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The Basketball Podcast: EP375 with Duane Simpkins on Reflecting on a Championship Season
In this week’s coaching conversation, American University head coach Duane Simpkins joins the Basketball Podcast to share insights on reflecting on a championship season.
Simpkins has made a significant impact as the head coach of American, leading the program to new heights in the Patriot League. Over his tenure, he has compiled an impressive 38–29. In just his second year, Simpkins led the Eagles to a historic season, winning the 2024-25 Patriot League Championship and earning the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014. American finished 22-13 overall and 13-5 in the Patriot League, matching the program’s all-time record for league wins in a season.
Simpkins joined American after eight seasons on the coaching staff at George Mason, where he helped guide the Patriots to multiple program bests within the Atlantic 10, including an 11-win A-10 campaign and a 20-13 overall finish in 2022-23.
His coaching career also includes stints at UNC Greensboro, Towson, and on the high school level at St. Albans, Sidwell Friends, and Bishop O’Connell. In 2020, he was named one of the country’s Top 50 Most Impactful Mid-Major Assistants by Silverwaves Media and has been invited to numerous national leadership and coaching development programs.
A DMV basketball legend, Simpkins earned McDonald’s High School All-America honors at DeMatha Catholic under Hall of Fame coach Morgan Wootten. He was a three-time All-ACC Honorable Mention selection at the University of Maryland and helped lead the Terrapins to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including two Sweet 16 runs.
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Duane Simpkins Quotes:
“When we recruit a kid, and it’s not just recruiting the player, it’s looking in the stands and seeing how parents react when little Johnny gets taken out of the game or little Johnny’s not playing well, how are they with the other parents, because when we have him here in DC at American, it’s a complete team effort.”
“And we stress to our guys all the time in practice, like we’re preparing for our most adverse situations. Whether it be we’re down four points with 15 seconds ago, or we’re on the road and we’ve lost two in a row. Those are the things that’s what gets my juices flowing, to be quite honest with you. I want to stress and prepare our guys for those situations. And if you are a player, no matter how talented you are, if you are the type of player that folds in those situations and can’t bounce back, it’s gonna be very difficult for me to coach you.”
“We want to try to score in the first seven seconds, we call it the first seven seconds offense force. And it’s just that we’re trying to score, whether it be a three, it could be a layup it could be a, a dribbling three. It doesn’t matter, like if there’s a quality shot, a shot that we value and that we work on every single day, we want to try to get that in the first seven seconds.”
“[My wife] said, Hey, if you’re a head coach, whenever we have somebody new on staff, I need their email address. I need their address. I’m gonna drop ’em some stuff in the mail and they got any kids. We’ll make sure we get them geared. And sure enough, like she did that last year, our first year here, and the connection man that you will make with not only the staff members, but their families is priceless, man. And now I feel like everybody’s on the same page and everybody wants to run through a brick wall for you.”
“I think it’s important to understand that when you do watch film, we watch a lot of film, watching film with our team versus watching film with someone individually is different. It’s different. Certain guys are going to open up and ask questions, great questions that they won’t ask in front of their teammates for whatever reason.”
“It’s like being a parent. Like you can read the books and everything, but until that time where there’s a timeout and there’s 10 seconds and a clock and the clipboards in your hand, you just gotta go through that. And I was blessed to go through it. It hurt but it made me a better coach. It made us a better team. And this year I think we had 11 games where that, that were determined by six six points or less. And we won nine of them, so we flipped the script on it. But like I was not completely prepared for that.”
“I don’t want you to just take what I say and say, Hey, that’s what we’re gonna do. So these guys, they challenge me on a day to daily basis coach, I don’t agree with that. Why? Let’s talk it out. And I may say, you know what, I still pretty still feel strong about it. This is what we’re gonna do. Like, all right, coach. All right, cool. And we’ll go out, we’re united front and there’s some days I’m sitting, I’m like. Damn, I didn’t think about that. That’s we gotta change that.”
“I tell our guys all the time, and if you call or text me and say that you’re home and you were in the gym for two and a half hours working on your game, I’m gonna say, you’re either lying or I’ll tell you, this is the dumbest thing that you should do. Lay out a plan, the flight, the shots that we value in our offense. Do those things at game speed. Trust me, between that and shooting some free throws. And your ball handling that workout should be 55 minutes, 60 tops if you’re doing it at game speed.”
Duane Simpkins Breakdown:
Duane Simpkins Selected Links from the Podcast:
Duane Simpkins
Morgan Wooten
Elijah Stevens
Lincoln Ball
Matt Rogers
Joe Smith
Jackie Manuel
Nate Bollinger
Isaiah Tate
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