If you put your effort and concentration and to play into your potential to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. In my book, we're going to be winners.

The talent for so many players today, the talent and the spotlight, it's taking them to heights that their character's not strong enough to support.

I'm one of those set goals and chiefness.

I talked about faith, passion,

obviously the drive with the guys that I've been around and the guys that surround me every single day.

If I want to be one of the best,

I've got to play with and against the best.

So that which gets praised gets repeated.

You're listening to the Hardwood Hustle,

brought you by PGC basketball.

Players, thank you for tuning in. You're listening to the Hardwood Hustle brought you by PGC basketball. Players, thank you for tuning in. You're listening to the Hardwood Hustle. I'm your host, Adam Bradley, alongside special guest, Sam Allen. Special thanks to our friends over at PGC basketball. Lead them up, Team Snap and ShotTracker for all their support of the Hardwood Hustle. Today, TJ, normally it's DJ. Today is Sam. Today, Sam, we're going to be talking about developing a pre-practice routine. Now, I've been going around

and recently working with the teams that I've worked with and I've been kind of going heavy on this

topic of engagement and being focused and locked in. And I think it's a big issue in high school sports. You get so many players that are just kind of going through the motions, right? They're just kind of showing up and just kind of going through. But, you know, really trying to get players to be locked in. You know, if you're going to do this, like do it, right? Let's be great. You know, let's just not go through the motion. Let's demand excellence from us.

And I think that focus and engagement is kind of where it starts, right?

So, so often I find, and almost every player I've ever met, and this is a conversation

I've been having with my teams, almost every player I've ever met Sam has a pregame routine. This pregame ritual,

this pregame set of activities or exercises mentally or just routines that gets them closer

to being in the zone. And you'll ask the players, maybe they're listening to a certain set of music.

A common one is the bathroom, right? A lot of players going to the bathroom, we're kind of letting

it lose, right? But in that stall, right, as they sit there, there's like this, you know,

silence there where they can kind of focus. Some of them, some players go to their car and they

sit in their car for 20 minutes, I hear,

...