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Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Basketball Teams Make Choices

Teams choose their identity. Doing your job means knowing your job and your role. If you choose to make it about you, that won't go well. In the Navy, I had an expression, "the tail doesn't wag the dog, and the fleas don't wag the tail." The Medical Corps doesn't drive the Navy and the individual doctor doesn't steer the Medical Corps. 

Here's a Jason Tatum quote from John Karalis' article: 

“When we put our minds to it, we can beat anybody, and it's just ... it’s a choice that we got to make,” he said. “We can make any excuse -- we had two guys out. Four guys out, actually, second night of a back-to-back, we could have just chalked this one up. But we wanted to figure it out. We got a bigger goal in mind. It's one game at a time, but these are the steps you got to take to get there.”

Some games feature talent mismatches so severe that neither coaching nor effort affects the outcome. In high level competition, that usually isn't the case. 

Coaches say it variously:

"Success is a choice." - Rick Pitino

"Excellent teams play harder for longer." - Dave Smart 

"It's how you play not just whom you play." - Don Meyer 

But it matters at other levels. Years ago a varsity freshman in a first game took nine three-pointers, making one. After the game, coaches told the player, "it's not your team."

Young players lack the experience to assume roles without direction. They may not understand the role of momentum, tempo, situation (time and score), or how to impact the game when not scoring. Taking a charge, setting a great screen, getting a deflection, or saving a ball going out of bounds shows up not on the scorebook but on the scoreboard. 

Teach and acknowledge attention to detail that impacts winning. It's "winning culture" over 'the disease of me'. 

Lagniappe. Use the space. 

Lagniappe 2. Everyone needs their inspiration. Kelvin Sampson explains his. 

 

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