Basketball: Updating Your "Mood Board"

"To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heav'n in a wild flower.

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour." 

- William Blake 

Mood boards represent a collage of concepts, style, and substance. In the fashion industry, they provide an "at a glance" overview of design excellence. 

What belongs on our mood board? Change it up as often as we want. 

Start (top left):

1. Quality. Quality is the elusive pursuit of Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Quality is not an absolute but a hard-to-hit moving target. 

2. Culture. Cooks and coaches nurture people. Our rituals color the ultimate product. What do our players believe about our program and themselves? 

3. EFG %. Our shots and execution and defense of our opponents' shots and execution are the primary determinants of success. "Fall in love with easy" (shots) and force opponents into hard 2s. 

4. Spacing. We know bad spacing when we see it. Players must learn spacing because good players win in space and bad teams play in traffic. 

5. Containment. If we allow penetration, we're either giving up easy shots or need to help, allowing kickouts that force long closeouts and yield open shots.  

6. Relationships. Karma bites us. 

7. Movement. Player and ball movement create hard-to-defend options. 

8. Evolution. Layups, 3s, and Free throws. As teams fight to stop the three, compensatory play with more cutting is likely to follow. 

9. History. Know the past to discover the future. History texts are written to sell to a specific market in Texas. Each of us decides our willingness to unearth the truth. 

10. Affirmations. The voice we hear the most comes from within. Control the message.

11. Be positive. Do the work. Use time wisely. 

Lagniappe: "Havoc" if you have the personnel for it.