The Basketball Podcast: EP420 with Matt Wise on Navigating the Highs and Lows

Wise shared insights about roster retention, strategic adjustments including shifting to a tougher defensive lineup, and the importance of maintaining team culture during the tournament run. He emphasized the value of staff alignment and staying true to coaching principles, while noting that the current landscape of college basketball requires constant creation and adaptation due to high roster turnover.

Wise has extensive previous coaching experience, including serving as a Graduate Assistant for the University of Florida’s men’s basketball program, two stints as an Assistant Coach at the University of Wyoming (where he was part of the 2015 Mountain West Tournament title and NCAA berth), an Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, and an Assistant Coach at East Tennessee State University. He also worked as Director of Video & Creative Content for the University of Alabama’s women’s basketball team during the 2021-22 season, before serving as Assistant and later Associate Head Coach for Samford University’s women’s basketball program from 2022 to 2025.

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Matt Wise Quotes:

“Belief and confidence in your own abilities or belief and confidence in the things you run or belief and confidence in each other . . that’s the difference between teams that perform at a high level and teams that don’t.”

“I thought we got really good as a staff because we put in a lot of time meeting as a staff . . we meet every single day for multiple hours. But that level of communication and chemistry on the staff, one, it bled over to the players. But two, we were so on the same page as far as the decision-making, as far as what needed to get done.”

“In the middle of practice we brought them over to a TV screen, we showed them five, six clips . . and then we went out and we executed it. I can’t tell you why that was the light switch that worked . . and in the postseason,  we were probably running a third of our offense as the off-ball motion, a third as the on-ball motion, and a third of sets, which is what I always envision and hope for. But man, was it hard to get it to click for a long while.”

“By playing players that played harder defensively, we ended up getting more stops, which allowed us to get out and run offensively, which allowed our offensive efficiency to go up. So, by playing players that weren’t as good offensively, we ended up first in points per possession, and top two in field goal percentage, three point percentage, two point percentage, and assist rate. Every offensive category, we finished top two in the league in. And it was by playing tougher players.”

“We were able to retain . . five of our top seven rotationally, with the two that we lost being to graduation. One of the things that we were able to do was, and I’m blessed with a good staff, I think the players  felt loved, appreciated, and accepted for exactly who they are . . and I think they felt that. And, because of the way our season went, they can’t say they didn’t get better.”

“They felt like they got better. We had 10 of our 14 have career highs in points. It was such a progression that I think that feeling loved and cared for and feeling the sense of accomplishment and development [helped us retain players].”

“What they got to feel was belonging to and fulfillment. When you get better, you feel fulfilled. And when you feel you’re around people that love and appreciate you for who you are, you feel a sense of belonging. Sometimes the dollar signs are a lot, but I think that was how we were able to keep them.”

“One of the things that I think we got right the week of the conference tournament was we did some special situations to prepare for late game scenarios . .  especially, get it in safely full court, get it in safely sideline out of bounds, how to foul. And sure enough, a bunch of those show themselves in each round [of the conference tournament].”

“Keeping it joyful, being prepared, I think those are things we got right, as far as the things that I personally learned from . . one of the things that I learned throughout the course of the tournament is they’re going to freak out if you freak out, and they’re going to be relaxed if you’re relaxed.”

“The speed to flow to the next action got so much better from a technical standpoint. One of the things that I saw get better is we work a lot on ‘line drive’ finishing with the concept of winning the line . . if you take from where you are and draw a straight line to the rim, can you win that line with the dribble? And a lot of times because at some point in your career you’re more athletic, you’re faster, you’re bigger, you just think, ‘I’ll just go around them and I’ll eventually get around them.’  With the physicality in our game, if you start to go around and they bump you, you’re going to be so far from that line to the rim it’s not even funny. And so, we constantly talk about winning the line and are you taking their space? Are you being the one asserting your physicality to the rim?”

Matt Wise Breakdown:

Matt Wise Selected Links from the Podcast:

Matt Wise
Pete Holmes
Ryan Holiday
Lennie Acuff
Larry Shyatt
Billy Donovan
Sally Higgins
Mary Wise
Jim Collins
Brenda Mock Brown
Kim Caldwell
Dusty May
Cori Close
Todd Golden

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