Never give up.
"Teach your philosophy and stick with it." Teams win with many different styles. If a team lacks an obvious strategy, they probably don't have one.
- "Get more and better shots than your opponent." - Pete Newell; Get quality shots and force one bad shot.
- As a team, be exceptional at a few things (e.g. transition defense, half court offense, defending the pick-and-roll)
- "Do more of what works and less of what doesn't."
"No ability without eligibility." The best high school girl I saw in person earned a full ride to a Big East school. She didn't have the grades and never enrolled. Take care of business with your grades.
"Ego is the enemy." Players win the games. Like life, the game humbles us. What we learn today changes tomorrow. Keep learning.
"Invest our time don't spend it." The video explains.
An old German proverb says, "the child whose brow taste salty when kissed will soon die." That is the old cystic fibrosis story. Boys have enjoyed a better prognosis. But other factors, including gender-related differences in infection, hormonal effects, and activity levels could contribute. The median survival age of CF has nearly doubled.
"Let it go." Earl Weaver told baseball writers, "You're never as good as you look when you win or as bad as you look when you lose." I coach kids. Young players are up and down. We think they've turned the corner and then a mean reversion "stinker" shows up. Don't crucify kids on the altar of wins and losses.
"Yelling louder won’t make us more right." If screaming defined better coaches, ADs would carry decibel meters. As a young coach, I yelled. Yelling was a poor substitute for knowledge and experience.
Get smarter by listening. The first price for growth is paying attention. Teach players to listen and focus. One popular teaching phrase is "eyes on me" with or without 'call and response'. Mindfulness increases focus and attention as early as in grades one through three. Jordan, Kobe, and Olympians use mindfulness for sustainable competitive advantage.
"Fall in love with easy." Young players are easily confused. Some have learning disabilities (ADD, dyslexia). They don't come with warning labels. Embrace Don Meyer's "mature simplicity." Fight the temptation to add more plays and more drills. Edit and refine our catalog of plays. Study and replace.
Zak Boisvert shares Mavs' BLOB series including the "easy" stack above.
Leave a legacy. When asked about his team, Amos Alonzo Stagg replied, "ask me in twenty years." We can't know our players' future. Remind them that we are here to assist with recommendations, letters, and phone calls.
Lagniappe: We know that Dort and Harden have watched this. Why don't we?