story as a basketball coach [6:13] - The importance of chemistry for a team’s success [8:02] - Handing responsibility to players to promote ownership [11:07] - How Joe thinks about captains and leadership [13:02] - Developing a successful 4-year program [20:41] - Distributing playing time at every level [22:28] - Tough conversations after tryouts [26:43] - Recruiting at the high school level [28:13] - The evolution and impact of AAU basketball [33:07] - Joe’s coaching philosophy [35:22] - Scouting and game planning [36:37] - Focusing on a winning effort more than winning [38:13] - How to build coaching knowledge [42:26] - How Joe approaches running his practices [45:40] - Adapting to the strengths of your team [48:07] - Final words on coaching high school basketball For more episodes, go to ⁠⁠podofjake.com⁠⁠. Previous guests include ⁠⁠Mark Cuban⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Brian Armstrong⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Balaji Srinivasan⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Keith⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Rabois⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Ali Spagnola⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Anthony Pompliano⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Raoul Pal⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Julia Galef⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Jack Butcher⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Tim Draper⁠⁠, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like ⁠⁠OpenAI⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Coinbase⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Solana⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Polygon⁠⁠, ⁠⁠AngelList⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Oura⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Replit⁠⁠, and investors from ⁠⁠Founders⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Fund⁠⁠, ⁠⁠a16z⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Union Square Ventures⁠⁠, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to ⁠⁠⁠Chase Devens⁠⁠⁠ for the show notes and ⁠⁠⁠Yiction⁠⁠⁠ for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠. Thank you!