There are four things that all players, in all programs, say it takes to be a champion.
· Attitude
Have a good attitude, have a listening attitude, and have an attitude of togetherness, and the attitude will be positive. This seemed to be the gist of every story of the teams that won, the team concept. They wanted to play hard, have fun, enjoy the camaraderie, and listen to what the coaches say because the coach is the boss. We all have four things in common we must be successful in to get that positive attitude.
1. Time management. How do you organize your time?
2. Competitiveness. How do we teach our kids to be competitive?
3. What do we do about discouragement? How do we handle this on a daily basis?
4. How do you solve problems? Does your personal life interfere with your professional life?
Basketball is an easy game to play. But it is hard to master.
· Work Ethic
These players talked about ho hard they worked during preseason conditioning and in practice. They didn’t care if the coach made them stay an extra half-hour. Our team this year won twenty-eight games, second in the Big Ten, and the biggest cheer I got all year was when I said, “No practice tomorrow.” They hated to practice. Therefore, we didn’t get past the second round in the NCAA Tournament. We didn’t have the work ethic that it took to be a champion. The teams that were champions wanted to be the best. If we had wanted to work more this year, perhaps we would have won thirty games and been in the Final Four.
· Commitment
These people were committed to being a champion. They worked on their own self-improvement. They loved to play. When we recruit, we want to recruit the IDEAL player.
I - Intelligence; common sense and academic sense. My biggest problem presently is
academics, making them go to class. If you are going to play for me, you are going to
go to class, and be on time.
D - Dedication
E - Enthusiasm
A - Ability; quickness and shooting.
L - Loyalty; this is the most important thing of all.
· Leadership
We have three basic rules concerning leadership and what we expect of our players:
1. Be on time. If you are late, you run the steps of the arena 100 times.
2. Go to class every day. Why would you miss class? Because you are lazy, because you don’t understand how important academics are, and because you think you will pass because you are part of the basketball program. That’s unbelievable.
3. Try your best.
If we can do these three things, we will win the Big Ten championship. It’s amazing how that works. If you are on time, it means you care about your coaches, and if you go to class every day there is a great correlation between a student in the classroom and a student in life.
Intensity Foundation
All game habits are set by the same tone of your practice intensity habits. If you don’t practice hard, you aren’t going to play hard in the game. We do a lot of competitive things in practice, trying to get our kids to focus under pressure. We want them to become used to it, and then they get better in the games.
We break this down into: Practice, Game, Players, and Team.
· Practice
What do you try to get out of your practice sessions? Aggressiveness, competitiveness, techniques, and system. We have to teach more techniques today than we ever did. It used to be that the athletes played all sports. Now they don’t. They used to learn to throw in baseball, get some contact in football, and learn to run in track. Now we have to teach them how to run, how to throw a baseball pass, and so on. We must incorporate that into our system.
· Game
For the game, you must have a philosophy and you must sell your team on your philosophy. This depends on your talent level. You can’t fast break every year. You must establish goals. If you don’t set goals for your kids, they won’t be motivated. Our seniors set ten goals every year. We put them on poster board in the locker room. The players must also hang them in their rooms. If they don’t see them every day, they forget them. The third thing under this part is referees. How do you handle referees? Don’t think that this isn’t important. You get one referee mad at you and he can beat you. The fourth item is management. What is your management ability? Usually athletic directors are not former head coaches; they are corporate CEO’s. Maybe you better take a class in management, how to evaluate people. If you can’t, you will be left out. The directors are interested in the bottom line. If you don’t win, you are out of there.
· Players
It is important that you have one-on-one meetings with your players. Tell them what they are good at and what they should improve. They want to play to their weaknesses. It is our job to sell them on playing to their strengths. The next thing is honesty. If your players trust you, then you will be able to motivate them. Be positive, but be demanding. If you aren’t demanding, you aren’t going to win big. You must have high goals; the kids will read that.
· Team
There are six items and they are in no particular order. First, you must teach fundamentals. Defensive drills are boring and hard, but if you don’t work on them, you won’t win. Second, you must be in shape. Conditioning and weights. This is a real priority in our program. We don’t want them to bulk up. We want the greyhound type. With good weight lifting, your kids don’t get hurt as much and if they do get hurt, they heal quicker. Third, team morale. Do some things together other than basketball. Get your kids to coach younger teams. Then they will understand coaching a little better. Fourth, you must have pressure defense on the ball. The greatest coaches in the history of the game have kept things very, very simple. And they always kept pressure on the ball. Fifth, you need a flexible offense. The sixth thing is the fast break. These six things are what the team is centered around.
Four Things to Win
I don’t care where you coach, there are four things you must do:
1. Control your players.
2. Schedule to meet the needs of your talent level.
3. Be able to adjust to the referees and the rules.
4. Have the administration behind you.
If you have these four things going for you, you’ll have a good chance of having fun, keeping your job, and having a good family life.
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