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The Basketball Podcast: EP332 with Mike Bradbury on Keeping it Simple
In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, New Mexico head coach Mike Bradbury joins the Basketball Podcast to share insights on efficient language, keeping it simple, and his “so what” philosophy.
Mike Bradbury enters his ninth season as head coach for The University of New Mexico women’s basketball team. In his previous eight seasons at the helm, Bradbury has guided the Lobos to a 162-89 (.645) and 89-51 (.636) in conference and became just the second coach in UNM history to win 100 games. Overall as a head coach he has won over 340 games.
Five times in his tenure (2017-18, 2018-19, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24) the Lobos eclipsed the 20-win mark, with the Lobos tying the program record for most wins in a single season with 26 in 2021-22. Further, the 25 wins in 2017-18 were tied for the second-most wins in program history. The consecutive 20-plus win seasons under Bradbury in 2017-18 and 2018-19 were the first for the program since the 2007-08 – 2008-09 seasons
Of note, there are only three Mountain West teams that have won 20 games in each of the last three years (UNM, UNLV and CSU), and in the last four years, only two MW teams that have won 10 or more conference games all four years (UNM and UNLV).
The Lobos have sustained success under Bradbury as historically, UNM has finished either first or second in the conference in scoring offense in six of the last seven years (four times first).
From 2007 to 2010, Bradbury led Morehead State to a 50–44 record over the course of three seasons, including a 22–11 record and a bid to the WBI in his final season as head coach. The 22-win mark set the school’s NCAA-era record for victories in a season, and the 14–4 conference mark in the same year set the school’s single season conference wins record and was also the highest conference winning percentage in a season in school history
At Wright State from 2010 to 2016, Bradbury had five seasons with 20 or more wins and led the school to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2014, in addition to WBI appearances in 2011 and 2012 and WNIT appearances in 2015 and 2016.
Listen Here:
Mike Bradbury Quotes:
“We don’t want people worrying about making mistakes. Look, we’re all going to make them . . the biggest thing for us is we have to be able to continue to play and not worry about somebody being mad. We tell them right up front, no coach, no player, no teammate is going to be mad at you for making a mistake. We’re going to get mad when you don’t finish the play and continue to play.”
“With our movement within the offense, we’re trying to gain advantage, and the better the player we have, the quicker that can happen . . we’ve got to get everybody moving, and everybody, basically,is playing the same position.”
“On offense, we’re trying to move them and we’re trying to gain an advantage. So, we don’t really even talk about get threes. They’re just going to happen. Our goal is to get an advantage and get that ball to where we get a foot in the charge circle. If we can get it to there, everybody on our team can score, even if guarded.”
“I try to hire really good people, high character people that want to work and be as good as they can. We do the same thing with the players that we recruit. We try to get high character, hard working basketball players. And I think that’s why those people have been so successful.”
“The biggest thing for us is we want to work hard. The first thing is how hard we work and how disciplined we’re going to be. We have very few set rules and things like that. We recruit to team chemistry . . and then the consistency part is if it doesn’t affect winning and losing, it’s not worth worrying about.”
“We try to teach a little bit more than basketball and about how to be successful in life to our kids, too. And it’s, you’ve got to be at your best as much as you can. Whether you’re sick or you have a headache or you’ve got other things on your mind, nobody cares. Our opponents do not care if we have a headache or if we’re a little bit sore or our plane was late. All they’re going to care about is what happens during that two hours. So again, get over it. It doesn’t matter. You have to be as good as you can be all of the time.”
“Our offense is not complicated, but it’s very lengthy. We don’t run the whole offense in every game, so that’s where we make our adjustment in the scouting. We’re probably going to have a lot of this action against this team because this is how they play. They’re going to force us to drive it this way. They’re going to play the post this way.”
“The more information you give them [the players], you can overwhelm them and to where they don’t know anything. If we can know two or three things really good, we’re way better off than trying to know ten different things.”
“I’m going to say, ‘You’ve got number twelve. You’ve got to take away the three and you’ve got to make her bounce it.’ Of course she can do other things, but that’s the one thing we can’t let her do or we’re going to lose. If we make her do something else, and I know she’s capable of it, we’ve got a plan to come help you. There’s no help if you can’t stand there and take away the three.
Mike Bradbury Breakdown:
01:10 Longevity in Coaching
02:02 Building a Winning Team Culture
03:03 Efficient Communication in Coaching
04:39 Non-Negotiables in Player Development
10:27 Adapting Offensive Strategies
15:14 Defensive Principles and Adaptability
21:14 Coaching Philosophy and Staff Development
26:05 Overcoming Adversity: No Excuses
26:42 Staff Organization and Responsibilities
27:56 Efficient Practice Communication
30:03 Post-Practice and Game Review
33:05 Adapting Coaching Strategies
39:06 Simplifying Game Plans
48:05 Maintaining Passion for Coaching
Mike Bradbury
Thad Matta
Sean Miller
Kevin McGuff
Mackenzie Novak
Keith Freeman
Katrina Merriweather
Valerie King
Aarika Hughes
Nike McClure
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