Mike Burgomaster: Auburn University

coaches welcome to this edition of the basic bball podcast super excited to have our guest on today coach Mike burgomaster from Auburn University coach how you doing not too bad how are you thanks for having me doing well man really appreciate you coming on Sir as we get going here I was just hoping you could kind of give a quick brief background of your history and where how you've got to Auburn and kind of some of your stops before you've gotten there and then also how you've even progressed that Auburn itself too sure um you know so I got my start working in college basketball actually as a student manager um at the University of Miami um you know I was there from 2012 to 2016 um you know was really fortunate to be a part of some great teams there a couple of sweet 16 teams under coach lar Nega um you know OU the team my first year actually ended up winning the regular season end tournament ACC Champion uh ship and so uh realized that you know this is what I wanted to do um you know I originally had gone to school thinking that I was going to you know take my finance degree that I got and go back up to the Northeast I'm from Massachusetts originally so go back up to the Northeast and you know work in finance up there but um realized that you know I wanted to keep pursuing coaching um you know um for a full-time uh career and so uh ended up at Auburn um right after that you know was fortunate to have some mentors that um were able to connect me to Auburn and Coach Pearl um and so arrived at Auburn in the 201617 season as a graduate assistant um did that for uh a year and a half um before you know I finished my my masters at Auburn and um was able to then you know get promoted to being a full-time um you know I was my first position was assistant director of Ops um and then I've had like a couple other titles I've been like assistant to the head coach I've been recruiting coordinator just kind of you know different titles and then um going into last season you know when they changed the rules where um you know the the staff could be extended the more people could be on the court I was promoted to being our assistant coach and offensive coordinator and um um yeah this will be my ninth year at at Auburn um so only only the two stops not not an illustrious background but have worked for two amazing head coaches that I've learned a ton from and um you know try to amplify what they've had success doing on a daily basis oh that's awesome man I think it's pretty cool yeah the two head coaches you've worked for both pretty uh legendary in their own rights of just the runs they've been on and just definitely the reputations they have um speaking on just that Auburn of being there for as long as you have and being able to progress through all those positions how's that looked for you and kind of what can you speak to yourself of being able to be in such a high level PR as long as you've been and being able to just progress a lot of young coaches bounce around from job to job kind of trying to level up and obviously being SEC is huge and being a part of that program but how's that look for you being able to go from each one of those positions and be able to kind of uh level your way up yeah for sure I mean you know first and foremost I don't I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in today if it weren't for the people that I've worked for I mean you know I got you know I got a a very nice review from coach lar Nan a nice recommendation to even come and be here and be a graduate assistant um and then you know coach Pearl is is amazing um as far as not just a basketball coach but just as a a leader and a and a you know a manager would if you if you would say of of of a of an of an office right um he treats his staff really well um and gives gives you a lot of opportunity to show him what you can do um you know and so um one of the things that I was you know fortunate to kind of read from him early on is you know the the more valuable I can make myself on his staff the more opportunity that I'm going to get even if it's areas that I hadn't had experience in before um and he kind of he he kind of in my growth in this in these eight years has allowed me to you know has allowed me to try things and to fail and and knowing that you know him knowing me and knowing you know the work ethic that I've shown from the the second I stepped on campus um has allowed me to kind of grow and and try all of these different facets of our program whether it's been you know operation stuff or it's been scouting stuff or you know now having a more increased role at the offense and um um you know you know being on the floor and Player Development stuff and and and using my voice in practice and coaching you know it's he's he's just an unbelievable boss and um yeah I mean I think you know a piece of advice that I try to give to younger coaches is like one of the first things you need to do is not worried about how do I get to the next spot but you have to learn you have to learn your boss right because you need to be able to effectively do what they're doing or what what they're expecting of you and and you need to be able to effectively like learn their communication style to make sure that you're doing the things that are are that are expected of you right and so um that's one of the things I just somehow grasped on to early on and and so you know because of that and because of the way that you know of Coach proos leadership style been able to progress and and and be in the role that I'm in right now yeah it's super cool I think that's a a great advice is yeah learn who you're working for right now I think as you mentioned so many guys are trying to progress and whatever it is and not only be really good where you're at but make sure you're serving who you're under really well too and make sure you know what they kind of want just like you said you get that kind of good review from your coach and who you're working for 100% um you kind of were mentioning about being able to jump into different spots what' that kind of look like for you because I know being a ga and that's kind of you're doing a lot of grunt work and stuff like that and then as you progress up you kind of I guess have more opportunities and probably feel more comfortable jumping into like scouting things like but what are some examples of stuff especially as you were kind of younger in your Auburn um years of what did that look like for you of some different things you were jumping into yeah so I mean you know one of the one of the ways that um coach Pearl has always done like I'll use scouting as an example like one of the ways he's always done his scouting is he breaks his staff up into three groups um generally led by the three you know top assistants um and so you know those groups are going to split up each Scout you know all the scouts by a third right so you know you're doing one every three games names essentially um and so actually my second year as a graduate assistant um you know it happened to be at the same time that we were going through some of the the you know that that time in college basketball when there was like the FBI stuff going on that sort of stuff and so um our staff unfortunately got down to a place where we you know we had uh two two assist our head coach two assistants one interim assistant and then two graduate assistants which you know for an SEC staff if you look at um you know some of the of the staff is now that that's not even close to what all these people have um and so it was It was kind of baptism by fire in a way right and so Scouting For example you know in order to split up all that work that we normally do as a graduate assistant I just had to take a much larger role and and learn on the Fly and you know rely on some of the stuff I had learned in my first year um you know working under some of the assistance that we we had had and so we ended up winning the SEC that year and being a four seed in the NY tournament and so you know the fact that I was able to kind of step into that role and and and had been a sponge prior you know because we we we talk about and this where might jump around here for a second but we always talk about with our players right you've got to be ready for your opportunity right if you're not playing as many minutes as you want if you're not starting and all of a sudden someone goes down and you're thrust into this role if you're not ready who knows if that opportunity is going to come again right and so I tried to kind of embody that same concept from a coaching perspective and and you know happen to be in a position where where I was ready and and you know ready to take on more responsibility and just you know tried like I said tried to be a sponge from the year prior and and um you know we had success and so you know I think that earned me a lot of trust with Coach Pearl um and so uh you know it's whether it's been you know recruiting or you know now they just changed the rule where um you know the the additional staff members can now go on the road um you know we can't all go be out there at the same time but you know I got the I've had the opportunity to go on the road now twice um you know in my career and just constantly just trying to do more to to grow and to add more value to the program that's awesome I think it's cool yeah you get those kind of adverse situations that yeah if you're really able to take advantage of and like you said be ready we always ask our players that and then sometimes as coaches we're so stubborn of like no this is my role so I'm just going to do this so I think that's great advice of kind of be be able to be open to new and different things or really help help you guys win and obviously that's kind of what led to right uh just kind of want to talk on so your new role as you kind of mentioned is as offensive coordinator along with assistant coach just kind of curious what that entails for you like what is your day-to-day and what are you kind of during game day as well and how much of the offense are you helping with and how much are you contributing towards that and kind of what things are you contributing towards that sure so I mean um you know just I'll start with day-to-day just because I'll I'll lead into sort of like what the game situation looks like but from a day-to-day standpoint um you know from when my title changed from I think the last title I had was recruiting coordinator assistant to the head coach and then I became assistant coach offense coordinator um the roles and responsibility haven't changed a ton right um you know I was doing a lot of still operational work I was doing a lot of you know um prepping our staff for uh evaluation period you know prepping um you know for visits that sort of stuff um you know being a liaison on campus with multiple different departments whether it's compliance marketing all this sort of all this sort of operational stuff um that helps make the program run I'm still doing a lot of that stuff um where I where where I've been able to increase my day-to-day is is being on the floor with players right so whether it's you know H having a bigger hand in the Player Development piece where in a non-coaching role before you know I couldn't be on the floor with players um and so there's there's an increased um you know amount of time to that each day um and then you know the other thing is is is practice prep and and um act the actual practice right so before as a non-coaching staff member you know you're you're you're only in a practice setting allowed to coach the coaches well now you know now I'm in situations where when some of our other staff is on the road I'm I'm thrust into drills I'm I'm you know I'm coaching I'm you know and I'm or even at times when you know I'm running practice right and so there's there's that whole addition to the responsibilities that I've I've Loved I mean you know I've this is what I've wanted to do the entire time I've been in this you know in this industry so the fact that there's just extra work and it's work that I love on top of it is is awesome um when it comes to like a uh when it comes to like a game um in in season you know the responsibilities I've always been involved in The Scouting since you know that that that year um but now you know it's definitely an increased role um in scouting um you know and uh now that I've been labeled our offensive coordinator I'm involved in you know every Scout um as far as helping our staff and helping coach Pearl um what you know we the looks that we like offensively or the concepts that we like offensively um and then ingame you know my role is to take what we've prepped as a staff um and feed it to coach Pearl throughout the game to help him make play calls but also you know well I still love both ends of basketball and it can be hard for me sometimes like you know sometimes when we're on the defensive end I'm supposed to be thinking about you know okay what comes next what comes after that and kind of be you know uh help prepping for what comes next in the flow of the game um you know what adjustments we need to make and and maybe whatever you know adjustments the opposing defense has made um that we need to you know make changes for at halftime um with some looks that maybe we hadn't planned for but hey they're doing this and we thought they'd do this you know so let's add this this this into our our list of things that we like um and then you know and then you know also throughout the season it's then monitoring that right like you know okay what are our what are our efficiencies for these given looks you know um you know are we is this you know entry into an action is this you know not as efficient as this entry right and and keeping track of all of that stuff brok broken down to you know um it's it's its minimalistic forms just so that we can make the best decisions um you know throughout the course of the game that's awesome so one of the things you kind of had mentioned on in there was really being able to like have a voice in the scouts and talking about how you're going to exploit or take advantage of whoever you're playing whatever that looks like what does that kind of look like for you and what are some of the things you guys are looking at uh as far as taking advantage of mat matchups excuse me either individually or taking advantage of different systems they're playing defensively as well yeah I mean we you know we look a ton at you know first and foremost we like I always tell people that we're a very Scout specific program you know and and maybe a package of stuff that we run offensively in one game you may not see us run that for another three games right but we we try to try to have a bunch of stuff in our repertoire to be able to exploit however you know however somebody's going to guard because you know there's a weakness there's a weakness to every single type of Defense there's no Perfect Defense now there's some people that are really good at you know knowing their weaknesses and and not letting you exploit them as much but um you know so we try to we try to keep track of that sort of stuff first and foremost as as far as like what certain looks do against certain defenses and how and how it'll exploit how they guard um you know i' I'd also say um you know when it comes to like a Personnel uh you know that's that's that's kind of like you know having a self Scout and knowing our Personnel um and then you know in The Scouting process like working with the coaching staff of like hey you know I've seen this you know kept track of this person he you know his defensive efficiency is not up to standard or we have a real Advantage there and then it's you know kind of with a little bit of feel um throughout the course of the game you know knowing when to go to those matchups given up given the certain looks that we have and then you know it's my job to know like all right you know this is the situation I want to create based on how they're guarding what do we have that gets us in that situation right and it's kind of that you know and that's what I'm thinking about throughout the course of a game awesome um so you kind of had also talked about excuse me your guys's offensive efficiency you guys have been top 20 the past couple Seasons or throughout the few last seasons both like on kpom ratings both on points per possession just a bunch of different me uh metrics super highly rated on offensive efficiency what's some of that stuff that both in practice and then kind of you already mentioned it even just that scouting that contributes to your guys' efficiency is that kind of personnel based or is that really a speak to your guys system what you're doing yeah I mean I think you know I think um as simple as it sounds you're going to be good at what you work on right and so you know I think um well well coach Pearl wouldn't necessarily like come out here and start talking about the four factors of you know but honestly the four factors have a lot to do he probably wouldn't even know what I was talking about if you said if you said the four factors but if but but that's the stuff that he just works on intuitively right so you know we're constantly working on free throws we're constantly working on you know really simple drills to not turn the ball over turnovers are going to happen teams are going to force turnovers but the amount of unforced turnovers that you can limit um you know that's that's stuff you can drill um you know offensively conceptually we we constantly plan for offensive rebounding right so that's why you know our offensive Reb running rate is going to be constantly you know where it needs to be and then and then you know while we give a lot of freedom I think we do a great job of throughout even through the summer and the fall and and and going into the season I think we do a great job of teaching our guys while we give Freedom what what are good shots and and what are great shots right um and and sometimes you know sometimes we you got to take what the defense gives you but you know there's certain things we're trying to get to and so I think you know these are these are the stuffs we focus on I think that's or or sorry these are some of the the components that we focus on and that's part of the reason why you see our offensive efficiency numbers going up because we we work on that stuff yeah definitely uh and that's one thing I think Super interesting about you guys is I think you do have such a good balance you get a lot of points in transition you guys run a pretty free offense you also have a bunch of great sets and like one thing I think that's cool whenever I watch kind of some some of your guys' sets and stuff you guys do we run a lot of like a lot of flex stuff cross screens Rec cross screen like UCLA stuff um can you just like speak on that of some of your offensive sets and what kind of inspir some of that stuff is that stuff uh's kind of had forever and he just uses guys is that's something kind of new but super efficient when you guys run it too it's a little bit old school and not like the sexiest stuff but it's still super efficient yeah I mean I think I think a lot of the stuff that you you've you have spoken to I mean a lot of that comes from coach Pearl's start in this business and you know he worked for um Dr Tom Davis at at Boston Stanford and Iowa and and you know we're you know he always talks about I'm still running the same flex stuff that you know uh that that Dr Tom had always run and you know it's it's hard to guard right like um screen the screener action is hard and if you add no third Defender like that's essentially what Flex is right and so it it makes it really hard to guard you you put a guy in a decision where he's got to make a choice and if you execute um and and drill it as much as we do like you you can you can get really easy good look um you know and then I think I think part of it too is you know we're just we're we're we we like to constantly learn right so you know you could look at we're going to have Staples in our Playbook every single year but you could look from you know the the team that went to the final fora last year and and the you know the the meat and potatoes are are probably all the same but there's lots of tweaks and counters and Concepts that we we try to do a really good job of of fitting to our Personnel um and you know and so like that's we're we're very Scout specific program whether it's a self Scout or an opponent Scout and we just kind of try to blend that all together um based on some of the simple Concepts we work on uh to you know put out the best offensive product we can nice I just kind of want to go back to speak on kind of your history so You' mentioned obviously under coach Pearl right now and then coach larena in your first few years is there anything you could share that those guys have shared with you or any any kind of pieces of nuggets or information that given out to you just like I said being two super successful coaches two super big names in the game just anything that they've kind of shared with you or kind of you've learned with being around those guys yeah I mean I think I think the the the one common theme and while they do it in different ways is I think um both coaches they really value trying to breed confidence in their players um you know rather than rather than beating them down and and saying that's a bad shot or you know subbing somebody out after they make him mistake um you know and like I said they're both way different personalities but like you know coach larena I feel like always used to feel like you know the players the players are going to play better if they feel better right and and and Coach Pearl while he's very fiery it's not always about like how he's saying things it's what he's saying right and so he comes off as this like he's he's going at these guys all the time but he's just he's just communicating throughout the course of the game and uh um you know he I think he does um a a really good job of like he's never going to really say that's a bad shot he's going to get on the guys that didn't go offensive rebound it hard enough right and so you know he I think he's able to get and both of them are are really able to get a level of special out of their players that you know may may not have been the highly touted guys you know coming out of high school or the no-brainers that were going to be you know top five in the NBA draft and I think both those coaches have done that really well and that's why they've both had a ton of success in their career yeah uh one of those things you mentioned is coach Pearl like not really wanting to say that's a bad shot and that's interesting because you were talking about you guys talk so much about sh shot selection excuse me and you guys talk about that a decent amount what does that look like in your program of talking about shot selection because as we kind of were talking about how efficient you guys are that has to be and somewhere in what you guys are talking about what do those kind of conversations look like is that a lot of video is that a lot of voice too conversation but just curious what that looks like yeah I mean I think you know we we you know we keep track of statistics all the way from the first time we have an organized team workout back in the spring right all the you know all the way leading up and I think you know we just without saying without saying like hey you shouldn't take this shot you know what I'm saying I think we do a good job of of positively reinforcing the great shots um and talking about statistics open and honest like look if if your statistics are here from the three-point like it like at the end of the day you you guys make the decisions on who shoots and who doesn't right like everybody knows that you're a 28% three-point shooter and you just took the first four in this scrimmage right like you know at some point your teammates are going to hold you accountable for that and you're going to learn that that's not you know that's not helping us win now granted there's going to be some circumstances where that you know it's a it's it's it's a great like it's a great shot and there's circumstances where coaches actually I i' see I've seen coach get on guys more for not shooting you know than shooting but it's just kind of a process of where we try to posibly reinforce the great shots and continuously Point those out um and and even and even throughout the year we're still going to take some shots where people are like huh but you know that happens every once in a while and that's part of giving the guys confidence but hopefully they you know don't go out of control with that I guess essentially is is kind of the grand hope of it all yeah that's great I think that's so important for guys be able to play loose yeah if they got that kind of on their back of worrying is coach Pearl going to rip me a new one for whatever that shot or whatever especially with him as fire he is like that's the last thing I want is getting yelled at by him for taking a bad shot or whatever so definitely keeping those guys free right uh coach last thing I got for you is a 30 second timeout so just GNA put you through a little end game situation and put you in the hot seat and see what you got drawn up for it ready for that let's do it awesome okay so your situation here uh 7even seconds left in the game you're down three with a sideline out of bounds so what do you got drawn up for that yeah so um all right so let's just let's just say that we're talking about the left side of the floor um you're going to have your best shooter take the ball out on the left side of the flooor um you're going to have your point guard um ballside block and you're going to be in sort of a box formation so point guard ballside block you have your fivan at that sort of top of the key or or sorry the slot area um working working way working his way down to set a he's going to set a zipper screen for the point guard um and then on the other side you're going to have uh you're you know assuming your second best shooter is going to be your other Wing he's going to start all the way in that opposite uh corner and then your your fourman is going to um start in the you know opposite slot of the fiveman so it's a little bit of a you know a box with the guy standing a little bit out to the outside um but essentially what's going to happen is your fiveman is going to then zipper for your point guard and when that ball goes in and because you have seven seconds you know I'm I'm a huge proponent and fan of getting the hammer action I just think it goes It's A Hard action of guard um you know based on the N you know the the the pr principles that everybody teaches their defense about you know rotation trapping the Box all that sort of stuff and so what I'm actually going to zipper my point guard and then he's going to get into a hard right-handed speed dribble um to the outside almost at the Forman um not quite get getting too close to him where they might think it's a ball screen but almost a little bit veered out um while that's happening the four is actually then also going to zipper for the the the three men that started in the opposite corner um and so when one comes off that speed dribble and he's trying to turn the corner and and get to the Hammer your fiveman who had set the initial zipper for your point guard is going to set a hammer screen for your uh your best shooter um let's let's say your Twan that that inbounded it um and and that's going to be your first look but also then what's going to happen because your three-man had zippered off of your fourman um your four then is actually going to turn around and set what we call it a pin in screen but basically come back and screen for your your thre man to give you a second option if that that hammer action is taken away um um you know and also trying to take advantage of the fact that you know when teams rotate to trap the Box they also sink and fill um and so you you give yourself two options um you know uh with seven seconds left to to try to get a three-point shot off no I love it I love what you said about the hammer screens man that is so it is such a tough action to guard I think any kind of flare Hammer stuff like that is so against any defensive preton Bol that it's I don't I feel like we don't run it enough in basketball you don't see it enough with the flares and Hammers and stuff like that just because it is so tough to guard it's always in it's always in special situations but it's I mean it's a it's a it's a tough action to guard and and yeah it's because you know everything you teach from defense for the most part in day one is all right like you know load to the ball rotate to help and it's you gotta have you're you're you're really trying to take advantage of the defense's situational awareness and are are like are they disciplined enough to stay in these shooters passing Lanes you know is is the the the guard that's guarding the inbounder right like is he jumping towards the ball right and and then he's got going to get more lined up for that screen so it'll be um you know I think you'd get a decent Lookout off of it that's that's one of my favorites absolutely and hoping that guy knocks it down that's the big one no doubt awesome I appreciate you coach taking some time and getting on here and dropping a little bit of knowledge uh just again thanks man appreciate you appreciate you having me I enjoy doing it thanks coach take