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.

0:00 - 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!