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Sunday, November 30, 2025

Basketball - Bad Culture

Coaches like Bob Knight emphasized that basketball is a game of mistakes. There is no shortage of articles and discussion of culture. Every coach needs to establish a culture that withstands both ethical and rarely legal standards. 

For example, Erik Spoelstra discussed Heat culture in a Coaching U tape:

Heat Culture - First class, professional, family, consistency

"Be the toughest, nastiest, best-conditioned, most professional, least-liked team"

"Sacrifice was not an empty word." Guys took pay cuts to add players. Also had to have decreased usage rate of stars (Wade, LBJ, Bosch). Bosch usage rate went from about 27 to 17. LeBron had to change position. Spacing can be sacrifice. Screening is sacrifice. 

"A big part of culture is getting the right people." 

"We are the truth bearers...that creates conflict."

Be caretakers for the culture with our staff - honesty, commitment, loyalty, consistency, diversity, "idea machine" and positive culture of disagreeing.

If we invert, what is negative culture? We should remember that accusations do not equal proof, but may be 'red flags'. 

1. “Crabs in a bucket” - teammates as rivals, not allies

Pattern: Players see each other as competition instead of teammates. Jealousy, gossip, and sabotage replace support and honest feedback. That’s bad culture: without psychological safety or trust.

2. Fear-based, punitive coaching

Pattern: Players live in constant fear of conditioning as punishment, of humiliation, of losing their place if they speak up. 

Western Oregon women’s basketball players recently filed a federal lawsuit alleging emotional and physical abuse - excessive physical punishment, disparaging remarks, and a climate that led to panic attacks and eating disorders, culminating in the season being canceled when players were dismissed.

3. Manipulation of players’ mental health and boundaries

Pattern: Coaches intrude on private therapy, medical issues, or personal lives, and weaponize that information. Players learn that honesty carries risk. 

Example: An ex-Wisconsin women’s basketball player alleged that the head coach manipulated her mental-health disclosures - pressuring her to sign releases for therapy records, threatening suspension if she mentioned suicidal thoughts, and forcing a “hospitalize or leave the team” decision. 

4. “Play for me or you’re gone” - toxic toughness and retaliation

Pattern: Pain and injury are minimized, verbal abuse is normalized, and any challenge to the coach’s methods is met with retaliation (loss of role, scholarship, or status).

At Texas Tech, reporting by USA Today and others described a women’s program where players alleged a “toxic culture” of fear, anxiety, and depression - heart-rate monitors used as surveillance, pressure to play through pain, and emotional mistreatment. 

At Florida, former women’s basketball players described an abusive environment - verbal belittling, hostility, and disrespect - leading to widespread scrutiny of how the athletic department had handled early complaints.

5. High churn, burned bridges, and cancelled seasons

Pattern: Culture has gone wrong when players transfer en masse, assistants leave, and seasons implode.

At Wagner College, the men’s coach was suspended amid allegations of repeated verbal abuse and denying players water; nearly the entire roster left after the season, and an assistant coach departed.

"Be demanding not demeaning." 

Lagniappe. The Saban Standard. 

Lagniappe 2. Drill provides practice with pass fakes. 

 

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Saturday, November 29, 2025

Advice for Young Athletes

"There is nothing cheaper than free advice." Here's some for young athletes as we transition from the fall to the winter sports season. 

Know your priorities. 

Our basketball coach, Ellis Lane, now in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, emphasized: 

  • Family comes first.
  • Take care of your academic business. 
  • Basketball comes third. 
Compete. 

Remember Don Miguel Ruiz's Four Agreements, especially the fourth "Always do your best." 


Be coachable. 

Listen and make every effort to do what your coaches want in the ways they want. If you've been taught a different way, be "professional" and discuss the technique with your coaches, working to understand both what to do and why they want it done that way. 

Build skill. 

"Become more to do more; do more to become more." The more you can do, the more likely you'll be on the court. 

Become more athletic. 

The stronger, quicker, better conditioned athlete commands attention. How many times have coaches and fans seen an athlete and marveled at either their athleticism or the year-over-year change in their athleticism? 

Take care of your body. 

  • Eat right. You wouldn't put cheap gas in a sports car. 
  • Hydrate. "Dehydration shows up as decreased performance."
  • Recover. Recovery matters with management like walking and thermal contrast (hot/cold showers). Not everyone has access to higher level management like massage. 


  • Sleep. Athletes should commit to getting at least eight hours of sleep. Inadequate rest will reduce performance. 
Develop Resilience

Few young athletes can access sports psychologists. Everyone can choose to learn about mindfulness, which is proven to improve focus, reduce stress hormones, lessen anxiety and depression. 

Via ChatGPT Plus: Here are five well-supported benefits of mindfulness training for athletes, grounded in research across sport psychology and performance science:

1. Improved Focus and Attentional Control

Mindfulness builds the ability to stay present - not worrying about the last mistake or the next possession - which sharpens decision-making and situational awareness. Athletes better recognize cues (ball flight, hitter tendencies, spacing, tempo) and avoid mental distractions.

2. Reduced Performance Anxiety and Stress Reactivity

Mindfulness lowers physiological stress markers (HR, cortisol), improves breath control, and rewires the athlete’s relationship with pressure. Instead of being overwhelmed by noise, expectations, or crowds, athletes remain grounded and calm during high-stakes moments.

3. Faster Recovery From Mistakes and Adversity

Athletes learn to observe thoughts without judgment - the serve missed, the turnover, the blocked shot - and move on. This promotes emotional regulation, short-memory resilience, and better next-play speed. Mistakes become data, not drama.

4. Enhanced Confidence and Self-Trust

By building awareness of internal states, athletes develop a more stable sense of identity and capability. Mindfulness strengthens intrinsic confidence - performance rooted not in outcomes, but in preparation, presence, and process.

5. Greater Training Efficiency and Skill Acquisition

When athletes are mentally present, reps carry more quality. Mindful training improves motor learning, body awareness, and deliberate practice -  similar to how high-level musicians and surgeons sharpen technique through focused repetition.

Adopt a Professional Attitude
  • "Act like a champion before you are one." 
  • Professionals follow comprehensive programs.
  • Professionals don't compromise themselves on social media. Don't let 140 characters on social media take away $140,000 in college scholarships. 
Lagniappe. Make better decisions with the ball. (Chris Oliver). 

Lagniappe 2. Attack zones more efficiently. 
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Friday, November 28, 2025

The Smartest Guy in the Room

A line often attributed to Lincoln says, “I learn from everyone — sometimes what to do, sometimes what not to do.” 

What tools can we share with players to help them learn, to become "the smartest guy in the room?"  

Add value

  • "This is what I can do for you." LA Rams coach Sean McVay says, "Everyone benefits from coaching."
  • Are we investing our time or spending it? Limit distractions. Cellphones are great tools and distractions. 

Improve attention

  • Recognize attention limits. The Pomodoro Technique uses 25 minutes on and five minutes off. Study with a strategy. 
  • Mindfulness improves attention and behavior, even in elementary school aged children
Learn about learning
  • Spaced repetition extend the learning period, don't cram. "Repetition is the mother of learning." Wooden's EDIRx5 (explain, demonstrate, imitate, repeat x 5) was ahead of its time. "Repetitions make reputations."
  • Self-testing after study, ask ourselves "what did I learn?" and "what was the author's intent
Simplify
  • Simplifying recognizes limited "working memory." Jocko Willink, Navy SEAL leader, tells of an operator who says to reduce the plan to three items, because that's all he can remember. There's truth in that. 
  • "He who chases two rabbits will catch neither." - Russian proverb  Teach players and teams to be good at what you do a lot. Being good at half-court defense and handling pressure will keep you in a lot of games. A variation from Wooden, "“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
Checklists 

Teach the symmetry of the game. Coach did it another way with a hand-drawn "Key" and three "Keys to Victory." 


Storytelling
  • Man is the storytelling animal. People remember stories. We tend to remember 'peak' and 'end' experiences. The end experience of the Webber timeout, Princeton backdoor winner against UCLA, or Carolina eight points in eighteen seconds to take Duke into overtime stick with you.
  • Capitalize on storytelling features - SUCCES - simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories  
Habit formation
  • "Win the morning; win the day." Develop a morning routine that works for you. Pick (the items), Stick (with them), Check that you're applying them. 
  • "Make good habits easier and bad habits harder." If something is a distraction, get it out of the way. If something helps, keep it obvious. 
Summary:
  • Add value
  • Improve attention
  • Learn about learning
  • Simplify
  • Use checklists
  • Become a storyteller
  • Habit formation
Did you notice that these are not specific to basketball? They work for most aspects of life, including relationships and work. 

Lagniappe. Study video. "Movement kills defenses." 

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Thursday, November 27, 2025

Basketball - "Coachspeak"

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Words matter - not just in what we say, but in how we say them.

Coaches speak thousands of sentences in a season. We explain, we demand, we challenge, we praise. But we don’t always know what lands. Six months after one postgame meeting, I overheard a player say, “That line about how you play being how you live - that stuck with me.” I had told them this:

"You cannot let opponents push you around - not physically, not mentally. You cannot live your life that way."

Some messages sit quietly until the right moment brings them to life.

What Do We Remember?

Think about the coaching that stayed with you. A few of mine:

  • “Sacrifice.”
    Give up a good shot so someone else can get a great one.

  • “If I stop yelling at you, it’s because I’ve given up on you.”
    He never stopped yelling.

  • “Family. School. Basketball. In that order.”
    No confusion, no debate.

And the one from John McPhee’s A Sense of Where You Are. Princeton’s Butch van Breda Kolff wrote words in huge letters on the chalkboard:

GIRLS
FOOD
BASKETBALL

The message wasn’t subtle. Focus determines destiny. Princeton reached the Final Four.

Sacrifice. Detail. Commitment.

Sacrifice means giving something up so the team gains. Detail is the difference between winning and almost. One lapse - one missed rotation, one lazy pass - can cost a game or a season. Commitment means daily focus.

When Delivery Creates Legacy - or Damage

Content alone isn’t enough. Delivery matters.

A coach can fire up a team or fracture it with a single sentence.

In medicine years ago, I heard a world-renowned clinician tell a trainee in front of a packed room:

“You don’t know because you don’t care.”

It was cruel, dismissive, and unnecessary - a masterclass in how not to teach. Fame and position never grant the right to humiliate.

What we say matters. How we say it matters more. Words can sharpen a team or shatter it. They can lift a player to belief or break one down to silence.

Coaching lives in the space between message and delivery. Get both right, and you don’t just win games, you win people.

Lagniappe. From Bill Bradley's "Life on the Run"  "With team defense understood, pressure defense is assured, and with pressure defense the game’s emphasis shifts from muscle to quickness, from pure individual physical skill to coordinated, intelligent group responses."

Lagniappe 2. Don Kelbick shares, "designated shooter." 

Lagniappe 3. An overplay gets punished. 

 

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Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Basketball Defensive Excellence

"Given the choice of battling Dave (DeBusschere) for 48 minutes to get good shots or of taking more difficult shots farther from the basket, many players resign themselves to the bad shots. When DeBusschere guards a taller player or a great one-on-one player, he tries to deny him the ball by “overplaying”...like all great defensive players, he enjoys playing defense. “You are always in a game when you play good defense,” he says. “I like to hound my man constantly—make him feel like I’m never going to let him breathe. I don’t want him to feel I am ever an inch away from him." - from "Life on the Run" by Bill Bradley 

Choose excellence. Individual defense starts with mindset. The strong offensive player believes he will score on you. The strong defensive player thinks that he can 'contain' the scorer. Defense has to be important to the defender. 

Defense will try to take away what the offense wants to do. With game tape, individual defenders can judge what weakenss to exploit. 

  • Make your cover work for everything. 
  • Depending on your defense that may mean ball denial. 
  • Start with stance and positioning relative to your cover. 
  • Proximity to the dribbler and to the shooter matters. Shooting percentages fall the closer the defender. 
  • Ball-u-man and player-you-basket will always matter. 
  • Cover 1.5 (your player and help on half of another). 
  • See both. You must know where the ball is. Excellent players will cut if you're a 'head turner' and can't see them. 
  • Defensive fakes/stunts have a place. 
  • Be in top physical condition. "Movement kills defense" and you have to survive it. 
  • Judge whether you can overplay the dominant hand or not. 
  • Contest shots without fouling. NEVER foul a jump shooter. 
  • Have specific ideas about from whom and when to attempt the steal. 
  • Take the hits. You are going to get run off screens, especially in a box-and-one situation. 

Many factors go into shooting percentage (see below):

What would represent the ultimate data set to get the most accurate read on all of this, factors that can only be retrieved through meticulous charting?

  • Contested level of the shot (wide open, open, guarded, double-teamed)
  • Location on the floor
  • Play type (Catch + Shoot, off the dribble, off screen, etc)
  • Defended by which player
  • Team defensive set -- particularly zone versus man
  • Dribble detail (0 dribbles, 1, 2+) and direction (left, right, which hand)
  • Sequence of passes leading to the shot
  • Fouls Drawn and Turnovers Committed by distance from hoop
Lagniappe. Everyone thinks they're playing hard. Watched a game recently where a player sprinted down the court on offense and gave less effort getting back on defense. IYKYK. If you know you know. 
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Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Books That Belong on a Basketball Coach's Bookshelf (or Holiday Wish List)

Some coaches - Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, and Mike Neighbors - read incessantly. The late George Raveling may have been the biggest reader of all.

Reading and digesting books takes time. Busy coaches have limited time for professional or pleasure reading. 

Every reader has individual tastes. What books added value for my players and me? 

Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense (Dean Smith)

Coach Smith discusses everything from defensive terminology (based on defense and extent ,e.g. fullcourt versus less), "analytics before analytics" and detailed explanation of offenses like his Passing Game and the "Shuffle Offense" of coaches Drake and Spear. Old but timeless book...

Practical Modern Basketball (John Wooden)

Comprehensive tome that covers every aspect of his program. It includes what you'd expect and what you wouldn't - uniforms and three pages on the responsibilities of managers. 

The Politics of Coaching (Carl Pierson)

Pierson shares almost every imaginable iteration of conflict and problems that coaches face. Coach Pierson coached three sports and saw many examples of parents or other coaches working to undermine coaches. 

Game Changer: The Art of Sport Science (Dr. Fergus Connolly)

Dr. Connolly gives practical contemporary advice on creating and leveraging advantage in sport. He has coached and consulted with leading coaches in various sports around the world. A book you will refer to often.  

The Leadership Playbook (Jamie Bechler) 

Bechler's book covers a multitude of leadership topics and provides many anecdotes and examples. 13 chapters explore foundational leadership principles, leading oneself and others, positional leadership, teamwork, and personal development. 

Preparing for Special Situations (Herb Brown)

Brown's book works for young and veteran coaches with exceptional organization and attention to detail. I found the chapter on transition defense particularly helpful. 

How Good Do You Want to Be? (Nick Saban)

How Good Do You Want to Be by Nick Saban is a leadership and self-improvement book. He details achieving excellence in his system known as "The Process." The book emphasizes consistent focus on controllable actions rather than fixating on outcomes. For Saban fans, Monte Burke's unauthorized biography "Saban" provides an origin story and "colorful" anecdotes.

In These Girls Hope Is a Muscle (Madeleine Blais)

Blais describes the evolution of a girls' basketball season, focused on the Amherst Hurricans, trapped in a rivalry between two star, future D1 players. Beautifully written by a journalism professor, "Muscle" shares a lot of "Inside Baseball" on girls sports. Sports Illustrated included it among the 100 best sports books ever written. 

The Ultimate Coaches' Career Manual (Pat Williams)

This book informs thousands of encyclopedic quotes and perspectives from coaches across the spectrum of sports. As expected, it emphasizes developing relationships, truth, and integrity when coaching. See examples in "something extra" (lagniappe) at the end of the article. 

Think Again (Adam Grant) 

Professor Adam Grant was the youngest (and most popular) tenured professor at Penn. He encourages us to 'rethink' our positions when challenged by better information. His advice to keep a "Rethinking Scorecard" has value for every coach. 

Atomic Habits (James Clear)

Clear's New York Times best seller has become the gold standard for habit formation and disruption. In addition to discussing the habit cycle, he shares practical tips for improving everyone's habits. This will help all of us to make good habits easier and negative habits harder to maintain. 

Of course, there are many more:

  • Toughness by Jay Bilas
  • Legacy by James Kerr 
  • The Boys in the Boat by Dan Brown
  • The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
  • The Art of Winning by Bill Belichick 

Lagniappe. Quotes from "The Ultimate Coaches' Career Manual"

  • "Don't demand respect. You get it from your actions." - Red Auerbach
  • "Everybody is looking for instant success, but it doesn't work that way." - Lou Holtz
  • "Be able to communicate. Be a good listener. Give positive feedback as well as criticism - both are very important and should be done consistently." - Kathy Delaney-Smith
  • "Work hard. Try to be the best at anything you do." - Whitey Herzog
  • "Be organized every day. Keep the players active and moving. You can tell a good team by the way they are organized..." - Jack Ramsay
  • "What you are doing as a coach really counts, and make sure that your players feel that way as well." - Pat Riley 



 

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Monday, November 24, 2025

Best Coaches Quotes

Quotes don't win a lot of games, but they can win an occasional heart and mind. 

Nobody 'corners the market' on best quotes. Great insights come from women and men, colleges and pros, and coaches of all genders and races. Find a few that share a lesson and resonate. 

Dawn Staley  

“Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it...If you want to be great, you have to give up something to get there.”

Pep Guardiola 

“If you train badly, you play badly. If you work like a beast in training, you play the same way.”

Pete Carril  

"The strong take from the weak, but the smart take from the strong."

Dean Smith  

"Basketball is a team game. But that doesn’t mean all the players should get the same amount of shots."

Doc Rivers  

"Never allow yourself to be a victim." 

Mike Krzyzewski  

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment." 

John Chaney  

“You can’t build character in the locker room. You build it at six in the morning...Coaching is teaching. And teaching is fighting for someone else’s future.”  

“I don’t want a bunch of choir boys. I want guys who’ll fight in the alley and then go get A’s in class.”

Geno Auriemma  

"You can be the leading scorer on a bad team. Who cares?"

Pete Newell  

"Basketball is a game of mistakes. The team making the fewer mistakes usually wins."

John Wooden  

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation."

Gregg Popovich  

"We believe in people executing their role and caring about the team more than anything individually."

Jose Mourinho  

"I am Jose Mourinho and I don’t change. I arrive with all my qualities and my defects."

Phil Jackson  

"Leadership is not about forcing your will on others. It is about mastering the art of letting go."

Sean McVay  

"It’s first about the ball - we’ve got to take better care of the football."

Bob Knight 

"The greatest sin a coach can commit is to let a kid slide by.”

Pat Summitt   

“Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team can have.”

Lagniappe. In some defenses, "help and recover" has become other approaches, "peel switches" and "X-ing out" to cover as much area as possible while bringing heat on the ball. 

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Sunday, November 23, 2025

Professionalism Is Not Abstract

Professionalism plays everywhere - home, school, work, and sport. It means doing things the right way, each time, all the time.

When Michael Jordan was at Carolina, he told assistant coach Roy Williams, “I’ll work as hard as any player ever at Carolina.” Williams answered, “You have to work harder than that.”

Professionalism is the pursuit of better than your best, even when no one is watching.

Young players can learn professionalism. What does professionalism look like?

Attitude
Punctuality
Preparation
Continual Learning
Communication
Collaboration
Leadership
Self-Care
Balance

Attitude

“Control what you can control” - your attitude, choices, and effort.
Everything starts here. You cannot build a positive life with a negative attitude. 

A professional mindset says: No excuses. No shortcuts. Next play.

Punctuality

Be ready - physically and mentally - when practice begins. In Above the Line, Urban Meyer expected players to be prepared the moment they “crossed the red line” onto the field. Basketball players should step between the lines already stretched, focused, and locked in.

Punctuality is respect - for teammates, coaches, and the game.

Preparation

Know the team philosophy, the big picture, and the small details of both offense and defense. You cannot execute if you do not understand your role - and how your role fits with the roles of your teammates.

Preparation eliminates confusion. Preparation builds confidence. Preparation wins close games.

Continual Learning

Be coachable. Be curious. Learn every day. Listen to understand, not just to respond. Ask questions. Study film. Seek ways to sharpen your craft.

“Because we’ve always done it this way” is not a viable answer.

Professionals find ways to improve what they already do well.

Communication

Great teams excel at communication - verbal, nonverbal, and emotional.
Talk on defense. Echo calls. Point, signal, connect. Communication energizes teammates and moves them into the right spots at the right time.

Do not criticize, dismiss, or bait opponents online. Your online life can follow you indefinitely. 

Quiet teams lose. Connected teams win.

Collaboration

Teamwork is not merely working together - it is elevating the people around you. Know what a good shot is for you and what a good shot is for each teammate. Know when not to deliver the ball and where not to move so you don’t compromise spacing.

Professionals make the game easier for the other four players on the floor.

Leadership

You do not need a title to lead. Lead by being consistent, coachable, positive, and dependable. Lead by supporting teammates. Lead by refusing to be a distraction.

Leadership is not loud - it is steady.

Self-Care

Self-care is part of your job. Strength and conditioning, hydration, nutrition, and post-practice recovery matter. And sleep - athletes need at least eight hours to perform at their best.

Professionals treat their body as their instrument.

Balance

Balance is the hidden fuel of high performance. Balance school and sport, work and home. Balance courage between recklessness and fear. Balance confidence between arrogance and doubt.

Lagniappe. Alan Stein, Jr. with a great piece on complete player evaluation. 

Lagniappe 2. An excerpt from Bill Bradley's "Life on the Run" (1976)

"The important thing about a last-second shot is not just to make it but to have five guys willing to take it; ready to shoulder the responsibility."


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Saturday, November 22, 2025

Teaching Clips

A small amount of time studying tape daily pays long-term benefits. What works, what doesn't, and what can we do better? Find something that players can turn into hoops. 

Basketball is a "game of separation." Porter, Jr. uses the off-ball screen and buries a three. Don't think Simons had a chance.  


Classic Mazzulla Ball...penetrate, draw 2, open the three. Will teams eventually stop helping on the drive and live with the mid-range shot? 
 

Urgent cutting separates baskets from wishes. Garza sets a screen and Simons cuts hard and gets rewarded. Simple basketball can work. 


Variation on the short roll creates a two-on-one and a layup.
 

The Nets did this a lot with the 6'10" Porter, Jr. coming off a handoff and ripping in threes. More simple execution
 

Death by live-ball turnover, the high points/possession opener. 


Big-to-big pick-and-roll well-executed by the Nets.
 

The Nets ran this screener to handoff action again and again for Porter baskets and he was nails. 


The Nets did a lot well and the Celtics had porous defense. 

Lagniappe. Do you have any L.A.M.E. players? 

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Friday, November 21, 2025

Why Coaching Basketball Is Hard (but Worth It)

"Any idiot with a whistle can coach." - Anonymous parent

I coached for about twenty years in the middle school girls basketball travel program, only six as the head coach. Brad Stevens is right, "Coaches get more than we give." The mostly positive relationships with players and their families, watching youngsters develop into young adults, is a privilege.

What 'structural problems' go with coaching?

1. Playing Time 

Allocation of scarce resources is economics. The best part of being an assistant was not owning playing time. Remember the "Golden Triad" of minutes, roles, and recognition. Everyone wants to play more, contribute more, and be valued more. That's normal and even more so with "pay for play," though participation fees don't buy minutes. I never accepted compensation to coach..."worth every penny." 

Here's a lengthy post from a Facebook basketball group:

“In the state of Texas for public schools the governing body protects coaches and basically put in an amendment for parent behavioral expectations and rules. Violations of those can result in the dismissal of the athlete from the athletic program if the coach and or AD choose to act on it. Never had to act on it personally just always included in the players manual and pointed it out when meeting with parents.

However I did have an older coach tell me that in the early 2000s he had an affluent family that was pestering him so he finally called them in and asked, "Who should I bench to play your kid? If your kid goes in, who comes out?"

At first they wouldn't say a name and sort of hemmed and hawed around it but the coach said "If you want to make coaching and playing time decisions for me then I need a name." Finally they say "Little Johnny, he could play half the game and our boy could play off the game."

Coach says "Okay, one second." Then grabs his phone and starts dialing. The phone rings and a man picks up. Coach says "Hey John Sr., I have the Williams here and they want to discuss your son's playing time with you."
They went ghost white and wouldn't speak. Coach gets off the phone with John Sr. looks them dead in the eye and says "unless you're prepared to think about everyone's kid in this program and not just your own don't come back in here again.”

2. Expectations 

There's a cognitive bias called "endowment effect." If it's ours, then it's more valuable. We think our coffee mug is worth five dollars, but others won't pay us more than three for that mug. 

Coaches work to add value. We can't always meet those expectations. 

They don't "vote" for valedictorian. The award goes to the student with the highest GPA. Coaching is more subjective. Coaches cope with expectations of community, fans, family, and players. The "Prime Directive" implies that parents understandably want what is best for their child above all else. That's normal and expected, and relates to that "Golden Triad."

Every coach has critics because nobody meets everyone's expectations.  

3. Resources

There's never enough gym availability or practice time. When some other teams practiced eight or more hours a week, we had three. 

One year I was told that we could have only two hours of practice time. I threatened to quit and meant it. They found us an extra thirty minutes each practice. 

Competing against a team that keeps eight players with more practice time than our 12 or 13 with far less time...tilts the playing field. Allotting anything close to "fair" distribution of minutes creates marked imbalances. Fair playing time meant losing. 

4. Parents

I am thankful to have known many parents and extended families. Few expressed open criticism or hostility. More than zero. Never automatically dismiss someone else's opinions. Their perspective may have merit. Or as Mom often reminded us, "Who died and made you king?"

5. Talent Dispersion

As children drift toward other sports, coaches have fewer "sport-specific players." There's only so much talent to go around. Gradually we had fewer and fewer basketball first athletes. "Repetitions make reputations." Don't expect that players who care most about their non-dominant foot striking mechanics or golf swing to be elite hoopers. Volleyball attracted more and more of the best athletes.

The "best" players have access to more coaching, more sport-specific skill training, and more strength and conditioning. Those players can become elite. Less committed players don't become elite. 

Nothing is guaranteed. Coaching will always be hard and yet always be worth it. 

Lagniappe. Writing out our goals can help with commitment. 


 

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Thursday, November 20, 2025

Basketball - If We’re Not Moving Forward, We’re Sliding Backward

Learn across domains. General McChrystal understands hard problems. 

In Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal writes that adaptation begins with brutal honesty. Not self-criticism for its own sake, but the courage to ask:

  • What assumptions are we making that may no longer be true?

  • Is our current approach still working?

  • And if either answer is unfavorable, what must we change?

Teams become stagnant not through laziness, but through complacency. Yesterday’s winning habits can become today’s liabilities when the game changes, the league changes, or the roster changes.

Great programs update themselves. Stale programs defend the past.

Why Good Programs Stop Winning

Every coach wants a simple answer; the truth is seldom simple. When a program stops climbing, the root causes usually fall into three domains: people, strategy, and operations.

1. People (Players, Coaches, Culture)

  • Talent pipeline shifts: graduation hits harder, or recruitment/retention dries up.

  • Player development stalls: athletes plateau because their habits and coaching aren’t compounding.

  • Culture erodes: accountability frays, complacency creeps in, roles blur.

  • Coaches stop evolving: the game changes while the staff stays in place.

At its core, programs are built - or broken - by people.

2. Strategy (Play Style, Development Plan, Scheduling)

  • The league gets better. You don’t schedule tougher; your opponents do.

  • Your play style no longer fits your personnel.
    What worked for four seniors doesn’t fit two sophomores and a 6'1" forward.

  • Player development isn’t aligned with actual needs.
    Teams train what they like, not what the game demands. 

3. Operations (How We Do What We Do)

Programs often fail not because of philosophy, but because of execution:

  • Practices aren’t efficient.

  • Film sessions don't address needs. 

  • Standards soften.

  • Communication gets fuzzy.

  • Staff collaboration weakens.

The machine gets a little squeaky - and then suddenly it’s slow.

How Do We Ask the Hard Questions?

Every program hits this crossroads eventually. The good ones diagnose without ego.

Internal Review (Trusted Peer, Staff Member, Former Player)

Advantages:

  • Knows your system and your blind spots

  • Understands context (kids, town, league)

  • Invested in your success

Disadvantages:

  • Too close to the problem

  • May tell you what you want to hear

  • Shared assumptions go unchallenged

This works best when the relationship has radical candor and mutual trust.

External Review (Consultant, Outside Coach, Mentor)

Advantages:

  • No emotional attachment

  • Doesn’t care how you “used to do it”

  • Can compare you to other programs

  • Challenges sacred cows

Disadvantages:

  • Lacks the full context

  • May miss nuance about your roster or school

  • Harder to implement suggestions without buy-in

A good outside evaluator asks questions you stopped asking years ago.

The Courage to Change

Adaptation demands humility. General McChrystal often said:

“The enemy gets a vote.”
In basketball, the game itself gets a vote. So do:

  • Budget/fundraising

  • Enrollment

  • Graduation cycles

  • Technology (are we staying current?)

  • The rising strength of your league

  • Player expectations

  • Modern skill demands

Standing still is not an option. Every season is either renewal or erosion. The teams that thrive aren’t the smartest - they’re the most honest.

Great programs don’t fear hard questions; they rely on them. When assumptions shift, great coaches shift with them. If we’re not getting better, someone else is. And that gap grows quietly until it’s obvious.





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Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Underrated Basketball Actions Not Always Apparent in the Scorebook

Analytics, love them or hate them, do not reveal everything. There are "undiscovered countries" on the basketball map that separate success and failure.

If you ask players, they may or may not be aware, so share these as complementary to success. 

1. Live-ball turnovers. Live-ball turnovers more often translate to baskets, as in "high points per possession" chances. 


For example, in almost every youth or high school game, you'll see a "wing to top" live ball stolen pass become a layup. I call it the "Steal Me Pass."

2. 75-25 balls. "50-50 balls" are misnomers. The more alert, focused, and aggressive team captures more loose balls, forces held balls, or saves balls earning extra possessions. 

3. Dumb and Dumber actions. A player makes one bad play, often a turnover, and then immediately 'doubles down' with another, most often a frustration foul. "Two wrongs don't make a right" plays out in almost every game. 

4. Ball movement. "The ball has energy." In Mazzulla's world, he wants to "draw 2" to create edges. Pritchard's pass doesn't show up in the scorebook, but that initiates the sequence leading to an open trey. 
  

5. "Screen assists." Want more minutes? Princeton Coach Pete Carril said, "Help others to help yourself." Off-ball screens can lead to an opening for you as the second cutter or free a shooter. Not in the box score, Queda's screen creates the scoring chance. As Mike Vrabel says, "guys who make the most of opportunities get more of them." 


Lagniappe. Basic math. 
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