In this series from Gregg Rosenberg, we'll take a look at how some of the state's prep basketball coaches philosophies around building a program.

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The twelfth coach in the 'Building a Program' series: Tri-City Christian's James Brown.

'Started with the Phoenix Suns. We were born and raised in Arizona. The Suns were the only pro team in AZ at the time, going to games, getting autographs after, listening to Al McCoy on the radio, watching pay-per-view Suns games at my grandparents house and Suns camp over the summer. The first organized games I played were actually on the Tri-City elementary school team. Our Uncle, Mike High, was the Tri-City elementary coach. Still is 30 years later. My best friend growing up Glen Brown, same last name so sat together every year in elementary, was also big in developing my love for hoops. Georgetown team shoes in the 80s, trading basketball cards and sleepovers during March Madness while playing competitively with family and friends got us hooked on basketball. Glen played at Dobson HS for Coach McConnell and at the University of Jacksonville.'

'Started with family. Watching two amazing parents who were always helping and giving of themselves to others. We had two uncles, one I mentioned above teaching the 4th grade while coaching at Tri-City and another uncle who was a MLB scout for many years. We were always around sports. Then we were both blessed to play college basketball for excellent coaches, Kim Elders and Keith Champion, who are now in their respective College Hall of Fames. Both men were great coaches on the court but more importantly focused on teaching life lessons and principles to be a successful man off the court.

Coach Champion has over 500 career wins at multiple universities and Coach Elders has over 700 wins at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, MI. Coach E is top 20 in career wins in NAIA history, 3rd among active coaches and has the most National Tournament wins all-time with 8 Final Fours and 3 National Championships. He is still coaching there today. It was an amazing experience to be part of a core group of players for four years that started with Coach E and his great assistant coaches in their beginning stages as they built the program into a national power.

We use many of the same drills, concepts and plays our college coaches did with us 20 years ago. They created an extremely competitive but family style culture, during a very influential time of life for both of us after the death of our Mom, that made a life changing impact. Being able to give that support and help positively develop young men through the game we love, the way our college coaches did for us, is a true honor.'

'The relationships with our players are the foundation of our program and more important than anything that happens on the court. Our former coaches modeled that for us. We both still have relationships with our college coaches today. Continuing the relationships after our players graduate is something we truly cherish. We have an alumni game every season and constantly invite our alumni back to compete with our current players. It is a highlight every time we see those guys and has really helped our player development over the years. However, our former coaches were demanding and required a very high standard on and off the court. College basketball in the Midwest was a lot different than Arizona HS ball especially in the late 90's. That tough and physically demanding style combined with a focus on fundamentals was required to succeed. We brought many of those characteristics back home to AZ which has really benefited our program. Both of our college coaches were big John Wooden fans as well. We reference the Pyramid of Success pretty regularly and use that in team pregame meetings every couple of years.'

'A few phrases that seem to consistently come out every year when talking about on and off the court situations. “100% effort, 100% of the time” “Control the Controllables” “No Regrets” “Play every game like a Championship Game & one day you’ll be in one.”

'Our focus is helping players develop physically, technically, athletically, academically, socially and spiritually. It starts with constant communication, proper preparation and a lot of hard work. There are certain standards that must be met and we hold our players accountable. Thriving for perfection but excited for growth every day. We meet as a team before every practice for a little devotional, address any team/life issues, talk about recent game situations and what we are going to do in practice that day.

At a HS of 80-110 students, we have to adjust our style of play some years based on personnel but it is always focused on man to man team defense with ball containment, help side, no paint and rebounding to start our secondary break. Offensively we want to push and share the ball with execution in the half court'

'Coaching side by side with your brother for 18 years has been nice. We both bring different perspectives but there is complete trust and we can openly talk about anything. We have our college coaches who are both always available as well as close friends/college teammates who are successful HS and College coaches across the country. The coaching community really is a brotherhood, especially when you connect with other coaches who have the same “why” as you do. Really valuable relationships that get you through tough times and help you grow.'

'We have been blessed to coach some great young men so it’s really tough to single out one player/group. Tri-City has appealed to play up above our enrollment size in 16 of our 18 seasons, so our guys had to work really hard to compete but it was key in accelerating our player development. Every class just built on top of the class before it with many of our alumni coming back to push our HS guys. This season among our alumni playing in college were a D1 Big 12 player, NAIA All-American, All-Conference JUCO and All-Conference D3 as well as others contributing to their teams at the next level.

However, if I had to pick one group, the Tri-City class of 2016 took our program to the next level from 2013-2016. We had 2 State Titles and 2 Runner-Ups in their 4 years. 5 of those 2016 players were at Tri-City since elementary school, including 3-time CAA POY Brock Gardner, who just signed his first pro contract this summer. Brock’s older brother was CAA POY and State Champion in 2011 as well as a great college player. Having Brock, a kid no one knew about, put up huge #s as a freshman leading us to a state title and then go play well on the club circuit nationally, changed the outside perspective of our program. However, inside the program all of those players were just working the same way they learned from the players before them pushing to get better every day. Off season workouts were intense, focused on physical and skill development, with everyone bought it. The following year a skinny, athletic 6’4” freshman Nigel Shadd showed up on campus and joined that very motivated group. His basketball skills were raw but he moved well with a motor that wouldn’t stop and upperclassmen that set the tone on how hard to work. Both Brock and Nigel, at a school of less than 100 HS students, went from being totally unknown as freshman to Top 5 Players in all of Arizona for their class with national recognition, McDonalds AA nominations, Pangos AA Camp, etc...

We were blessed to have over 100 Division 1 coaches in our gym one season. 6am and 8pm open gyms for coach visits were the norm in the fall since we only have one gym on campus. It was crazy! Partnering with the right club programs to continue player development, tough competition in CAA top division with preps and 5th year seniors back then, competing in top AIA summer events, scrimmaging 6A schools in the fall and the help of scouts and media like you Gregg, really took our program to a different level. So proud of all our players for their hard work over the years and the way they have represented Tri-City Basketball.'

'Another tough one. So many over the years. If we had to choose one, it would probably be the 2011 State Championship Game. We appealed up two divisions to play D3, the top CAA Division that year. Hadn’t won a state title since 2004. Lost the 2007 Championship Game. We played 27-0 West Phoenix HS in the title game. Our only loss that season was on the road to them a month before. Gym was completely packed, standing room only. We had great officials in Randy Richardson and Frank Abbate working with another young ref. Both teams averaged over 70 ppg in the regular season but that day, it was an absolute dog fight. The game was physical and both defenses were excellent. We had 3 seniors, 2 juniors who played almost every minute that game and didn’t come out the entire 2nd half. We were down 3 very late in the 4th, our center made an elbow jumper to cut it to 1. Got a stop, our power forward was fouled and made the FTs to put us up 1 with 20 seconds left. We had fouls to give so we fouled twice leaving them 6 seconds left with the ball under their basket. They caught the ball in the corner. Our defender bit on a shot fake and as the offensive player drove, he ran into two help side defenders that contested his runner that hit off the back of the rim as our 2011 player of the year Kyler Gardner grabbed the rebound as the horn sounded. The bench rushed the court as our players were running towards us everyone jumping into each other’s arms as the fans stormed the court. We won the game 43-42. Many of the players I mentioned from that Class of 2016 were there as junior high fans who stormed the court that night. Was a memorable moment that we will all share the rest of our lives and started a stretch of 7 State Championship Games in 9 seasons.'

'Keep adapting to your players.

Every team is unique so be willing to change.

Always keep learning and looking for opportunities to grow through coaching clinics and relationships with experienced coaches.

Lead by example in being on time, practice habits, communication, preparation, respect to opponents/officials, social media posts, etc….. Your players are always watching and actions speak louder than words.'

'Tri-City Christian is a K-12 private school that has been around since 1971 so the school has their own elementary and junior high teams. Our Uncle has coached the elementary team for 35 years and there have been some really great players. Many of our HS players have participated including Brock (Liberty). Back in the late 80s, Glen Brown (Jacksonville) and Pat Crawford (ASU football). Recently our elementary team had Jalen Williams (Santa Clara) in the back court with Jalen Grijalva (Benedictine) as 5th and 6th graders who played against Ethan Spry (Grand Canyon) in the elementary league. We have never pushed players to join our lower level teams or pushed players to stay for HS. Probably missed opportunities to keep talented kids over the years but we love to support our lower teams no matter what HS they attend and just coach the players who enroll each year. Would have been pretty fun to see freshmen Jalen and Jalen with senior Brock and junior Nigel though.'

'After the season ends, we start by getting into the gym to focus on skill work in areas of weakness from the past season. Over the summer, we have our individual skills camp and play in AIA summer leagues/events to play teams, usually higher classifications, that we don’t see in the regular season. We are grateful to have been invited to some excellent events over the years, including Best In Basketball for the last 7-8 years. Playing top teams in AZ and sometimes other states has helped our development. We also invite alumni back for pickup ball against our guys throughout the off season. Once we get back in school, we focus on physical strength with jumping, quickness and agility work specific to basketball and get in the gym for skill work whenever volleyball is on the road. One other off season priority has been to get out to watch our guys who are playing club. Most importantly to support them but also to watch them in a different system, sometimes a different role, to help improve their individual development. Communicating with club coaches, staying connected to players and watching them in a different environment helps us properly address areas that need improvement. When we watch Nigel Shadd head to head against PJ Washington, versus Marvin Bagley, Remy Martin in a club championship game or see him with Trae Young and Hamidou Diallo as his back court at Pangos All-American Camp, we see him in an environment with/against elite players that we can’t duplicate in a regular season game.

Staying engaged with our players has been very valuable to help us properly evaluate and continue promoting their growth.'

'More than we deserve. Been extremely blessed with special families and players that have earned over 350 wins while getting to experience 11 State Championship Games in our time at Tri-City.'

'This will likely be our youngest, most inexperienced team in our time at Tri-City. 4 of our 5 starters from last season graduated and we were very young behind them. We will also be pretty small, especially compared to recent years. Just focused on complete buy-in and commitment to get better every day. We will be led by our 1 non-senior starter last season, Andy Mora, who started every game as a freshman. He had the best freshman season in the school’s 50 year history besides Brock Gardner. On the season, Andy finished with 119 assists and only 26 turnovers as the starting point guard on varsity. He was also our 3rd leading scorer with solid shooting %s and stepped up in big games. Went 14-14 at the FT line in a big road win at Skyline Prep to win the region and had a big game against a talented Compass Prep team to help us win the Holiday Classic. Andy was a big surprise last season and key to our 22-2 record after losing so many talented players from the season before. He will have an even bigger role this year as will our lone senior, Josh Wegert. Josh is an excellent perimeter shooter but will need to step up in other areas and help lead this young roster. Excited to get back in the gym with these guys.'

Rosenberg's take:

One of the top programs in the entire state that many do not know a lot about. They have owned the CAA league and not only have they won, but have produced many college basketball players from the small school in Chandler as well.

The brothers are very good coaches and know their players and families for almost their whole early childhood until they graduate HS and build up those incredible relationships; which usually translates onto the court.

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