Practice Habits

The toughest and most reliable players I have ever coached have always been tremendous practice players.  Our practices are not easy.  We have always approached practice as an opportunity to put players in stressful situation that are more difficult than the ones the will face on game nights.  As with everything there is risk/reward and unintended consequences to every decision.  The risk you run with having tough practices is players can develop the mindset of "getting through" practice and can come to dread practice.  This is a dangerous environment to foster and one we have to constantly combat as a coaching staff.

I think the most important thing you can do as a coach to prevent this situation is to gain the trust of your team and constantly communicate.  They need constant reminders that what they are doing is going to be worth it (Nothing great worth accomplishing was ever done easily).  The purpose of this individual drill will help us achieve what we really want down the road. 

Players cannot get better and ultimately reach their potential by "surviving" practice.  10 minutes of game speed intense and engaged practice is worth more than 2 hours of "going through the motions" (playing just hard enough to keep the coach from snapping over effort).

How do you foster a practice environment that is competitive and engaging to your players?

Timeouts Continued

If you have a timeout available to you what is your philosophy?  Do you want to draw something up in the timeout or let your players play it out?  One team over the weekend had a timeout left and didn't use it for either of the teams final possessions down one score.  Another team had an inbound play down one score with 15 seconds left and elected not to use the timeout. 

I think it depends on your players and the situation.  3 times we had the ball in late game situations and twice I let them play, but once felt like we needed the timeout.  I will expand on two of them...

1 - we were up the entire 4th on the road and a team hit a 3pt shot with 7 seconds left to go up two.  During the previous timeout we decided if the team scored we would try to inbound it quick to our pg (our pg was a scoring machine in transition, ended this game with 45 points) and let him make a play.  We executed perfectly and had a great fast break opportunity and the official stopped the game to fix the net on the previous 3pt shot which forced us to inbound vs a set defense.  I decided to let them play as long as we inbounded to our pg and the other team stayed in m2m.  I didn't want to call timeout and let them double team him or change defenses so I told the official if anyone besides #2 gets the ball I want a timeout.  They stayed man and we were able to get our best player the ball and he ended up attacking the rim and getting fouled. It was far better than anything I could draw up (he made both, sent it to overtime and we won).

2 - The game was tied with 30 seconds left and we had an inbound play under our own basket. None of our inbound plays had led to a score and we had turned the last 2 over.  I did not have the confidence in any of the plays we had put in so I burned our final timeout to draw something up.  It didn't work.  We didn't execute still turned the ball over and the other team hit a 3pt shot with 5 seconds left.  I was out of timeouts or I probably would have called one at this point, but to our team's credit we got the ball in quick to our best player and he made a 3pt at buzzer to send it into overtime (we ended up losing in double ot).

I think the point here is to have a plan, but be flexible.  Sometimes you need to trust your best players to make plays and sometimes you need to stop the action and trust you will execute better out of a timeout than your opponent.

Extra Timeouts

Replay reviews in college basketball are giving teams extra timeouts.  I understand the desire to get it right, but I'm beginning to think the extra timeout is changing the outcome more than the result of the review.  Yesterday 2 games going down to the wire had monitor reviews in one possession games where the offensive team was out of timeouts.  St. Mary's had an inbound play on their own baseline down 2 points and was able to use the extra timeout to diagram a nice screen the screener play for their best shooter to get a clean look from 3 with a chance to win the game.  During the flow of the game St. Mary's probably has to call a play they are comfortable with and Memphis has scouted. Later in the day Marquette is down 1 with 5-6 seconds on the clock (time remaining on the clock was the purpose of the review) and had to go 3/4 of the court.  The review timeout allowed Marquette to space the floor with shooters and set up a flat ball screen for their best driver and remind him during the timeout to not settle and there was plenty of time for him to get to the rim.  We'll never know if this extra timeout truly altered the outcome of either game, but my guess is St. Mary's doesn't get their best shooter a look that good and Marquette ends up settling for a jump shot. 

I'm not suggesting replay be removed and I definitely see the other side saying what if a call is missed that costs a team an opportunity and at least with replay both teams are getting a timeout and have to execute.  There was a game in OVC tournament play where the defense benefited from the review timeout.  Murray State's best player was double teamed coming out of the timeout and unable to get the ball. 

Where do you stand on replay and the extra timeouts its creating?

Grabbing Attention in a Multitask World

Kids today are bombarded by stimuli.  They get bored and lose focus quite easily.  The question becomes how do you get their attention and then even more important how do you keep it.  I've always tried to sell players on using basketball as their escape from the world.  To forget about classwork, girls, family problems, etc. for 2 hours and give basketball their full attention. While reading Toughness by Jay Bilas I came across a message that contradicts the multitask world we now live in...

You're committed to playing basketball so you might as well devote all of your attention to it.  It didn't do you any good to think about school while you were playing.  It didn't get you any closer to getting your school work done and it didn't get you any closer to playing your best...

Student-Athlete is a natural fit and the two words are used together frequently, but its not an effective multitask.  Worrying about your Algebra homework while shooting freethrows does not help your shooting percentage nor will it get you any closer to completing your homework.  Likewise, thinking about the scouting report for the next game while you're doing homework doesn't help you accomplish an understanding of either.

Student-Athlete should be separated and managed well through planning.  Give a few hours for basketball practice without worrying about school and then when its over move on to the task of completing homework.  Devote all of your attention to the task at hand, complete it and move on to the next task. 

Go to work...Everyday

The following comes from Jay Bilas' new book Toughness.

"Every day my father got up and went to work.  I learned about work ethic not from my father talking about it, but from watching him...I never heard my dad complain about working or about how difficult a particular job was....When he was sick or hurt, my dad went to work.  When he faced a difficult task, he performed that task to the best of his ability."

 I'm just beginning to work my way through this book, but the highlighter has been extremely busy.  I anticipate many other good nuggets to come from this book and would recommend it to anyone. 

What a great example Jay had to learn about work ethic.  I had a similar experience growing up.  I never heard my dad complain or take a day off.  He took pride in his work and instilled a work ethic in me without ever saying a word.  I hope my players and future kids are seeing a work ethic in me that I would be proud to have them emulate and pass on to future generations.

Bubble Teams

 

Every year at this time there is screaming from the teams and their advocates who didn't get in the NCAA tournament field.  A total of 68 will compete for the NCAA championship and while the 8 or so teams around the bubble each have arguments against them and for them being selected for one of the at large births I don't want to hear the whining for anyone left out and my team was one of the ones left out this year.

Everyone of these teams had ample opportunities to play their way into the tournament.  When we're arguing over the 68th and 69th potential teams in the tournament how big of a deal is it really?  Take Tennessee who I would love to see in the tournament.  I think Coach Martin has done a great job and I wish the committee would have selected them, but Tennessee needs to look no further than the mirror to cast blame on why they are not in the tournament.  They could have been like Ole Miss and won the SEC tournament to guarantee themselves a spot in the tournament. Also looking back at losses in back to back games to Georgetown and Virgina where they held Georgetown to 37 points in a one point loss and held Virginia to 46 points.  Multiple losses to Georgia, Alabama and Ole Miss also hurts.  Find a way to win 2 of these games and you're probably safely above the "bubble."  Teams need to handle their own business so its not in the hands of a committee comparing resumes.

Unwanted Tooth

Brad Waldow of St Mary's had his front tooth knocked out in a recent conference semifinal tournament game against San Diego.  Mr. Waldow is one tough player.  After getting his tooth knocked out he attempted to quickly hand it off to one of his coaches and continue playing (Brad Waldow recently had successful surgery to fix the lost tooth).  As you can tell from the picture above the tooth was not well received.  No one wants to handle another person's recently lost tooth and the right course of action would definitely have been for the officials to stop the game and let a trainer with gloves on take possession of the tooth.  I wonder what message it sends and effect it will have on St. Mary's recruiting if any moving forward though.  Recruiters go into these players home and tell parents they will care for their son among other selling points for selecting their program.

Would you expect your son's coach to take his tooth?

Jon Gordon - Good to Great

Jon Gordon is an inspirational writer/speaker.  His most famous work is probably The Energy Bus shown above, but he also sends out a weekly newsletter via e-mail that if you don't subscribe to is worth checking out (learn more about Jon Gordon here http://www.jongordon.com/tools.html). The following excerpt can be found in this week's letter....

·         Good leaders get people to believe in them.

·         Great leaders inspire people to believe in themselves.

·         Good leaders say “Watch what I can do.”

·         Great leaders say “Let me show you what you can do.”

·         Good leaders catch fish for others so they can eat today.

·         Great leaders teach people how to fish so they can eat for a lifetime.

Having worked with countless leaders over the years in businesses, schools and professional sports I’ve realized that great leadership is really a transfer of belief. Great leaders share their belief, vision, purpose and passion with others and in the process they inspire others to believe, act and impact. Great leaders are positively contagious and they instill confidence and belief in others... 

March Maddness is upon on us and there were 4 buzzer beaters yesterday alone (still can't believe the one Alabama pulled out).  We will see many thrilling games and several upsets as the tournaments play out, but one thing is certain none of those upsets happen unless a coach has transferred belief to their players.  Transferring that belief can be made more difficult in the world we coach in today.  Many media outlets talk up how great and unbeatable teams are and will attempt to crown champions before the bracket is even set. 

How do you transfer belief to your players?

Recharge

Our season is over and if you're anything like me the late season grind will leave you feeling like the picture above.  My mind starts racing about all the work that needs to be done for next season...How will we play, who needs to work on what during the off season, what will our weight program look like, where will we go for summer camp, etc.  But its important to take some time off and recharge your batteries.  I think most of us are programmed to go go go all the time and make sure we're giving everything we have to our program.  No one wants to be outworked, but take some time to recover and reflect before diving into the off season.  It will help prevent burn out and keep you from emotional decisions following a heart breaking conclusion to your season. It will also free up some time that your family would love to have with you.

What will you do to recharge for next season's grind?