Be prepared to sell. Chuck Daly said it best, "I'm a salesman." Craft a 'pitch' for yourself. "This is why you need me on the court."
We all are. If we get one minute to sell, sell our beliefs confidently and concisely. Some call a one minute presentation an "Elevator pitch."
1. "The Lasso Way."
We're here to help these young people become the best version of themselves. Adding value is the mission.
2. "Character and competence."
More than basketball. "Excellence is our only agenda" - excellence at home, in the classroom, and on the court.
3. "Every day is player development day."
Development comes in four spheres - skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology. "How can I get better today?"
4. "Basketball is sharing."
Every great accomplishment in human history occurred through collaboration and teamwork. The 'smallest team' is "you and I" which progresses through family, school, community, and beyond. Share something great.
5. "The game is about the player."
Michelangelo said of a block of marble, "My job is to find the statue within." What's the track record? Student-athletes who have have a doctoral degree, have succeeded in Business, Education, Medicine, and more - parents, valedictorians, state champions, Hall of Famers, All-Scholastics.
Anything is possible.
Lagniappe. Sport rewards athleticism. Do the work.
Lagniappe 2. I asked Claude.ai to survey the blog and extract ten lessons. Here is what it derived.
Ten Lessons from RonSenBasketball
1. The pecking order is earned, not assigned.
Every team has a hierarchy — official and unofficial. Healthy teams build it on competence, trust, and sacrifice rather than ego, so that "who takes the big shot" and "who sets the tone" never need debating mid-game.
2. Learn from the past, don't live in it.
The Stoic line holds: the past isn't subject to your control. Use it as a resource, not a residence — the players and coaches who keep glancing backward at old glory lose ground to the ones adapting forward.
3. Read the whole board, not just your corner.
Court awareness — seeing help defenders, cutters, the full possession — separates players who react from players who anticipate. Tunnel vision on one local fight loses track of the game.
4. Show up on the days nobody's watching.
The unglamorous middle — a Tuesday in December, a rep with no scoreboard — is where the season is actually won or lost, long before March.
5. A won position can still be lost.
Complacency turns leads into losses faster than almost anything else. Up six with two minutes left is a position, not a victory — it still has to be finished.
6. Correct without discouraging.
Wooden's "sandwich" — praise, instruction, confidence — and the "you did well, and..." framing build players up while still holding the line on standards.
7. Trust, not just talent, earns the floor.
Reliability, discipline, and good decisions determine who plays when it matters. Ability, reliability, durability, dependability — that's what coaches actually notice.
8. Negative plays lose more games than positive plays win.
Bad shots, turnovers, poor rebounding rates, and undisciplined fouling compound quietly. Winning the "differential" often matters more than any single highlight.
9. Sacrifice the small stone to save the group.
The dive, the extra pass, the senior absorbing blame in film session — losing something small on purpose isn't losing. Isolated stars get exposed; connected teams survive.
10. Coaching is a privilege, and the hardest question is the honest one.
"What does it feel like to be coached by me?" Players remember how they were treated far more than the final score — which is the whole point of doing this daily.
