Thibodeau Grinding

Great article here: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--with-tom-thibodeau-grinding-away--bulls-even-series-with-nets-063051823.html

Talks about Thibodeau staying true to his personality despite the circumstances.  Here are a few highlites:

"Most guys, from Patrick Ewing to Yao [Ming] to [Kevin] Garnett, they want to be coached," Thibodeau told Yahoo! Sports. "They want to be pushed. In all my years in this, one thing has never changed: You win with serious, tough-minded players. That never changes. - Awesome reminder to coach your best players hard.  You can't reach your potential if your best player can't take coaching.

"That's the challenge now. Things are changing in the game. …Things are different. When you're putting a team together, I think of what [Bill] Belichick said: 'You're not collecting talent, you're building a team.' " - Winning does require your talent to be in the ball park, but seldom in the nba do you see the newly stacked team through free agency win it all in the first year.  Winning takes more than talent.  One of the biggest obstacles with many talented players is defining roles.  Everyone wants to be the go to player down the stretch.

"People always talk about going on offensive runs," Thibodeau said. "But you can go on defensive runs, too." - The quickest way to take a teams will away is to get multiple stops.  Teams aren't bothered by the other team scoring as long as they can score on the other end.  You stop the other team from scoring and watch the dissension set in.

Thibodeau couldn't stop talking about him in the hallway, about how Mohammed kept practicing hard, kept preparing, even when the minutes weren't coming this season. "And the guys who take shortcuts, who aren't ready, they fail when their opportunity comes," Thibodeau said.  - Great lesson for players of all ages.  Reminds me of an Abraham Lincoln quote: I will prepare and some day my time will come.  It would have been real easy for Mohammed to collect a check and watch Noah play 40+ minutes a night.

Willingness

"People (players) seldom do things to the best of their abilities.  They do things to the best of their willingness."

I came across this quote via twitter this morning.  Its a reminder of why constant coaching is needed to maximize potential.  Its human nature to do just enough to get back.  We have to be pushed to maximize our talents.  Don't let your players "get through" or "get by" during a drill, practice or anything else you have influence over.  Be the consistent influence they need to become their best.

Its not what you Know...

Rodney Gee sent out the following tweet quoting Doc Rivers: "Doc Rivers: It's not what you know, it's what you get your players to buy into!"

This is so true.  I would add a statement from John Maxwell that fits well here "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."  You can be the smartest X and O coach in the world, have all the perfect adjustments, analyzed the other team to nausea and know just what is necessary to win the game...it doesn't matter UNLESS your players know what you know and believe in what you know.  For example if the other team's PG can't shoot a lick behind a ball screen and you decide to go under instead of hard hedging as you've done all year and your players don't believe in the plan, then the plan will not work.  Their pg is going to make his first 3pt behind the ball screen and your players are going to be even more convinced this plan sucks. 

Every team is different, but the goal never changes.  You as a coach must sell your philosophy to your players constantly.  A good starting point is usually the leaders, best players and oldest players.  If they buy in then the rest of the team will typically follow suit.  There are a lot of different ways to win a basketball game, but one strategy that will consistently lose is one the players aren't bought into.

How do you get player buy in?

Allow kids to Lose?

Great article here: http://theweek.com/article/index/242542/want-to-raise-winners-give-your-kids-a-chance-to-lose.

Our little league culture is changing.  Some no longer keep score.  Some give everyone a trophy just for participating.  I believe this creates a dangerous atmosphere and sets kids up for failure in life.  The hardest thing for a parent is to see their child suffering.  Sometimes its the best thing for them though.  At some point we have to learn how to respond to failure.  Its unrealistic to think we are going to win and succeed at every thing we try in life 100% of the time.  Is it better to delay learning from a loss to later in life or learn the process early?  Our actions will make this choice for our youth. 

In our program we talk early in the preseason about embracing failure and how to deal with it.  We want our players to know we are going to try our best to win every single game we play, but its also unrealistic to think we are going to go undefeated and waltz our way to a championship.  Basketball is a very long season and will have some challenges.  Teams must learn from mistakes, losses and disappointments throughout the season to reach our ultimate goal of maximizing our potential come tournament time.  Every successful team I have been a part of can look back at a loss at some point during the season and say that's where we turned it around.  That's where we handled adversity, came together as a team and turned the corner.

Will you allow your kid to fail?

Playing with 2 Fouls

Trey Burke sat most of the 1st half in foul trouble.  I'm sure Coach Beilein is being 2nd guessed this morning for not playing the national player of the year with 2 fouls in the first half.  I'm not sure it would have made a difference as his replacement shot lights out and could not have played better during that stretch, but the issue I want to bring up is whether or not you will play your guys with 2 fouls in the 1st half.  I think its important to have a philosophy (whatever it might be) and stick with it.  If Coach Beilein never plays a player in the 1st half with 2 fouls then it is absolutely the right move to sit Burke for the remainder of the first half.  Otherwise players will sense that you as a coach are in panic mode and it will cause their stress level to rise. 

My personal belief is we play play our best players despite 2 fouls in the first half from game 1.  I want my best players to play as many minutes as possible.  Baskets aren't worth more in the final minute of a game.  Lets say a player is going to make it 15 minutes before fouling out.  I would rather get all 15 minutes and let them foul out rather than sit most of the game and kill their rhythm so they can be in for the final minute.

What is your philosophy?

Nebraska Gives Back

Jack Hoffman is a 7 year old boy battling with brain cancer.  Last year then running back, Rex Burkhead, visited with Jack and got to know him and offered him encouragement.  This year Nebraska has decided to take Jack's encouragement and experience with the program to the next level.  During a spring scrimmage they gave Jack a #22 jersey (Burkhead's #) and QB Taylor Martinez handed him the ball allowing him to run 69 yards with the help of several Nebraska blockers to the endzone for a touchdown.  The entire team then surrounded Jack to celebrate with him.  If you haven't seen the video its worth an internet search.  Very cool moment for Jack and gesture by the entire Nebraska football program.

What does your program do to give back to the community? 

Value of Guards

 College Basketball has reminded us this season just how critical guard play is in the NCAA tournament.  The two remaining teams (Louisville and Michigan) have arguably the best guard tandems in the game this season so its no surprise they will meet for the national championship tonight. 

Siva and Russ Smith for Louisville are relentless game changers.  They are constantly in attack mode and defensively can disrupt a game plan by their individual ball pressure alone.  They are the 2 quickest players with the ball in their hands I have this season making them dynamite in transition and getting downhill off ball screens to live in the paint.

Trey Burke and Hardaway Jr consistently make one big shot after the next. They are big guards with NBA ready bodies and games.  They are the biggest reason Michigan has an insanely low turnover rate for the pace of play they like to employ. 

Louisville relies so much on their defense to get deflections and steals to get out in transition.  I would be surprised if Burke and Hardaway make poor decisions with the basketball in the face of Louisville's pressure.  Michigan has already seen VCU and their intense pressure and handled it quite well.  I don't see Michigan's bigs making bad decisions from the high post vs. Louisville's 2-3 zone either after how well they played from the area against Syracuse.  However, I do think Louisville will spread out when the ball does get in the high post and force Michigan to make the free throw line jumper instead of the correct pass. 

As always though with teams this good the game can be simplified to a make or miss game.  Michigan is going to force Siva and Smith to make outside shots.  Louisville is going to spread out to challenge the arc leaving Dieng to protect the basket and anyone who wants a midrange jumper will have space for a clean look. 

I can't wait to see who steps up and makes big shots for their team tonight.

Pads

One of the items shown in the surfacing Mike Rice videos is use of the hitting pads in practice.  Nearly every college program and many high schools programs are now using these pads.  I hope the video doesn't give these pads a bad reputation.  When used properly they are a great way to add some stress and controlled contact to a drill (not abusive contact).  Our programs have used these pads for years and never (knock on wood) had a player injured while using the pads. 

A big part of culture we strive to create within our program is toughness, but these pads are not used to "toughen up" a player.  These pads are actually softer than taking actual contact from another player.  They serve as a stepping stone in a way for players to get used to playing through contact and maintaining balance and concentration during the process.  Again softer contact than they actually take when playing live against other players. 

Mike Rice

Very sad to see the situation play out with Mike Rice.  If you haven't seen the story here it is on ESPN http://espn.go.com/new-york/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9128825/rutgers-scarlet-knights-fire-coach-mike-rice-wake-video-scandal.

Mike Rice was a great clinician.  His passion and fiery personality came out when he was speaking about basketball and he went out of his way to help anyone who asked.  His behavior in the practice videos circulating the Internet are completely inappropriate and inexcusable.  Just sad to see someone who loves the game and gives back to the game allow their passion to overflow into the abusive nature we are seeing in the practice videos. 

Latest Defensive Craze: 2-3 Zone

Syracuse and Louisville have made it to the final four.  Syracuse plays nothing but 2-3 zone and Louisville plays more than most when they're not dogging you with their full court pressure.  Their 2-3 zones are very different, but both very effective.  The 2 things I like most about their zones are 1.) the amount of ball pressure each one applies and 2.) Decision to cover the arc and challenge the FT line jumper late with the Center.

The things I don't like about the 2-3 zone in general are 1.) the mentality most players have about what a 2-3 zone should look like from years of youth league standing in an area, not guarding anyone or boxing out and 2.) Its the most commonly played zone defense and thus the one teams are most comfortable playing against.

I don't believe you can be a great zone defensive team and man to man defensive team at the same time.  I'm not saying the players from Syracuse aren't capable of playing m2m, but the emphasis, practice, and attention to detail required to be great at one defense means you have to commit to one or the other as a base defense. If you are a m2m base team then I would advise you to look elsewhere for a change of pace option and not the 2-3 zone simply because it is the most common zone out there.  One example would be the 1-3-1.  Its entirely different to play against.  Teams shouldn't be able to use their 2-3 zone offensive package against 1-3-1 so they have to spend extra time preparing for it even if  you're only going to show it a few possessions.

My guess is with the success of Syracuse and the attention their 2-3 zone is getting that we will see more teams playing 2-3 zone next year than ever.  This summer might be a good time to refine your 2-3 zone offense.

Don't be a slave to the Scoreboard

I'll be the first to admit I slip into a mini depression after a loss and let my immediate reactions and emotions be controlled be the scoreboard outcome (this is why I am a big advocate for holding post game comments until the next day).  This is something I hope to improve on in the coming seasons.  I want our program to play to a standard.  Several of our games came down to the last few possessions.  Its easy to think logically outside of the moment and see that we didn't necessarily play well if we made a shot at the buzzer to win a game by one or played bad if we missed the shot at the buzzer to lose by one. In both of those situations I've always found there are positives to build from and corrections to be made.  Early in my career I focused only on the negative plays whether we won or lost.  All film sessions I would use one mistake after the next as examples of where we can play better, but left out the positive plays.  I'm still a ton more focused on the areas we can improve, but trying to incorporate some positive plays as well in our film sessions.  I have 2 intentional thoughts for helping you incorporate good plays in your film sessions:

1 - group all similar plays together.  For example, I now clip every opponent baseline out of bounds play (BLOB) together followed by all of our BLOBs.  This allows us to concentrate on our execution in one aspect of the game before moving on to another one and it will contain clips of times we executed well along with the negative plays I used to only clip out.

2 - have highlite films.  Late in the season we have 2 film sessions on every team if we have already played them.  The first is more of a traditional film session reminding us of who they are, what they do well, adjustments we can make, etc. The next is entirely positive clipped plays that we show just before pre-game warmups.  I think it helps players to see themselves playing well and gives them energy and confidence just before taking the floor.