Hernando Planells Jr. bridges SlamBall’s origins and revival as respected coach

Buzzsaw’s most important continuity piece is Hernando Planells Jr., the coach who led the Bouncers in SlamBall’s 2002 and 2003 seasons and remains one of the league’s original and most respected coaches. In a revival built on spectacle, Planells gives the sport something rarer, a direct line to its first era and a coaching voice that still shapes how the game is taught and managed.

That background matters in SlamBall because the sport rewards more than athleticism. The league describes it as a mix of basketball, football and trampolines, with strategic depth baked into every possession. Planells’ path through the wider basketball world fits that demand. He spent seven seasons at Duke from 2012 to 2019, where the Blue Devils went 171-63, reached five NCAA tournaments, advanced to the Elite Eight in 2013 and added Sweet 16 runs in 2015 and 2018. He also served as an assistant at Illinois and, since 2018, has coached New Zealand’s U19 women’s national team.

His college stops show why he translates so naturally back to SlamBall. Planells has built teams around communication, structure and detail, all of which become more important when possessions are compressed and a single mistake can turn into points the other way. At William Jessup University, where he was hired in July 2020 to coach women’s basketball in Rocklin, California, the results were immediate. The Warriors went 10-8 in 2020-21, won the GSAC East Division title, captured the first conference championship in program history and earned a second NAIA tournament bid under Planells. He was named GSAC Co-Coach of the Year for that season.

Jessup athletic director Lance Von Vogt summed up the profile the coach brought with him, saying, “Hernando brings elite-level character, coaching, care, and recruiting abilities to the Warriors.” That same combination of teaching and roster management is what keeps him relevant in SlamBall, where a coach has to organize lineups, adapt quickly and keep players synced to a game that moves at breakneck speed.

Planells’ presence on SlamBall’s podcasts page shows he remains more than a sideline name. He is part of the league’s public voice, a link between the original Bouncers era and the current Buzzsaw structure. In a sport that keeps reinventing its presentation, his value is the continuity underneath it.