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The Basketball Podcast: EP416 with Roneeka Hodges on Player-First Coaching
In this episode of the Basketball Podcast, Coach Roneeka Hodges discussed her experience as the associate head coach for the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA and her role as head coach of the Phantom BC and Unrivaled Basketball League. She reflected on her coaching journey, emphasizing the importance of player development, building trust with players, and adapting to the evolving game.
Coach Hodges shared insights on balancing control and trust as a head coach, the challenges of transitioning from playing to coaching, and the value of mentorship in her career. She also highlighted the unique opportunities provided by the Unrivaled League for player growth and development. The conversation touched on her approach to defensive systems, player confidence-building, and the role of technology in modern coaching. Coach Hodges expressed gratitude for the mentors who have shaped her career and looked forward to applying her experiences in her role with the Connecticut Sun.
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Roneeka Hodges Quotes:
“I think that that is essential for any young coach that’s aspiring to be a head coach to have those reps and be able to understand who you are as a coach by having that hands-on experience . . Unrivaled provided that . . from building a roster from scratch, to implementing the system, to managing people, not only the players but a staff. And just learning a little bit more about yourself and who you want to be as a coach and having that opportunity to grow.”
“As a first-time head coach, you have ideas of things that you want to do, how you want to play, all of those things. But implementing and seeing those things through and being able to make adjustments and having to deal with different personalities and managing people, all of it was a challenge.”
“Players are going to be players on every level. It’s all about how you can relate to them, how you could communicate and how you could give information and get them to buy into what you’re asking. And I think that starts with are they going to buy into you as a person? The relationship aspect is important on every level.”
“You can’t show up as a coach the same way that you showed up as a player. But that’s one of the things that I think works to my advantage — the fact that I played for so long and I could relate to them on different levels, but I also understand how to separate the player approach from the coach approach.”
“The way that I process [breaking things down for the players] is what are we going to do, how are we going to do it, and why? The analytics comes into play when we start talking about why, because you do have to give them the information and you do sometimes have to explain to them why we’re doing it.”
“To me, the foundation of any defense is one-on-one. You have to be able to guard the ball. You have to commit to guarding the ball, guarding your player, and then everything else after that is secondary. One of the things about Unrivaled is there isn’t that much help . . there is the space to be exposed. So, we had to commit to that one-on-one defense early.”
“Are you going to take pride in your one-on-one defense and are you going to be able to control or limit your player and think about their tendencies? . . we want to defend to tendencies. You can’t guard every single player the same because every player has different strengths and different skill sets. So, we try to cater our defense to what those players like to do and also what worked well for us.”
“The thing that was most important to me as an assistant coach was understanding my role. I think that’s the case in any team setting. Roles have to be established and you have to understand what it is that’s being asked of you and execute that . . the coaching staff is no different than the players in the team. You want to assemble your coaching staff the same way you assemble a team. You’re thinking about the strengths and weaknesses and how can we all complement each other.”
“I also find that being a truth teller can take you a long way. They may not understand it in the moment or they may not want to accept it in the moment, but ultimately, . . you know that you gave the truth and you tried to do things the right way without demeaning a player, and understand that this is needed for growth.”
“I’m going back and I’m looking at the film. I’m going to look at it from the normal angle without sound and I’m going to evaluate how I handled my ATOs. I’m going to evaluate adjustments that I needed to make. I’m going to evaluate my substitution pattern. Anything that I could have done better, I’m going to go back and I’m going to look at it and ensure that I’m better for the next time that I’m in those same situations.”
“I think that it brought us a lot of clarity and a lot of trust by talking about what your roles are from the beginning and talking about what the expectations are. And I think everybody bought into that and we were able to be selfless because of those reasons. There was no doubt about what you needed to do or what was expected of you . . we did a really good job of buying in and being selfless in that regard and understanding that it could be anybody’s day. I think we played with that mindset, and it brought us a ton of joy.”
Roneeka Hodges Breakdown:
Roneeka Hodges Selected Links from the Podcast:
Roneeka Hodges
Kelsey Plum
Aliyah Boston
Sandy Brondello
Natasha Cloud
Kiki Iriafen
Nikki Fargas
DeLisha Milton-Jones
Ganiyat Adeduntan
Rechid Meziane
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