For most of his life, host Sky Stickney couldn’t fill out a March Madness bracket. Picking anyone other than the Oregon Ducks felt like betrayal, and for sixteen years the faith behind that had a name: Coach Dana Altman. Last week, after 37 seasons as a Division I head coach and 16 at Oregon, Altman retired. He leaves behind a Final Four, five straight NCAA Tournaments, players like Payton Pritchard, Dillon Brooks and Chris Duarte, and a program he built. But leaving forces a reckoning and Altman’s was honest. This bonus episode is a tribute to the coach who shaped a generation of basketball fans, and to what the game asks of the people who give their lives to it.  Sky sits down with Coach Jon Frazier, who won an Oregon State Championship at Summit High School and then walked away to be with his family. They talk about the cost of coaching, the courage to leave, and what it means to step away before the job takes the people you love. Thank you, Coach Altman. In Dana we trust. Coach Jon Frazier is a resource for coaches through Proactive Coaching Reach him at JdFrazier@gmail.com. Bucket is on Instagram: @bucketpodcast hello@bucketpodcast.com

When we first sat down with Lucas LaBounty in Season 1, Episode 2, "The Standard," it was the very first interview of this show. A conversation with a kid from Thurston High School about what it means to inherit something bigger than yourself. Lucas had grown up inside a program built on continuity. Coaches who stay. Habits handed down. Expectations absorbed more than announced. He waited, earned his role, and then carried it, trying to make his own mark while protecting something that existed long before him. After our conversation, he won a second straight Midwestern League Player of the Year. Oregon 5A First Team All-State. And now: a new chapter at Western Colorado University 7,700 feet up in Gunnison, CO on a roster full of new faces. We check back in with the guy who started it all to find out whether the standard travels, how the fishing is in Gunnison, what happens when the kid who inherited a culture has to start over in a new one, and whether the path that got him here (wait, earn, reap) is the same one waiting for him at the next level. The second of our Check-In Episodes. Follow Lucas: @LucasLabounty @westerncolorado_mbb Bucket is on Instagram: @bucketpodcast hello@bucketpodcast.com

In October 2015, Hurricane Patricia exploded into the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere in under 24 hours. Twenty-two years earlier, a different storm did the same thing over the Gulf of Mexico, burying the American South in snow nobody saw coming. Meteorologists have a word for what happens when something grows far faster than anyone built a system to track it. Jakyi 'Kyi Kyi' Miles had Division I offers before he started high school. NIL deals before he could drive. He's the top-ranked point guard in the 2028 class, playing for one of the best high school teams in the country, and he's still a kid figuring out what kind of person to become inside all of it. Hurricane researcher Jason Dunion has flown directly into some of the most violent storms on record. He joins Bucket to talk about rapid intensification, the eye of the storm, and what it actually takes for something growing this fast to hold together instead of tearing itself apart. If you've enjoyed this season, we'd love your vote for the Signal Awards: Best Documentary (Sports): https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signa5_entrant_finalistnotification_092926&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2026/shows/genre/documentary-sports Best Indie Podcast: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signa5_entrant_finalistnotification_092926&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2026/shows/genre/indie-podcast Follow Kyi Kyi: @kyikyi_miles Featuring music by @Nasteeluvzyou, our second BeatStars × Bucket Challenge winner Bucket is on Instagram @bucketpodcast · hello@bucketpodcast.com

Signal to Noise | Bonus A nor'easter, a lot of New York pizza, and a lot of courts without nets. Bucket is a 2026 Signal Awards Finalist in Indie Podcast and Documentary (Sports).  Listener's Choice voting is open through October 15th  You Can Vote for BOTH categories here:  https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signa5_entrant_finalistnotification_092926&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2026/shows/genre/documentary-sports https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signa5_entrant_finalistnotification_092926&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2026/shows/genre/indie-podcast The next ten days get busy: a storm that grew faster than anyone could measure, a man on a ladder in Queens, and an old friend checking back in. Pressure's dropping.

When we first sat down with Kaylor Buse in Season 1, Episode 3, "The Full Measure," she wasn't necessarily a household name.  She was a high schooler talking about competing + recruiting with a clarity most players twice her age never find: prioritizing the human connection, seeing through the empty promises of the courting process before it had even ramped up for her. Then came winning the Oregon 6A State Championship. A dominant AAU season. The national spotlight. Major offers from the best programs in the country. And now: a commitment to Texas Christian University.  We check back in with one of our favorite guests to find out whether the wisdom she showed us back then held up under the weight of everything that followed, and what the recruiting process actually looked like from the inside. The first of our Check-In Episodes.  Follow Kaylor: @KaylorBuse  @TCUwbb Bucket is on Instagram: @bucketpodcast hello@bucketpodcast.com