Coach Kenton Aubrey on Equity, Game Plans, and Leading a Team in March
Leadership · From Student of the Game
Coach Kenton Aubrey on Equity, Game Plans, and Leading a Team in March
Brad Noll recorded this episode of Student of the Game in the middle of March Madness, so the theme was obvious: survive and advance. His guest, Kenton Aubrey, is the associate head men's basketball coach at Indiana Tech, and he also teaches sports leadership classes and helps run an AAU circuit. He goes by Coach, not Professor.
For Kenton, March is the greatest time of the year. It is the culmination of everything a team trained for, "what the heartache taught you" and what success taught you, and it can end with one bounce of the ball. He also points out something fans miss. Everyone loves an underdog, but a favorite that survives a close call early can learn the lesson that carries it to a title.
A Love of the Game That Started at Home
Kenton grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, with parents who left for labor-intensive jobs at sunrise and came home at sunset. He traces his work ethic to them. He traces his love of March Madness to his grandmother, a devoted University of Louisville fan, who let him stay home from school for the opening-round games. The night before the tournament they would stock up on snacks like a snowstorm was coming.
Brad and Kenton first really connected when Brad's family traveled with the Purdue Fort Wayne team, where Kenton coached at the time, for a game at UCLA. Brad's wife, Lindsay, saw how packed a college basketball schedule is and finally understood why he never called her back during his playing days.
“Nobody remembers that you guys lost a game in December if you win the last game in March.”
Kenton Aubrey
The Fundamental: Building Equity
Asked for his fundamentals, Kenton starts with relationships. Working for Coach Jon Coffman at Purdue Fort Wayne, he learned the idea of building equity with people, and Brad, a real estate guy, loves the word. If a coach only sees players in workouts, film, and practice, those players may misread his intentions when he has to get on them. But if he has helped when a car broke down or talked through a personal struggle, they know "coach has got me."
Kenton is also a planner. He game plans for a podcast interview the same way he game plans to break a press or get his son to eat dinner. On the UCLA trip, every hour was scheduled days in advance, down to the sandwich delivery. Brad remembers the bottles of water on the bus. They were not there in case someone got thirsty. Travel dries you out, so players were expected to drink up before the flight. Brad's family still says "road tough" before every trip.
When plans go sideways, Kenton says, two options are not enough:
- Plan A is the case of water you can see on the front seat.
- Plan B is another case in case the first runs out.
- Plan C is the two more cases stored under the bus that nobody knows about.
- With people, the same idea means peeling back new layers when the first two approaches do not work.
Brad connects it to deposits and withdrawals. There will be times a leader has to make a withdrawal from a relationship. The question is whether you have made enough deposits.
A Clean Slate Every Season
How does a team start strong in March, whether it is on a winning or losing streak? Kenton reminds players that national champions sometimes have plenty of losses. "Nobody remembers that you guys lost a game in December if you win the last game in March." He has climbed the ladder to cut down nets at Indiana Tech and kept every piece. No one can take that away.
Brad says a year is too long a time horizon to create urgency. His team treats every 12 weeks as a new year, an idea he calls short cycle execution. Like students who turn in a paper on the last day of the month, people work to their deadline, so shorten it. Retired listeners can set a 12-week goal too, whether it is a vacation or more time with the grandkids. With the end of the quarter approaching, Brad says his team needs to put its best players in the game.
How Do You Spot a Leader?
Kenton shares a line he heard from a successful coach while at Western Kentucky: leaders are lonely. Brad stops to tell listeners that if they feel lonely, it may be because they think and act differently than the crowd, and that is normal.
Kenton looks for people doing the tough, uncomfortable things. Leaders call out a lack of effort and are willing to have hard conversations, but they are also first to put an arm around a teammate. If open gym starts at 2 PM, he notices the player shooting at 1:30 without being told. He also shares a story he heard Michigan State great Mateen Cleaves tell at a camp: Cleaves was in the gym every day, until a coach asked whether he had brought a teammate. The next year he did, and it became contagious. Car rides and meals together built the deeper bond.
Brad adds that leadership may be lonely, but you do not have to stay there. His business took off after a 2017 real estate leadership conference connected him with like-minded people across the country. Kenton adds that leadership also includes followership. A humble leader leans on teammates who are stronger in areas he is not, and that becomes contagious too.
What Does Winning at the Game of Life Look Like?
Kenton is obsessed with finding wins. Some are in the win column. Others are small: a baby sleeping four straight hours, a toddler putting his own shoes away, or simply getting through a day with two children under two. He also counts watching former players become husbands, fathers, and productive citizens, and connecting people across the coaching world. "We all eat when we win," he says.
When Brad asks for virtual flowers, Kenton thanks his parents, close friends, his boss, Brad, and especially his wife for chasing his dream with him. Brad's closing advice for anyone just trying to survive: get around people who lift you up, have a plan A, B, and C, and go get it.
▶ Listen to the full episode
Survive and Advance with Coach Kenton Aubrey, on Student of the Game.
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