Boy, how’s that for a cheesy newspaper headline? [I’m still working on my coffee– give me a few.]

New Sixers coach Brett Brown has a little bit of Chip Kelly in him. Like his front office colleague, the mysteriously nerdy Sam Hinkie, Brown is taking a progressive approach towards running a basketball team– and it starts with players getting in shape.

From Chris Vito of the Delco Times, who wrote a signifcantly better article based on Brown’s media availability than did his counterpart over the Inquirer, Keith Pompeyeyeyey:

“You look at cutting-edge technology out of sports science, and the Institute of Sport is among the leaders in the world, very globally recognized as cutting-edge,” Brown said. “I don’t know if anyone saw Australian-rules football. To me they’re the fittest athletes in the world. It’s a hybrid of football and soccer and it just goes. Back in the late ’90s, those coaches influenced a lot of basketball coaches with the use of heart-rate monitors and eat for recovery and ice baths and nutrition and health massages and keep on going. You start realizing that could perhaps provide you with an edge you need. Those experiences were my influence from that side of my coaching.”

So the Sixers will be charting more than wins and losses, Xs and Os, defensive schemes and offensive play-calling. In addition to all of that, Brown lumped in terms like heart rate, weight loss and skin fold. Where there’s proper fitness, there’s injury prevention and career extension, Brown said.

Somewhere, I hear Charles Barkley complaining that there’s not enough pizza and lard in that plan.

Add Brown’s name to a list that already includes Kelly and Ryne Sandberg as local coaches who have a renewed focus on proper prior preparedness.

The other day, Sandberg said that he would like Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard to work on rounding out their games [thought it was a fluke the other day, but nope– Philly.com fixed their formatting issues for 2013]:

Cole Hamels, for example, has allowed 25 stolen bases in 35 attempts this season. Only two pitchers in baseball have yielded more stolen bases.

“No question . . . it opens the door for a possible run,” Sandberg said of whether Hamels had to be more mindful of baserunners. “For as good of a pitcher as he is, if a guy gets on first base, steals second, a bloop single scores him. He’s a top-notch pitcher He needs to keep the guy on first base.”

Sandberg was also asked about Ryan Howard’s reluctance to embrace watching video regularly.

“From what I’ve gathered, I think that’s something he can be better prepared to face somebody to start a baseball game,” Sandberg said. “Whether it’s through the hitting coaches, having conversations, going over scouting reports, we have plenty of video . . . I think he can utilize that.”

Kelly’s, Brown’s and Sandberg’s approaches seem to differ drastically from those of Reid, Collins and Manuel (sounds like a D.C. lobbying firm), who were all substantially more old skool with a k in their ways. The new guys represent a more modern coaching philosophy that’s based on, in varying proportions, analytics, science and preparation.

I like it.

And then there’s the obligatory Khalif Wyatt sad trombone:

How serious is Brown about practicing what he preaches? When asked about rookie guard Khalif Wyatt, Brown in the same sentence described the Temple product’s combined ability to distribute and score as “tantalizing,” but quickly followed up by saying Wyatt needs to trim up.

No more hookers for you.