Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Basketball: Ivey League, Study Yourself - Print and Save Edition

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 NIV

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.


Work on ourselves. Mark Forsyth emphasized how Ecclesiastes uses anaphora as a rhetorical tool. In basketball, simplify to "there is a time for everything." 

WSOP champion Phil Ivey's MasterClass shares that he constantly works on himself. How does he play when he's winning versus when he's losing? What's his body language on video? Study ourselves...our strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, habits. 

Study yourself by reexamining process, watching video, and consulting peers. Recall Oscar Wilde's quote, "your friends stab you in the front." 

How do I coach at peak performance? Have I 'choked'? Get back to Michael Useem's four questions from The Leadership Moment.

  • What went well?
  • What went poorly?
  • How can we do better next time? 
  • What are the enduring lessons? 
A middle school team invited us to play a preseason game after having destroyed us the year before. We were a new team with no defensive training and they savaged us with the press, give-and-go plays, and backdoor cuts off spread offense. Fundamentals trounced inexperience. They won by about 35 but it could have been worse. They invited us the next year. We were ready and had a few new players. We won 45-42 on a three-pointer at the buzzer. We never got invited again. 

Another season we played a small, rabidly aggressive team that harassed us defensively and beat us narrowly. They deserved to win. We practiced advantage-disadvantage with physical play, ball movement and cutting. The rematch at our gym saw us leading 20-2 at the half. Opposing parents were overheard saying, "they have the same coach but a new team." My wife told them everything was the same. Diagnose problems, find solutions. Rinse and repeat. 

We played a team for the first time. We came out pressing and they scored six points in a heartbeat. The ref looked at me. "Timeout." "Basketball is a game meant to be played fast," said John Wooden. When the opponent has more talent and athleticism, it's meant to be played at a pace suiting your people and experience. We trailed by fifteen in the first half, closed to six in the second, and lost by about ten. Don't be in a rush when exploring a new experience. Pressing dug a hole from which we could not recover. I apologized to the team.

Once as a powerhouse eighth grade team, we played the high school freshman team that was 19-1. Despite missing a key player with injury, we beat them by about twenty-five. I should have asked the girls for high performance less intensely. The girls could have asked, "what do you expect from us?" 

You can't fix everything. One season we had a parent with serious illness. That emotion spread from the child to the whole team which collapsed. The good news was that the girls provided each other extreme support. Being great teammates superseded winning.

Know thyself. Sometimes knowing ourselves helps predict others. We played the top team in the league and led by one late with a SLOB from midcourt. I "knew" the opposing coach would "switch everything." We set up the play for a switch to get a big (who could shoot free throws) the ball into the corner. Worst case scenario, we turn the ball over 80 plus feet from the hoop with a few seconds left. 

Or on defense against a capable coach with an ATO and about ten seconds to go, I thought it likely he would run a high ball screen looking to get a driving layup. With middle schoolers, we could have trapped the ball, iced the coverage, or played drop coverage to take away the layup and force a long two. The latter got them an airball. Why not play zone? That's a reasonable question but I believe 'man' defense prepares players better for high school. 


Historically, that's been the right call. 

Lagniappe. "The ball has energy." 
Lagniappe 2. Open lanes for your drivers.  Lagniappe 3. Extra effort gets rewarded. "Water the flowers." 










 



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