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Friday, April 19, 2024

Basketball: Timing

A post or comment often leads to a broader conversation.  

In Sources of Power, Gary Klein writes about "recognition-primed" decision making. Firefighters don't fly to fires to have meetings. They use knowledge and experience to fight the fire. Military radar operators assess flight paths and acceleration (timing) to judge whether an ascending object is a commercial aircraft or a threat like a SAM.  

Timing changes everything. 

1) CARE - concentrate, anticipate, react, execute. Defenders may anticipate a player's "favorite" move, get legal guarding position and a stop or draw an offensive foul. 

2) On-time and on-target passes turn separation into hoops. Look at the high post a certain way and he slips to the basket for an easy lob and score. Similar action occurs between a point guard and a backdoor cutter. 

3) In the "run-and-jump" defense, knowing when to leave, then "trap and go" to disrupt offense takes practice and experience. 

4) When receiving a screen, learn to 'wait' for the screen, set up the cut, and explode. We taught players to say, "wait, wait, wait" to help. 

5) Timing the steal off the dribble is personal. Players like Kawhi Leonard go for the downbeat. I preferred attacking the upbeat. Leonard also goes for "poke" steals with the outside hand and other techniques.  


6) Timing is awareness. 

7) Disrupting timing adds value. Fly-bys on three-point shooters forces some to reset after a shot fake or to side-dribble. Many players are less efficient than with catch-and-shoot threes. 

Lagniappe. Get players on the same 'team defense' page.  

Lagniappe 2. Excellent thread on cutting.  

Lagniappe 3. Curry mechanics, an excerpt from his MasterClass. Few young players have the discipline to warmup correctly. 

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Thursday, April 18, 2024

A Letter to Grandchildren About Teams

Dear Kids,

Team sports may not be your thing. That's okay but "life is a team sport." Great things happen when people work together.

You are on teams - family, school, community. Nobody begins great. A weight lifter may start out as a king-sized baby but that's not enough. He or she needs help. When you're lucky, parents, teachers, and trainers raise your arc of progress.

On your teams, learn how to make teammates better. At home, that might mean making your bed, clearing the dinner table, or helping your sister with homework. 

At school, don't be a distraction. Pay attention. Share. Play fair. Always do your best. 

Someday, maybe you'll play for your city. Put the team first. What you do and what you don't, both count. Be a good teammate. Learn to be happy for others' success. 

Don't be selfish. Don't be lazy. Don't be "soft," the opposite of physically and mentally tough.  

Fall in love with practice. Be excited for the chance to improve. Be focused to get the most from practice. Practice with purpose, on offense, on defense, on individual and team skills. Be the hardest worker; "never cheat the drill."

At times, you may think, "I can't do this." Have the courage to leave your comfort zone. 

Some days you and your team will excel. Other days, you will struggle, maybe fail badly. Stay in the fight. Get the 'full benefit' of experience. Learn from the wins and the losses. Be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. 

Days will come where you don't know if you can keep going. One more lap, one more sprint will seem impossible. Find the belief, find the will, find the words. 

We love you whether you win or lose, whether you play the whole game or sit on the bench. "You got this." 

Love,

Grammy and Papa


Lagniappe. It's hard to get to 1.0 points per possession if you can't make layups, free throws, or take care of the basketball. 

Lagniappe 2. Got Smitty?  

Lagniappe 3. Learn 'winning actions'. 


 

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Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Basketball: Identity

Be true to yourself. Developmental players need development. High school players have additional priorities. Be proficient at:

  • Defeating pressure defense
  • Half-court offense
  • Half-court defense
  • Pick-and-roll defense
  • Transition defense
A couple of points that emerge in Coach Grant's philosophy include getting separation and doing so with urgent cutting. Many offenses fail because players don't set up cuts and don't cut hard. 

"We can't run what we can't run." Fundamentally-skilled players adapt and execute many offenses. If our players lack skill, then our offensive choice won't matter. 

Ambitious coaches and players understand that "the obvious" wins: 
1) Do well what you do a lot.
2) Excel at offensive and defensive identity. 

Match your offensive and defensive identity to your players. A 'perimeter offense' fails without shooters. "Non-shooters are always open." Some teams want to force square pegs into round holes. "Kill your darlings" eliminates stuff you like but doesn't work. 

Defensively, no easy shots. If we can't contain the dribble for whatever reason, then deploy alternative defenses (e.g. zone or hybrid defenses). 

Lagniappe. Disguise your intent. 

Lagniappe 2. Playing out of hard stops separates. 

Lagniappe 3. Many young players want to switch ball screens. Being able to trap (blitz) them can generate live ball turnovers. 

 


 

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Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Basketball: Player Development

"Every day is player development day." - Dave Smart

Player development pays everybody. It pays the player, the family, the player's next coach. The only "loser" is the player's competitor with less skill, will, size, or athleticism.

Think back to Don Meyer's, "would you rather have two better players or two new plays?" Make our own players. 

Find resources to help develop players. That includes a lot of territory - older players, assistants, old guys willing to rebound, online video drills, coaching clinics, FIBA videos, whatever.

The Holy Grail of development often comes from high end trainer videos online - Drew Hanlen, Chris Brickley, Kevin Eastman, Don Kelbick - and older videos from coaches or players like Pete Newell, Pete Maravich, Steve Nash, Steve Alford, whomever. "I don't know who I don't know." 

Here's a clip of Tyrese Maxey working with Drew Hanlen. 

Don't get stuck on the 'cult of personality'. Whether you like a John Calipari, Rick Pitino, or anybody, find material that 1) you trust and 2) you can teach and use to develop. 

If you see a Kevin Durant "float dribble" video and your opinion is, "whatever, it's just a hesi variation," ask "are my players getting separation with it? Will this video help them separate better? 


Basketball is a game of separation and finishing. Basketball actions like jab series, wing attack series, post play, and pick-and-roll blend separation and finishing. 

Every player won't have the commitment and aptitude to become the high ceiling player who plays at the next level. Teach to the player. Sixth graders don't read Shakespeare and that's fine. If you get the prodigy who's a sponge, functioning above grade level, teach more. 

I had the chance to coach such a player, Cecilia Kay, valedictorian, a four-time All-Scholastic, McDonald's All-America nominee, Boston Herald "Dream Teamer," league MVP, Division 1 scholarship recipient. Here she puts up big numbers against the 2024 D2 Massachusetts State Champion. Her team beat them twice. Her school was banned from all postseason sports because of alleged baseball infractions.   

Ideas?

  • Be curious. 
  • Study the game.
  • Study the coaches.
  • Watch basketball and "think along" with the coaches - strategy, tempo, special situations
  • Write (journal, blog, both)
  • Study writers (perspective and craft - Gladwell, Michael Lewis, Hemingway, Tolstoy)
  • Analogy. Analogy brings disciplines together. 
  • Simplify. Make readers smarter than we are. 
Lagniappe. Learn to be uncomfortable. 
Lagniappe 2. Brad Stevens 'must have'. 

Lagniappe 3. One minute at the opening of practice. 

 


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Monday, April 15, 2024

Basketball: "Full Benefit," Analysis of Success and Failure

This topic arrives courtesy of Coach Brook Kohlheim (@CoachKohlheim). Full Benefit derives from learning from the negative. Paul Marobella writes, "Learning leadership lessons from all corners of team-oriented situations is a passion for me."

Understanding success and failure marks leaders as they learn from mistakes and avoid repeating them. 

First, a few excerpts:

"It’s a mindset that encourages one to squeeze every ounce of value from every situation. The highs, lows, and in–between hold a lesson, an opportunity for growth and learning."

"Imagine seeing a crisis not as a catastrophe but as a classroom."

"The essence of ‘Full Benefit’ lies in continuous learning, adaptation, and improvement."

This reminds me of Adam Grant's book Think Again and his advice of keeping a "rethinking scorecard." What 'truths' or widely held beliefs deserve closer scrutiny? This might represent anything:

  • How important are analytics?
  • Can the "Four Factors" be applied to other sports?
  • Are our 'draft' or 'recruiting' principles working? 
  • How can we improve our player development? 
  • What players are 'misvalued' - over or undervalued? 
  • Knowing that isolation points/possession are lower than many other play types, why do NBA teams invariably choose them for the final possession? Tradition, convention, ego? 
  • What are examples of "sunk cost" fallacy? 
Any of these questions could become their own study. 

The 'After Action Review' or 'Postmortem Examination' following a game or season might add clarity or confusion depending on both methods and results.  

We could trend player and team performance (subjectively and objectively).

For players with unexpected over- or underachievement, ask why? Did performance reflect role, growth, injury, style of play, outlier game(s), personal issues (family, friends, academics)? 

Did we examine operations from both internal (teamwork, competition, relationships) and external factors? 

Have we examined our preparation, practice, game planning, substitution, game management, and "operations trajectory." Were we the same team at the end of the season, worse, or much better? 

Have we used "Full Benefit" to thank those who contributed in the many aspects of team and to organize offseason changes where we fell short? "Thanks is the cheapest form of compensation." - Robert Townsend

Bias limits reliable self-grading of our coaching. Setting up 'metrics' for objective trending in advance might help. The court is our classroom and laboratory and our Trafalgar and Waterloo. 

Lagniappe. 

Lagniappe 2. This is gold. If a team lacks the individual skills to contain and to attack, they fail. 

Lagniappe 3. Weighty.  

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Sunday, April 14, 2024

Basketball Jeopardy: Elevate Your Offseason

Lagniappe. Work on acceleration, deceleration, lateral movement  

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Saturday, April 13, 2024

Basketball: Ankle Injury Prevention

Every serious basketball player has suffered an ankle injury - rolled, tweaked, wrecked. 

 

Public domain image, lateral ankle. Note the broad band (anterior talofibular ligament) toward the mid/back that is often injured during sprains (rolled ankle). 

Link to National Library of Medicine article on injury prevention

Key points/quotes:

"External prophylactic supports and preventive exercise programs are effective for reducing the risk of ankle sprains in both uninjured and previously injured populations. Ankle bracing appears to offer the best outcomes in terms of cost and risk reduction." 

"Consistently, the most common risk factor for lateral ankle sprains is a previous history of that injury."

"Patients enter a negative feedback loop by which each injury leaves the joint more vulnerable to subsequent injury, exposing the joint to atypical forces that contribute to degenerative changes." (Damage begets damage and eventually arthritis.)

"Which interventions are most effective in eliminating those risk factors and subsequently decreasing the injury risk has not been determined."

"Minimize the risk of ankle sprains can often be stratified into interventions capable of affecting mechanical function and those designed to improve proprioceptive ability and neuromuscular function about the joint."

The authors review mechanical, neuromuscular, and psychological benefits of "bracing," meaning braces or taping. Here is the "meat" of the argument.

"(1) taping and bracing were valid prophylactic measures for preventing first-time and recurrent sprains, especially among athletes who played high-risk sports such as basketball, football, and volleyball; (2) the number needed to treat was lower for braces than for tape; (3) taping and bracing lost their restrictive properties during exercise; and (4) taping and bracing minimally affected performance."


"Reusable ankle braces are a demonstrated cost-effective method of preventing ankle injury that can be used in the absence of an AT or other practitioner. Such braces are also time effective, typically requiring less than 5 minutes per day, and athletes can apply them concurrently (as opposed to taping)."

"New evidence supported the use of cognitive training in prevention and rehabilitation programs, such as performing cognitive tasks during balancing exercises or incorporating choices and decision making into dynamic-stabilization tasks."

"both external supports and preventive programs are effective in decreasing ankle-sprain risk and can be used together for the best outcomes. Furthermore, preventive programs protect multiple joint systems from injury. In these scenarios, athletes in high-risk sports may be taped or braced before practices and competitions. A neuromuscular warmup that implements static and dynamic balancing 3 or more days per week supplies an added dimension of protection." (see Lagniappe)

Summary: 

  • Ankle braces are the most cost effective prevention.
  • Static and dynamic balancing helps. 
  • This addresses mechanical and proprioceptive (spacial awareness) factors.
  • Previous injury is a critical risk factor.
  • Goals include full function and preventing arthritis long-term

Lagniappe. Static and dynamic balance training...


Lagniappe 2. We sink to the level of our training. 
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Friday, April 12, 2024

Basketball and Life Achievement

Everyone is a critic. If you don't win the title, you're a bum. If you don't win the title twice (e.g. Doc Rivers), you're a bum. Talk about a crowded trade. Think again.

Learn the Achievement Equation:

ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME

Few of us are single-minded in our pursuit of daily excellence. Why? It's exhausting, 'soul-crushing'. It distorts work-life balance.

And the search can disappoint, like Hemingway's Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea as he pursues the great fish. 

Consider rethinking the Achievement Equation. Restate it as: 

ACHIEVEMENT = APPLIED GROWTH x TIME

Applied growth and time inform our management of what we control - attitude, choices, effort. 

Over time we choose how and where we want growth. Grow as a parent, as a coach, mentor, communicator, whatever. 

Grow the courage to fail. Sara Blakely, billionaire proprietor of Spanx, shares that her father asked the children weekly, "what have you failed at this week?" That gave her strength to leave her comfort zone. 

Grow our habits. "We make our habits and our habits make us." Habits can be pleasurable - a walk, a workout, reading, mindfulness, writing. Attitude is habit. I read a suggestion to put an elastic on our wrist and switch to the opposite wrist every complaint. That makes complaining obvious. One of James Clear's signs to change habits is "make it obvious." Change the elastic a few times in an hour and grievance is real. 

Grow our use of analogy. Thomas Edison believe that innovation arose from imagination, persistence, and analogy. A thousand lightbulb failures taught how not to make one. A coach is a teacher, leader, conductor, film director, minister, general. Few generals win every battle. 

In his MasterClass, Michael Lewis articulates the accidental story of Michael Oher and the Tuohy family in The Blind Side. He calls it a "weird kind of Pygmalion thing." Lewis describes the left tackle position as "an elephant and a ballerina." We see analogy where and when we look. "Billy Beane and Michael Oher had this in common. They were both misvalued when they were young...in opposite directions." 

Grow our knowledge. Knowledge isn't wisdom, but neither is absence of knowledge. 

Grow our humility. Learn servant leadership. Dean Smith's said, "a lion never roars after a kill." And "thinking less about ourselves doesn't mean thinking less of ourselves." John Kennedy's reality speaks, "victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan." 

Grow our gratitude. Nobody grants us tomorrow. Choose gratitude over grievance, how things often went well instead of awful and awry. How often beauties seek Botox and billionaires chase bucks. Smell the roses. 

Grow our communication. Michael Lewis shares this slide from MasterClass about "parallel plot structure." 


These can be for better (e.g. protecting the Blind Side and the rise of Michael Oher) or for worse (e.g. understanding psychopathy of serial killers and rise of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, e.g. Mindhunter). 

No single path leads to self-improvement and achievement. Be open to the characters, ideas, and principles around us. For example Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark follow the ascent of women. Then consider the alternative, how some will try to bring them down. Choose wisely. 

Lagniappe. "The exceptional kid is going to take the hard choice." 

Lagniappe 2. "Five out" offers opportunity for teaching and executing offense. 

 Lagniappe 3. "Strength up the middle..." baseball, football, checkers, chess, basketball? 

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Thursday, April 11, 2024

Basketball: Misconceptions

"I'm a salesman." - Chuck Daly

Be an archeologist unearthing treasure. You have to move a lot of dirt to find artifacts. 

"I got this." Get a grip, Coach. Winning is hard; that's the value. "You have to scratch and claw and it never f–king ends. And it doesn’t get better, it just gets harder. So don’t complain to me that I’m making your life hard. You don’t even know what that means." - Deborah Vance in Hacks, Episode 2

Rowing is easy. The sign in the UNC Women's Soccer locker room reads, Excellence Is Our Only Agenda. It takes commitment and belief to win over twenty national titles. Coaches battle powerful inducements, self-interest. Getting everyone on the same page of "Team First" challenges every coach. In addition to the player, family and friends often reinforce that attitude. Now with NIL, it's radio WII-FM (what's in it for me). 

Adding value is easy. Getting eighteen year-olds to listen to you isn't easier than teaching pre-adolescents. You've heard this from players a thousand times, "I know, I know." If you know, do it or don't do it. 

Sustainable competitive advantage is easy. Why should the kid, the parents or the athletic director listen to us? Why should they trust us? In a world of 'alternative facts', why is our truth sacred? 

Everyone will follow along. Return to the "agenda-free" sign. Everyone has an agenda - minutes, role, recognition.  

This group won't need feedback. Everyone needs coaching. Basketball games are feedback. The players didn't move, didn't communicate, fouled, took questionable shots, made silly passes, didn't deny, allowed penetration, missed assignments. These happen every day, every game. Mental mistakes kill coaches. Getting people on the same page should be on Jay Bilas's Toughness list. 

Talent is enough. One word - Kentucky. Getting the best players might work in high school. Even if you could attract them, can you keep them after training them? Can your 'talent' beat mature, seasoned players? 

"We're already efficient." Up the tempo, use time and resources better. Watching the UCONN women of Coach Auriemma practice, we saw far more efficiency than we had before. Get more done, more shots, more teaching, more learning in the same time.  

Preventing distractions is easy. John McPhee's A Sense of Where You Are shared the Bill Bradley and Princeton story. Imagine Princeton getting to the Final Four. Coach van Breda Kolff wrote in progressively smaller letters on the board - GIRLS, FOOD, BASKETBALL. 

They'll know what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and can do it. Those are the essence of Pete Newell's teaching players to "see the game." Think back to your teen self. What fraction of the game, big picture or small detail, did you know then relative to now? Consider even the lexicon - Get, Ricky, headhunt, zoom, Pistol, flare, ram, Flex, blitz, Iverson, ice, veer, hammer, 45, and more. Allen Iverson wasn't born until after we played. We never heard one of those terms.  

Don't worship at any coach's altar. Learn every day. Wake to Dave Smart's sentence, "Every day is player development day." Trust me, I'm a doctor. 

Lagniappe. More Zoom. 

Lagniappe 2. Practice to be great. 

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Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Basketball: Six Packs of Books, Quotes, and Concepts

In his MasterClass, Michael Lewis shares that he plays the same music, over and over, while writing his books (Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Undoing Project, The Big Short, Coach, and more).  


Graphic from MasterClass

Lewis informs us that his playlist is "embarrassing."  


We need our playlist of absolutes... Include our "Desert Island six books," six quotes, and six concepts. Is lack of knowledge the problem or lack of adherence?

Six Books (Desert Island)
t

Six Quotes
t
"Basketball is sharing." - Phil Jackson
"Every day is player development day." - Dave Smart
"Basketball is a game of mistakes." - Bob Knight 
"Make every day your masterpiece." - John Wooden
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle
"Utilize strengths, attack weaknesses." - Sun Tzu

Six Concepts 
ttt
Basketball is a game of symmetry. 
Excellent teams find a way to win. 
Bad teams find ways to give away games. 
Seek balance in all things.
Efficiency rules. 

Basketball symmetry. Take great shots. Defend to allow "one bad shot" or hard twos. Take care of the ball on offense. Pressure the ball on defense.  Learn to get fouled. Foul 'for profit'. 

Find a way. "Play harder for longer." Raise your basketball IQ. Make better decisions. Cut harder, pass on-time and on-target. 

Stop giving away games. Fouling, bad shots, turnovers, poor transition defense are regular features for young players and bad teams.  

Seek balance. Maintain work-life balance. Get adequate rest, hydration, and nutrition. Balance doubt and recklessness with confidence.  

Be hard to defend. Cut urgently, use simple and complex screens (e.g. Spain, stagger, Iverson, corner rip, screen-the-screener). Develop individual skills to allow aggressive basket attack from multiple sites on the court. Expand your range, shots off the dribble and off shot fakes, and side-step threes. 

Be efficient. Condition within drills. "No lines, laps, or lectures." Up the tempo. Watch other coaches in person, online or on video to see their operation. Because we can't recruit from outside our community, learn player development.  

Bonus: "Thanks is the cheapest form of compensation." - Robert Townsend, Up the Organization   Say 'thank you' often. 

Lagniappe. You've seen this a dozen times, for good reason. 

Lagniappe 2. Have the will to do more...  

Lagniappe 3. Horns Spain.  

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Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Basketball: Tryouts, Transformation, and Mythical Beasts

The ponies assembled on the baseline awaiting instructions. Ponies with pony legs and eager eyes, preparing to run as ponies do.  

The trainer, overseeing, projected the future, imagining horses and hoping beyond hope that someday one pony might become a unicorn. 

"Do your best. Have fun. Two laps around the court and do not cut corners." Winners do not cut corners. 

A few ponies galloped around the gym, others trotted, and a few lumbered. Some cut corners despite the admonition not to. 

Dribble the arc. "This is the 'three-point line', the spacing line. Dribble right to left around the line with your right hand and return left to right with your left. It's not a race, control the ball, eyes up." 

The trainer had run many ponies over many seasons, no longer able to recall being a pony.  

"Now, repeat with 'crossovers' every third dribble, change of direction, change of pace. It's not just changing hands. Crossover with the ball back to your shoelaces. Explode out of crossovers." So many times he taught this. So few players mastered them. 

Later the ponies dribbled with speed up and back and still later passed two balls back and forth in three lines. Some continued to gallop, aware of flying basketballs. Others struggled to move and handle the ball. 

As hours and days passed, the trainer saw some ponies differently, as a few showed equine explosiveness and maneuverability. Yes, some of these could become exceptional horses. 

Weeks and months passed. No more ponies ran, only horses, and the smoothest and most graceful of them began to emerge, a unicorn. A trainer doesn't make a unicorn. The unicorn simply becomes, nature's transformation as beautiful as the caterpillar to butterfly. 

Years passed and the trainer's dream emerged. Others saw the unicorn, too. She was more fluid, more functional, more everything. 

Few remember Secretariat's trainer or even the jockey. That is how it should be. Secretariat wasn't a normal horse, his oversized heart heralding more horsepower. 


The unicorn became a four-year All-Scholastic, Dream Teamer, and a McDonald's All-America nominee. I still remember the first day pony. 

Not many coaches enjoy the privilege to watch even one metamorphosis. Find your unicorn.   

Lagniappe. 

Lagniappe 2. 

Lagniappe 3. Space invaders. 

 

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Monday, April 8, 2024

Basketball: "You're Nobody..."

"You're nobody until somebody hates you." - Thomas Wolfe 

"You're nobody." I have no problem with that. I've played against a former NBA player (Ron Lee). I took two charges against him. It still hurts over fifty years later. I've played (basketball) against NFL players. Brian Dowling knocked me into the cheap seats making a layup. "B.D., I made the free throw." I had a one day tryout for the Cincinnati Reds. Didn't go well. Ergo, medical school and an old man coaching middle school girls for two decades.  

I am nobody, writing daily about basketball. "Tell the truth." Which truth?

Basketball evolves and it doesn't. "There's no place in the game for the big bangers." And then 6'7" Kamilla Cardoso goes for 15, 17, and 3 (blocks) with 24 Ratings Performance System points. Tessa Johnson had 12 RPS points. Caitlin Clark had a 'negative' score. Read on. 

"Your system is crap." Ok, please share the angst with Lee Rose, who originated the heart of it. All Coach Rose did was go 388-162 and got two teams to the Final Four of NCAA Division 1.  

+3/-3 points (drawing a charge, committing a charge)
+3/-3 making or missing a three point shot
+2 (offense) two point goal, assist, screen leading to a basket, offensive rebound
-2 (offense) two point miss, turnover, missed free throw
+2 (defense) steal, forced turnover, blocked shot
-2 (defense) lost assignment, bad foul leading to free throws
+1 made free throw, defensive rebound, forced held ball
-1 allowed held ball, missed free throw, common foul

Cardoso was 7/14, 1/5 (FT), with 17 rebounds including 7 offensive. She piled up rebounding points and had 3 blocks. 

Tessa Johnson went 7/11, 3/6 on 3s, 2-2 (FT), had 4 defensive boards, 1 steal, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 2 fouls. Johnson took 11/73 (15%) of SC shots and had 19/87 (22%) of their points. 

Clark was 5/15 (2s), 5/13 (3s), 5/6 (FT), 8 rebounds (2 offensive), 5 assists, and had 4 turnovers. Her electric 18 first quarter points got the Hawkeyes out to a great start. Missed shots also matter in "possession by possession" basketball. Clark took 28/63 (44%) of her team's shots and scored 30/75 (40%) of Iowa points.

I get it and regular readers know that I am not a hater. Clark is a generational talent, everyone's best player in women's college basketball, the hub of Iowa's terrific team, the future WNBA number one choice. She led her team to the finals in consecutive seasons. She's phenomenal.  

She spurred interest and attracted eyeballs to women's basketball, another positive for the women's game. She is a cash machine for television and ratings. She's so popular she's been on television more than Taylor Swift lately. 

A "soulless efficiency system" doesn't measure that. It doesn't measure how defenses rotate to her freeing teammates or expend energy covering her. It doesn't measure foul trouble she induces. Numbers also don't "correct" for desperation shots she took at the end of the game that lower her efficiency and had no impact on the final score. 

What analytics measure is how dominance in some areas (e.g. rebounding 51-29, 18-7 on the offensive glass) and effective field goal percentage (53.4% versus 46.8%) accounted for the Gamecocks win. It helps quantify Pete Newell's "get more and better shots than your opponent." 

The fourth question of Michael Useem's introduction to The Leadership Moment asks, "what is the enduring lesson?" Make more and better shots than your opponent. 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But unlike Caitlin Clark, when every high schooler in America starts jacking up 'prayers', the game will suffer. 

Lagniappe. Bilas. 

Lagniappe 2. Lay wood or get out.  

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Basketball: Make Listening a Superpower

Charles Barkley asks, "what is your NBA skill?" There's an essential that everyone can improve - listening. Listening skills translate into every facet of life - relationships, school, work, extracurricular activities. 

"The first price achievers pay is to pay attention." 

Post by @blake_bookclub
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Listening is trainable. Interviewers ask for more information:
  • "Tell me more."
  • "...and then what?"
  • "Can you clarify that for me?" 
You might say, "that won't make me a better shooter or a better athlete." Here's an analogy, 'attention deficit disorder'. The patient with ADD often struggles to stay focused in school, work, and on the court. Inability to listen, follow directions, and learn hinders progress. 

Listening is necessary but not sufficient. When listening, consider if the information seems credible, specific, provable. 

Make it important. 
Make it intentional. Good listeners make listening a priority. 
When possible, take notes. 
When completed, mentally summarize what you learned.
Work to remember a few enduring points. 

Consider the following: 
In the era of threes, shots at the rim, and free throws, this NBA shot distribution chart seems expected. The absence of midrange shots and "long twos" meshes with what we see. 

But should this be generalized? At lower levels (e.g. high school and youth), shot range and accuracy plummets. One observer three years ago told me of a game where 50 percent of one team's missed shots didn't even hit iron. I see high school girls' games where three point shots fall at under a twenty percent rate and airballs are more common than makes. 
Great shots are not universal across levels. 

Better listening, better basketball. 

Lagniappe. Build strength with kettlebells. 

Lagniappe 2. Opening space for drivers creates opportunities inside and outside. 
Lagniappe 3. Simplicity often rules. 


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