You introduce concepts to your developmental team. Where do you begin?
"Help your teammates." Teamwork is the only option. "Basketball is sharing." The best players define themselves by making teammates better. Ask players for specific examples. If it means contacting teammates to work out in the offseason, to help with homework, or support them through personal struggles, do it.
"The first price is paying attention." Pay attention to your parents, your teachers, and your coaches. I've seen championship games lost in high school because intelligent players lost mental focus in key situations.
"No easy baskets." "One bad shot." "Hard twos." "Contest every shot without fouling." You cannot defend free throws.
Communicate. Great defenses talk. Talk intimidates. "Early, loud, and often."
Embrace the contact. "Basketball isn't a contact sport; it's a collision sport." "The game honors toughness."
Excel without the ball. Ninety percent of the time (every defensive possession, eighty percent of offense) you won't have the ball.
Sprint don't run. "Basketball is a sprinting game." "No buddy running."
The game is symmetrical. Everything you want offensively, you want to prevent defensively.
Know the shots you want to get; know the shots you want to give.
How you play is how you live your life. You can't care, prepare, and share on the court and treat your family and schoolwork with indifference.
Stand and sit. If you stand around on the court, you're asking to sit (on the bench). "Basketball is a game of passing and cutting."
Study the game. "See one, do one, teach one."
"The magic is in the work." Are you investing your time or spending it?
Models and mirrors. "What do you want to become and whom do you see in the mirror?"
Bonus: Two plays from Mount St. Mary's last night.
